Elegant kitsch

My long summer of thesis writing is finally over, (I done a Masters).  I'm back in the saddle as it were with a typically long list of things to see and do, but some of the pressure off.

When you're, you know, artzy, creative typy, a person that is driven to make things, there are definitely more people like this than just me, when you're that - it can make you a bit sad and crazy when you don't have time to make the things you want to. 

Last weekend I took all the postits around my desk that had things on them like 'remember to connect cultural capital back to Bourdieu', and 'check reference to Ullman - Polyvalancy! - happenstance!', 'pop art is outdated nostalgia not contemporary critique in the classroom' and 'remember to eat' (at least one of these is genuine), and put up in their place all the postits from the side of my desk of ideas for drawing and artworks that i'd scribbled down during the last few months when I haven't had time to draw them. 

And tonight, I sat down and made one of them a reality. 

And it felt really good.

It isn't for anything really, and I'm not even sure if it's about anything. It was just a picture in my head I wanted to get on paper. 

Soon I will do more proper blogging and tell you about other things I got up to over the summer with wedding portraits, live burlesque drawing, flyer designs and other stuff. Probably.

And exciting things coming up in the soontimes too, like a Big Draw event I'll be running with Storyhands in October, and the hopefully not too distant relaunch of my website. And some comics stuff. Probably.

If you are curious about the postit, this is it:

A few hours after I drew it I went back and feverishly scribble the phrase 'elegant kitsch' (misspelled) along the bottom, but on reflection I don't actually know what I meant by this. Deadline delirium. It's possible it was meant to go on one of the thesis postits.

And don't worry mum, I did remember to eat. A lot.

Inspiration - with bonus diversity of lightbulb metaphors

I'm going to post a few more editorial illustrations plus spiel for your pleasure. First, here's a thing about inspiration, and how it's different for everyone. 

I'm not sure about the lens flair. I may have gone too far. 

What is it to be creative? Well it's different for everyone isn't it? A slow, glowing realisation like an eco-bulb, a strong obsessive spotlight beam. Sometimes it begins with little noticings, things that scratch at the corners of your brain and make you focus on things you didn't look so closely at before, although you see the echoes of that noticing, when you look back. Right now I'm obsessed with branches against sky, I keep looking up and seeing the buds growing and the so many different ways of dividing and sub dividing. I know it's going somewhere this new obsession, but I haven't had the lightbulb moment yet. I've had little ones. Actually I think my inspiration lightbulb metaphor would be maybe a string of fairy lights. I wish I'd drawn that now. Too late. It's ok though - because the point is it's different for everybody.

And yeah I really am obsessed with taking photos of trees. Mostly branches against sky.

Do you want to see some? Of course you do. 

yes.