Opoponax, 2.

. . . second batch? yes.

these are. . . different. time went on, the ratio of scrunched up balls to drawings changed drastically, and the paper-attack look lessened. they became less severe as my circumstances settled a little, though subjectively they're still pretty bleak, especially towards the last three or four, by which point. well. i don't want to go there . . .

the selection process for these was part random and part humming and hawing. between this post and the next, last post of these drawings which lead into my newer stuff that i'm far less conflicted about, there are a couple of dozen leftover pieces that i'll post at a later date, i think.

some of these are a little obtuse. some get very stylised. some are more straightforward. . .

anyway. in all their black and white sharpie and paper glory, with commentary:



19.

one of a bunch of owl-mask drawings. i picked this one because of the additional detail. it's not just sharpie and i like the contrast of teh thick lines and thin detail lines and that there's more tone to thios than just black and white.
















20 & 21.

he of the striped pajamas again. it should be clear that he really CREPT into the stuff i was producing given how unformed the first few drawings are, even the first one here. they're working towards forming a character. 20 i added because i both love the pure expressionism of the top drawing, and the oddball nonsense of the second - and both on one page.

there's nothing i don't love about 21. and 21 is the first fully formed image of this new odd addition to my rogues gallery of characters. minus the big black wings he was wearing in 15. those have been inherited by the soon to be maskless birdman. make of that what you will. . . also, this marks the beginnings of actual ARCHITECTURE showing up in my drawings instead of plain untouched backgrounds. which is. . . sort of a big thing. . .





























22 & 23.

. . . and speaking of architecture. these were random, odd, sketchy. sharpie again, with that more detailed addition of a thinner drawing pen in 23, the more 'complete of the two. i did a bunch of these, and picked two sort of at random to show the difference between the looser ones and the more finished - vaguely - drawings.





























24.

a straightforward birdman drawing. but i love this one passionately.


















25 & 26.

and it's HIM again. i think there's an odd thing with this character in that as grim as he is, he seems more court jester than grim reaper. i picked these two because i love how gnarly he looks in 25, and how utterly ridiculous and random the notion of him doing his 'sound of music' routine is', even though said drawing is pretty much just a mess of black ink. but come on, wouldn't you rather see a skeleton in stripey PJ's than julie andrews? i know i would. . .

comic relief in hard times? i think so. . .



























26 - 33.

i'll leave these without commentary. i wasn't going to post these, and i may NOT keep them up indefinitely, so. they're kind of a return to the darker tone of some of the early drawings in that last post, with reason. take them and interpret them as you will.

Black and White, #1 & #2

okay,

so i've been doing small, slightly more stylised pieces this week (along with working on 'ode #3' and a few colour oil pieces) of which these two are the first, and i'll be posting these as i do them in chronological order.

like the concept image for 'ode #2' and the rough with the two bird masks, these were (and being) done on smallish scraps of cardboard as, i guess, a form of artistic recyling and again were done in a combination of black and white acrylic and some black chinese ink i got as a gift from a good friend.

and yes, i know how crazy the proportions in the first one are, but. . . i am an expressionist painter above and over anything else. proper prespective and photographic realism are best left for people who get soemthing out of doing that kind of art, i very rarely do. . .

much more to come

Book of Emma pg 5, and a rough

struggling with poor daylight one more, but photographed rather than scanned again, these images kind of hint at the direction forward both 'the book of emma' and the 'ode' series seem to be headed in - though in no way is this small study featuring not one but TWO bird masks indicative of the currently in process 'ode #3' which is proving easier asnd less troublesome than its predecessor, which i'm still feeling conflicted about. . .

anyway. in regards to this sketchbook page, it started out as the central image and sort of morphed into a makeshift comic book page, minus dialogue of which there'd be a single line in the bottom panel (see detail), 'iain, are you awake?'

so again, we're dealing with a certain amount of autobiography. . .

lots of shading on this page, so it's hard to capture in any subtlety, but i'm happy with this, and it's something that i want to take a bit further. . . .

the book of emma, pages 1 - 3

the first three pages from the aforementioned 'book of emma' sketchbook which are pretty indicative of what the thing's all about (if the name alone doesn't give it away). . .

the first page sort of gave birth to the idea, just one of thos ethrowaway drawings, but i liked the way it looked and felt.

they're a little stylised and not overly finnicky, but i'm happy with all three drawings stylistically and expressively speaking, particularly pages 2 and 3 which make kind of an autobiographical 'before and after' kind of visual couplet, the first a representation of my first meeting proper with emma ross, when her hair was drastically longer and mine was considerably shorter and without a trace of grey.

details like her woven leather bracelet, chunky thumb rings and long retired nose-stud are included to exemplify my ability to remember seemingly minor details seven years later in spite of not knowing what DAY it is half of the time. . .

the third page is my favorite of the three, not for the obvious reasons of what it shows, but more i think compositioonally and such it just came out really nice, and the lines are nice and crisp instead of wavery and all over the place. . . for a change.

so there you go. watch this space, there's much more to come. . .

note: i'm photographing these rather than scanning them. don't ask me why but i feel like scanning pencil drawings kind of. . . loses something, scanned pencil pieces never look quite right for some reason. . .

-iain