why i've been away a while...

my lovely agent has been keeping me busy of late - not least with fifteen images for a maths project which i've been working on for the past month and is now almost finished...















meantime this weekend is the advent event @ st margaret's/leftbank leeds...

and the advent calendar thing is still downloadable from proost via the link on the right there [it's in the 'books' section]...

advent resources...

this evening, something of mine has become a jonny baker worship trick! [you have no idea how chuffed i am about this!]

i've posted a few of the images that i created for the blackburn diocese's advent resource pack on here before, but if you want to get ahold of a copy of the whole comic and also the flatpack models that i drew, nip across to the proost site [there's a link on the right there] where they're available for downlaod [£3.50 each for the comic pages and the models]

upcoming

persepolis, and big award news...

there's a line in one of my favourite Spearmint songs ['say something else'] where they state that a film is "never, ever, EVER as good as the book". well, last night sue and i went out [blimey, it was almost like having a social life again...:) ] and saw a movie that might just be the exception that proves that particular rule - 'persepolis'...
it was the opening film in this year's leeds international film festival - the lord mayor was there an everything - and it was really, really good - funny, moving, chilling and beautifully animated [the movie, not the mayor]. well worth seeking out if it's showing near you somewhere... [and if you're in leeds, they're showing it in the town hall this weekend i think...] failing that, get ahold of the books, as they are equally fantastic.

other news - a book that i illustrated has won an award!
i don't think that my contribution had much to do with it, to be honest, but it's always nice to be associated with success...

talking of awards - our favourite shop ever in leeds, the majestic ok comics, just won the 'retail legend' award in the annual leeds guide Retail Therapy awards - a richly deserved victory in our book... congrats to jared and all involved - pay 'em a visit if you're in town...

more people drawn from on the bus...

drawing things that you observe from a bus window is odd because you don't get to see them from a static viewpoint - you're usually moving past them quite quickly, and you don't get long to really scrutinize them. you have to act/think a bit like a camera and fix their image in your mind and then scribble down what you saw almost as soon as they're gone...

lately i've been getting a bit frustrated when i've done this or any other sort of observational drawing - feeling like i've lost it a bit, that i'm not nearly as good at it as i once was. partly that's down to practice, but also on the bus into leeds yesterday, when i really thought about it, actually my drawing is ok, it's the art of looking that i need to rediscover...