The librarian's tangents.

So, was off for a week last week over on the Isle of Wight. Very pleasant Sunny and easy and lovely views and countryside and beaches. Kids loved it too, which is a distinct bonus.

Rather than take a holiday book or anything I decided to work into a digital finger painting (I know, surprise, right?) I was determined to enter the Deviant Art competition as it was such a lovely idea (create a piece of art from one supplied ‘skribble’. Could be anything as long as the original lines showed through).

The original lines:

My variations:

You can enter as many pictures as you like, the rules seem to state, but these two are enough for me I think The deadline is tomorrow and tbh my eyes are tired enough. One added complication, which didn’t make things any easier in the drawing of the pictures was that my daughter slammed my arm in the car door on day one of the holiday (before we’d even boarded the ferry in fact). There was a large crack which we couldn’t tell was the arm, the door, the coffee cup I’d been passing in or what. As it was I spent three hours at the Isle of Wight A and E department which was fun. As it was the result was bruising, swelling and soft tissue damage which meant I had to grin and bear it rather than anything else.

And then my son shut the car boot on my head but I saw that one coming and managed to get away with a small bruise.

Apart from all that – a nice holiday. Pics to come

You can see Youtube vids of the images being made here too: Charley Blimey  |  Heston Blumenthal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDCOGnMFiI[/youtube]

Low day yesterday. Sent off a good few Sylver and Wombat emails over past week and had one reply. And taht was about something different. Hey ho. The path to any sort of visibility on both projects seems to be steep and rocky and (ironically) I’ve also done my back in yet again and am shuffling around like a Zombie film reject. And I mean a proper zombie, not one of the rubbish running ones.

Anyhow, when things are tepid I do seem to hide back into Brushes and I doodled this yesterday during my lunch hour. Normally I don’t get one, just a sequeway between one project and the other, but yesterday I had an idea, gleaned from an off hand Twitter post, and this came out of it. I’d change a couple of bits if I did it again, one arm seems confusingly attached to the Louse’s head, but for 59 (ahem) minutes it’s not so bad.

Music by the mighty Open the Skies. If you ever see their name attached to a Boileroom gig get thee there. They OWN the place. Very good stuff indeed.

Hmm anything else? Nothing springs to mind and 4% battery so onwards again. Oh yeah, one thing – quickly – the image/vid is a nod to the Uber Brilliant Mouse Guard comics by Mr David Petersen. They are an artistic wonder, beautiful books and well worth a look see. Not only that but in reading various blog posts (and the odd email we’ve exchanged) David also comes across as a thoroughly nice guy, which is good. I’m glad a few of them walk the planet

2%.

So, apart from the fact that my wife was sick as a sick pig today, and it was my dad and daughter’s birthday, I drew this on Brushes. It reminded me that it was drawing a card for my dad’s birthday that started me off on Brushes in the first place so here’s a post with the first image I drew in Brushes (two years ago? One year? Wow I think it was only a year… ) and the most recent one I’ve done today. Hopefully they’re pretty easy to work out which is which.

Yesterday was comic museum, Forbidden Planet, GOSH and Saatchi gallery as part of the take the kids out of the classroom where they all get grumpy day. Was a LOT of fun, mainly because I like the class and the other teacher a lot.

Today, I’ve just been informed, is International Paul sorts out some of his junk day. So if it doesn’t start with coffee then it’ll not go well (this was doodled while having a coffee in the newly (ish) opened Jamie’s Italian in Guildford… It was too busy to stop and eat in but a friend and I had a coffee there anyhow, which was OK and a pudding, which was less so – a little cloying and imbalanced imho).

A smorgasbord of possibilities and entertainment angles, provided I can evade the kids and family long enough to keep up with them. Was going to watch Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (awesome film – up there with the best 3d adventures and proof finally that Mr T can act rather than just be Mr T) with family, with one eye on the Apple tablet announcement, but that’s postponed til tomorrow so that some members of the household can go out and cheer up other family members not in the household. Which leaves me on child end of day duties, with one eye on the Apple tablet announcement.

These things WILL happen:

No-one will talk to Mr McGraw Hill. He’s either a twit or a shill and everyone will shun him and he will stand in a corner alone eating canopes.

Stevie J will take to the stage wearing an artists smock and beret.

The naming game will end. It’ll be called the Apple PaintSplodge.

The PaintSplodge will eat newspapers for fun.

It will be the best comic reader known to man.

My wallet will cry.

It will have Pixelmator and Brushes built in, or easily buyable from the SplodgeStore. I will be very happy about this.

Molly Wood, CNET’s Apple antagonist par excellance (and the person who sings the word ‘awesome’ better than an-e-bod-e), will be the Chun Li to Stevie J’s Ken.

The internet will buckle and crash and burn as a million twillion uber nerds refresh Engadget every four seconds. Twitter will cease to exist after the first four seconds of the iNote under a deluge of mostly related hashtags. Lots of people will say it’s just a bigger iPhone.

Apart from that it should be quite a quiet evening I’m a guessing. I’m also guessing I will end it substantially poorer than I started it.

Couple of images from Project Wombat… The first is the starter image – the 80% complete one I’ve now got for all 17 pages of the first part. The second one is the 95% complete one which has had a certain amount of mucking around with it to tidy up the rough parts and add more detail. Just thought I’d post some wips.

Nearly…

Pics to come in a couple of mins.

www.boston.com/bigpicture has been unusually heartbreaking of late. Strong, stunning pictures – very thought provoking as well. Worth a look  but not just prior to going to someone’s birthday party or something.

Beginning to try and clear off existing jobs at the moment, while worrying about the amount of work that’s stacking up for the teacher training… Oh well, I guess if I had nothing to do I’d be bored.

When I take a break I’m still drawing, still thinking, and this is a preview of a project that’s bobbling around in my mind. It should be fun – it’s a collaborative, community thing again much like the Big Book Draw but this time with teens totally in mind from start to finish. I’m trying to get a proof reading copy sorted of the first part which leads up to the community section. Anyhow, thought I’d upload it before getting onto the other stuff I have to get onto.