Advent 24

Sincerely wishing everyone much merriment!

Merry Christmas!

As we enter Christmas Eve, I'd like to say: have a brilliant Christmas everyone. Go eat and drink and sit and things!

Advent 23- Some faces

Advent 22- Scaresnow

Advent 21

Christmassy today.

Advent 20; Garbabaflorkakababble!

Advent, Day 19- Fighters

Pat is watching a Chinese martial arts series this evening.

Advent the 18th

Cheating a little bit this evening- this is a snippet from a last-minute Christmas card I've been working on today.

Advent 17, Son of Gloin

Today I did draw Gimli, from me memory.

Ooh I really need to try to stick the LOTR films on over Christmas, haven't watched  them for aaages.

Advent 16

A page of doodlysketch today. The upside down rabbit in the square is by my pal Ben.

Advent 15, Mr Frodo!

Last saturday was 10 years since the UK premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I love that film in a way that only Jurassic Park and Toy Story can rival. Today I sketched Frodo. Kinda wish I'd gone for Gimli.

Advent 14- I Saw Three Ships

Advent, 13-12-11, Don't be hasty

An ent, ennit.

Advent 12- Action Hero

The action hero does the emotional scene.

Advent 11th- Lake

Fancied some more ink this evening.

Advent 10- The treasure is found

The treasure was behind the tree (B). It is a small, rare lizard!

Advent, Day 9- Treasure Hunt

Have a guess!

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Advent, Day 8

Today we did Christmas presents in our house:

This is a very unflattering image of my housemate. Hopefully he'll never see it!

Advent Day 7

Don't know what this is.

I will try to make more time to do some proper drawings rather than these really messy scribbles, promise. Anyone who's actually looking at these- thank you!

Advent Day 6

Advent Day 5

From a sketch of my Mum's eyes in the rear view mirror while driving

Advent Day 4

After Sundbloom, of course.

Advent, Day 3

Just a little monoprint doodle today:

Advent 2

Advent 1

I'm going to draw and post something for each day of Advent. Some of them might be festive. Or not. This evening I've been doing a bit of monoprinting. Cat dreams:

Some more streetfolk

Street People

Sketching folk from a coffee shop, reminds me of being on my Foundation course.

Calvin & Hobbes

I'd never realised how brilliant the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is/was until last week when it came up during some research. It's one of those things that I was dimly aware existed but had never paid the slightest bit of attention too. I've missed out. 


These adventures of a six year-old boy and his pet/ toy/ imaginary-friend tiger are philosophical, satirical, thoughtful and witty in a way unlike any other comic strip I've ever seen. All backed up by masterful inkwork. And very funny. I picked up a compendium book of the strips (There's Treasure Everywhere) in Oxfam for £1.50.


A couple of strips from this book. I love the innocence captured in this one, which gives the book its title:

Crosswords:

After 10 years in newspapers, Bill Watterson, the strip's creator, admirably knocked the whole thing on the head in 1995, and always refused to merchandise the characters.

Here are a top 25 Calvin & Hobbes strips from a blog names Progressive Boink:

http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

Happy Monsterday!

Grant Museum of Zoology

Seems stupid that I'd never been to the Grant Museum of Zoology (at UCL down by Euston) until monday. It reminded me a lot of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, but with a purely zoological focus. The collection was established in 1828 and has a stunning array of skeletons and jar-preserved animal specimens, including an intact Tasmanian Tiger skeleton, a jar of moles and a human or two. I sketched some skeletons.

Grant Museum of Zoology

Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Exhibition

Went back down for a proper look at the Self Portrait exhibition down at Kings Place Gallery (next to Kings Cross, the building in which the Guardian and Observer are based). The show fills the huge lower floors of Kings Place, as well as the actual gallery itself. There are some cracking portraits on show, although I felt the exhibition was a little bloated at 170-odd paintings- half of that would probably be more comfortable.


The exhibition is on every day until the 25th November. And congrats to the winner of the competition, Celia Paul.


My portrait: I think the wonky board looks alright in the end:

Some of my favourite portraits from the show (links at the bottom):


Tony Noble's Self Portrait, Red Brick Mill Studio, a brilliant acrylic piece:

Andrew Whamond's frank and expressive Self Portrait Standing:

Gilly Lovegrove, Untitled:

I saw an Alison Lambert solo exhibition in Soho a few years ago. She produces stunning large-scale portraits in charcoal, pastel and layers of torn paper, giving the pieces a deep relief and wonderfully sculptural topography. It's like the portrait has actually come from within the paper. Fantastic draughtsmanship (draughtswomanship?) too. Really worth seeing in person. Self-Portrait:

 Sheena Russell's Red Portrait:

Artist links:

Tony Noble

Andrew Whamond

Gilly Lovegrove

   Alison Lambert

   Sheena Russell

"Subprime" animation by Beeple

Fantastic 3D animation from Beeple, based on the US housing market.

Full screen essential!

Backs of Heads

The fun to be had on public transport.

James Gurney Dinotopia Print

As a quarter-century birthday present, Pat gave me this print by the mighty James Gurney. It's a picture entitled Dream Canyon from Gurney's first Dinotopia book, back in 1993.  Beautiful light, beautifully painted. I massively admire how effectively Gurney is able to translate his visions into a vivid, finished outcome that feels so real. He explains on the Dinotopia website that "Ever since my parents first set me in a sandbox, it's been my dream to create a world". Now I get a glimpse into another world every time I walk up the stairs.


Pat explained that she chose this specific image because it didn't have so many dinosaurs that it would be inappropriate for the domestic environment : )


If you've never visited, I'd recommend a trip to Gurney's blog Gurney Journey, where the artist shares his insights and knowledge on a seemingly endless variety of subjects, arty and otherwise.