Snowy Solarscape

"Drawing is more about how the mind thinks rather than how the hand works."

D. Spartan Cavanagh

"Thanks to the above quote, the day when I put pencil to blank paper is close."
Andrew Donegan

ORIGINAL IMAGE IS AT THIS LINK

http://www.redbubble.com/people/piebald77/art/6621638-1-i-dreamt-i-conquered-a-tiger

Art Till Death®
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.”
Stella Adler
"Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.”
Jackson Pollock
"Thank f**k for Photoshop."
Dick Fudge

Pottery Update

Worm Log didn't work out and these PQ pictures don't help. Either the Copper Adventurine glaze was on too thick (3 coats), or....well, there was something definitely wrong with the temperature of the kiln, actually. Instead of being a rich coppery orange with streaks of grainy yellow running through, it came out dark and burnt-looking. Still looks okay, but really lacking that granite-like depth of colour. The gold on the top of the object didn't show at all, but came out a dark silvery black, retaining it's metallic finish only very slightly. You can see the piece erected side-on from Aztec Vase (itself a victim of the too-dark & too-black syndrome) which is glazed with natural-looking oxides, which are very powdery, even when mixed well with water, and therefore difficult to apply. Metallic firing hasn't gone well lately - may have to switch back to oxides for a while.

These cups will have to be nearly done. They just need the rim, the handle and the base doing (sounds easy). Between them, they must have taken the best part of ten hours at least. The one on the left will be the most detailed of all cups so far, and take the total to 12. They draw you in and demand more and more detail to the point where you have to wipe your hands and say that's enough. Sod it. In fact, let's kiss goodnight vienna to this whole ceramic malarkey!

Magazine Publication

ANDREW DONEGAN was paid for publication in NOT SHUT UP magazine recently with his 2000-word short story PROTECT THE PRINCESS. It is his first publication in print and he hopes every one of a possible 7500 people will read it, although if only a single person reads it and likes it then that will do him. His overriding emotion is relief that one of his best efforts has gained some exposure. It is a personal favourite for him and the added pictures were a pleasant bonus. He says "It is very nice seeing someone's interpretation of your work. It gave me an idea of how nice it must be to be a best-selling novelist who can sit back and watch movies adapted from their books."

For anybody remotely interested, the idea was a direct result of watching the climactic scene at the end of the movie BEOWULF. He doesn't usually watch 'animation-type' movies, but the action finale in this one touched him so much he had to translate his interpretation of it into words. From screen-to-page instead of vice-versa. He says again:

"I was heart-struck, and I knew I wasn't ever doing better than that. So I imitated the premise. And from that starting point, developing those emotions that had vibrated so potently within, from there could do no wrong."

Not Shut Up published by Hugh Stoddart (Thank you!)

Black& white Illustrations by Anita (Thank you!)

Top official Beowulf comic illustration coloured-in by Andrew Donegan