adminicle

version 3

Untitled-16, originally uploaded by aesop.

Courageous 2

Courageous 2, originally uploaded by aesop.

At 'Caffe Gusto' (sic) this lunchtime I got a free Croissant with my coffee and drew this boat.

Thinking about submitting a new book for the Embassy Gallery show 'Textual Healing'. More about that soon.

ship's sails

ship's sails, by aesop

I'm at home with a cold today. Imagine my joy at finding an unexpected read come through the laetterbox in the form of the Patrick O'Brian book The Far Side of the World. In celebration of this I've drawn the ship that usually graces the frontispiece to inform us less nautique readers what the hell Patrick means by a 'ship'.

Invention

Invention, originally uploaded by aesop.

I just want to make it totally clear that I didn't mean to draw a picture of Peter Gabriel demonstrating his fabulous new combined coathanger and cigarette lighter. It just came out that way.

Turn

Untitled-01, originally uploaded by aesop.

The first of a set of drawings for Turndust.

I want the words to stay on the same level as the images, to be read at more-or less the same rate as the images, to have the same 'range of clarity' that the images have. Sometimes more obvious than others.

All these images will be reworked for silkscreen. I'll be reducing the range of tonal values to try to exercise some control over how they posterise in the print process. (I'll be printing another colour underneath as a sort of duotone as well). I want to use some digital mark-making alongside the hand-made marks. Also, perhaps, put in some photographic material.

Several will need lots of reworking, and in fact I want completely different versions of some things, but this is laying down the material to work from.

I've had a lot of fun doing these. It's a little challenging thinking how they'll be altered by silkscreen, but it is by far the easiest bulk print setup I have access to. (Litho is just too tricky for me, and there's little sense of ownership with the setup.)

updates

I'm off to Edinburgh on Monday for a few days. This means I'll miss out on a meeting to do with Electric December, a project I'm undertaking for the library this year that has tenuous connections with my book art work (through narrative and animation). It's a chance to improve some existing skills and work on something new. A preliminary animation I've done with a 'librarian' character is working out okay. More work on this soon.

Anyway, I'll be passing on my draft storyboard to Andrew Cox, who'll be representing the library at this meeting while I'm in Edinburgh.

While I'm there, I'll be doing further research on Helen Douglas using the resources of the Scottish National Gallery Library at the Dean Gallery, having recently gotten in touch with Ann Simpson. I'm going to revisit the collection at the Edinburgh Central  Library, too.

finger puppets

finger puppets, originally uploaded by aesop.

These here characters are part of my contribution to A-Mart, the art supermarket at Ale and Porter in Bradford-On_Avon. The opening will be at 6.30 on Friday, and there'll be lots of stuff there from dozens of artists, including ceramics in the shape of 'tupperware' type plastic containers, t-shirts and stuff by Mark Pawson, and artists books by me and Melanie ward, amongst others, all set amidst the engagingly bizarre cerise colour scheme dreamed u for the occasion. I was quite keen on the sock puppets which will be available, though there's also a range of pinhole camera-related stuff that looks good, too.

I was over there yesterday, having gotten a lift from Linda Clark, whose driving opened up a new chapter with this inter-town run, hooray. As always, everyone was very welcoming and sympathetic about my sore back. I'm in the wars again now, having managed to introduce a fragment of prawn cracker into the surroundings of my left eyeball, which swelled up a good deal. Sarah's liberal application of ice in a selection of rubber gloves kindly supplied by viki seem to have done the trick and staved off a monocular future for a while, though I'm typing wit the affected eye still closed and a bit itchy-runny, but well within acceptable norms. ( I can see fine through it if anyone's worried, though it still feels a bit crumby). Spoiled a game of scrabble that was shaping up to be enjoyably awful.

I.F., originally uploaded by aesop.

for illustration friday

Patrick Moore

Patrick Moore, originally uploaded by aesop.

My favourire cyclopean astronomer.

the persistence of vanity

the persistence of vanity, originally uploaded by aesop.