Monday, December 11, 2006

Illustration Friday: Mask


I was going to draw a mask - the kind you see to represent the theatre. Then I thought about how our faces can be a kind of mask - depending on our mood and circumstance. Lines in our faces are drawn through our experience, our expressions and their frequency of use. I find faces continuously fascinating.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Illustration Friday: Might


This week's topic was hard. I'm not totally happy with the result, due to a last minute rush. Oh well, hope I find more inspiration with tomorrow's topic. The guy above is meant to be Albert Einstein!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Happy Snowman

Donnatello the Snowman, cousin of Frosty the Snowman

Monday, November 27, 2006

Illustration Friday: Invention

Whenever I draw a spaceship, this is the one that most often comes to mind. I used to love those washing up bottle rockets with the sparkler hanging out the back that the 30s and 40s Flash Gordon serials used to use as model spacecraft. I've taken some of that influence and mixed it with a cockpit that sticks out a little like the Millenium Falcon's. This is the rocket I'm using in a story I'm writing with my kids about an inventor called Professor Popplepot.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Illustration Friday: Thanksgiving


It took me a while to get the idea for this believe it or not. I guess because until this week I didn't really know much about thanksgiving. It's not a holiday over here in the UK. This image of a full table of food with a roast turkey in the middle waiting to be eaten is probably a very obvious image but it has only just come to me that this is what I should do. As a child I used to think Thanksgiving was the same as Christmas just in a different country.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Illustration Friday: Clear

I've thought long and hard about the brief this weekend, I came up with a lot of common understandings: water, glass etc. This morning a new interpretation struck me as I was thinking about a friend of mine.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Illustration Friday: Smoke

An area in England just West of Birmingham is known as The Black Country. Charles Dickens's novel The Old Curiosity Shop, written in 1841, described how the area's local factory chimneys "Poured out their plague of smoke, obscured the light, and made foul the melancholy air". This doodle is my little homage to the area.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Yesterdays Doodles Today


After Picasso

I thought I'd serve you up a couple of doodles I did yesterday evening. I'm calling one After Picasso because there is something abstract about it and the second one is called simply Strange Thing because erm...it's a strange thing.

Strange Thing

Monday, October 16, 2006

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Worry

Some people seem blessed with no worry genes. They stroll through life, living to the max, not a care in the world. Well, I'm sure that's not true for the majority of humankind and those who seem worry-free are the ones who are good at hiding it. We all worry, I think what matters is the extent to which we can control worry so that it doesn't dominate our life. Not like this poor chap. He seems to have a lot of worries troubling him, its in his eyes.
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Friday, September 22, 2006

Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett passed away in July this year. His life story is quite a sad one. He was obviously a musical genious but also a victim of the Bohemian lifestyle of the 1960s. Pink Floyd went onto greater things without him (Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here) but some would say there was always the "ghost" of Barrett in the recordings, I guess that'll be more true now.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Ghost Hunter

A drawing on blue Post-Its. I guess I should call this "Don't Look Behind You". Heh..

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Bob Dylan

I'm a fan of the whole catalogue of Dylan's work and what a catalogue it is! Such a rich variety but all with wonderful lyrics throughout. His new album is called Modern Times and I haven't heard it yet. There is a DVD with it at the moment, so I think I'll buy it. I hope you like this tribute sketch of the man, circa 2006.
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Friday, August 25, 2006

A Crew Member

I don't know where this drawing came from, I don't think it was from a photograph. I think the top looks like a uniform of someone in The Starship Enterprise or some such space going vessel. She looks like she's petit but tough and intelligent, in the way that space girls are. She's either in Communications or Engineering I bet.
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Happiness

What makes you happy? For me it's music, freedom to creatively express myself and knowing that someone loves me. This lady looks a little scatty but also very happy and comfortable with who she is.
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The Compere (pulled by dog)

Imagine, if you will, that this is a radio show. It will take some imagination, I grant that, but work with me. What every show needs is a compere and this is he. He rides into Radioland on his trusty computer swivel chair pulled by his faithful hound. Any suggestions for the name of said hound?
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Thursday, July 27, 2006

Exercycler

This is me on an exercycle at the gym. It's quite difficult to draw a bicycle, let alone an exercycle, let alone even more a person on any kind of bicycle. Disregard the fact that you can see through my leg there. I'm usually opaque. Maybe I should practice drawing myself first and then draw the bike around me. Oh well.

Anyway, this is a practice run of a few sketches I have in mind for later. Straight from the hyper hypothetical, twisted mind of Tara. :D

Monday, July 24, 2006

Eva Longoria

FHM's Sexiest 100 women continues to provide furtive ground for my drawings.
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This time it's Eva Longoria who gets the treatment. According to her bio, she plays Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives. I don't watch that show, so I had no idea who she was when I drew her.


Wednesday, July 19, 2006

New Profile Picture

Time for a new profile picture I think.
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Monday, July 17, 2006

Elephant

Today I was compelled to draw an elephant. I've never drawn one before. I forgot the tail though, but I was running late for work, so I redrew the whole thing. Here's a happy elephant.

Friday, July 07, 2006

The Evil Dentist

I'm glad to say I do have a dentist and she's not evil, which I'm grateful for.

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Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Magazine Lady

A face drawn from a magazine, can't remember who it is.
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Saturday, June 17, 2006

Train interior

I spend a lot of time on trains, here's a doodle of the inside of one of them.
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Sunday, June 11, 2006

Frank Lampard

This is Frank Lampard, England's central midfielder and a crack shot from outside the area.
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Saturday, June 10, 2006

Michael Owen

England's striker Michael Owen, it looks nothing like him of course - LOL!
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Friday, June 09, 2006

Sven-Goran Eriksson

These sketches are hilarious, they are two versions of the England football manager. Neither of them look anything like him and they don't even look like each other! I think the top one is closest - but even then you wouldn't know who he was if I hadn't have said! Ah well, come on England!


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Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Hugh Jackman

This is so funny, I drew this from a magazine not realising that Hugh Jackman played Wolverine in the X-Men.


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Smoking Popcorn

This is an illustration of my friend Sarah who had problems popping up a bag of popcorn in her office's microwave one day. To avoid setting off the smoke alarms, she dashed outside near a construction site and threw out the smoldering bag of charred corn.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Bug Horribilis

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This horrible little bastard is currently causing havoc throughout our family. It's a cold virus that emits a horrible odour and foul snots and has go-faster stripes on his shoes because you go from well to unwell really really fast. If I wasn't on holiday, I'd have taken today off sick. We were meant to go to a country park for a day out today but are all so unwell, we didn't bother. My poor son is upstairs trying to sleep but is coughing so much it's keeping him awake, poor little love.

Monday, May 29, 2006

A touch of class

Some might say she is frosty, but it is her upbringing.
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

John Reid, the Home Secretary


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John reid is the Home Secretary, an old fashioned sort of title but he is responsible for homeland security and immigration. He is new to the job. Here he is infront of a committee of MPs and he is agreeing that his new department is in chaos. He will overhaul it.Well, good luck Mr Reid, it seems like a political quagmire to me.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Sorry: Illustration Friday


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She realises that she is never going to be comfortable in his world with his family and his friends. She decides its over and walks away, single again, after four years.


Monday, May 22, 2006

Post It Art - "Haunted House"

I took a ghost hunter class back in October and it inspired me to draw this little doodle. The writing was cut off on the top there, but I'm just pointing out that the big circle there is the full moon.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Jack Wildhair


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This is an intelligent man, who spends more time in his own thoughts than in the real world. He has let his beard grow a bit wild because he doesn't consider outward appearance to be too important. He loves the outdoors too.


Saturday, May 20, 2006

FW with PenPartner


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I've recently dug out my drawing tablet. I bought it in about 1999 or thereabouts and it has appeared and disappeared many times. I'm starting to have more fun with now that I'm getting more used to drawing with digital ink.


Friday, May 19, 2006

The Politician


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He's a politician with a friendly face, but don't trust him!


Thursday, May 18, 2006

Angels and Devils

This is my first entry for Illustration Friday.

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Image problems

Hello seems to be having a few problems. I've uploaded the images but the 320 pixel image isn't showing in my blog. If you click you get taken to the full size image. My second image today is only half of the full image. I've been meaning to investigate an alternative image host and if it's not fixed soon I'll have to.

The Green Room


What's behind the green door? The Green Room of course!

Slugman


Is he a man or a slug?

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Undervalued & underpaid



It's amazing really - she raised four children, held down a low paid job, did most of the chores around the house and still found time to be the loving mum and wife. She learned how to manage money when it was scarce, nobody went hungry. Life takes it toll on the skin but the eyes and the smile are subtle and genuine.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Jack the lad


He likes his vodka and the ladies!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Crazy Lady



She loves to do crazy stuff!

Friday, May 12, 2006

Family



My brother has always had long curly hair and he likes rock music, he's an unconventional manager/scientist. He lives in the US and has been there probably 10 years now. I've visited him only once unfortunately but I hope to visit him again some time. He was in New Jersey near Princeton but is now near to Cape Cod.

Monday, May 08, 2006

A nice cup of tea


I realise I'm in danger of sounding like an old woman but I do love a nice brew. My current favourite tea is Yorkshire Tea ("like tea used to be" so goes the advert).

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Invent a new dance move

The Skiffle Two Strap, performed by FW:


An illustrated response to Tara's blog entry.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Jade Goody


Jade, famous star of Big Brother. Her website here.