Swimming sessions - illustration as a personal certificate of achievement for incremental but satisfying improvement

My new year's resolution for 2012 was to set a small, attainable, achievable and measurable goal for myself each month. Actually, each lunar month, as thats somehow more cyclic, and I can watch the month passing in a satisfyingly graphic passage of time. Anyhow, the last month (#3) was to swim 2km. Now, I know all you swimming people think: yeah, 'thats a fair enough distance to do in one go', but I, not very comfortable in water, decided to swim it over the course of the entire month. Very humble, (but measurable!) So I sputtered and splattered my way, and improved modestly, doing 2.6 in the end.So here's my personal achievement certificate, a drawing done last night.... a layer of just line and some water-based inks. Tried drawing on the iPad this evening in the pub but can't seem to get the sense of it yet... have a great weekend now anyone reading this....

Meditation Doodles

While on retreat in Lerab Ling this summer, I took notes on meditation. Just some doodley images that came to mind during the teachings. I won't attempt to explain, as that's too much for here. Check out what meditation reallyis.com if you're interested.
Note: 'Shamatha' means 'calm-abiding'... which Sogyal Rinpoche mentioned at one point as being `a balance between spaciousness and watchful awareness'.

Tripping in Surreality – 'Art Lit Feed' on tumblr

Bouncing round the Indie Art Lit Feed and grazing on hippy tripped out universes. And then the whole tumblr rabbit-hole for that matter. These images are from there but originally: 

Chrissy Angliker (via booooooom)

Pierre Botardo (via 2headedsnake)

James Dawe (via 2headedsnake)

Unknown (via whitemoonstone)

Ms. Neaux Neaux (via feru-leru)

Follow it here @ArtLitFeed

Wild Droppings

I'm finding the winter blues can be a bit of a downer. No shots of whiskey though, but slashes of crazed colour inks cheered me up this weekend. Not particularly cool but just the tonic for the bleak greyness.

The results won't win taste awards, but the process is so much fun. Daub some water onto heavy paper in a shape you like (thank you cheap bamboo brushes). Load a syringe or dropper with your psychedelic hues and let gravity take its course. Tilt and swivel for a class of substractive colour theory. If you really get into this, you can start using alcohol inks and glues for some ferral effects.

Oh, and check out this image by Pery Burge on the new scientist site... made by firstly dropping some oil-based gold paint onto water then adding two colours of acrylic inks. Beautiful.

Drawings by a temple – Lerab Ling

Some quiet moments illustrated on my trusted A5 notebook. Most of the time, the views were so stunning that I just went for walks. I was refreshing to live in the mountains for 3 months. (To see stunning aerial views of this area taken by Jan Pieters, click here.)

Making baby a present...

It's that age. If you aren't having your own, your friends are popping theirs. How can giving be a pleasure when plastic and generic sentiments seem unappealing? It's an ongoing mini challenge to give from the real heart, bypassing Hallmark sentimentality. Below are a couple of recent examples of baby stuff that I put together from the box of tricks. Any excuse to use a fountain pen eh.

Loving nerdy typographic stickers and muji origami papers – colour mmm!

A ribbon fetish is put to wholesome use in this easter bonnet set for little Erin's christening. One for the head, and a matching one for her wrist. (Thanks to Kate for helping me with the sewing).

Drink and Draw – Cork

Had a lovely evening at The Franciscan Well this Tuesday. 'Rebel Red' is one of their home brews and I'll warn you, a little strong, but tasty. Next time I'll try the stout. The event runs twice a month and seems to be going strong. Conversations and drawings ranged from how to cook and egg from a solar contraption, robots, herbal medicine, retinal examinations... I was more prosaic as a newbie and drew what I saw.

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Wonder Woman

Via Linchpins are Everywhere
(If the Ella 'aoao89' would like to reveal herself, please take your limelight!)

KHUAN + KTRON – Weekend Knack Magazine

By Khuan + Ktron
Via Grainedit

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
Lots more of these videos here. Super engrossing.

And, following up from a recent post about mirror neurons and the scientific validity of empathy, here is an appropriate video from the series expanding on this. It is based on a lecture by Jeremy Rifkin.

A Daily Practice

Google: 'a drawing a day' and you'll come to the site of Lauren Nassef. Beautiful drawings, the kind that people look at and decide they want to be able to draw too. Like watching Whitney back in the day and deciding you'll be a singer. That kind of amazingness of technique and pizz-azz.

So what else comes up online under daily sketching? Well, not as as many swirly notes (but let me know what you find). The exhaustive A Drawing a Day has been going like clockwork since 2004 and is mind boggling for its tenacity. A professional illustrator's blog, with countless faces drawn on the subway, is impressive for its doggedness. Photographer Thomas Hawk is aiming to take a million photos. The image below is from his $2 Portraits project.

Where does daily discipline end and OCD begin?

Jody Barton – Illustrations

Strangely pleasing, witty, to the point, poetic...
Main website
Blog

Lehel Kovács – Google Street View Illustrations

Full A-Z Flickr Album
Via Coolhunter