Just like Stalin before him, Putin is trying to eradicate evidence of Ukraine’s culture, history, and identity. An art exhibition in London is a reminder of the Soviet efforts, and chance to reflect on current ones.
Evacuated artworks exhibit details attempts to wipe out Ukrainian culture – and shows what survives
The drawing was done in the coffee shop across from (and slightly to one side of) the building depicted. I’d have put in more details, but the windows steamed up and obscured my view.
Gift-giving time is almost upon us, so, I would like to point you to the places you can buy Spinneyhead stuff.
Obviously, you can buy my books, or Garth’s, but they’re exclusively digital. Buy them as a treat for yourself.
If you want physical presents to give away, there are a few places you can go.
I have a store hosted by Zibbet, where you can buy cards, buttons, badges and cufflinks made from coins, odd, naughty boxes, and vintage items.
I’m selling antique postcards on Delcampe, as well as stamps, slides and other interesting stuff.
A selection of my photos are available as prints from DeviantArt or Redbubble.
You can get 3D prints of stuff I’ve designed from Shapeways. It’s mostly model rail related stuff, but I’m going to be adding new designs as soon as possible.
I may have forgotten some of the places you can get my stuff, I have tried out all sorts over the years, but these are the main ones I use at the moment.
Not long to go until Christmas, so, if you’re unsure about what to get your friends and family, may I suggest a couple of online shops.
Buy my handmade, art and vintage stuff from Zibbet, or get 3D printed models from Shapeways. All cool stuff, some of it using the most modern of methods, some old school.
And don’t forget, if you have a Kindle you can buy my books from Amazon (and Garth Owen’s as well).
A collection of 1,500 artworks confiscated by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s has been found in the German city of Munich, media reports say.
The trove is believed to include works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall, the news magazine Focus reports.
I started a story a while back that was going to have looted art as a plot point, but then shelved it thinking it wasn’t relevant any more. Perhaps not.
via BBC News – Nazi looted art 'found in Munich' – German media.
I have a small stack of, mostly, Image comics from the nineties, a sharp knife and a guillotine, and I’m going to make some art. Working on some comic book themed ideas, my first series is going to be called “Crossover 1”. Two comics- Brigade series 1 issue 3 and C23 issue 3, collide in strips on the page. These being Image comics from the nineties, some of the resulting pages will be no less coherent than the originals.
There will be two versions of each page. A pages start with C-23 at the top, B pages with Brigade. Once I have a few more pages in stock, I shall be putting them up for sale on Spinneyworld and Zibbet.
Here are a bunch of lost treasures that might inspire an adventure or two- even if they’re just the maguffin for a load of Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style hijinks.
10 Missing Treasures You Should Really Be Looking For! – Neatorama.
New in the Spinneyworld shop is this unique piece, created for the cover image of Sounds of Soldiers. You can read about the build up here.
The diorama features 1:6th scale items on a base, depicting a makeshift soldier’s grave, in keeping with the themes of the book. It comes in a display case to keep the dust off.
I just cleared a bunch of old Mills & Boon books from the shelves, and I really like the style of these covers. I think this was house style for most of the sixties, changing to murky and far less attractive oil-colours in the seventies.
I’d love to write something that merited a cover with this palette, if not its subject matter.
As a modeller I’ve long considered creating some art using kits, possibly some sort of surreal diorama or somesuch. What I hadn’t considered, until now, was flipping the work through 90 degrees and turning it into a “painting”. This is what Gerry Judah does with his post apocalypse cityscapes, and they’re very effective. I’ve had a load of ideas just from watching the 9 minute video below. Not plans to rip him off, but some thoughts on new ways to present ideas I’ve had for a while.
Gerry Judah: Paintings from Sam Marcuson on Vimeo.
via BLDBLOG
I passed this on the way to work yesterday. I picked up a smaller piece of art than there two as I wouldn’t have been able to carry them.
Londoners, and those of you within commuting distance, get yourselves to Primrose Hill and visit The Museum of Everything. The BBC did.
Smoking squirrels, circus banners, miniature fairgrounds – the Museum of Everything in London’s Primrose Hill shows art that people have made for themselves rather than for fame or money.
The museum claims to be a window on the creativity of people who did not go to art school.
The current exhibition has had to be extended as it appears this display of the odd and fascinating output from Britain’s sheds and workshops has captured the imagination.
Provisionally titled Show Me The Monet, the show’s description could be read as Dragons’ Den or X Factor for artists, depending upon how cynical you are. I don’t have anything suitable at the moment, but you might. Entries close on December 5th. Tell me how it goes.
Currently for sale on Ebay are several pieces by Roy Cross, one of the main creators of box art for old school Airfix. If anyone wants to get me a Christmas present they could, for example, buy me this piece for the SAR Boeing Vertol helicopter. It’s one of a batch being sold, along with several vintage models, here.
A while ago there was a news story about an art courier in New York who got drunk after showing a prospective buyer a painting and then lost it on the way back to his hotel. I missed the follow up report until just now- the painting was found stashed behind a bush opposite the Metropolitan Museum Art and eventually returned. In the mean time one of the owners of the painting has been charged with fraud and the other has dropped a lawsuit against the hapless art courier. The tale still needs at least one murder before it becomes the plot of any one of a number of detective dramas.
Indeed, I was taken by the tale of a tipsy deliveryman losing a million dollar painting and may yet incorporate it into A Death In Didsbury as a plot thread.
This one might feed into some ideas which are percolating for a future Irwin tale. The man entrusted with couriering a $1.3million painting to show a potential client later got so drunk he lost it on the way home.
I did get a few photos of the degree show, which are all below. The textiles section of the show expressly forbade photography, whilst I wasn’t certain in other areas, so I just took a few shots here and there.
The School is undergoing a refurbishment, so some of the spaces used in previous areas weren’t open this year. The 3D design department seemed to suffer more than most. There was some very nice furniture, but not the larger selection of product design which has always been particularly interesting to me. The production design area of the film school was also lacking representation beyond a few film posters. Of course, it’s also possible I was just dim and missed off a whole room or two of the show somehow.
Students with webistes include-
Iwan Roberts, Ben Grainger and others have art online at artofficialspace.co.uk
Andrew Henderson– rather nice stuff with a slight steampunk leaning. The anatomy of a mermaid drawings and his models are particularly good.
Emma Reynolds, with a blog here. Lovely book illustrations and narrative. I should see if she’d like to illustrate a comic.
And here are the pictures. If you click through you’ll see that I was lax in taking down artists names and most of them are uncredited. If you are, or know, the artist, please get in touch and I’ll rectify that.
One day I want to be able to go to this show and buy or commission some art.
I’ve been finding, with the last few pages of comic I’ve drawn, that I have to mess around with brightness and contrast in Photoshop to cut down ghost images from pencils which haven’t erased properly. It’s time to go looking for an old artists’ tool. Non-repro, or non-photo, blue pencils are a colour which isn’t easily picked up by scanners, so is less likely to create blurs and shadows behind my inks.
A quick search found this comparison of blue leads for mechanical pencils, my drafting tool of choice. So, I’m going to get myself some Pilot Colour Eno Soft Blue leads, before they go out of stock. We’ll see if they make a difference.