Sail On...

A sketch of Jen's little Milliput house

So again I appeared to have been sidetracked by work and alike and I haven't blogged in a while. It's quite handy though as I practically got two weeks work at full time in the end which made up for taking two days off for Dave's visit to Scotland. I've been attempting to keep up with doing some drawing and I'm starting to build up some steam on that front. Oh, and yesterday I finally started to plan a little of how I want to change my website...Well, I've only been wanting to change it for like a year...

So first up, some drawings! I've not had any huge inspiration at the moment for self-initiated sorts of projects and I'm kind of enjoying the safety of the sketchbook, however I do realise that sooner or later I'm going to need to break out of the sketchbook and actually do something of some significance. I have half a mind to take up the Zine/Comic ideas I was having at the end of last year again although I kind of feel that they may have passed and it may well be time to just start something completely new. We'll see.

The Liver Buildings

A sketch of the Liver buildings, it's weird because whenever I seem to think of 'home' or 'Liverpool' in particular this building always comes to mind. In reality though this building holds next to no significance to me...I mean I've seen it, but that's honestly about it. I don't know what's so 'homely' about it though.

Root Beer and Grumpy Cat

I'm not too sure why but lately I've kind of started looking at old timey american signs, I guess sort of anything spanning the 50's/70's, I just find something inexplicably romantic yet tacky about the style. I suppose in reality I would rather have a can of Root Beer that looked like the can above in my sketchbook than anything Coca-Cola/Pepsi-esque. Each to their Own. I don't think the cat picture needs much explanation...I like cats.

Scruffy Portrait

Today has been spent doodling in my sketchbook again and also trying to come up with a more solid idea for my website before I actually start putting it together as soon as possible. However I've not really been able to find much to draw so I just drew a self portrait, which I do realise now that I've scanned has terrible proportion and probably only really looks like me because I have glasses on, and something from iPhoto (exciting, huh?) but yeah...something about artistic license.

Another iPhoto Sketch: New Brighton

It's nice to finally have all my books with me in Dundee again. I just started looking at 'Vernacular Drawings' by Seth whilst taking a break from drawing/computer with a cup of tea. I never really knew too much about Seth but I really love his style as you can probably tell (he was the reason I decided to get a date stamp for my sketchbook) also maybe an explanation for my love of drawing signage and alike.

Lumberjack by Seth

Mimico Fish & Chips by Seth

I'm off to make soup. Until next time.

JAB

The end of a Sketchbook.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last blog, just overly enjoying my time off I guess. There's been a little bit of sketchbook work, not a huge amount to be honest but Im getting started on the right track again which I suppose is all that matters for now. I went and visited 'home'* last week, it was the Magazine's (our local pub) 250th Birthday and there was a huge beer festival - as good a reason as any to visit home if you ask me. It was great to see friends and family again as last time I was home was over 5 months ago for the Christmas/New Year period which feels like an age ago. I did take a sketchbook home but only managed three pages, although over 3 days of heavy drinking and catching up with people I don't suppose that's too horrendous.

*I still manage to refer to the Wirral as 'home' even though I've technically lived in Scotland for almost 4 years now.

Sketch of Coffee table in the Living Room at Dad's house.

I really like how this picture turned out.

Today whilst waiting for the plumbers to come and fit a new shower I did a few more pages in my sketchbook, and managed to finish it. I started the sketchbook in November and really wanted to get into the swing of drawing daily (or on a regular basis at least), a practice that went rather well until I realised the reality of needing to look for a job and the sketchbook took to the back burner for a while which was a shame. However, I've finally finished it, a few months too late in my eyes but finished nonetheless, and now I can get started on my new sketchbook and hopefully approach it with the same ethos as i started the last. Here are the pages from today, not sure why I wanted to draw American 50's diner style signs, but I did so there. Apologies for the scans, the last few pages of the sketchbook are falling apart a little which made them difficult to scan effectively.

Hollywood diner.

I'm not sure what Donald's Serva-teria serves but I want to go there.

Hopefully have some more sketchbook work up soon.

JAB