Nine on a Page

Here's a little insight into some of my work. I recently posted these 9 separately, but this is how they are in actuality - nine jewel-like miniatures on an A4 page. It's not the only way I go about drawing, but it's one I often return to, and it started with the page below done over 2 days in December '94.



You can see they've evolved since then, but the essence of it is the same. Somehow the discipline of creating them together on the page makes me consciously strive for variety, so that the page has a rich flow of interest. (Apart from the occasional obsession with a theme or style that takes over the page). I walk a risky line between success and failure, as one terrible drawing ruins the whole page in a way.

Just for fun, there follows a complete list of the titles of the nine-on-a-pages, most of which have appeared somewhere on Elbowroom.

Lemon Ham Series

1. Lemon Ham
2. Desert Frolic
3. Not Leonard's Innards
4. Pyramid Wool
5. Orchid
6. Fish Bike
7. Watch What You Eat
8. Hut on Hill
9. Roof Deco Snakes
10. A Scout Smokathon
11. Aliens want the moon too
12. Ramp
13. Dog Rocket
14. Measured Gesture
15. Happy Baubly Christmas
16. Haroldesque
17. Gate
18. Mr Bartleby's Zappy Desk
19. City Layers
20. Hats & Critturs
21. Old Land
22. Hot House Growths
23. Sproing!
24. Boo
25. Volume, Brightness, Contrast
26. Scuppered
27. Weather Tumult
28. Unicorn Lady
29. The Amazing Surfin' Hat
30. Owl River
31. Go Wibble
32. Swirly Growths
33. Zip
34. Bop
35. Lill Stife
36. Wish You Here
37. Lighbulb, etc
38. Spanner mix
39. Rat finks
40. Two Chaps
41. Pharoah Mobile
42. Umbrella, fishbone
43. Gesundheit
44. Squiggles
45. Jumble
46. Genetix
47. Street Lamp
48. Belisha
49. Thwip
50. Star, stitch, steps
51. Fish 'n Smock
52. Spurious Mound
53. Radio Head
54. Anti-Coagulant

Reeling Comedy Series

1. Reeling Comedy
2. Holding Hands in the Cactus House
3. Tall Camel and Hammock
4. Mad Cow
5. Paper, ink, paint, frame, brush
6. Beautiful Dream
7. Cat 'n Mouse at the Dog
8. Intricate Burble
9. City with Big Fish Blimp
10. Dew-drip Mountain
11. Didn't forget their toothbrushes
12. Thistle Glitch
13. Buzz; pschh
14. Can of Con
15. Demon Drink at Beer Inc
16. Forecast Teller
17. Saga
18. Cat Talking Bird
19. Palace Pier
20. More Swirly Growths
21. Crumbton
22. Space Toilet
23. Volcanic Giraffery
24. Alien City Shimmer
25. Lonely Lights & Houses
26. Clean Dizzy Fish
27. Ablutions
28. Cuisine
29. Pumpkin Place
30. Undergrowth
31. Fools Rush In
32. Ahoy!
33. Conflicting Directions
34. Heron & Halibut
35. Paraphernalia
36. Cages & Windows
37. Ballooooon!
38. Wild Wolf Wood
39. Source
40. Flies
41. Shoelace Undone
42. The World and his Wife
43. Early Morning Moon
44. The Shadow with no Man
45. Ocean Pint
46. Flora Finesse
47. Tamed with a Twang
48. Workshop Clutter
49. End of the Road
50. King!
51. Shifted Scenery
52. Mystery of Tick
53. Not his Master's Voice
54. Knit Bubble City
55. Dance
56. Slug Daze
57. Stocks on the Rocks
58. Wittles
59. Splitting Up
60. The End?

Smoky Shed Series

1. Smoky Shed
2. Jubilant Growths
3. Mr Sprockett throws out his eyelid on a dish
4. Curvy Clutter
5. Jars of Things
6. Landscrapers
7. Antbeater
8. Royal Voyeur
9. Chip off the old tock
10. Love You
11. Thik Ice
12. Cherries
13. With new pens
14. Delectable Spread
15. How
16. Scaly Chimneys
17. Lymphatic
18. Truthbrush
19. Amoeba Media
20. Effluvia
21. Regina Destruction
22. Smoke without fire
23. Flood for Thought
24. Calling a pipe a pipe
25. W G Graceless
26. Bridgelet
27. Force-fed Symphony
28. Hand to Hand
29. Fiery Feather Effigies
30. Cold Shower
31. Puppetry of the Pen
32. Den of Hats
33. Nether-stices
34. Distraction Abstraction
35. Tea in a Storm Cup
36. The Big Snaffler
37. I heard it on the Parsnip Pipeline
38. Hot Molten Lava
39. Creeping Realisation
40. Bunsen Burner Hedges
41. Fish-eye Kite
42. Electro-Slapstick
43. Oh You Lucky Pint
44. Pounding Heart
45. Fluctuating bric-a-brac
46. Dark Brain Detour
47. Dark Brain Detour II
48. Dark Brain Edge
49. Dark Brain Pupation
50. Dark Brain Terrain
51. Deepest, Darkest Brain
52. Dark Brain Forbidden Zone
53. Detour through a Dark Brain
54. Dark Brain for Sale
55. Moon on Hinges
56. Centrifungal Force
57. Strumerana
58. Bitter-Ender
59. Sliver of a Man
60. Scatterations
61. Geometry Jam
62. Hip Squares
63. Inkwell Enigma
64. Umbrella
65. The Lair of the Pincushion Bug
66. In a Non-Sequitur World
67. Flash of Malevolence
68. Inhabited Hat
69. Clam Composition
70. Scorched Earth
71. Poor Man's Dubuffet
72. 'Tis But a Doodle

All Too Human Series

1. All too Human
2. Stifled
3. Negative Patch
4. Oozing away
5. Low Self-esteem
6. Bitter Dregs
7. What a moon can do
8. What a moon can do II
9. Archaic Faces Frenzy
10. Age-old Surveillance
11. Airborne Triangle
12. A Hill of Ladders
13. Abstract with Flying Saucer
14. Snail's Woe
15. Zig Zag Wanderer
16. Scorpio Hideout
17. Table Top Kerfuffle
18. Archaic Faces Frenzy II
19. Masonic Knee-tap
20. No H on my Faucet
21. Sea of Negativity
22. Hedonistic Cyclops
23. Espying the Metropolis
24. Grimy Vista
25. Eyes in Disguise
26. --bit crap--
27. Floation Tanks
28. Astronaut
29. Plugged-in Generation
30. Flute Flight
31. Horse Hill Flurry
32. Black Smoke, White Smoke
33. Sluice-gate Turmoil
34. Hide and Chic
35. Route 1506
36. The Devil's Red Wife
37. Spaghetti Flag (Flaghetti?)
38. Mischief in the Making
39. Saint Jerome playing bass guitar
40. A Man is Melting
41. Pylon, girder, peapod tank
42. Scroll Mirage
43. Imminent Pop
44. Thumb Nose
45. Undercover Carrot
46. Hper Pipe Belcher
47. Fly-tipped Flummery
48. Sucking up wisdom
49. Hedgecloud over the Downs
50. Bong
51. Abstract with Doghnut Lamp
52. Baby Sitar Raga
53. Watching the Elements
54. Judge's Joust
55. Stacks of A's
56. Taking Temperatures
57. The Day I Became a Piece in my own Jigsaw
58. See See TV
59. Architectural Plans for Disrepute
60. Sorry
61. Numb-Skullery
62. Squeaky Hinge & Splinter
63. Cyclops Ecology
64. Clay Formations
65. Straw Yapper
66. Wind-up Bird
67. Colourful Oddfellows
68. Sydenham Hill
69. Supine in the Artist's Nook
70. Vapour Trails
71. High Velocity Particles

Microlife Bustle

Artwords: Bustle

Thanks to Susan's latest Artwords theme, I now know what this recent drawing should be called: Microlife Bustle. Crayons, biros, and a little inkpad printing.

Scratch Tree

Eat That Question

I recommend the larger view of this, there's a sense of depth, or shifting planes...unless that's just me needing glasses. Title is from a Mothers of Invention album: The Grand Wazoo. A mighty fine Zappa jazz rock ensemble on that one.

The Squirrel-Imp on a Log

I'm resisting the urge to grumble and moan at great length. Our computer's back, but still not fixed. So in the meantime, I'm posting all this art that's been lying around waiting. Starting with this genuine doodle.

Our computer was carted off yesterday for hard-disk rennovation, so I'm in the library venting my frustration with these two apt illustrations from the Elbowroom vaults. Above, System Malfunction (for a poem in The Nail magazine). Below, Scrambled Laptop. New Johnnynorms art soon, but not sooner than Sunday.

On the plus-side, the band have 8-tracked our first recording, "Spaces to Fill" and it's sounding fantastic. The urgency for the right name is even more pressing now... suggestions on a virtual postcard.

I Lost my Soul to Television

Furtive Fungi

Possible View

Hello, Elbowroom stuttering into action again.
May be intermittent due to computer problems.