Time is short and the art, long...

A question I get asked a lot is, "how long did that take?" I'm not sure why timescales intrigue people so much, perhaps it's to do with our finite lifespans, but I think it's probably because we're so used to the immediacy of photography that we're fascinated with why someone would spend a long time creating an image that's just to look at.

It's a question I rarely ask other people or think about with my own drawings. Minutes, hours or years, it's just worth doing and I've never timed anything, never know what time or day I started or finished, so it's a question I can't really answer. I tend to just make up what feels like an adequate amount, I don't know if they're impressed by quickly or aeons...

All I can really say is that I posses the oxymoronic qualities of both drawing very slowly and having a short attention span. There are times when I frustrate myself with my approach and there are times when I'm glad of it. When I work slowly, things are more considered, done with care, there's plenty of thinking time. When I work quickly, there's energy and immediacy to it. When I stop regularly, things change and evolve as I go along, it's organic. When I work quickly, I capture a moment, a snapshot of what's in my head right then.

These skulls all took about half an hour each, I didn't want to fuss them or make them look like photos, they're sketchy and imperfect but I like them (except the green one, green biro can go back to whatever hole it crawled out from, goodbye.) But they're procrastination, Nero fiddling whilst Rome is burning, I've got loads of detailed, lengthy drawings that I should be working on, people are waiting and they'll want to know how long it took...how long is a piece of string? (according to a ten year old I was chatting to recently it's "probably about 30 centimetres," I might just use that as my answer in future.)

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...

I saw it written and I saw it say...

Two strange things just happened: The first: I'd forgotten how to use my scanner! And the second: I felt nervous about posting again. This is just a little sketch to help me get back into things (again...), although it started life as part of a larger drawing that I lost interest in part way through. But, as is often the case, I kind of still liked my little cosmonaut chilling against a Moon rock. It seemed a shame to just ditch her so I decided to post her as she is, unfinished lunar surface and all. Her pressure suit is coloured with orange ballpoint and I also like how it looks faded and dusty, like she's been waiting here for a long time...Apologies for the scrappiness, I'll try harder next time, which will be soon (I promise). 

I want you to notice when I'm not around...

It feels like such a long time since I've been here. A week is a long time in politics...I kind of lost all creative ability for a few days which was an almost physically painful experience. I'm starting to pull myself back together with some more acrylic ink experimentation, like a reverse Rorschach test: the ink tells me what it wants to look like by virtue of random colour mixing. I don't tend to have favourites amongst things that aren't immediately finite but if I had a ray gun to my head and had to choose a colour I'd possibly go for the blue-grey of Nuthatch wings. It's uplifting and melancholic at the same time. I like it best when it fills the sky and tells you "this day could go either way." 

Blue, blue, electric blue...

I know it's the time for chilling out and letting the glitter settle but I can't not draw. It's like having an itch I can't scratch, like those weird ones you get behind your kneecaps that drive you insane (or is that just me?) Having said that, I needed something swirly that I didn't have to think too hard about so here's an experiment in blue ballpoint pen (just to see what would happen). I thought the vibrancy of the blue ink would lend itself to the ethereal qualities of a jellyfish and do you know what? I think it does. Something has made me display it upside down to the way I drew it, it just seems to work better that way*, like he's diving down to...well I don't actually know what jellyfish do, just float about by the look of things. That's fine by me (we must be related). 

*Feel free to spin it round and take a look at it from my viewpoint.

From my window to yours...

I can't say much about this really, it is what it is. A little festive ballpoint illustration to bring some joy (no irony in the voice or anything...) I'm not going to say I like it because I'm not so sure...it's colour again. In paradox to the real world version of me, the planet inside my head where the drawings live is a monochrome place. When I get the inks or the coloured biro's out, it's never quite the same. I think they lose something of the original idea and then it's too late. 

If you're interested, here it is before I coloured it (I feel much better now).

Anyway, I'd like to wish anyone who actually reads this stream of consciousness a very happy festive season. If Christmas isn't your bag, I hope you're able enjoy some peace anyway. A lot is going on in the world, good and bad. Everyone is trying to get somewhere and everyone has lost something precious. Think on. Merry Christmas. 

Come on let's crawl...

I really love these shield bugs (yes, apparently they're officially bugs not beetles). This little fella landed on me back in the days when the sun shone, so I quickly took a picture before he flew away because I knew I'd end up drawing him. I seem to come back to dots when I draw insects but this is what you might call mixed media. Oooh, branching out! Here we have dots in fineline pen; acrylic ink then not one but two shades of green ballpoint. Oh yes, my friends, acid green biro exists in the world, rejoice! I'd drawn this and inked it up but I really wasn't feeling it so once again it was neglected for a few weeks until I recalled the existence of the green pens (after stating that I had no use for green pens). Now he's a sparkling peridot. Quite a bit more vibrant than the real life bug but wouldn't we all add a bit of glimmer if we were to illustrate ourselves? Don't get used to it, I'll be back in black soon enough. 

Experimentation is an active science...

More dots...I told you it was habit forming! Along with a rarer thing for me, colour.

These little ladies are something I began with good intentions and then promptly misplaced. Having found them again, I decided they either had to go or be finished, so here they are. Ladybirds given a revamp in new, far out costumes. I was going for a sort of experimental ladybird test card using the CMYK colour model that printers use; cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). Don't think I'm all techy, I just looked that up. It was an excuse to try out my newly acquired acrylic inks, that's all. They're not very symmetrical or evenly spaced (I just went for it freehand in pen...on wallpaper, which seemed like a good idea at the time) and the colours have bled outside the edges but I quite like them because of that rather than despite it. I don't usually wear rose tinted spectacles to look at my own work but they've made me show these off when I really wasn't going to. I'd better take them off again before anything else weird happens!