I found drawings in a book I used when I was travelling. There were some made in Florence, Bologna and Venice. The notebook was bought in Sydney with money I earned in Brisbane. This was typed in London.
Florence
Venice
Bologna
…ria fo tuo gninnur ma I !PLEH esaelP
I've made a lot of car drawings recently. Fifty drawings, which barely scratches the surface when you think there are about 50 billion cars on the face of the earth.
Most of the pictures are from memory or photos, and then I made some mono-prints. And in one case a Monaro-print. The prints aren't very large so the Hungarian micro cars were ideal. These prints are also very good practice for writing backwards which can come in handy if you are stuck in a phone box or something glass.
When mono-prints ruled the world.
Copy cats...
I walked around the National Portrait Gallery to kill some time. Usually I will draw details from pictures or whole pictures in situ. There's some funny faces in there, that's for sure.
Copying is good practice for drawing. There was a group of kids who were asked to make a drawing of one member of the Capel family in the famous painting. One boy took his piece of paper and walked up to the picture and chose his subject - the Father- then turned around and tiptoed back through the class who were sprawled across the gallery floor in wild postures.
He didn't once look back at the painting for reference as he made his picture. I kept my eye on his progress and by the end of it he stood up and proudly waved the drawing in the air at his teacher. The drawing was definitely no one other than the man in the painting. It didn't resemble the man in the painting at all, but it was the man in the painting.
This is how court artists work. I mean law courts, not Goya. They can't draw in the court but must leave and draw from memory what they saw going on inside. Like smoking, they have to go outside to do it.
I was once asked if I could go to a court case and do some drawings for ABC News. I declined because I was worried my drawing would be too loose and sketchy, and not objective enough, based on what I'd seen of court artist's drawings which are nearly always kind of classically drawn. I think the subjective approach would be more realistic.
Drawing of children drawing at the NPG. Image © David Mackintosh.
Notebook drawing of NPG painting. Photo © David Mackintosh
The doctor will see you now…
Today I received a gigantic parcel in the post. It was a whole stack of Australian Rolling Stone magazines (broadsheets) from the seventies. I think my friend who sent it was a subscriber back then and now he thinks I can learn something from reading them. Well, I have. They take up a lot of room and they smell.
Aside from that, they're fantastic. All that cut-and-paste artwork and line and screen bromides on the insides. Not a hashtag in sight. When I think he must have waited patiently for each edition, I'm very lucky to receive them all in one go. They will go under the knife, literally, but I think he expects that.
When I was a kid I was given a cardboard box of American Popular Mechanics magazines from the forties and fifties (not from the same guy who gave me the Rolling Stones) . I would read and reread and re-reread them. Over and over. I was interested in the artwork and the printing as much as the strange writing style and the ads for things like insurance and outboard motors.
Back cover of Rolling Stone October 1976.
Foxing, lady
I hadn't noticed…
I have been preparing some paper for drawing for a new picture book. By the look of things, I need to introduce some colour. But I love Payne's Gray. Come to think of it, outside was like this today. This looks like any window would have looked today. I should pay more attention when it counts, because this was an afterthought.
Payne's Gray and masking tape on paper
From the soundproof booth…
Yesterday I went to the recording of the audio book version of Standing In for Lincoln Green. I was lucky enough to get my first choice of narrator: the fantastic Victoria Coren. I heard her voice on the radio when I was working on the book and knew immediately that she would be perfect. Thanks to Tanya Brennand-Roper at HarperCollins we were able to arrange it. Also, a reference to a card game in the book may have sealed the deal. Victoria breezed through the reading and had everyone smiling – and she wasn't even doing funny voices or anything. Listening to Victoria Coren it makes me wish I had a nice speaking voice. But you can't have everything, just ask Lincoln Green.
Is this thing on?
It's Lauren Child's book by a nose…
Good news… Lauren Child's new RUBY REDFORT book Catch Your Death is hot off the press and published next week (October 10) . It's black, it's blue, it's red, and it's printed with a mouthwatering bubblegum scented varnish. There's a new fly for your collection, and an annotated brain, amongst other things. Get all three flavours.
The Ruby Redfort Bubblegum Book
I got a present…
My friends recently made me a present of this French school poster. It was printed in Rennes, but I don't know when. The artwork looks like it could be from the late 1940s. It's beautiful. And educational.
Le cadeau
Lincoln Green is published in the UK…
Standing In for Lincoln Green was published this week in the UK by Ann-Janine and everyone at the most excellent HarperCollins Children's Books. The UK edition is a jacketed hardback, on nice uncoated paper. In fact it's identical to the US edition, save for a few moms, sodas and a vacation. If you're after gloss, you've come to the wrong square-dance.
Making my letterpress dummy for Lincoln Green
Lincoln Green US edition published today…
Standing In for Lincoln Green is published today in the US by the wonderful Susan Van Metre and Abrams Books. It's a nice hardback with jacket, as with Marshall Armstrong and The Frank Show. If you look carefully, you can see an empty bottle of sarsaparilla on the side, or spine as it is commonly known. It's a good book for lazy types and shirkers. That's for sure.
As good as new.