A drawing a day

I'm getting so panicked now that I dream very bad dreams. SO I came up with the idea of just painting a different painting a day and then going back and finishing them later on...not too sure if this is a good idea or not. Probably not. But I spend way too much time arsing around, having a smoke, going for a little walk, having a smoke ect ect...and need to get it together. So I'll try this new approach for a while. This painting is based on one of my favourite dead people ( does everybody have that list?), Isabella Blow. She's trying to find a way to steal the moon. Still a lot more to do, but here it is for now.

He's got the whole world in his hand

There seems to be some kind of debate going on with my friends over who the film Con Air belongs to...I should probably say Rob as Jenny doesn't have a blog...so I watched it a couple of weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about and was inspired once more to reference the beautiful Steve Buscemi. The scene where he talks about driving through two states while wearing a girls head as a hat was the inspiration behind this painting! The actual legend it's based on is about how once upon a time the world was in darkness because the mouse kept all the light in the world to himself. One day a seagull tricked him and let out all the light...thus why the mouse is always crying-he wants his light back.

The tortoise wishes for courage...

...so I invented a wolf wishing well and sent him on a little journey to find it. I'm really unhappy with the tortoise, I'm going to try and paint him again.

A bird in a bird with a bird.

I've made the Owl a bit fluffier and added a robin for luck for Marianne!

And oh, I've lost the lead to my camera, so my only alternative is a poor, old ravaged little piece of tin that blurs everything.

Owl Boat.

This is my first finished painting on wood (sort of) and it took a lot longer than I had planned. It's A3 (kind of) and I based it on the story of a bird who lives all alone and has no friends. I made him a businessman and I don't know what happened...I thought I'd give him a happy ending and sent him away in the boat. I had planned to add another bird standing on his shoulder, but I really don't know whether to add it in or not now. I'm not really happy with out it turned out and the thing is, as I've learned bitterly, it can always be worse....hmmmnnn

Vehicles

I think poor Mr. Owl looks not only over done, but a bit camp with his gamey smile. The Cat is supposed to be a hot air balloon, but I was tired, I wanted to get it finished...and now it looks like some kind of pouch instead. There's an otter aeroplane to come.(Hopefully).

A ghost of a painting

So far. I know, I know-it looks like a return to my old ways. But I've only just started it..and it takes around three years for ply to take the paint. I don't really like it, but I just have to keep soldering on as I have SO LITTLE done! I now find it impossible to work during the day at all and I don't really get time anyway...but I'm afraid of the dark (I'm a loser!), so it's not cool! In other news, I've also been taking advantage of my family and friends (who are one and the same really) and forcing them to pose/model hats...I love Chris for his vast array of angles and as for Gerry...I think he should wear animal head hats all the time!

A FINISHED PIECE!

FINALLY!
Well...there are things I'd change, it's not on wood, it doesn't really stick with the original theme and it's only A4...but at my stage, beggars can't be choosers!

And I love Chris Whelan so much for scanning the work in for me...can't wait until we swap him for Sue.:)

Nemi Owl Boat.

Some new work, just rough...I'm sticking with the pink paper for the minute.
(Forgive me my old friend Brown-I love you, but sometimes it's hard to see what I'm doing and you don't take colour too well!)

I'm naming this boat after one of the sweetest, coolest little girls I know.

I always worry about the delicate mental balance, but now I think I'm starting to lose my mind. I was sketching a hare last night and suddenly I saw him as a bicycle. This has suddenly opened up a lot of new options to me. The picture I'm uploading here is only a rough, he needs to be more vehicle-like and less like a hare on a bike.
Also, the bike is painted horrifically, but I'll work on that!

He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.

I know I'm a bit of a creep, but my cat killed a rat and it was absolutely fascinating looking. She had laid him out at the door like he was precious and when I strolled out for a cigarette...well I got quite the surprise. I find his feet and claws the most interesting-look at the length of his nails! And the colours are incredible. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a rat crusader...if he had been alive, I'd have dropped dead. But there's something about his claws that are distinctly human and I couldn't help but feel sorry for him (I'm just assuming it's a boy too!).

Really need to do more work. Or get it done faster.

On a positive note however, I paid a little visit to the Dead Zoo and made friends with the nicest men ever who work in there-photography is prohibited, but not for me! We got chatting, they put me in touch with the head man and I can take as many photos as I want...there's more to this story, but that's for another time and (less public) place. :)

This is a homage to Seanna Ryan by the way!
And Jack is my lovely model!

And I'd like to be king of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat

I love animals, but I'm starting to get so fed up with turning them into headpieces! I really need to step it up a gear and start plotting out compositions and roughs...it's all in my head, but that's not much use really. I don't even have a proper image for the Signal Arts catalogue...I'll have to send them one of these poor little roughs. I have two new sketches to put up here, but every time I try and photograph them they look dreadful...so I'll just upload one joint photo, taken from a safe distance. The bird lady isn't even finished, but whatever...baby steps!
Besides half arsed sketches, I've also been hanging around with my beloved cat Belle (all in the name of research), trying to get her to believe I'm a cat. She wasn't fooled.I also saw the most amazing, disturbing plastic animal masks that I'm going to buy and ,they don't know it yet, but I'll be photographing my siblings wearing them (and Chris too...plus Seanna if I can nab her!). Orla will probably be off being an enemy to the state and frolicking about in England!

Dress Up In You

It's really time I try and give my poor blog back even a semblance of dignity...I keep forgetting people can see the bullshit I post. Those poor dashboards. Anyway, here is what I have so far on the Signal Arts exhibition...it's going pretty slow, but it's not really something I want to rush...for once. I also have a tentative name for the show...I'm thinking "Dress Up In You", named after the Belle and Sebastian song ("If I could have a second skin, I'd probably dress up in you"). I'm worried the work looks twee..I'm trying to steer away from drawing children, as I look back at previous work and cringe. I hardly ever use pencil, but I've been trying that out with a little bit of pen and watercolour on my beloved brown paper and I'm actually enjoying using it. I had planned on doing all the work on wood, but am wondering if I should now...hmmmn. Also, these are just rough sketches, ideas on how I'm going to place the animal heads on the humans...the finished pieces will be nothing like this probably! And I know the animals are shockingly bad, but I just painted them roughly...I'm going in to the Natural History Museum tomorrow for research purposes and I can't wait! It's so creepy.:)

The Turtle man is from a story about a turtle and a coyote who fight to the death! The bird man is about a lonely bird who can't get a date( my sisters got a great laugh from that one)..originally I was drawing a younger boy until I remembered how I'm trying to avoid that...I'm thinking loner business man instead now.

Regards the cat on the old mans head...take that whatever way you want-Karen Vaughan certainly did!

For Seanna

Mein Führer! I can walk!

Same thing again...half finished, half arsed stipple drawing from one of my favourite films...and the connection to Laika must have been subliminal, as I really didn't have a subject theme going on! (Though I just realised and I am SHOCKED to discover this, that I has of yet neglected to use this blog to rant on and on about my fear/fascination with nuclear war! I still remember when there was all that talk and fear about a nuclear emergency a couple of years ago...I still have all the information and leaflets...just in case!)
Anyway, I have no idea what I was doing sticking the brown paper down...I had either planned to draw over it or I was trying to cover up some dodgy drawing...think it was the latter actually.

And whale and dolphin killing...and overfishing...how have I neglected to rant about all of that? So yeah...that's something to look forward to I suppose...!

This is true of men as of dogs

I have been doing some sketchbook work...half finished stipple sketches that go nowhere really and are a total waste of time when I have so much proper work I REALLY need to be focusing on.

Anyway, this is an unfinished drawing of Laika, the Soviet space dog was the first living thing to leave the earths atmosphere and also the first orbital death. I am always boring people by talking about her, but she never gets the credit she deserves! She was a stray who was found wandering around Moscow and chosen for the Sputnik II flight because the scientists agreed that a stray dog would already be used to enduring extreme weather conditions. She died within hours of the spacecraft being launched due to over heating and the scientists admitted afterwards she had always been intended to die.

Whenever I think about loneliness, I always think of this little dog.

The Bagpipe Who Didn't Say No

I knew vaguely of Shel Silverstein, but I never realised he wrote children's poetry until this months issue of Dodgem Logic. There's a really cool article about him and afterwards I had to look up the poem about the turtle who fell in love with a set of bagpipes! It is beautiful...so sad and cute and oh so sweet...but still really sad!

The Bagpipe Who Didn't Say No

It was nine o'clock at midnight at a quarter after three
When a turtle met a bagpipe on the shore side by the sea,
And the turtle said, "My dearie,
May I sit with you? I'm weary."
And the bagpipe didn't say no.

Said the turtle to the bagpipe, "I have walked this lonely shore,
I have talked to waves and pebbles--but I've never loved before.
Will you marry me today, dear?
Is it 'No' you're going to say dear?"
But the bagpipe didn't say no.

Said the turtle to his darling, "Please excuse me if I stare,
But you have the plaidest skin, dear,
And you have the strangest hair.
If I begged you pretty please, love,
Could I give you just one squeeze, love?"
And the bagpipe didn't say no.

Said the turtle to the bagpipe, "Ah, you love me. Then confess!
Let me whisper in your dainty ear and hold you to my chest."
And he cuddled her and teased her
And so lovingly he squeezed her.
And the bagpipe said, "Aaooga."

Said the turtle to the bagpipe, "Did you honk or bray or neigh?
For 'Aaooga' when you're kissed is such a heartless thing to say.
Is it that I have offended?
Is it that our love is ended?"
And the bagpipe didn't say no.

Said the turtle to the bagpipe, "Shall I leave you, darling wife?
Shall I waddle off to Woedom? Shall I crawl out of your life?
Shall I move, depart and go, dear--
Oh, I beg you tell me 'No' dear!"
But the bagpipe didn't say no.

So the turtle crept off crying and he ne'er came back no more,
And he left the bagpipe lying on that smooth and sandy shore.
And some night when tide is low there,
Just walk up and say, "Hello, there,"
And politely ask the bagpipe if this story's really so.
I assure you, darling children, the bagpipe won't say "No."

Poland is really happening in a far out way

It really is such a beautiful country...but at times it's got a strange subdued quality to it...which I guess might have something to do with one of the biggest tourist attractions being Auschwitz...and also being constantly reminded of how human ashes were once used to fertilize the crops. It's a cruel legacy. The communist influence is still really obvious in places and it's pretty grim...but fascinating-restaurants where the plates and cutelry are chained to the table!

On the upside, Krakow was so amazing and so pretty and full of swallows! And every so often all the birds would suddenly take flight in the main square and no exaggeration,the whole sky was filled with hundreds of birds....it was magical! There are also loads of chubby, friendly pigeons swanning(?) around, and according to local legend they are in fact spellbound knights! Obviously I will have to paint a bird headed Knight very soon...!:)

Mange-y feather

I love my new camera.:)

I was lucky enough to meet that Glycon chap on Saturday...

And again...

Dear Diary, why won't Billy notice me?

I've abandoned drawing quicker than I did a career in Lush once I heard "Team Games" were involved, now that Summers here...not that I do very much (see earlier post, re:wallowing) but it's still quite sad. However I do keep a diary which I scribble all over and draw in...mostly animal sketches (shocker). Please don't look too closely as it's all hideously embarrassing ramblings, thoughts, things I try to remember...things I REALLY don't need to write down, but when I'm say...making my Dads dinner or something equally exciting I get the strangest compulsion to write it all down. Even if you did look, it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to anybody but me...Barry is a drunk man my brother was delighted to meet, and who is, apparently, something of a legend among the Drimnagh Castle school boys. He is in no way connected to the rat.

Oh, and my diary is a really beautiful brown paper notebook Orla gave me for my birthday!

They really aren't.

I'm a little bit distraught.

"I'd burn her blog down if I could...

AND her facebook page!" And that is why Orla Collender is my best friend!

Hard at work...

I went out to see my friend Ian's bands gig in the Sugar Club last night. Because the Sugar Club is such a nice venue we had planned to go to fibbers or somewhere equally grubby afterwards to balance things out...so I'm still really confused as to how we ended up hanging around outside The Forge in Drimnagh this morning talking about...as best I can remember...Romanian Gypsy curses, lesbians (Boo) and Jennifer Burke's secret crush (not so secret anymore Jennifer)! Actually, I do know...Rob and Donal promised me some O'Briener. I missed him which broke my heart...but there was a man who asked me out and he had what appeared to be a lobotomy scar ruining all the way around his head (I get the all the men, I get ALL the men), so it balanced out alright in the end...!
The whole point of this otherwise pointless post is that I had great plans to start working this weekend, but I am absolutely, totally, magnificently fucked today.:)


But I'm sure I'll start work tomorrow...

Ammmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing...

...one of my favourite songs and I love this video.
Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley - Born to Cry

Only in dreams

Finished pieces...sort of.

Here are the final pieces for my Native American Indian legend project...they need a bit more work and some touching up...also the white gouache on the circular rabbit piece is rubbing off on fucking everything. And I accidentally rubbed some paint off the little owl boy. Which is just brilliant.
I don't feel I can give them away until I can figure out a way to stop the paint getting all over everything.