14 Sunday Oct 2018
Tags
Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park, comic book, Comics, Ink, Inktober, Inktober2018, Walking
Following on from yesterday’s post here’s panel number two.
I split the panel in two and put two different scenes in the background to give the impression of movement.
The far leg isn’t great, and we won’t talk about the hands, but it’s looking okay in regards to comic books and storytelling.
Two more panels to go and then I’ll have to think of something else to ink.
13 Saturday Oct 2018
Posted in Art, Birmingham Literature Festival, Comics, Drawing, Ikon Gallery, Inktober, The Arts, writing
Tags
Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, Cath Tate, Dr Nicola Streeten, Drawing, Drawing Challenge, Graphic Novel, Ikon Gallery, Inktober, Inktober2018, uk
Yesterday, No.1 Daughter and I went to a marvellous workshop at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The workshop was run by Dr Nicola Streeten and Cath Tate as part of the Birmingham Literature Festival.
We looked at visual story telling through greetings cards and graphic novels. Cath talked us through her work and considerations for greetings cards and Nicola the same for graphic novels. The two hours flew by and incorporated some fun and challenging drawing activities. The culmination of this was all of us producing our own four panel stories. The daughter and I agreed to leave our work there as a backdrop for a talk today, so I’ve recreated/completed the first panel above here.
Here are some pics of the work we produced on the night.
02 Tuesday Oct 2018
Posted in Birmingham Literature Festival, books, Networking, Reading, Short Stories, writing
Tags
Birmingham, Birmingham Literature Festival, Birmingham Rep, coffee, Pastry, reading, short stories, uk
I’ll be reading a short story, along with a host of excellent writers, and selling some books as part of the Room 204 meet up. It kicks off at 10:00 am this Saturday, October the 6th, at the Mezzanine, Birmingham REP.
Click here for booking details – entry includes coffee and a pastry!
30 Sunday Sep 2018
Posted in Art, Drawing, Sketchtember
For some unknown reason, I always called this toy Space Monkey, but it quite clearly says Millenium Gorilla on his round badge – in reality, not in my sketch.
I’m feeling even rougher than when I last posted so ten minutes or so was all I could manage with this. It’s drawn with charcoal pencil from Tiger. They’re quite lovely to draw with, and you can get a decent black out of them. I’m not sure how well Millenium Gorilla gets on with those massive feet. It must be a bugger getting in and out of airlocks.
25 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Art, Drawing, Sketchtember
Today was a wonderfully bright day, so I went for a lunchtime walk through Cannon Hill Park. This pen sketch captures the dramatic long shadows cast by the trees.
23 Sunday Sep 2018
Posted in Art, Drawing, Sketchtember
Tags
Whoops. I missed a couple of days due to being very busy and very tired.
I was tidying up yesterday and I found some charcoal pencils I’d forgotten I’d bought. I thought I’d give them a go today. Desperate for ideas of what to draw I asked my daughter to pick out some toys I could sketch and here they are.
This first one isn’t great – the ears are way too short. The second one is much better.
11 Tuesday Sep 2018
Posted in Mantle Lane Press, Short Stories, writing
Remember that? The writing thing? Well, I’ve some good news with regards to published work and public performances.
First up, Mantle Lane Press have taken my short story, Electricity, to be included in a wonderful anthology that focuses on outsiders. The collection is entitled Songs for the Elephant Man. They’re also going to publish a long short story of mine called, Submerged. More news on this soon.
On the performance front, I’ll be reading a short story as part of a Room 204 sharing session at the Birmingham Literature Festival, and reading at Country Voices at a cosy pub in Ironbridge.
I’ll add full details soon.
06 Thursday Sep 2018
Posted in Art, Drawing, Sketchtember, writing
Well, this is awkward. Staring at me for just under an hour was a bit weird, but very rewarding. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not floating on a narcissistic high. No. I’m pleased, very pleased because this looks a bit like me.
There’s not a lot of shadow in this because I sat in the conservatory to do it and it was reasonably bright. This is pencil on paper. I used my ‘trusty’ H pencil again. I need to go through the art stuff that we have here and see what else we have. If I can get into town this weekend, I may treat myself to some charcoal!
I thought I’d show you some work in progress shots too this time.
Let me know what you think.
02 Sunday Sep 2018
Posted in Art, Birmingham, Drawing, Live Music, Writing West Midlands
Tags
Art, Birmingham, Drawing, Moseley, Moseley Folk Festival, sketching, Sketchtember, uk
Apologies for the awful pun, but I couldn’t resist as I’m at the Moseley Folk Festival today.
This sketch was another 15-20 minute jobbie. It was a lot harder than the Brian sketch as I felt very self-conscious as people were all around me and people tend to move, a lot!
This one is also pencil, I may add some inks later to give it some more depth.
Im really enjoying this so far; I forgot how good it feels to draw.
01 Saturday Sep 2018
Tags
Time for me to put my money where my mouth is and to post my first sketch for Sketchtember.
Here you can see our family cat, Brian, in all his glory. This was quite a quick sketch, about 15-20 minutes using an H pencil which was the first pencil I could find as my daughter has most of the art stuff squirrelled away in her room.
When I was younger, I used to draw all the time; I was very much like my daughter in that I would draw for hours every day for the sheer joy of it. These days I rarely draw anything, so I’m hoping that Sketchtember will reignite my love of drawing.
I hope you enjoy this.
Garrie Fletcher 