I tweaked the tones a little in this picture. I like it better now. More watery-themed drawings to follow.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Moonchaser II
I tweaked the tones a little in this picture. I like it better now. More watery-themed drawings to follow.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
18/06/09
I tried to draw and watch Amelie at the same time. I hadn't realised how much narration there is in that film!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The seductiveness of the long-view.
I think I've mentioned before about what a sucker I am for short term achievements. Give me a job that I can start and finish in a day and I'm a happy little hive of productivity. Jobs that take longer, however, don't give me the same sense of achievement. That's why I often break up bigger jobs into small and distinct smaller jobs. However, with something as monotonous as grinding all the paintwork off our 31m boat, there is just no getting around the fact that it is going to get tedious. I finally had to face myself head-on and force myself to really notice why long projects tend to get dropped a few days in. What I have noticed is that by distracting that annoying chattery bit of my brain that tries so desperately hard to get me to hang up my tools, I can work for hours. It was the same when I was running. As soon as the active part of my brain got bored- the physical tiredness set in. If I was distracted by conversations with a running partner I could run 3 times further than on my own.
And now that I can stick at something that is on such a grand scale that it won't be finished for months, I can really see the benefit of it. I can tackle the kinds of jobs that I always thought were way too big for me. Things like the Year Aboard project. It soon stops being about the individual little drawing that I do in one day, and becomes about the body of work- the Bigger Picture.
And I was reminded of all of this when I took my daily Mugshot. Looking through other people's slide shows of simple head shots taken every day is surprisingly moving. So many of them are just low quality, poorly lit, unstyled, pictures of people's faces, but it is in the repetition that pretense drops off. The familiarity of the same shot over and over, capturing changes so tiny that you can't bare witness to them yourself, is subtle but striking. At first I thought that the point was to have a 'gimmic' for each shot. A different expression, or an unusual background- some story to each frame. But it is actually much more about the long-view. My first few pictures were unflattering and I instantly wanted to sensor them. Bags under my eyes, uneven skin, scruffy face. I thought about putting makeup on or changing the lighting, of taking pretty pictures rather than raw, grubby ones. I'm glad I didn't though, because that's not the point. I knew deep down that if they had to be flattering shots I just wouldn't ever take many. So I just take them whenever I scan in my Year Aboard drawings, thereby tying two longterm projects together- the exterior and the interior. Being able to accept yourself as you are through the repetition of a single action is a fascinating thing to experience. I'd recommend it, especially if you are as faddy and flighty as me.
And now that I can stick at something that is on such a grand scale that it won't be finished for months, I can really see the benefit of it. I can tackle the kinds of jobs that I always thought were way too big for me. Things like the Year Aboard project. It soon stops being about the individual little drawing that I do in one day, and becomes about the body of work- the Bigger Picture.
And I was reminded of all of this when I took my daily Mugshot. Looking through other people's slide shows of simple head shots taken every day is surprisingly moving. So many of them are just low quality, poorly lit, unstyled, pictures of people's faces, but it is in the repetition that pretense drops off. The familiarity of the same shot over and over, capturing changes so tiny that you can't bare witness to them yourself, is subtle but striking. At first I thought that the point was to have a 'gimmic' for each shot. A different expression, or an unusual background- some story to each frame. But it is actually much more about the long-view. My first few pictures were unflattering and I instantly wanted to sensor them. Bags under my eyes, uneven skin, scruffy face. I thought about putting makeup on or changing the lighting, of taking pretty pictures rather than raw, grubby ones. I'm glad I didn't though, because that's not the point. I knew deep down that if they had to be flattering shots I just wouldn't ever take many. So I just take them whenever I scan in my Year Aboard drawings, thereby tying two longterm projects together- the exterior and the interior. Being able to accept yourself as you are through the repetition of a single action is a fascinating thing to experience. I'd recommend it, especially if you are as faddy and flighty as me.
Monday, June 15, 2009
15/06/09
I spent the morning grinding another area of the front deck.
The dark grey area is the new bit, the light grey is what I have already done.
The dark grey area is the new bit, the light grey is what I have already done.
14/06/09
Kitty gave me her bike as she couldn't take it with her to Australia. I'm so excited to ride it around, especially with its pretty little basket.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
13/06/09
I spent the morning 'noisy hours' grinding a section of the front deck. It is fiddly work, especially at the corners and joints, but the finished paint looks so good, and that's just the aluminium primer. There are going to be a lot more dusty hours before I've finished all the metalwork of the boat but every journey starts with a single step.
The area in grey is the bit I did this morning.
The area in grey is the bit I did this morning.
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