Blood vs Beard

I usually scan my A4 and A5 sketchbook pages in grayscale and adjust the colour to match the tanned pages of my smaller A6 pocket book, but today I decided against that and opted for a slightly larger file size to fully illustrate (no pun) the obvious reason for todays blog title.

I'd been sitting in a comfortable chair in front of my monitor doing some quick studies from a selection of movie screen captures, when I was suddenly faced with the impromtu arrival of colour on my sketchbook page. The initial confusion didn't last long though, and I quickly located the source of this scarlet intrusion. A bleeding knuckle.

The tiny tiumphant feeling I got from the sucessful use of my limited observational skills rapidly evaporated as I was plunged into a second, deeper confusion. How did I cut my knuckle when I had been sitting in a nice soft chair away from any noticable sharp edges (apart from the point of a 2B graphite pencil which was obviously spending all it's time pointing away from my hand and towards the paper) for a good 15 minutes?

To attain the answer, I had to remove myself from the room, spend a further 10 plus minutes trying to stem the annoyingly obstinate flow of blood, and rely on the oft helpful intellectual enlightenment (sudden lightbulb *ping*) that comes from having a pee.

So how did I cut myself?

Answer: I didn't. I just knocked off a little scab I had aquired at work a few days ago. :-)

So what did I learn today?

• 
  Blood dries a lot slower on paper than I would have previously thaught - had I took the time to think about it.


• 
  Sherlock Holmes' methods of combining logic and elimination actually do work and are useful in every day situations.


• 
  "Blood" and "beard", or rather Bloodbeard, is a great name for a fictitious pirate.


• 
  Writing a rather long and protracted rant about a single page of my sketchbook which consists of 2 very bad portraits and 1 half decent effort is ludicrous.

Anatomy

Every time I sit down to do some anatomy studies, the little family of devils that reside somewhere in my subsconcious begin their playful games. Of course, I might just be blaming them instead of facing up to my fear or drawing hands.

Trees III

I made the most of the few hours of sunshine we had over the Easter weekend and slunk off into the local woods. It's probably my second favorite place to sit and draw - my favorite being my bed. :-D

Diving Equipment

Some more Jules Verne inspired sketchery. Of course, Capt. Nemo wouldn't be seen dead in this style get up, but I have always been fond of the old clunky metal helmets.

Beetles

A selection of beetles. Oh, and a grasshopper...

Classic Movies

I love watching old black & white films. Here's a mish-mash speedpaint of characters from two very famous classics. If you can name the films from this sketch you've probably watched them even more times than myself.

BLG. 34

I visited an abandoned factory a few months ago and took lots of pictures. It seemed rather appropriate to post this image considering it's my 34th blog entry. I have been wondering what BLG stands for. Building? Broken Lumpy Glass?

Crows V

One crow sorrow,

Two crows joy,

Three for a girl,

Four for a boy,

Five for rich,

Six for poor,

Seven for a witch,

I can say no more.

That's me done, but here are a few different variations...

One crow sorrow,

Two crows mirth,

three, a wedding,

four, a birth,

five brings silver,

six takes wealth,

seven crows a secret,

More I can nae tell.

One for sorrow, two for mirth,

Three for a wedding, four for a birth,

Five for silver, six for gold,

Seven for a secret not to be told.

Eight for heaven, nine for hell,

And ten for the devil's own sel'.

Crows IV

What a horribly busy week. I have had no time to sketch - or even sleep that much. *sigh* Anyway, before I go and enjoy some afternoon snoozing, here's the latest crow count. One more to go.

Crows III

...

Crows II

...

Crows

There are many variations on the rhyme for counting crows. Here's one version...

Randomness

Barely managed to fit in some random scratches today. It's a case of blog n' run...

Music

I have found it hard to pick up a pencil (to say nothing of a sketchbook) today, when most of my time has been spent stroking my monitor screen and fiddling with my latest music software purchase. Maybe in the future I can combine my two greatest loves (outside of people) and compose 'sketches' of sound for choice sketchbook pages - mini soundtracks for my scribblings. :-)

Of course, I will need to spend some time with my new toys to learn their workings inside out - until they become intuitive enough to work freely with - but the idea of combining sounds and images together makes me tingle, slightly.

Posting MP3's, alongside sketches that inspired them, may prove a problem becouse I am not exactly blog-savy, and a (average?) 4 meg per MP3 is a lot more than 500kb when it comes to upload/download time. I may have to venture into web-host territory. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Let's just say I may have to nibble a little harder for a while! o_O

Forum Avatar

I figured I would knock up an appropriate avatar pic' for forum use. Maybe I should go for something a little more dynamic, but this will do for now.

Amphitrite

This is the remnants of a good idea gone bad. Rather than sticking (roughly) to the initial concept that came to mind, and taking into account what I learned from yesterdays amphipod sketches, I lost my way and proceeded to cobble/scribble together a sad mess. And after I started the week so promisingly too... :-(

Crustaceans/Amphipods

While fishing about (excuse the pun) for some good crustacean references, I noticed that, although there seems to be thousands of different verieties of those tiny shrimp-like organisms going about their business in the oceans - and looking remarkably similar, it's the little differences that make one species look rather cuddly, and another quite horrible. Is it something to do with the combination of colour, the proportion and shape of different body parts in relation to one another, and maybe the look of their eyes?

Some of the transparent ones have little tubby bellies and tiny black eyes - rather like Oliver Hardy. Those are uber cute. Others are bright pink or mottled silver and certainly catch the eye. But then I come across ones with a colour that can only be described as rotting flesh - with sickly looking eyes and elongated legs that stick out at odd angles. Yuk!

I know it's that subconscious association we have with the illness, desease and disfigurement of our own species but, as usually happens, the simple act of putting pencil to paper makes everything you take the time to really look at become something of beauty.

Dragon Turtle

Heads

Some random heads.