Poopy Notebooks!

I got some awesome blank notebooks made to sell at upcoming cons and in my online store very soon. Recycled paper, A6 in size and 48 pages for doodles, notes or whatever you scribble in a blank notebook!

Sketchbook: Beetles!

Before bedtime doodle.

Salty Sea Tales

Sketchbook stuffs!

Watching horror films and sketching equals the above. The films were Poltergeist and The Descent.

Sketchbook stuffs!

I'm currently going through some of my old sketchbooks and working up some doodles. I love looking through old sketchbooks as I often forget half of what I've drawn. Here's one pic I found and thought was silly enough to draw! Expect more over the next week or so! :P

Doodles everywhere!



I've always been a huge fan of doodling (who isn't?) and I love my sketchbook for just scribbling whatever comes into my head. I'm trying out some doodle mugs with blank mugs and Sharpies so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully this mug will be crawling with amoebas!

 

 

I also found some bits in Clas Ohlson with my doodles on them which was quite exciting! I have a licensing agent and often forget that my designs will legitimately pop up over the place! :D

 

Sketchbook Mystery.

I'm sure this picture made complete sense to me at the time. My sketchbook is a doorway into my brain that I sometimes forget to close and stuff just runs off and doesn't come back.

Sketchy Doodles!

I'm trying to get back into the habit of drawing in my sketchbook every day, either before I leave for work, or in the evening when I'm vegging in front of the telly. I'm rather fond of trying to draw things without looking - might do some more of those! :P

Sketchbook: Join the queue!

Sketchbooks Are Awesome

Anyone who has been to art college or university to do any art-based course will most likely have had the importance of keeping a sketchbook drummed into them. It took me quite a while to get into the habit of keeping a sketchbook in art college (way back in 1999) but as soon as I realised I didn't need to make every page a masterpiece, I was hooked. I've got a huge stack of sketchbooks that I've kept over the years, alternating from hardback A5 150gsm paper books to normal lined paper note books. My parent's loft contains a couple of boxes of my university sketchbooks that while I'm too embarrassed to look back over, can't quite bring myself to throw away. 



One of the reasons I love keeping sketchbooks so much, is the fact that I can take them anywhere with me, even if I don't end up drawing anything. It's like a comfort thing! My sketchbook is always in my bag; I daydream quite a lot when I'm walking about and if I happen to happen to have an idea, I can quickly scrawl it down while I walk. It's also a perfect place to mindlessly doodle, something I'm particularly good at. A lot of the personal work I do starts off as some weird doodle in my sketchbooks that I've decided to work up.



I've been trying to get into a more regimented sketchbook routine as of late; I started a shiny new one a couple of weeks ago and decided I wanted to try and draw in it every day (not something I always do.) I leave for my part-time job at 10:20am on weekdays so I make sure I'm sat in the living room at 10am with my SB and try to doodle something. It's been pretty fun so far as I can just draw nonsense and have a bit of fun with it!

I rarely draw any roughs or ideas for work for publishers in my sketchbooks though as I try and keep them just for me. Roughs for work usually end up on normal photocopy paper so I can keep everything together. This does mean my desk becomes an endless mess with piles of paper everywhere while I'm working on books but it's a system that works for me! XD

Materials-wise for sketchbooks, I particularly fond of A5 Daler-Rowney hardbacks because the paper is nice to work on (not to thin) and they're easy to carry around. They also all look nice together on the shelf when they're full! XD I use Uni-Ball Vision Elite black pens to draw with, as they're pretty nice rollerballs and can be found in most supermarkets if I lose one. I have about a billion of them lying about, all in varying degrees of used-up-ness.

I also love looking at other people's sketchbooks; there's something very satisfying about looking at how people work and the doodles they come up with. Sketchbooks are essentially brain-dumps and I like looking at the insides of other artists heads this way! XD My insanely talented friend Mark Pearce keeps the most awesome sketchbooks and he must get fed up with me constantly asking to look at them whenever he's over our house. I don't think mine are quite so interesting to look at but I enjoy drawing in them anyway!

Ghosties!

I recently bought a new sketchbook. I felt it needed to have some ghosts in it.

Noo Yoik!

As of the 5th of October, I will be off to the Large Fruit that is New York! While I am immensly excited, I'm also very stressed as myself and my partner are in the middle of buying a house and everything has pretty much gone wrong from the start. It means we have to make sure we keep in touch with all involved whilst we are away which is more than a little bit rubbish but cannot be helped. I'll be trying not to let this ruin the trip though as this will be my first time to America. I have a shiny new sketchbook to keep a travel journal in (one day I will scan and post my sketchbooks from Japan, Prague and Florence!).

Things I'm looking forward too: Meeting Bruce Campbell, finding the Ghostbusters HQ, seeing awesome friends, going the Massachusetts, the food and seeing how people to my British accent!

No doubt I will have plenty to blog about when I get back :D

AWOL!

I'm off on holiday on the 26th so my blog will be quiet for a bit, but fear not! No doubt I'll manage to squeeze in a little bit of work before I go and do another sneaky post! And there will certainly be lots to blog about when I'm back as I'm going to Florence, Italy. Volcano permitting, all seems well for our flight but it's still going to be a matter of waiting until the very last minute to be sure. Fingers crossed! I'll be keeping a travel sketchbook while I'm there so there should be some amusing things to post when I get back. I keep meaning to scan and post my travel sketchbooks from Japan and Prague too so maybe I'll do a Travel Sketchbook Bonanza Post!

A huge thank you to anyone who has left comments on my blog the last week; I still find it annoying that you can't reply directly to any comments like you can on Livejournal, so if you haven't heard from me, please don't think I'm ignoring you! I've had some great feedback on my daily comic which I'm really enjoying at the moment. I try to keep one day ahead of myself so I don't get backlogged, but being on holiday means only being able to pencil them and then spending a day inking, scanning and colouring when I'm back. At least there will be an uber daily comics post to look forward to!

Don't you worry about blank, let ME worry about blank!

Oy vey! The next couple of weeks are going to be a bit hectic to say the least. As well as lots of illustration work to do, I'll be going on several jaunts so I'm trying to manage my time which is something I'm particularly crap at. Huzzah! Next weekend I'll be off home to Swindon for a few days as it's my 30th birthday on the 19th of April. I'm ignoring the fact on all counts and will be watching cartoons, eating sweets and generally be trying to cling frantically to my youth before accepting the inevitable. The following weekend I'm off to London with my other half to see a live performance of the Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack by the London Philharmonic Orchestra while the film plays - eep! I've been a huge fan of such film composers as Thomas Newman, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Elliot Goldenthall and Jerry Goldsmith for as long as I can remember and I'm really really excited to see a live performance.

Then, after that weekend, we're off to Florence, Italy for a week. This is a Christmas/birthday present from my wonderful boyf and I'm so excited, I've actually stopped being excited! The last couple of holidays I've been on (Japan and Prague), I've kept a sketchbook diary. I'll be posting some pages from these over the next few days, but they're really basic! As much as I'd love to fill the pages with gorgeous landscapes and wonderful life drawing (none of which I'm actually any good at), for the most part, my travel journals are full of bubble-headed people and rude items found in rude shops. I really enjoy making them though, as it's something I do at the start and end of each day of the trip and becomes a fun routine. Looking forward to buying a new sketchbook especially!

So lots going on; I'm also working towards the Bristol Small Press Expo in May too, so a lot of my time is going into original paintings to sell. I'm getting more ideas than I can get down at the moment but as always, am really enjoying it!

Freshly-Drawn Pictures!

As a bit of interactivity for The Web and Mini Comix Thing, I thought I'd do some little sketches throughout the day! When I say little, I mean teeny - they'll be 5cm x 5cm. I may change my mind about the price as I'm selling my small paintings for £7.50 each or £14 for two so paying £2.50 for a little sketch may be too much. But I guess being done on the day while I'm at my stall may justify that and people can request drawings too. Gah, I'm always told I undersell my work but I always get funny about charging too much! What do people think? I value your opinions!

Doodlings and 2010 musings.

I always find January a weird month; all the build up before xmas and then bleh! Everyone's broke and grumpy, myself included! It's only the start of Feb and I'm already berating myself about what I've achieved. Given that I've had positive feedback from a couple of publishers, had some commissions, almost drawn a full-length book and may be involved in a very exciting project (more on that as things hopefully pan out), I don't think I've done too badly. But being the self-flagellating artist I am, this is never enough! Why do illustrators always set such high standards for themselves? :P

Anyway, on a less maudlin note, above are a few pages from my current sketchbook. I'm a big fan of packing the pages with as much as possible and just trying to switch off while I doodle as I find that's where a lot of images I go on to ink and colour come from. I'd feel really lost without a sketchbook at the moment and even if I'm not drawing in it all the time, it has to come with me everywhere! I'd like to see if anyone can guess what films Things From Films are referencing. I know there are more of us film freaks out there!

Zombies!

Last night I ended up watching Dead Snow; a very amusing Norwegian horror film featuring Nazi Zombies! The film was ridiculous and crazy and everything a zombie film should be really! I started to doodle some zombies in my sketchbook and when I get the time, may attempt a bigger-scale zombie picture!

Sketchbook Doodle: Bluebirds

Creepy Potraits!

Because I don't draw people enough, I thought the next set of images I would draw would be people-based, just to give my brain a break from weird creatures and what-not! I've been looking at a lot of old Victorian photos and old family picture portraits and thought it would be great to produce a set of not-quite-right old style family photos. More on that when I get around to it, but in the meantime, here are a couple I tried out in my sketchbook with a bit of colour splashed on!