Friday doodling

A friendly tortoise and some Victorian children... I'm meant to be finishing off a comparitive assignment for Uni. As you can see I've been doodling while I should have been writing...

The White Witch

I finally got around to watching the first instalment of the Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) the other day. I have to say that as a child I was a big, BIG fan of the Chronicles of Narnia. To the point I would play for hours inside my wardrobe in the vain hope of somehow being transported to Narnia.

This is just a quick doodle of Jadis, The White Witch, turning a fox into stone.

goldfish

Doodle inspired by a ginger jar/pot/vase I've got stuck on top of one of my cabinets... it's a pond scene, lots of boggle-eyed goldfish/koi carp, lilies and insects.

A panto dame

I went to a pantomime last night. I wish I'd been able to take photos of the set and costumes but like in most places now, cameras and videos were banned.

Anyway, here's the panto dame, 'Nurse Gertie' and one of the dwarfs, 'Smiler' (it was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).

Merry Christmas!

to get in the festive spirit, here's a snowman and his parasitic twin



(just don't ask, don't ask...)

doodlehead

I have no idea why I doodle heads when I'm bored. Just one of those things I guess.

Re-jigged

I had to re-jig this illo and start from scratch again:




this time it works a little bit better.

Little Red and Big Green

This is a sketch I did for one of the other sentences from my latest children's book assignment. Little Red tells Big Green off for pushing in the queue for an ice-cream. Out of the four choices, this and the 'Ellie on the roof' story were the ones that I particularly liked and attempted to sketch out.

The Fabulous Butcher Boys

The latest story is up and running over on the Cabinet of Wonders!

Up On the Roof II

I've added the text. Whether it is successful or not (whether the lecturer likes it that is) is something I'll have to wait and see!

what it says on the tin...

Just a doodle, tis pink and a skull... couldn't really think of anything to draw. Ho hum...

Up On the Roof

I created this for my Illustration Practice class - we were given a few sentences taken from children's books and told to come up with an illustration to go with them. In this picture, 'Ellie' is being carried off her grandfather's roof by the wind.

Santa Muerto

Another assignment illustration - unfinished obvs. - our brief is to come up with an illustration after we had chosen at random from a pile of papers, a phobia. I picked out by chance Hagiophobia - a fear of saints and holy things! Here's Saint Death although I've got another idea which I'll be drafting up shortly.

Kafkaesque

I've yet to ink these (I'll be printing them off and doing it by hand) but these and the last post, 'Street Scene' are four narrative illustrations inspired by the Franz Kafka short-story, 'The Passenger'. I'll have to talk about them during a crit session next Tuesday, oh the horror...

All done digitally and I should just add the travel card ID numbers are NOT real (any would-be travelcard scammers...)

Street Scene

Saint Cobain

'Saint' Kurt Cobain, created for this blog entry on Damn Data.

I took a random B&W photo and digitally inked it to create the pseudo-religious effect. I then had a play with the various filters in my very old and clunky photo editor.

Pumpkin!

This started off as a doodle earlier today at Uni. I digitally 'inked' it and added a soft glow via Picasa.

Seeing as I have been working on a Mac earlier today, coming home to work on it on my PC (without Photoshop) was a bit of an anti-climax. My brother has given me his old PC on which I'll be able to upload Photoshop and Corel Painter and have it solely for drawing. At the moment, it's just getting my bro' to bring it over for me which could mean it will be next year before that happens.

West Country girl with a big, fat cat

Life drawing

Today was my last life drawing session within the studio - next week we are being sent off outside to draw. I only have an A4 scanner so this sketch has unfortunately lost its legs and I have to say, my initial sketch was very much out of proportion in the leg area as is this sketch on the right arm - the model had changed pose slightly so I had to redo certain areas and then ran out of time during the session to complete the arm :(

Day of the Dead doodling

These are some just Dia de los Muertos doodles that I created for a friend. Of course there is also this painting that I previously blogged about which I still haven't completed.

evil bunny

Just another doodle. I'm getting into the Hallowe'en spirit early.



EDIT: here's another one, similar theme.

Life drawing

Okay, this is a page out of my sketchbook from my first Lifedrawing class - from a week last Tuesday. I didn't get the whole body within the page but I'm still fairly pleased with it considering how long it's been since I drew anything like this.

wolfman

It could just be a side-effect of the 'flu medicine I'm currently necking, but my dreams recently have been a bit psychadelic and a bit whacko. I do take a lot of inspiration from my weirder dreams such as purple baboons but last night it was posing, Venice Beach-type musclemen werewolves.

Quick-ass doodle on the graphic tablet.

teasers

These are just a couple of teasers from two pieces of upcoming work. I'll be posting up links when they're finally published.







Both created on graphics tablet, slight edit via Picasa

Q's adventures in HE

(That's Higher Education if you were wondering)

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an open evening at my local Uni. I had gone hoping to sign up for two evening courses that were being run. At the end of the courses I would attain 15 credits as they were actually degree modules that you could 'pick and choose' from. The courses I had hoped to attend were Lifedrawing and Digital Image Manipulation (Photoshop).

Unfortunately, they were cancelled due to a low response but...

I ended up going back again last week and somehow managed to be signed up for a BA Hons in Illustration which I'll be studying part time.

Woo hoo I hear you say. Well, yeah I am over the moon if I'm honest. I'm the oldest person on the course by about 10-8 years, I feel decrepit if the truth be known and so far the group dynamic is how can I say? Well, I've seen more spark in a dead battery but it's the first week and I'm guessing the majority of students are either shy or homesick. I missed the induction week where everybody got to know each other and I'm sure it will get better once we 'know' or at least remember each other's names.

I'm really pleased I got onto the Illustration course as this is something I would like to expand on. My first three modules are research in art & design, visual communication (working in Photoshop) and yesterday, Lifedrawing.

I was pleased with what I produced yesterday. I am rusty as a rusty bucket of rusty nails when it comes to drawing models. The last Lifedrawing class I took was 12 years ago at 16. While I was a bit hesitant in my first couple of sketches, I feel I soon got more confident in my lines.

I needed to retrain as I can't go back to the type of jobs I'd previously worked in due to personal reasons. I spent 10 years working in the care and voluntary sector as well as caring for my late father who had a terminal illness. I'd had enough and it was making me ill. It made me ill.

Some people can cope with it and make a career out of it but I think a combination of holding three jobs down while looking after my dad managed to burn any last remaining desire to work in that sector. Plus, it's the kind of work where you're never appreciated. You go in with so many hopes and ambitions to try and help people or change the system only to be knocked down by beaurocracy and petty Jobsworths.

Concentrating on my art in the past year has been a cathartic process in a way. As I explained in my very first post on this blog, I hadn't picked up a pen or pencil in a good many years. Not having the time or energy to do so. I know my dad would have been so pleased with me, he was very enthusiastic about my artwork and my family all seem to be behind me 100% which is great.

I'm also working on losing my inhibitions when it comes to showing others my artwork. Posting here and also on the Belle, Book and Kandle webcomic has helped. I've never been confident with showing people my drawings, basically I had hang-ups with what I produce. I never feel it is good enough or I get embarrassed by peoples' reactions. I feel I'm getting over that hurdle and I'm happy with what I'm producing. I know I have a long way to go yet and there's always room for improvement but I'm getting there.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'll still be posting up bits and bobs on this blog. It's been a good way of documenting my artwork in an amateur fashion as I haven't got my physical profile of work together as of yet. That is something I desperately need to do along with a hundred other things!

The Ghoul of Paris

Next up in the Belle, Book and Kandle webcomic is an encounter with the famous 'Ghoul of Paris'! The above flyer is of course a Toulouse Lautrec parody.

I've been quite pleased with how this strip has turned out, I've noticed myself that I'm starting to loosen up my drawing style. I shall post a link to the comic when it goes live.

EDIT: and here is the link to the webcomic, The Ghoul of Paris. It will be updated every other day.

shop 'til you drop

You can now buy all manner of goodies at spreadshirt.net designed by yours truly. There'll be new stuff added asap.

Ganesh

I created this for a blog entry over on Damn Data detailing the news reports that Hindu statues are 'drinking' milk in temples across India. The base image was an oil painting (unfinished) that I scanned and then went to work on digitally. I just hope the sanskrit makes sense and does say 'Ganesh' as it is meant to.

Emo kid

This is one of my ubiquitous nieces and she also has the unfortunate pleasure of being my god-daughter too... poor kid.

hot stuff

Well, no. It isn't really but these are a result of the hot weather.

It's too hot to sleep, I'm not used to tarmac-melting weather so I've been sat here trying to practice figure drawing.

stinky sasquatch

The girl with a curl

Some redhead action...

Pin up

I'm not that happy with this, the shading could be so much better. I'll have to have another crack at it tomorrow. I was inspired by this site and this drawing in particular.

graphic tablet

EDIT -

here's the updated version (I'm still unsure of it though!!)

fresh batch

of some more doodles:

ectoplasmic

with colour but unfinished (obvs)



edit: finished!

Belle in Sepia

I've just tweaked the last image in Picasa to give it a sepia-tone effect. I quite like it like this.

Stepping out

Just another random sketch of the Belle, Book and Kandle characters.



I'll post up the finished article once completed.

EDIT: and here it is