Fishing Hole

Just a little somethin' somethin' for the blog. I've got quite a few ideas for oil paintings bubbling in my head, but they are going to have to keep on bubbling for a little while longer. It's very difficult, almost impossible really, for me to get out my oil painting things right now, while things are so unsettled. Moving is always a chore, but moving across a continent into another country is more like the end of the world. So I'm very much looking forward to finding our own little place and settling in for a good long stretch of going nowhere.

Alice

a recent sketchbook item

Goldilocks

Here is a last minute contribution to the Illustration Friday topic of the week: alphabet.

Sketchvolution

Here is a great example of how most ideas for pieces are generated. While working on a commission, I chanced to look up at the light fixture above me, and saw it had a neat pattern of lines radiating from its center, and I wanted to draw the pattern (you can just barely see it in the scan). After I drew that I thought it would be fun to draw one of those old-fashioned circular mouldings. Then I thought I'd make it into a full room and draw the tops of walls. I thought the effect of looking up so steeply was interesting and drew a face looking down, then immediately thought it felt like lying on the floor. So I thought I'd draw the person lying on the floor.

It would be nice if I could just pick an idea straight out of my head, but most of they time they come from this type of meandering doodling. Even when I feel like an idea pops out from nowhere, I can usually trace it back from mental "doodling". Making pictures for me is usually a lot like a free-association game.

Cats in my pencils

It's funny, I'm more of a dog person really, but I absolutely love drawing cats. They are just about the most fun thing to sketch. If I feel like drawing but don't really have anything specific I want to draw, I'll usually end up drawing a cat. They just seem to come out of my pencils on their own.

So here's my cat for the day. He's a bit ugly and fat, and I bet he's a drooler, but he was fun to make. Tabby cats are the best for drawing; the lines really help define their bodies, and you've got to love that eye-liner look they so often have.