Tax Return

Filed and paid several days early.

What's the world coming to?

I'm getting far too organised.

Conversation with a door-to-door salesman

A man comes to the door, selling Sky TV:

Me: Actually, we don't have a TV.

Salesman: Seriously? You're kidding!

Me: No, honestly.

Salesman: But ... what do you arrange your furniture around?

Me: Well ... It's in a sort of circle round the living room ...

Salesman: You mean ... like facing one another?

Character sheet

The 12 Disciples (updated version) Click to see larger.

There are reasons for most of their appearances - some very tenuous, but it helps to get variety. I'll post proper character sheets for each of them some time - this is just a sneak preview. 

I've never actually designed all the disciples before. In my regular work, I have a set of clothes/hairstyle/facial features I always use for Peter, John & Matthew, and the others are just drawn out of my head (if you counted all the different ones I've drawn, they would be more than 12!). But none of them have any character. But for these pictures, I researched what was written about them, and made them into real people.

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You may use these pictures for personal use (e.g. a Sunday School class). Please do not publish them in any form, sell them, post them elsewhere on the internet, add them to an image library or do anything else with them. Thanks!

If you would like individual figures, you can download for free here.

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Edit: I have now done a Jesus figure too. 

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Edit II: These pictures are part of a PowerPoint:

You can now buy it by clicking here.

An important piece of social history

Found in my room:

I remember Shiny Buttons coming to playgroup. The policeman asked him to sing his song, and he sang, "I'm the king of the castle; you're the dirty wee rascal," because he was being naughty. But then he sang his proper song, which was, "Stop, look and listen, before you cross the street. Use your eyes, and use your ears, before you use your feet."

In other news: Did you know that if you leave boiled sweets in a tin long enough, they will not only seep out of their wrappings, but through the join at the bottom of the tin? Fortunately, it soaks off easily.

More tidying

A wet & windy day outside - definitely a tidying day.

Have filled the first paper recycling bag, and started on another.

I found 28 coathangers on my floor. This may be why we seem to have a shortage.

I counted the books beside my bed - 64. Finding shelf space for them may be a bit tricky, though. We need to do a major book clearout - but one thing at a time.

Some quotes

Design should never say, "Look at me."
It should always say, "Look at this."

David Craib  

Good typography is something that everyone sees but no-one notices.

John Warnock

Which made me think, in a roundabout way, of John the Baptist:

'I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him [...] He must become greater; I must become less.”

John 3:28-30

Those words are not easy to say.

The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know.

As I browse the internet, I come across all kinds of sites and tutorials on comic book design. (I know I'm not actually designing comic books, but sometimes my work comes pretty close.)

And as I read, I realise how little I know. For example, I've just read a blog post on character design, which was full of things I've never even thought of. My characters don't have enough character. I'm glad I read it right near the start of a new project.

It's a very interesting blog. Not a lot on it yet, but what is there looks extremely valuable. Here's a quote from it:

"Style is Grounded in Realism ... Most comics don’t benefit from extreme realism, but the ability to render things realistically strengthens and expands your capacity to stylize your art.  If, for example, you’re poor at drawing hands, any attempt to stylize or minimalize the details in cartoon hands are going to be limited, in both style and expressiveness .... You have to know the rules before you can adequately break them .... If you look for it, you can tell when an artist is extremely skilled, regardless of how complex or simple their style may be ....  Even if you’re drawing something as simple as a stickman comic, having a foundation of strong draftsmanship expands your creative potential a hundredfold."

The best drawing pen ever

Is not marketed as a drawing pen at all!
 

Pros:

• A felt-tip style point. Very controllable.
• Doesn't bleed. At all.
• It's not like most CD markers, which are just like narrow permanent markers. I think this must be a pigment marker.
• Really black and opaque.
• Doesn't fade
• Waterproof
• Is not expensive.
• Most important - writes over tippex without smudging - doesn't even get paler if you use a rubber to get rid of pencil lines.

Cons:

• If you allow it to get warm (say, by lying in the sun, or on a switched on light box) it will dry up permanently.
• Ditto if you leave the lid off, even for a tiny length of time.
• There are only two thicknesses: 0.75mm and 1mm - and it's the narrowest millimetre I've ever measured.

Quote*

"And of course, you mustn't ever laugh at children, because they're people."

Mairi Hedderwick (I think)

*May not be word for word, as it's from memory.

The tidying commences...

I'm using one of the method described in The Messies' Manual by Sandra Felton. You have a bunch of labelled boxes and fling in everything roughly by category first. I will need to get more boxes.

Things I have found today:

• Some 'daylight' halogen bulbs for a lamp I have. Very glad to find them, because as far as I know you can only get them in Australia.
• A recipe I'd wondered where it was, in a newspaper I nearly chucked.
• The notebook with my Christmas card list. Shame I didn't find it before Christmas.
• The leaves that were in the photo I used in my first proper blog post. Pressed in the notebook, but sadly rather faded now.
• A baby dragon

Goal...

I was talking to Fiona last night about what our goals were for 2011. I said to get my room straightened out. I've done the first step already today: taken a set of 'before' photos. (No, you can't see them. The shock would be too much.)

Perhaps I should have set my goal as 'to achieve a state of sinless perfection'.

I think it would be easier to achieve...

Happy New Year!

Hope all my many (?) readers have a good 2011.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
   and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6