Chloe Cumming Is Erumpent

Cats for eBay and Parkinson's, Xmas 2011

2011-11-23T18:32:00.001Z

Right, I have done a squillion bits of art between the last post and now, and will try to update with the better bits, but more urgently I have some stuff up on eBay, cats mainly. And it would be really nice to actually sell some of it because it would leave me encouraged, as opposed to crestfallen. And some of the money goes to Parkinson's UK. My Dad has Parkinson's so I'd quite like to help them out, in my meagre way.

Here's a link to all the listings:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/chloepaintings/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

And some but not all of the pictures:

Thank you! Sorry to be away so long! Do people still use blogs?

Digitals 2 - Still silly

2011-07-15T09:33:00.003Z

I am still doing some real drawing. Well, real drawing is still what I spend a lot of time thinking about, when I'm at baby groups and walking around pretending to be normal. I am pleased with how quickly I can do these though. Time and energy pretty comprehensively compromised these days.

Baby Drawings Part Umpteen

2011-07-12T09:21:00.002Z

Important fundamental stuff. Where would I be without my real subject

Pointer Sisters

2011-07-03T16:19:00.002Z

No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down down down

I want to love you, feel you
Wrap myself around you
I want to squeeze you, please you
I just can't get enough
And if you move real slow
I'll let it go

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
I'm about to lose control and I think I like it
I'm so excited and I just can't hide it
And I know, I know, I know, I know
I know I want you

Jump, jump for my love
Jump, I know my heart can make you happy
Jump in, you know these arms
Can feel you up
Jump, you want to taste my kisses
In the night then
Jump, jump for my love

I want a man with a slow hand
I want a lover with an easy touch
I want somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I want somebody who will understand
When it comes to love
I want a slow hand

(not my own sentiments but those of the Pointer Sisters innit)

Trash Mag Doodles

2011-07-02T20:09:00.001Z

Digital Silliness

2011-06-25T17:24:00.003Z

I got a wacom tablet for my birthday.

i will do well serious professional things with it next. First I done these.

Mummies and Babies My Heart is In

2011-06-20T21:11:00.001Z

Something more like soul paintings

2011-06-11T20:18:00.003Z

Chloe explains what is happening:

I've done a few more intense mummy baby paintings since these. I've been ill this week and have lost the threads of things. If you wonder what the heck I am doing with my life, I am mostly being a full time mother, and when I have energy I am painting somewhat considered and intense paintings to enter in competitions, or drawing silly pictures of Thundercats or Star Trek as an angst-free evening challenge. I have some other things planned, perhaps better things for the mummy-age.

1st late May Update: Thundercats

2011-05-30T07:57:00.002Z

If you follow my Tumblr, facebook page, deviantart, twitter, or Etsy store, you may have seen these, but let's give the erumpent blog a chance to come back from the nearly dead.

Hey, it's nice to post long vertical lists of pictures with writing in between now and again. Nostalgic times!

They're all at the store! Go and buy them!

Captain Picard and an Event

2011-04-18T19:50:00.002Z

Captain Picard sketched on the spot

Something next that cpt. Picard might encounter on a strange holiday planet where they play games like grease ball and head lump rubbing

Watercolour evening babies

2011-04-17T11:31:00.003Z

Scribblin, scrapin and hatchin plots

Babies Squiggled During Life

2011-04-14T20:42:00.002Z

Movie doodles

2011-04-12T11:47:00.004Z

Now when I get leisure time I try to combine drawing with the inert activity when I can.

Doodles drawn from the movie 'Catfish':

From Kick Ass (I didn't get through it, it upset me):

Bardot studies

2011-03-24T18:02:00.004Z

I got it into my head the other week to participate in caricaturama 3000, whoever it was the next time, and it turned out to be Brigitte Bardot. Which actually was really interesting. Youtube's the best place to go first of course. Her sexuality and beauty was all there in the flesh and the movement, it was natural and rare, even in low res. Almost sinisterly powerful. Not like now when some people seem to measure beauty by the amount of money an ordinary faced stiff lady spends on surgery and dodgy photoshopping.

So I sketched and sketched and it was hit and miss, but I had missed this frenzy of drawing, searching out the truth in lines and squiggles.

NEW Etsy store

2011-03-05T10:17:00.003Z

Hi!

It's called BINKLETARBS

You can BUY THIS STUFF if you click the links.

Thank you

Long Mummies

2011-02-17T18:54:00.002Z

The Bumpies

2011-02-04T12:50:00.002Z

I'll level with you blog, I've been trying to shoehorn my natural self-loathing and intensity into some kind of workable cuteness, and some of my experiments don't easily fit into anyone's category, but bless them, here they are anyway.

Shoehorn?

In the meantime I've started an actually new (completely new) Etsy store, which I'll post about properly soon.

Green Things

2011-01-14T10:54:00.003Z

Some of these are currently available from my Etsy Store ! (Others might become prints)

My Tumblr blog

2011-01-04T08:56:00.002Z

I thought I'd have a crack at this. Life is a bit more piecemeal now. I'll still post here I think but the comments have been drying up lately.

chloe cumming tumblr blog

Curious Motherhood Ideas

2010-12-21T22:43:00.003Z

Some of my Etsy paintings

2010-12-16T13:34:00.003Z

Little and affordable. Click pics for links

Iris Evening paintings

2010-12-15T10:22:00.002Z

These are small, watercolor, I did the three of them in about 2 and a half hours in the evening. I have to make the best of my evenings!

By the way, I have a new revamped Etsy store, it's now called 'Binkertons', one of the names Bob calls Iris. Time to get womany, crafty, cute and affordable:

binkertons etsy store

Swampy Moody Fairies

2010-12-09T22:09:00.004Z

Hmm

I like cute postcard art, Edwardian children, I like ladies who drew babies in the golden age.

Forgetful Fairy

2010-11-24T22:01:00.001Z

Daytime Donald Studies/doodles

2010-11-13T19:30:00.002Z

I do these between baby's demands occasionally

Fairy Wrestling with Gecko on Green

2010-11-10T13:20:00.000Z

Celebripencil Funningtons

2010-11-06T13:40:00.004Z

I bought some trashy celebrity magazines the other day, and promised myself I would justify this filthy act by drawing pictures from them, so here they are.

Reptile Enchantment

2010-10-28T04:43:00.000Z

Garf and Diane

2010-10-27T19:48:00.001Z

Diane and Garf are two of Iris's favourite toys. Diane is a dragon and is a bit 'busy'. Garf is a tall spotty mouse.

Frog Variations

2010-10-23T14:33:00.003Z

Here's one I did myself

Now here's something a bit different, one I did in collaboration with Bob. I drew it, he painted the broad strokes, I went back and refined the faces. Much like Rubens and one of his minions (not really). It's a bit hit and miss but I think we should do this more. He paints in a way that I don't paint. We both have doubts about the colours, but we can work on that

Drybrush Baby Doodles

2010-10-22T17:56:00.004Z

Red Birth With Snakes

2010-10-12T08:57:00.000Z

Fairies

2010-10-11T12:38:00.003Z

Two early fairies, I plan more

Froggies

2010-10-07T18:18:00.003Z

These are more a by-product of what I've been doing than the actual thing I've been actually doing.

Mummybabies 3

2010-09-11T12:11:00.003Z

Further Mummybabies

2010-09-08T09:01:00.001Z

Dumplings

2010-09-06T09:41:00.002Z

I should add that the real Iris is very beautiful, especially compared to these silly drawings.

Mummybaby

2010-08-31T12:28:00.000Z

incidental drawings from my life.

2010-08-27T15:13:00.002Z

mainly baby based, this is what we find

Binkers of the Minkers

2010-08-25T16:12:00.001Z

Woodland Babies

2010-08-22T17:37:00.000Z

Bishingtons

2010-08-21T16:40:00.004Z

Snog Marry Avoid

2010-08-20T15:17:00.002Z

Snog Marry Avoid?

Original run 23 June, 2008 – present

'Snog Marry Avoid? is a British reality TV show on BBC Three hosted by Jenny Frost. It focuses mainly on transforming 'fakery obsessed'or 'Slap addicts' in Britain into natural beauties by stripping them of their skimpy clothes and layers of make-up and giving them a make-under instead of a make-over with the help of POD - the Personal Overhaul Device.' - Wikipedia

Lady baby of Waby

2010-08-18T20:39:00.001Z

Spooky Babies

2010-08-17T19:42:00.001Z

Developing Binks

2010-07-28T13:24:00.001Z

Those were from life, these are the next stage (where this process is leading is a philosophical question):

Baby Binkertons

2010-07-27T09:45:00.002Z

Attempts At Brock

2010-07-25T19:59:00.004Z

I found this hard. I think in my mind he remains amorphous, like a cloud of raw pink meat.

it began to slip away from me here...

Brock and Jacob (Twilight):

Life drawings

2010-07-21T19:03:00.004Z

Drawings of my life.

Footballers

2010-07-20T13:12:00.002Z

I wasn't that drawing-inspired by the world cup in the end, but me and Iris quite liked the noises.

Baby Wabies

2010-07-17T11:13:00.005Z

Phone conversation babies.

(I've not been able to draw as much this week, not exactly because I haven't had time, more because I've been incredibly tired. Baby waking very often in the night. We're working on it.)

Iris likes rice and squeaking.

Moods of Baby

2010-07-13T13:51:00.002Z

Frowny mood:

Jumping over pony mood:

Floating mood:

Intricate Baby

2010-07-11T17:01:00.001Z

Baby Legs

2010-07-07T20:52:00.000Z

Birth, Gosh

2010-07-06T19:25:00.002Z

Initial plan for a painting that ended up quite different:

Fun Baby

2010-07-05T07:37:00.001Z

Yesterday's 5 seconds of Motown

2010-07-04T10:22:00.005Z

I didn't have a lot of time for drawing yesterday, baby wanted to be held. But I got a few seconds and did these. I got a great Motown 1964 box set for my birthday, I want to draw the Motown 1964 people, am making a start.

Mary Wells and Iris:

Two chaps:

Though doing stuff fast is fun and can help me focus on what I want to achieve, when you go too fast it can just be slight and pointless. But any drawing is better than none these days. I do have a lot of ideas in store for what I REALLY want to do. But I wanted to prove I can still find time for drawing.

Silverpoint

2010-07-01T17:52:00.000Z

Babies in Silverpoint (a sort of trial)

Little Iris Early Efforts

2010-06-29T10:07:00.002Z

Some of my earlier drawings of little Iris.

Clunky, but I had just had a massive blood transfusion.

Most from life, some from photos, some a bit of both, but with the experience of being around her all the time.

Back... Pony Dream Baby

2010-06-28T21:10:00.002Z

I just realized I have a lot of drawings to share. I have been working on secret projects, but lots of stuff has been done around and about them... having baby hasn't stopped me drawing, just changed the way I go about it. And my entire mind. Probably for the better.

OK to start us off, here are some dreams of ponies I tried to have.

Probably, more things tomorrow.

Sort it out you clowns!

2010-05-30T13:31:00.003Z

I'm doing a bit of rearranging, will be back soon! Not that anyone's still looking probably.

(The title of this entry was a headline in a tabloid newspaper before our coalition government was created... I mean formed, I suppose I should use the right word)

2005, 2006... paper, getting good at drawing, lovely wrestlers

2010-04-23T11:40:00.008Z

2005... I did all these little square paintings for a gallery that only sold square paintings (now defunct). Utterly pointless as a business venture. But it encouraged me to develop my on-paper painting techniques, watercolour plus others. Things got quite itty bitty but sometimes the cloudyness worked.

When we were smaller, my sister once drew a 'fartist's impression' of me, what I might look like if made of gas... these remind me of that.

Also, wrestling was in the air.. I mean I needed something to get excited about.

and then 2006... wrestling chickens come home to roost... also it was when I started thinking of caricature, focusing on drawing, and when I started this blog...

This new kind of weirdness was quite special for me. I remember the first time Marlo Meekins sent me an instant message, I couldn't beleive she liked my work. (This was the era of Myspace. I attempted to Network.)

These are all still quite 'bitty'... I've always tended towards the bitty, and relied on untrained instincts to provide any kind of structure or hierarchy. I'm getting better now at seeing the big picture, trying to avoid getting swamped in unnecessary complexity of my own making.

It meant a LOT to me to have peer approval about my drawing. It still does. I still hover between worlds of solid masculinity and concrete old fashioned values, and some kind of intangible artsy fartsyness, my own kind. (neither thing being very commercial on the local level.) I sometimes hate my 'artist' nature, but it remains.

2003, into 2004

2010-04-17T12:41:00.002Z

2003, into 2004....

Beach Boys, Brighton, crusty painting, high faluting ideas, specific palettes...

Crusty etheriality...

Not long after I graduated, I discovered the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, and I found this gave me a good deal more to believe in.

At the time I lived in Brighton, in a little terraced house on a steep road opposite a nice little church with seagulls on the roof. I was in the real world now, except I wasn't.

I was unabashed about being soft and having feelings.
(Goodness knows I always have to have something to be unabashed about. I'm pretty much abashed about everything else.)

Part of me finds these a bit namby pamby. Part of me accepts them as part of the past. Part of me quite likes the naive qualities and sometimes I think if you stick with naive qualities you attract people.

but it was all a bit fragile, breakable by unbelievers ... and by my self-doubt

and you can't sell your feelings and your sincerity very easily

though I remain unsure what you can sell very easily.

and the things you're sincere about change....

Iris

2010-04-17T11:30:00.004Z

I had Iris on the 11th of March.

I like Iris.

It was a bit of a difficult birth, but now we're both OK.

(I hope these pictures are visible.)

(Click for bigger)

The First Three of the Past Ten Years

2010-04-09T14:48:00.004Z

So here is (the first part of) my ten year (maybe 11 year) blog post... because I have had Iris the baby, I haven't been drawing much lately. I could have done, I've just about had time in the gaps between baby care. It's just a question of focusing, and wanting to enough. In the meantime, I thought it would be a good interval in which to review what the heck I've produced in the past ten years. Warning: this blog may have more writing in it than my usual sketch blogs. And more pictures than my old written blogs. And it might not make a lot of sense, because the things I do perhaps don't.

2000

In the year 2000, I was in my first and second year at art college in Canterbury. I was trying to get accustomed to the culture there. I was young and silly but had an overactive brain. It appeared to work quite well for me to continue keeping complex and convoluted sketchbooks full of analytical nonsense... words were what counted at art college. Just a constant flow of words, meaning was not really important. So I could do words, but secretly, I was looking for answers and meaning and I wanted to be able to paint well. So we had a bit of a secret conflict of interests, me and the art college.

First let it be noted: I was still in the throes of a mammoth Beatles phase, a big passionate learning process, and I particularly loved Paul, and particularly his smooth little face and the angles of his eyebrows. This was done very near the beginning of the first year, before my spirit had been squashed. They thought it was kitsch, little did they know that I really meant it. I kept these things mostly hidden.

I wanted to focus on cute things generally, and on noting the parallels between Britney and Pikachu, icons of the time. I think it was a reaction to the pressure to be sophisticated, and my attempt to keep myself feeling young among jaded narcissistic idiot baby boomer lecturers.

even then I was conceding a lot to the unbalanced focus on 'ideas'... not exactly what I hoped I was signing up for... scribbling scribbles and words in a book... but there didn't seem to be any other kind of art college. If I'd have known about the existence of the Atelier schools, I may have gone down a different path. But I didn't. Anyway. I have my weird history and wonky mistakes and mishaps are part of it. I'll try to look on it as funny rather than tragic.

So I became steadily surlier and more claustrophobic. I got obsessive over undeserving/bewildered boys. I was self absorbed and boring. Oh well!

I wasn't really given cause to consider the pros or cons of my drawing style. Not many people around me were drawing in any comparable way. I think I wanted it vaguely to be delicate and feminine. Looking at it now, I find it a bit cloudy and bitty, and it would have been good if I'd started being a bit more manly, structured, and learning specific skills sooner... but I can at least see what I was getting at, I've always been able to draw. It's a shame I wasn't actually taught. I was doing it, but doing it self-consciously and very underconfidently.

The first Harry Potter film came out, and I read the existing books. And Lord of the Rings. Those things and the Beatles were the kinds of things that were my touchstones. They were the things that animated me. In that specific timeframe. But because of humanity, not escapism. I think. Of course I might be bending it around in my memory.

I painted usually in acrylics. The one below is a detail of an oil painting. I think the colours on these were unfortunately 'turned up' at some point, so may be cruder even than the originals. I made my own rules and parameters, no one gave me any.

2001

Second year of art college... kind of a torturous time in my brain. Let's focus on the silly pictures.

Despite the fact I wasn't obsessed with Paul McCartney any more, I still embarked upon a series of paintings on the subject of beating up Jane Asher.

2002

Final year of art college.. and beyond... regained a smattering of sanity.

Got interested in computer game imagery as I worked up to my degree show. The degree was ultimately a bit of a farce, but having that apparent goal did make me focus a little more than usual. I was quite excited for some of the time... I'm only pessimistic in retrospect, if you see what I mean. I was excited in my own little world.

Started playing Everquest and liked the way the corpses lay. Looked for poignant things, I spose. If I found them in pop culture, it seemed like part of the communication was already successful. But it wasn't about 'pop art' or plasticness, I was looking for authenticity.

Got very into Fleischer cartoons too.

And Buffy.

Wanted a perfect smooth dreamy finish. Wanted to communicate stuff from my innermost mind. May have failed. Still tried.

But after I left, got a bit angry, but also had a sense of liberty, and painted Hopeful Hannie, which I still like.

After that, of course, things changed.

Walking cat

2010-03-02T20:15:00.005Z

This one had a baby on his back.

This helped me to decide I want to stick with pure watercolour and not get all other stuff mixed up with it.

I might soon do a ten year review like Katie did. I think I need to tell some of my stories, people need stories to hang their reactions on.

Stripeless Tigers

2010-02-27T11:43:00.003Z

I think this might be my 200th post! I suppose that means I've done a lot of drawings over the last couple of years. 4 years?

This is a step on the way to combining pure shape-excitement with intensity picture-excitement. What I like just now best is pure pencil, or pure watercolour... other things complicate my thinking unnecessarily. I don't need those extra textures... I need to think in pure pictures. Form dealt with first, then colour in a way where it's doable.

Sloppy Pale Tiger

2010-02-19T15:42:00.003Z

I painted a watercolour picture.

I'm not sure either Ruskin or John K would approve of it, but I am sort of excited on my own behalf about watercolour at the moment, and sometimes you have to do things on your own behalf, even if they don't fit with anything else.

It's based on an old postcard I had of an ancient Greek mosaic, which I've always come back to.

Bobby Baby

2010-01-31T14:24:00.000Z

More Bobby baby studies.

Bob and Me

2010-01-29T09:39:00.001Z

Realism.

Family Drawings

2010-01-28T19:14:00.001Z

Observed drawings of family watching telly.

Things from Before

2010-01-27T19:51:00.002Z

Bobby (before hair cut)

Some of my cartoon studies (messy mess mess) for John K (I lack discipline)

A doodle page of the old school:

Lots more different stuff to post soon.

Anonymous Baby

2010-01-26T11:59:00.002Z

Picture no.1 of 2010... soft long headed pastel baby.

I didn't initially mean it to be weird. I am just trying to find ways round babies. This was my first try. It's based on a picture of Bob in the bath as a baby but it doesn't look like him any more. It didn't matter too much though, I was trying out new paper and a new approach to combining materials. By repeating the process and taking notes I might end up with a more confident approach that is either sellable or showoffy. One of the major hazards with drawing babies is ending up with something creepy or ghoulish.

New stuff soon now and I'm alright lads

2010-01-18T19:31:00.004Z

Hello blog readers,

I'm finally back online properly, I have done some weird domestic drawings and pseudo-paintings so I have a backlog of things to post. Thanks for bearing with me through this boring time.

I live in a small house made of straw and poo that is one room thick with Bob the tall man who has had his hair cut slightly like John Lennon on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, moustache inclusive.

I'm still pregnant, for your reference the baby is due on the 8th of March. I know it's hard to keep track of other people's reproduction. Presently I have a massive cold and am feeling very sick and ill today. But the devil will find work for idle hands to do.

Looking forward to making the best of the nice things the internet brings, friends and talent and nice pictures. I didn't miss it for its own sake, only its possibilities.

Sorry for the delay + straight laced birds

2009-12-09T13:26:00.002Z

Hello

Sorry it's been a while since I did an update, I was suddenly cut off from the internet, then I moved house, now they say it'll be the 16th that we'll back online but I wouldn't even trust that.

I had all this stuff planned too. Borrowing a computer just now. bear with me, I do still draw.

Here are some birdies to prove it.

Knightmare with a Red Pencil

2009-11-20T17:52:00.003Z

Knightmare, the British children's role-playing dungeon-based game show that ran from 1987-1994, is one of the more nerdy things that I'm a fan of.

I had a notion that I wanted to do a series of works based on Knightmare, eventually some quite moody watercolours. I don't know if they'd be fan art as such. They sort of are in spirit but it's obscure enough for me to not expect most people to get the references. I just hope to be able to use some of the atmosphere, awkwardness and creepiness to make some nice pictures that have a coherence together. I need to do something technicolour, and something with consistence. I may also attempt some landscapes with similar atmosphere.

Also lately I've gone a bit mental with red col-erase pencils and animation paper.

little self-portrait next

Notions for future blogs that would scratch itches:

Some topless boymen (I've missed them)
boybands
JLS
Boys of Twilight with their drawn on abs
early Take That
smalltime cage fighters

Drawings of Queen (I'm rather familiar with their shapes from formative years, and I would love to get my hands on Freddie's teeth)

Birds of New Zealand in technicolour

All these things somehow combined in technicolour

Pregnant plus Kitties equals Today

2009-10-31T18:31:00.001Z

A couple of these MAY have been blogged before, but they've been worked on since.

I am pregnant and I like kitties.

I like the glassy eyes of cats.

And drawing on extremely cheap wrinkly paper.

Unfortunately some boobs follow.

Mystery bear and Baby Girl

2009-10-23T14:56:00.003Z

We had our detailed scan. The baby is fine despite some early worries, and she is a girl.

This is my favourite one of the back of her head, she was behaving like a shy person. Like me, in fact.

Some Cartoon Learning

2009-10-17T19:31:00.008Z

For the past few months I've given some time to being a humble student of cartoons.

I'm posting these partly for Hannie, who likes them, maybe more than some of my other work which is difficult and weird.

Copying is good

I wish I had been taught that at school

This has made me better at drawing.

Girls Aloud Melt my Brain

2009-10-11T14:21:00.004Z

I wanted to draw lady pop stars, and the pull of Girls Aloud is just TOO MUCH TO HANDLE

My brain has been totally bunged up. Just so you know, here's one of my current lists of future blogs/ projects:

Brett Anderson's nosebleeds in watercolour

Indie Meets Wrestling

Slightly Caricatured Silly Symphonies Special

Barney Bear Redux

Self as Preggo: Observed and Cartooned

Misc Unblogged Straight laced Cartoon Studies

90s wrestling in oil pastel EXPLOSION

Kitties in Style of Blinky Bill/ Wilfred/ Durer/ Peake

Vanguard Paper Britpop

Maps and Plans for Schemes and Lands

Breasts Movement Study Communication

Biro to pencil to biro MMA fighters

Suede

2009-09-22T12:25:00.005Z

I have a subject!

I have been remembering Suede, my favourite band when I was 15.

For some reason I have yet to examine, pregnancy agrees with Suede.

The main men in Suede were Brett the singer front man and Bernard the guitarist. (The songwriting team.) They were my initial exposure to what front men and guitarists were. And I think they were quite good examples.

And I am enjoying them very much in retrospect.

I cannot expect it to be easy for me to put across the special complex personal nostalgia and affection I feel in my head for Suede, in these drawings. But if I aim to do that, I might get somewhere.

If I aim to put across the special feelings, I'm doing more than fixating on shapes, lumps and cheekbone configurations.

Brett and Bernard have one of those slightly comical homo buddy creative tempestuous gatekeeper/keymaster dynamics, which is great fun.

I liked them at the same time as I liked skinny weird boys at school who also played guitars.

I will write more about Suede on my other blog, I can't say it all here.

It was about engaging with the sordid things of adulthood in a playful textured beautiful woozy way.

Although it's not a thing I usually like to do to proclaim the objective importance of things, I will dare to say that Suede are underrated. And I still love the first two albums a lot. They had hype in 1993 but always a certain amount of hostility for one reason and another. Their fame is kind of forgotten. It was all a bit British music press fame. From when Indie seemed important. Now indie doesn't feel like it has much validity as a distinct idea or genre. Not that Suede ever wanted to be indie anyway.

They're bigger than that for me.

It is music for on your own. Or at a Suede fan club concert in 1994. Not casual or sociable.

Things that you liked in formative years... go some way to forming you.

I had a massive personal backlash against Suede, loads of reasons to hate them all of a sudden. But I changed my mind. That's what makes it all the more interesting. It's good to have strong feelings, even if your allegiances can end up feeling arbitrary at any one time. And to revisit things from your past NOW, isn't just diving headfirst into stale feelings... it's a new thing with added layers.

Get a big kick out of this pic, skulking around Glastonbury as one unified beast.

Mouse, Pregnancy, Garden monster

2009-09-07T16:21:00.001Z

I have returned! Here is a picture of my Ma, Sue.

The reason I have been away is that I have had one of these in my tummy, which is distracting, especially to the digestion and one's ability to stay awake. This is actually my one, not just some image I lifted from the internet.

Here's how I felt about myself in the garden.

And here's what happened when I bunked off drawing Jerry mouse for John K's cartoon college blog and mucked about.

The end, for now.

Sunday piffles

2009-07-19T09:06:00.002Z

Dirty kitty moon

Bad dirty kitty! Bad dirty Chloe!

Paul Gasgoigne

Riker

I still plan a bit of TNG drawing

the things I draw when I feel well

2009-07-17T19:57:00.001Z

heal the world.

I feel a bit billious.

5

We spent the night in Frisco, At every kind of disco

2009-07-15T19:32:00.001Z

Today's Jacksons.

Strange days

Michael with chairs... Ruskin says you should always draw what's in the background.

This was originally Michael and Jermaine, but something weird happened with the eyebrows which has made it Tito and Tito. Or possibly Joe and Joe.

Marlon.

Blame it on the Boogie

2009-07-14T20:23:00.001Z

These are the kinds of drawings I do all the time, barely more than a wandering pencil. But now I have more time again, I plan for my final products to maybe take more time than a blog post's worth every week... all the more reason to post 'thoughts' I guess.

Jacksons

ideas

And finally Yogis (See John K's blog: 'Chloe does HB')

thought guffs of moderate promise

2009-07-12T11:34:00.003Z

I found this ancient image of a man sort of wrestling two animals in a symmetrical composition. It came up more than once in Medieval times. I think about medieval art a lot.

I also tried to imagine what I myself would look like after having my hair redesigned. It turned out alright. But I did these first.

I have no proper energy draining low paid job now, if you have any suggestions about how I should spend my time profitably, let me know. I have my own ideas but I'm not sure if they are 100% good.

I've got a brush pen.

2009-07-05T14:41:00.002Z

I am very clumsy and unprofessional with it. But it is fun and I like fun. Despite my reputation.

Hulkster

Empurpled cats.

a griffin from a church

Experiments in Texas Tornado

Warrior doing his thing.

Hmmm. it's nice to wind down after work.

I won't have a normal job soon

I'll be a full time perverse cult weird artling

So if you ever get the urge to buy one of these, let me know.

maybe not that one

But I plan to be putting some nicely presented new things up on Etsy too. I have handmade paper and I am not afraid to use it.

party bag of messy surprises

2009-06-14T16:50:00.001Z

I found this sequence of photographs of a falling cat. I liked it.

Pastels are messy. I am messy.

Man and animal.

Million Dollar Man.

Wrestler.. stretching the definition. Messy plastic paper.

I used this discarded warrior drawing to try to make lines a bit like William Blake and think what I could do with them.

Finally: a snake so big and evil he didn't quite all fit on the scanner.

Smudged Pillocks

2009-06-07T15:11:00.002Z

I'm not obsessed with wrestling at the mo, but I should have a show of my wrestling drawings coming up, so I've been wrestling with drawing through wrestling drawings. Ultimate Warrior!

I want to use pastels more and hone my techniques through honing.

The explorations felt valid, the muse came and went in a floozily fickle fashion.

Peculiar bonus: the cover of my diary beginning 10th December 2001, ending 16th July 2002. Different times. I was at once more and less confident.

Tactile Stockpile of Nubile Reptiles

2009-05-31T09:48:00.003Z

Ghosts of Wrestling Past

2009-05-16T13:12:00.002Z

Looming in my mind.

Lana Vanguard

2009-05-02T19:30:00.002Z

I get excited about materials, but I have rarely discussed it round here.

I've got this new stuff called Lana Vanguard paper

It's not really paper at all, it does not absorb moisture and it is highly space age

You can infinitely wipe it clean

I might change these all around. Cos I can! Also to make them more good.

Josh

2009-04-23T18:10:00.001Z

Approachable

Yet sinister

Deeply Stupid Leopards

2009-04-19T16:38:00.002Z

I wanted to get the expression my cat Joyce gets when she's in the middle of washing and suddenly looks like she thinks she's remembered something important. Also, this is what a monkeycat looks like if you haven't seen one before.

Some of these drawings I am reproducing tiny as I think they're a bit rubbish but for some reason don't want to leave them out completely.

Since I've been working in a shop, I try to make quick things count more. It feels like it matters to maintain a flow. It's partly to try to overcome my procrastination.

I'd like to do some proper leopardish paintings soon. That involve acrylic and even gouache. And even colours.

Hello There Mixed Martial Arts

2009-04-12T21:03:00.004Z

My friends Scott and John are obsessed with Fedor Emelianenko. So I thought it time I tried to see what the fuss was about.

My concentrating on Fedor has also made my leopards relax, now they appear only in peripheral vision... it suits them quite well.

As for Fedor himself, not sure I've totally grasped him. Have no printer and have been working a lot from my own quick sketches from youtube, not always having access to the obvious details but more the clumsy forms and my own misconceptions.

Things have too many limbs and bits and bobs to make into nice pictures... lately half things have been easier to cope with. Who says things have to have all their limbs in a drawing. It's a free country.

Fedor is calm and has a soft pink mouth. He has slight eye wonkyness in his bright blue eyes that I need to come to terms with.

My paper is wrinkly and has cat mud on it.

Pardaddendum

2009-04-05T20:23:00.001Z

No wonder the last post felt small... I forgot these two stunning additions to the 'pard canon.

Leopards

2009-04-04T15:08:00.006Z

I return, rubbishly, to clouded leopards. Remember my last leopard phase?

Now, perhaps a 'natural' part of me wants to draw fairly solid 'real' leopards, just with subtle grunewald twists, supple subtle and elegant.

But I'm fighting with myself to make something simpler. Whether I can make anything simpler that has any point to it, is funny, or inventive, or joyful, or the basis for something else, I don't know.

Remember Cenapards? I quite liked them the first time.

I often feel like my drawing is a very private experiment. I don't always come up with results that have that perfect alchemy that I'd want all my drawings to have, but sometimes I'm sufficiently interested by the results to blog them anyway... I probably shouldn't. I should probably only blog 100% safe completed masterpieces once every six years.

Perhaps with some of these I'm fighting to put some things together that haven't quite come together, but they will eventually.

However it shouldn't always have to be a struggle, so maybe I should embed myself in a comfort zone next time.

Though there is a little bit of trying to figure out the essence of the leopard attraction here.

Partially Accidental Wrestlers

2009-03-29T20:19:00.003Z

It's hard to ignore wrestling entirely. After all, I hadn't even really got around to properly drawing LAST year's Wrestlemania.

Also, I rather like drawing things I've drawn lots of times before... it feels richer than faffing about with new novelties every week... It's building upon previous hours of gloriously pointless studying.

Because I have drawn them so much, wrestler-like entities crop up in my doodles without my really intending it. Accidental wrestlers account for at least 66% of my output.

I was rather inspired by a thread on UK Fan Forum called 'draw a wrestler in MS Paint'. The innocent efforts of internet wrestling fans spurred me on.

a

This Week's Brians

2009-03-24T21:50:00.000Z