No bike.

Today I took part in a karate competition. The low point of the day was that I had gotten a lift to Tallaght and had to I wait four hours after I had finished competing for same back home. The other passengers were a bit drunk and blaring every god-awful pop song they could find on the radio at ear-splitting level while I looked out the window and thought of England.

FIGHTING


I was helping out with a kumite competition for kids today at my dojo. Some of the kids were hilarious. This one kid acted like he had an epic kung-fu soundtrack in his head the whole time... or thought he was Vegeta from DBZ. When I was fixing his dogi before his match he looked across at his opponent said in a dark voice: "Let's see what he's got." Also, he didn't walk; only stomped. After every round he'd wheeze like crazy even though he obviously wasn't out of breath. INTENSE.

ARC


Some guys who are moving into a new place today to live like real human adults. In naming this file I discovered their combined firstname initials spell ARC which seems almost unfairly cool. (or car if you prefer).

I enjoy the character-driven situational comedy suggested by the contrasting head shapes.Yay visual language! Media conditioning! \o/

I need to stop doing this kind of thing. Constantly posting doodles of people I know irl makes me feel like a wiener.

Wasting time.


Was meant to be drawing something else but I was at a lecture by Brenda Chapman yesterday and something she was talking about made me want to draw a lady based on a swan. An idea that's been done but too often with long hair and generally giving some delicate, whispy sort of impression. I hate that so here's my version. I dunno about you but in my experience swans are badass and kind of scary. If you've got some bread, you better hand that shit over bro.

BEETROOT



I think one thing that I'm struggling with at the moment is a lot of the things I'm interested in are abstract ideas so nothing especially comes to mind when I have some free time with my sketchbook or photoshop. I'm also kind of weary of drawing characters. So here is a drawing of my winter hero: the beetroot. I got a lot from my dad (who knows not what to do with them beyond picking them in vinegar and putting them in jars, a tragedy for another day) and was struck by how great it is. They've got a very satisfying solid feel, the violent purple colour is amazing and because these are dirty great right-out-of-the-ground beets they have this nice rough brown part at the top that's all warty and interesting. The stalks/leaves which I didn't really draw here, can be eaten too and like the the beet, dye everything a really pleasing pinky red colour. (Though this can be not so great when being the Kitchen Goddess that I am: transferring them from sink to chopping board, ending up dropping them on the white tiles that I just cleaned.)

Anyway, Beetroot are great and with with River Cottage Veg as my guide, I've learned that there's loads you can do with them. They're good friends with dill and horseradish and make a very nice soup together. I've roasted loads of them with thyme and balsamic vinegar. Walnut and beetroot dip is delicious too. Being so sweet, they get on like a house on fire with chocolate apparently and can be worked into desserts to produce some interesting results.

This year if I can't plant my own, I'll definitely have to badger my dad into growing some other varieties like the ones in the second picture. So pretty!

I should draw something


I haven't been drawing lately. There are two reasons for this: One is that drawing is now basically my 9-5 job. It's not terribly exciting stuff to look at either. Two is when I'm not working all my non-drawing related other interests fight for my time. I don't know if you can tell from the spectrum of the reading material here, but I have a lot of interests and if I were to represent them with a pile of books like this, it would be about three times the size.

I miss drawing for myself sometimes but I seem to have lost the knack of making images that I actually like. Unless I get some thunderbolt inspiration, it'll take a long time to build back up a style and a direction to pursue I think. I don't want to bore people with shit guilt-doodles in the mean time so I'm going to stop posting them.