Gormenghast

I went along to another of Jake Spicer's themed drawing events at The Old Market last night. It was in conjunction with the Brighton Illustrator Group so there were some familiar faces there including Geo Parkin (showing off his prowess on his iPad), Joe Moore, Amy Rogers etc...
The theme this time was Gormenghast which happens to be my favourite book (well, trilogy, in fact.)

by the genius writer and artist Mervyn Peake. Four models posed as the characters Steerpike, Fuschia, Cora and Clarice. Jake, who is also a huge fan of the books wants to stage a bigger event, possibly in the open air, next year incorporating more of the characters. If anyone can do it Jake can, so I'm keeping everything crossed for that. Here are my best efforts from the night.

Nadia

I had my lovely new friend Nadia round the other day to model for me. I'm trying to work up a new style and she was good enough to agree to pose for my attempts. During our conversations it turns out that she's as big a nerd as me and loves sci-fi and Marvel comics but her big passion is wolves! She's such a sweet person that you'd never guess such dark waters lurk beneath. Hoooooooooooooooooooooowl!

Digital dabblings

Having been getting into producing digital paintings in Photoshop for a few months now, I thought I'd try expanding the possibilities with a new drawing programme called Artrage. I downloaded Artrage 3 from the internet having read a bit about it in Imagine FX magazine. It takes a little while to get used to a new programme's interface but luckily for my pea brain this one was quite easy to pick up and soon I was experimenting. The two things I like most about it are the way you can get brush strokes in the oil paint brush setting that look really real and also you can get a nice smooth line with the pen a setting which I haven't been able to get since the programme I used to use -Streamline went
kaput! I'm informed by cartoon buddy Geo Parkin that Illustrator can do this but I don't have Illustrator.

Anyway, here are my first stumbling attempts at starting a painting in Artrage and then tickling it up in the more familiar (to me) Photoshop. I'm having great fun with this and hope that one shining day I'll be paid to work in this style.

The Magnificent Miss Magness

For last night's life drawing session at The Sussex Arts Club our model was Charlotte, or as I'm going to call her from now on -The Magnificent Miss Magness! I've drawn her before and even tried to book her for a private session (stop sniggering at the back!) so I know she's a good model but last night she held a 10 minute pose that looked like agony for any normal person. She must have adamantium bones or something. Anyway, here are my best efforts. Afterwards, I walked home with fellow Wick Hallians, Hamza and Kate and stopped off in the Bee's Mouth for a couple of wonderful warming mulled wines. They make it themselves and I reckon it's the best in town. One small compensation for the encroaching horror of Christmas.

The Divine Miss Potts again!

I went along to Kate Shield's life drawing session at the Marwood (the funkiest cafe in town) last night to draw the fabulous Lucy Caitlin Potts for the second time in as many weeks. She's one of my favourite models as she has a timeless quality and knows how to pose interestingly and holds it like a statue.

My old mate and fellow cartoonist Geo Parkin was also in attendance having a brief respite from his demanding work schedules. He's one of the best in the business so it's hardly surprising that he gets a lot of work. We repaired to a local hostilery after the session to discuss all and sundry (especially sundry) over a couple of foaming noggins. Here are my best attempts at capturing Lucy's loveliness.

I hope Obama gets another turn.