I’ve hit one of those times at work where theres nothing to do. You’d think that would give me the opportunity to get all inspired and creative for my own projects. However, it’s one of those workplaces that even when you’ve got nothing to do, you can be seen to do anything productive that isn’t related to the company. So I basically get bored into brain death on a daily basis which seems to spill over to the out of work hours.

So with that discalimer, I present my Monday Project submission for the month. It’s pretty much a literal interpretation of the phrase (the first idea that popped into my head) and me playing around in Photoshop again.

 

 

Surprisingly, this months Monday Project theme came to me easily this time around.

So, here is the picture and below a brief story…

So I had joined some friends at the pub, but since they had to talk business, I broke out the sketch book so I wouldn’t interfere.

Now at first I had absolutely idea what I was going to do. I’ve never been to Canberra, so I was at a lost on how to start. I wanted to avoid all the jokes about Canberra and really, with that said, 99% of my knowledge of the town was out the window. So I focused on the ‘autumn’ part.

Trees and leafs are a favorite of mine to draw and I quickly had sketched out the leaf followed by the rest of the layout, which was influence by the picture Soph took and had put in the post of the theme. My first thought was to complete the picture in pencil. However, I had bought a new toy, a wacom tablet. So I scanned it in and finished traced over and finished it on the computer.

The font choice was more a gut feeling and going with something I like more than anything else…

Anyway, I’m happy with this one.

Ok, two things.

First, I’ve been really meaning to be putting more time into the Monday Project blog. But really, this last month has been kind of… well, to put bluntly… batshit crazy.

Second, normally I’d put in a long incoherent  ramble of what’s behind the picture. But, y’know, see above.

Basically, let me put it this way, I drew a complete blank on ‘beach baths’ so I focused more on beech. Which lead me to an interesting discovery that I have a love / hate relationship with the beech. But I’m starting to go all long and incoherent, so I’m going to have to save that explanation for later. Anyway here is the picture. It didn’t get beyond the rough sketch cause, yeah… still see above.

 

Last week the Monday Project re-launched, and a new project theme is up and running for all that wish to take part.

As you may or may not know, I’m helping Soph and Kate organise things this year, but I thought it may be worth explaining why. And no, it’s not because I thought the MP blog would benefit from the spelling mistakes, typos and wanton disregard for grammar and readability that most people expect from my ramblings. Not at all.

I originally joined the Monday Project, because it can be really hard to keep up with being creative. As someone who does enjoy just relaxing and doing nothing, watching movies, having the odd drink, having the odd drink with friends, and doing all those boring things like work (including the occasional freelance job) and paying bills, I often find that months have gone by without allowing myself a couple of hours just to sit down and draw.

By joining the Monday Project, I found it easier to schedule myself an afternoon or two a month to motivate myself to be creative again.

Another unexpected bonus was how much I would end up drawing things I would rarely come with on my own. The Monday Project themes will often lead me to draw subjects that were totally different than the typical illustrations I used to create just for myself. I would often still use my own styles and techniques, but would end up with an image completely unlike the work in the rest of my portfolio.

Something else I’ve noticed, is that when getting involved the projects, I started to take a little more notice of the creative things around me. In truth, most of my submissions to the Monday Project were done in one or two afternoons. For me, it was a great way to experiment, and to take things I had seen recently… exhibitions, posters, books, movies, and even ads… and try to adapt what caught my eye into that submission.

And of course, I’ve met some really interesting people being part of the Monday Project.

So when real life meant the first Monday Project went on hiatus for a while, I really did nag Soph about it… Repeatedly. I found again without the deadline, I was, once again, going back to months at a time going past without me putting pencil (or pen) to paper. And at a certain point, I realized there was only so much I could nag other people, before putting my money where my mouth is, and actually offer to help out.

I’ve found the Monday Project to be a fun and rewarding collective to be a part of. So really, that’s why I’m excited about the site being re-launched.

Mr Sketchy

Cross posted at the Monday Project

Alternative title; He draws the picture or he gets the hose again!

Honestly, when I  saw the theme “She looked at the pile of books and wondered how she would ever fit them inside her head.” My thought was “…”

Followed by “Maybe if I drew a… no, that won’t work.”

Which lead to the thought “…”

And I concluded with “Oh, shit!”

So a while later I got to drawing patterns again and I had the image of a picture of a girl with large hair and keeping books in it. So…

(Click to embiggen)

PS. I just wanted to thank Soph & Kate for running the Monday Project. I know they’re both really busy, but I find it a great motivator and a lot of fun. So thanks!

My mother, who really needs get her own blog, had a bit of free time last month.

So I pointed her towards the Monday Project and a week later she sent me the following email.

It is called Osmosis … the little red blob also says that. But I wanted to draw a jewel with Osmosis in the middle and have that dripping down her forehead.

The title “She looked …” is what is snaking-up her forehead.

Her hair is titles of books from my wish list that I add to constantly … and these are ones I haven’t got round to buying yet.

So what is Osmosis … the books and all the words just leak off the page into my head while I am asleep.

Actually, to tell you the truth, I don’t know if she wanted me to post this, but I’m travelling down to Tassie in a couple of weeks to visit my family. So she can tell me off then. And I’m going to tell her to start up her own blog!

Well, either that or she’ll just kill me as soon as i get off the plane!

Buy that?

No, I wouldn’t either.

Anyway, here is the picture. The explanation follows soon after…

Now you might be thinking “How the did you get that from ‘And then there followed a moments silence?’”

It’s a fair question. It’s a good question.

The answer is “Well, you see, I totally buggered it up…”

So allowing for that one small thing, it works perfectly.

See, after all my notes from training that I shared with you (see previous 5 posts, I can’t be bothered linking to them all) I was actually enjoying the random pattern phase I was going through. Although I realised that I always worked the same way, which is to divide up a bit of the spare page and if possible fill up not only all the available space, but the whole page.

I was trying to work out if there was a way I could ad more movement and fluidity to the style. I figure I try it for this Monday Project, the shape, with it’s patterns and movement would be noise, and I wanted it to get thinner and circling a white space that represents the silence.

Oh, you’ve noticed the lack of ‘circles of white space representing silence’?

That a big part of where I went wrong. I’ve been putting off posting it, because I was trying to work out if I could fix it. I haven’t yet and am now willing to admit defeat!

Next time, Monday Project. Next time.

….

P.S. OK, time after next, Monday Project. Time after next.

OK, I know I’ve been slack and/or quiet. I don’t have a real reason, but that normally wouldn’t keep me from babbling on for three paragraphs to try to convince you otherwise.

However, the post is about my Monday Project submission.

Normally, I’d say “here is the picture, read after for the explanation’ but since I took this months theme rather literally it doesn’t really seem to need a lot of explanation.

Plus, y’know. I’m drunk…

So here is this pic. I’m hoping to do more posts this later this week…. So don’t say I haven’t warn you!

Yeah…. See here is where I normally see the latest pic for my Monday Project submission.

And here is where you’re going to be disappointed….

[note; I’m not expecting Soph or Kate to turn up at my doorstop holding lead pipes saying things like “so, we understand you’re a little behind on your Monday Project submissions..", This is more a little rant about the disappointment in myself, for not getting something together in time.]

Alrighty, this is how it went…

Honestly, I drew a complete blank on bravery. What people want to read that into me, I leave that up to the amateur physiatrists out there…

Then I was working on this picture, for a friends story. I had this whole image worked out in my head. Then I had the idea, since the story had to do with water, what I’d do, is trying to draw a complete picture the submerge a corner in water, to see what kind of effect that it would give. The bravery part being the fact I was willing to risk a drawing on the chance the effect would turn out how I wanted.

But, there was a problem, I had an idea of a more ‘subtle’ picture for another picture. Which in some ways would require less work and stand out less. I found I was more attracted to this idea, simply because, it suited the story more. But I had my own motivations for this drawing… more on this after the next two paragraphs…

So then I had a second idea, which was sort of similar to this cartoon from tom tomorrow. (Who personally I think is a fantastic cartoonist. This is from his series of  American political cartoons (here is one of my favourites). He also blogs here and has a children’s book which you can see bits of here.)

But I could get beyond the first draft and when the weekend came around I just didn’t have time to put it together…  So long story short; “I got nuthin’”

Anyway the big realisation I had was this. I want to show off my drawings more.

I have known this in a way for a while now. But this made me acknowledge how much I’m really feeling this. My family and friends have been incredibly supportive through out my whole life…  but I want to go further with it. I want to see what I can do with it in terms of a larger audience.

So I’m admitting it, that’s part one of my brave things.

Part two is this. I know I don’t have a lot readers on this blog, but I’m going to be brave and say this.

If you write and are interested in having a story illustrated, drop me a line.

If you are another artist, what ever your medium, drop me a line.

If you are neither of these, but feel like you are someone interested in being called on, to use as model or similar, drop me a line.

I can’t guarantee what the results will be. It will all depend on time, my goals/your goals and the amount of beer that needs to be drunk. However, I’ll do my best to reply to all emails, just give me a couple of days.

Email me at “mrsketchy[at]y7mail.com”

P.S. I’m going to leave it up to Soph and Kate if a post about why I didn’t get a submission in, counts as a submission. I think it’s a bit of a paradox and, in my generously, pass the whole problem up to them.

P.P.S. Honestly, If it were up to me, I wouldn’t…

OK, I’m a trying to get my Monday Project submission in on time.

So, first the picture, then as standard the explanation.

First of all, I have to say this wasn’t my first idea. Actually, as I explained in this post, I wasn’t planning to draw anything like this at all, I just stumble across it trying to work out a pattern to use. That idea was of a stylised series of ripples, drawn to look like a wood carving. Got it?

No, neither did I!

But even that wasn’t my first idea. I had a few cartoon ideas, but I had one little problem. Mainly, I’ve lately been enjoying to a rather insane amount Ben Zen’s blog. There is something about his characters, like this picture. I love the amount of character and emotions he gets out of the amount of line work he uses.

So I was finding that the cartoons I had pictured had characters in it that were obviously inspired by Ben Zen’s work. Since I have been too lazy to comment on his blog, I didn’t feel right about following through with this.

Anyway, so I went with the wood-carved-water-drawn-with-pencils idea.

But that was a lot of work.

So when I stumbled on the above picture, I decided to just run with it. The funny thing I can remember my art teacher from year 11 saying if you were going to do an ‘action’ picture (and I did think “jumping in puddles” had a bit of movement and action to it) why not draw just before or after the event.

So here is my picture, a puddle just after it’s been jump in… and out of!

[Note; For some reason the scan of the picture was pretty lousy. I've done myself a small injury and wasn't in the mood to spend too much time on the computer when I was posting this. I may try to upload a cleaner version later on...]