Sketch Gallery

This is the home for sketches, drawings, illustrator work, posters and pictures for illustration friday 

 A poster done for a celebratory banquet at Church recently.

A set of random sketches done last week.

A set of old drawings from my home village of Netley and the Royal Victoria Country Park.

This was my first serious attempt at a self portrait in literally decades.  I think it's pretty true to life but Karen disagrees with me. 

A variety of sketches of people, all done in anything from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.  The first six were done at the New Wine conference in Newark, the next two are a picture of Chris, who my wife insists on refering to as Eric.  He was handling the video camera recording the boring sermon that drove Vera, in the next picture, to read her Twilight novel. The next three rainy day pictures were done while on the school run last Friday.  I was at the school early to get a close parking space and so had 15 minutes to wait in the car watching the folks scurrying around. The last two are my lovely wife, Karen, sat at the keyboard and my father in law relaxing after a busy Sunday morning.

this was a sketch done in 90 seconds from photos on a slideshow.  I was so pleased with it it ended up on Karen's anniversary card. (elephants never forgetting and such like) 

This is a small gallery of sketches done over the last year in a little pocket size Moleskine.  The baby is my son Harry, the sheep are from Yorkshire and the chickens are just friends.  Oh and the trees are all local residents.

This next gallery is a selection of older sketches including some of my daughter when she was only 3 or 4.  The set of four of Molly were among my first attempts at using photoshop for colouring and exploring the filters. 

these were character sketches for an Aboriginal dreaming.  The story followed themes that fascinate me and run through much of my own work, themes of family, parenthood and responsibility.  The legend of the Glasshouse Mountains in Aboriginal told stories runs like this:

Now Tibrogargan was the father of all the tribes and Beerwah was his wife, and they had many children.

One day when Tibrogargan was gazing out to sea, he perceived a great rising of the waters. He knew then that there was to be a very great flood and he became worried for Beerwah, who had borne him many children and was again pregnant and would not be able to reach the safety of the mountains in the west without assistance.

So he called to his eldest son, Coonowrin, and told him of the flood which was coming and said, "Take your mother, Beerwah, to the safety of the mountains while I gather your brothers and sisters who are at play and I will bring them along."

When Tibrogargan looked back to see how Coonowrin was tending to his mother he was dismayed to see him running off alone. Now this was a spiritless thing for Coonowrin to do, and as he had shown himself to be a coward he was to be despised.

Tibrogargan became very angry and he picked up his nulla nulla and chased Coonowrin and cracked him over the head with a mighty blow with such force that it dislocated Coonowrin's neck, and he has never been able to straighten it since.

By and by, the floods subsided and, when the plains dried out the family was able to return to the place where they lived before. Then, when the other children saw Coonowrin they teased him and called "How did you get your wry neck - How did you get your wry neck?" and this made Coonowrin feel ashamed.

So Coonowrin went to Tibrogargan and asked for forgiveness, but the law of the tribe would not permit this. And he wept, for his son had disgraced him. Now the shame of this was very great and Tibrogargan's tears were many and, as they trickled down they formed a stream which wended its way to the sea.

So Coonowrin went then to his mother, Beerwah, but she also cried, and her tears became a stream and flowed away to the sea. Then, one by one, he went to his brothers and sisters, but they all cried at their brother's shame.

Then Tibrogargan called to Coonowrin and asked why he had deserted his mother and Coonowrin replied, "She is the biggest of us all and should be able to take care of herself." But Coonowrin did not know that his mother was again with child, which was the reason for her grossness. Then Tibrogargan put his son behind him and vowed he would never look at him again.

Even to this day Tibrogargan gazes far, far out to sea and never looks at Coonowrin. Coonowrin hangs his head in shame and cries, and his tears run off to the sea, and his mother, Beerwah, is still pregnant, for, you see, it takes many years to give birth to a mountain."