No news on Simian, he's having a breather. The new improved relaxed approach to writing is incredibly relaxed, so much so that I haven't written in nearly a week. Breaks like this can be pretty foolish as they really break my momentum, but I figure that I've no real momentum in the last month anyway. Also I've been doing a bit of reading, taking a look at a few things that seemed to have a similar tone to what I have in mind for Simian. You see, whilst I've been taking a break from writing I've been thinking about what I've done and I've realised it's not what I originally intended. One of the initial thoughts for Simian Smith was that the stories would be odd, they would be silly and stupid, strange and absurd, after all, we are talking about a private investigating ape. For some reason in my efforts to try and write properly I forgot to be silly (I also forgot to enjoy myself) Down time from writing and using this blog to not forget about Simian is helping me look at the story afresh.
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Thanks to a Danny and Paul I'm going ahead with working on a website, hopefully I'll have something ready in a couple of months.
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Finally got 'promoted' at work, it seemed like it was 'begrudged' by management which was a annoying but the important thing is that i got it, the pay rise is pretty laughable but will help our finances.
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Walker's Crisps have a new advert that uses 'One Step Beyond' by Madness as it's theme as well as the 'group walk', I just saw it as I was typing the bit above. Seeing it makes me nostalgic. Comics do it to me too. Recently I got a few issues of a comic called Blue Devil (dopey comic but it was fun and had a lot of charm) from the 80's on Ebay, one of the issues brought a very specific moment flooding back. When I say specific I'm not refering to events but feelings. It was from october 1986 which makes it 19 years old and would have meant I was 14 when I bought it. My dad had decided to take us all out for a drive, something which didn't happen often. We went to Sunderland and ended up going to a place on the coast which I forget the name of, the thing I most remember about it was that there was a pub built into the cliff by the beach, there was a huge huge rock on the beach and we had ice cream and fish and chips. And I bought the afformentioned Blue Devil, the first Blue Devil I bought. I remember really liking it and it seemed to perfectly compliment a smashing (genuine old fashioned hyperbole!) day out. There a few issues of 2000ad and Warrior that give me similar feelings and of course there's Madness and their video's, they bring back feelings and memories of a different time..... don't worry I'll spare you the gory details of my nostalgia for days gone by. Basically as much as I hated being a kid in the late 70's and most of the 80's there was so much about that time that I miss and when something reminds me of the good times, like a transitional item like a comic or a photograph or hearing an old song it gives me a sad but cosy feeling. Honestly, I'll be telling you how much a loaf of bread and a packet of crisps cost in my day next.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Sunday, October 17, 2004
where's the sketches
The more aware visiters to this blog will have noticed the lack of sketches of late. There's about 10 sketches that were scanned in a few weeks ago that are just languishing in my harddrive. They weren't meant to stay secret this long I just didn't get round to posting them, but then I thought about it and just didn't wat to do it. They don't look so good on this site (well, they look ok, but they aren't presented in the best way) so I just kept putting it off. What I need is a proper website to put stuff on, unfortunately I now nothing about programming sites. I have a domain which came free with my email account and has a long clumsy title because of that (it's also full of bad old drawings) it's also rubbish because of the incredibly basic limited design package (honestly, it's like a bad joke) I got free with my PC. Last week I downloaded a free design program that I have no idea how to use that also looks a bit rubbish. As soon as I sort out a decent site I'll post links to sketches and put up some other artwork and the odd bit of writing that I've done.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Hitchcock was wrong
A flurry of finches descended on the back garden as I was writing that last meandering post. Who would have thought that an attack from birds could be so beautiful.
Getting my head together
After a couple of miserable posts trying to express some of my frustration and trying to figure out what I want from being 'creative' (quotation marks hopefully stopping me sounding pretentious but probably exaggerating it) I think I'm getting somewhere.
Danny provided the breakthrough; I need to be self-indulgent. The worry hampering my work comes from the responsibilities I'm placing on it - it has to be good, it has to be published, it has to save me from what I hate about my life. That's no way to produce decent work, it's also not a very good environment to have fun writing and drawing and more than anything else I want my words and pictures to be about fun. Being a naturally negative grumpy bloke is one thing, but that's never been my intention and not something I want to be remembered for. It doesn't mean that I want my work to be devoid of depth or to not tackle difficult subjects but (and I've mentioned this before on this blog) as much as I'm easily impressed by works which are a bit grim and dark, when I see something that manages to express truth and/or beauty in a positive way, something which embraces the joy of life I end up grinning like an idiot puppy.
Self-indulgence can be a risky thing, it allows people to create stuff that is utterly inaccessible to anyone but themselves, but in this instance it means just doing something for yourself and enjoying it. At least that's what its means to me and I'll just have to rely on my natural commercial instincts (the ones that make me get annoyed at films that run over an hour and a half to two hours, that wonder why an editor didn't do anything with an authors book, etc) to keep me on the right track.
So Simian is not going to be done next month, it’ll be done when it’s done. Simian Smith suffers ups and downs along with my moods of late, and as such I've recently become unhappy with the story and stuck as to where it's going and what's meant to happen next. Last night I realised what was wrong with it but don't know exactly how to correct it. Making myself write 1000 words a week is helpful in making me concentrate regularly but it’s sapping the fun in the process making it harder, more stressful and making me less inclined to bother. Philip Pullman may be able to write a certain amount daily but I think he's far more an accomplished writer than I am.
Work will continue on Simian, as it will on the various picture books and pictures I'd like to do, this isn’t an excuse to do less, I still intend to get a decent amount done on a regular basis, it’ll just continue in a more easy going less stressful manner.
Danny provided the breakthrough; I need to be self-indulgent. The worry hampering my work comes from the responsibilities I'm placing on it - it has to be good, it has to be published, it has to save me from what I hate about my life. That's no way to produce decent work, it's also not a very good environment to have fun writing and drawing and more than anything else I want my words and pictures to be about fun. Being a naturally negative grumpy bloke is one thing, but that's never been my intention and not something I want to be remembered for. It doesn't mean that I want my work to be devoid of depth or to not tackle difficult subjects but (and I've mentioned this before on this blog) as much as I'm easily impressed by works which are a bit grim and dark, when I see something that manages to express truth and/or beauty in a positive way, something which embraces the joy of life I end up grinning like an idiot puppy.
Self-indulgence can be a risky thing, it allows people to create stuff that is utterly inaccessible to anyone but themselves, but in this instance it means just doing something for yourself and enjoying it. At least that's what its means to me and I'll just have to rely on my natural commercial instincts (the ones that make me get annoyed at films that run over an hour and a half to two hours, that wonder why an editor didn't do anything with an authors book, etc) to keep me on the right track.
So Simian is not going to be done next month, it’ll be done when it’s done. Simian Smith suffers ups and downs along with my moods of late, and as such I've recently become unhappy with the story and stuck as to where it's going and what's meant to happen next. Last night I realised what was wrong with it but don't know exactly how to correct it. Making myself write 1000 words a week is helpful in making me concentrate regularly but it’s sapping the fun in the process making it harder, more stressful and making me less inclined to bother. Philip Pullman may be able to write a certain amount daily but I think he's far more an accomplished writer than I am.
Work will continue on Simian, as it will on the various picture books and pictures I'd like to do, this isn’t an excuse to do less, I still intend to get a decent amount done on a regular basis, it’ll just continue in a more easy going less stressful manner.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Long miserable post warning
Over on his blog Paul has written a long post about why he's decided to do a PHD, the post has quite a bit of relevance for me, except for the PHD bit. The main similarity comes from dissatisfaction at work being a deciding factor in going back to college. I don't intend to go back to college myself even though I 'd like to, sadly the courses I'd like to do I would have to pay for instead of being paid to do them, education being something only people with money should have. But the dissatisfaction with work is very familiar.
Like Paul I've been caught on the merry-go-round of promotion. At the moment I'm on the merry-go-round despite myself simply because I had to take over from the person above me when he left as I was pretty much the only person who knew how the section he had worked, it was a big section and so it was a lot of responsibility. This means that I'm a grade 3 doing the work of a grade 4 and have been doing this for a year (sorry Paul, no matter what grade you are you are expected to do the work of a grade above you, even if, like me you never planned to) To add insult to injury for the last couple of months I've also had to help someone who's already a grade 4 become my boss and although I have no problems with her and think she's hard working and committed I can't help but notice that I'm doing most of the work. Money isn’t an issue as the company has a specially piggy bank put aside for people who should be promoted, they just don’t like to break it open.
Deep sigh. On to other things.
This is not what I want to do. Not only is it not what I want to do but it is one of the factors that stops me doing what I want to do. What I'd like to do is write and draw. One of the problems I face is my own limited ability and also (let's be honest here) my lack of drive. The amount of commitment needed to become a paid author or illustrator is a hell of a lot, we're talking about labour intensive work where you have to produce just as much work as the people who get paid for it, maybe be better than them (how else do you impress a publisher) and not actually have a vacancy to apply for. Look in the job section of a paper, there's no ads say publisher requires author/illustrator, you just have to do the stuff and keep your fingers crossed. That's a lot of commitment (and, just as importantly, faith, you really need to believe in yourself) and although I have a fair bit of commitment I can't honestly say that every bit of free time I have is spent on working on a project or improving my craft, unfortunately all my spare time is what is required. Which leads us back to my job. The time I spend at work eats into my writing/drawing time in a major way and it also leaves me in no mood to do anything but lie on the couch when I get in. I take my share of the blame for not using my time in the best way possible but I can't help but be frustrated by how much a job I don't care for, doesn't pay well (as Paul says bookselling is appallingly paid especially for the work required) and holds me in low regard is taking of my time.
In a nutshell, I do this job for money to allow me to do the work I'd rather do but the money isn't great and the time on the job holds me back from doing the work I want to do. It would be nice to find a new job (and I have started looking) but I'm not terribly well qualified or experience in much of anything - which is why I'd like to go to college but can't afford to because the pay from my present job is so low.
Last night I had to help in a 'change over' (when we take out one promotion and replace it with a new one), generally they aren't too bad other than the fact that we have to work late, but last night's was the worst I've ever done and I'm kind of glad that I'm not in today to see the reaction to it. After finishing it a few of us went out for a drink and I was amazed at the degree of unhappiness for the job we all had. There was little anger or outrage, just a strong sense of unhappiness because noon of us really knew what we were doing there. This kind of conversation is not exactly rare but it struck me most because of the mix of staff there - it included management.
Paul's post has far more merit because he's doing something about it, he's got a plan. All I'm doing is whinging. I'm putting this up here because it's how I feel, and have felt for a long time, and I think it gives some background to what's going on as I try and write and draw. I've been talking about the 'creative impulse' recently with a few other people on here and one of things I believe is that when you stop worrying about something and just enjoy it for what it is then you produce better work. The irony is that I nearly always worry about my work and none of it's being done for itself, it's being done to earn me money, it's commercial art, I'm hoping it'll mean I can leave my job. Sure I'd do it if I wasn't getting paid (that's what I'm doing now isn't it), but that is still the final goal for most of the stuff I do. Writing and drawing in the hope that it'll save me from my present job puts quite a lot of unhelpful pressure on me, it may be pressure of my own making but it still exists and it has a detrimental effect on my writing and drawing.
So I just keep on plugging away like the steady drip of water on a stone slab waiting until I finally make some mark.
Like Paul I've been caught on the merry-go-round of promotion. At the moment I'm on the merry-go-round despite myself simply because I had to take over from the person above me when he left as I was pretty much the only person who knew how the section he had worked, it was a big section and so it was a lot of responsibility. This means that I'm a grade 3 doing the work of a grade 4 and have been doing this for a year (sorry Paul, no matter what grade you are you are expected to do the work of a grade above you, even if, like me you never planned to) To add insult to injury for the last couple of months I've also had to help someone who's already a grade 4 become my boss and although I have no problems with her and think she's hard working and committed I can't help but notice that I'm doing most of the work. Money isn’t an issue as the company has a specially piggy bank put aside for people who should be promoted, they just don’t like to break it open.
Deep sigh. On to other things.
This is not what I want to do. Not only is it not what I want to do but it is one of the factors that stops me doing what I want to do. What I'd like to do is write and draw. One of the problems I face is my own limited ability and also (let's be honest here) my lack of drive. The amount of commitment needed to become a paid author or illustrator is a hell of a lot, we're talking about labour intensive work where you have to produce just as much work as the people who get paid for it, maybe be better than them (how else do you impress a publisher) and not actually have a vacancy to apply for. Look in the job section of a paper, there's no ads say publisher requires author/illustrator, you just have to do the stuff and keep your fingers crossed. That's a lot of commitment (and, just as importantly, faith, you really need to believe in yourself) and although I have a fair bit of commitment I can't honestly say that every bit of free time I have is spent on working on a project or improving my craft, unfortunately all my spare time is what is required. Which leads us back to my job. The time I spend at work eats into my writing/drawing time in a major way and it also leaves me in no mood to do anything but lie on the couch when I get in. I take my share of the blame for not using my time in the best way possible but I can't help but be frustrated by how much a job I don't care for, doesn't pay well (as Paul says bookselling is appallingly paid especially for the work required) and holds me in low regard is taking of my time.
In a nutshell, I do this job for money to allow me to do the work I'd rather do but the money isn't great and the time on the job holds me back from doing the work I want to do. It would be nice to find a new job (and I have started looking) but I'm not terribly well qualified or experience in much of anything - which is why I'd like to go to college but can't afford to because the pay from my present job is so low.
Last night I had to help in a 'change over' (when we take out one promotion and replace it with a new one), generally they aren't too bad other than the fact that we have to work late, but last night's was the worst I've ever done and I'm kind of glad that I'm not in today to see the reaction to it. After finishing it a few of us went out for a drink and I was amazed at the degree of unhappiness for the job we all had. There was little anger or outrage, just a strong sense of unhappiness because noon of us really knew what we were doing there. This kind of conversation is not exactly rare but it struck me most because of the mix of staff there - it included management.
Paul's post has far more merit because he's doing something about it, he's got a plan. All I'm doing is whinging. I'm putting this up here because it's how I feel, and have felt for a long time, and I think it gives some background to what's going on as I try and write and draw. I've been talking about the 'creative impulse' recently with a few other people on here and one of things I believe is that when you stop worrying about something and just enjoy it for what it is then you produce better work. The irony is that I nearly always worry about my work and none of it's being done for itself, it's being done to earn me money, it's commercial art, I'm hoping it'll mean I can leave my job. Sure I'd do it if I wasn't getting paid (that's what I'm doing now isn't it), but that is still the final goal for most of the stuff I do. Writing and drawing in the hope that it'll save me from my present job puts quite a lot of unhelpful pressure on me, it may be pressure of my own making but it still exists and it has a detrimental effect on my writing and drawing.
So I just keep on plugging away like the steady drip of water on a stone slab waiting until I finally make some mark.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
the artistic impulse
In an interview today in the Observer the excellent Philip Pullman said "I became passionate about transmiting and enthusiasm, and telling stories" This is fairly close to summing up my own feelings and reasons for trying to write and draw, particularly the enthusiasm. When I'm really taken by something I feel the need to pass it on, usually in the form of recommending it to someone else, but it also makes me want to do something myself. Danny and I have been emailing each other recently about the creative impulse (Danny, do you see how I make us both sound really smart) and Danny talked about a kind of debt we owe from experiencing something (book, picture, film, whatever) that effects us, the kind of debt that is repaid by trying to create something youself. This totally hit's the nail on the head for me. I knew a guy who was interested in writing children's books yet he never managed to really finish anything because each time he read something new that impressed him he would start another book or rewrite one he was working on and it would inevitably show this new influence. At the time I thought this showed some serious lack of... well, a few things, ability, commitment, character, etc. But I've experienced similar impulses myself (and probably shown the same lack ability, etc), when I read something that effects me I feel the need to do something myself. Fortunately I try not to stoop to plagarism. But we were both effected and both needed to express that effect somehow. We both had to pay our debt. No idea if the other guy is still trying to do this or not, I'll keep plugging away though.
arty nonsense
Looking around a few websites yesterday I stumbled across a couple of great artists. As 'art' goes they are probably closer to illustration, but I guess that's why I like them. First off is the work of Esao Andrews. It's pointless describing artwork when you can just look at it, but to give you a rough idea think Victorian macabre. This site might take a while to open (unless it's just my steam powered PC) but it's worth it for a very nicely animated site. Jumping from that site via the pixelsurgeon interview I discover a review of an artist called John Currin whose work I really liked probably for the same reasons I like Lucien Freud's artwork. Currin doesn't seem to have a website of his own that I could find but a quick google search for 'John Currin artist' turns up quite a lot of articles on him. Andrews namechecks an artist called Ray Caesar but I didn't care for his work as much. Unlike Andrews and Currin, Caesar's work is digitally produced which I'm not a fan of (although I'd be lying if I said it was immediately noticeable), but the really problem is that Caeser's work seems to stray too far into Goth/Geiger territory for my liking.
Back to art styles that mirror my own preferences I should mention Simone Lia's work. I discovered her work over a year ago now when I picked up a children's picture book called 'Follow The Line' and was instantly jealous of someone doing similar paintings to me but doing them incredibly well. My artwork is not that similar but it's obviously in the same area. Lia's work is beautiful, I managed to get another picture book by her called Billy Bean's Dream. I was very pleased to find out that she also did comic work. About a year ago Bloomsbury packaged some of her comics with Tom Gauld into a book called Both. Recently Lia has been working on a comic called 'Fluffy' which is available from her site and also from a few comic shops as well as the trendy design book shop 'Magma' in London and Manchester and the ICA.
I’m still thinking about painting something myself. I suppose I should just pick up some brushes and start painting, but I really have no idea what to paint. This is what stops me so often and was always a sticking point when I was younger. Although I do have a pretty good imagination (as you’d hope, what with me wanting to do creative stuff) it doesn’t seem to work in the way I’d like it to – I rarely have those sudden flashes of ideas of what to do that you imagine artists get. The way my imagination works is that it just wonders of on it’s own (I often get very lucid daydreams to the point where even though I know the daydream didn’t actually happen I still feel as though it did) If I’m lucky I’ll see something that I think looks interesting and it’ll react with something else I’ve though in my head and suddenly I’ve got the beginnings of an idea that I try and wrestle into something workable. Simian Smith came about as just those two words. It’s amazing how many comic folk have this sort of obsession with monkeys, they crop up all over the place in comics since the 60’s (Superman or the Flash or Jimmy Olsen were always turning into an ape or fighting one or falling in love with one…. No, really) One day I’d been reading some monkey related story and the name Simian Smith popped into my head, I liked it, I kept coming back to it. Eventually my interest in crime stories (much stronger back then than now) led me to giving him the job of Private Detective, the pun on primate was pretty obvious, I had a character. That was about seven years ago, it’s taken all this time for me to finally do something with him.
Whilst I was thinking about a couple of picture book ideas (one was based on the fact that I was trying to think of an animal I’d like to draw in a picture book – frog, I thought, I like them. How a bout I give a bowler hat to make it interesting, yeah okay, but why? I dunno, maybe he goes traveling in it. Oh, that makes sense, he must be leaving his pond…. And so on until the story is ready to draw) and suddenly I thought of a really filthy dirty house, why was it so dirty? Eventually I had a new idea. Where did it come from? I have no idea.
I get terribly jealous of people who have fertile imaginations and turn out picture after picture. Keeping a sketchbook was supposed to get me drawing stuff in the hope that I’d exercise my brain and imagination until it was strong enough to produce stuff. It sort of works, but since I’ve started thinking about painting I’ve had no ideas. Doing a portrait of Rebecca seems like a pretty obvious choice but then I wonder how she should sit, what kind of pose should I go for, etc.
Ok, I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day and then I’m going to start working on something, sitting around blogging may not get work done but it does sometimes galvanize me into doing something.
Back to art styles that mirror my own preferences I should mention Simone Lia's work. I discovered her work over a year ago now when I picked up a children's picture book called 'Follow The Line' and was instantly jealous of someone doing similar paintings to me but doing them incredibly well. My artwork is not that similar but it's obviously in the same area. Lia's work is beautiful, I managed to get another picture book by her called Billy Bean's Dream. I was very pleased to find out that she also did comic work. About a year ago Bloomsbury packaged some of her comics with Tom Gauld into a book called Both. Recently Lia has been working on a comic called 'Fluffy' which is available from her site and also from a few comic shops as well as the trendy design book shop 'Magma' in London and Manchester and the ICA.
I’m still thinking about painting something myself. I suppose I should just pick up some brushes and start painting, but I really have no idea what to paint. This is what stops me so often and was always a sticking point when I was younger. Although I do have a pretty good imagination (as you’d hope, what with me wanting to do creative stuff) it doesn’t seem to work in the way I’d like it to – I rarely have those sudden flashes of ideas of what to do that you imagine artists get. The way my imagination works is that it just wonders of on it’s own (I often get very lucid daydreams to the point where even though I know the daydream didn’t actually happen I still feel as though it did) If I’m lucky I’ll see something that I think looks interesting and it’ll react with something else I’ve though in my head and suddenly I’ve got the beginnings of an idea that I try and wrestle into something workable. Simian Smith came about as just those two words. It’s amazing how many comic folk have this sort of obsession with monkeys, they crop up all over the place in comics since the 60’s (Superman or the Flash or Jimmy Olsen were always turning into an ape or fighting one or falling in love with one…. No, really) One day I’d been reading some monkey related story and the name Simian Smith popped into my head, I liked it, I kept coming back to it. Eventually my interest in crime stories (much stronger back then than now) led me to giving him the job of Private Detective, the pun on primate was pretty obvious, I had a character. That was about seven years ago, it’s taken all this time for me to finally do something with him.
Whilst I was thinking about a couple of picture book ideas (one was based on the fact that I was trying to think of an animal I’d like to draw in a picture book – frog, I thought, I like them. How a bout I give a bowler hat to make it interesting, yeah okay, but why? I dunno, maybe he goes traveling in it. Oh, that makes sense, he must be leaving his pond…. And so on until the story is ready to draw) and suddenly I thought of a really filthy dirty house, why was it so dirty? Eventually I had a new idea. Where did it come from? I have no idea.
I get terribly jealous of people who have fertile imaginations and turn out picture after picture. Keeping a sketchbook was supposed to get me drawing stuff in the hope that I’d exercise my brain and imagination until it was strong enough to produce stuff. It sort of works, but since I’ve started thinking about painting I’ve had no ideas. Doing a portrait of Rebecca seems like a pretty obvious choice but then I wonder how she should sit, what kind of pose should I go for, etc.
Ok, I’ll take it easy for the rest of the day and then I’m going to start working on something, sitting around blogging may not get work done but it does sometimes galvanize me into doing something.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Not a rant
Ok, maybe it’s a bit of a rant, but I’ve tried to exert some restraint. Think of it as a compassioned complaint.
Hey, it’s my blog, I do wha’ I like!
AVP. First let’s laugh at the ridiculous abbreviated title. Do I blame T2 or ID4 (or Independence Day)? Yes, I do. But that doesn’t let the makers of AVP of the hook. The rest of the film seems to be a bad computer game with some poorly written characters and dialogue. I did actually like Predator, as far as undemanding popcorn nonsense goes it’s fun. Alien – excellent. Aliens – very good. Alien 3 – I was one of those people on the ‘but it’s brilliant’ side of the fence. Alien Resurrection – well, I liked the new improved Ripley….. everything else pretty much stank, particularly the Alien/turd hybrid. I think the point here is that there is some serious sense of diminishing returns at work here. As nice as it would be to see Alien somehow returned to it’s former glory I have 2 problems.
Alien and Predator are only being brought out because the idiots who care about the crap games and comics think it’s worth wringing some last drop of money out of these once worthy endeavours.
Why do they need ‘restoring’ to their former glory? Just watch the originals again. The need to remake or do sequels is akin to digging up the peaceful resting corpses of the good and decent and molesting them.
Hey, it’s my blog, I do wha’ I like!
AVP. First let’s laugh at the ridiculous abbreviated title. Do I blame T2 or ID4 (or Independence Day)? Yes, I do. But that doesn’t let the makers of AVP of the hook. The rest of the film seems to be a bad computer game with some poorly written characters and dialogue. I did actually like Predator, as far as undemanding popcorn nonsense goes it’s fun. Alien – excellent. Aliens – very good. Alien 3 – I was one of those people on the ‘but it’s brilliant’ side of the fence. Alien Resurrection – well, I liked the new improved Ripley….. everything else pretty much stank, particularly the Alien/turd hybrid. I think the point here is that there is some serious sense of diminishing returns at work here. As nice as it would be to see Alien somehow returned to it’s former glory I have 2 problems.
Alien and Predator are only being brought out because the idiots who care about the crap games and comics think it’s worth wringing some last drop of money out of these once worthy endeavours.
Why do they need ‘restoring’ to their former glory? Just watch the originals again. The need to remake or do sequels is akin to digging up the peaceful resting corpses of the good and decent and molesting them.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
laa-de-da I'm doing a little bit of writing
The synopsis for Simian Smith is coming on, I should finish it tomorrow which will give me some sort of plan to follow. All told I think the story is going to be bit shorter than I originally intended, part of this is because of the brevity of the narrative. With artwork the finished book (if it was published!) would probably be about 125 pages which is okay for a book in the age range I'm aiming for. Once the synopsis is finished I think it's best I crack on and try and get it finished asap, my provisional deadline is for mid November which means that the 1000 a week isn't enough, more like 2500, assuming it's going to come in at my guessed word count. Once the first draft is done I might do some artwork for the story before I get on with the second draft.
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As well as Simian I've started working on the scripts for a few picture book ideas. So far the ideas are vague and need work but my desire to paint is making me push forward with them. Two of the ideas are animal based and one involves humans, I'd rather it didn't but it's the only way the story (such as it is at the moment) work. I've also got a little note scribbled that might be made into another story but I'm not sure how just yet - it involves animals again.
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I'm beginning to wonder if the updates about my writing aren't a bit on the tedious side. There's little in the way of insight in them and they're just a bit of a log book entry at the best of times. Maybe for people who already know me they might be of interest but if not I doubt anyone would tell me. The lack of real news as far as writing goes is also making this a bit dull. I suppose I could liven things up by ranting a bit, ranting is something that comes fairly naturally to me but as I said in the last entry I don't want to rant as everyone does and it's a bit tiresome. I'm planning to look for a new job so maybe I'll have something more to post about then. In the meantime I'll try and be more interesting, or at least post some more sketches.
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As well as Simian I've started working on the scripts for a few picture book ideas. So far the ideas are vague and need work but my desire to paint is making me push forward with them. Two of the ideas are animal based and one involves humans, I'd rather it didn't but it's the only way the story (such as it is at the moment) work. I've also got a little note scribbled that might be made into another story but I'm not sure how just yet - it involves animals again.
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I'm beginning to wonder if the updates about my writing aren't a bit on the tedious side. There's little in the way of insight in them and they're just a bit of a log book entry at the best of times. Maybe for people who already know me they might be of interest but if not I doubt anyone would tell me. The lack of real news as far as writing goes is also making this a bit dull. I suppose I could liven things up by ranting a bit, ranting is something that comes fairly naturally to me but as I said in the last entry I don't want to rant as everyone does and it's a bit tiresome. I'm planning to look for a new job so maybe I'll have something more to post about then. In the meantime I'll try and be more interesting, or at least post some more sketches.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Peekaboo
Well this is the longest I've left it between posts. The reasons for this are not particularly interesting I'm afraid. Mainly it boils down to the fact that I didn't want to use this blog to rant about things. I may tend to moan about things but not about work, people or the World, there's plently other blogs that do that and I couldn't imagine what I would add other than more whinging. As I've had a fairly shitty time of it lately I just decided not to write about it but because I've been thinking about very little else I've ended up not posting. Also I didn't see my wife for a week and now she's back I don't feel like sneaking off to spend time on the computer. My need for the tiny tiny amount of 'fame' that blogging gives me has finally dragged me back though.
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Although I did art at 'A' level and a Foundation course I know very little about 'fine art' My dislike of modern art as well as not having much free time has kept me well away from the art world even though I inhabit its council estate area known as illustration. Recently I've been looking at some really nice paintings and feeling like I should be doing some myself. I particularly like artists like Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso, Manet, Gauguin that kind of thing. No really point to this other than I keep thinking of the great feeling you can get when you're pushing and spread big blobs of thick paint around a canvas with. Perhaps this is a reaction to the feelings of constriction and frustration I'm getting from work.
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Writing is faltering, I'm not sure how well I've stuck to my 1000 words a week target, it feels about right but I'm doing it in such a patchy manner. No writing for a few days then a sudden blast of 600 words and then nothing for days again. At the moment I'm trying to do a synopsis of the entire story which is what I usually do when I hit that wall of frustration where I don't know what to next. Generally there are two ways to write, there's planning the whole thing out before you write and there's making it up as you go along. I like to make it up as I go, I like the freedom of it and I lack the kind of mind that plans, but I do often get stuck and wonder what happens next. I think it often leads me to cut stories short or to give up. As I have no intention of giving up on this one and don't want it to end just yet I'll just have to work a bit harder to figure out where it needs to go, but thinking time cuts into doing time.
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Although I did art at 'A' level and a Foundation course I know very little about 'fine art' My dislike of modern art as well as not having much free time has kept me well away from the art world even though I inhabit its council estate area known as illustration. Recently I've been looking at some really nice paintings and feeling like I should be doing some myself. I particularly like artists like Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso, Manet, Gauguin that kind of thing. No really point to this other than I keep thinking of the great feeling you can get when you're pushing and spread big blobs of thick paint around a canvas with. Perhaps this is a reaction to the feelings of constriction and frustration I'm getting from work.
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Writing is faltering, I'm not sure how well I've stuck to my 1000 words a week target, it feels about right but I'm doing it in such a patchy manner. No writing for a few days then a sudden blast of 600 words and then nothing for days again. At the moment I'm trying to do a synopsis of the entire story which is what I usually do when I hit that wall of frustration where I don't know what to next. Generally there are two ways to write, there's planning the whole thing out before you write and there's making it up as you go along. I like to make it up as I go, I like the freedom of it and I lack the kind of mind that plans, but I do often get stuck and wonder what happens next. I think it often leads me to cut stories short or to give up. As I have no intention of giving up on this one and don't want it to end just yet I'll just have to work a bit harder to figure out where it needs to go, but thinking time cuts into doing time.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
burble
Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key by Jack Gantos is a book you probably haven't heard of, and that's a shame. Chances are that you've heards of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by mark Haddon though, you might even have read it. Curious Incident is a good book, no doubt about that but I'm not really sure why it's done so well, in the same way I don't know why Harry Potter did or A Gathering Light. Why has there been such a fuss over Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell? No idea. All these books are well written but (actually as much as I like Curious Incident I don't think it's as good as many have claimed and I don't care for Harry Potter much at all) I don't think that's what's gave them great sales. About ten minutes before I began typing this I finished reading Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key (or JPSTK) and I was still teary-eyed when I started. JPSTK is about 5 years old and about a boy with ADHD, it's written from his point of view and is so successful in putting you in Joey's position that I felt I had ADHD every time I put it down. Joey's bright open manner, desire to be a 'good kid' and inability to control himself is the heart of this book, there's no realy plot to speak of just Joey's life and that's the power of the book. In a quirky natural and unsentimental way it punch you in the stomach with it's strong mix of sadness, humour and joy.
Jack Gantos' autobiography Hole in my Life is coming out in a few months, it talks about how he was sent to prison at the age of 20 for his part in a get rich quick drug scam and wrote his own thoughts between the lines of The Brothers the book that inspired him. It sounds excellent and I'll be buying a copy.
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No writing today, noe yesterday and none the day before. Everytime I have a good day I follow it up with a few bad ones which is annoying. It's proving insanely difficult to build up any momentum, life and my inability to deal with it just gets in the way. Sometimes I wonder what I could achieve if I just focused on writing and drawing. The idea of doing nothing else but writing and drawing, is really attractive but I don't have the heart or the will power to do it. Also I'm scared I'll find out I'm not that good. The only thing I want to do with my work is to let go and just apreciate the moment but it seems to be beyond me. Perhaps one day I'll stop creating problems for myself but that seems typical of so many people of my generation.
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Our new matress should be getting delivered tomorrow and I'm so looking forward to sleeping on it. Our present matress feels like a layer of rocks covered with cheap white bread which I don't think has improved my back much. Hopefully it'll encourage me to sleep, for some reason even though I love sleep and can easily sleep for 10 or 11 hours solid I tend to go to bed as late as possible and usually get about 4 or 6 hours sleep. Since I cut down to one cup of coffee a day I'm felling more tired (although not as tired as I did the first week I cut down) but still making myself stay awake. I just can't get the idea out of my head that the sooner I sleep the sooner I'll wake and be back at work with nothing to show for myself. Bad habit, must have more early nights.
Jack Gantos' autobiography Hole in my Life is coming out in a few months, it talks about how he was sent to prison at the age of 20 for his part in a get rich quick drug scam and wrote his own thoughts between the lines of The Brothers the book that inspired him. It sounds excellent and I'll be buying a copy.
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No writing today, noe yesterday and none the day before. Everytime I have a good day I follow it up with a few bad ones which is annoying. It's proving insanely difficult to build up any momentum, life and my inability to deal with it just gets in the way. Sometimes I wonder what I could achieve if I just focused on writing and drawing. The idea of doing nothing else but writing and drawing, is really attractive but I don't have the heart or the will power to do it. Also I'm scared I'll find out I'm not that good. The only thing I want to do with my work is to let go and just apreciate the moment but it seems to be beyond me. Perhaps one day I'll stop creating problems for myself but that seems typical of so many people of my generation.
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Our new matress should be getting delivered tomorrow and I'm so looking forward to sleeping on it. Our present matress feels like a layer of rocks covered with cheap white bread which I don't think has improved my back much. Hopefully it'll encourage me to sleep, for some reason even though I love sleep and can easily sleep for 10 or 11 hours solid I tend to go to bed as late as possible and usually get about 4 or 6 hours sleep. Since I cut down to one cup of coffee a day I'm felling more tired (although not as tired as I did the first week I cut down) but still making myself stay awake. I just can't get the idea out of my head that the sooner I sleep the sooner I'll wake and be back at work with nothing to show for myself. Bad habit, must have more early nights.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Is a post really bad if you can't think of a name for it?
After a slow week of writing I seem to have stepped up a gear managing to write over 500 words today. As a bonus I'm also quite pleased with the scene I wrote, it seems to capture the right blend of pulp noir and silliness I have in my head as I write but usually fail to put down on paper, or PC. I'm going out tomorrow as a friend is taking pity on my lonliness and has invited me round for feeding and company so I'll probably not get anything done, but other than that maybe I'll actually be productive this week.
As well as writing I also managed to read a couple of short books, The Red Judge by Pauline Fisk was good, the prose and plot started awkwardly but eventually settled down into a strange tale that went from odd happening to odd happening with a dreamlike quality totally suited to the story. The other book was less good with a lame plot Rod Sterling would have rejected, irritating characters and a dreadful finale (or finally you might say) Demon's Rock like Red Judge was a kid's book but decided to be patronising and shallow instead of honest and interesting.
I'm going to read Freak the Mighty next which has been well reviewed and looks pretty decent. I've a stack of unread books on my bookcase, maybe that's something else I can do this week.
As well as writing I also managed to read a couple of short books, The Red Judge by Pauline Fisk was good, the prose and plot started awkwardly but eventually settled down into a strange tale that went from odd happening to odd happening with a dreamlike quality totally suited to the story. The other book was less good with a lame plot Rod Sterling would have rejected, irritating characters and a dreadful finale (or finally you might say) Demon's Rock like Red Judge was a kid's book but decided to be patronising and shallow instead of honest and interesting.
I'm going to read Freak the Mighty next which has been well reviewed and looks pretty decent. I've a stack of unread books on my bookcase, maybe that's something else I can do this week.
Saturday, September 25, 2004
What time is it!?!
Oh man I have wasted my morning and a big chunk of the afternoon online. You know how it is, you see one article read it maybe follow it up on comments/forums and before you know it you've found a few more things of interest, you follow them and then you suddenly realise that you've lost a few hours that could have been better spent than reading idiots argue on line.
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The big news for me at the moment is that I'm on my own. My wife has to sometimes support people on holiday and that's what she went to do this morning, for a eight days. I'll see her next sunday when I get in from work. Great. Of course this is why I ended up wasting half of the day online. I'm going out in a couple of hours to meet up with a friend who's visiting, I'll only see him for an hour of so but it's been a while sinse I last saw him so I'll be going. I might waste time at the cinema watching a crappy film (I'll wait until Rebecca get back to see decent films), anything to make the time pass until Sunday when I can get back to taking Rebecca for granted.
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Unless I suddenly get hit with inspiriation soon my 1000 words for Simian this week will fall a few hundred short. It's been a bit busy and I've wanted to spend time with Rebecca instead of writing. Also I'm a bit stuck with what comes next. Being on my own next week should mean I'll get more done though so hopefully I'll make up for the shortcoming this week.
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The big news for me at the moment is that I'm on my own. My wife has to sometimes support people on holiday and that's what she went to do this morning, for a eight days. I'll see her next sunday when I get in from work. Great. Of course this is why I ended up wasting half of the day online. I'm going out in a couple of hours to meet up with a friend who's visiting, I'll only see him for an hour of so but it's been a while sinse I last saw him so I'll be going. I might waste time at the cinema watching a crappy film (I'll wait until Rebecca get back to see decent films), anything to make the time pass until Sunday when I can get back to taking Rebecca for granted.
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Unless I suddenly get hit with inspiriation soon my 1000 words for Simian this week will fall a few hundred short. It's been a bit busy and I've wanted to spend time with Rebecca instead of writing. Also I'm a bit stuck with what comes next. Being on my own next week should mean I'll get more done though so hopefully I'll make up for the shortcoming this week.
more 'reviews'
Entirely by coincidence I ended up buying mainly manga on my weekly visit to my local comic shop. Fortunately for me my local shop is Page45 and fails to meet the usual expectations of comic shops. Unlike Forbidden Planet and many other larger comic shops it's not a toy shop pretended to be a comic shop, it's clean, tidy and well laid out. The big difference between Page45 and most other comic shops is that it doesn't just pay lip service to independent or alternative comics, it puts them up front and displays them proudly. Of course the superhero stuff is still there, just not in the usual quantities or prominence. It would be dull of me to drone on about the superhero/alternative divide, or the notion that what comic fans consider alternative is what non-comic fans would consider mainstream (Maus, Jimmy Corrigan, Palestine for instance), or even to talk of the slow death of the comic industry. They're self evident to anyone who has taken even the slightest bit of notice. This isn't an advert for Page45 either, I do have a few problems with them and the standard of many other comic shops has risen in the last 5 years or so, but it's still a damn good shop.
So, back to those comics. The only non-manga I bought was two zines, King Cat, totally impossible to describe but utterly irresistible and unique, John Porcilleno is creating something utterly personal and has been doing it himself, his way, for years. Fantastic work. I bought two to send one on to Danny, I've always thought he'd like it.
Manga is not something I'm amazingly familiar with but I still have quite a few books, Uzamaki (scary and weird in a way that I've rarely seen), Lone Wolf and Cub (Kill Bill 2 name checks the film adaptation Shogun Assassin), Ranma 1/2 (and a few other Rumiko Takahashi books, she does character based comedy and drama better than anyone, whether it's realistic such as Maison Ikkoku or genre based such as Lum or Ranma), Hellbaby (brrrr.....), Miyazaki's Nausicaa (the excellent director creates an epic comic using his favourite themes of nature and love) and a fair few more. But still, I know very little about manga beyond the big stuff and the odd quirky little title, the recent massive expansion thanks to publishers like Tokyopop and the huge leap in sales in the US, and presumably the UK, has meant that there's just too much out there. Also I suspect that in an effort to keep up with the demand a lot of filler stuff is being translated. A quick look at the bulging shelves in Page45 reveals the same stuff being repeated over and over again, the skill on display is undeniable but the thing I've always loved about comics is that they are a great medium to produce something unique and personal. Unlike the big US comic though though manga publishers at least have more strings to the bow it's repeatedly plucking with Sci-fi, horror, fantasy, crime, romance and comedy the popular staples of manga genres, as opposed to superheroes and the odd horror and crime title.
But not all manga follows the usual blueprint, there's quite a lot of interesting 'underground' style manga out there (Fantagraphics did an excellent collection that had me wishing for more translations) and many other more personal tales, which finally leads me to the point of all this rambling. Jiro Taniguchi's The Walking Man is a wonderfully sweet life affirming book that manages to avoid being trite or manipulative. Imagine the excitement of... taking a walk. Because that's all that happens. No day dreaming flights of fancy to spice things up, just a guy who likes to walk. What makes this so special is the very ordinariness of it all and the walking man's openness. He might stop to help some children get a toy plane from down a tree, take a look at the view from the top of the tree, find the toy plane broken lying in the gutter on the way home and take the time to fix it and send it flying once more. Or he'll get over taken by a gentlemen walking faster than him so he'll catch up, be over taken, catch up, be over taken and so on until a silent understanding is met and the two men walk together sharing the moment. The slow pace, sparing dialogue and exacting artwork make this a pleasure to read and an inspiration to go outside and enjoy the world. Sadly I couldn't find this on amazon, just mention of Ibooks translation of Taniguchi and Moebius' collaboration which didn't terribly impress me when I saw it, lovely artwork from Taniguchi but Moebius' writing is not half as interesting as his drawing. I haven't looked at it yet but the publisher does have a website though ponentmon.
The other book I picked up is also by the same publisher, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, and is a book I've been wait for for a while now. I haven't had a chance to read it yet so you'll have to wait for my long winded opinion (!), but I've got seriously high hopes for Kazuichi Hanawa's Doing Time. It's about the author's time in jail for possession of a gun. The reason for having a gun is fairly innocuous and the three year sentence seems to have been unnecessary. The book looks to be slow moving, lacking in melodrama and beautifully illustrated in a style that reminds me of Yoshihiro Tassumi (who's work is sort of Raymond Carver-esque and is apparently getting a new translation through Drawn and Quarterly) Hopefully Doing Time will live up to my expectations.
And that's it.
So, back to those comics. The only non-manga I bought was two zines, King Cat, totally impossible to describe but utterly irresistible and unique, John Porcilleno is creating something utterly personal and has been doing it himself, his way, for years. Fantastic work. I bought two to send one on to Danny, I've always thought he'd like it.
Manga is not something I'm amazingly familiar with but I still have quite a few books, Uzamaki (scary and weird in a way that I've rarely seen), Lone Wolf and Cub (Kill Bill 2 name checks the film adaptation Shogun Assassin), Ranma 1/2 (and a few other Rumiko Takahashi books, she does character based comedy and drama better than anyone, whether it's realistic such as Maison Ikkoku or genre based such as Lum or Ranma), Hellbaby (brrrr.....), Miyazaki's Nausicaa (the excellent director creates an epic comic using his favourite themes of nature and love) and a fair few more. But still, I know very little about manga beyond the big stuff and the odd quirky little title, the recent massive expansion thanks to publishers like Tokyopop and the huge leap in sales in the US, and presumably the UK, has meant that there's just too much out there. Also I suspect that in an effort to keep up with the demand a lot of filler stuff is being translated. A quick look at the bulging shelves in Page45 reveals the same stuff being repeated over and over again, the skill on display is undeniable but the thing I've always loved about comics is that they are a great medium to produce something unique and personal. Unlike the big US comic though though manga publishers at least have more strings to the bow it's repeatedly plucking with Sci-fi, horror, fantasy, crime, romance and comedy the popular staples of manga genres, as opposed to superheroes and the odd horror and crime title.
But not all manga follows the usual blueprint, there's quite a lot of interesting 'underground' style manga out there (Fantagraphics did an excellent collection that had me wishing for more translations) and many other more personal tales, which finally leads me to the point of all this rambling. Jiro Taniguchi's The Walking Man is a wonderfully sweet life affirming book that manages to avoid being trite or manipulative. Imagine the excitement of... taking a walk. Because that's all that happens. No day dreaming flights of fancy to spice things up, just a guy who likes to walk. What makes this so special is the very ordinariness of it all and the walking man's openness. He might stop to help some children get a toy plane from down a tree, take a look at the view from the top of the tree, find the toy plane broken lying in the gutter on the way home and take the time to fix it and send it flying once more. Or he'll get over taken by a gentlemen walking faster than him so he'll catch up, be over taken, catch up, be over taken and so on until a silent understanding is met and the two men walk together sharing the moment. The slow pace, sparing dialogue and exacting artwork make this a pleasure to read and an inspiration to go outside and enjoy the world. Sadly I couldn't find this on amazon, just mention of Ibooks translation of Taniguchi and Moebius' collaboration which didn't terribly impress me when I saw it, lovely artwork from Taniguchi but Moebius' writing is not half as interesting as his drawing. I haven't looked at it yet but the publisher does have a website though ponentmon.
The other book I picked up is also by the same publisher, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, and is a book I've been wait for for a while now. I haven't had a chance to read it yet so you'll have to wait for my long winded opinion (!), but I've got seriously high hopes for Kazuichi Hanawa's Doing Time. It's about the author's time in jail for possession of a gun. The reason for having a gun is fairly innocuous and the three year sentence seems to have been unnecessary. The book looks to be slow moving, lacking in melodrama and beautifully illustrated in a style that reminds me of Yoshihiro Tassumi (who's work is sort of Raymond Carver-esque and is apparently getting a new translation through Drawn and Quarterly) Hopefully Doing Time will live up to my expectations.
And that's it.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Deer are breeding during Sept-Nov, do not approach
There's a wide path in the park that's lined with really big trees adn on the way to draw deer I decided I'd have a go at drawing some of them. Trees are beautiful things, no matter what season. I realised I wouldn't be doing them justice, I didn't have the best tools for the job and my ability is just too limited at the moment but as I stared at the thick textured trunk twisting up and become utterly choked with branches and leaves I figured it would be fun to try my best. I managed to draw two trees before giving up, the first try wasn't very good but I'm quite pleased with the second one, the leaves caused the most problems for me as I just didn't have the time to spend drawing every leaf and the loose scribbles I went for failed to capture the dense foilage. One thing that struck me about the trees was the branches, obviously no one had pruned them and they looked amazing. Some of the branches climbed skywards so elegantly it was hypnotic, others spead out towards the groung under their own weight and some of the branches looked like ink on paper that's been blown on (remember the way you drew trees at school when you were little, a big wet blob of watery paint and a straw to blow it in the right direction?), it's hard to believe that these branches didn't just explode out suddenly but instead slowly extended over months and years.
Sadly the deer were too busy having sex somewhere for me to draw them. I suppose I could have hunted around for them but I'm not sure I want to draw copulating deer and I don't think they'd want to be drawn.
A few people came up to me as I drew which turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. An old American guy came up to me and politely asked if he could look over my shoulder, I told him it was fine but I'd just started and there wasn't much to look, he looked for a while and told me it was very good. I guess he might have just felt obliged but it seemed genuine and made me feel quite proud which seemed ridiculous but nice all the same. A little later as I was drawing the same scene three kids came over and watched for a while and asked a couple of questions, one of the kids (the eldest I think, he seemed to be about thirteen or fourteen) kept saying 'cool' in a fairly awstruck voice, the others also seemed incredibly impressed. I'd forgotten how fascinated people can be about drawing and how magical it can seem to kids; my work wasn't great but the fact that I was doing it and it looked like the scene in front of me was enough to make these kids stop, particularly impressive considering how grungy I look today.
As I was drawing today I found that I wanted to draw more and there seemed to be so many things worth drawing, I realised that even though the pictures aren't coming out how I want them that it's just not that important.
I'll post some of the sketches up later.
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On the way back I saw another fox, this one looked a bit thinner than the one I saw in the back garden, it was dashing across the road into some bushes. As Danny points out on his blog foxes seem to combine the features of cats and dogs which explains why I find them so amazing. That people are protesting the banning of foxhunting at the moment saddens and angers me, I'm not sure what makes people think they're justified in chasing such beautiful creatures until they are too tired to run and then watching them be torn apart by dogs.
Sadly the deer were too busy having sex somewhere for me to draw them. I suppose I could have hunted around for them but I'm not sure I want to draw copulating deer and I don't think they'd want to be drawn.
A few people came up to me as I drew which turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. An old American guy came up to me and politely asked if he could look over my shoulder, I told him it was fine but I'd just started and there wasn't much to look, he looked for a while and told me it was very good. I guess he might have just felt obliged but it seemed genuine and made me feel quite proud which seemed ridiculous but nice all the same. A little later as I was drawing the same scene three kids came over and watched for a while and asked a couple of questions, one of the kids (the eldest I think, he seemed to be about thirteen or fourteen) kept saying 'cool' in a fairly awstruck voice, the others also seemed incredibly impressed. I'd forgotten how fascinated people can be about drawing and how magical it can seem to kids; my work wasn't great but the fact that I was doing it and it looked like the scene in front of me was enough to make these kids stop, particularly impressive considering how grungy I look today.
As I was drawing today I found that I wanted to draw more and there seemed to be so many things worth drawing, I realised that even though the pictures aren't coming out how I want them that it's just not that important.
I'll post some of the sketches up later.
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On the way back I saw another fox, this one looked a bit thinner than the one I saw in the back garden, it was dashing across the road into some bushes. As Danny points out on his blog foxes seem to combine the features of cats and dogs which explains why I find them so amazing. That people are protesting the banning of foxhunting at the moment saddens and angers me, I'm not sure what makes people think they're justified in chasing such beautiful creatures until they are too tired to run and then watching them be torn apart by dogs.
Need coffee.... must.... resist
There's a guy playing in town tonight called Jeffery Lewis who I might go and see. He does the kind of acoustic stuff I like (and my wife calls 'dringy dringy music', which seems like a fair comment), I'm not too familiar with him though and I'm not sure I want to go into town so I've not made my mind up yet. I think I will go to the park in a bit to draw the deer though, it's dry and Rebecca's gone to work so I might as well do something. Hope I do the deer justice.
Talking of sketching, the image hosting site I use is working again so here's some pictures from my sketch book.
This was a guy waiting for his girlfriend (or wife) in the hairdressers I was in waiting for Rebecca. I don't know if he knew he was being sketched but he stayed still for a remarkable length of time which is why this sketch is fairly accurate.... although not necessarily good!
I'm still trying to do a decent picture of my wife and still failing. This one. as the not suggests, is at least getting somewhere, I think it's going to take a lot more practice before I get better at capturing likenesses
Rebecca again, this time in the garden. No attempt made at getting the face done here I'm ashamed to say, the garden looks very little like the one I've drawn. I quite like the way this one looks but the plants are very sketchily done, this can sometimes be a good thing as it gives the impression of something enough for the mind to fill in the blanks, I don't think I quite succeeded here but I still quite like the picture.
Final picture and Rebecca is once again my 'muse'. Drawing people reading is almost as good as drawing them sleeping - very little movement. The attempts at shading spoil this one but it's pretty decent. Still not happy with any of the sketches I've been doing, the drawing is getting a little better and it's sloooowly getting easier (ever so slightly) to capture what I see, but the final results aren't terribly pleasing and there's still very little interpretation going on, I'm just recording images which is not my preferred kind of work. As I've said before though I need more confidence and to get better at drawing before I can free my self up to simple put down something on paper the way I see it and the way I want to come out. In the mean time I am quite pleased with these - and I'm picking the best out of sketchbook as I go!
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Had a bit of a rubbish day yesterday, work's getting harder and I'm back to feeling slightly unfulfilled by it. I need to find a different job but it's such a scary prospect that I keep putting it off for various (usually manufactured) reasons. At the moment I figure I'll see Christmas through, see if I actually get the promotion I've deserved for the last few months and then I can try and get work as a classroom assistant in the new year.
It's getting on, I'd better finish this up and make my way to the park.
Talking of sketching, the image hosting site I use is working again so here's some pictures from my sketch book.
This was a guy waiting for his girlfriend (or wife) in the hairdressers I was in waiting for Rebecca. I don't know if he knew he was being sketched but he stayed still for a remarkable length of time which is why this sketch is fairly accurate.... although not necessarily good!
I'm still trying to do a decent picture of my wife and still failing. This one. as the not suggests, is at least getting somewhere, I think it's going to take a lot more practice before I get better at capturing likenesses
Rebecca again, this time in the garden. No attempt made at getting the face done here I'm ashamed to say, the garden looks very little like the one I've drawn. I quite like the way this one looks but the plants are very sketchily done, this can sometimes be a good thing as it gives the impression of something enough for the mind to fill in the blanks, I don't think I quite succeeded here but I still quite like the picture.
Final picture and Rebecca is once again my 'muse'. Drawing people reading is almost as good as drawing them sleeping - very little movement. The attempts at shading spoil this one but it's pretty decent. Still not happy with any of the sketches I've been doing, the drawing is getting a little better and it's sloooowly getting easier (ever so slightly) to capture what I see, but the final results aren't terribly pleasing and there's still very little interpretation going on, I'm just recording images which is not my preferred kind of work. As I've said before though I need more confidence and to get better at drawing before I can free my self up to simple put down something on paper the way I see it and the way I want to come out. In the mean time I am quite pleased with these - and I'm picking the best out of sketchbook as I go!
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Had a bit of a rubbish day yesterday, work's getting harder and I'm back to feeling slightly unfulfilled by it. I need to find a different job but it's such a scary prospect that I keep putting it off for various (usually manufactured) reasons. At the moment I figure I'll see Christmas through, see if I actually get the promotion I've deserved for the last few months and then I can try and get work as a classroom assistant in the new year.
It's getting on, I'd better finish this up and make my way to the park.
Friday, September 17, 2004
I drank a lava lamp, It wasn't lava.
Lost an earlier post for technical reasons that utterly escape me. The gist of the post was -
Rainy grey weather makes a welcome return, hot sunny weather (when we had it) is mine, but I like blustery winds, clouds rushing across the sky and wrapping up warm.
Mama Cass has a great voice.
Anchorman is amazingly silly fun.
No deer sketching because of weather.
Moans about my writing in notes books meaning that when it comes to typing it up the natural editing that happens is making the end word count suffer.
Charity shop couch buying didn't work out but we found a good couch from a fairly cheap place and will hopefully be taking possesion of a very large squashy olive green couch next week.
I bought a hat that my wife thinks make me look like a cute pixie.
And that was it.
I'd like to add that the Daniel Johnston CD I managed to pick up was excellent, to call his singing heartfelt doesn't do his voice justice.
Rainy grey weather makes a welcome return, hot sunny weather (when we had it) is mine, but I like blustery winds, clouds rushing across the sky and wrapping up warm.
Mama Cass has a great voice.
Anchorman is amazingly silly fun.
No deer sketching because of weather.
Moans about my writing in notes books meaning that when it comes to typing it up the natural editing that happens is making the end word count suffer.
Charity shop couch buying didn't work out but we found a good couch from a fairly cheap place and will hopefully be taking possesion of a very large squashy olive green couch next week.
I bought a hat that my wife thinks make me look like a cute pixie.
And that was it.
I'd like to add that the Daniel Johnston CD I managed to pick up was excellent, to call his singing heartfelt doesn't do his voice justice.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Stuck on the 6th level on Manic Miner
Saw Supersize me tonight. It may be an easy taget the basic message may be pretty obvious but I can't remember the last time I felt so depressed anxious and entertained..... maybe one of the more grim episodes of Six Feet Under.
Even though I don't eat at McDonalds (or BurgerKing, KFC etc)and haven't in about eight years it's still given me plenty to think about, but nothing worth posting up!
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I'm still writing but I'm not getting round to typing it up, I think I've managed about 600 hundred words so far this week, but I'm not sure, tomorrow I'll type it all up.
Only one picture in the sketch book today and it's rubbish, mostly due to the incredibly unispiring choice of material, but if was any good I'd manage to transform the mundane into pure gold in much the same way as Bob Carolges (spelling?) and Hellmans mayonaise used to do. Off to the park on friday to draw deer.
Hopefully we'll be buying a new (to us) couch tomorrow, I discovered a furniture charity shop that has some really nice stuff in it at excellent prices. I like supporting charities and I like not spending much money so that works out pretty well.
Even though I don't eat at McDonalds (or BurgerKing, KFC etc)and haven't in about eight years it's still given me plenty to think about, but nothing worth posting up!
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I'm still writing but I'm not getting round to typing it up, I think I've managed about 600 hundred words so far this week, but I'm not sure, tomorrow I'll type it all up.
Only one picture in the sketch book today and it's rubbish, mostly due to the incredibly unispiring choice of material, but if was any good I'd manage to transform the mundane into pure gold in much the same way as Bob Carolges (spelling?) and Hellmans mayonaise used to do. Off to the park on friday to draw deer.
Hopefully we'll be buying a new (to us) couch tomorrow, I discovered a furniture charity shop that has some really nice stuff in it at excellent prices. I like supporting charities and I like not spending much money so that works out pretty well.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Wasted time is never time wasted
Too much time wasted tonight after downloading a PC version of Manic Miner last night. What a great game, better than the stuff out nowadays. I mean GTA 3 is great and all that but I prefer simple direct games especially when they are as dopily charming as the kind of things teenagers were creating in their bedrooms while there mums were shouting them downstairs for tea.
This is a legible version of the previous post
Back from Basingstoke. My back's still a bit sore. About four months ago I tore a muscle but I'd had a bad back for years before that, the kind of sore stiffness that's usually just about bearable. After tearing the muscle I was on heavy-duty painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills for a while and it seemed to settle down. No idea what set it off, could be the cold I briefly had, our rubbish mattress or I might've over done some exercising.
Basingstoke itself was fine, or rather Hook. My brother in law his wife and two year old son seemed in fine health and all ready for the arrival of another family member very soon. The presence of child and pregnant woman did nothing to cause my wife and I to plan our first child, we just don't have the urge and doubt we ever will.
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Only 100 words typed up so far out of the 300 or so I reckon I did in my trusty notepad over the weekend. That should see me nicely over the 1000 for the week.
My sketchbook also saw a little action, I'll post something from it in a couple of days. The quality of the actual pictures is still lacking but I think that my observing ability is coming along a bit and that seems to be the main purpose of sketching.
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One smart thing I managed to do on the train was to leave one of my bags. Nothing important in it so it’s not too much of a problem, I wouldn’t mind a couple of tops back, but other than that there’s nothing that I’ll miss. The new upcoming Carl Hiaasen was in the bag though which is a shame as I quite enjoyed it having not read anything by him for ages. His books are all remarkably similar but good fun and well written. Fortunately I managed to finish it before I left it on the train.
There’s a book coming out soon called Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it’s set to be pretty big and I’ve had a proof copy for a couple of months. I’ve promised someone I’d let him read my copy but foolishly decided to start reading it myself.
Basingstoke itself was fine, or rather Hook. My brother in law his wife and two year old son seemed in fine health and all ready for the arrival of another family member very soon. The presence of child and pregnant woman did nothing to cause my wife and I to plan our first child, we just don't have the urge and doubt we ever will.
---------------------
Only 100 words typed up so far out of the 300 or so I reckon I did in my trusty notepad over the weekend. That should see me nicely over the 1000 for the week.
My sketchbook also saw a little action, I'll post something from it in a couple of days. The quality of the actual pictures is still lacking but I think that my observing ability is coming along a bit and that seems to be the main purpose of sketching.
----------------------
One smart thing I managed to do on the train was to leave one of my bags. Nothing important in it so it’s not too much of a problem, I wouldn’t mind a couple of tops back, but other than that there’s nothing that I’ll miss. The new upcoming Carl Hiaasen was in the bag though which is a shame as I quite enjoyed it having not read anything by him for ages. His books are all remarkably similar but good fun and well written. Fortunately I managed to finish it before I left it on the train.
There’s a book coming out soon called Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, it’s set to be pretty big and I’ve had a proof copy for a couple of months. I’ve promised someone I’d let him read my copy but foolishly decided to start reading it myself.
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