A little while back, probably through one of my poorer periods (one of my even more poorer periods), I decided that I would not buy any more pens until I'd used some of the many thousands that I already have. Well, okay, so yes, I have bought more - but just the black, brown and blue fine liners I use a lot of - but for the most part I have kept to that self imposed challenge.
The best thing about it is that it's making me use things I wouldn't normally choose to use. You know, the stuff that isn't the black, brown and blue fine liners. I've used lots more colour felt pens, markers and other stuff I can't think of right now. Things, when bought, I thought I'd use all the time. They'd push me in new directions, etc. Then they sat in pencil cases and pots and on shelves and I never touched again.
Many moons ago, way before I'd taken up drawing, I got these fountain pens. I went to the
Artist & Illustrators fair in London and was talked into spending a huge amount of money on these
Pilot Parallel pens and a load of coloured inks. I thought I'd use them for calligraphy. Then I put them in a pencil case and didn't even look at them for a decade.
Now, I've always been a big fountain pen fan. Somewhere in this house I have a box full of old-school fountain pens, inks and nibs. I have always loved playing around with my handwriting and there's nothing better than a fountain pen for that. So rediscovering these modern fountain pens and the variety of lines they make has been a joy.
And, what's more, it has pushed me. Next time you have a craving for a new pen why not have a dig around in your drawers (!!!) and see what you can find. I really love the results and the marks I've been making with these. Next stop is those scratchy old fountain pens that are lurking around just waiting for me to dig them out.
So, hands up, who's gone and ordered the Pilot Parallel pen now? That wasn't the point of this post, remember?!
And, by the way, these little
Toulouse Lautrec inspired drawings are up for sale dirt cheap. Yes, I'm going through one of my even more poorer periods again. get them
HERE.
Posting a couple of oldies here, whilst I get my head around Photoshop and while I tackle (struggle with) my tax returns. It really is the worse job of the year. Made only worse when you leave it until the last minute.
These drawings are both on sale. And, are both on a sale (?). Excuse me for peddling my wares but yes, I'm skint again. It seems being a professional doodler isn't the most lucrative way of making a living. The original, of the drawing above, is on sale at a ridiculously cheap price. One of my gorgeous friends said that this drawing was like 'jewellery flotsam, a tide-line of trinkets' and, you know, that's exactly the effect I was going for. The price has been reduced, by a third, and you can buy it
HERE.
The print of this, probably my most famous drawing, is also currently on sale. HALF PRICE! And you can get your mits on it
HERE.
The day started so well. Me, and this drawing, are featured in the London Metro today. In a piece about doodling. If you'd like to read it here's
THE LINK. To be honest, just being mentioned in the same article as
Larry David has made my day, week, year.
Something tells me, though, that today's going to go downhill from here. Right then, *rolls up sleeves* come on you tax returns. Let's be having you.
I got a pingback on yesterday’s post and it got me to thinking about another item between family members and friends.
Dreams flow well in letters, don’t they? I think we’ve lost part of that connection, especially because of the internet. No anticipation flutters our heartbeat when we think of getting an email. That sensation came when we waited for real mail, on paper, with ink covering the page like so much ivy growing out toward us, carrying dreams, images, and speculations. Secrets huddled within the lines of word leaves, providing us with tiny thrills and mysteries.
These were the reasons we wrote to cousins, best friends on vacation, or pen pals. Most of that is gone now with the arrival of internet. That loss is what I regret, for now, instead of picking up fountain pen and paper, I reach for a keyboard, and the thought and care that would had gone into writing to a love one has dissipated into a mist of remembered pleasure.
Can you imagine how much of our world’s history, knowledge, and philosophy would not exist if it weren’t for written letters?
Much of the ancient world would be a mystery to use without those letters between philosophers and historians. The treatise is a simple extension of the letter. Those documents formed the very foundation of what we know as literature, scientific notation, constitutions, etc.
Family members wrote to one another, knowing that they might never get a response from the one who’d moved so far away, or the one who’d stayed in the old neighborhood/country. Hope clung to fragile ink-covered pages, written with love, despair, anticipation, disgust, and all the rest of human emotion. Did those pioneers recognize the tradition they followed from a thousand years before?
As we move further into a new world that disdains the tangible personal letter, we need to look back for a moment to imprint in our minds what we’re giving up. Physical remains of letters have survived for thousands of years. One badly timed lightning strike can wipe out years of work or correspondence.
Mother Nature doesn’t care about electrons that floated around or are stored in the ether around us. A scrambled atmosphere can do as much damage in the long run as a flood. All communication is vulnerable to disaster, computer driven no less than the Pony Express.
At the end of the day, though, we choose to use our time to communicate with dreams, aspirations, and secrets from one person to another, or merely to open a channel and punch keys.
The individual decides. Quick and dirty or thoughtful and fulsome? When is the last time letters arrived in your mailbox?
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...onion? I've heard better analogies. I don't know who wrote that classic lyric. Whoever it was, though, I'm betting they were smoking some good s**t, man. But, absurdly, those lyrics sound pretty appropriate to me right now. I think it's something to do with the the layers of the onion. Or something like that, man.
I've been really struggling with a couple of big drawings this week. Sometimes you can invest so much time into a drawing that it's hard to give up on it even if it's not feeling right. That's what's been happening for me, with this one. I fear I've really messed up and may have to scrap it altogether.
I spent about a week drawing in this background. Building up each layer to recreate this old Moleskine Diary page. It's madness really, these layers that go into my drawings. And, this is only the background! At worse, I may never use it, or at best it'll end up getting covered by a big mad doodle and you probably won't even be able to see the background anyway.
In case, it is heading for the bin, I thought I'd get a post out of it. You'd allow me that wouldn't you? C'mon, this took me a week!
(Actually, after a little Googling I find that Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson wrote this song. I apologise to them if they were not smoking anything at all, but really, an onion? Hmmmm. Also I found this
amusing little review, of those lyrics, whilst Googling my life away).
A pen that sharply scratches in the skin and acompanying typographic logo design for the Dutch satirical writer Luuk Koelman.
The old bloodpen was also a Sevensheaven production.
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Your work is incredible! It's creative, exciting, speaks to the viewer, has excellent composition and is so beautifully rendered! I hope everything goes well for you today!
Love the jewellery flotsam. And what a great article, congratulations! :)
Very rarely do I do the commute into London, but this morning I did and picked up a copy of the Metro. Glad I did as immediately fell in love with your style. Superb. You've made my day / week / year :)
Thank you, guys.
Why am I so negative? Today turned out to be a good day. Not only did i coplete my tax returns (which is such a weight lifted) but also I sold a lot of work.
Thank you so much, Simon. I'm ost pleased that you made that commute today.
Cheers!
I read the article on my way to work. I recognised your pictures before I saw your name. Well done. (Edinburgh to Glasgow train)
My pleasure. Please do let me know if you and when you have any others for sale.
Congratulations on the article! Your work is amazing.
Thanks, folks.
Hope you have recieved your drawings now Simon? Can I get an email address for you? you can send it via Etsy.
Wow, AnneMarie, it must have made its way from London?
Cheers, all.
The article was in our local Metro, so everyone would have seen it :)
Oh, right, AnneMarie, so it wasn't just in the London Metro then? Thanks x