Inktober 2026

 Here are this year's drawings. This one turned into a story rather like the one back in 2024. It seems it gives that extra boost of enthusiasm I need to get through to the end. Trying to fit the words into my stupid narrative.

LSA Mini Print Show

 This show is coming up in November as part of Leamington Studio Artists’ Printmaking Festival. It’s online from November 1^st (here, while it lasts) and in person (as it were) from Nov 24^th to Dec 5^th. The prints I put in are: J, Yellow in Blue; J,Yellow in Green; and J, Yellow in Pink. I’m happy with these three and will be interested to see how they are received, as Leamington shows have proved lucky for me in the past.

Thinking about it, all shows impose constraints, you just have to consider whether you can work with them or not. The constraints here were those of size and price. Size was strictly within 10cmx10cm on paper measuring 15cmx15cm. And price a fixed £40. I could do that. I had done 12cmx8cm for the Leicester Print Workshop show, and £40 is in my ball-park price-wise. The challenge is whether you can be “you” within these constraints.

Anyways, I’ll see if I can get over for any of the events, and to check out the show.

Two women

 I don't know whether this works as anything much. It just seemed a little while since I had actually done anything and I seem to be a bit stuck at the moment. I feel I'm over thinking things, especially with regard to carrying on with the "town plus people" prints. So I just need to do some things just for the sake of doing them. So a couple of life drawings done in miniature. Postcard size. I think the result is good enough for a £1.50 postcard, but its also pushing me in the direction of something I don't have to think about. So a result, I think.

Encounter

 This started from a couple of drawings that I did recently with local artists as models. I put them both together because they both look like they want to be elsewhere. Putting them together compounds the effect. Not only do they not want to be there, they don't want to be with each other. I called it Encounter because the vibe I'm getting seems almost ... therapeutic

The end result is one of those prints I'm not sure about, though the journey has been worthwhile. Almost therapeutic, really.

Curriculum Vitae - a trilogy

 Another set of three prints, but this time I'm putting them in a single post, mostly because each print contains two-thirds of the elements contained in the next. And they tell a story. As you can see, the idea for these originated in me thinking about ancient Greek red-figure vases. And within them, the basic story of so many myths:

1. To take the maiden. The monster, driven by baser instincts, seeks to drag the maiden to his lair and ravish her.

2. To sheath his sword. The maiden seeks to tame and disarm the hero. Domesticate him. I did think of her chasing with a spindle and distaff in a nod to Heracles. Or maybe more explicitly, she could be holding the sheath for his sword, cuz we all know the Latin for sheath. But all that was too much detail.

3. To slay the monster. The duty of every young man. The beast within, maybe. The adventure that marks his entry into maturity, and so be deserving of the maiden.

I also mixed up my Greeks and Romans here, so my use of the Latin. It always amused me that our modern understanding of curriculum comes from schooling or the corporate world, but for a Roman it was the kind of course where you raced your chariots. So it has a kind of circularity to it, and gives the idea of the three racing round in circles.

PS Those of you who are more observant will recognise the reappearance of the fire exit woman, slightly modified in this one

Brotherhood

 

Another view of the town. The building here is called, "Brotherhood House" and it has been left derelict for maybe 20 years. The council are currently eyeing it up as part of their regeneration of the town. It is seen as being part of a "cultural quarter" which is something that everyone seems to want right now. Not sure whether anything will come of it or if I'll live to see it, so here it is as a challenge.

The man and dog are based on someone who lives nearby and who walks past with the dog pretty much every day. So I thought brotherhood applied to them, too. They look out for each other.

Having done this one I feel this may draw a line under this particular series. At least for now.

J, Yellow in Blue

 The third of the three "mini-prints". As I mentioned elsewhere, I worked on these in parallel. First I worked on the drawings, reducing them and translating them to work with quite broad lines. I also made some adjustments so that they each had the same amount of "information" as I wasn't concerned with them being some kind of set when I was doing the drawings. 

I cut the three "drawings" and transferred each on to a separate block where I then cut out the figure's silhouette and then roughly brushed ink over the block and roughly cut these to give the "brushstrokes" in the back ground. I used the same yellow block over all three as a kind of hardly-noticeable unifying theme.