Reykjavík.

Some sketchbook drawings of the shoppers of Iceland, Wimborne Road, Bournemouth.

As my project on the phenomena of 'waiting' develops, I am becoming more interested in who is taking advantage of our waiting state. We are bombarded with advertisements and signage throughout the entire journey through this store, but particularly when we've decided what we want and that we want to leave. Alongside the tills are more things we never even knew we wanted, with signs telling us to shop more in order to save more.

Cable Jungle.

I also went inside Concorde 002 at Fleet Air Arm Museum which was a real treat! Peering into the cockpit you are greeted with an impossible amount of buttons, levers and dials which someone in the world must understand in their entirety (or at least pretend to). Only ever a test plane, Concorde 002 had an unfinished quality that I really liked with wires exposed and rough bits of metal to remind you that it was a huge machine, not just powered by money and champagne.

In particular I took interest in these colourful wire bundles, and took photographs of them home to draw from.
They stood out due to their playful colours and resemblance of living fibrous growths, spilling out of the pipes all along the top of the plane and knitting together in these twisted forms. The main cables were also fairly intestinal and looked akin to human flesh, rendering this mass of plastic and metal strangely organic in appearence. As with the cockpit it made me wonder if anyone understood exactly which cable was which, and what they all controlled. Could that little red one set off an ejector seat if cut? or perhaps just tamper with the co-pilot's cup holder.

The Owl & The Pussy Cat.

Some drawings I did after a visit to the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.

Old Ladies In Waiting.

Here are two big drawings I've been working on at the start of my current (and final) university project. It's about the process of how we wait.

Studying lots of different people at bus stops, the drawings so far have focused on the relationships struck up between strangers in this temporary arena, or the potential relationship which is untapped.

On one hand I see waiting for buses, trains, to see a doctor, at an airport, to use a cashpoint, in a queue, as more psychologically difficult in the modern age now we have all been weened on immediacy - click and response - but on the other there are certainly a lot of new ways of killing this transitional time with smartphones and the like which also sadly allow us to pretend those around us don't exist.

Noticing with particular interest strangers who look similar or very different to one another, as I collate these drawings I am also starting to question who we are instinctively drawn to, and the interesting creatures we are not meeting, despite sitting right next to, arm to arm.

I myself have always seen these non-spaces and transitional moments as a blessing; really very relaxing, almost mediative in their gift of freedom to think and pause and just exist.
And of course, for the next few months, draw people when they're not looking.

Bennetts Family Bakers.

I drew this treacle tart today, and then ate it.

Little White Lies.

Like many other bright young hopefuls, I am a recent entrant into this years D&AD Student Awards. For now I will show you my portrait of Gary Oldman in 'Tinker Tailor Solider Spy' as placed on a mock-up Little White Lies cover. According to rule number 2.6.2 in the fine print I cannot disclose the full entry online until after the winners are shortlisted, which is funny because I could've sworn I saw other George Smileys, Black Swans and... that guy from Drive(s) running wild on google images. Shame for this chap I'm a rule keeper, however I can let slip that when the LWL logo is in place it covers up his dapper hair slightly - shocking I know. It also has a background, and some words.

Proud of the likeness, I enjoyed studying his characterful (yes, and old) face. It is also the first drawing I have ever emailed to my mum.

Best of luck to everyone else who entered.

Throwing Gliders Off The Bleachers.

Following the impressive response from issue 1, Another Escape is preparing for the difficult 'second album' issue. Shouldn't be a problem for the talented Miss Rachel Taylor - illustrator, photographer, film-maker, designer, editor; generally a swiss army knife of creativity. For this issue I was asked to illustrate somewhere to escape in Bournemouth, and chose the Winton Recreation Ground. Steeped in quaint British nostalgia, it reminds me of parks in the midlands I used to go to as a child that were little more than somewhere to play ball, pet other people's dogs and get an icecream.

I chose the recreation ground because it is a small piece of residential heaven, which may not have the thrill of a theme park or the beauty of an exotic island, but is somewhere that anyone in the community can utilise in order to escape their daily grind, whatever it may consist of. It doesn't cost any money to go there, and it is never closed.
Everyone needs a place where their head can air out, and whether playing velcro ball, tennis, throwing a boomerang around, attempting to learn to handstand (and failing), having a picnic, or crying pitifully on a bench, the WRG has appeared to have been mine for the last 3 years.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has put in there.

Julia's House.

I drew this picture of my windmill collection (classic grown-up start to a sentence) as a donation to an upcoming charity art auction in Bournemouth. Raising money for Dorset-based charity Julia's House, the call was for images based on the theme of childhood.

The playful use of coloured pencil here hopes to signify the ability of children to see the world with a sense of fun and wonder, and how we should attempt not to lose sight of this throughout our life. Not entirely happy with the composition of the image from an illustrative point of view, I was pleased to isolate the mark-making of the smallest windmill and now hope to utilise him in other ways.

The Art from the heART auction will be 2-5pm on Saturday 10th March at Pavilion Dance, Bournemouth. Bunch of Pinwheels will be available to buy alongside a drawing of some Schwinn bicyles (under the moniker of Biker Gang) and the rest of the work donated by mystery local artists.

Thoughts of a Dying Illustrator.

I did these weird drawings today. The former is of coursemates on the coach into Barcelona, the latter of a very panicked looking family making their way from the plane to the airport - windswept and traumatised, all except dad. Mr Smooth.

The middle image is two old ladies that were on a bench opposite me today in Bournemouth gardens. They knew I was drawing them. They were busy-body types looking at all that was going on, with the lady in red clocking me before I even sat down. They seemed intrigued by my actions rather than horrified, testing my bravery by staring me out for short bursts while I pretended to be looking behind them. I found it really difficult to commit to drawing them for long, and in general drawing on location today felt near-impossible as I was focusing on people who were waiting for something (mostly buses). No-one would stay still or there was no way to face them comfortably.
It's rare in our lives that sitting opposite strangers is the done thing. Largely we all face the same way, alongside each other or in rows, avoiding contact and acknowledgement in everyday situations.

~

On top of these ails, I am also ill. It is a very acute form of ill, but I have been consistently ill for about two months now, and it's grating. It's acuteness is also exactly the problem; if it was worse I could go to the doctor and get better, but as it stands I'd just feel like I was whining and they'd probably tell me to have a rest, which I have. After starting to accept this is just a 'new me', one with difficulty breathing through the nose, a consistently sore throat, head-ache and lethargy, I'm now starting to regain hold of that it shouldn't be this way.

I think I might visit the nurse, and tell her what I just told you.
That, and that I'm giving up bread for lent.

Mile High.

Here are some drawings I did on the way to Barcelona this week; in the airport and on the plane.

Ryanair were a fairly annoying airline to fly with, announcing offers of telephone cards, perfumes, scratchcards every ten minutes throughout the journey. However they got me and my classmates to our colourful destination safely and we had an adventurous and wonderful (if not exhausting) stay, walking and sightseeing all day, and eating, drinking and dancing all through the night.
Really wanted to sketch on the return journey too, but after a pitiful 2-hour-sleep it was beyond me. I have 4 films to be developed though, so the imagery shall be rich.

Now the fun is over it's definitely time to catch some of those sacrificed zzzs! Next is some drawings for the next issue of Another Escape :) I'm a lucky one! Have a good weekend everyone.