The Loving Mother

Have you ever been on a bus or a train, or any public space for that matter, only to be stuck next to an odious parent coarsely addressing his/her screaming children (often given diabolical names such as Dwayne, Britney, or perhaps even Armani?)? Does the parent annoy you immensely, making you question whether or not the parent actually loves the children? Well, I have on many an occasion, and one time, I had just had enough and opted to satirise such folk. I mentioned the drawing I did in one of my first posts, and now you finally get a chance to see it. The obnoxious mother's appearance was mainly based on images of such parents passing in my mind, as well as taking some inspiration from the Queen of Hearts as portrayed in Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Enjoy!

A Day in the Life of a Student at a University of a Provincial British City

Another post? So soon? Sure is! This was done back in May with my first set of Faber Castell PITT pens, just after I had finished my final year of my BA degree. But by the end of it all, I had basically had enough of being an undergraduate. Now, I shall first of all like to mention that I was content with the academic side of university and have been interested in doing some sort of postgraduate course, but I had essentially become tired of being stuck in the transitional and cliquey lifestyle of an undergraduate, ultimately a conformist existence no matter how much "alternative" stuff anyone was into. I'd spent much of the past few months in the library, from time to time finding amusement and/or displeasure in overhearing the immature whining and boastings of a great deal of arrogant and boisterous "fauxhemian" students, all in the library from the looks of things just for a coffee and a cake than to actually do any serious work.

This particular cartoon sums up a lot of the opinions I had by that stage of being a student. The dialogue was based on a conversation that a friend overheard on a bus and posted on a "post silly things u overhear" Facebook groups. Not that it should really bother most people stumbling across this blog, but the cartoon has a bit of coarse language and a few drug references, all ultimately done in good humour.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

In the darkest depths of a very cold British winter, unnerved by the night arrived just after 4pm, shrouding a below-freezing and snowy landscape in black, out came a delightful fellow from my warped mind:

This creepy creature was created with gouache, with a Faber Castell PITT pen providing the teeth. After having scanned this image into the computer, I did some minor touching up (the removal of a few pencil marks, as well as the addition of a pupil). Oh, and did I mention that I did this on Christmas Eve?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's been a while since I last posted, but hopefully any future breaks won't be over a month long. Kick starting off the month of December was a wave of snow and cold weather engulfing the European continent. Sadly, currently residing on France's Atlantic coast means that I have so far missed out on a lot of the mayhem; we got temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday just dipping south of freezing, but no snow accompanying it. So imagine my excitement this morning when I opened the curtains to find a certain something...

Once Upon a September

Once Upon a December

Out with my camera I went and took loads of pretentious arty photos in the town and the park, as well as a few videos at the beach (sand covered in snow!). Anyway, the snow has already started to melt, but I was simply happy to just hold it for even just around five minutes. Obviously the perfect start to the month of December, and a perfect thing to get anyone in the mood for Christmas.

"Out in the woods stood such a pretty little fir tree."

And speaking of Christmas, snow, and winter: here's a drawing that I did a month or two, inspired by the Christmas tale, The Fir Tree, a yarn penned by none other than Hans Christian Andersen. I was coming up with ideas for illustrations and Christmas designs at the same time, and the two ended up fusing together into one image.