The Story

My UAL Foundation Art group were doing a project titled "Grids, Layers and Reflections" and for my teaching practice, I decided to do a little sketchbook to demonstrate what I would do. I discarded grids (dislike geometry) and went with layers (collage) and reflections (memories). Collage makes your sketchbook look like this:



For my degree work I used my memories and emotions to reflect on my relationships with people around me and my relationship with myself, so I sort of carried it on. My best friends' dad died in June, and it broke us. How could I document anything else? I'm going to ask them to read it this week, it's pretty personal, and maybe then I'll show you. The sketchbook is a beautiful, tactile object and I wish people could hold it and touch it and not just read it on a screen. It has a cloth cover and there's the shiny textures of the photos, the slightly sticky surface of gloss paint, rough emulsion on sugar paper... It also doesn't close, as the photograph shows. Many layers.

Source materials used thus far: Photographs (burned and scratched), poured paint surfaces rescued from my classroom, found words (magazines, catalogues, a book on Queen Victoria), photocopies. I'm sure other things will be added.

 It was cathartic, but I feel art needs to be seen. As yet, I don't know if it will be but I hope when it is, people will be able to relate to it.

Weird Creatures

"Switzerland"

When I started doing my PGCE I didn't have time to paint (and still don't!) so I started doing these weird little drawings. They're black ink (usually an archival fineliner) in a Seawhite 8"x8" sketchbook. I do them a bit at a time, unplanned, so they're brilliant for doodling in class *ahem* or for winding down at the end of the day. They're full of monsters that I am in love wth - especially the reindeer monsters. I need to draw more monsters, they are the most fun.

Incidentally, I would highly reccomend Seawhite paper - loose or in sketchbooks. We even get our A1 paper supply from them for college! It's high quality, very affordable and actually quite resilient if you like to throw water at it then scrub it with sandpaper. As I do. You can find them in my friend's art shop The Art Palette, along with the Faber Castell PITT pens that I use to draw with. Cheap as chips but brilliant quality - exactly the kind of art supplies I like!

Whoops

Lordy, it's been nearly a YEAR since I updated! Scandalous! In my defense I have been rather busy doing my PGCE, but I've also been doing many silly things that need blogging! Have some rather wonderful doodles that I did for a sketchjam over on deviantART - five minute doodles on paper with a copic sketch brush pen. If you have a DA account and wish to have fun in the future, make sure you're watching #ComicsandCartoons!

Theme: "Sexy Batman"

Theme: "Unicorn Soup"

Theme: "Sheep eating Noodles"

My studio

So I've been threatening a while, and here is a rather poor photo of my space. That thar special chair is where I sit, with my little table of paints, and I work on that thar canvas that has its back to you. It's not looking very pretty right now. I bought that pink tub to put my paints in because you can push the edges together and carry it like a bag, so I'd be able to take the paints home. They never come home. Home is for internets.

Behind Baron Von Duck there is my little booth with reference photos and my other paintings and various wonderments. I wish for a bed so I can sleep in there. I love it. I shall miss it next year.

To the left you can see Kelly and Rachel's paintings and Laura's in the foreground.

Tomorrow I shall be there all day, with 79p noodles of joy and delishus bananas. I can't wait :|

Two down...

So I'm half way through my giant canvases, but I'm not allowed to look at the other finished one for a week for my own sanity, so here's this one. It's 6'x4'.
 
Yes there's a nipple. Yes the glass nearly killed me. The photo is awesome, I'll take a better one when I'm sure my lecturers aren't going to make me change anything else.


In other news, stress. STRESS. Oh, and this is the most messed up thing I have ever seen. It is genius.

Gosh, busy busy busy.

So college has been uber stressful, I've been working and now I've gone into flare. Did I mention I have fibromyalgia? I do.

We don't really get Easter holidays when the deadline is so close. So when we were told college was closed Tuesday as well as Easter Monday I had one thought: Kendal time. Why Kendal? Well, my absolutely wonderous e-wife Fiona lives there and I hadn't seen her in a while and it was just far, far away from college.

While rolling around Kendal with Fiona, Kelly and Rachel trying on overpriced hats, Fiona spotted this young fellow and bellowed "OI! YOU! YOUR TSHIRT IS AWESOME!". I promise he was far, far more thrilled than this photo makes out. In fact when we saw him again in Home Bargains (we were buying popping candy) he stayed with us and had coffee! Hoorah! A new friend!

I want an angry T-Rex Tshirt now. Preferably not attached to a 19 year old boy, they leave underwear on the bathroom floor.

Back to the studio tomorrow. I did take photos to put up here... but they made my painting look SO hideous I can't bring myself to share them.

Ampubee and Cat Beard love

I've decided to put this one up now. I was going to save it for last because it's my favourite, but I can't wait :D The order was Kelly>Rachel>moi and as you can see, my last panel is just THE END. Why? How the hell was I supposed to follow the panel before? I was laughing so much I thought I was going to vomit.

I've been ridiculously stressed and spending a lot of time at college. I will take some photos tomorrow of my paintings and whatnot and update the blog tomorrow with them.

As you may also know I am really into diary photography. What is that? Well it's basically photographing your day to day, mundane life, friends and family and whatnot. I love seeing the little moments people capture that they might have forgotten otherwise.

Well the awesome Zack has been doing just that, and uploaded this pearler onto DA today. I laughed so much and I just had to share it. Click on it to see it full size and comment on it.

And it passes

So my cold has passed. I managed to avoid Swine Flu completely, and then get a cold in March. Bah.

Today I got to Blackburn for college and realised I didn't have money for parking, petrol home or lunch. There were many reasons for this financial fuck up, partly my fault and partly Frank's, but either way I ended up just going home at 50mph with the petrol light on. Oh yes, I live life on the edge.

So I came home, started playing Bioshock, died spectacularly, gave up and played Need for Speed Shift for a while. I totally *heart* Need for Speed, but I liked the street racing ones more. I have, however, made my car yellow like my actual car. I am a geek.

Have another comic anyway, the boxes on this one were drawn by Kelly. That is why they are a bit weird. 

Also: Here is another video courtesy of Rachel. She's like our reporter. Just send her off with my phone and she returns with an epic documentary!

Back to college on Tuesday - I can't wait!

A Guided Tour

So Rachel was bored today at college, and decided to make a guided tour for whoever reads this blog. It amused me greatly.

I still have a cold, and feel like death warmed up. Snotty, coughing, croaking... I hope I'm better for work on Saturday.

I'll try and post another comic tomorrow; I'm on the wrong computer tonight.

Why Pandas Don't Breed in Captivity

So this was the first comic we drew yesterday. There are six altogether, so let's call it a daily update this week! Click on it to read it full size.

I started this one because I wanted to draw a Chinese dress. Kelly clearly wanted to draw pandas more. Rachel's addition of bamboo was interesting, as it has obviously morphed into a candy cane by the fifth frame.

In other news, my cold is still here and my nose is lovely and red and scabby. I put lipstick on but two sneezes later, it was on tissues instead. I remember my housemistress at school teaching us how to blow our nose so we didn't wipe off our lipstick at the same time. She had lived in France for a long time and was very much a Parisienne, with red lipstick, mens cologne and Breton stripes. I remember that the back stairs, which were over her flat, always smelled of garlic and cigarette smoke on her days off.

Tomorrow we are all tramping into college early doors for life drawing. My sketchbook really is ashamedly empty, so empty in fact that I didn't notice I'd forgotten it for my assessment until I saw Rachel's. I just hate drawing. I say this while posting a comic, but that's totally different. Cartoons are meant to be lines, whereas a person I see in terms of colour and volume. So tomorrow I am going to go in with ink and brush and see if that's any better. I really couldn't paint in acrylics from life, it would take far too long to build up the right layers and let them dry and I'd flood the life drawing room...

I think the solution to this is to buy a giant inflatable paddling pool and call it my studio. Then I can just empty, rinse, repeat. Voila! No more ruined linoleum. And if anyone has ever wondered just how waterproof oilcloth (the laminated stuff they make tablecloths out of) is, the answer is not very. It is splashproof, sure, but after a deluge from my underpainting, it sticks to the floor. So, yes, not brilliant at keeping the floor clean but it sure is pretty.