Thionville, France

We've had some lovely weather that past couple of days so I took advantage of it by going walking by the riverside with friends. I think the best walk was today because we found some COWS! They are absolutely beautiful (as you will see in a moment) so I think I'm going to head back there with my sketchbook tomorrow if the sun is out again.

Because I didn't want my eyes to pop.

Today I took a break from drawing because my eyes were stinging from having to work so hard recently (all the concentration to tiny detail is hard work for them!) it really reminded me of stressful 4th year days! So what did I do instead? Well it was raining outside so I stayed home and tried to brush up my grammar a little.

My French just seems to suck and trying to make it all stick in my head just seems really difficult. Sometimes I think I don't have a real brain and my head is actually just packed full of giant slabs of lasagne.

I tried to sort out my website a little bit tonight but I'm not sure it was all that successful. I really feel I'm lacking my more colourful work but I'm not sure painting is much of an option here so might just have to wait 'til December. I guess I could check out pastels or something. We'll see what ends up.

This is a little taste of what I was working on yesterday, it still has a fair way to go yet but it's interesting working in red instead of black for a change. I'm in two minds about what to do now. I am feeling really keen for some drawing but it's just after midnight so should I be going to bed instead? Decisions decisions. It is the holidays...

Chin up son.

Well once again I have just sat at my desk and drawn all day long while listening to music. I can't think of a better way to spend a day. Despite having spent the day in such a nice way I am a little fed up. I think it's mostly just for the same reasons as in my last entry.....I finished another picture and it's just not that great. So it's stupidly frustrating.

Here it is anyway:

So I like the bird coming out of the mouth rather than cracking out a different part of the face just because I think it's just easier to imagine the pain or something. It's a more realistic image so I think it's easier to connect with.
I went back to using a large bird, it works much better.














At least my room is starting to look a lot more like it should...


I already know exactly what I want to start on tomorrow...it's going to have a change of colour! You'll have to wait and see what that will be though.





So now my wall is looking a little bit fuller and I hope this continues!

Just have a little..........patience!!

I have had a nice day. I never left the house, just sat at my desk drawing and listening to music. Here is how my pic looks now. It needs a little more work but I will leave it as it is for a few days I think and come back to it.
I worked on it for part of the morning and then in the afternoon I drew out the begining of a new portrait.

I feel like life is a very slow process at the moment:

I want to improve my French.
This takes time and effort.

I want to improve my drawing skills.
This takes time and effort.

Everything takes so much time and effort. I wish I had more patience.

t i r e s o m e

Today was a tiresome day.

The kids were all a little hyped up during the lessons and then I had two and a half hours to kill between classes so it felt quite long. I spent my free time finishing off my lesson preparations for tomorrow....and then at about 8.45 tonight I got a phone call from the teacher saying the lesson is going to be different so I now have to find new topics for tomorrow instead. Slightly frustrating but not the end of the world!

At my school in Yutz it seems there are some older dudes who work at the school and watch over the kids during break times and in the corridors etc. I'm not sure but I think they might be quite close to my age maybe? I would really like to chat to them and find out because it would be great if they are! But I don't know if I will get much chance to or not since we seem to have quite clashy timetables. Who knows.

Ah well, here is a little update on the drawing front:



A nice little view on the left there of my usual work space....pretty green eh? Also notice the makeshift drawing board made from the cardboard box my fridge arrived in! Dear oh dear, it does the job though so Ican't complain. The drawing itself has a fair bit to go yet, as soon as it's finished I'll crack straight on with the next one, I'm really keen to just improve my drawing skills as much as possible while I'm here since painting isn't really an option.

A break from the Birds

Alongside the Bird work I have been practising some figure drawing. I've been trying to work on my speed skills so all the drawings were 5-15 mins. For the first two I used posemaniacs - what a wonderful, wonderful tool. I spent about 5 mins on each.

Two quick sketches of James here, the one on the left was a 7min pose from life and the other was a 15min sketch from a photo since we are now in different countries.

To be honest I really should have fixed the eyes in the right hand side one....I was being a little bit lazy I think!

Looking at Birds

So I haven't been on here in a while...I have been busy moving to France! I have been out here for about two weeks now, living in a small town called Thionville. It is right up at the Luxembourg border and has a population of about 40,000. I have been working in Yutz and Guénange four days a week, six hours in each Collège, this has left me with plenty of time to do art and also a little exploring!

On the art front I am still working on bird stuff. To be honest, I really just wish I was back in Scotland working on my art 24/7 in my own studio and organising an exhibition space for myself to get cracking on with! But alas, that's not what has worked out for me so let's just hope I get to do that when I am back next spring and in the meantime, get on with working here instead.

Here's a little extract from my sketch book from just before I came to France:

Ok you might be thinking that's a little bit weird. I would agree. I think it's pretty strong imagery though. I am interested to hear or see people's reactions. I showed it to James alongside some similar drawings and it was interesting to see what he got from them.

Maybe in the past I just never really knew what I was trying to communicate, but in this project I really feel like my thoughts and everything that's inside me is being expressed better than if I were to try and use words. It's a really weird thing.

I'm not going to tell you what it's all about, I don't like spoon feeding the viewer. I'd rather you looked at it yourself and gave it some thought first.