Drawing Tank Girl, Mew Ichigo and a Skyrim Warrior

Painting people has made me think a lot about how we present ourselves using clothing, hairstyles, make up and so on. Therefore when I went along to the Glasgow comic con in July I was fascinated by all the cosplayers - it was amazing to see how far appearance could be pushed and fascinating to see 2d images like Harlequin come to life.

So I thought of them when I decided that going back to basics by spending some time drawing.

There are a few compositional things I'd like to explore, tonal stuff to work out, and some basically just messing about to see what happens - this is much easier and quicker with drawing than painting. For example, with the Mew Ichigo drawing I was thinking about telling the story more with the white than the black. The Skyrim drawing explores vagueness versus sharp line whereas Tank Girl was my first drawing on white for many years - much harder to get the tonal balance right.

Anyway, these drawings and others will be for sale at Hanson St Open Studios, 4th and 5th October - come along and tell me what you think.

Hanson Street Wasps Open Studios 4th and 5th October

It is Open Studios time of year again and Hanson St will be open for 12 till 5 Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th of October.

This year I will have several paintings on show from the recent exhibition as well as drawings and colour studies, so a wide range of sizes and prices.

My studio mates are as always showing terrific stuff - you can see more and keep up to date at Facebook .

WASPS other studios are open on different weekends throughout October - details at WASPS open studios

Erm. Ooops.

Earlier in the week I said that I'd be showing The Coins at Glasgow Art Club's Autumn show.

But unfortunately I missed the deadline for entering the painting - my only excuse being that everyone has daft days and that yesterday was had more distractions than usual.

So, no painting in the show and I won't be going along to the opening. If any of you were planning on going, please do so, there is always a lovely variety of work, just not mine this time.

And the painting will be on show at the Open Studios, 4th and 5th of October. See you there!

Glasgow Art Club Autumn Show 2014

The show at Mansfield Park Gallery is over and some of the paintings have come back to me, to be sent out to new places.

The first of these new places is the Glasgow Art Club Autumn show, opening this Saturday afternoon and the painting I'm sending is The Coins. The rest will stay with me for the time being.

If you want to come along and see how my painting looks in amongst other works from the Art Club members either let me know or just come along between 3 and 5 on Saturday. Otherwise the place is open most days and the show will be on for around a month.

Last Chance To See The Performance

The Reader was the last painting in the show to be finished, but in many ways is my favourite as there is more of me in her than any of the others - always reading, always dreaming.

What I'm dreaming about now is drawing, new paintings, developing some of the themes that have arisen during making this show - it is time for me to take stock and move on. The show closes Sunday afternoon and I get some of the paintings back next week - but they will never all be together again. But some of them will be mixing with other paintings by other artists in new shows, which is quite exciting.

As for what book she is holding? I left it blank in the painting but in reality it was Alice In Wonderland.

The White Witch

The White Witch was the very first painting painted for the show, after Fran was nice enough to pose for me. She also worked as a sounding board for all the ideas I had and in many ways I felt as if the portrait was keeping an eye on us the whole time, making sure I was at least trying to do all the things I said I wanted to do.

She also brought a fair bit of her own taxidermy with her, but sadly I have not yet been able to incorporate any of them - except this little mouse.

But the show finishes this Sunday so sadly The White Witch won't have her little group of unruly women to watch over much longer, as they all go their separate ways.

Mansfield Park Gallery -

A few folk have asked me about shots of the paintings hung in the gallery - so here they are.

Falling In Hyndland

Today I went back to Mansfield Park Gallery and found that The Fall had been put in the window.

So now she can look out onto Hyndland Road. Before I've always though of her falling backwards down through the air or maybe the sea and indeed the reflections add to the feeling she is under water but for the first time it has occurred to me that rather than falling down she may be falling up.

Whichever direction she is going in though I feel she's not quite sure but she is resolute and she will make a go of it wherever she ends up.