P I E - B E F O R E - L U N C H

Ashmolean Museum Sketch

2012-01-21T01:53:00.000-08:00

I've returned to Oxford after a long break visiting family and friends back in the States. I decided to visit the Ashmolean Museum's newly reopened Egyptian wing for inspiration this week. The exhibits are very nicely done and they have some amazing sculptures. As I walked around the collection, I reminisced about being in the Cairo Museum where there wasn't enough space to display all the stuff they had. Sculptures that would have held a place of honor in a museum like the Ashmolean were tucked into nooks by the bathroom or stuck under tables. The other crazy thing was that visitors to the Cairo Museum had no qualms about touching the artifacts. At the Ashmolean, I didn't limit myself to the Egyptian Collection and wondered around the rest of the museum. In this drawing there are some Minoan ceramics, some Chinese bowls, and some Roman sculpture. I guess I should mention that things aren't drawn to scale. I'm not sure how many more of these things I'm going to do - I don't know how useful they are. We'll see.

Nora's bird

2011-12-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

Pitt-Rivers sketch 3

2011-12-10T07:08:00.001-08:00

Characters

2011-12-08T02:24:00.001-08:00

Pitt-Rivers Museum Sketch 2

2011-11-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

Pitt-Rivers Museum Sketch

2011-11-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

One of the most fascinating places in Oxford is the Pitt-Rivers Museum. Officially, it's the museum of anthropology and archeology but that's a poor description of the collection. Instead, imagine a huge lost-and-found box fill with stuff that Ancient Egyptians, Native Americans, Knights, Monks, Vikings, Samurai, Inca potters, African weavers, Jane Austen, that dude who runs the tattoo shop, a hipster with a handle bar mustache, your weird uncle with a gambling problem, and members of the local knitting club misplaced. It's the craziest museum I have ever been to. Honestly, I think it might be where all the missing socks go.

One night last week, I realized there are some visual parallels between the drawings I've been doing (lots of creatures crammed into a frame) and how objects are displayed at the Pitt-Rivers museum (lots of stuff crammed into display cases.) I was wondering if I could somehow make a drawing that is a hybrid between the purely imaginary drawings I've been doing and what I see at the museum. I was also interested in creating an image that is not a correct representation of the displays at the museum, but evokes a response that is closer (and therefor more truthful) to how one feels at the museum then the more accurate drawing would.

Anyways, that is the thinking behind these experimental drawings.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T01:21:00.000-07:00

Weird Cat

2011-10-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

Johannes Hevelius

2011-10-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, K and I attended a lecture about the famous astronomer Johannes Hevelius (who I had never heard of). It was held in the basement of the Science museum amongst cases of apparatus. The lecture was given b/c an old painting of the astronomer (which had been given to Oxford by the same guy) had just returned from being on loan to another museum and was, for the moment, easily accessible ( It usually lives high on a wall in the museum.) I particularly enjoyed the presentation because a good deal of it focused on the relationship between the astronomer and artists he employed to illustrate his books. So, there were many slides of beautiful engravings. While the talk was going on I sketched some of the surroundings. I added the tone later.

Oxford sketchbook excercise 6b

2011-10-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

As promised, the larger picture.

Oxford sketchbook excercise 6

2011-10-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

Ooooh scarey!

This is cropped out of a larger group. I like this better than the whole group picture. Tomorrow I'll reveal the whole group.

Sketchbook excercise 05

2011-10-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Oxford sketchbook exercise 04

2011-10-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Oxford sketchbook exercise 03

2011-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Oxford sketchbook exercise 02

2011-10-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

I was working on another one of these sketchbook exercises today I realized I might have been too quick to dismiss them as mindless and meaningless. I think the claustrophobic nature of them reflects my aesthetic, spatial, and temporal impression of Oxford. Walking down the street, one gets the feeling that a lot of things are being crammed into a small space - buses squeeze into narrow roads, cyclists dart between cars, and pedestrian cling to ever diminishing walkways as they hurry to their next destination. The predominate architecture is some version of highly decorative Gothic Revival where each facade is filled with columns, pillars, and carvings of animals, faces, or foliage. Similarly, our days have been filled events, meetings, and outings. We've been fitting more then normal into our days. So while, these sketches aren't great art I do think they are more then idle doodles.

Visual crochet

2011-10-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

My second weekend in Oxford is almost at an end. K will be starting up classes Monday and she is both excited and nervous. It's weird, but sometimes it feels like we've been here for months and other times it feels like we only arrived yesterday. We've packed a lot of events into our days including visits to museums, attending university sponsored meetings, and scoping out some of the sports options available to us. In between things, I've been doing some sketching in our flat (weather has become a bit more British so I've done less drawing in plein aire.) I consider sketches I've done a kind of "visual crocheting." It's mindless stuff - repetitive, decorative, and doesn't lead to anything bigger but it's fun and hopefully has some worth because of that.

one week abroad

2011-10-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it, but it's been almost a week since we arrived in the UK. We are slowly getting settled into our flat in Oxford. Our place is about a mile from the center of the college in a bland brick apt building (very un-gryffindor) but our room looks over a stream and a park, so that's nice. We enjoy watching the ducks and swan tipping their butts into the air as they look for tasty morsels of the bottom of the brook. There have been alot of little things that we've had to take care of (finding keys to the laundry room, purchasing towels, figuring out cell phones, etc) but I think we're near the end of that process.
We are spending money like it's going out of style. It started with towels but has continued at a rapid pace as we are add such gems as "pillows" and "spatulas" to our palace. We just got two bikes today which were SO expensive. They are used and we bought them out of a van (sounds sketchy but it is a totally legit operation) and they still were $$$. We have a shopper and a nice old ladies Raleigh. At least it is now much easier, though considerably more terrifying, to get around the city. The traffic is BONKERS and the roads are tiny.
I haven't spent much time drawing but I've done a few of our little kitchen. Here is one example:

2011-09-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

Almost exactly eleven years ago, my wife and I began a year long trip around the world. We were recent graduates and had been married for less then two months when we boarded a plane and left the U.S. We visited a half-dozen countries in that year including the UK. So, we both felt a bit of deja vu waiting in the passport control line at Heathrow Airport last Wednesday. For those of you who don't already know, we will be spending the next year in Oxford, UK. K will be studying and I will be drawing and doing who knows whatever else (perhaps finding a means of employment?)

I'm not sure what will happen to this blog. I won't be posting anymore beasts for awhile but hopefully I'll be able to post other drawings and random musings that will be somewhat interesting to my friends and followers.To that end, here are two drawings I did yesterday while running errands. I was feeling unsettled and nervous about being in a new place but I calmed down a bit when I took out my sketchbook and drew. These are fairly rough and clumsy drawings, I'm not very good sketching with ink (I to pencil first) but I'm trying to get better at it. I don't know if it's a stupid pride/ego thing but all the best illustrators can make fantastic sketches just with pen and ink. Also, 20 points to anyone who can identify the first building.

Beast 09.03.11

2011-09-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

Beast 09.02.11

2011-09-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Beast 09.01.11

2011-09-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.31.11

2011-08-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, hurricane Irene past the NH coast by without too much drama. A lot of wind and some fallen branches but no flooding. She did most of her damage north of where a live. The Center for Cartoon Studies took a big hit from the her. So, here is a weather inspired beast:

Beast 08.27.11

2011-08-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is probably going to be my last post until Hurricane Irene passes by NH. I hear it's supposed to be crazy.

Beast 08.26.11

2011-08-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

This one is pretty self explanatory. Very Canadian.

Beast 08.25.11

2011-08-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

A fourth beast inspired by the Canadian Parliament. As promised, it's a little demonic.

Beast 08.24.11

2011-08-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the third beast inspired by the carvings on the Canadian Parliament building. One thing I really like about the carvings are the mix between depicting of little natural scenes and crazy demonic beasts. So, today is another nature scene and tomorrow will be a demon.

Beast 08.23.11

2011-08-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the second Beast inspired by a carvings on the Canadian Parliament building. I've been experimenting using pencil instead of my normal dip pen and India ink technique. I kinda feel the dark ink line and sort of coloring book look I use is a weakness, that a successful watercolor uses blocks of color to structure the image (instead of an outline). Of course, this image is basically a colored in pencil image, so it's not much different then my normal drawings.

Beast 08.22.11

2011-08-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

I spent last week exploring Ottawa while my wife attended a convention. At one point, while I was waiting to go on a tour of the Canadian Parliament, an unexpected storm prompted the evacuation of the info tent I was standing in. I ended up spending 30minutes huddled in an alcove along with a bunch of other tourists as we waited for the storm to pass. While there, I noticed the amazing number of expressive carvings covering the neo-gothic edifice. I took some pictures of some of my favorite creatures. For the next couple of days, my Beasts will be inspired by the creatures of Parliament.

Beast 08.13.11

2011-08-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

This will be the last Beast for the next week or so. Enjoy it!

Beast 08.12.11

2011-08-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.11.11

2011-08-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.10.11

2011-08-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.09.11

2011-08-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.08.11

2011-08-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.07.11

2011-08-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.06.11

2011-08-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.05.11

2011-08-05T12:55:00.001-07:00

Beast 08.04.11

2011-08-04T07:37:00.001-07:00

Beast 08.03.11

2011-08-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.02.11

2011-08-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

Beast 08.01.11

2011-08-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.27.11

2011-07-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.26.11

2011-07-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.25.11

2011-07-25T18:21:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.24.11

2011-07-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.23.11

2011-07-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.22.11

2011-07-22T06:05:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.21.11

2011-07-20T19:19:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.20.11

2011-07-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.19.11

2011-07-19T16:46:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.18.11

2011-07-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.17.11

2011-07-18T13:34:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.16.11

2011-07-16T07:32:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.15.11

2011-07-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

Beast 07.14.11

2011-07-14T07:14:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.13.11

2011-07-13T03:38:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.11.12

2011-07-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.10.11

2011-07-10T17:33:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.09.11

2011-07-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

In honor of the last Space Shuttle flight.

Beast 07.08.11

2011-07-08T06:45:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.07.11

2011-07-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.06.11

2011-07-06T15:48:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.05.11

2011-07-05T17:07:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.04.11

2011-07-04T10:56:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.03.11

2011-07-03T13:51:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.02.11

2011-07-02T10:37:00.001-07:00

Beast 07.01.11

2011-07-01T15:02:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.29.11

2011-06-29T16:47:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.28.11

2011-06-28T17:12:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.27.11

2011-06-27T13:54:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.24.11

2011-06-25T17:36:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.24.11

2011-06-24T15:13:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.23.11

2011-06-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.22.11

2011-06-22T15:41:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.21.11

2011-06-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

Beast 06.20.11

2011-06-20T14:19:00.001-07:00

Princess Beatrice has nothing on me.

2011-06-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was killing time online checking my favorite news related websites when I stumbled upon a photo gallery of crazy hats from the Royal Ascot Race. My knowledge of Ascot is pretty much limited to what I learned watching "My Fair Lady" but it's enough to figure out that Ascot is like the super bowl of wacky hats. According to New York Magazine's fashion section online this years hat trend was stuffed birds. Two of these hats caught my eye.

These hats are oddly reminiscent of ones worn by characters in a comic I drew for the Too Far anthology a year ago.

I'm not sure what the Ascot hat trend will be next year, but if anyone clips a flintlock to their fascinator I might need to consider becoming a fashion designer (This comment won't make sense if you haven't read the comic which you can purchase at One Percent Press).

Where's the Beast?

2011-06-18T04:54:00.000-07:00

* FYI -- I only agreed to write a post if Alexis would not edit it!*

Hello all,
This is Alexis' wife taking over his blog. I wanted to thank everyone that called and emailed me in the past few weeks, wanting to know where the beasts have gone. I wasn't quite sure why I was the one getting the heat for Alexis' lack of postings, but that is the way of marriage I suppose. Have no fear, I have stepped up to the plate as a spouse and have come down hard on the man, so the beasts will return.

Some of you know why Lex has been so busy of late, but for those of you who do not -- We have decided to take a big step next year. In a few short months, we are both quitting our jobs and are going to ship out to Oxford, England. I will be attending University there and as they say "reading for a Masters in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine." It is massive career shift for me, a physicist who has never taken a college level course in History. **shakes with fear**

As a family, we are making great sacrifices for something that is equivalent to a "Hail Mary pass". The horse has a new mom, our house was put on the market, and we have both told our coworkers the news. Unlike me, who will be running the hell away from my job as fast as I can, Alexis is saying goodbye to an amazing group of supportive folks at the Rochester Public Library. He will continue to illustrate and work on books abroad - but is risking as much as I am in the move. I couldn't ask for a more supportive life partner. His talent infuses beauty in my life and even though I have made a good many mistakes in my path - choosing this guy was, and is, the best thing I could have ever done... I did good... damn good.

I picked the beast for today. She is one of my favorites so far. A dancer - not classically beautiful - almost ungainly, with large feet and hands, she is just... too simple - but the way she holds her head high and proud... I just love it. You go girl! I find her empowering. Apropos don't you think?

Kristen

Request a Beast 5.06.11

2011-05-06T18:29:00.001-07:00

Beast 05.04.11

2011-05-04T17:13:00.001-07:00

Beast 05.03.11

2011-05-03T18:20:00.001-07:00

Beast 05.02.11

2011-05-02T17:56:00.001-07:00

Beast 04.30.11

2011-04-30T17:50:00.001-07:00

Beast 04.29.11

2011-04-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

Beast 04.28.11

2011-04-28T08:31:00.001-07:00

Beast 04.27.11

2011-04-27T14:08:00.001-07:00

Beast 04.26.11

2011-04-26T07:50:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.20.11

2011-04-20T17:31:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.19.11

2011-04-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Daily Beast 4.18.11

2011-04-18T14:23:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.17.11

2011-04-17T08:43:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.16.11

2011-04-16T16:04:00.001-07:00

Request a Beast 4.25.11

2011-04-15T15:04:00.001-07:00

This beast has a secret message.

Daily Beast 4.14.11

2011-04-14T07:38:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.13.11

2011-04-13T17:16:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.12.11

2011-04-12T15:25:00.001-07:00

Daily Beast 4.11.11

2011-04-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Daily Beast 4.10.11

2011-04-10T15:40:00.001-07:00

Daily Best 04.09.11

2011-04-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been re-reading some of the books I read when I was a tween. I was a pretty big nerd an was way into all kinds of Fantasy books with dragons, elves, dwarves, and all that jazz. It's been fun and I now have swords and sorcery on my brain. So, here is an elf drawing:

Request a Beast 3.28.11

2011-04-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

Spring bird for those who are tired of all this snow (I think it might finally be safe to say winter is over.)