To be here I sent the others flying.

“All forms of madness, bizarre habits, awkwardness in society, general clumsiness, are justified in the person who creates good art.” ~ Roman Payne

From sketchbook.

 There is no balance. When I fall into Artland the other versions of me go flying. Actually, everything goes flying. Artland has its own society, why would I ever want to venture back to reality?

Did you know you can see more of my art on facebook?

Rambling and Versatile Blogger Award

I wonder about this blogging thing. Wonder what the point of it is. Do you do it for followers? Promote what your business does? Vent about the things that bug you? Create an online presence so when you sell your currently being written/revised/queried manuscript you have at least 3.5 people that will buy it?

I guess everyone has their own reason for it. Me. I started this one eight months or so ago to let things fall out of my head that couldn’t fall out as art. And to let people into my head more. The general consensus of friends past and present is that no one ever really knows me. So this was my half assed attempt to let people wander around a part of my brain however due to my somewhat irregular posts I’m not sure if it has helped at all!

But I’m on a mission to post more. Doing the A to Z Challenge will force me to get at least 26 posts out in April! The fact that they will all be illustrations not rambling is irrelevant!

And now I’ve been nominated for a Versatile Blogger Award by Nifer at Completely Unoriginal Thoughts. 

So first up are the rules...

1. Nominate 15 others for the award and inform them with a comment on each of thier blogs.

2. Create a post for the Versatile Blogger Award.

3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to thier blog.

4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.

5. In the same post, include this set of rules.



Ichabod.



Random stuff about me...

1 - The walls of my bedroom are black. I love them.

2 – I read a 150ish page book standing in a bookstore. All the staff kept looking at me funny. But I only got asked if I needed help once. I was there for two hours.

3 – If I don’t draw everyday I get lost. It’s not pretty when I realise how lost I am.

4 – Last year I made a giant plushie spider. His name is Ichabod. He scares people.

5 – When I was seventeen I was so paranoid that people were watching me that I drew giant eyes and stuck them to the wall. I spent hours watching them watching me.

6 – I don’t question my sanity as much as I used to. I’m not sure if this means I’m getting crazier or saner.

7 – I’m a genetic freak child. Honestly. Doctors don’t know what to do with me.

I am going to nominate...

Anita at Mutterings from the oubliette

ugh and nothing wants to load so I can't get links to others so that's it for now! haha Anita your answers better make up for the answers of fifteen! No pressure... :p

Please let me into your asylum



Forked in the head
Ink and water colour



There are some people’s heads I want to crawl around in. Just walk in quietly and have a look around, maybe grab a coffee in their asylum (everyone has one in their head right? You know, the place you try to contain all the really crazy people that run around your skull). It’s not creepy, really. I’m just curious as to how their brains work, if they are similar to mine. If it would feel more like home than reality does.

Other people’s heads have always fascinated me. What’s normal, what’s not. What’s the difference between crazy and creative. How thin that line can be and how often it can be crossed. Of all the people’s heads I want to crawl into they are all creatives and/or crazy.

Creatives. We’re wired differently, it’s that simple.

Interestingly I want to wander around more musicians heads than any other types. There are a handful of visual artists on the list and a couple of writers but mostly it’s musicians, it might have something to do with the fact that I can’t play any instrument at all. Not even slightly, my brother definitely inherited all the musical genes. Or it might just be that I started hunting out weird music before hunting for weird art and books. Who knows but they make up the bulk of the list.

It would be interesting to be able to do it, wander around and see how connections are made, how thoughts are processed. How they have come up with the things they have. How they think.

How do you think?

Listening to: Mr. Bungle

Reading: Five or six books that I haven’t had time to pick up in over a week. Sadface.

There is something hiding in the shadows



Untitled
Charcoal and coffee
2008


It’s never a blank piece of paper. They say that putting that first mark on a fresh canvas is the hardest part of creating something. I don’t find that to be the case. The paper is never blank. Look at it, get close to it, walk away from it, there is something there already, the way the light hits it, defects, crinkles (and in the case of one of my blocks of paper tyre marks from the time I drove off with it on top of the car and it was promptly run over by the guy behind us, who I should add then saved it. Legend.). It’s like the silence that is never silent.

I find the hardest part is finishing something that I’ve invested hours, days or for one painting that I still haven’t started, years. Some things the end sneaks up on you, you don’t realise it’s there until you step back and know it needs nothing else. They are usually the ones that don’t involve much thought from the start, they grow from the shadows. The ones that are planned or done for a specific purpose, the ones that you know you have to do again if you screw it up are the hardest to finish. You can see the end, know how to get there and bam you screw it up and can’t fix it.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge

So I've entered Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. 26 posts in 30 days. Only I'm not going to write, well maybe the odd little bit to go with each letter, instead I'm going to draw characters for a word of that letter. Simple enough right?

I'm going for a word theme of what you can feel/be eg befuddled (Bea Fuddled), empathy (Em Pathy), melancholy (Mel-Anne Choly). Easy as. The dictionary only has half a page for X... any ideas anyone?

Atleast there is month until it starts and then almost another month until I get to U and X!

Otautahi Goblin Riot

One year and one day ago Christchurch (Maori name Otautahi), New Zealand was hit with its second major earthquake in six months. The first being a 7.1 on September 4^th 2010. In Sept we were lucky. In Feb we were not. Tuesday 22^nd Feb at 1.51pm a 6.3 hit closer to the CBD, 185 people were killed, thousands injured, and much of Chch was destroyed.



Moti



A week or so after the quake I drew a goblin who was stealing a friend's motivation to do anything and it grew from there. Moti wasn’t evil enough so I drew another then they just kept coming. I was dropping them on facebook and Anita started putting up little blurbs about them. Next thing you know we’re making a book. A month later it’s basically abandoned!! I was busy drawing other things and Anita was writing a novel!

But it wasn’t going to die with friends and family continuing to pester us about it. So two months ago it was all on. I’d like to say it’s all finished but the last 10 pages still need to be written then drawn! So I should probably stop blogging and draw.

Here is the first page. For keeping updated with the rest ‘Like’ us on facebook.

I'll just start at the end.

I’ve never worked forwards. I always come up with the final product at the start. School assignments made me go back and fill in all the missing bits that you’re meant to work out before you get to the end. I hated it.

Which is why now, at 28, I’m pulling my hair out trying to storyboard a picture/story/goblins spewed from the earth causing the Christchurch earthquake book. Part of the problem is that although it’s about goblins it’s from factual events. It’s also hindered by the fact that there is no story written. A friend is writing it from the characters I’ve created, which is fine, until you try to put it all together, figure out how each page is going to break and what scene will be on it. It’s not even like I’m planning on trying to get it published but I want to work within what I would get if I was to ever get to illustrate a MS. So I’ve been trudging around the internet trying to find out as much as I can about the how it all works. I’ve come across a lot of useful information, a lot of outdated information–don’t send any CDs or web links to you portfolio!–and at one point I found myself reading about conjoined twins. How? I have no idea.  But back to illustrating, turns out I’ve been doing everything backwards–what a shock!

First you’re meant to have a MS. Ideally someone else’s that is already edited and broken into pages. Then storyboard. Eventually after great consideration and planning you do the final work.

I’ve had twelve or so final scenes in my head for months and the characters rolling around for a year, now I’m storyboarding, cutting it into page breaks as I go and wondering if the MS will even fit what I’m coming up with. Backwards, I tell you, backwards.

One day I will work forwards… maybe… who knows it might even be easier. But then I wouldn’t find myself losing my mind and blogging at 5am after spending 15 hours trying to make sense of everything. I’d do that the much more sensible hour of 3am.