Messing around with Paper (digital)

I was rummaging around in my drawers - as you do - and came across a pack of Milliput (epoxy putty) and wondered if it was still useable or had it set solid?

Milliput alway reminds me of the sticks of gelignite used by bank robbers in old American black and white gangster movies, I cut a slice from each of the sticks and kneaded them together like a good Peterman (that would be a safe blower Awa Rich) and it was still good. I couldn't resist making a head from the marble sized ball that resulted - having no leaks to fix or cracks to plug.

The face of this creature put me in mind of Pierrot the clown, so I snuffled around on the Googles for some pictures. Seems I'm not the only one who finds all those Comedia del Arte characters a bit creepy. There was a stunning photograph by a young Swedish art student of a doll, but shot so that it looked like a person. Very beautiful but faintly disturbing. Clowns and dolls, guaranteed to give me the collywobbles. It must have been all those black and white Hammer Horror films I watched in the '60s.

That led me on to drawing on my iPad with the 53 Paper app, probably the simplest graphics app available - limitation being the muse of creativity and all that. Drawing on a computer or iPad with a stylus is a lot more difficult than using the real deal - pencil and paper - but, as with everything, practice makes pretty good. Plus, I find that the different experiences of using a computer and physical materials produce inspirational flashes that have me zipping back and forth between the computer and my drawing table to try out what I've just discovered. Try this at home!

Them would be those transferrable skills you used to teach to YTS trainees Awa Rich.

Indeed.

I'd been monkeying about with some very basic Celtic knots - for reasons I'll explain later - but wasn't too happy with the drawing on the iPad, so I had another crack at it and was more satisfied with the result. Drawing on the iPad is a good warm-up exercise.

I was thinking about some little characters for a story I'll tell you about sometime and was leafing through a book of Swedish Folk Tales illustrated by John Bauer (are you listening Brian Froud?) After a few abortive attempts at getting the look I wanted, I erased the page and started on a drawing for the Pierrot character inspired by the strangely beautiful doll photo.

I'll show you the model when it's finished.