I Will Try to Say Something Cool.

A sketch, a triptych and a thing.

A room with a view

 JAB

The Man with Half a Beard

A couple more things I've done on this fine Glaswegian day.

Mind you dinnae floss too hard now son

Demented

JAB

Hide Down in My Corner, Because I Like My Corner.

I'm still here. Working away in the background, keeping relatively quiet.

Viking creation comic is underway

Desperate 

 Scruffy but comfortable

You don't look so good Al

Don't be a stranger,

JAB

Four Blokes and a Mountain Dwelling Mammal.

The past few days have been rather productive after recovering from what I can only assume was some form of Cold from the busy weekend. I decided to take some of the portraits in the previous blog to the next level, alot of the work I've done recently (if not all of the work I've done recently) has been sketchbook based so I nailed a piece of cardboard to the wall (we have woodchip you see, terrible for drawing on) and set out doing some pieces that were A2 sized and larger. It feels good to actually do some substantial work, and the both of the last two days spent drawing took up the majority of the day - time well spent if you ask me.

John Cleese, lately I've been watching ALOT of Monty Python.

Bill Murray.

Dean Martin, from a time when excessive smoking and drinking were endearing qualities.

Me, from a photo taken last year after playing baseball in Morocco. Random.

A Mountain Goat, for obvious reasons.

I've been rather enjoying my Pentel Brush pen as you can probably tell, The Mountain Goat picture was done solely for the reason that I wanted to go overboard on the whole brushstroke marks that it makes, I think that the paper that I've used and the fact that the pen is starting to run out helped this somewhat too. I also like how my beard turned out in the Self-Portrait (I do miss my beard)...all of this brush pen-ness now means I need to purchase some more refills, and I only replaced it a few weeks ago. Oh well, at least I'm having fun I suppose.

On top of the work I've been doing, drawing in the studio and listening to music has given me time to think, which is a side of art I seem to have forgotten about as recently any drawing I've done never really takes up much longer than 30mins or so - drawing in a sketchbook and rather small unadventurous stuff. Anyway, working on the larger pieces has seen me take about two to three hours per piece and the has got me thinking onto a few more ideas that are hopefully going to keep me busy for the next few weeks and create a nice body of work. Hopefully.

After all this busy-ness I'm off to play the latest Grand Theft Auto installment, back to drawing tomorrow. Keep you informed.

JAB

If All Else Fails.

Something to listen to this week: 'Kate Miccuci - Just Say When'

Just a short blog today, have had a nice quiet weekend after a night out on Friday and a hangover on Saturday. Watched 'In Bruges' last night, a film that a fair few people I know had been singing the praises of and I finally got around to seeing, I must admit I did really enjoy it, and from watching it I'm now listening to the Dubliners a fair bit today, delightfully Celtic and Jaunty. Anyways, here's some more drawing and the likes.

Roald Dahl from this Saturday's Guardian 'Review' section.

Self Portrait.

On my twitter I posted saying: My artistic words of wisdom for the week - "If all else fails draw a self portait". But what then do you do when the self-portrait fails? I'm not overly impressed with the self portrait, firstly, whenever I draw myself lately I have this tendency to draw my eyes too far apart, I end up looking like a frog or something and secondly, I feel that the shirt pattern was a bit too much, and it looked better before I added it. I suppose my twitter should've said - "If all else fails then carry on with what you were already doing before". Which is what I did.

Pepsi-Cola

Jasmine Tea

7up - YOU LIKE IT . IT LIKES YOU. (treating a sketchbook like a sketchbook again).

This week promises to be a fairly eventful one, despite having only one day at work this week on Thursday, it's my mum's wedding day on Friday during which I will be giving my mum away and making a speech, I must admit, I'm fairly nervous about the whole thing but looking forward to it all nonetheless!

JAB

Sail On...

A sketch of Jen's little Milliput house

So again I appeared to have been sidetracked by work and alike and I haven't blogged in a while. It's quite handy though as I practically got two weeks work at full time in the end which made up for taking two days off for Dave's visit to Scotland. I've been attempting to keep up with doing some drawing and I'm starting to build up some steam on that front. Oh, and yesterday I finally started to plan a little of how I want to change my website...Well, I've only been wanting to change it for like a year...

So first up, some drawings! I've not had any huge inspiration at the moment for self-initiated sorts of projects and I'm kind of enjoying the safety of the sketchbook, however I do realise that sooner or later I'm going to need to break out of the sketchbook and actually do something of some significance. I have half a mind to take up the Zine/Comic ideas I was having at the end of last year again although I kind of feel that they may have passed and it may well be time to just start something completely new. We'll see.

The Liver Buildings

A sketch of the Liver buildings, it's weird because whenever I seem to think of 'home' or 'Liverpool' in particular this building always comes to mind. In reality though this building holds next to no significance to me...I mean I've seen it, but that's honestly about it. I don't know what's so 'homely' about it though.

Root Beer and Grumpy Cat

I'm not too sure why but lately I've kind of started looking at old timey american signs, I guess sort of anything spanning the 50's/70's, I just find something inexplicably romantic yet tacky about the style. I suppose in reality I would rather have a can of Root Beer that looked like the can above in my sketchbook than anything Coca-Cola/Pepsi-esque. Each to their Own. I don't think the cat picture needs much explanation...I like cats.

Scruffy Portrait

Today has been spent doodling in my sketchbook again and also trying to come up with a more solid idea for my website before I actually start putting it together as soon as possible. However I've not really been able to find much to draw so I just drew a self portrait, which I do realise now that I've scanned has terrible proportion and probably only really looks like me because I have glasses on, and something from iPhoto (exciting, huh?) but yeah...something about artistic license.

Another iPhoto Sketch: New Brighton

It's nice to finally have all my books with me in Dundee again. I just started looking at 'Vernacular Drawings' by Seth whilst taking a break from drawing/computer with a cup of tea. I never really knew too much about Seth but I really love his style as you can probably tell (he was the reason I decided to get a date stamp for my sketchbook) also maybe an explanation for my love of drawing signage and alike.

Lumberjack by Seth

Mimico Fish & Chips by Seth

I'm off to make soup. Until next time.

JAB

I Told You I Could Still Do It

Self Portrait

See? Told you so. Okay so it's not a whole bunch of amazing work and it didn't take up an awful lot of my time, but it felt great to actually put something inside a sketchbook again, to feel creative for once. Looking forward to finishing a sketchbook and starting a new one - it always feels rather monumental when this happens and I was on such a roll with my latest sketchbook at the end of last year (before getting a new job), that I'm a little disappointed that it's taken me this long to get round to nearly filling it. I suppose it should be about 'quality not quantity', but at the moment I must admit the idea of quantity will probably help me build up a bit of confidence in my drawing again. Here's to art and all things creative... Fingers crossed.

A jolly fellow from 'Canadian Tire'.

an attempt at drawing The Mountain Goats.

The first picture in an age: the new room.

Not sure why but i seem to have an

 inclination to drawing houses at the moment.

...and surprise, surprise a 

Star Wars related drawing.

Hoping to keep up this creative spurt,

JAB