september-roads

Too busy thinking about my comics

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:51:47 +0100

When I'm sat at the computer and taking a break from things I often take a wander over to Too Busy Thinking About My Comics for some fairly thought provoking writing about the world of superhero comics. Colin Smith is a fine writer, academic but with heart and humour, and takes the time to reply to pretty much every comment he receives. During a recent exchange we hit upon a phrase that Colin thought would be great on a business card. Had to agree so I mocked up a card and here it is.

I went blue because it suited my mood and there is often a good amount of blue and gray around Colin's blog. If you do drop by, do comment and tell him I sent you.

Cave time

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:31:21 +0100

Apparently, much to my surprise, I am a "people" person. I like the company of others, I communicate well and empathise well. In short I am not the man I thought myself to be. However I am prone to what my wife calls "cave time", when I want to retreat into my cave, paint on the wall with my hands and club anyone who invades my personal space. Cave time has been less intense over the last couple of years but because of some emotionally draining events at moment it's come back with a vengeance.

One thing that often helps lift me out of it is drawing and unfortunately I'm really struggling with that too at the moment. I will get out of this because I always do and also because Karen, my lovely and patient wife, will not let me wallow too long without applying her dainty size four walking boot to my posterior.

Now back to the dark recesses of my cave.

Not your daddy's thundercats

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:42:53 +0100

I don't remember the original thundercats, too old to have been watching unfortunately, but this new version looks very classy. Molly is going to love it I think.

wordle

Tue, 10 May 2011 19:47:21 +0100

Wordle is very interesting. It takes text and reworks it into a cloud, like the text clouds you get on some websites. I don't understand why but I like it. Here's one from my review of Moebius' Red Cross comic.

Quilting.

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:27:05 +0100

I fancy trying something new and I'm considering a quilt. I have a design based on the story of Red Riding Hood

This is a quickly coloured version of my initial sketch. Now I'm considering the amount of hand sewing involved and trying to decide if I really want to do it.

Etsy Store and Urban Sketching

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:21:39 +0100

Been very focussed recently on Urban Sketching (it's so cool to have a decent name for drawing out and about) and my bird paintings which I'm selling on my newly instituted Etsy Store. The bird paintings particularly have been a process of rapid memory jogging as I tackled watercolour again for the first time in a few years. The results have been very pleasing and this is now one of my favourite pieces of my own work.

The paintings are all miniatures, a mere 3 inches square and are getting some good mentions though no sales yet.

Urban Sketching is great. I've made more contacts and friends around the world through this then enything else I've ever got involved in and it's sharpened my drawing skills into the bargain. My Urban Sketching work can be seen here and my bird paintings here.

Art and suffering

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:54:01 +0100

I have learnt to doubt the supposed link between suffering and art but this excellent TED talk describes what I think better than anything I could write. I don't norally go with link blogging but for this I'll make an exception.

real artists

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:09:06 +0100

I have, at times, been a very lazy artist. Not in terms of production, though that has been true too, but in terms of relaxing the drawing muscle and doing what's easy. I've reached the conclusion that it's very easy to do drawing after drawing of things that come naturally to me, organic forms that adapt to my shakey linework as opposed to buildings and machines. Further, to accept that is to stagnate and step back from artist to craftman, turning out well crafted items time after time. To grow as an artist I am stepping outside my comfort zone and drawing things that are difficult for me and in media that aren't my first choice. Hence the birds in watercolour pencil and photoshop colour, the occassional car and building and this little sketch made at the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.

This was a 1930's Gales Brewery delivery van. I was pretty pleased with the quick sketch although I really struggle with tires. Milestones is a superb museum made up of two streets, one laid out for the 1890's and one for the 1930's, with shops, houses vehicles and other things from the relevant periods. On top of that they have at times, actors in period costume, playing a part to emphasise some key event. When we were there I was able to tell my daughter about the struggle for female emancipation in this country with the aid of a lady doctor called Doctor Livewell and though little of it probably stuck with her she briefly understood what won had to do to win her the rights she has today. I think Molly was suitably impressed.

Real racing

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:24:10 +0100

My nephew Mitchell has had an impressive return to the world of karting after a long break due to a variety of injuries. He's scarily focussed on his Karting career for a 13 year old and has ambitions for entering the Nascar circuit one day. Although biased I really think he'll do it too.

digg

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:06:08 +0100

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