Monday, November 27, 2006

Illustration Friday 112406 : Invention

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The mother of all does-everything-but-wash-the-dishes inventions - do you really think your mobile/PDA/camera would exist without it?!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Illustration Friday 111006 : Clear

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Snow, ice, and slush are facts of life for much of the year in upstate New York, and I spent many, many hours attacking sidewalks with snow shovels in an attempt to clear a footpath around our house. Surprisingly, now that I live in the "balmy" English Midlands, I actually miss it - we've had only one all-out blizzard in the last 16 years, and don't even own a snow shovel!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Illustration Friday 110306 : Smoke

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Having grown up in a house with two heavy smokers, I've always found the notion of ingesting any sort of smoke wholly repugnant. But there's something extremely seductive about the scent of (unlit) pipe tobacco...

Friday, November 03, 2006

Illustration Friday 102706 : Wind

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When I was in the Third Grade, we were all given "music aptitude" tests to see who would be allowed to learn an instrument the following year. Anyone who scored 90 or better got to join the chosen few, but yours truly only managed an 89. For some now unknown reason, I had my heart set on learning to play the flute, and was bitterly disappointed. So disappointed that my mother actually wrote a letter to the school to ask if there was any possibility of my being given lessons should anyone else drop out of the program. Well, this was in the early '60's, and flexibility was an unknown concept; despite almost half of the "instrumentalists" in my class quitting their lessons by the end of the Fifth Grade, I never got a chance. (Many years later I tried to teach myself to play the tin whistle, but never got very far. Like learning languages, it's just so much easier when you're young, and learning alongside others.)

Anyway, this really isn't a finished illustration - the relative proportions of the head and hands are wrong - but I've run out of time...