i got the blogging blues

 

No matter how many good intentions I have, I just can't keep  my blogging up. I sometimes even forget it's here. I can Facebook, Tweet, Instagram and even Flickr, but I just can't get into a blogging habit. 

Here, I bring you some flowers to apologise. Thanks to those of you who still visit. I'm not sure why you would. I hardly ever seem to. For those of you who keep up with yours; HOW do you do it?

Flowers for sale HERE

WARNING: freaky ventriliquist dummy alert

If you follow my blog you may well know

that I draw anywhere and everywhere.

But where better than somewhere that combines your other interests. And I bloody love stuff. Old stuff. Which is why I love the antique auctions.

Which is why I love an antique auction house. Today I was at Adam Partridge's auction house in

Where else can you sit on an antique chair and draw surrounded  by spooky ventriloquist dummies and tiny chaise longue? 

 
And then there's the vast array of fabulous and insane subject matter. It's everything I love in one afternoon.

 And if I'm drawing I'm not bidding.

Although, I always end up bidding too. Not on the spooky dummy though. Not this time anyway.

the clay pot against the iron pot

A little while back I was asked why my book was more expensive in my shop as opposed to on Amazon. It is a good question. It is a fair question. I tried to answer it in an illustration. How else?

It is an issue that faces all of us that run a small business. There's no way of competing with the big guys, no way at all, there is no point in trying. But we do have an advantage over them and that is the service we give.

I am not making big bucks off my book, hell, I forgot to even mention, in this illustration, that I have to buy my book off my publisher in the first place - as well as the currency conversion and bank charges that that entails too. That's before the, above, process even begins. No, I'm just scraping by. Always just scraping by.

But when you do buy from a small business or independent seller/artist you are also supporting them in creating their work. Thank you for that. I really don't mind where people buy my book from. It is an honour that they do buy it at all.  

I'm glad I was asked this question. It's an important one and it gave me the chance to try and answer it. Quite coincidentally, I was chatting with my publisher, whilst I was in the middle of this drawing, about the price issue when he said "in French we say 'le pot de terre contre le pot de fer'. It's a kind of  David and Goliath" and that's how this drawing got the title.

can't talk now I'm sketching a band

Here's another sketching opportunity that came my way recently, I got to go into a studio to sketch band. A local band, including a couple of members I know. I realised that I've never actually been into a studio before. I could have spent hours, days, in there drawing all the equipment.

 I have some larger drawings that I made in my Moleskine sketchbook, but these drawings I made in a cheap little pretend Moleskine that was about a quarter of the price. I'm not somebody who moans about the Moleskine sketchbooks being expensive. I actually don't think they are. Or, at least, for me it's well worth the price for the amount of time, effort and love I put into filling them. But, there is something to be said for these cheaper sketchbooks. You're less precious about them and about wasting the paper which gives you the freedom to make different kind of drawings. More sketchy, I guess.

Anyway, here are some sketchy sketches. And, here, if you are interested are the band, Sharma. If nothing else just check out this first track. I think they're good. Really good. You can watch them HERE.

the silence of a falling star and other juicy quotes

Day Four of the post three drawings for five days challenge. Yes, it's taking longer than five days. Way longer.

Today, I chose these three drawings because they are all linked. Obviously, they are, but I thought I'd expand on how they are linked. And, how I work sometimes. So yes, of course, I've worked with the same palette here. Incidentally, blues and browns are my favourite colour combination. I just think they work so beautifully together. They also work great with the cream Moleskine paper which is the sketchbook I worked in here.

I often have a few sketchbooks on the go. Quite a few in fact. A lot are Moleskine, but not all. These days I'll draw on anything and everything. The top page is from what I call a 'spare sketchbook'. It's the kind of book that doesn't have a specific theme, it's just somewhere where I dump all of my thoughts, play around with images and compositions, practice my handwriting, file all those lovely juicy quotes and lyrics - that I happen upon - for future reference and make lists. Lots of lists. I love these kind of books. Everyone should have this sort of sketchbook. I can guarantee if I look through this book (this one is about seven years old now) I am reminded of and inspired by all sorts of things I'd forgotten.

At one time, when I was going through a drawing funk (they don't happen anymore by the way) and whining about it on my blog I was offered a piece of advice that I've never forgotten. I remember who gave me the advice too. It was Felicity Graces who some of you may know - although she doesn't draw, or at least, post her drawings anywhere near enough these days. Anyway, where as other people had been telling me to look through the work of my favourite artists or contemporaries, Felicity said definitely do not do that but look back through my own back catalogue of work. It was good advice. That's where you reconnect with what you love to do and the things you love to draw and why you love to draw.

So, that's why I recommend having a 'spare sketchbook'. You'll find so much in there too relight your fire. And, so to these drawings. Both of the two (bottom) drawings came about from developing themes I played around with in the top spread. By taking the notes and ideas and pushing and pulling them in all directions.

And, another thing, the envelope spread is what can happen when something goes wrong on a page; collage. The best way to cover all of your mistakes.

have you ever had it blue?

Damn, I'm going to miss this place this year. These are drawings of Clermont Ferrand. They're a kind of mixture of realism and imagination, fact and fiction. I like that place in between both. I have an idea for a small series of these drawings. So, if I will not get to physically visit this year, I will travel there through drawing.

ink on a pin, underneath the skin

A couple more of my posters for our Dr Sketchy Sheffield events. I just love doing this poster artwork. I've been wondering why I enjoy it so much. It's obvious really, that mix of illustration and text really floats my boat. Maybe I should hire myself out as a poster artist. Have an event that you need a poster for? I'm your lady.

You can read a post about one of my poster artist heroes, the legendary Toulouse Lautrec, and see more of my own creations HERE.

lost in France

I started this drawing on New Years day. It felt good to start the new year drawing. I really needed to. With everything else I've had going on, I haven't really got lost in a big detailed drawing in a long while. This is the first in what I hope will become a series. It was drawn from a mish mash of photos, and memories (and a bit of imagination) from a trip to France in November. I've always loved France. When I was young I used to wish I was French. My favourite film is French. It's the country, outside of the UK, I've visited the most. For the last few years I've exhibited my work in France. And, now, of course I've had my book published by a French publisher.

So this is a love letter to France. Je t'aime.

here is a song for you

Here's a new drawing. Well, it's a new old drawing. You may well have seen it before. Quite recently actually.

I have a string of half finished drawings hanging around the house. I come across them all the time. In the strangest of places. Drawings that I've given up on for various reasons. Now and again though I'll try and breathe new life into them. This is what happened here.

This drawing must be at least three years old. It actually had a shoe print on it that I had to erase (I really do find them in strange places). I remember that I'd had this great idea of drawing each and every one of my pencil cases. I got half way through this before realising what a rubbish idea that was.

There was, however, another reason that I resumed this drawing; for a long time now people have been asking me if I'd considered making a film of me in action (drawing that is). When I came across this drawing I felt it could be used to show how I go about cross hatching. So, that's what I did - I say that's what 'I' did but I actually mean that's what a friend with the technology and know-how did.  Thanks Tim!

You can see the film in my last blog post or HERE.

Plus, you can get your hands on this drawing, and film star (haven't you always wanted to get your hands on a film star?),  as it is for sale in my little Etsy shop HERE.

blue video

Okay, so after years of people asking, I've finally made a little film of me drawing. I say 'I've' made a film but that's not strictly true. Here's a film that my friend, with the technology and know-how, made of me drawing.

 I'd found this old half finished drawing, hanging around the house, so thought I'd complete that for the film. It was filmed over half a day - so, you can imagine how long we'd have been filming if I'd completed the whole thing. Too long.

 Can't think of much else to say. I've just received the film in my inbox and am excited to post it. Please ask if there's anything you'd like to know.

 Oh and a big huge thanks to Tim for making this and for everything else he does.

 

Probs, best watched HERE.

our favourite shop

If you are near the Buxton Gallery in the next few weeks pop in and see the Derbyshire Open Art Competition. This drawing, of mine, is in the exhibition. It's of the gorgeous Atticus Boo in Buxton. It's the shop where I buy my Moleskines and other sketchbooks and is jam packed full of gorgeousness.

So get your arses along to the Museum. You can also vote for your favourite piece, so vote for this! Even if it's not your favourite still vote for it. There's a cash prize. And, boy, do I need cash prizes.

have you ever had it blue?

This is Foster's flower shop in the town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. It's another of those places I drive past often and think 'one day I'm going to stop and draw this'. Finally, I did.

Sometimes, actually most of the time, when I see a place like this, I imagine the drawing in my head. It's very brief, it's like I take a mental photograph of it, which I then store until I get around to making the drawing. When I take that 'mental photograph' I can see the colours, I know exactly which pens and what paper I should use.

This flower shop, well, I always saw it in bright primary colours. Just red, blue and yellow. But as I sat, in my car, drawing it I couldn't bring myself to add any other colour. Maybe it was just fear. Or maybe, it was just meant to be blue. Although, I would still like to splatter a load of red and yellow paint over it. Maybe I will. Or maybe I'll just leave it as it is. Or, maybe, perhaps, I'll just go back and draw it again. Who knows?

why i went missing

A sneaky peak at a drawing that has taken over my life or the last couple of weeks. Recently, I've hopped, skipped and jumped from one deadline to another. I'm not sure what or where I'm supposed to be next and I never know what day it is. This drawing is for the Derbyshire Open Art competition. I've been meaning to enter this competition, and exhibition, for the last few years but never got around to it. As always with these things, you feel like there's loads of time between you and the submission day and next thing you know it's tomorrow.

The only theme for this competition is that the work has some Derbyshire connection. So, I drew this gorgeous shop in Buxton. I don't want to share the whole thing quite yet as a) it's a bit of a surprise for the girls at the shop and b) I have to work out how to resize the drawing so that it's not robbable (that is an actual word, I've just checked it out, I was convinced I'd made it up) as, if you follow me on Facebook you'll know, there's a lot of that been going on recently.

So, yesterday, I found myself, in the car, outside the gallery attaching mirror plates to the back of the frame with a screwdriver I won in a Christmas cracker. It's true. Still, I made the submission day and can relax until the next thing. Can anyone tell me what that is?

i'm only happy when it rains

I've been driving past this bike shop in Buxton quite a lot over the last couple of weeks. A group of bikes, like this, always, without fail, makes me want to draw. You don't actually see it enough in this country. I'm not talking about those freaky serious cycling enthusiasts (there are loads of them), I mean just normal people on normal bikes (I am, of course, joking). It's probably all the hills and because it rains continuously. I think that a gang of bikes is one of those drawing opportunities that, whilst being irresistible, is a real challenge. It's all those wheels.

put your lights on

I'm back. Circus life was not for me. No, I have too much baggage (well, boxes) to lug around.
Not much to say about this drawing, really, except that throughout it I had this song playing in my mind;

Hey now, all you sinners
Put your lights on,
put your lights on

'Cause there's a monster,
living under my bed,
whispering in my ear
And there's an angel,
with a hand on my head
She say I got nothing to fear

There's a darkness,
living deep in my soul
it still got a purpose to serve               
So let your lights shine,
deep into my home
God don't let me lose my nerve,
don't let me lose my nerve

From Supernatural by Santana.
'Put Your Lights On' lyrics by Everlast.

you are perfectly reflected

Now, here's something I've been meaning to post for a long time. For a long long time. Since I had my first solo exhibition over a year ago, in fact. After the exhibition I was commissioned to create two of these 'small blue thing' drawings. This one was for Sally, a surprise gift for her husband (it's a scarab, by the way, Sally), and the other was for the Hughes family. When I delivered the Hughes' drawing I was given this poem, below. Karey had been inspired to write it after visiting my exhibition. I read it often, and have been meaning to come up with the perfect drawing to post with it. But, as yet, that drawing has not happened and as this one has remained un-posted it seemed fitting. Plus, if I continue to wait for the perfect drawing I'll never share the poem with you. And, that would not be right. It's one of the most lovely, and humbling, gifts I've received.

Thanks, Karey.

strictly ballpoint?

No, there’s pencil, ink, gel pen, crayon, marker

even tippex, in your riotous attention to detail.
Thousands of careful lines;
such small changes of pressure, shade, direction.
How much of your time
to draw all those buttons, coins, badges, tickets,

hair grips? Even tiny cat claws.

Obsessive? Compulsive?

I can’t look away.

I’m a voyeur reading your notebooks,

a kindred detective with too many clues:

mass-produced, man-made, plastic, metal

or something natural, unique?

Any object is subject.

Nothing escapes a curious eye.

You rummage in the attic of my memory

to conjour your magic; a delicate, crazy art

full of surprises

like your quirky picture-title puns

from songs in your head,

now in mine, old favourites -

Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega.

A kind of give and take

where nothing is too ordinary

or too personal

so you offer up your socks,

like fat birds on a wire,

even a black bra draped over a line,

and in “drawers”  - knickers,

blowing in a breeze!

 

Clothes in a washing machine,

half-submerged in soapy water -

you call it, “slooshy sloshy, slooshy sloshy”

Washed pots draining

and lots of shoes from all angles

and pages of doodles and travel memorabilia,

with whimsical thoughts in curly calligraphy:

“will it ever stop raining?”

“trying to keep out of the rain”.

You must be local. You make me laugh.

It takes time and close attention

to notice everything –

Like peering through a doll’s house window

and seeing my own life,

in every shiny detail:

I want to empty out my pockets!

 Karey Lucas-Hughes 2011

inspired by an exhibition of art work called “strictly ballpoint” by Andrea Joseph at  Buxton Museum and Art Gallery 2011

 

Above is a photo that I took at my show. For some really great photos check out THIS POST by Pippa, which was another lovely gift I received after the exhibition.  I really am a very lucky, ahem, 'girl'.

why i went missing

I've been banging on about this drawing funk for some time. Now, I'm not saying that this is the only factor, but it is certainly a BIG one. Recently, I've had to make some adjustments to my lifestyle. A couple of health scares, or warnings, have made me realise that things could not go on as they were and that I needed to make changes.

I've had to change my sleep patterns and go to bed at a more civilised time - rather than staying up all hours, drawing through the night. And, I've had to get up off my arse. My ever increasing arse. Since I started drawing I've just drawn obsessively. I couldn't tear myself away from my sketchbooks. But, I've done absolutely no exercise in these last few years. Really. Nothing.

So, finally, I've decided (well, my body did) that it was time to get up out of the chair and to start moving. It's funny, people often commented about how my drawings had such a stillness to them. It makes sense really, I was sat still, very still, whilst making them.

It feels good to be moving about and I hope that in time this view, the one I've been looking at for so long, will get slimmer. However, there has been one BIG side effect; the blank page. The dreaded blank page.

you are perfectly reflected

I've been working on some commissions recently, a couple of which were for visitors to my exhibition in the summer. I was very interested, during the exhibition, to know which drawings people liked the best; not for any particular reason, just for curiosity, I suppose. The drawings of collections of little things always seemed to come out on top.

This is one of two 'small thing' drawings I have completed since then. I love these drawings. It's kind of like doing a jigsaw. There's so much satisfaction in finding another piece that slots perfectly into place.

There is one issue I have with being commissioned to complete one of these drawings though; the moment when I have to ask "would you like me to include the pube?"

this is the modern world

There's always something, isn't there? You feel like you are just catching up, you are getting somewhere, then BAM! something else breaks down or leaks or cracks and you have another bill to fork out for. Today a tyre on my car went. It's irreparable so I have to scratch around for more pennies, and as I've already retrieved all the money down the back of the sofa it's back to the drawing box.
September 2007

July 2011

Whilst rummaging through the box I found these two drawings. I made them about three or four years ago. Oh, er, yep, that would be September 2007 to be precise (yeah, funnily enough, I am blonde). Back then I hadn't yet found my drawing 'voice'. I was still looking. I hadn't worked out how to get the most out of my tools, in this case colour pencils and ballpoints. I didn't know how to achieve the textures that I now can. So seeing these drawings again, with time between us, I could not resist playing around with them; touching them up and giving them the AJ 2011 treatment.
September 2007

July 2011

And, yes, I am putting them up for sale. The 2011 versions. You can buy them, and contribute to a new tyre, HERE.

there is your song from me

Right then, I have been neglecting this blog for way too long. BUT, NO MORE. Over the next week or two I am going to post lots. And, LOTS. In fact, I have decided that I am going to create an event. I want to make something happen.

I want to do this so that I get back into blogging. I miss it. Also it will be a way of saying a big thank you to all of you who keep returning to my blog and to say hello to all the new visitors (really, this blog used to be very active).

So expect to see a lot of activity here from now. I promise to make at least one post a day, who knows, maybe two. Plus, I'd like to do some other stuff; there will be bargains to be had, prizes, quizzes...er....drawings....and....er...hmmmm...who knows? I've literally JUST come up with this idea. Do you have any ideas? Please let me know. Get involved. Let's make something (I'm not sure what) happen.

(This drawing is now for sale on Etsy, HERE. And, if you think you've seen these socks before then you are probably right; LOOK.)