2015 Sketches

 If you're worried you put on weight over Christmas just read the loving messages, the emotional outpourings people are publishing right now across all social media and you'll vomit everything back up.

I don't usually look back on the year as its ending, much in the same way I don't look into my tissue when I sneeze. It's not gonna be pleasent. So I was startled when I realised this had actually been an alright year. I had a full time job, then when that contract ended I took a chance on studying animation. I am having a nice time.

All that stuff has taken away the time I used to spend drawing, but I grab spare moments when I can to do it. Here's some topical Infamous Five sketches from this year. See you in the next one!

Rogers vs Stark

Have you seen the trailer for Civil War? I saw the trailer for Civil War. I may be a little excited for Civil War.

I ditched their masks so that I could draw angry facial expressions. Assume their masks fell off earlier in the scuffle. That'd be a less interesting movie title, wouldn't it? Captain America: Civil Scuffle. Masks seem to come off a lot in superhero movies, even when the characters are fighting. I suppose if you've paid millions of dollars for a certain actor, you want to see their face.

I haven't given Iron Man any specific armour here. He always seems to have a different suit so I invented my own, based on the theme 'I don't know anything about robotics oh my god I'll just make it up as I go along shit um okay better put some extra bits here to make it look more machinery'.

 

The only change I made to Captain America is losing the pouches he has on his belt. Okay, so they make him look more like a soldier, but Ive never seen him take anything out of them. It owuld be cool if he did. Bandages, sewing kit, a dry biscuit ration even though he fights in cities and there's three Starbucks literally right there.

Smash Bros Assemble

I like The Avengers. I like Super Smash Bros. So I drew the Smash characters posing as the Avengers did in their movie poster. I should add, I don't mix every two things I like. I enjoy bacon and showers, but I would never- hmm, actually...

Sadly, I'm not the first to have this idea. As I often find with my ideas, the internet got there first. However, those versions were different to what I imagined. The internet may have gotten there first, but they hadn't tasted my particular brand just yet. I wonder where that metaphor took your mind.

Despite my enthusiasm, this took a while. When I started this, Avengers Assemble may still have been in the cinema. Pokémon Trainer isn't even in Smash Bros anymore. I wanted to get the costumes and composition just right. I know the composition was already laid out for me in the poster but I was inserting different people into it. Mario's giant cartoon head, for example, doesn't quite match Chris Hemsworth's chisled jaw. A 3 year long process began of working on it, setting it aside, doing other things, working on it, setting it aside again.... when it was finally close to finish, my computer broke. My external hard drive had broken the same month. This drawing, including every other drawing I posted and was planning on posting on this website, was in danger.

"You've probably lost everything." I was bluntly told. But I decided not to listen to the disinterested shop worker who hadn't even seen the computer yet, someone who had to be cajoled into doing most of her job. Instead, I took it elsewhere to get fixed and my data recovered. That's a long story, but all you need to know is that it took time. It took money. And I'm very happy I finally got this assembled.

Texture courtesy of bstocked.

Infamous Flight

Back in June I shared my sketch book, the one I scribbled in desperately whilst my energy was sapped by a "real job". It was a student shop in East London you may recall, and shortly after that contract ended the company that owned it sent me to another one they had in central London. It was nice, but TINY. I had been working in the flagship store and now I'd been sent to what appeared to be the unfertalised egg of a shop.

Oddly, it was in two parts. The second was located in another part of the university. It also tiny, but longer. Like a sperm? How far do I want to go with this reproduction metaphor? The manager did tell me they were planning to merge the shops into one. The miracle of life/retail.

The staff only totaled 4 when I arrived and the number of customers weren't much higher. Summer, you know. Usually the university was packed with rich foriegn students. So even though the shop was tiny, the unversity itself was VERY grand. It made East London look crummy, and I already thought that before seeing this place. It was a real eye-opener to the disparity between rich and poor. Not that I fought the power or anything. I just peed in the shiney bathrooms and ate in the wood-panel walls of the brasserie, a word I don't think I ever quite pronounced correctly. I really enjoyed sketching in that place, and what I sketched were The Infamous Five.

I have a little trilogy of Infamous drawings, all of them as non-sensical as this one. I've decided to colour them all. The third one is the biggest, but the next one is the weirdest.

Rayman vs Kirby

This is the 6th installment of my Game vs Game series, Rayman vs Kirby! I drew this a long time ago, only recently made the time to ink and colour it. Back before I even put pencil to paper, I remember wanting to put Rayman up against someone but couldn't think of who. As I've said before, I try to make pairings of similar characters. Megaman fought Bomberman, Spyro the Dragon fought the Bubble Bobble dragons... who could Rayman fight? What even is he? A strange, magical, alien... thing? At some point I recalled Kirby was also a strange magical alien thing, and here we are.

This is the first in the series to be drawn on paper! Back when I started Game vs Game, I was learning how to draw entirely digitally. What I ultimately learned was I prefer paper.

If you want to see the rest of the series, here are some convenient links!

Sonic and Tails vs Banjo-Kazooie
Earthworm Jim vs Fox McCloud
Donkey Kong vs Conkers
Spyro vs Bubble Bobble
Megaman vs Bomberman

Fantasy Week, Part 7

• The first creature uses its long scrawny arms to pull creatures into its mouth full of thick broken teeth, and pulverizes into them for food. Excess bones and blood get spat out the hold in its head. At this point I should tell you the theme for this page is monstrous horrors.
• To me nothing looks more lethal than something skinny and spikey, something that's too quick and nimble for you to fight back whilst it cuts you with every touch. I'm not even sure what this spikey thing is, a robot, a bug, an alien, just keep it away from me.
• A floating monster skull surrounded by spinning fire, should effectively frighten any adventurer, perhaps more so than it did whilst alive.
• Okay, this cloaked monster isn't quite so scary. It has a simple grumpy face and what looks like a dumpy lizard body. Whatever. It knows the crowd it wants to hang out with.
• Alright, I had a little bit of space at the bottom of the page and what happened was a dragon in the shape of glasses. Don't tell me you wouldn't be scared if you opened your glasses case and saw those staring at you.

The theme here was anthropomorphic, creatures that are more humanly shaped than animal.

• The first guy looks mean. The kind of mean that'll cause you problems whether you get in his way or not.
• Cyclops guy is angry. Judging by his dress, maybe he just lost a swim competition. Or won? Angry, cheering, it's always hard to tell with a cyclops.
• Originally I was going to write that the theme of this page was 'monster solders' but it's hard to imagine this pudgy thing with janky arms being a soldier. Imagine being told this guy was gonna defend you.
• I didn't mean for the last creature too look sleepy. I wanted narrowed eyes, but to convey thought and intensity. Instead, she looks, well... let's say that magic has a lot of slang terms and you feel hungry after performing it.

Guess the theme. Go on. I dare you.

• The first bird has such a bushy head and tail it could hide in an actual bush. Which seems odd, 'cos it doesn't seem like you're taking the advantage of flight if your camouflage depends on what's on the ground.
• I had the idea for this creature for a while but didn't get round to it for a long time. Why do we do that? Anyway, it's a wingless bird so tiny that it flies by gripping onto the spinning propeller-like blades of a certain plant.
• Almost every one of these birds have a unique pattern on their large, droopy wings. On the rare occasions that two birds discover they share a pattern, they fly off. Scientists aren't sure where, nor are they sure if they're flying off to fight or fu- the other thing.
• I suppose I like the idea of ear wings because I drew them again on this bird, with even more wings down its body. Without feet to land, it instead rests by dripping vines with its head feather and hanging from it.
• The last bird has a beak that beings from the top of its head, providing a sturdy helmet. What? You don't know how tough some of those clouds are.

THAT'S IT! The end of Fantasy Week 2015. Actually I've got a couple more pages like this but I need to save up for Fantasy Week 2016. I don't know what I'll be posting next... I hope you'll come back to find out!

Fantasy Week, Part 6

• It doesn't matter how beautiful the rest of your coral reef body is, if you start off with a giant clam for a head, people are gonna keep their distance.
• This fish-man looks like he'd be quite pleased if people kept their distance.

This page started with a lizard so happy I couldn't see how anything else on this page could be anything but smiling.

• The first creature, though clearly a demon of some kind, seems just as scared of Hell as anyone else.
• The centaur creature pushed itself onto four legs so as not to be defined as a bug. Bugs get squished. Centaurs gets bows.
• Werewolves belong in 'horror' more so than fantasy, in my opinion. Although, that's my opinion in blogger-mode. In drawing mode, my opinion is 'let me draw what I like, you internet twat.'
• The slab of rock with its crown-like head fancies itself a king. It could very well be a king, but no one's gonna take orders from a rock.
• I felt the last thing I drew should have as much energy as the werewolf. Or at least, more energy than the rock. So here's a running, flightless bird. It looks scared. It may be pissed I made it flightless. Hey, at least I put the wolf running in the opposite direction.

Fantasy Week, Part 5

• I don't know how much mischief that first creature can cause with just a head and four little legs but with an expression like that I wouldn't want to test him.
• Not many bears have a long flowing mane yet this one seems determined not to be thought of as less powerful.
• I asked my boyfriend to give me a word and I'd come up with a creature related to it. He said 'dront'. That made me think of a short, tough, aggressive creature so I drew this armoured horned beast. He later told me 'dront' was Swedish for 'dodo'. Oh. Well, I got the 'short' part right.
• A mechanical bug with fire coming out the butt. Who would invent such a thing? My theory is that it crawls around bars for all those people that ask "Got a light?" My second theory is that it incinerates anyone who asks "Got a cigarette?"
• Another fish with seaweed hair apparently, although this one has a shell hat. He appears to be on his way to a party. I certainly didn't plan to draw him that way. Perhaps I just wasn't invited.

• Two days ago I said I would include monkeys on these pages, but didn't really know what to do with them. Do you see what I mean now? I drew this guy and I liked it, but there's no fantasy element to here. It's just a monkey. I guess, subconciously, I think monkeys are pretty cool and varied enough as they are.
• Drawing wings on the side of that bird's head meant it was destined not to fly, but I don't care. I like it this way.
• This snake doesn't have eyes on its head, it has them everywhere else instead. That's a nice little rhyme, so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

There may have been a theme attempted here, to make each creature on this page a monstrous beast. It starts off strong enough with the bat creature, but then the wolf I followed it up with looks rather fluffy and wide-eyed. No claws, no snarling teeth. The demon creature has those, but his stance isn't imposing, he could be waiting at a bus stop. Then there's a little bug, simply keeping company. Don't get me wrong, I ilke these guys. But the theme that started with the bat, seemed to end with it.

Fantasy Week hasn't ended though. More tomorrow!

Fantasy Week, Part 4

• You've heard of the Three Wise Monkeys, right? Avoiding evil by covering their eyes, ears and mouth with their hands? Well this monkey is a little more proactive and prefers to use his giant hands to give evil an old fashioned beat down! Or steal bananas, I forget which.
• The fat fish is in fact mostly air, floating about the ocean and gulping whatever comes its way. The obvious course of action is, of course, not to go its way but it somehow always needs to be where other fish need to go.
• Bugs thought they'd have an easy time when they heard one species of frog ditched two of its legs as 'fuck you' to the whole jumping thing. It was a nasty surprise when they discovered the frog had instead developed a far superior tongue to its cousins.
• The hairy thing with the horns leads a primarily sedantry lifestyle and as such can mislead others into thinking its harmless. Just remember, it has those horns for a reason.
• Here's the first machine of these fantasy-filled pages. So exciting! It's purpose? It fills awkward space left by artists making up composition as they went along. The next machines are more interesting.

This is the first time I set myself a goal on one of these fantasy pages, a little theme. I wanted each creature to be made of something different to the other. I ended up with something mechanical, biological and then a spooky thing. I hope I don't lose your interest for the rest by saying this, but, this is one of my favourite pages.

• Machines are becoming a regular feature now as I go with another robot, only this has much much simpler shapes. He's not actually smiling, that's just how the two halves of his head fit together. It's easy to forget that though and find yourself charmed by him. Some people deliberately forget.
• Despite his giant sharp teeth, this creature is more grouchy than dangerous. Smaller creatures like to relax on its huge fluffy body, and though he finds it annoying the grouchy creature always misses them when they're gone.
• If I recall correctly, I started drawing this plant creature thinking 'Don't just draw a flower person, do something more creative'. I was left with a flower person. I love it anyway.
• The fish came about from the thought 'What would a fish with seaweed hair look like?' The answer was just dandy. It looks just dandy.

More tomorrow!

Fantasy Week, part 3

• The first creature looks like it's from space, and it looks like it was a mean creature in charge of something. At his current size, that probably won't carry over here. But the floating cloak is a neat trick.
• Sometimes when I make up birds, I like to go crazy with the beaks. This bird's entire face is a beak, with similar material on its legs. Maybe it has run-ins with that dragon from yesterday, or feeds on a rather tough worm.
• The smaller bird next to it can't fly as high or as far but it's happy to get any lift, even if its tail still drags along the ground.
• Despite the popular myth, cutting a worm in half does not give you two worms. This one, however, is already two worms. Good luck getting near it with a blade.
• A trend starts on this page where I include monkeys on these monster-filled pages but don't really know what to do with them. I think the reason for that is that I peaked with this monkey that is also a banana.
• The bat? I'll be honest with you, there was space in the middle of the paper which I just decided to fill with a bat.

• Snakes think slithering is the best method to get around but this one discovered springing.
• Bees dies when they sting someone, this one had the good sense to grow more than one stinger.
• The horns on this slug's shell would make great handles if you wanted to ride it, although the compromise is that you wouldn't get anywhere particularly fast.
• See what I mean about going mad with beaks? This one's got a whole headress thing going on with his.
• I imagine this petal-headed reptile camoflauges itself by hiding in a bunch of flowers, and hopes no one notices one of the flowers has a long green lizard face poking out. 
• I based the last one on a lynx. Lynxes are beautiful and I'm not sure why I don't draw them more often.

• You'd think being a dinosaur-dragon would be more exciting than what this one's facial expression is currently protraying. Maybe he thinks his pattern of square makes him boring, like that famous expression "Be there, or be a square-patterned dinosaur-dragon."
• This duck-like creature is just happy, and that makes me happy.
• I'm annoyed that the hairy little mammal is apparently staring up at the dino-dragon, I didn't want anything on these pages to be intereacting with each other. But at least someone is interested in those squares.
• I'm rather fond of this chunky fish. I don't think it'd be nimble enough to strip off your flesh in seconds like a piranha, but it'd give you a decent tug-of-war with your leg. Or boat engine.

More tomorrow!

 

Fantasy Week, Part 2

I did most of the talking yesterday, so let's just fill up on drawing.

• An angry cloud with lightning hands and hair. Cartoonists always draw storms so angry. Thunder isn't a happy sound, I suppose. But if you make the cloud laugh hard enough it'll pee rain itself and eventually disappear.
• A jet-propelled plant. Presumably it got bored waiting on the ground for bugs to fall into its mouth, so went after them instead. That's what I did.
• This Ant is so big it needs its own ant nest. Don't call it 'the queen' though, its very sensitive about its masculinity.
• A Snowman with ice boots (as in boots made out of ice) and a pair of boxing gloves. You'd think if it liked sports it'd be more into skiiing or something.

• The bog monster is too cute to be called a monster but it is at least from a bog.
• I'm not entirely sure what the genie-robot thing is. Oh, I appeared to have answered my own query. It's a genie-robot thing.
• This happy looking quadraped probably has some ferocious ancestors, but now they've been bred-out to make the perfect pet. Dog? Cat? We're in an imaginary fantasy realm, so let's call it a dog-cat and move on.
• This sea-dragon is adorable and that's all I have to say about it.

I'm not sure if I meant for everything on that page to be so friendly looking when I started but I'm happy that's where it went.

• This crawly lizard has a cheeky smile which makes me wonder what it can hear with those long ears.
• This cat looks like a fighter and if it doesn't go by the name 'Fancy Whiskers', it should.
• We end with the most traditional of fantasy creatures, a dragon. Even though we had a dragon earlier. This one has wings however, so many in fact that it never needs to land, which is just as well for everyone concerned. Unless you're one of the smaller flying creatures I've drawn in later pages.

More tomorrow!

Fantasy Week, Part 1

One of my favourite things to do in drawing is to fill a page with fantasy animals and monsters. The first time I did this was because I had some specific ideas I wanted to put down, but since then it's just been a fun exercise for the imagination. I've been doing this for years and I finally made time to scan them all in.

An Octopus with a skull on it. Octo-Pirate? Why not. A fish with flame-like fins, keeping the water warm without having to pee. If it peed as well as having flame-fins it'd probably cook itself. A tree that carries around boulders because, well, those branches always looked like hands to me and there's not much else lying around a forest. Carrying around another tree would be rude. And a bug with a face shaped like a fist so don't think 'drink' when people warn you about it giving you a 'punch'.

These ideas were in my head before I started drawing, though I may have come up with the bug when I ran out of space for anything other than an insect. What followed after that were pages of whatever happened when I put pencil to paper.

Thus begins the Fantasy Week 3! Updates every day, of either one or multiple pages. Depends on how good I think those pages are or how much I can be bothered to write... See you tomorrow!

Game Grumps vs Mario 64

I've mentioned before that I sometimes watch/listen to the Game Grumps whilst I'm drawing. I really enjoyed their Mario 64 play-through, and decided it was about time I whipped something up featuring the Grumps themselves.

SKETCHBOOK FURY, Part 4 - Rule with an Iron First

As I've mentioned here once or twice, or a million times, I like fantasy. So after getting all excited about drawing superheroes, I got bored, and moved onto another idea I had, and now I'm just expecting you all to go along with it.

A few years ago I was irritated by the fact most  main characters of fantasy, science fiction, or any adventure story were young and handsome. Which is weird, 'cos I can completely relate to that. Ghandi said 'be the change you want to see in the world' and I'm certain he was talking about comics, so I came up with an older character. He's fun to draw. A weathered but humoured look, strong jaw but kind eyes, grey hair and an iron fist. I'd heard the phrase 'rule with an iron fist' when I was a teen and I ended up taking it rather literally.

I like the idea of an elf with bad habits and a shaved head. Someone who's almost embarrassed to be eternally beautiful. I like the idea of a female blacksmith because why the hell not, and a warlock decked out in ripped jeans and a black hoody because cloaks are for those dull sorcerer types who take things way too seriously. In general, I'm against civilians owning weapons. But if they were ancient war axes, crossbows and pikes... I'd at least see the appeal.

Griffins are part lion, part bird. But what's the top half? Bird, or lion? I drew both. I'll pick later. I know they tend not to own suits but 'griffin' could so easily be the name of a powerful corporation. That scorpion lady is my version of a gorgon. Traditionally, they're snake-haired and serpent-bodied. But we've seen that before. Hair of scorion tails. Claws wrapped around hands. How does she open doors, you ask? I'm sure the people fleeing ahead of her will solve that problem.

Though all those tentacles and eyes tested my patience, I at least had the cyclops to balance it out afterward. I made each of those eyes look in different directions. Who knows what they're really looking at, or where, or when. Whilst drawing him, I thought it would be interesting that not only would he have a giant, central eye, but that it would be the only one that is always closed. The cyclops, having only just one, tends to make a big deal about it. Like the griffin, they're in suits. Monsters in suits. There's something about it.

Was Smaug the first dragon to be depicted upon a mountain of treasure, or was it a traditional idea that Tolkien used in his own story? I sure hope it's the latter, 'cos this would be mine. Hence the title. 'Not Smaug.' Drawing those coins began as a chore, but I ended up drawing so many my mind switched off and I almost enjoyed it. Almost. Making up random treasures to dot around was fun though.

That big dragon pic was the climax of my sketchbook. As tempting as it was to draw another figure so that I could end my first book and hold it proudly, I wanted to end big. Now I can *really* hold it proudly. Thanks for looking.

SKETCHBOOK FURY, Part 3 - Seven Ways to Win

I said there'd be more superheroes. Here are more superheroes.

Doctor and Soldier

There's really no reason for her to be wearing a white coat. She's out fighting. But I like how it looks. It's a doctor's version of a cape.You might be wondering why the solider has one small gun and one large gun. It's because I like the dynamic difference between the two. It's because he relies on skill as much as power. And it's because I had to make the gun smaller to fit on the page.

Eyeball Man and Plant Kid

I was pondering a new type of visual, and a guy with giant detached eyeballs was what I came up with. I remember a satisfying moment when I showed a friend and he said 'urgh'. That was an older sketch though when I made them gooey. They don't need to be gooey. It's gross enough. I hope his handsome face and thick stylish hair will counter too much 'urgh'. Plant Kid wants to be tough but has this embaressing problem where pretty flowers grow out of him. But if his ego gets bruised to much, he can always pull out some giant thorned vines and Dionaea muscipula. He wouldn't know that's what they're called though.

Blood Queen and Boil

Blood doesn't come out of clothes, so she doesn't wear clothes. I developed a trait in the sketchbook where I would draw women holding a knife, and their body would end where the blade is. The Knife Girl sketches had it yesterday.A rough guy covered in boils that can be fired off like little cannon balls sounds like perfect villain material, so on that basis I made him a hero. Naturally.

Portal Man

I always thought portals were cool. Jumping into them, flying through a tunnel of spiralling light and then popping out somewhere new and exciting. So a guy who could just conjure them up whenever to wherever he wants seemed really interesting to me. The energy he's surfing on? A bonus. I figured it'd give him a better entrance than clumsily falling out the portal.

That's it for the superheroes. But not for the sketchbook. See you tomorrow for the final round!

SKETCHBOOK FURY, Part 2 - Superheroes

I knew the first page of my sketchbook would be The Infamous Five. I wanted to start with something solid, 'cos if I messed up page one then I'd lose all hope and tear the book up. I might have an overdramatic personality. After I'd finished the first page, I was free to throw down. But what? Then I realised (and this is going to sound obvious), I realised I could draw whatever I wanted.

We rarely do anything we want. We forget that we can do anything we want. Okay maybe not anything, you can't rent the Great Wall of China and race ostriches across it with Samuel L Jackson, what I mean is we can try at things we want. Going for that job, learning that language, playing that instrument, writing that book or drawing that comic. Because it's too hard, or we don't think we'll be good at it, or we're waiting for the right time. So as a result, we don't do it at all. Well, some of us don't. Others move past that insecurity and become rich and succesful. Or poverty-stricken failures. Or dead. It's a broad spectrum of results.

I wanted to draw superheroes. So that's what I did.

Now, superheroes are pretty much done. Every name has been picked, every power has been taken, every way to save the world has been saved... But I don't care. I like superheroes. I want my own superheroes. So I created these guys. I created them long time ago, but I'd set them aside for The Infamous Five. But I was working now. My time was gone, my energy depleted, all I had left was this sketchbook at lunch time. For the time being, all I have to do is keep drawing. So I drew the superheroes I'd come up with in college, characters I'd only drawn sporadically since. And it was thrilling to draw them again.

Strong Guy, Smoke Girl

It'd be pointless detailing names and story, enthusiasm is always killed when you tell everyone your idea before executing them. I'm keeping it vague. Besides, if you can't figure out their powers from what I've drawn here then I've failed anway. On the left, I'm trying to figure out the face for 'Strong Guy'. I wanted him monstrous, but still perceivably human. Some were too monstrous. Some were too human. Others, I just didn't like the haircut... that's a similar process to the dating scene when you think about it.

As for the girl, I wanted her grumpy because... well she has smoke pouring out of her mouth. Wouldn't you be grumpy if that happened? Well. I suppose it depends what you were smoking.

Laser Kid, Earth Girl, Knife Girl

These guys, I already knew how I wanted them to look and dove straight in. Want more? I've got more. See you tomorrow.

SKETCHBOOK FURY, Part 1 - "Where the hell have you been?!"

'Frantic Sketching' would be more accurate, but 'sketchbook fury' sounds better. Hey! It's been a while. I always hated reading that on other people's blogs. "Been a while? I don't care what your excuse is, no excuses! You can find 5 minutes to draw!" And now I am that guy. So, you know... here are my excuses.

I started working at my old university's shop. We sell food, books, digital equipment and most excitedly for me, ART SUPPLES. It's pretty sweet. It's also exhausting. We're a small shop in a big uni. I'm on my feet all day, always moving around, lifting things or talking to students and staff. Plus, I gotta commute there for an hour. Then I commute an hour home, as is the nature of these things. I don't know who's reading this. Maybe you're an army lieutenant who spent 4 months sweating inside a dessert tank protecting a small village/oil pipeline, or a doctor in Africa who's been kidnapped by rebels threatening you with execution unless you cure their tyrannical leader's pox. 'Poor you.' say the lieutenant and doctor. 'Having to take a little train ride to your little shop.' Alright fine Captain Lieutenant and Professor Doctor, your jobs are harder than mine, but mine still leaves me exhausted. It's not my fault you forgot your tank keys or mistook the rebel insignia for the Baskin' Robbins logo and walked right up to them asking for a banana caramel, is it? No it's not.

Sure, having this job means I've got more money than I've had in a while. I can finally afford banana caramel. But for a while I wasn't producing any work. At first it was just a few days. Then a few weeks. And with a slow creeping horror I realised that unless I do something this could be how my life goes forever. So I bought a sketchbook.

I mean, that part wasn't difficult. Like I said. We sell art supplies. The problem was finding time and energy. See before, I had the entire day to draw. And oh how I used it. I used the whole luxurious day to perfect and obsess over every line to my heart's content. I'd draw on my computer, or piece of paper I could file away nicely into pre-designated folders. I can't do that now. I have limited time. Lunch breaks, tea breaks and evenings if I can muster the strength when I get home. I have to draw quick. I can't focus on details, I just have to produce a thing. I was even brave enough to use ink. It's actually been a good experience. This is how an artist is supposed to practice, and now I've been forced into it. The result? I have my first completed sketchbook.

It was a small thing, to start me off. Cheap. A few pages. And I drew purely for fun. I drew my characters. Some you know (that is of course The Infamous Five right at the top) and some you don't. I don't feel ready to show them. Perhaps you're not ready to see them. But like I said. I'm rather pressed for time. But not so pressed for time I can resist doing this in 3 parts. See you tomorrow!