So I wanted to draw something bright, something positive, after that last one seemed so drab. Feeling positive, the work side going well, making friends, getting confidence. The family side on a calm plateau, feeling like I was going to catch my breath. But teenagers want to fly, want to change. None of us realising […]
Nothing too profound to say about this one. After rejecting the message of this idea in the last post, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And what a joy to work on it’s been, learning to push myself to do it in awkward gaps of free time now I’m spending my Wednesdays at the beer […]
Is it life imitating art, or the reverse? Neither are turning out the way I expect. Feeling like I had no burrow to retreat to, no place in our house that was mine, I bought a partition. Built myself a wall around my desk to draw in peace. Emotionally I’ve been doing the same. Telling […]
The original idea for this came early last year, back when my biggest worries were getting old and disillusioned. I started drawing it later when I knew better. It all got too hard, both life and drawing, and it stalled until six months back. It came together surprisingly quickly and I sent a photo of […]
A gentle drawing about grief. I finished it last week, but the hardest part was not being able to text a picture of it to Michael. I should have posted this then when I’d had two Wednesdays off to myself, for the first time in months, when I was feeling positive about things being back […]
Last Wednesday I couldn’t face the picture I’d been working on. Another one that’s a bit grim, but somehow didn’t seem dark enough. The Wednesday before that I’d sent a progress photo to cousin Michael like I always do when I’m working on something. I’d thought I was sending texts and photos for him, keeping […]
I was thinking about the 3D poster from way back at the end of my studies. About how oversimplified, how black and white I thought the balance was. And how perfect a metaphor the eye scorching anaglyph was for the mixed up greyness of life, and the pain of my blurry eyes! The drawing itself […]
This was one from December last year, a patch emotionally dark but creatively fertile. I was glad to see the end of 2022, but not expecting much brighter from 2023. Luckily I’ve been proved wrong so far, following up my usual new year mood rebound with some family wins. Like the drive to live life […]
Celebrating getting my stitches out, having a day to myself to draw after the school holidays, and having a beer after four weeks dry on antibiotics. This was a midnight quickie in my notebook from a few days ago, needed a bit more work on the title… probably should have been “uncyst” after getting it […]
This is a stop gap while recovering from covid, delaying the bigger picture I was working on, the shitty icing on the shitty cake of the year! I’ve been jotting in these notebooks for years, and noticed that the number of ideas for drawings dropped off, some of them were almost entirely book reviews. I […]