Doodling and Gardening

This morning I spent my time doodling. I drew my 'Red' character attacking a lizard man. The lizard man was loosely based on the Creature from the Black Lagoon as I think the monster is pretty cool. I imagine Red saving someone from this creature.

I would have carried on drawing today however the sun was out in force again so I decided to whip out my new lawnmower and cut the grass in my front garden for the first time. Crazy.

I'm off to Centre Parcs and visiting family in Birmingham over the next few weeks so doubt I'll have chance to do much in the way of drawing but I'll try.

Red Headed Woman

After reading Jane, the Fox and Me I've become quite inspired. One of my biggest problems is that I worry that I'm not good enough due to my inability to make intricate, detailed illustrations. While this is still an issue reading Jane, the Fox and Me has encouraged me to just draw for fun. So I did this today.

One piece that I liked was a character I created and have aptly named Red due to her red hair. I like the idea of having a character (possibly for a zine) who continually changes her hair style or appearance as the story goes on. I ended up creating multiple hair styles for this character by looking on the internet for varying women's hair styles.

Game of Thrones House Banner

My friend's birthday is coming up in a few days and being that I'm poor I've decided to make him a house sigil based on the designs from HBO's Game of Thrones of which he is a big fan.

I know that his favourite animal is the tiger so chose that to be the animal of his house sigil. I began by sketching out a tiger head from stock internet images before tracing over it using Adobe Illustrator.

After this I copied the image over to Photoshop to add a worn effect to it. I don't think its the best illustration I've ever made but it was a chance to use some of the skills over the last year. Most importantly, I know my mate will like it.

Jane, The Fox and Me

Today I received a late birthday present from my girlfriend's aunt and uncle, a Waterstones gift card! So we went to Leeds city centre and I brought a graphic novel, Superman for All Seasons (which is a bit rubbish) and an Illustrated story called Jane, The Fox and Me.

Jane the Fox and Me is a lovely story by Fanny Britt and Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault originally written in French. It tells the tale of a girl who is a transition period of her life and doesn't fit in with anyone at school and takes solace in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

The illustrations are made largely with pencil and what appears to be a coloured ink. It is largely monochromatic in colouring to convey to the reader the way that main character Helene feels with colour only appearing during Helene's moments of happiness or imaginative thought.

The story does feel somewhat short but it's so lovely that the length is only issue as you are left wanting more.

Day in the Sun

Today my girlfriend and I went for a ride on our bikes around the surrounding areas of Horsforth and boy, there are a fair few nice places! We found this map displaying 19 points of interests in the nearby area/countryside and plan to visit all of them over the next few years.

As we went around we saw a horse (who was grumpy), its offspring (who was sleepy) and said hello to a few swans (who wanted food).

The day got very hot considering that it was supposed to be mostly cloudy and we ended up getting burnt as we didn't have any sun tan lotion. We're going to be feeling this for a few days. Remember to wear your sun tan lotion kids!!

Pink Floyd - The Endless River

I'm a Pink Floyd fan. I think listening to their music is the closest I can get to experience drug use without actually taking drugs (I have never, nor will I ever take drugs btw). It's the groups first album since their 1994 The Division Bell album and is said to serve as "Rick Wrights sawn song". Now I'm not usually a fan of posthumous album releases as I see them as corporate cash ins (see Elvis and Michael Jacksons 'post life' releases), but for Pink Floyd I will be.

Bookshelf!!

I've been quite busy over the last few days sorting out the new house/bills etc but today I finally got to build my bookshelf in our new office space. I love to read and find my imagination is usually at its best after I've been reading. I also like to show people my books when they first come to visit. I greet them somewhat like this, "Hi welcome to our new house, come upstairs to the office so I can show you my books".

Moving Day

Today my girlfriend and I moved from York into our new house in Horsforth. Our new location although lacking in historical landmarks is in my opinion a more beautiful and visually pleasing place. There are the rolling hills of the nearby countryside from our bedroom window for example, or the deep greenery of Horsforth Hall Park five minutes walk from our house.