A Doodle A Day

Nearly a year on...

I hadn't realised until I logged on to create this entry that it is nearly a year since anything new found it's way onto this site.

So am I going to astound you with some impressive art, well no of course not just a couple of very quick pencil sketches while actually taking time out to just sit and do nothing in the garden.

I guess life has a way of getting in the way of the little things sometimes; between work, settling down again and putting two houses on the market for sale to find one new perfect home there hasn't been a lot of time for anything else. This on line sketch site has also taken a back seat to the audio site which itself also went through a very quiet period in terms of my doing any recording. Recently I have got back into the recording and this last week saw the site mentioned and a clip played on BBC radio in the UK which is quite gratifying and surprising.

Of course it won't be long before there will not be any more sketching by me in this garden as someone else will be living here if they offer the right money, and the same goes for my house as well which seems rather strange. But I am definitely looking forward to pooling the resources and getting somewhere that we want and where my studio (both recording and art) /study can find a new home instead of in boxes where it seems to be at the moment as I seem to be halfway between two homes.

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

I'm a fan of travel writing and one of my favourite writers of this genre is Bill Bryson. His book 'A Walk in the Woods', his description of his attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail with his one time and newly acquainted friend Stephen Katz is probably my favourite. As with most of my favourite reads I also purchase the audio cassette or CD of the book.

I had originally purchased the cassette abridgement of A Walk in the Woods read by Kerry Shale. I am always slightly disappointed with abridged versions as a lot of the favourite parts are left out, especially when as with this abridgement it was down to 2 cassettes and a running time of around 3 hours, that's a lot of good stuff gone. Kerry Shale is an excellent narrator though and it became an often listened to audio book. I was extremely disappointed to find a few months back that somehow I had lost one of the cassettes and while not earth shattering it becomes one of those things that once you know you have lost it, nags at the back of your mind and you want it all the more.

A few days ago while in a book shop that nagging whispered that I should make my way to the spoken word section and obtain a replacement. This time I went to the CDs rather than the cassettes and almost immediately spotted the niggling item. Flipping the CD case over I noticed that although abridged the running time was 6 hours on the CD. Good news, abridged but not quite so ruthlessly.

Returning home that evening I eagerly fed the first shiny disk into the CD player and then froze as this rather monotonous voice came from the speakers. I checked the CD cover and there under the title was 'read by the author. I was shocked. It was such a contrast to the energetic narration style of Kerry Shale. Kerry Shale sounded alive, vibrant; he did voices, he did amusing voices that brought characters to life. Bill Bryson sounded rather like he had been told to read the dictionary out loud from cover to cover and - he couldn't 'do' voices. Now admittedly Bill Bryson is an author, so entertaining voices and the ability to read interestingly aren't part of his remit, Kerry Shale is an actor so he would be in trouble if he didn't have those skills, but it was a disappointing shock. Bill Bryson didn't even sound like Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson should sound like Kerry Shale, you know the way you imagine a person would sound or look if you hadn't actually spoken to them or met them.

Now after a couple of listenings I am getting used to the mellow narration style that is Bill Bryson's, even to enjoy and appreciate the quieter more laid back approach, and the less abridged nature of the audio book is well twice the listening pleasure. The only thing is I can't quite get that little voice out of the back of my head that says 'Bill Bryson should sound like Kerry Shale'.

Anyway, while listening it did prompt the silly little doodle in this entry.

Another Old Man

A little more of a hours sketch tonight than a quick doodle.

As was yesterday's pencil sketch the subject is inspired by a photograph, this time found browsing the Internet. Another face that tells it's own storey.

Unfortunately the spot light has caused the graphite to shine on the bottom left bleaching out the darkness of the jacket.

The Technical Bit.

HB 0.9 Propelling Pencil on Cartridge Paper.

Lijiang Man

A quick pencil doodle tonight.

This evening I was flicking through Micheal Palin's Himalaya, not exactly reading it but just scanning through the photographs and happened upon the small photograph of the man in the above sketch. Something caught my eye about the image and I ended up creating a quick pencil sketch. I don't normally sketch from photographs but in the absence of any other kind of sketching this weekend this was about as close to being creative with a very small c that I have been for the last few days.

The Technical Bit.

HB Pencil on Cartridge Paper.

Books and Snacks

It has been a day of permanent twilight and heavy rain here today and the only thing to do on a day like this if you have any sense is to settle down with a good book and snacks and maybe idly doodle a little.

It might be difficult from today's doodle to guess which book I disappeared into!

The world of sketch blogs seemed a while back to be the dominion of our friends from across the pond and I used to wish that I could find a few more home grown sketch and art blogs to compliment them.

Well of late it would seem that the Brits are rising to the challenge with some great sketch, art and animation blogs.

Uli Meyer Studios in London seem to be trying to redress the balance just on their own with some great new blogs starting with Uli Meyer and then Sean Hayden and Paul McKeown. And then guys like, Matt Cruickshank, Gerben Steenks, Stephane Kardos and Matt Jones. Most of these had been added to the sidebar a little while ago but there are also some new links added today such as Alina Chau.

Now I am an animation nut and the main comment from my better half is ‘can we watch a film with real people in it for a change?’, so I am really enjoying seeing these blogs from these guys. And of course the simple answer to the question raised by the better half is of course, ‘No!’

The Technical Bit.

0.9 Propelling Pencil on Scrap Paper.

Weeds

A rapid little pencil sketch today. After the recent couple of quick ink doodles of trees I thought it was time to go smaller and also to sketch something that I wouldn't normally consider as a subject.

Not a terribly successful exercise really and even although seemingly a simple subject to tackle I think to create anything worth noting you would have to spend rather more than the few moments I allow for sketching and in better light as well as it is a dull day and the subject certainly lacked any contrast. I now know why I don't sketch flora and fauna!

The Technical Bit.

0.9 Propelling Pencil on Cartridge Paper.

Where the Dragons Live

Well, it's been a while! Cin, Paula nope not vacationing or anything more ominous just somehow one day drifted into another without me doodling or even turning the laptop on outside of work to even browse let alone post. Dawn I'm glad you like the site and yes, I think I'm back...

I always read at least two books a week, but every so often I have a real reading marathon, and that's what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks. Nothing too adult though, which is more or less illustrated by the little pencil doodle for this post. I have been lost in a couple of new reads and a fair few re-reads of books already on my bookshelves. The last couple of weeks have seen me actually get around to starting again and finishing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix so I could then read Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince for the first time. Then it saw me re-read Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funk; Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver and Eragon by Christopher Paolini and then add some first reads: Inkheart by Cornelia Funk; The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funk; The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud; The Wish List by Eoin Colfer and presently Eldest by Christopher Paolini. Seeing a common theme here? It would be a nightmare for anyone who has outgrown their inner child and thirst for good old good verses evil journeys involving elves, dwarfs, mythical creatures and magic and of course dragons. I however have not outgrown such things!

The Technical Bit.

0.9 2B Propelling Pencil on Cartridge Paper

A More Civilized Age

Paul over at Visiting The Well posted a couple of photographs taken by his grandfather in the early first half of the last century, one his favorites being a photograph taken in 1914 of one of his grandfathers crew mates cleaning fish on shore on Moreton Island.

The photograph captures a feeling of earlier times when the world was not so compressed by must be there in the least time possible travel and by media such as instant satellite reporting and the Internet. Times when travel would have still been a major part of going somewhere, part of the adventure. Times when you went there instead of sitting in an armchair watching images piped into your home. Times when there was still a major place for imagination.

Anyway on commenting on the post, Paul mentioned that the feel and composition might suit one of my sketches and I did indeed think when seeing the images that they would make really nice graphite sketches.

So tonight while winding down after a somewhat problem thwarted working day and suffering a smashed windshield on the motorway (made me jump for sure), I decided to do a quick graphite sketch from one of the photographs. I had realized that although I jump around mediums for the doodles; pen and ink, watercolour, soft pastel, inks, acrylics, that I have indeed totally neglected the one medium that I used to use a lot for drawings. So that has been put right tonight with this little sketch.

The sketch was hard to photograph for the site as natural light had gone and flash makes the graphite shine and bleach so does a strong spot light, so it's not the greatest photograph of the original drawing I'm afraid.

The technical bit.

3B Graphite pencil on 150g/m cartridge paper.

Trees to camp under

Whilst at Warwick Castle after wandering around the castle, poking the waxworks just in case they were real people and moved, spookily real. Poking American tourists just for the hell of it, (easy to spot as all of them were wearing shorts even though it was raining like mad and thundering and lightening at times and you call us English crazy! Ah well that's 90% of my readership alienated!) and being entertained by the resident archer and the birds of prey display we wandered around the grounds. Warwick Castle stands in acres of beautiful grounds and in those grounds there are many many varieties of stunning trees.

One of the most striking is a Cedar of Lebanon planted by someone or other of note a couple of hundred years ago. (I'd make a great history teacher..) The tree is massive with branches arching down to touch the ground with leaf canopies on those branches that you could hide cars under, or camp under like Ray Mears as the child in me exclaimed with thoughts of Famous Five like adventures, camping under the branches with ham sandwiches, lashings of Ginger beer and a dog called Timmy. Although I'd have to steal the dog and Ginger Beer makes me cough and splutter.. so really just ham sandwiches then!

Anyway, a very simple little pencil impression of a Cedar of Lebanon...

The technical bit

Studio Pencil on 150 g/m Cartridge Paper.

Golden Eagle

Well, it would seem that the norm on here of late has become quick cartoon style doodles and not terribly good ones at that mainly for Illustration Friday topics.

So this afternoon I thought I would firstly spend a little longer than usual on a drawing, and secondly do something that wasn't an ink or watercolour 'cartoon'.

Animals and birds aren't something I usually draw. In fact the Otter posted some while back is the only animal drawing since taking up casual doodling again. However yesterday while visiting Warwick Castle there was a bird of prey area and demonstration. The Golden Eagle was without doubt the most magnificent of the birds and as I love Owls and Eagles I thought this afternoon I would spend a couple of hours doodling a Golden Eagle.

Unfortunately as when we parked the car up it was raining quite heavily I decided to leave my faithful camera which travels most places with me in the car so I had to find reference photographs on the web and use my memory.

The technical bit.

Studio Pencil on 150 g/m Cartridge Paper.