IF: Pretend (Trick or Treat)

IF: Late....run bunny, run!

Appropriately late bunny doodle for this week

IF: Clique

Left out of the clique :(

IF: Routine

Just a quick sketch. This is me, back to school (just realised I haven't drawn any clothes on! May have to redo this post.)

I teach philosophy part time and it's just as big a shock for teachers getting back into the routine of school after a long summer...I've forgotten everything!

IF: Baby

'Mum keeps a watchful eye on her babies as they try out their new wings.'

(Since encountering the truely wonderful art of Jennifer Meyer and her adorable 'fairy bunnies' I've been sticking wings on everything!)

IF: Wide (Fat Fairies)

These wide mouth little guys are set to get ever wider tummies as they work their way through this pile of fairy cakes.

The colour version is my first effort with digital colour / Photoshop, which is a media I'm completely clueless in...any advice gladly received!

My first idea was actually to have a large snail making its way along a narrow lane, the snail would have been a 'wide load' due to an extended shell - visualise porches, turrets, extra rooms... Unfortunately I couldn't make this work, would love to see someone else to have a go!

IF: Primitive

Possibly stretching the topic a bit this week, but here goes....

I've been experimenting with last weeks dragon sketches (middle picture) which were drawn from a dinosaur toy (above) with the aim of creating something new. Here comes the tentative link... so, this entry shows the earliest or 'primitive' stages in the process and the newly enhanced version!

I'll keep playing around with the new dragon character if he proves to be a hit.

IF: Fail (or...'If at first you don't succeed...')

A few failed attempts usually come before success, as is the case for the character above.
Another sketch and just in time this week as I've been away, back to colour next week! This is a study of a rather cute dinosaur toy, I think he makes for quite a nice character so might revisit him again.

IF: Save (save the birds!)

A very quick sketch today, and the link to this weeks IF topic 'Save' isn't wonderfully expressed.

Basically I was going for a continuation of my cat theme from the 'Leap' and 'Heavy' topics, where the cat saves, rather than eats the cute birdies. Unfortunately I don't have time to develop this idea this week, hence the sketchy sketch!

IF: Homage to Pooh

A double homage, to the wonderful characters of A.A.Milne and inspiring illustrations of E.H. Shepard from Winnie-the-Pooh.

I wanted to interpret the characters and stories into my own style, but have found myself needing to study them a bit first, so for now I've included essentially a copy of one of Shepard's illustrations (above) and a couple of sketch studies (left). The wonderful thing about Shepard's simple, effective drawings is that you just can't capture the Pooh character making it even more special.
This weeks IF has inspired me to revisit these lovely stories and images, not least because they are loaded with lots of philosophical and zen thoughts too! (see 'Pooh and the Philosophers' by John Tyerman Williams and 'The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet' by Benjamin Hoff).

Happy Easter!

Spare a thought for the Easter Bunny..

The washing line pencil sketch...

IF: Pet Peeves

I imagine a pet peeve of many children may be to have their favourite toy hung out to dry and worse still, when all their favourites get strung up at once!

As for my own pet peeves (and pet related ones at that...)

Why don't our cats realise from our reaction to mouse body parts in the house that we don't view these as 'presents'?

And will Claude please use the proper cat door instead of expecting us to let him in (and why do we keep letting him in!?)

IF: Multiple Bunnies

Couldn't resist doing this little sketch for this weeks theme!

IF: Theory 'What is it like to be a bat?'

Philosopher Thomas Nagel offered an objection to the Mind-Brain Identity theory (which seeks to reduce all mental states to brain states, arguing that there is nothing that cannot, ultimately be explained in terms of our material brains and therefore observed).
Nagel points out that however much we might learn about bats say, their bodies, brains, behaviour etc.. we can never know what it is like to be a bat. There are private, subjective experiences that bats and the rest of us have which cannot be observed, therefore something remains mysterious about the mind even if we know all there is about the brain.

IF: Choose

'She went into the pet shop to choose a puppy, but just had to have the elephant!'

The Blanket sketch origins

This is how the blanket sketch below started out, I've popped it in as I prefer it to the colour version.

The end of the festivities

IF: 100% Sorry