CONTORTED PASTA

It's been ages since I've done a sketchdump here, for which I apologise. I've lately been transferring last year's sketches from Patreon (where they are updated much more promptly) to Tumblr, so here is the first instalment of them crossposted here:

( September 2017 )

And now, an entry for the gallery of deeply inappropriate title graphics:



I don't remember when I first heard the radio dramatisation of The Idiot, but I know it was before I went to work at Disney, because it made me laugh when people there called anything mildly unpleasant "dark." No, no, this is dark. It takes a really brutal turn at the end, but there's plenty of the darkness of the human soul right from the beginning.

I only know Tolstoy and Dostoevsky from dramatisations of their work, but if that's anything to go by, I prefer the latter: Tolstoy is a great observer of people, but Dostoevsky sees through them. In doing so, he makes the genre of 19th-century drawing-room drama – which I tend to find petty and tiresome – into an indictment of that whole world, and thereby much more satisfying.

But what do I know, I've never read the books.

Once upon a time I had an idea to do an art book of "failed adaptations" – Disney-style concept art for hilariously un-Disney properties – where I could learn different styles and apply them to such inappropriate* stories as Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451. When my dreams of working in vis dev died a wholly justifiable death, there didn't seem much point for the exercise, but I still think about it sometimes.
*I still think these would make great animated films; they are "inappropriate" only for the general public's disagreement with that idea. There's no reason animation has to be just for kids!

It's funny, now that I'm doing my former "playtime" (drawing polar explorers) for a """job""", I have to remind myself to play occasionally – there's book stuff I need to be doing, but if I don't have a bit of fun every now and again, even a job as fun and rewarding as that will start to wear heavy.

Another brilliant day full of primary documents

... and abstract chat

... and teatime treats

... so I've been like this for the last 22 hours or so:



And tonight, thirteen years after being introduced to it, I'm going to see the Snarkiest Musical Ever, so the euphoria will probably continue.

I hope this doesn't mean I'm coming down with another cold.

To my great bafflement, it has taken this long for Golden Hill to be released in the US – a multi-award winning highly readable romp through colonial New York, you’d think it’d be obvious, but there you go.

Anyway, here is the main character, Mr. Smith – I roughed these out last year when I read the book, but have only just made them as pretty as I’d like.

Do give Golden Hill a shot if you like

• fun
• peril
• interesting characters
• meticulous research
• very satisfying historical fix-it fic

Mr Smith is superficially similar to Moist von Lipwig, which made it a little difficult for me to get a grip on the book at first, because I couldn't see into his head as clearly as Moist's (whose internal world is what really sells the book, IMO), but boy oh boy that was totally worth it for the sake of saving the reveal for the end – the sort of reveal that makes the re-read at least as satisfying as the first.

I don't know about you, but I find most of my recreational reading these days ends up being very serious news and commentary about how much of a mess we're in. It's nice to get a break like this and lose yourself in another time and place, without being devoid of meaning.

Supplemental material – including a rather comprehensive catalogue of 18th-century slang – can be found on the book’s Tumblr.

My sister and I grew up without any extended family nearby, but we had these two cats who kind of filled that role in a funny way. We both remember them more as family members than pets, and like to call them our gay uncles.* I sometimes wonder if I've got cat faces mapped onto the part of my brain which is supposed to read human faces – at least, I have a much easier time relating to cats than people, generally; the role these two played in our emotional lives probably has a lot to do with that.

A friend has recently lost her childhood pet, who was also more than a pet to her, which got me thinking about the place these cats have in my life, and decided it was finally time to draw them as the people they were to us, inside. RIP Bushy and Tao; I'm glad we got to know you.

*They weren't actually gay – they were both neutered (if anything, one of them was a towel-sexual) – but they were bachelors living together with some affection, which makes them gay in the eyes of the Internet.

For the next couple weeks* I'm going to be teaching the brightest of bright young things how to animate dialogue. From my own personal experience, all the lectures about theory can't stack up against watching an actual animator actually animate an actual scene, so I like to have a demo to walk the class through, on which to demonstrate what I'm talking about, and the stages of animating a scene. It also happens to be a great way to work out a design. Last year I did this with Oates; this year I felt Wilson was in most need of the animation-test treatment. Remembering what a fight I had to get anything halfway decent out of him at the end of last year, I girded my loins for battle, but the minute I sat down to draw him he just ... turned up.




So, this should be fun ...

And now I've got him pretty much figured out (knock on wood), I have no excuse to put off any further the re-interpretative illustration of Victorian verse which I've had on my mental back burner for SEVEN YEARS now. Just in time for it, too – it should go up March 18th, or not at all. [slinks off mysteriously]


*When not stuffing my face with pickled herring and the world's best bread, which everyone knows are the real reasons I travel to Denmark

A few years ago, when the BBC reran the radio dramatisation of The Worst Journey in the World which got me into this whole Scott thing, I made a small comic about the journey I've been on since being introduced to these amazing people and their story. A little while ago, a small gallery in Minneapolis with which I've had some dealings put out a call for art illustrating one's personal story and 'what makes you tick,' which seemed like the perfect excuse to bring the story up to the present and make something of it.

The continuation picks up in 2012, with the culmination of Centenary Fever, and the overseas trip which tipped the balance on my personal status quo:


... and goes three more pages through the changes both internal and external, my shift in perspective and priorities, and acceptance of a particular direction for my life.


Plus three more pages to bring it home, a small but hugely significant passage from Worst Journey (quoted with permission!), and a short suggested reading list should anyone have their curiosity piqued and be heedless of my warning that such material may change their life, too.

Said comic and text have been compiled into a small booklet, which is currently available from the gallery's shop should you wish to acquire one.* The site doesn't say so, but they are all signed!

This foray into self-publishing has been ... "an adventure" ... but I think I might be tempted to do a little more, if there's a market for it. It's strange to think anyone would smile on buying my artwork when I've been feeding the Internet for free lo these many years, but other people seem to manage it, so ...? Any advice on this, or suggestions for what sort of things you'd like to see, would be very gratefully received. With any luck I'll figure out something for North American distribution which will spare you paying through the nose for overseas shipping, something that couldn't get sorted out before the gallery show. (Sorry about that, but the profit margin is tiny on those little books, believe it or not.)

*Given that these booklets have had to cross the Atlantic once already, I'd advise Europeans to hold off for a few weeks and let those on the other side pick up the gallery copies – I aim to have some more local distribution set up in April or so.

Dr. Edward Adrian 'Bill' Wilson is, in my humble estimation, the most wonderful person ever to have lived; he is, for certain, my one great hero, and needless to mention my favourite person on the Terra Nova Expedition.*

( Drawing him has proven surprisingly difficult. )

Next on the list is Deb – I've tried him out before but he needs a proper systematic approach – and then maybe Gran; I'll come back to Bill and see if I've shaken off any of my intimidation.


*The others wouldn't mind me saying this; he was all their favourite, too.

I've been making sketches all year, and sometimes I remember to scan them, but somehow getting them up onto The Internet is just that one step too far.

Well, I've just got through most of my summer ones on Tumblr, so here they are in one massive post.


( D'Arry's )

( Catsitting )

( King's Parade )

( Back at The Mill )

( Punts and Punters )

( Trinity Street )