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.

Hit the bottom and escape...

"A mermaid has no tears, and so she suffers so much more..." 

This drawing makes me feel sad. I almost wish I hadn't done it. A captured, lonely thing. I drew the jar ages ago when I was into illustrating glass in a big way...er, yeah. Anyway, the jar sat empty in a sketchbook for a bit and the other day, while I was on the subject of skeletons, this idea of mermaid bones came to me. Are you picking up the vibe that I leave a lot of things with a "to be continued" tagline? 

It's not really turned out how I expected but I quite like it when that happens (which is pretty much every time) it's like these things draw me rather than the other way round. Strange creatures swimming around inside my head waiting to get out... 

Inktober

#inktober

I've just found out about this inktober thing (on the 26th...story of my life!), which coincided quite nicely with starting this blog and with splattering white acrylic ink around the "studio" yesterday. I was going for a bit of a Ralph Steadman vibe after seeing him the other night on a programme about Edward Lear. I've always loved his far out art... Anyway, I thought my splatters looked a bit like fish skeletons so here's one (with the crappy tail bit craftily edited out of the photo). I'm also kind of glad I've only just discovered inktober, there's no way I would have committed myself to an ink drawing every single day for a month! I was bored before I even began..(thanks Morrissey).