words...meh

Apart from the writing of small stones, words and I are not getting on at the moment.  They are getting on my nerves and I'd really like them to leave me for a while, give me some space.  So rather than write, here's what I've been doing lately...

Memories have a life of their own

Doodling: what I do when words get too much.

~

More bleedin' art...

Fall

A drawing on a background of bled tissue paper, made for one of my "facebook five".  I don't think the recipient of this drawing reads my blog so I feel I can post it here before sending it to her.

To see what I did with the remains of the tissue paper, stay tuned for my next post.

I need a title

I still haven't been able to start any embroidery, but I have been working on this drawing, for which I need a title.  When I was drawing it, I kept hearing Jake's voice in my head saying "Go home now?"  I don't know why.  So maybe that's what I should call it.  What do you think?

Just doodling

I did this during the England v Algeria game last night.  At least something good came out of it and I didn't completely waste 90 minutes of my life.  And it felt good to be doodling aimlessly.

 

He-art Therapy

Yeah, it's a cheesy title, I know.  But I had a real need to draw today and Jake happily obliged by falling asleep in his buggy on the way home from our outing and has so far given me over two hours to myself. 

It's the first time I've turned to drawing when I'm feeling chaotic.  My instinct is usually to write it out, but following shape, line, colour - wordlessly, it's been meditative, calming.  There was a small voice whispering lotus to me so I looked it up and was inspired.  Lotus flowers grow out of the muckiest conditions, mud and marshland.  They grow towards the light and not only provide beautiful blossoms but seeds that can remain "alive" for many many years.  And the tuber is edible and supposedly delicious.  I'm going to take that as my gift, a reminder that good things can come out of the worst kinds of shit.

This is a work in progress...

Moon Tree Giveaway

As part of the May Giveaway being hosted at Sew Mama Sew (click on the image in the sidebar for more information), I'm giving away this 'Moon Tree' drawing.  It measures approximately 5 x 7 inches and was drawn on kraft card using ink, gel & waterbased marker pens.  It's the first drawing I've done in weeks.  Boy does it feel good to be drawing again!

If you'd like to win it, please leave a comment for this post.  I will ship Internationally.  You can either have it framed or unframed.  And you can either have the frame with or without the glass in it.  I know it's weird but I can't guarantee the glass won't break.  I haven't had great success at sending picture frames through the post intact.

I'll leave the giveaway open until 9:00pm (UK time) Thursday 20th May, after which I'll choose a name at random out of a hat  use a random number generator to pick the winner(s) (see below).  I'll announce the results on Friday and send the drawing out by 24th May. 

EDIT (18 May 2010)> Holy cr*p!!  Due to the overwhelming interest in this giveaway (which I did not anticipate), in addition to the one winner who will receive the original print, I will also pick 10 names at random to receive a smaller postcard print of this drawing.  (I will now be using a random number generator to select the winners - thank you yellow lamp for letting me in on this nifty device!  Although the idea of writing everybody's name down on little pieces of paper is ever so romantic, I can really do without the hand cramp).  If you haven't got a blog or website, please leave your email address when you comment so I can get in touch with you.  Postcard winners will be receiving their cards a bit later as I've just ordered them to be printed.

I've also got other designs in the making so will, in time, be setting up a little shop on etsy.  If you don't mind, I will contact everyone who's commented to let you know when the shop's open.  If you would rather not be contacted, please let me know.  Thank you!

To see a list of all bloggers taking part in the Giveaway, click here.

And while you're at it, head over here for my friend Kellee's fabulous giveaway.

Thank you!

 

Shelving the people project

I'm putting an end to the people project.  It has been feeling not quite right but I couldn't tell why.  Then a friend sent me a link to Alison Bechdel talking about how she drew her wonderful (tragi)comic memoir, Fun Home, which is one of my favourite books.  Watching the clip I realised what's wrong with my people drawings.  They are too flat and lifeless.  It's more or less copying and not terribly exciting.  If all I want to do is copy photos, I think I've proven I can do that to a certain extent, so the project already feels defunct.

What I really want to do is start putting together drawings for my own graphic memoir.  I didn't think I was ready or had enough experience, but I just have to start.  And doing that is a lot more meaningful to me than copying faces from photos for the next three months.  I'm not going to put a time limit on this - it's going to be a huge effort.  I'm just going to work on it as and when and I may or may not share what I'm doing here.  But I will continue to draw whatever I like, whenever I like and post drawings here when I fancy it.  No artificial deadlines or undue pressure. 

I do have other project ideas though, projects that are not related to drawing, things I've been wanting to do for ages.  Now I can finally start!  I won't put a time limit on it either, unless it makes sense to do so.  I think I was trying to recreate some of the atmosphere of the original 100 days project with the whole 50 faces in a 100 days thing, but it didn't fit, and not only because I was the only person doing the project.  So...here's to doing things that fit.