converting fame to notoriety

flushed wit the fame and success of last night.. i went and searched out an old painting... of the earth mother... unfortunately the image was viewed the girls with utter shock and horror... it was not appreciated at all... it is now back in hiding (except for the photo here of course)

the offensive earth mother "rock painting" 


i am actually proud of this painting & a bit pizzled.. it was done in western france about three years ago and is in the style of the paleolithic sites in the south of france and northern spain (they only depict animals)... whilst i didn't use natural ochres (i actually used kids powder paint)... i did work out how to use a mouth spray and various template shapes (mainly my hands and bits of cut-out cardboard) to create the painting on a boards covers with paster and sand to resemble a rock... the painitng is about 1 meter tall.

a party of sorts & more da vinci code deja vu

there was a bit of an impromptu party here last night... and all my friend's friends are ladies... were all sighs dreams about to come true... actually not... the conversation was lively, all at the same time, and the giggling getting louder and louder... unfortunately the subjects were shopping, tv soaps, more shopping, new shoes, mens butts in fottball shorts, more shopping... i made myself usefull mixing the cocktails..

tourists at the louvre 


suddenly things got quieter and the discussion got to culutral things, books and the da vinci code... so i trotted out my glastonbury sketches...i think i made a good impression too..!

then I started showing off... I have a sketch or two of the louvre

a templar chapel in venice 


... & a couple of sketches of an orginal 13th century templar chapel in venice.

an original templar carving 


but the amusing things is..... i was asked if 'are you doing illustrations for the book'... all my drawing are between 15 and 7 years old.... drawing well before the book was written...

a private session with jali

I had a lot of fun back in freaky fat chicks last night... and i could almost keep up... then I got the bad news that jali's watercolour had vanished... it had..! so I found in my archive and its uploaded below... but I started some new sketches in pencil.. very soft graphite pencil in fact... as way of compensation

a struggle with composition and shadows 


it was time to start a proper nude and jali was happy to model but without my web cam on.. anyway I started out fairly conventionally... yet it was hard to get a good composition with the reclined position... but after a fair bit of silliness with font sizes... ( so jali could read my instructions for so far away from the screen ) this turned out ok..

during a break for the model, and change of position, it found a much better composition, that became a much more powerful sketch... ruban's would be pleased!

thanks jali

the wonderfull rubanesque form of jali 

a coffee for kat

a sigh special cappuccino 

i'm now the unofficial master coffee maker here... so I thought i'd try my hand at a virtual coffee... you see kat took a long time to get hers .... thinks... i wonder what she was up too

my recipe, by the way, is use only the best high altitude arabica and full cream milk. the rain has brough lush green grass to the pastures of south gippsland... so the milk is creamy and froths well... and making coffee is then a joy of aroma and texture... not bad to drink either

Jali's sketch got deleted

Jali (a reload) 


So here is is again

norton's on-line sketch book

i still maintain my on-line sketch book over at MSN groups... occasionally there will be some good sketches which are a little to adult for here... its a group and you'll have to join up (or emails me and i'll send you an invite) and acknowledge that you are old enough... a prity naive way to check i realise... i'm not a prude (far from it), but i'm in favor of not making everything open and available to the kids next door... its not just adult stuff by the way, it has a lots of cartoon ideas and some of characters i'm developing

Having warm tropical thoughts already 

a big day out

well.. sorry no sketches today (well not yet!)... my eyes are well enough to venture out on my own... pity i picked a wet, drizzly day to do it... but freedom is a wonderful thing... i didn't go anywhere important but that is hardly important

one of the strange things that happened to me when I was just a blur, was a definite highetenning of both my hearing (except of course things like did you wash that... etc) and sense of smell.  well they seem to have come to stay... i helping at the supermarket... a place i had never been before and I was constantly think... yes chocolate in the next isle, and ... coffee... and... he must smoke a lot... they have fresh rambuttan and pineapple in the next isle.... no wonder her her is all a mess shes just had sex... no not that isle its all cleanning products... ah the bread is fresh... I got everything right (well one i'm not positive about)...

the biggest benefit is that fresh food tastes so wonderful... maybe i should get to the Queen Victoria Market tonight... just looked it up on the net... buggar its not open... might have to be fish and chips at half moon bay

working from a photo

I started sketching tigress some time ago 


I've lost her email address and ID so I hope she doesn't mind being on display. this is sketched from a photograph, a process i normally screw up... but i just concentrated on the skin tones and over all colour composition... the glasses were so hard.!! and the cleavage so much fun.!!

well i like it...

reworked (pencil over watercolour washes) 

A perfect early morning tonic

I had decided to start sketching from the net today... but the first old friend i meet was puddy kat, the very passionate smiler... well she is gorgeous but so active....

she wouldn't keep still for anything... but she has such a wonderful smile and cheered me up so much... it was like a tonic..
A lively model in watercolour 


I like this watercolour a lot and will no some more work on it in pencil once it dries and de-wrinkles a bit


a very quick graphite sketch of a cheeky kat poking her tongue out at me 

The passionately happy kat, thinking of her tweet, (watercolour with a little pencil) 

stir crazy

i don't like the cold & i like being inside even less... but i have promised to be good... on saturday my eyes where so swollen it looked like i'd been beaten up... and so it was back, to those bloody bright lights... i unwisely swore no more late drinks and parties.. (my fingers were crossed..

now i've been dragged off to a herbalist, for detoxification (an ugly word meaning no grog) and rehydration... bloody hell this being cared for is the pits... my body aches all over... before i fely ok i just couldn't see... how do i know milk thistle in't a form of deadly night shade

between stiring the froth on yet another capucinno into an amusing pattern and moaning about my health regime, i've been practicing a bit more on the idea of just using shadows for form... i know its really old fashion but its cheap therapy...

more practise at feet & legs in pencil 

Hands as shadows ... 4B pencil 

looking at other SketchBlogs

I was so bored i started looking for other with the idea of a sketch blog... there are lots... it surprised me a little...

Wow is this one original blog ...
PrincessH's SketchBlog
Cést et magnifique... il est franchement créateur

I have always guess there is plenty positive and creativity out there it just gets stiffled by the competative over consumption of modern living, but it survives every where...

The well of joseph of arimathea

I've had a look through an old UK sketch book and found a couple of sketches of glastonbury... the well of josepth of arimathea is in the area between the rise and tor itself... in the middle foreground..

view of glastonbury from the tor  


The tor is often suggested as the site of camelot, it was very probably a fortified hill in the middle ages.... and a very magical place in local folk lore...

The glastonbury tor (old sketch in coloured pencil) 

warmer times & tones

A nice day - on the beach just south of port douglas (pastels on paper) 


I did this last sunday afternoon, even though i couldn't see so well I quiet like this one... captures the tropical warmth.... warmth ah yes I can just remember that... its freezing down south

invalid in charge of coffee

my eyes are slowly improving and I’ve had a fitting of a reverse geometry contact lens in my right eye which instantly fixes my vision… absolute magic… only trouble is it keeps popping out... just patience requires (seems a big theme in my life at the moment)...

it has been great to have a self-appointed carer, taking me back and forth, making me be good and not use the net, going out drinking all night with my mates, and other prison guard style activity... but know she has found something useful for me to do… it appears even in deaf dumb and blind mode I can still produce a good coffee from her fancy coffee maker… i think i’ve prepared about 16 cappuccinos and a dozen lattes today already… her friends are very jealous

glad to see i’m still good for something

PS my computer is going again, big smile for that one.

an outing

i will admit i'm not a good patient, but my carer told me to stop mopping about and come shopping... i did on one condition... that i could go to an art shop... they had great stuff, i bought some good papers and sketch books... I was also allowed to stay by myself and have a coffee.. so i started trying out a new sketch book and pencils... the ladies trying on new shoes in the shop next door didn't seem to mind me sketching their ankles... but my carer returned she took away my pencils...what did i do! is their a law about drawing in shopping arades... getting into trouble, i must be on the mend

Pencil sketch (feet are something i find hard to draw) 


Below is an old sketch, a favourite that was lost for a while, but i found it again... it is of course the glowing cincy a little self concious about her scar... it was an early attempt at using straight water colour pencil on plane paper

Cincy concious of her scar (watercolour pencil on plain paper) 

I know that blur

I'm resolved to a bit of R & R now, but can't handle the lack of vision. I'm concentrating to day on getting my notebook computer fixed and fixing thoses typos I can see on this blog.

whilst I was posting this yesterday in my own little blurred world I spotted this recent post....the orange express: blur I know that blur I'm living in it.

Bright lights and more bright lights

When each doctors ask me about my eye(s) I honestly tell them the eyesare ok except when I look at strong lights....

so what do they do... shine bright lights in my eye!!!!

well it looks like I might have to stay put for a little while my vision is down to 8/8 in my left and 8/10 in my right. thats pretty close to not being able to see... my left cornea has had the worst time and it may be a week or so its a darkened room (no computers, shhh! i'm being naughty doing this...) and plenty of rest before the experts will know what improvements are likely....

(PS they didn't ban beer so things aren't so bad)

Excuse me sir, you have been randomly selected... 


Speaking of bright lights I had yet another specially selected search (I assume they are looking for explosives) at cairns on the domestic run down to melbourne. More bright lights, not being able to see... computer that didn't work.... a comedy of errors and to boot I ended up misplacing my boarding pass... luckily the qantas staff have a sense of humour and just printed me another.

Just a reminder this is a friendly place ...

Hi everyone, I want this to be a friendly place.  I've been thinking a lot about the issues of posting sketches of others on the net. firstly I must urge you again if you don't like your sketch tell me and i'll remove it... however there are some sider issues and it got me worrying if there were net rules of behavour (there are some and the are called netiquette) so the spirit of this blog is to be a nice freindly place where i can be creative...

i want you to be able to see my work... and I want to share it freely... but it is my work, and should not be copied, especially not for resale or use elsewhere... firtsly without my permisssion (it will normally given) and secondly and most importantly without the consent of the person sketched....

of course you are free to copy your own sketches..

lecture over ;)

Palms in the wind (straight coloured pencil) 

So skecthes from paradise

Palms in Chinese Ink 

 
I did this last week, while I could still bear the light... I'm actually proud of the shadows

eyes wide shut

the pirate look is back, I've managed to get another eye infection
this time it has gone ulcerous straight away. so its back to bloody
hospital. yet again... luckily I know someone to organize the
evacuation, the pity is he can't see

If you can't beat 'em join 'em

A visit to china town in Honiara, a street of traditional trade stores, no decent chinese restaurants though, lead me to what I was seeking. Sticks of traditional chinese ink. The solid sticks are hardended ink. you rub it on a suitable stone and add a little water. suddenly you have ink. they are used for traditional chinese calligraphy. using more or less water you can get delicate shades of grey... through to a solid black.. as black as a good soft graphite pencil!

my theory was to use water colour technique and washes to overcome the problems of blotchy smudging of graphite on damp paper..

chinese ink sketch of the weather coast police compound 


and it works a treat... have been having lots of fun building pictures around the strong shadows you get in the tropics... now a new problem has presented itself... How do you stop the paper wrinkling as it dries out... ?