merboy story, interior sketches

Some sketches for Fionn's house and his modifications. I didn't have any references on hand so had to work from memory. The rest of the house is based on Abbasid architecture but Fionn's room is more conventionally Medieval English.

Pencil with Neocolor II acquarelle crayons.

drive by sketches, day 4

I accidentally wrote 'day 3', because it was page 3 and I was distracted by trying to draw and write on the bus. Sigh.

This is actually 2 bus rides, because I was going to Trafalgar Square to meet my friends instead of to work. I had a little more time to draw the man with the cool 80s-futuristic hearing aids because he was sitting in front of me.

I got off at Trafalgar Square, but spotted the giraffe head and just had to draw it. The giraffe head is off of South Africa House (not Africa House, which is near Holborn). Yes, there is an elephant head next to it. I can't remember if the third head was a lion, but I would not be surprised.

all change, please

Breaking news: I have moved to a new, closer location for work and a more regular time. On the plus side, I can wake up later, come home earlier, and my bus ride is shorter. On the minus side it's now split into two, which means the drive by sketches will have to stop for now. I will get some colour into them in the meantime.

On the other other hand, I now have more time to do things like this:

drive by sketches, 2

Day 2 and 3 (which were, um, actually a few weeks ago).

 

I only posted it now because I decided to start adding colour to the entries. I think these would make some fun personalised postcards, although I need to clean them up and replace my wobbly bus handwriting.

drive by sketches, 1

So I haven't posted for a month. This doesn't mean I haven't been drawing, just that I haven't been drawing for myself. I was getting a little frustrated, being busy with the new job and one or two projects that aren't going quite the way I wanted them to. And then I found this:

An Illustrated Journey: Inspiration from the Private Art Journals of Traveling Artists, Illustrators and Designers. This is a sequel to An Illustrated Life, a book of artists' journals, and I really wanted that...before I saw this.

I borrowed the book and have been reading through it the way I usually don't with these books. When I own them, I reach for them casually, flipping around pages, browsing and stopping wherever I want, hunting out favourite artists and ignoring others. I am going through this one like a proper book, reading from beginning to end, discovering artists and styles one by one.

I love travel journals and always wanted to do one, but have never had the time while I was travelling. Italy, Singapore, New York, all failures; I was enjoying myself too much rushing around to sit in one space and patiently commit it to memory. Looking at this set something loose in my resolve; I am now living in one of the most beautiful and famous cities in the world and not drawing any piece of it. In the end the frustration was too much. If the only travelling I do now is on my bus ride, then I will draw my bus ride.

So here it is: day 1 of the Drive By sketches. Begun on my best friend's birthday! Copic .01 micro liner in a Scout Books pocket notebook with a lemur on the cover, by artist Meg Hunt. I'll scan it for the next post.

Book project, home stretch...

Guys, the book project is set to launch in January! This is not really a sneak preview, just a sideways glimpse of my favourite illustration of the bunch.

Pentel brush pen, Hunt 512 bowl nib with Noodler's Bulletproof Black. I have used this ink for nearly the whole book (plus other things) and after 100 or so drawings with washes, I have barely gotten past the shoulders of the 3oz bottle. Awesome.

coffee: how do you take it?

'actually I feel like every day is coffee day' ... because it is.

Mitchell Copperplate nib (because I wanted to complicate my life), Jorg Hysek fountain pen ink. Note on this ink: it is not waterproof, and it smells like grade school paste. Regardless, I love it. I do wish I had a Jorg Hysek pen to put it in, though, because those things look like props for Star Trek.

visual notes

More sketchblogging from the square Moleskine.

The pillar-like thing on the bottom left is one of the water fountains that stood outside the villas in Il Borro, a resort in Tuscany.

The Bodhisattva of Action

This may be one of the most comic-book-like of the bodhisattvas I have drawn. May have something to do with the fact that I don't have my rubber stamps, and therefore my usual mixed-media approach necessarily has to change.

Skin colours laid down first.

With flash.

Without flash.

Based on the deity Zaou Gongen, a being with a rather mixed history. Instead of standing for aggression, the clenched fist represents emptiness, and therefore detachment. The flames represent inspiration, and the sword confidence.

pots & pans: cotman compact set

When I first arrived in the UK and was giddy with the high of being in London again after 5 long years HUZZAH, I may have staggered into the London Graphic Centre during a summer sale and bought a set of watercolours for less than £10.

The Winsor & Newton Cotman Compact Set is actually one of W&N's most downmarket colour sets. W&N is the everyman paint company, and Cotman is its budget brand for students.

Still, some of my best work was done with really cheap kids' paint--Golden was the cheapest, but Prang tempera is still one of my favourite art materials--so I was excited to give it a try.

Since I got this set I've used it pretty often, as you will have noticed in the past few posts. It's not as waxy as Prang but just as bright. It comes with 14 colour pans, but you can also buy individual colours. I swapped out 2 pans, because I am a little bit crazy about Prussian Blue and Payne's Grey and cannot conceive of leaving them out of any art set if I can possibly get them.

Because of the construction of the box, though, I can still pack the Chinese White and Pale Cadmium Red in the saucer that fits in the thumb space (seen here clipped to the side). I can even fit my mini Sakura Koi waterbrush (thanks, Mom! ♥) in the central groove, alongside the surprisingly usable synthetic brush that comes with the set.

One word of caution though: I had to fix the pans to the bottom of their trays with dabs of blu-tack, as they tend to pop out and spill everywhere and are a pain to sort out again. The paint blocks eventually stick to the trays with use, but I helped them along by wetting the bottom of the blocks and sticking them down, like votive candles. Otherwise, this is a really cute little box that is a pleasure to use!