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Completing the Picture

27/8/2011

I am nearly done with this drawing, the first time I seriously picked up my pens in a year. In between the day job and my other cartoon work this took 27 days to complete. It's a largish drawing measuring 40cm x 48cm.

I used Faber Castell TGIS technical pens in three sizes 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 and color pencils laid on lightly at the end. The pencil colors I dissolve for a smoother finish.

I have to admit I enjoyed this a lot and I will certainly return to this medium again. Very soon I hope!

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Adding a Scrapbook

20/8/2011

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I have added a Scrapbook page. I am putting newspaper cuttings and suchlike there. Hopefully more stuff to keep visitors interested and make repeat visits.

In the meantime I am still going on with my pen drawing and have started putting in color little by little. I would like to put up the finished work here as soon as I can but I am very cautious (read slow) with color.

A bloody cold in the middle of August isn't helping matters either.

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Between the Eyes

12/8/2011

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Sometime in 1984 I was in London on holiday. I remember one early evening walking around Westminster and hearing and seeing fireworks in the distance. Fireworks in London? A common enough occurrence in Malta to be sure - but London?

Out of curiosity I made my way to the riverside and enjoyed a good part of what must have been an hour’s display of beautiful petards let off from a barge. I think it was some event organized by the now long-dead Greater London Council, but I do not recall any other details.

There was a good crowd milling about Waterloo Bridge and there were people going in and out of the South Bank Centre. I drifted with the crowd and came across an awesome and unforgettable exhibition. It was Ralph Steadman’s show entitled Between the Eyes. And boy that’s where this exhibition hit me.

It was the first time I had heard of Steadman and I never imagined that cartooning could be such an intense, violent and bloody business. And the subject matter was all so sober. Dead serious in fact.

There were angry collages about the (then) recent Falklands War, made up of tabloid headlines and glorious splatters in red ink. Drawings of African famines and wars; emaciated and broken refugee children. There were drawings from Steadman’s various visits to America, with drawings from the campaign trail; commissioned work from Rolling Stone magazine; and of course the fruit of his collaboration with the writer Hunter S. Thompson – most notably Steadman’s illustrations for Thompson’s memorable novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Then there was the perfect draughtsmanship of his Alice in Wonderland illustrations. All in all I think there must have been over a hundred works covering most of his career up till that time. I was well and truly gobsmacked.

I returned to see the show the next day to make sure I had not dreamt up this glorious, apocalyptic vision. I bought the exhibition book and it remains one of my highly prized possessions to this day.

I had been drawing regularly for some four years before I saw this exhibition – trying out various styles, techniques and themes. After viewing Between the Eyes I realized that cartooning (in its widest possible sense) was what I really wanted to do – and that’s what I have been doing ever since.

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Some Progress

11/8/2011

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Still drawing and still enjoying. Been at it for ten days now - just fitting in an hour or two here and there. All the characters are done but now the rather unexciting bit of building up shades - mostly flying by wire. After that I will probably apply some limited form of colour. Back to cross hatching now...there's a lot of that to do.

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The Art that I like

7/8/2011

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Rather than write a long piece on the artists I like best, I thought I’d post a photo of my art books shelf with a few notes. Most of the artists I like are here – except perhaps Stanley Spencer and Lucian Freud. I’ve been lucky to see paintings by most of these artists. My biggest gripe has always been that on my only visit to Madrid (probably 1987) the Prado was on strike the whole three days I was there. I have never forgiven the Spaniards for this.

Among the books in the photo are:

Gauguin – No doubt the man who reinvented colour.

British Idiosyncratic Artists – Self taught British Artists. I recommend this book highly. Have no idea whether it's in print. Mine is a second-hand copy found at Camden Lock market.

Paula Rego – Portuguese figurative painter. Strangely I’ve never seen her work – not even in Portugal.

Gustav Klimt – I like some of his work.

Gaudi – I intend to visit Barcelona when they finish the Sagrada Familia…

New Objectivity – German art of the early twentieth century. Includes my favourite German artist from that era - Otto Dix.

Otto Dix – The book is in German so I never read it but the art speaks for itself.
Saw quite a bit of his work in Cologne.

Diego Rivera – The Mexican giant.

Balthus – One of the artists I can never quite pigeonhole. Atmospheric and strange.

Egon Schiele – Definitely Austria’s major contribution to modern art and figurative painting.

Edvard Munch – World class Norwegian artist. At his best dark, foreboding and always a sense of looming tragedy. I was lucky to see most of his best work in Oslo.

Yoruba – Sculpture of West Africa. We have become insensitive to this great art because of the availability of mass produced African knick-knacks everywhere in the Western world – but this is the real thing.

Marino Marini – His horse and rider series and his bust sculptures are awesome.

Fernando Botero – Never caught up with this Colombian artist.

Goya – The Spanish giant. I missed out on his best work…groan.

Bruegel – Always fascinating and his paintings still look and feel fresh and original.

Picasso – Admittedly there’s a lot of work I don’t like but there is no doubt he was probably the best draughtsman the planet has ever seen.

Bosch – I’ve seen so little of his work. Again I blame the Prado strike.

My other bookshelf has about five books by Ralph Steadman, some Gerald Scarfe, Steve Bell, almost all the volumes of The Far Side and a volume by the great Italian illustrator Tullio Pericoli. And last but not least, a whole lot of Dilbert books.

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Drawing Again

5/8/2011

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I am slowly getting over my stage fright to draw in ink again. The empty white sheet was quite overwhelming and scary at first but after a couple of days’ work I am enjoying this again. In fact it was easier than I ever thought possible.

There are forgotten rules I have had to remember…..Hands clean and dry at all times….No coffee, food or cigarettes on worktop.…If windows are open and a tiny flying bug lands on drawing blow it away – a swipe with the hand can result in bug-blood on the sheet!....Desk as uncluttered as possible….Always try a pen on a rough piece of paper first to be sure it isn’t bleeding or acting funny….Use a couple of clean sheets of paper to avoid hand/elbow contact with drawing sheet as much as possible.…Allow a minute to use eraser after working with ink to allow ink to dry and avoid disasters.

It’s all slowly coming back I think.

Up to now I’ve got by without serious injury.

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Completing the Picture

Adding a Scrapbook

Between the Eyes

Some Progress

The Art that I like

Drawing Again

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