May 2011
64 posts
Harry Potter
You guys really should check out Lucy Kingsley’s excellent mural-style illustrations of the Harry Potter books.
Here’s a sample:
and here’s the link
Trying out Watercolours
So I’ve been fidding about with watercolours, trying to create an illustration for one of m’stories. It’s hard work, and I haven’t finished it, but I thought I’d share what I’ve done so far, here.
I haven’t put any detail into the background yet. Or the foreground, come to think of it. Also, this is a phone camera photo!
23: Pictures of 5 Famous Guys You Find Attractive
Guys? Does this mean guys in the male sense or in the ‘people’ sense?
I will do both!
MEN:
Matthew Amroliwala: Oh there’s a Leak Inquiry, all right.
Brad Pitt: Look at him. And he’s an atheist.
The guy who plays Mal on Firefly. Though it’s probably the sarcasm more than anything that does it for me.
Heath Ledger. It’s a bit late now, I guess.
...
Watercolour
Is pissing me off! Arrrgh
22: How Have You Changed in the Past Two Years?
The last two years have kind of been my ‘getting set into adulthood’ years.
I got married almost two years ago, bought a house and cats and backpack that would last more than a couple of months before falling apart. It’s kinda nice to settle down a bit and know I’ve (we’ve) built a foundation for ourselves. On the other hand, I did kinda feel the weight of...
21: One of Your Favourite Shows
This is a tricky one…
I love, but have hardly ever seen any episodes of The Thick Of It, but each one makes me cry with laughter.
I’ve never been so ‘into’ a show as I have with Lost. I had to get up at 5am to watch the simulcasted finale.
Red Dwarf was the first sitcom and the first sci-fi show I ever got into. Have loved it for a long time.
The (US) Office is...
Illustrating Fairy Tales
This week I’m going to start the illustrations for the fairy tales I’m illustrating. Now, I’m really bad at colouring so it’s going to be super tough, but Lauren bought me this book to help me.
I think I’m going to work in watercolour. That’s my plan. Wish me luck! I’ll probably post some of my embarrassing practices.
20: How Important You Think Education Is
The most important thing, ever.
Our whole world is built on the shoulders of others, through the memetic magic of education. We have expanded our healthcare, our philosophy and our understanding of the universe through its power. We have given ourselves ever more free time to be creative and entertaining. We have put ourselves in the position to solve the huge crises facing us in the coming...
Sex and potatoes afterthought
Should you be having more sex or more potatoes?
19: Disrespecting Your Parents
This is an interesting point of discussion.
I think George Carlin said it best when he said, ‘[parental respect] should be earned based on the parents’ performance.’. And he’s right, to a degree - respect should not be a necessary requirement of stature or rank.
However, I’m not one to disrespect people if I can help it. I disagree with my parents on a number of...
Inspirational Music
Someone recommend an album that well fuel my writing tomorrow, please x
18: Your Beliefs
Well, in succinct honesty, I believe anything that has demonstrated enough evidence to meet the extraordinary nature of the claim, and the risk associated with believing the claim. But that’s boring.
Instead, I have a couple of things I want to talk about.
The first is the propensity for people to tell ME what I believe when I say I’m an atheist or a sceptic. People say, ‘oh...
Fairy Tales Update
This says update but I haven’t really mentioned the fairy tales on this Tumblr properly. I’m writing a book of fairy tales for adults with a slightly sceptical bent to them. I’ve been working on them for about 6 months now, all in all and I’ve enlisted the help of some ‘grassroots illustrators’ to help me out with the… well, the illustration. Here’s...
NPG
Oh goodness, the National Portrait Gallery are calling for entries to the Photo Portrait prize again. Every year, I panic. I haven’t taken many portraits this year…
17: Your Highs and Lows of the Past Year
Gosh.
Well I suppose the absolute best thing I’ve done/am doing is the book of fairy tales I’m producing. It’s an absolutely marvellous experience, now that I’ve written all the fairy tales (I love, love writing) and I’m working with some great illustrators to accompany the tales. It really makes me feel happy than almost anything else I’ve done (marriage aside, of course). Hopefully...
16: Your views on Mainstream Music
I’m fairly out of the loop on mainstream music.
I don’t listen to the radio and don’t really buy albums as such. If I hear a song I like somewhere (normally via some TV or Film or Advert thing) I’ll probably get it and listen to some stuff by the same artist to see if it’s worth getting more. But I’m out of the loop for sure with my little picks and pokes at music here and there.
I...
15: Your favourite Tumblrs
Do you see what I did there? I actually don’t have much tumblr experience and mainly used to dip in and out of it as twitter directed me to particular fun things. I think When Parents Text is pretty damn funny though.
Nightmares
Mmmm.. My new medication has caused me to have incredibly intense dreams. They aren’t nightmares exactly but they’re really stressful and tense. Like the other night I had to dismantle a really big machine really quickly and quietly before my dad (in the next room) found out. It was… not horrible, but… disturbing.
Anyway I wake up several times a night in a mini panic or...
last night i dreamed that i got a tattoo of a qr...
emilyswash:
DEEPEST REGRETS
I’d get a qr of done dodgy sex apparatus from an online store
14: Your Earliest Memory
It turns out I can’t draw squirrels.
But my first proper, proper time-identifiable memory was my fourth birthday, when my friends and I were taken to Kelsey Park for a birthday. The squirrels in that park are so tame that you can feed them fallen nuts and seeds by hand. It was awesome. Also there was some ice cream and some kind of massive yellow parasol.
I have little 0.5 sec flashes of...
Bunnette
I don’t know what to do about the Bunnette comic thing. I’m enjoying doing it and I’ve drawn the whole 23-strip first part, have worked out the plot arc for the trilogy and started scripting and drawing the second part but… it doesn’t seem like it should be part of Chain Bear. Not really sure what to do.
It’s made me feel like I could do a graphic novel...
Drawing Day 3: Your Favourite Food
I’m not drawing a lasagne.
Noir stuff
13: A Place You'd Like to Move or Visit
I actually have very little enthusiam for travelling. Not entirely sure why.
I really like Massachusetts, particularly Boston. I am massively put off by the healthcare problems and higher education costs in America so I’d probably not actually want to really move there. We once considered moving to Canada but then realised Lauren can barely handle an English winter so Canada would be the...
Facebook Genius
One of my friends posted on his facebook that his mum was “such a troll”.
His mum replied: “First!”
Drawing Day 2: Your Favourite Animal
I tried to draw this without any reference. It’s the nose that went wrong - when I checked, tigers have a longer, sloping nose rather than a muzzle.
12: Bullet Your Whole Day
Is this going to be interesting? Is it?? Let’s find out:
Let’s assume it’s a weekday.
06:08 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:16 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:24 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:32 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:38 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:42 - Phone Alarm goes off (snooze)
06:48 - Alarm Clock goes off (get up, shower and dress)
07:10 -...
Drawing Day 1: Yourself
This is a bit naff cos my head is not that squat.
Museum of Bad Art
Is it me or the Museum of Bad Art actually AMAZING?
Erotica
I while back I wrote a terrible piece of erotica for an erotica competition. Seeing as I never heard from them again, I think it’s safe to say I can share the preposterous synopsis now:
A pair of secret lovers, a sea maiden and a young pirate have been trapped in a crystal cube and thrown out to sea by the angry maiden’s mother. They are sinking to the sea bed and running out of air....
The Creative Method: Showering
When I’m writing or comicking or whatever, I find it difficult to just sit down and bash out some cumulus ideas and knead them into something I’m happy with. Often it’s difficult just to get those initial seeds of an idea down, just to get something to work with.
One place where ideas seem to burst forth is in the shower. Something about showering makes my mind open up and whole...
11: Put your "iPod" on shuffle and write ten songs...
I don’t have an iPod, but I have an Android phone, so that will have to do. Okay, here we go:
1. Boxing - Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds is my favourite singer songwriter. Boxing has grown on me over time… I identify with it in a strange sideways kind of way. It’s written as a conversation between Mohammed Ali at the end of his career and the boxing commentator, Howard Cosell.
2....
Old, Old Photo
I took this photo way back when I did my Art Foundation. I did a whole series of me playing every part in a scene. I did this particular one partly cos I thought it was funny and partly because it was a challenge.
I didn’t have a digital camera in those days; it’s just reminded me of how I used to behave differently as a photographer because every shot was precious.
I called this...
Be Happy
Today’s Chain Bear (issue 618) is a personal (and anonymous, hopefully) response to a friend of mine, who over time has increasingly annoyed me with her philosophy.
She is a sort of semi-affirmationist type of person. She has a the slant on life that if you tell yourself to be happy, if you believe you’re going to get what you want, then it will happen for you. She believes (and I...