Simon's Blog

Whilst thinking about the use of colour, especially watercolour, within my work I knocked this little sketch up. I deliberately resisted the temptation to apply any colour, although I did put a very slight blue tint on during the processing so perhaps I have added colour after all? Well that can be debated – what can’t is that at the moment this is a simple sketch just using a pencil and the colour of the paper.

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Over the past few days I have really started to enjoy using watercolour. Every drawing I make now has to have a watercolour wash applied. Now I am sure when I look back at this in a few months time it will seem a little over the top but one has to work through these things before one can get a bit of balance. Experience dear boy Experience.

One of the other things I have started to do is to revisit older drawings – such as this quick sketch I made of the the Queen of Hearts from the rather disappointing film Alice in Wonderland. Here I have just coloured in the eyebrows, as I recall they were in the film and added just a touch of shading here and there. Does it improve the sketch or not? Well at the moment I think it does but what I will think in the future I just don’t know.

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The Green Man is an ancient icon from prehistory. The exact meaning is somewhat obscure but it is believed to represent spring, fertility or rebirth. It can be seen in numerous old churches in Britain and across western europe. As to whether it represents some common belief system or culture is hard to say.

It is an image that has been floating around in the back of my head for a while and so this morning I though I would knock up a quick sketch to try and work out the idea that was floating in my head.

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Before I start let me make one thing clear, this is not meant as a reflection on the people who suffer from Bi Polar disorder but rather a title that came into my head when I saw how this drawing has turned out. So why Bi Polar? Well, to answer that I have to accept that this drawing went wrong. To start off the drawing was meant to stretch across the two pages as one drawing. However, things went wrong but rather than rubbing the left hand side out and starting again I noticed that each side had a distinct character of their own. Once this idea had stuck in my head then the whole drawing took a life of its own and the title seemed to fit.

To me the man on the right of the drawing is some form of driven, maniacal person whereas the one on the left seems to be a more open, kinder person who suffers because of his other half. Or perhaps it is none of those things instead it is just example of poor draughtsmanship or perhaps it is a mixture of all these things.

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