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

Godzilla the cat

Years (and I do mean years) ago I had a cat. A lovely red tabby called Godzilla. He was great, I was too embarrassed to shout 'Godzilla!' from the back step so I taught him to answer to a whistle.

Anywaaay, I used to draw comic strips for my neices based around the exploits of Godzilla (apparently their mother still has the cartoons, I must ask her to find them out next time I'm there).

I can't remember all of them but the few that I do:

Godzilla meets the Pirates (drawn on 'parchment' - coffee-stained and then singed - to look like an old treasure map including wax seal), Godzilla meets the Spice Gulls (yes, Sporty Gull, Scary Gull etc..), Godzilla in Wonderland

He would also appear in their birthday or christmas cards but unfortunately he ran away and that was the end of the Godzilla strips. I couldn't bring myself to draw them again. I loved that cat.

I'd just moved and my mother let him out the house after only six days even though I had expressly warned her not to. Me - "Eeeeeh... where's me bloody cat??", Mother - "Oh he's outside, he'll come back he'll be okay".

This is the first time I've drawn the character since Godzilla buggered off into the great, wide unknown.

Ninja!!

I knocked this up last night for this thread over on Cabinet of Wonders.

Toy Dog

Paint and pen via the graphic tablet

MOOOO!

You can keep an eye out for the Were-Cow here and remember... stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors...

paws for thought

They sail’d to the Western Sea, they did,—
To a land all cover’d with trees:
And they bought an owl, and a useful cart,
And a pound of rice, and a cranberry-tart,
And a hive of silvery bees;
And they bought a pig, and some green jackdaws,
And a lovely monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of ring-bo-ree,
And no end of Stilton cheese:

Edward Lear

Cosmic girl

Do you remember the time I knew a Girl From Mars?
I don't know if you knew
that.
Oh we'd stay up late playing cards,
Henri Winterman Cigars.
Though she never told me her name,
I still love you, Girl From Mars.

squid vicious

What is it? I dunno... s'just another doodle!



Image created on the graphic tablet