Multiple Post – Cat with Cake and Diacritics

I missed yesterday due to it being my birthday, so I drew something apposite to mark the occasion – a cat with some cake:

I rather like the look of glee on the cat’s face; I do wonder if I should’ve made the slice of cake a little larger and put a candle on the top, but the overall effect is quite cute nonetheless.

Today’s entry proper is more of a diagram showing different diacritic (linguistic) accents:

Considering this was done cold in biro (with only minor CG tweakage) I’m happy with the composition here; I’ve missed biro drawing as I’ve not done this for quite some time, plus it was nice to apply typography to linguistics as it’s a subject I fund intriguing.

I think I’d like to do more diagrammatic stuff like this; one I’d want to explore for a future entry is birds’ beaks, partly because of the variety of shapes and partly because I could do with the practise, and to continue the linguistic theme I’d like to try illustrating some of Chomsky’s principles. The latter strikes me as being rather less frivolous than both birds’ beaks, never mind a cat with cake, but it’s nice to inject seriousness occasionally.

Fire Horse

A sequel of sorts to Fire Lotus:

There’s been an abundance of Photoshop on here recently, what with this and the various images of yesterday’s multiple post; happy as I am (for the most part) with the results it’s yielded, I need to go back to more old-school methods if only to vary things a little. I’m still trying to decide if I like this one as much as Fire Lotus; the colour balance seems to work in and of itself, but I’m not so sure that the form lends itself to this kind of rendering. For whatever reason I can’t help thinking this particular image would look nicely at home decorating either the front fairing or side panels of a motorbike.

Multiple Post – Diverge/Converge, Drench, Goose Chase, Zom-P3 Player parts 1 and 2

So here we have the second part of the bumper update, starting with what would have been Saturday’s entry; this, Diverge/Converge, was inspired by a meeting of old friends:

We’re all at the stage now where we’re starting to go further afield than previously but it’s my hope that we’ll still come to meet on the same point from time to time. I’d originally planned on red/yellow/green/blue but then realised that CMYK colouring was more striking and more suited to our artistic backgrounds/training, especially as we met at art college.

Sunday’s entry, Drench, was inspired by the return of rainy weather:

 

I like the simplicity of this one; I’d wondered about adding shading but the old rule of less-is-more came to the fore once again – it stands out enough as it is.

Monday’s Goose Chase came about after realising that a long-term goal is going to have to be far more long-term than first hoped:

 

I’d initially wanted to do a goose proper but thought that the prints were more subtle; you get the impression from the tracks that it’s something that’s been there and you’ve missed it. With any luck the long-term plan won’t fall under the same fate.

Tuesday’s entry was inspired by yet another bout of technological failure, this time with my MP3 player, which crashed and then resurrected itself (albeit with the caveat that some files have been corrupted). I have decided that this makes it a zombie MP3, or more succinctly, Zom-P3:

 

 

Today’s entry is the colourised Zom-P3 player:

It’s been a long time since I’ve undertaken a big Photoshop image like this and I’m very happy with how it’s come out.

Multiple Post – Okay folks, Safety Pin, Familia, Mussel Memory, Realisation

 

My absence from the blog has been longer than planned due to catching up on things post-Scotland break taking more time than I’d anticipated; in some cases the drawings weren’t done on the day proper due to lack of time but I’ve endeavoured to make sure that the number of drawings matches the days missed. While I didn’t have the opportunity to do any location drawing as I’d initially hoped, the journey inspired me in different ways. I’ll be filling in the backdating over two multiple posts.

Last Monday’s (the 6th) image was borne out of a hurried attempt to pack before catching the train:

 

 

I think the slightly ragged edge of the lettering suits the text. Naturally the word panic needed to be the most prominent, and I like the way that the letters increase in size as the message emerges (I can imagine a gradually rising voice uttering them).

Tuesday’s image was a safety pin, done in a snatched moment observing my makeshift repair effort on a broken zip:

I’m not sure if the depth of shading came through fully on the scan but I think the pencil suits the small fragile object better than pen would have done.

Wednesday’s image was more of a William Morris-inspired piece of text borne out of reuniting with my family, several of whom I’d not seen for years; we’d been gathered together for an Empire Medal ceremony for my Grandmother, who’d been rewarded for longstanding services to charity and the community:

 

I chose this form for the text to echo the concept of the family tree; I’d like to revisit and colour this.

Thursday’s entry is a more frivolous affair, inspired by the mussels on the Musselburgh coat of arms and a pun on muscle memory:

Rather silly, I know, but I like the letterforms on this one; my only wish is that I’d used inkbrush instead of pen.

Friday’s entry is a return to the onomatopaeia style, stemming from the idea of realisation of an ideal:

Rather than it being a sudden eureka flash, this was more of the realisation that I’m actually on a good path right now. The last year has been pretty turbulent, all things considered, but things are coming more and more into focus and certain ambitions are starting to make themselves more keenly felt.

The next lot of entries will be rather more colourful; next time I’m away I’m a) going to try to make more time to draw where possible and b) taking Sharpies.

 

 

Solar Flare

Return to swirl patterning today, inspired by the recent good weather and these recent time-lapse images taken of the sun:

It was good to return to this after a long break from this technique; I thought it’d be fun to experiment with layering and blurring the outline so as to give an impression of a glow, and to change the background colour.

I’ll be on a few days’ absence from the blog as I’m on a family holiday; hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to do some location sketches as part of that. A multiple post will be here when I’m back.

Mascara

Today I wanted to look at a different theme with make-up so I drew this mascara image:

Originally it was just going to be the brush on its own then I decided to liven things up by adding the pot and mascara splats, which made it much more interesting. I may try another along similar lines with eyeshadow in the future.

Multiple post – Treads and Cloud Critters

Due to running yesterday I missed out on posting so it’s a double today. First image, which seems apposite, is a rendering of the treads on the sole of my trainer:

I’m not that great at rendering detail on clothing so it made a nice change to take this as a focus, and the image is cleaner for just being the tread detail rather than a reproduction of the sole as a whole.

Today’s entry proper is a follow-up of sorts to the Colour Blots image, with these little Sharpie cloud critters:

I rather wish I had more shades of blue but I think the cuteness still remains which is the crucial factor. Next lot will have to be in shades of green, and will most likely be leaves.

In other news, I recently had fun taking part in a light-hearted video-making venture with my friend, illustrator Mike Laraman; the result, ‘Duckstep’, can be viewed here. Be sure also to check out Mike’s other videos and his art site linked above.