While house clearing (long, sad story not to be told here) my sister-in-law came across old magazines about the theatre, 'The Play Pictorial', bound into books. We think they're Edwardian, and they recount plots, praise actresses (all Miss somebody) and actors, and go into great detail about the costumes, stuffed with photographs, and all described in marvellously flowery language.

On a play called 'Passers By':
"Let me own up at once, and without circumlocution, that I was among the great majority of the audience who wept. Not a distressing weep, but just a gentle, pleasurable cry that makes us ejaculate to ourselves, or nearest neighbour, 'how nice.'

"Next to laughing heartily there is nothing for pure enjoyment which can beat the mellow moistening of the eye, when the sentiment catches your breath and the little rivulet of emotion produces the silent sob."

I don't know why there is a prevalent idea that the Victorians and Edwardians were completely stiff-necked - in my limited knowledge of the art and literature of these periods, there may be a stern moral code at work, but they're also just oozing with sentiment. Absolutely no shame attached to shedding a manly tear. Constantly weeping like leaky buckets, the lot of them. Have you read no Dickens, man?

Anyway, point is, I'm drawing using the pictures as reference, for position, costume, etc, and just because some of them are frankly pretty daft. Here is a somewhat rough pen & ink drawing of a serious- looking actress I drew from a photo. I think I may have shrunk her hat slightly: it made her head look the size of a tennis ball in the original pic.

A nice, self-imposed brief. Some friends are the proud owners of a brand new mark-1 baby, not even out of warranty yet.

I decided to do a card, and toyed with several options. I tried drawing a new baby from a picture, but it looked a bit creepy, frankly. I tried adding some (scanned in) gingham, to make it cuter but...

it still just looked a bit evil. I know just-born babies aren't always sugar-coated cute. There's something about the way they stare at you, very unfocussed, but at the same time very intense. I felt like this baby was going to open it's eyes and staaaarrrrre at you, making you feel a bit unsettled. I felt unsettled by it and I drew it.

Next attempt:
Bingo! Not my best ever drawing, but appealing without being too too sugary, and reasonably amusing. But not sickly yuksville.

I was thinking through ideas about growing something new, and came up with the seed packet. Also nice in-joke as the infant has a 'flower' name!

New doodle!

I did this in pencil while Mr G & I were watching TV. I was inspired by watching 'The Crazy World of Arthur Brown' on a one-hit-wonders listing programme.

I wanted something a little different though, so re-accessorised him/her/it a bit.

Colour courtesy of aged Mac. I wish I was better at watercolouring stuff, but the Mac just makes it so easy to rub the crummy bits out, so I stick with the digital solution to my colour woes. Also, I'm finding that rather than being boring and flat, a computer makes it actually quite easy to shade and add depth and texture.

I don't think it'll ever replace a pencil and pen and ink for me though. That's where I like some unpredictability!

Things can feel a bit slow sometimes. One of the difficulties with leaving college and trying to rev yourself up is the lack of someone kicking your bottom to make you do work.

Being faced with a blank piece of paper and trying to make it into something interesting... I feel like I'm four again and whining 'Mum, what can I draw?'.

So I'm making up stories, and collecting stuff, and drawing from life: anything to keep pen on paper! A friend has now emailed me a link to an organisation called Illustration Friday, who set a new brief each Friday, surprisingly enough. Working to someone else's brief is good ongoing practice as well.

Another way of sparking myself up is to redraw stuff that was good, but kind of 'studenty' in style. Here's my first effort:

Old and new, respectively. The old just has more personality somehow at the moment, for all that the new drawing is technically better. Back to the drawing board (literally!), and keeping on redrawing and redoing. Having fun trying, as well and, really, not that bad a thing to complain about!