Brown paper sketches 3

In progress

Brown paper sketches

I spent the evening drawing these: each is about five foot tall. Nice to go large again.

Oddness

Sweeney Among The Nightingales

The previous Menagerie image reminded a friend of the character Sweeney, of Irish folk tale fame, which then reminded me of Sweeney Among The Nightingales by TS Eliot. The description of animal markings fitted nicely with my first sketch, so I thought it would be fun to flesh him out a little.

"Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe."

Sketchbook project

This is my first entry for one of a series of sketchbooks that I've sent to 36 illustrators around Ireland. So far I've just been managing the project, but now I get to join in! It's a simple idea: ten sketchpads, each with a different theme, circulating by mail amongst the group. Each book comes with stamps and addresses: you receive it, make your entry and post it on to the next person. We're hoping it'll build into something quite nice at the end, even if only a small show and a glass of wine. Unfortunately three books have already gone missing - but that's the risk you take with this kind of project. Anyway, we have some extremely talented people contributing, so I have high hopes for it. Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/64092812@N00/ to view the work so far.

Oh screw it

I've been so bored with my recent advertising work that I decided to throw up some sketches that I had just a little bit of fun doing. It's funny how quickly a blog that sets out to be an honest dumping ground for whatever you might be playing with soon turns into a very dull place indeed. These doodles may not reflect any great skill, but they would be a better indication of how I'd like to work for a while. I'll bang some more up as they appear.