Sunday, August 19, 2012

priorities and sketch book highlights

Ok kids, so blogging has not been so high up my to do lists the last few years.

the lists, oh god the lists.

endless to do lists on post its, in notebooks, in sketchbooks, on word documents, in me head, lists of priorities, lists of strategies, shopping lists, must should and could lists, lists of friends i need to have round for dinner or they may no longer count as friends lists, lists of reasons not to give up making lists.

I'm sorry where was I?

But come September I am officially going to be a part time (3 days a week) teacher, which was the plan all along, which is a good thing, so priorities get to change.

Take into account I've been on the Summer Holidays sitting at my messy desk doing stuff for 4 weeks already and blogging has not yet happened. (One of those weeks was actually spent sitting on a sun lounger in the south of France, drinking cheese and eating wine, so three weeks really).

I will talk more about the priorities another day I think, and possibly ask for some help with them, because they are complex and confusing, and I am still going to be trying to fit to do lists into days in which they will not fit. It's the way it is.

What I wanted to share with you today was some sketches and such that I have drawn that you have not seen, I toyed with the idea of faking the dates on these and making it look like i'd been regularly updating them all year, because you can do that on blogger, though I've no idea how it would look on a bloglovin update or whatever, but I'm not doing that. I can't be asked. As children like to pretend they said.

So in approximate chronological order, and please forgive blurriness where my sketchbooks fail to sit flatly on scanner beds, here is some sketchbook stuff and things that I did;

I saw exactly two professional plays this year, at the old and young vic respectively, though not by design,



Noises off was very funny, especially the bit when his laces were tied together


We also went to see Patrick Stewart in a play called Bingo which was pretty odd and mental, and about Shakespeare being a senile socialist. or something.

We went on a brief holiday to Amsterdam in the chilly cold, it was awesome.


One of the good things about being a teacher is you get to go on school trips for free, if you don't count paying with your sleep and your sanity, so I went to Disneyland Paris with Year 7,



and just recently went to Chessington with year 8, where i spent a deal of time drawing animals in the zoo


I got to go see England play football, in a friendly manner with Belgium, and I did some sketches


And then in just the last few weeks, I did some sketching at the only Olympic event I got a ticket for - the first day of Dressage at Greenwich park,



sketched at a few musical events, a concert in Arundul Cathedral seeing the Sussex Festical Choir,


and a Radio 3 chamber prom featuring the wonderful L'Arpeggiata,







then had a lovely holiday in the South of France

Wednesday, August 15, 2012



introducing StoryHands, a super awesome new illustration collective.

what is an illustration collective you ask? well I'm not sure but I'm in one now 

basically is about doing stuff together, like, collectively isn't it? so expect lots of exciting collaboration in my future. 
  

here is a copy paste of the introduction from the website (here) which I wrote anyway you know so it's not like I'm stealing. apart from the bit about the crusade, June wrote that bit.

StoryHands was originally the brainchild of June Sees and Jenny Robins, conceived on a night heady with cathartic Bonnie Tyler renditions and infinite amounts of frozen yoghurt. Their wishlist of collaborators said Yes! to the invitation to join a crusade of illustration in pursuit of perfection in fresh colourful narrative work.
John Riordan was the first to accept, having met both Jenny and June on the same fateful night in 2008 when they all went to the pub after an AOI Business Masterclass. Martyn had graduated in Illustration with Jenny from Solent University the year before, where they both did absolutely ridiculous work. Jenny and June knew Natsuki through their mutual contribution to Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, the 2011 launch of which was where Jenny first tried live portraiture and became hooked, June and Nat also being amazing live artists.
With the five emerging and talented illustrators all together, we can begin our crusade!