O Newton, release this apple from its earth shackles.

You will have seen from the previous post that amongst my rough ideas for the children's story was a dirigible/airship. This was originally intended to appear in the second part of the story, although I'm not so sure that it will necessary happen that way anymore. In any event, my mind flew off in a different direction once the balloon came into play, and I started planning a very different story. 

I'm not going to give anything away, but maybe you'll like some of the idea sketches. 

As a drawing, this isn't very good, but I liked the character straightaway. At the time she wasn't going to be used for anything, but was drafted in once the idea formed. 

I went with the bottom one in the end. 

Fleshing out hair/clothing ideas, and getting the personality completely wrong at the same time. 

Next time: the first three pages. Sort of. 

Sit down by the fire and I'll tell you a story.

I love stories, and writing, and the sheer act of storytelling. Love it. I write an awful lot, usually short stories, but I've a few longer projects. That said, it wasn't until very recently that I tried my hand at the noble art of comics. I would like to show you my very first attempt; a single-page nostalgic story about going to my dad's cricket matches as a child. I seem to have mislaid it though. As a cover-up here's a little planning sketch I did for it:

Doesn't tell you much does it? 

Here are some other basic sketch ideas I've done for a children's story I'm going to be writing. I think it will be more an illustrated story than a comic. Obviously these are very rough.

I've not actually even begun working on this story, so you might be wondering why I've bothered to share these. Well, the doodles for this rather lead into my current story, which I'll write about next time. 

Odds and Ends.

Here's another section of some unconnected bits and pieces. I've tried to do something different with each one, with varying levels of success.

Audrey Hepburn

Rapunzel. This Prince seems particularly pleased with himself. 

True fact: I will mispronounce Rapunzel nine times out of ten, despite knowing its proper pronunciation.

 

It's a lady whose hair becomes the sea, naturally.

Be Mine Kim Pine.

The other night I asked a couple of people for suggestions for really quick doodles. Both suggested Scott Pilgrim characters (that the film had recently been viewed was obviously coincidental). These were genuinely rapid, probably obviously. First up, Stephen Stills: 

Next up, Wallace Wells. More specifically, Kieran Culkin's Wallace Wells, but in a cartoony manner: 

 

I think it's okay-ish?

A while back I also did a Ramona Flowers. This wasn't really rushed so much. I mean, still not super-careful, but not rushed. 

On the somewhat unlikely chance you don't know, obviously these are all Bryan Lee O'Malley's creations. And if you haven't read the books, I highly suggest you do. 

Oh, to be real.

Occasionally I'll do drawings direct from photographs. I'll try to put my own spin on them, or try to keep the lines specifically clean or messy, but the basic idea is a straight copy.

In this one I've tried to match the slightly more realistic sketchy drawings, as above, with my more typical cartoony ways. Not sure how successful it was. 

Very rarely I'll try to do them digitally. Even more rarely I'll try using colour. As you can see on the poor lady's face, colour is something I need to practise with an awful lot more.

Early days.

To get this thing off the ground I'm going to try and do a fair few entries over the next few days, containing a number of drawings from the last couple of months. I'll try to group them in to roughly related topics, but we'll see how that bears out. 

To begin, a few little nonsensical things: 

These don't really have a theme so much as they are assorted little nothings. It's maybe worth noting that all three, and most of the pictures I'll throw on here, are done in a little A5 notebook. It's not the greatest place for decent quality pictures, but it's a nice little place to practise and flesh out ideas.