doodlin' around

Probably the last upload this year - off on hols.

Pencil, pen & ink.

Have a great Christmas!

a is for...reindeer

Just trying out a new printer/scanner. The old one gave up.

xmas fayre

Xmas fayre at school today. The Enterprise club had a stall selling all the goodies that we've been making this term - earrings, bracelets, phone charms, necklaces, tree decorations, spinning tops, cards, wrapping paper. Everything sold!




And to round the day off, waiting in my post tray was a pack of goodies from Lisa Stubbs at http://lilsonnysky.blogspot.com/ . Wonderful. Thankyou Lisa.

christmas stars

We should be enjoying the run-up to Chrimble but seem to be chasing paper and filling in too many forms and tick sheets -aarrgh!

Some old sketches based around stars

sketches

We are fortunate in our school to have a music programme where every child has the opportunity to play an instrument. My class are currently playing cornets. Today in art we had a go at sketching them.


I was really pleased at how well most of them turned out - after only a very brief snippet of instruction of how to represent something behind something else.

ideal stocking filler

'A is for Art' booklet back in stock in time for Chrimble! An ideal stocking filler for young or old at an incredible price!
Am just wondering why this book sells exceptionally well whilst other stuff in the shop seems to languish. Any thoughts welcome.

owls

A parliament of owls.

drawing music

Yesterday I tried to enthuse the class into representing sound visually. We started off by drawing single sounds/instruments - cymbals, a banjo, bongos etc. We looked at the work of Mondrian, Kupka and Kandinsky. Then we listened to various pieces of music and had a go at portraying them as images. This is one of the pieces that was done in response to 'Shake, Rattle & Roll'- you can clearly see the inspiration of Mondrian's 'Broadway Boogie Woogie'.

pudsey

A couple of raffle prizes for the 'Children in Need' day we're having on Friday at school. Should have taken it before I put them in frames, to lose the flash.

Ink & pencil crayon on paper, 18 x 13cm.

scribblz

Whilst keeping my fingers crossed for a successful outcome with my wonderful 'can't think why no-one has done it before' book idea, I managed to do a couple of quick scribbles in my pocket moleskine.

Pencil underdrawings, inked over.

off to the agents/publishers!

I've decided to send the idea and a dummy book off to various agents and publishers to see if the real, hard-nosed, bottom-line commercial world thinks there is any mileage in it. Failing that, I'll seriously think about self publishing- 'cos I think it has potential ( as incidentally does Korky Paul, who very kindly said it was a 'great idea'!!).

story progress

Have been playing around with the idea of 4 stories running at the same time on the same page. 1st draft of a well known traditional tale has been put to paper and a colour sketch of the first page illustration roughed out - can you tell which story it is? Would really appreciate any comments on the concept - not sure if I'm putting too much thought and effort into a non-starter or not.

further thoughts!

Have just been pondering how the concept of multiple imagery could be developed and have hit on the idea that you could publish books that have four stories in them linked around a common theme. If you held the book a certain way then one storyline would unfold whereas rotated 90 degrees, a different narrative could be read. I think this has fantastic collaborative possibilities where 4 different authors + an illustrator could weave wonderful stories within the same book. Linked, but at the same time completely separate (unless of course the stories merged!). Such a book would be fascinating for younger readers. It's not beyond the realms of possibility to have collaboration between past and present authors or even have four different language speaking authors narrating themed stories within the same book. I hereby (!) claim all intellectual rights to this idea!! Publishers why are you not leaping at the chance to license this idea from me ?! Imagine, only one set of printing costs instead of four. Think of the possibility of overseas sales without the need for translation! Admittedly the authors/illustrator would only get 20% of the royalties each instead of 50%, but the mega sales such a book would generate would easily compensate.
Yes, other books have run two stories side by side on opposing pages but I've never heard of 4 at the same time, on the same page.
I might try this in class with the children collaborating around specific themes/illustrations.
Again, any thoughts would be most welcome. Am I just having a senior moment or is this possibly the best idea to hit children's (or adult) literature since...

(This must be a brilliant idea - it's the longest blog entry I've ever posted !)

austerity pic

Just wondered what folk thought of this idea - here very roughly sketched/collaged out. One picture that can be hung/displayed 4 different ways.
Do they look sufficiently different each time? Does the idea have commercial potential, especially in these 'austere' times?
I would really appreciate any feedback whatsoever (even if it's to shoot it down in flames!).

'Ices'

'Duck pond'

'Play Park'


'High Street'

People could simply hang them a different way up to ring the changes- 4 pics for the price of 1!

painted pics

Finished the 3 small pics off. I Like the cutoff positioning of them on the paper and the black backgrounds, but not too happy with the green bits of the goalie (might redo). Pics being uncurled by a heavy weight as we speak. Might give them a coat of matt modpodge to take out the shine of the acrylic.

On my drawing table at the moment.




Ink and acrylics. Each about 9 x 14cm on moleskine paper.

a is for...fox

Inspired by the drawings of Rob Dunlavey ( http://www.drawger.com/robd/)* I had a go at drawing a fox from a letter 'A'. Pleased with how they turned out.

*nb. not sure how to insert elegant hyperlinks - sorry. Any hints gratefully received!

blitz pics

Today we created images of the Blitz using oil pastels on black paper. We think they look quite effective grouped together.

mixed media piece

We're doing WW2 and, after looking at the work of Paul Nash for inspiration, created some mixed media (collage, oil pastel, pencil crayon) pieces to represent the dog fights that occured in the summer of 1940.

recent doodlz

Parents meetings yesterday - 4 hours! In between marking books and chatting I managed to do a few doodlz;

if you go down to the woods today..

Y5 went on a woodland walk today - came back with lots of material both physically (leaves, bark etc.) and metaphorically (rich language - adjectives, similes etc.) - should keep us going for a while.

active sketches

Skateboarding and parkour (free running), ink & pencil crayon on paper;

a is for...kimono girls

active art

Today we had a go at using the card mannequins we made last week to create images of moving/active figures. We simply posed them and drew round them. They've turned out quite well so far.

a is for...witch

Another quick how-to draw. This time a witch.

Start from a letter A;

Add 'hair'

Then a pointy chin

Add a 'y'

Eyes and nose

Mouth

Teeth - the more crooked the better

Add a triangle at the top of the hat

And colour

You can add spots, warts etc. Don't worry if your witch looks at bit strange - witches are not renowned for their beauty!

a is for...bat

A quick how-to draw a simple bat from a letter A;

Add a couple of 'w' shapes

Add a couple of 'M's'

Join them together

Add a small circle for a head

A couple of ears

claws/feet

And colour it in! If anyone ridicules your bat- just tell them you've imagined an as yet undiscovered species that lives in a remote cave deep in the Amazon rainforest!

Happy drawing!

a is for...alligator

Some more doodlz.

A lion having a bad hair day!