Saturday, August 30, 2008

the church, cat and man-cat - 100 drawings in 100 days




i was wandering around on my scooter this morning, looking for some cool architecture to draw for the other day's drawing, and found this cool old church. i used to draw church steeples and archways years ago because they are so fascinating. i guess life got in the way of continuing that little endeavour... this is called "crooked church", no pun intended...

then, i decided to draw a cat with a man's body (atticus finch de shan, the cat) and a man with a  cat's body. i think i love black and white pen and ink...

the titles are: "atticus the cat, in a hat" and "sampson".

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

speed - 100 drawings in 100 days

yep, it's official - i truly enjoy drawing machinery and metal. still working on the chrome though, it's a little tricky...

"speed" (above) is a drawing of the handlebars of my scooter: a study or close-up shot, if you will. once i was about half-way through it though, i realized what a daunting task it was to draw all the reflections, but i managed to get through it. and now it's late...

the circus truck and a cat and a hat - 100 drawings in 100 days


well, i am still enjoying the machines... the first drawing here is called "the circus truck parts ii", and shows the cleverness of this artist to put together an entire truck kitted out with rusty old tools and parts-turned art. they are almost little portraits of people that the artist must have known, or perhaps they just began looking like figures and faces to him.

the other drawing, "the hat and the cat" is a self-portrait with my kitty, atticus finch-de Shan (from gregory peck's character in "to kill a mockingbird). while i was in melbourne, i acquired this gorgeous top-hat from the oldest hatter in melbourne - they've been there since melbourne became a city! it was such a quaint little old shop too!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

circus truck parts - 100 drawings in 100 days


i have fallen a little behind... i admit it. BUT... today is catch-up day. so either tonight or tomorrow, there will be a few drawings in one post. don't judge me...
so, once again, rummaging through my inspiration files, i find myself coming back to the "circus truck" - and because this is a close-up of the inner-workings, i have called it "circus truck parts". for some reason, i am really attracted to drawing mechanical objects, metal machines and vehicles, more so than figures, which surprises me. i used to spend hours a week drawing the human form, but then, i was in college and they paid for the model! i have since hired a couple of models, or subjected my friends to the gruelling task in exchange for a drawing, and i loved it! the human form is just beautiful, but lately, i prefer to draw machinery and mechanical devices, such as yesterday's "the thing" - who knows what that was?
i'm going to try my hand at architecture in the next few i think. i used to be a landscape and architectural design illustrator, but i believe that i will still come back to mechanics...

the thing - 100 drawings in 100 days

i have no idea what this is, but it looks cool! it's rusty, it's metal, it's got moss all over it, and nuts and bolts - the makings for a fabulous de Shan piece. so, i'll just call it, "the thing", for want of a more informed name.

it was at the brisbane powerhouse, just over the edge of the railing and in the river. it was low tide, so i could see the whole thing, and it was just begging to be drawn. it looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, really. maybe it was a device that turned muddy old salty river water into a fabulous new hold-all industrial-strength glue used for horse-shoeing, or something like that...

anyway, i think i must go looking for more "things" like this.

so, how do you feel since reading this blog?