As the rather rushed preceding post suggests, Christmas has snuck up on me this year, ninja-style, and I'm struggling to get my head around it - by the time I have, there'll probably be new year fireworks going off and I'll have a whole new freak out about that. Bagl's been feeling a bit rough the last few days (headcold and teething are a vile combination) so the focus has been on comforting him rather than diving into the Radio Times and cheerfully watching films (oh, imagine! Watching a film in one go! To think I used to take such a thing for granted!).
Anyway, this is to wish whoever still happens to pop by this desolate corner of the internet a very merry Christmas and a happy new year (or whatever Winter-based festival you choose to celebrate). Wrap up warm, watch out for Krampus, and be assured that the unconquered sun will surely return - unless you're in Scotland, where we can just look forward to slightly warmer rain instead. Have a good one!
Funny one this. Very early on I thought I'd nailed the concept for my 'haunt' illustration - a lone walker in the snow on a moonlit night, with two lines of footprints behind him. I wanted to play on that particular kind of isolation to be found in the dark, the cold, the frozen north (captured nicely in the novel Dark Matter: A Ghost Story
) and the eeriness of being alone and not being alone. Sorted.
Except... I just couldn't get it. While I liked the idea, all of my sketches trying to compose the drawing failed miserably. Either the walker was too far away for you to care about, or too close to get a tangible sense of isolation. Tsk! So I came up with the above almost on a whim, working with the thought of being haunted inside your mind and externalising it. Thanks to one day's commute and the Sketchbook Mobile app (whose range of brushes made the picture) I had my haunted drawing, without a single spook in sight.
First time I've done a drawing in MONTHS. It shouldn't feel like such an achievement given it's such a fast inconsequential little picture - rough sketched last night, then drawn on the train to & from work today, using Sketchbook Mobile on the Spod. But when weeks and weeks and weeks have passed without a single scribble, it becomes such a big deal to draw anything - rather fitting that I ended the drought with 'water' courtesy of Illustration Friday. It's good to be back.
Another short blog-based update, having spent the day at Victoria Hospital with my lass and our boy. All going fine, hoping they'll be able to come home tomorrow but not confirmed yet. Katherine was delighted to hear about all the good wishes from all the many many good people over the last day. Had my first attempt at changing a nappy (with the help of Wifey, thank the stars) and in doing so experienced the kind of disaster that existing-parents warn parents-to-be of with the thousand-yard-stare of veterans - more on that in a future post, no doubt. Here's a couple of photos from today, along with a sketch of Magnus I drew on the iPod - awfully difficult to draw a two-day old, they're pretty much lacking in solid lines (unless you draw the hands, which are nothing but lines and lines and lines). Anyway, time for bed. Tomorrow - fingers crossed.
I've been drawing the view from Castle Von Naggle since we moved in last year, albeit with huge gaps between one drawing and the next (see the not-exactly-heaving-with-pictures Aberdour sketchbook). Anyway, it's been absolutely months since the last attempt but, inbetween sniffles, I had a go at a few soft pastel pieces over the last few days (see here, here and here) but the above is the latest, and the first time I reckon I've at least started to get things right. Not so much the bottom 1/3rd, but the clouds in the top 2/3 are a definite improvement on what I've been drawing thus far. Progress!
One thing I'm particularly looking forward to once Bagl arrives on Planet Earth is the potential for baby sketching. Much as I'd like to draw children, being absolutely fascinating subjects, I've always been far too wary to do any sketching of kids out and about the way I would with adults. It's all too easy to imagine the horrible assumptions that would be made of an adult male staring at kids in a public place. A real pity, and I can't help but wonder if a woman would feel as reticent as I do. I remember seeing pages of children sketches by Shirley Hughes (she of Dogger fame) at an exhibition of her work and being blown away by the way she had learned to get the proportions right while still capturing the exaggerated expressions and character of each child, the kind of study that makes her published work (like this) so good, so real. But it made me sad to think I couldn't do similar sketching of children down at the park, at the beach - at least, not of strangers.
As a result I've only ever drawn our friends' baby Charlie, so have hardly any experience of sketching such young sprogs where the proportions are so different to those of full-grown adults, their faces all roundness and forehead. Hopefully much sketching of the new Nagl will follow over the next few years, if only because I think sketches of a child as it grows would be that bit more special than just relying on photographs alone.
In the meantime, two recent blogposts demonstrate excellent sprog sketching, even though 80 years divide the drawings. The hugely talented illustrator/painter Daisuki 'Dice' Tsutsumi's son, Senju, was born last month - and in the few weeks that followed, he's not only sketched but painted his newborn child. Do click through and look at all of the sketches (see left)- they're quite brilliant and very inspiring.
Looking back, back, back, superstar animator Andreas Deja posted a number of scans from a 1930 book called Interesting People. While the drawings were initially credited to a Brenda E. Spencer, debate in the comments suggests the artist was actually J H Dowd. Whoever it was, these sketches are splendid, a wonderful example of capturing life, movement, character through deceptively simple drawings. Shown at the top-right of this post are drawings from this book of a baby learning to move and walk, while the other scans on Deja's post focus on slightly older children and are just as expressive. At least 80 years old, but drawn with a tenderness and vitality that seems brand new.
Blimey, that's two IF's in a row! I thought I'd try something different for this week's Illustration Friday, with the keyword being highlight. I couldn't think of much visually beyond text being highlighted or hair highlights, so this seemed like a way to bring the two together. Not sure how well it works, a proper graphic designer could probably tear the above to ribbons, but it's pretty much what I was aiming for, and it was interesting to bring an illustration together using nothing but text (Baskerville font, in case you're interested) and SketchBook Pro on the Mac (App Store link).
Well, I completely arsed up my good-intentioned intention to do an Illustration Friday picture every week this year - this here's the first I've done since April. It'd be nice to actually do so next year, but given it's likely to be an even more chaotic year than 2011, albeit for a jolly good reason, I should just at least bloody well try.
Anyway, here's my one for 'messenger', an image which came very quickly when I started sketching down ideas (the others being along the lines of mysterious figures holding envelopes and don't-shoot-the-messenger) with the thought of a dragon-based delivery service in flight. It's the first time I've drawn a dragon since schooldays, and oh how it shows (damn those legs!). I'll be needing to learn from the master himself, John Howe (via this book) if I plan on doing more of this sort of thing.
Cooee. Sorry for the radio silence, life continues to get in the way of sitting down and writing something beyond 140 characters, but as I'm getting increasingly fed up with social network sites (mainly Facebook, which seems to be doing all it can to replicate the glory days of Myspace) I reckon there's a good chance I might start spending regular time back here again. May as well, I'm still paying for the bally thing...
Anyway, while the word engines deep within me slowly start churning into life, here's a few drawings I've done recently. This year has been dreadful in terms of creating artwork - the lack of life drawing and holiday sketches has been palpable, I've really missed them - but at least the view from our window can jab me into arty action now and then (well, at least while there's daylight). Besides, I shouldn't be too hard on myself - the wife and I have been creative this year, in a manner of speaking.
(That last one's not from our window, bleedin' obviously - it was finger-drawn with Sketchbook Mobile while waiting at a train stop yesterday. I'd never pretend it's a worthy replacement for paper & pencil, but for unexpected opportunistic drawing it's a boon.)
Over a month since the last post! Just like that, another unintended gap in the ongoing saga of Falling Sky. As the Beastie Boys were wont to say - hello nasty, where you been?
And that, my featherered friends, would be telling. There's something going on behind the scenes here, but I can't actually divulge anything about what that something actually is. Zilch, Nada. Not a sausage. What can I say? Erm... well, it's been in the works for some time, following months of discussion. It's certainly not 100% for sure yet and could still fall through, so I'm sworn to secrecy - and no, there's no clues on Facebook or Twitter, I really am having to keep my big trap shut for once. Hopefully there'll be more to tell in a few months time, because if it comes to pass then it's going to be an absolute cracker. And if it doesn't come to pass, I DENY EVERYTHING.
Is there anything non-sensitive that I can chunter about here? Well, Summer in Aberdour has been magnificent, though I've been too busy to get many sketches done, here's a couple from last month:
And we've had a few friends and family visiting us in our new abode (well, new-ish, we've been here three months) which has been brilliant, a real pleasure. The highlight was our friends from Belgium staying at ours for a holiday, during which the sun shone in a clear blue sky (much to the astonishment of people back in Belgium), the Aberdour Festival was greatly enjoyed, as was much good food and drink, and we were able to take some time just to slow down, relax and catch up with good friends - oh aye, and to lark about with their wee boy, just over a year old. The only time I got the chance to sketch him was during a lunchtime snooze at Potter About in Burntisland (see right) - another unexpected chance for Sketchbook Mobile on Touchy Spod to shine.
There's also been a whole lot of good music, some good books, no good films (not been to the cinema for a loooong time now), an extremely annoying summer cold that thankfully didn't reach down to my feeble lungs but hung around my head for bastard weeks. Doris has been a godsend on the daily commute and good for another couple of long cycle rides home, though the Workhorse has lost a pedal and needs rehooving pronto for my intervillage shopping travels at the weekend. And a mariachi band seranaded a beluga whale. I think that pretty much covers everything. Stay tuned for more! Eventually!
) and the eeriness of being alone and not being alone. Sorted.
