The keepers of our secrets...

Another little skull that kept pecking away at my own until I finally got round to drawing it. I love doing these strange little skeleton drawings every now and again. They aren't exactly what you'd call anatomically accurate but their tiny bones seem to exude personality more than flesh and feathers do. The intention was for the Blackbird to be contemplating his skeletal reflection but to me, the skeleton seems more taken aback by what it's seeing. Once I start these things, they really do take on a life of their own and the picture in my head is never quite the picture you see here, but think of that as an enhancement. I did have more ambitious plans for the design of the mirror but I really don't have the patience, I think you can have too much agonising detail in your life and smaller than life size bones in ballpoint pen is plenty for me, thanks. 

Out there in the deep...

A blue shark, in blue biro. That worked out quite nicely didn't it? I was asked to draw a shark and here he is. I don't really think he looks ferocious but I'm sure he's a swift and agile predator. 

I've recently decided that I don't draw in blue pen enough, it suits certain subjects perfectly and makes them glow with electricity (which is just what I look for in creatures of the deep). This is quite a simple sketch really but there's something about the bleak, stark page with the shark hovering there. Brings to mind The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. I like backgrounds, setting a scene, creating shadows...but sometimes, there doesn't need to be a narrative. And am I really going to argue with this guy? 

You're the bees knees but so am I...

This grew out of a little thought I had about bees that might make ink instead of honey. I managed to locate some honeycomb grid paper and although it's cheating a bit, I really liked the idea of leaving some of the grid undrawn to show off how the paper has created the hexagons of the inkycomb. It's darker than I intended really but the bee not leaping out off the paper at you straight away is quite nice I think...and I won't be spoiling it with colour this time. To be honest, I much prefer THIS little bee.

This is how it feels to be small...

This idea (or something like it) has been rattling around the inside of my skull like a beetle in a bottle for some time now. I like the idea of drawing collections; hundreds of the-same-but-different items like you'd find in a museum. In practice I probably don't have the attention span for it, although I do really love to draw insects over and over again. Natures sparkling gems that I'd like to train to stay still on the lapel of my jacket when I go out like a pet/jewellery combo...I digress, back to the drawing: as I said, the idea was a museum collection and I was going to house them in a case with labels but when it came down to it, I couldn't bear them to be locked up or worse...So mine are alive and free but they can't read so hopefully they've put themselves into the right order (the artist cannot be held responsible for discrepancies in the name tags). They're also happy to sit while you look at them, just don't stay too long they're ready for a tea break.

Just for fun I thought I'd colour them with acrylic ink, I'll leave this open to interpretation but I know what I think...