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After what seems like too long since I’ve had the opportunity to work on one of my own projects (client work and other fun explorations have been keeping me ‘otherwise engaged’) I’ve recently started working on a new series of creature drawings (I use the term ‘series’ loosely… more a way of grouping things in my own mind than anything else).
reptiles rock!
A couple of weeks ago I received a beautiful little notebook, with a very apt cover, as a gift from a friend (thanks Miek!). This book proved the perfect vehicle for a bunch of quick, freehand drawings – made in a bid to loosen-up-the-old-drawing-hand before starting on the larger scale, final drawings. The silky smooth paper took the ink beautifully (no bleed!) and produced a very satisfying skritch skritch sound as the nib moved across its surface. I also love the crinkly, tactile quality of the pages that have buckled where I was a bit heavy-handed with the ink application.
a glossy starling, and some experimental textures and patterns
As the drawings were made directly in Indian ink with a dip pen, and thus no preliminary pencil drawing, some of these critters are a tad wonky! But I like their spontaneity (something I hope to maintain an element of in the final drawings) and, restricted to black ink only (my final drawings will be in black & white, perhaps later translated into colour screenprints), I had a lot of fun experimenting with various ways to create feathery/furry/scaly/spiky/etc patterns and textures.
a puffer fish, and some more experimental textures and patterns
And finally, here’s an animated GIF of the filled notebook (it’s a 20 frame GIF so it may take a few moments to download properly!)…
tweet! tweet!
Like this:
from the MoMA‘s ‘B Movie Posters’ postcard collection: ‘Not of this Earth’ 1957 dir. Roger Corman, ‘Mothra’ 1961 dir. Ishiro Honda, ‘Tarantula’ 1955 dir. Jack Arnold, ‘Attack of the Crab Monsters’ 1957 dir. Roger Corman
In the spirit of the day, here’s a scar(il)y lo-fi monster movie for your viewing pleasure.
Let the T E R R O R begin!
H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N
Props that were within easy reach and used to make the above:
‘Lucky Bats’ mobile by Flensted, cardboard cut-out Amsterdam houses by vanmarledesign and the star of the show, Gamera, by Revoltech
Like this:
The dust has been settling in this neglected space, and I won’t get a chance to take a broom to its dusty corners for a while yet. But, with a little bit of luck, the susuwatari will be happy to colonise it in my absence (abandoned & neglected spaces are one of their favourite things :)
The middle of the week has come around again (how did that happen?!) and the weekend already feels like a distant memory… so I thought I’d post some work-in-progress shots of my weekend’s papercutting play before another busy work week swallows the memory (and impetus) altogether!
screenprints waiting to come under the knife
papercut petals?
meditative inking…
… and cutting
I become so engrossed in the cutting that the rest of the world seems to melt away, and then occasionally I’ll get a creepy feeling, like I’m being watched…
… but apparently not with much interest!
Can’t wait to get stuck back in to this project, but for now there’s a big ol’ pile of client work demanding my attention – that Flash animation isn’t going to build itself…
