Tuesday 20 August 2013

Baking calamities & triumphs

Sometimes sitting with my sketchbook it can feel as though my brain is somewhat distracted:


So with that in mind I began drawing biscuits and other baking items sprang into view:


Inspired by the popular TV show The Great British Bake Off,  I came across these unfortunate casualties of bad baking:



Let's hope for plenty of successful baking in the new series (though perhaps that is not as entertaining as the calamities).


Thursday 8 August 2013

New Studio!



I have recently moved into a shared studio space. It is wonderful to be surrounded by talented, friendly and inspiring artists and great to have a space outside of home in which to work.

Among the items that surround me are - my old dynamite box full of (non-explosive) materials. This was heavy to carry on the tube but at least the word explosives is written in very small type so no arrests, evacuations or controlled explosions were necessary on my way in. That would have been embarrassing.


Some letterpress letters, paper and brushes from Hong Kong, a mug for tea:


A cushion I made:


And a mango slowly ripening. Surely all good ingredients for inspiration.

I have often drawn with a stubbed out pencil dipped in ink, which you can see in the image below. It creates a nice erratic line. Whether I will draw more on my computer tablet instead is something I often think about. It saves so much time not having to clean up scanned work. Perhaps I will use a mixture. There is something so pleasing about real, spontaneous, inky work. There's only one way to find out...


And so to begin...