My Illustrative Life

If you have wondered what I have been doing whilst I have been so painfully (actually not all that painfully, for me) offline, the answer is a fair bit of this!

(The top of the page above is my dad, not my fella! VERY DIFFERENT)

..And looking for jobs! HURRAY. Some application form questions are really weird, to me. Where do I see myself in five years time? I don’t! I’m not there yet!

I’m reading Claudine at St Clare’s to my gentleman. Claudine at St Clare’s is either the greatest or second-greatest Enid Blyton School Story*, as I have preached previously. Like a fine encourager he says, “Draw me this one! Draw me all of them!” and I say “I caaaaaaan’t it never works when you know what they look like in your head so well!”

But then I try. Et la, la petite Claudine:

(Second row down, first on the left is the one that I like. To the right of that is when Ms Theobold talks to her sternly at the end of the year; just below the good one is when she helps give Angela a good talking to or when she decides to fall in the pool; to the right of that is when she smells the stink-ball on the second time around.

In other news..

I’ve been living out of a suitcase for a month, which has actually been working pretty well for me (I’m particular about the tones of my clothes when I buy them, so most of what I have goes together, I guess). But I haven’t really been taking pictures, so you are ALL MISSING OUT. So sorry! I’ve given myself two haircuts, too. So enjoy that!

*It still has MAJOR ISSUES, social progression-wise, no matter how much I love it

First, your favourite e-vice and mine nogoodforme posted (by way of Gatochy and clair_voyant) this among many amazing 1960s make-up adverts. Then, a character sketch went wrong and turned into an Eastenders-worthy slaaaag. And then I became attached to her, as you do (those tarts with ‘(e)arts!), so I drew’er mor an’ mor.

An’ naw I fink she’s GAWJUS! And ripe for the drawing-with-a-paintbrush practice, because I am bum at that. As you can see. Those first two faces looked good before I ruined them, honest.. guv..

I cannot get enough of the “can’t make tea/can play darts = AWFUL FEMALE” idea. It’s so baffling that it dazzles me!

This is the secret handshake, internet. Let us sort the msties from the chaff.

You see, Ironside really likes chili. He feels it is “the only food fit for man”, because it has all the right nutrients! So, chief.. what’s your recipe? What goes IN this amazing chili? We’re all dying to hear.

The first picture was referenced, the rest were referenced from the first or from memory.

OK OK I’ll give you this one for free! Because I like y’all.

Every now and then my sister comes in and says, essentially, “I’m going to a birthday party, I need you to draw me a card, I have to leave in two minutes”. So, I do it, because why not? It is a challenge.

All her buddies are turning eighteen this year, so, here we go on the one this time:

I don’t know why I am so RUDE

Well, yes I do, I just like drawing nude dudes. Non srs powermuscles ones, I mean. I find it cheerful.

I like these colours. I feel like a stretch of countryside.

The badge is from an Eduardo Paolozzi exhibition which I saw in Scotland a few years ago. It was fantastic. It really opened my mind - the validity of collage as an art form; semi-/abstract colourwork as an intellectual pursuit; how impressive and invigorating modern sculpture can be. I saw one of his small sculptures on Cash in the Attic once (or was it DIckinson’s Real Deals?), an elephant in plastic or rubber all made of angles. Oh, and there was a recreated Artist’s Studio as part of the exhibit - he has a Geordi LaForge figure in there. I am pro TNG.

Look at this - this version of Vulcan/Hephaestus was at the showing I saw. You could look at it from three different levels I think. Photo via nationalgalleries.org!

And how good is this?

Changing subjects, this is my annotated copy of the book I’m preparing a (thorough) review for (two thousand words in..):

Each of those turned-over pages stands for something I have a problem with. Kind of impressive I actually still plan to read the last two books in the series, huh?

Don’t frown at me. It’s a mass-produced paperback.

I’m doing it for the LOVE of books! Come on! Paper isn’t always sacred..

Yesterday my sister was watching a movie where someone went “It’s– it’s so beautiful!” and she said, “haha did you hear that? She was talking about..” And I said, “a peen?”

That was wrong, but I decided that actually, it was right.

So I drew it.

June theme: Festivals! Featuring: anecdotes of my teenaged adventures; leather; Noel Fielding. Click the picture to enjoy!

I was in London last Friday to see the Ife bronzes at the British Museum - actually I was planning to see the Renaissance sketches with my Dad, but I’m a sucker for a good sculpture and African history is really interesting and awfully neglected.

But I don’t have any pictures from that (you’ll have to visit for yourself, or google! Of course). I have pictures from the train journey there! My sister and I played the ‘make a picture from a squiggle’ game. It’s fun! Here are some of mine, from her squiggles.

And my favourite: Poopin’ man!

Some of hers:

And here’s her with a shadow-boner, and me being Hilary Swank the Next Karate Kid.

I’M TIRED

CLASSROOM ASSISTANTING IS TIRING

x_x

Today it rained, and basically all I did was help my sister revise, reward her revision with blueberry-banana fritters and readings of Dracula, and watch Film Brain & MikeJ reviews. It’s half term!

Not wearing anything new, either, though it’s in different formation.

I also drew a really old version of Prince Valiant.

Well, why not?

Why do I keep drawing my head so small?

Some days I just don’t feel like taking a photo, you know?

I hope you can read my writing. If it’s too small, click to zoom!

Just submitted another blog post for Waterscape - it probably won’t get approved until Monday. I don’t think the editors work over the weekend! You cannot fault that, of course. Oh no wait, not until Tuesday! It’s a bank holiday, of course. Anyway - look out for it next week! It’s another illustration; the second in my “good and useful times I have spent by canals” series. Because you know - I have spent a lot of times by canals (I typo’d that as CABALS, quite different!) or other waterways.

But, the picture above! A good way of showing Wot I Wore, or no? A decent way to catch up when the weather’s bad for photography maybe? There’s no colour, obviously.. The skirt’s kelly green and black (it’s featured here before a whole BUNCH of times), the jumper had a whole post to it last year - that was before it shrank, of course! Funny how much change of fit means change of meaning. It’s mostly grey, anyway. The hat’s grey with faintest hints of lime, the boots are purple, the tights black. Belt: brown.

How do you feel about the bracelet? Personally, I feel that it is SMASHING. My mum gave it to me earlier, fair out of nowhere, and it is just the right weight. And it looks like leaves!

Leaf-bracelet and green suede and grey wool, I feel I should start waling over hills and through forests and beside rivers. But instead? I shall be watching the Eurovision song contest.

I have two posts I planned to put up today - Clueless’ Makeover Movie Madness and some thoughts on posture in character design, fashion and “celebrity culture” - but they are both currently long and unfinished. Bummer!

So instead, here are some pictures that I took but don’t need for the posture post, an illustration of two, and a picture of a Victorian corkscrew. The latter is my Dad’s birthday present - the brush is to rid yourself of cork crumbs. Smart, huh? Those Victorians. If it existed, they could make it fancier.

Page one, page two, more to come;

Corkscrew!

Today what I did, was I sat in the garden watching Sweet Valley High and writing up blog posts for Waterscape and getting lightly sun-altered. Then, I removed a very young blackbird from my house,

..and let out a full-grown one from the living room. Which was exciting! And then, I watched some more Sweet Valley High and did drawing practice.. with some X-Men fanart. Including the below!

This is the series I want to be reading right now. Well, actually, I maybe want to be reading the new vampire X-Men arc? I do heaaaaaart Marvel vampires, generally. But I am unkeen to touch modern Rogue/Remy interaction, because they won’t let them be happy aughhhhh.

BUT MY POINT. My point is, my favourite type of Wolverine is kid-mentor Wolverine. Growing up with the 90s series — [pause for most excellent intro]

– I always subliminally knew that Wolverine was There For Me. Or, you know, would be if he were “real”. Jubilee was a character I resented and disliked at the time (love her now!), but she served her purpose for child-me - Logan was protective of her as a girlchild, and I was one too, so I related to the character of Wolverine as a protector. When I meet or walk past muscular hairy grouchy older dudes, I have in the back of my mind, he’s looking out for me rather than eee he’s maybe scary. That’s good. That makes me a more secure person.

So it makes me sad, and eye-roll-y, that Wolvie’s biological son (I’m not forgetting the adopted daughter, she’s there too, she and Laura are just out getting groceries in the pic above) is not someone with whom he has a loving and healthy relationship. I really want that to be so! I want all of Logan’s kids to be able to look up to him and live in some great hand-built cabin and BE A FAMILY, DARN IT. People are bored as shit with xtreeeeeeeeeeeeme on-every-team Wolverine - lets bring him back to his roots (kind of his roots). Just some guy, struggling with his past, trying to make the world better for the children who depend on him.

Also I just really enjoy Daken’s design (remember how I approve of Mohawks?), feel that bisexual characters need a wider and less evil-creepy representation, and HATE CHARACTERS HAVING “RAPE” AS THEIR SUPERPOWER.

He has pheremones, you know. That he manipulates people with. Sexually. Vom.

I just want my favourite characters to be HAPPY. Is that so much to ask?