A Short Animation

I've been monkeying around with Indeeo's iDraw application on the iPad and the Mac. The more I use it the more I like it.

For some reason I've never liked bitmap editing apps - like PhotoShop, Corel Painter or Autodesk Sketchbook Pro - as painting tools. I use them as image editing tools mostly. There are people out there who can work magic with them but I haven't put the hours in to become that good. I find it easier to use physical media - Pencils, brushes, paint and paper - but there's something about vector drawing that appeals to the tinkerer in me.

Some time ago I bought Boinx Software's Fotomagico. I played with it for a while but it slowly slipped into the background. I've been thinking for some time that it would be good for creating simple animations or animatics for storyboards. Then, the other night, I discovered that iDraw would export the layers in a drawing as separate files, all in one go - just click a menu item and voila! Presto Changeo!

The light went on. Fotomagico slide can have 6 layers that can be moved independently, so I can create a vector drawing in iDraw, export the layers as .png files then import them into Fotomagico to animate them.

I threw something together using some components from the Christmas Card and sat back with a delighted, ear to ear grin as I watched it play.

Picture this. Your driving down a road in the late evening, there are houses set back from the road with cosy glows in their windows, bare winter trees behind the houses. A bright crescent moon rises and a shooting star streaks across the sky.

Now watch this space...

So, That was Christmas

My Christmas card this year was another in the series of warning signs, suggested by Nissa - a member of the illustration class at Putney School of Art and Design.

I created it on an iPad using Indeeo's iDraw app. This is a powerful but simple vector illustration app that does what Adobe Illustrator does but at a fraction of the price. There's also a OS X app for your Mac which syncs with the iPad app via iCloud or DropBox.

I often rough ideas out on the iPad then tidy them up on the Mac. I created this one entirely on the iPad.

Vector graphics can be tedious and time consuming to create but they have several advantages. I mentioned scalability in a previous post. Also, each item you draw remains a discrete object that can be changed easily. You can group objects and create layers, making editing easier.

When I found a problem with various components of this drawing, doing something else while thinking about it and trying out different solutions was great fun, like solving a puzzle but with something to show at the end of it. Vector graphics seem to lend themselves to iterative improvement.

I've only dabbled with vector illustration but I'm beginning to see how I can use it more effectively. The ability to create a collection of reusable objects is useful and can help cut down the time it takes to create a drawing.

The flywheel wouldn't stop spinning and I couldn't leave it alone.  There was a beautiful clear sky on Christmas eve, and a brilliant crescent moon behind the trees - so bright you could see the unlit part - Old O'Ryan marching high across the sky.

Creating the trees was interesting - here's a clue. Self similarity (for those of you who were swept along by the chaos theory fractal thing a couple of decades ago).

What that needs is a Wowl Awa Rich!

Yes, I was thinking that myself.

Ottoline and Old Thrubby

This blog is all about getting sruff out there even if it's not polished and perfect. Here's a very raw first draft of the saga of Ottoline and Old Thrubby - AKA The Collaborative Project.

Ottoline and Old Thrubby are a pair of intemperate old reprobates from a land that time forgot, before plitty creckness shone the torch of enlightenment into our souls. If you're offended by anything they say, well - that's what it was like back then - they'd probably find us a curious lot too.

But remember, they walk among us...

Bear With Me a Second

Another bear sketch.

Mess with me, y'mess with m'bear!

Wanna Rumble?

Just Bear, With Me

Last Friday was the last session of this year at the Putney School of Art and Design Illustration class. One or two people were collecting contact information and a couple of my classmates were enthusing about Facebook. I sent them an email a few days ago asking them to sell the benefits to me, as they both had sensible shoes on the subject.

I received a reply from one of them last night to say she hadn't forgotten about this but was up against the Dead Lions so "bear with me" - adding a comment about the oddness of that phrase, and perhaps there's a sign in there.

That's all the prompting I needed and a maelstrom of ideas swirled around my head - or was that just the wind in the poplars.

Good title for a book Awa Rich!

Here's a preliminary sketch - thanks for the nudge Sharon http://creativefoxblog.blogspot.co.uk

Just Bear, With Me

More Signs

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook for the Sign a Day Week thing.

The left hand page was inspired by the genuine HazMat sign for Oxidising Agent. You can see from the notes I was wondering what it might represent in a social context. I opted for Bad Hair Day.

The first one, which is more like the original, proved more popular. The second one seems to represent more than a bad hair day. And yes, I reused the flames from the Pants on Fire sign.

In the pages below you can see the original drawing for the Do Not Exceed the Speed of Light sign and some signage people experiencing distress as there is a problem with the toilets.

A couple of weeks ago I was having similar distress during the show and tell session in the illustration class. After several visits to the two occupied toilets I gave up and crossed my legs. Later, I stuck this sign on one of the toilet doors. I was delighted to see it was still there a week later.

Jack Frost Nipping at your Nose

Today it is cold. Not as cold as some places but colder than it has been here for a while. This morning I found a small, hard, greyish pea sized object between my toes...

OK, Stop right there Awa Rich! Please, not the frozen fart joke. Leave that one in Maybury Road School playground where it belongs!

Sorry, but sometimes the force is strong with some jokes.

Im Kuhlschrank Dude!

 Dude! Who ya kiddin? Y'did that in PhotoShop Awa Rich!

Nope!

Wish they were!

Actually I did it with Pixelmator on my iPad.

Have you nothing better to do Awa Rich?

Probably....

Just Teasing

I introduced Old Thrubby in an earlier post and mentioned The Collaborative Project.

Here's a taste of things to come.

You Can't Park that There Mate!

Are you fed up with starships whizzing overhead and knocking your chimney pots off?

Well, you need these signs.

That's not a congestion zone sign but a speed limit sign. Scifi aficionados and physicist will know what it means.

What about the rest of us Awa Rich?

What's the most famous E quation in the known universe?

E=mc2 Awa Rich.

So, E is for?

Inner G Awa Rich.

m is for?

Mass Awa Rich.

and c is for?

Catholics? Candles? Critical Awa Rich?

Noooooo, c is the speed of light.

Jokes are never funny when you have to splane them Awa Rich.

It was funny at the time, you had to be there, and be me.

That's Me in the Corner

During a conversation at the illustration class on Friday morning, Olivia said that her son plays the guitar and wants to form a band. I let it slip that I used to be in a band at school. Linda chipped in with "Show Olivia that photo of you" It wasn't on my iPad so I've dug it out for your amusement.

There were a couple more with the rest of the band - Sue on drums (yes we had a female drummer) and Paul on Bass (doing his Michaelangelo's Adam pose). The only one I could find is of me (on the left) and Chris (who wrote songs and sounded like James Taylor).

Who's that girl? It's me y'daft bugger - it was the 70s you know!

"A Beautiful, Beautiful Baby"

I finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to do for ages. Sometimes a stupid joke gets stuck in my brain and I can't shake it loose. Probably a sign that I should exorcise it by exposing it to the light of day.

If you live in London and use public transport  - the only way to travel in the CAPITAL Awa Rich - you'll see women wearing badges that say Baby on Board. A quick search around the internet will reveal lots of people having fun with this. Journalist Christina Kenny, on her D for Dalrymple blog, has a few words to say on the subject and Em at Faire Do's Blog made a few of her own.

No one, to my knowledge, has made a badge like mine. A baby on board badge might get you a seat on a crowded tube but mine will get you a whole carriage!

I can feel a movement coming on.

I hope it's not that alien Awa Rich! There are enough DLCs around here already.

* DLC Dubious Looking Character

The title is a line from Alien Resurrection - probably my favourite of the Alien films, I like Jean Pierre Jeunet's wry humour - spoken by Brad Dourif, just before the the new born alien hybrid bites the top of his head off like a boiled egg.

Sign a Day

My current Illustration assignment grew out of a long ago project - to create fridge magnets depicting pairs, things that go together in the minds of Ymns.

You're talking that Jargoon again Awa Rich. Splane please.

You'll have to read Mitch Benn's book Terra. Just say the word, it sounds like...?

After a few preliminary sketches I remembered the HazMat labels that were everywhere in the lab I worked in back in the early 70s. I'm sure you'll recognise them from the backs of trucks.

I used the HazMat design because it's bold, simple and easily recognisable. So whoever created the original design did a good job. You see one of these and you immediately know what kind of peril you're in.

Fridge Magnets

I created these using iDraw, a vector illustration app for the Mac and iPad. It works like Adobe Illustrator but at a fraction of the price.

An advantage of vector graphics is they are scalable. if you enlarge them they don't go frilly around the edges like bitmapped images.

That's what the kids call pixelating intit Awa Rich?

Enlarged Bitmapped Image

Enlarged Vector Image

A disadvantage is - because you are plotting points, joining them up with lines then filling the shape with colour - creating them can be very time consuming.

Vector graphics lend themselves well to diagrams, plans and cartoon images. Some artists manage to create realistic looking images. Lots of practice I guess.

This one took me all afternoon!

The images for the fridge magnets were not depicting hazards unless you're a moth Awa Rich! but it got me thinking about hazards in a different way. Particularly the way people will exaggerate a trivial situation for effect.

Sometimes people can go beyond exaggeration.

Christmas can be a hazardous time, so  last year, in a public spirited gesture I sent this to all my friends and relatives.

This is all old stuff Awa Rich. What about the new stuff?

I'm just setting the context. Patience is a virtue.

But prudence is a bitch! Do you know how long I've waited to work that one in Awa Rich?

When opportunity knocks norl that!

Old Thrubby - Gone Native

In this morning's illustration class at Putney School of Art and Design, Olivia was showing the dummy for her new book. It has a monster in it. A very nice monster.

Inspired by Olivia's monster

There's another book title Awa Rich!

and thinking about one of the characters in The Collaborative Project, I drew this during the show and tell session.

Will you stop leaving all these scary characters lying around Awa Rich. It's alright for you, I have to live here!

An Experiment

Or as they say in a Merika "a spearmint" Awa Rich! To think of all those spearmints it took to land that washing machine - or was it a fridge? - on a comet. It boggles the brain Awa Rich.

I've started collaborating on a creative project with a friend from the Putney Illustration class.

This all sounds very sensible and serious Awa Rich

Not really, we're just playing a game.

That's not going to keep cake on the table or a roof over the cake is it Awa Rich?

Dunno, all the sensible, conventional ways I've tried in the past haven't worked so - if what you're doing isn't working then try something else.

The thing we're working on - though it feels more like play, and therein lies the cunning part - is a story, or a cartoon strip, or an illustrated book, or a blog, or a website, or a podcast, or a movie. It might end up being any, all or none of those things.

At the moment we're throwing words, photos, drawings, bedsteads, bicycles, old bathtubs and all sorts of things - anything we think of that's even vaguely related to the idea - into a big heap. Then we'll rummage through the heap and fit things together and see what we can create. We're shaking our headsheds to see what falls out and making some contraption from the bits.

Although we meet up once a week in the class, most of the time there is spent on class projects. So, we're using the internet. To begin with we're sending ideas back and forth via email and I'm collecting them  - building the heap - in Evernote. Every week or so we'll review it and assemble all the good bits in a Google Docs folder.

That all sounds very organised to me Awa Rich

Yep, it's something I've wanted to play with for a while. I've only used these internet collaboration tools to instruct other people how to use them but now I have an actual project - which is a different experience.

This is the process at the moment

• Use a familiar medium - email - to send thoughts and ideas between those involved.
• Bag 'em and tag 'em in Evernote.
• Eventually move all communication to a shared Evernote notebook when everyone involved is familiar with it.
• Review and select the good bits in Evernote.
• Transfer to Google Docs for review and proof reading.

This seems like a good system to get things going, as the whole thing - the content and the procedure - can grow and evolve.

• The content can and will change over time as we throw ideas into the pot.
• We can create many results - there's no particular goal other than to generate ideas, manifest them as words and pictures, and have fun.
• If nothing else I'll have a reproducible template procedure for doing this kind of work, but I expect there'll be a lot more than that.

Researching the subjects of this project has led me down all manner of interesting tributaries - which in itself is interesting and motivates me to do more.

For instance. Last week while checking the spelling of a name I discovered a treasure called Don Marquis. An American author, poet, playwright and newspaper columnist working in New York in those insane between the wars years.

I'm reading Hermione's Group of Thinkers, a satirical view of fashionable, overprivileged New York society - written from the point of view of Hermione, a young socialite. It's hilarious.

Also - the real diamond in the rough - Archy and Mehitabel. Archy is a cockroach who was a free verse poet in a previous life, and Mehitabel is an alley cat who was once Cleopatra, amongst other queens. They comment on life in a sometimes philosophical, sometimes satirical way. But always amusing and thought provoking.

The Archy and Mehitabel books are still in print and others can be found for free on the internet. This stuff is priceless, go get some now! May the Google be with you.

Microsoft Office apps for iPad are now free

Well they always were but you could only view documents unless you paid for the Office 365 account subscription.

Due to the all out turf war between Microsoft, Google and Apple over the office productivity applications territory, MS now allow Office apps on the iPad to create and edit documents and sync with the mothership via DropBox and OneDrive (MS equivalent of DropBox)

If you're a Microsoft Office user  - and find yourself in situations where an iPad is more convenient than a desktop or laptop computer - you can now get the real deal. 

I've had a quick play with Word and Excel and they both look and work well. I'm not even going to look at PowerPoint as Apple's Keynote knocks it into a cocked hat. If you've ever seen a PowerPoint presentation side by side with a Keynote presentation you'll know what I mean. PowerPoint looks like 1960s television.

Slight caveats:

1. You have to create an account - just like setting up a new email account, takes a couple of minutes. If you already have a Microsoft account of any sort then you can use that.

2. Excel doesn't do 'compatibility mode' so some older spreadsheets won't open. They must be saved as .xlsx files or converted in Excel on your 'proper' computer. That done, it works just fine.

3. They're not the full monty so some features are missing. Partly because of the operating system and partly because they're free. If you buy an Office 365 subscription you get some extras plus you're buying office for all your computers (depending on which option you go for).

I'll keep you posted once I've had more time to play with them and heard what other people have to say about their experiences.

The Rail Replacement Bus Service of Thought

Where've y'ben Awa Rich? This train of thought has been derailed never mind delayed. I demand Comping Station!

I've had a lot on my mynd lately.

Well I hope you're going to tell me about it. I could do with some inner tain men.

OK, some of it.

Good, I'm sitting comfortably.

Then I'll begin.

I've been considering my career.

You have one Awa Rich?

No, not any more. I had one and it wasn't up to much - I could write several books about that.

So get scribbling Awa Rich, we're all waiting with baited traps.

A couple of weeks ago, someone in the illustration class said something that triggered a starburst of connections in my brain. One sparklet was an idea I've been pushing around for years but only found a hook to hang it on while we were dog sitting in Sussex a few months ago.

The image that connects these two events that another class member threw into the pot was 'standing barefoot in the grass in the morning'. I walked barefoot through the dew spangled grass to pick vegetables from the garden.

I was watching a video of a 99U conference on the internet, and the woman speaking quoted Carl Sagan - "if you want to make apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe".

My ambitions are a little less grandiose. If you want to make coleslaw you must first create the life you want which includes living in a place where you can walk barefoot through the early morning dew spangled grass, to your cottage garden where you pick vegetables that you've planted and tended yourself.

I don't think I explained this to the class very well as there were a lot of blank expressions. Perhaps I was jumping from one lilypad to another and lost the thread.

This lead me to think that I've been doing this all my life. That the lack of enthusiasm for my ideas and ideals was due my inability to explain them quickly and clearly enough.

All my enthusiasm is for nought if no one is interested because every one has their own stuff to think about.

I was reading Mash Up by Ian Saunders and David Sloly and they were saying that to get other people interested in your mash up of ideas, skills, abilities and knowledge you need a unifier - One Ring to Bind Them All.

Oh, a ring binder. You make it sound so enticing Awa Rich

Alright Mister Sarcastic, how about an express elevator pitch to the penthouse flat.

Sorry I spoke now

It must have impact - to grab peoples' attention "Hey look at me!"
It must communicate clearly and succinctly what you're about.
It must persuade them that you're the person that can do stuff.

Even if they don't want what you have to offer right now, they'll remember when the right situation presents itself. Someone they know might be the person you need to meet.

Which got me to thinking about business cards of an unconventional sort.

Enough with the words, show us some picters Awa Rich!

The first idea was a kind of "In case of emergency, break glass" fire alarm thing. One of the things I want to escape from is fighting other peoples' fires. So the sealed envelope has a ribbon and a legend which says "In case of Emergency, Pul Tab" and a concertina Jack-in-a-Box sproings out listing all my talents.

I thought you wanted to escape from the emergent seas Awa Rich.

The next thought was 'Jack of All Trades'. How could I say that with a symbol? 

Looks like we're heading into playing card territory Awa Rich.

I snuffled around the internet for some suitable playing card images and found a Celtic Mythology set. I replaced this character's weaponry with a paintbrush and a wooden spoon. We're getting there

Next, I found some nice Lithuanian cards from around 1940 that were more like the standard cards we know but slightly cartoony. I based these two characters on them.

This has nothing to do with playing cards. The Swiss Army knife above is part of a series of HazMat signs I produced for another class project. I toyed with the idea of using them as business cards as they're simple and striking. Which is, after all, the purpose of HazMat signs - to let you know the peril you are in, quickly and clearly.

A series I started working on was SocHaz - Social Hazards. "Kin y'till wud it is yit?"

 That's it for now. Stay tuned for further developments.

It's a sign!

During our sojourn in Devon we sauntered over to Salcombe because everyone said "you must go to Salcombe, it's lovely".

What, everyone in the woal worl, all at once Awa-Rich?

The place is rather picturesque but the shops on the main street told the story. Is this Salcombe or Chelsea? The motorised conveyances confirmed this was indeed Cheyne Walk on Sea, as did the prices in the restaurants.

Aynho, we ambled down to North Sands in search of a long vanished hotel where a colleague of Marie's spent many happy days in her youth. Rather than go back the way we had come we took the bridlepath which was much more interesting - and steep.

This is where I saw a sign. It made me smile - although it's a serious sign doing serious work - but it was in the middle of nowhere.

A frustrated farmer with a sense of humour

Official Holidays

This week we're staying in an apartment in Stoke Fleming - a couple of miles from Dartmouth, in Devon. Yesterday (Sunday) we walked along the coastal path to Blackpool Sands - no, not that Blackpool - up a very step bridlepath back to Stoke Fleming, following the European Long Distance Path number 9. We went in search of Sunday lunch only to find the pub long closed, so we meandered back and investigated the Stoke Lodge Hotel where we had a traditional Sunday roast among a party celebrating their 25th  wedding anniversary - all dressed up as if they were wedding again.

In the evening we sat outside the apartment and I sketched the nearby houses.

Rear of houses in Stoke Fleming, Devon

My Bruvver

Did I mention I have a very talented brother?

I think you did Awa Rich, there's a linky thing over there---->

He lives in New Zealand and exhibits his painting in galleries all around the country and they're proving very popular. I know when the painting frenzy is upon him - and an exhibition dead lion is looming - as I don't hear from him for ages.

This morning I got a short email directing me to YouTube and Jimi Colzato's promotional video for his paintings in the Lightwave Gallery.

My socks are currently in orbit around Proxima Centauri! I knocks my little video into a cocked hat.

Something to aim for Awa Rich.

Cernly is.

Let's all go on a Buddha hunt

Marie has been hankering after a Buddha figure to sit in the corner of the living room for ages. Confirming that law of the universe that reveals things to you all over the place in great profusion - until you want one, when they all disappear from the face of the planet. I went hunting for one for Christmas but to no avail.

We went a hunting on Sunday around Covent Garden and - ironically - bought one that I'd looked at before Christmas. I had it in my head that she wanted a fat Chinese Buddha but the Balinese pineapple hat variety proved squally suitable.

Today - Monday - we went to the DIY superstore at the end of the lane to get a suitable plant. Marie set up The Corner of Tranquility and photographed it to send to her friends and family.

She sent me a copy too so "You could post it on your blog!" So here it is. The second thing I noticed when looking at it was my collection of 'New Age Hippy' books behind it.

Developing Applications with Microsoft Access
Developing Applications with Microsoft Outlook
AppleScript
Cascading Style Sheets
HTML Goodies
JavaScript Goodies
Agile Development with Ruby on Rails
Microsoft Excel Expert Solutions
The Richard Feynman Physics Lectures
Analogue Electronics
and etc.

All deep spiritual stuff eh Awa Rich?

I'll Ohm with that!

Good one Awa Rich! Buddhist electronic puns. Whatever next?

Show us the picter then.

Paddleboarding update

Previously on this channel... 

I recounted my adventures on the Thames with W. A. Ellis Estate Agents practicing their paddleboarding skills prior to a charity event on 21st September.

As well as putting my photographs of the afternoon on Flickr I created a very short slideshow using Apple Keynote. I thought some sort of animated slideshow is more interesting than static photographs - though both have their place.

This prompted me to shell out a chunk of cash on some software I've been meaning to buy since I discovered it a eight or nine years ago. As I was away last week, and it rained a lot, I had a chance to play with my new toy.

The results will be used to promote the paddleboarding event.

Why Keep a Journal?

TechFactoid

This post was composed using Markdown in Byword and Brett Terpstra's Marked 2. I'll tell you about them sometime.

I was reading through the beginining of my current journal - a bit like tidying an attic - and became thoroughly absorbed by this past life and my brain started listing the reasons why keeping a journal is so useful. Here's a few of my thoughts.

There are so many benefits to keeping a journal.

• To record events.
• To keep track of recurring events.
• To capture thoughts and ideas and organise them.
• To collect information.
• To get your feelings and emotions out of your head.

Record Historical Events

To record what happened, events that occurred in the world. Things that you and others around you experienced. Who did what and when and where it happened and in what circumstances. What you thought about, what you said, what they said and how your felt.
A physical chronological record, so when you look back you know the what, the when, the where, the who, the how and maybe the why too.
Whether the weather. It was interesting to read in my journal that this time three years ago the weather was much the same as it is at the moment.

Record Specific Things

What I Eat

You might want to record what you eat for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you’re on a diet or you want to remember what you ate at a certain time and place. Make comments on the quality and quantity of what you ate. Maybe you eat out a lot and want to review the places you ate.

What I Drink

You might want to record what you drink to keep track of your:-

• Fluid intake
• Caffein intake
• Sugar intake
• Alcohol consumption

These are health reasons but you might be more interested in the quality of the things you are drinking like:-

• Tea
• Coffee
• Wine
• Beer
• Spirits

This could be for your own interest or as a reviewer.

Numbers, numbers, numbers

How far, how fast, how long, how much, what time? We quantify so many things in our lives because they are significant in certain contexts.

“Them as counts counts moren them as don’t count” Riddley Walker.

“Just because you can count it doesn’t mean it counts. Just because you can’t count it doesn’t mean it doesn’t count” Albert Einstein

Now make the sound of one stone clacking.

How I Felt

What sort of mood were you in when you were eating or drinking? The context is important. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing? Why? Did you want to be there?

Legal

If you think your employer or employee is behaving badly, a chronological record of significant events and conversations is essential if things turn nasty.

Capture Thoughts and Ideas

You always think you’ll remember that thought, idea or flash of inspiration. “Of course I’ll remember. It was such a fantastic idea” but a minor distraction shifts your attention and it evaporates leaving only the memory that you had a great idea. So, write it down when it happens.

Florilegium

Other useful things to capture are:-

• Quotes and sayings
• Recipes
• Where to find that certain thing
• Books you want to read
• Music you heard and want to buy
• Anything else you want to acquire
• Where you found wild blackberries
• Any other useful facts
• Interesting words or phrases
• Instructions
  • How to do it
  • How to get there
  • How to make it
  • Nifty tricks and shortcuts
• Names and addresses (that really good plumber)
• A good restaurant
• Places to visit
• Bits of that book you’re writing, song you’re composing
• Lists, lists, lists

This is a florilegium - literally ’a gathering of flowers - a miscellany. These notebooks were kept by 16th century clerics to gather information that might be useful when writing sermons. They escaped into the wild and became fashionable with ordinary - albeit wealthy and literate - folk.

Mind Dump

Catharsis. The benefits of dumping your thoughts, and emotions onto a page are manifold. It gets them out of your head and exposes them to the light where they are less likely to cause mischief. Thoughts and emotions can run amok inside your head but get them out in the open air and they seem different. Not quite so powerful or menacing, perhaps mundane, even ridiculous.

You’re using a different part of your brain to evaluate your thoughts when you write them down and read them. The more logical, analytical part which dampens their emotional power. You put some distance between you and them. It may be only the few inches between your eyes and the page but at least they’re not inside your head.

Writing your thoughts allows you to structure and organise them and cause other thoughts and ideas to appear spontaneously. Like walking down a street and seeing all the side streets leading off to who knows where - other places to explore that you were previously unaware of, offering new possibilities. Or walking to the end of a dead end street only to discover there’s a hidden alleyway leading into a market square.

Your scrivenings can build a map that shows you the lay of your mindscape and reveal patterns and connections you didn’t know were possible until this bird’s eye view was available to you.

Writing is therapeutic and cheaper than a shrink - who may have motives different from yours that may not be in your best interests - if you become dependent on your journal, that’s a minor problem that may - in the long term - provide you with solutions. Becoming dependent on your shrink/mentor/councillor is the path to Trouble with a Capital T.

Reflect and Review

It’s always informative to look back on the day, week, month, year, decade to see how far you’ve come - or not, to see what’s changed - or not.

What do you need or want to do? Where do you want to go? Where would you like to be the next time you sit and review?

Times of Change

Something else that’s worth recording in your journal, which is related to creating a historical record, is recording events during times of great change. For instance, when Mam became ill and died. It would have, or will be, useful at some time to read about what was happening at specific moments, to note how I felt and acted. The same for others too, what they did, said and felt.

Reading it as history might make it easier to spot patterns, trends or significant milestones. It’s easier to forget and lose track of things during times of rapid change or flux - especially when emotions are heightened - as you’re devoting so much time and effort to dealing with what’s going on. What’s pressing and proximate.

Sitting quietly and writing a few notes can be an oasis, a safe haven, a time to reflect, gather your senses, think, regroup, organise and plan. Your journal can become a map in turbulent times. A valuable navigation aid.

Keep it handy!

Top Billing

Awa Nick gets Top Billing at Dunedin Art Exhibition.

If you haven't seen my brother's stuff yet, here's a taster.

The Artist's Room Gallery

If you happen to be in the Dunedin area this weekend, pop in and say Hi.

Frida Cowhlo or Vaca Sagrada

Up the Creek

Got this email forwarded from Marie on Friday morning.

“Do you think Richard would meet us at Kew Bridge at 2.30 to take some team shots and some of us on the water – perhaps even from the Bridge would be good?   I shouldn’t imagine he’d be there more than an hour.   I am not sure ‘after’ shots will be necessary tomorrow – we don’t want too many soggy team photos!”

The Boarding Party

Why not I thunk. So I wandered down the river to Q but no one there, had a mosey around and found some dude setting up boards so I asked him if he was expecting a bunch of estate agents. Yep, he sure was. "Do you want to come with us?" er, nope I've just come to take a few photos then I'll bugger off.

Aynho, they started drifting in around 2:45. The dude says "Sure you don't want to come?" Nah, a nuther time mebbe.

"You'll get some better shots from the water" I thought they just wanted a group shot with them all posing and a couple from the bridge.

"Tell you what" said the dude, "I'll get the canoe out" So I was in. I got home about 9:30 so the hour turned into 7. Good fun though and we fell into the pub afterwards.

Here's a short slideshow I created in Keynote. Just messing around.


W. A. Ellis Paddle boarding on the Thames from Richard Eggleston on Vimeo.

Showing off more like Awa Rich!

(if this staggers along and stalls - due to internet slowness - just wail until it finishes then replay it. I should be a lot smoother as your device has buffered the whole file)

Click the link below to see the rest of the antics.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vtre-felix/sets/72157645693069289/

Return to Stinkytown

The very first post on this blog was a recipe for curry made from flatulence inducing ingredients, inspired by the illustrated children's book Stinkytown by my friend Linda.

Click the link below to see the dummy Linda produced for the Putney School of Art and Design Children's Book Illustration class.

http://stinkytown.weebly.com

Clowning Around

Ode to a small piece of (epoxy) putty I found...

If you've read or listened to The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, that will mean something.

Previously on this blog, I mentioned testing some Milliput. Had it set solid or was it still useable?

Ask the clown.

Jeez Louise Awa Rich! Don't leave me here with the creepy dude.

Knot Again

In a previous post - Get Knotted - I worked out a design for a Celtic cross, used an iPad app to check that it worked and noticed that I could get the design to interlock by slightly overlapping the four units. Using the iPad saved me a lot of drawing, allowed me to mess around with the design, giving me the insight that I could overlap the units.

Int that what puters are for Awa Rich?

The next step was to figure out how to do this with traditional instruments. I'd worked out how to construct a unit in the 'Large Hadron Collider' schematic.

The 'Large Hadron Collider' Schematic

Now all I had to do was repeat the process three more times. This was filling me with some trepidation due to the amount of chaos on the page caused by all the construction lines - which would need a lot of scrubbing out later.

I thought about cutting a cardboard template but that would take some doing and add another layer of inaccuracy. There had to be a way to simplify the construction using only the instruments you can see in the photo. Even so, I'm using technology that wasn't available to 9th century monks - nope, I'm not talking about the iPad - pencils, erasers and paper didn't become available until centuries later.

That's when the holes made by the compass point shone out like a little constellation - you can see I've circled them in the drawing so I could easily find them if I needed to redraw any lines. I already had my template, all I had to do was lay the drawing over a clean sheet of paper and prick through the holes to transfer them to the new sheet, then draw the arcs with the compasses. Rotate the template through 90 degrees and repeat. This proved to be a bit of a faff, it might have been easier to line up the dots if I'd used tracing paper.

It was rotating the template about the central hole that provided the next insight. I remembered technical drawing classes at school, how we were taught how to transfer measurements from one drawing to another using a pair of compasses. This method turned out to be a lot simpler and a clear pattern emerged.

It's amazing how something that seems horribly complicated at first, suddenly simplifies itself if you keep your eyes and brain open. Patterns reveal themselves like magic.

Sometimes you have to go the long way round to discover the shortcut Awa Rich!

Hmm, most sagely. I must write that one down.

Once the positions of the compass points were transferred using the compasses, it was a simple matter of drawing the arcs.

Another insight. I've been referring to each quarter of the drawing as a unit since the whole thing is the same pattern repeated four times rotated through 90 degrees. But notice that each arm of the cross is symmetrical about a line through the centre of the pattern. What I've been thinking of as a unit is actually two smaller units reflected about that line. The cake has 8 slices, not 4.

This reminded me of tedious, dry maths classes at school. Transformations - displacement, rotation, reflection and scaling - and here I was having fun with them.

Symmetry

This post is about a journey. Ideas, patterns, problems and insights that provided solutions - so no explanation of the step by step process is included. I'll do that another time.

Now all I have to do is colour it in.

What's a Poor Bookbinder To Do?

Yesterday I was rummaging through the jumble sale section of my local branch of Lidl and came across some Moleskine type notebooks. They're A5, so an half an inch or so wider than a Moleskine, they have an elastic pencil loop that the Moleskines don't. The quality of the 80 gsm paper is superior to the Moleskine and the quality of the construction is as good if not better, they've even got headbands - which none of the others have (gasp).

On the bottom row, 2 Moleskines and a Leuchtturm £12 to £15 depending on where you buy them.
On the top row Lidl notebooks (grits teeth) £2.49!

OK, the stuff in Lidl's jumble sale is changed twice a week and you may have to wait 6 months for the same thing to come around again.

I feel a bit mean putting the Leuchtturm in with that lot as it's definitely the leader of the pack. Made in Hamburg with German quality throughout. They're the same price as a Moleskine but far better.

Made by Me!  Price TBC

Get knotted

I was reading in The Book of The Book of Kells the other day what tools the monks would have used to create the designs. It was all simple stuff, compasses, straight edges, French curves, quill pens, brushes and pointed sticks.

All the designs I've drawn so far have all been free hand. So I decided to have a go at a more accurate drawing. I don't have George Bain's book (note to self: must get hold of a copy) so I had to work it out from scratch.

And there was much scratching Awa Rich, you musv rubbed that rubber away.

It took me most of the day trying things out and scratching my head, making adjustments or starting again. This is the result, though it might be a schematic for part of the Large Hadron Collider.

These are the sketches I did earlier. You can see the scrap of paper I drew them on in the photo above.

I photographed them with the iPad, cropped them and then opened them in the Autodesk Sketchbook Pro app.

The small sketches are units for a larger design so I duplicated the layer containing the unit, rotated and moved each layer and filled in the gaps on a new layer to make the design below. It's a bit messy but it was only a proof of concept.

You'll soon be fluent in WaffleSpeak and BizzyBabble if you keep this up Awa Rich.

That seemed to work, so I did a slightly neater version.

I noticed that if I overlapped the points of the heart/pretzel shaped part I could interlock the whole design.

And here's the same thing using the design drawn with instruments.

(I seem to have acquired another keyboard dyslexia tick, there is no h in desighn as there is no u in Yourkshire).

No there int Awa Rich, you vact your wayt out of there to London.

Stay tuned for the finished version. That'll take me another couple of days. No wonder it took so long to create The Book of Kells.

By the way. Last night, while Marie was out with her office comrades at a swanky restaurant, I watched The Secret of Kells again - a brilliant animated story about the origin of The Book (that turns darkness into light!)

It's a dramatisation of the known facts and a ripping yarn. Watch it for the story, the design, the shapes (you'll see what I mean when you watch it) the illustration, the backgrounds, the music, the characters, the magic, the mythology, the jokes, the cat and the messages both hidden and explicit.

Stay with it as the end titles roll for a wee treat as the late Mick Lally (the voice of Brother Aidan) recites the poem Pangur Bán - in Gaelic, written by an Irish monk in the 9th century about his cat.

Get hold of a copy, it'll restore your faith in 2D animation. Suitable for children of all ages. The wolves and the Vikings are pretty scary though, but all is well in the end.

Knot So Fast Buster!

A good place to start telling a story is in the middle. I put this Celtic knot picture in a previous post as an example of a drawing I'd made using the 53 Paper app. on my iPad. It started as a doodle, a warm-up for some other sketches in a proper paper sketchbook, but I reworked it after drawing more of the same with pencils, coloured pencils and watercolour.

Decisions I made while using physical media influencing decisions about the digital image. Using the eraser a lot - much easier in the digital context, though in the 53 Paper app. there is only a hard eraser whereas a real eraser can be more subtle. Real paper can only withstand a certain amount of scrubbing but a digital eraser can rub out as many times as you like.

I like the effect of layering colours you get with coloured pencils, the way you can see the granular texture of the colours in the previous layers. I tried it in the digital image and achieved a fair approximation. A pleasant effect, better than flat colour. Using the pencil tool to draw the thick outlines was useful as I could over draw lines to make them stronger or ease back on others - more like a real pencil and less digital looking than using the pen or marker tool to give a solid line.

Overlaying watercolour glazes creates some interesting effects but nothing like real watercolour.

Here's a page from my sketchbook with the same design drawn with non photo blue pencil - to establish the design - overdrawn with a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil then coloured with Derwent Studio coloured pencils.

The design below has been outlined with black ink.

Finally, a more worked up version done with a combination of watercolour and coloured pencil on Fabriano Accademia Desegno e Acquarello 240 gsm natural grain paper - which is very absorbent for a paper that declares itself suitable for watercolour, though you can achieve some interesting effects once you get used to it.

The absorbency of the paper exaggerates the way watercolours dry lighter than they appear when they're wet. Some colours appear very dark when wet but almost disappear when they dry.

So, how did I get here? I was marvelling at The Book of Kells on my iPad - get it in the AppStore for the price of an average bottle of wine, you'll be enjoying it long after the wine has gone.

You should go into advertising copywriting - back in the '50s Awa Rich!

I was wondering where you'd got to.

Same here Awa Rich. I was beginning to think you'd abandoned me.

I've been fascinated by Celtic knotwork since I was a kid. My brother Nick and I went through a phase of filling any available piece of paper with intricate designs we called 'creepers' like the tendrils on a pea vine. We'd discovered fractal self similarity, though we didn't know it at the time.

A prize with no bells on it for you Awa Rich!

This made for fertile ground when I got a book about the Vikings from a 'book of the month club'. It had some knotwork design on the cover and/or there were photographs of wood or stone carvings inside. This is all fogged by the passage of time.

That's my version of the story. Nick might remember it differently.

It was Nick that took knotwork as his own thing, beginning with the dust jacket of the Vikings book. The original must have been pretty boring as he replaced it with his own design. From then on, any available surface was fair game. Take a look at his website, there's a link over there on the right.

The design in the image at the top of this post was copied from a small pendant on a troll in a Brian Froud illustration.

All this because I was scratching around some designs for a logo or monogram for my sketchbooks. Actually, a seal to replace the bead on the end of the bookmark ribbon.

Is that the future feature Awa Rich?

One of them, yes.