House of Illustration Fundraiser

I made this Abney & Teal based artwork for the House of Illustration Fundraiser. You'll soon be able to bid on it in a silent auction on their website, along with works by all sorts of exciting people.

http://joelestewart.tumblr.com

I've started posting observational drawings and experimental paintings on a Tumblr page. So far I've put up pictures covering the period from 2007 to 2009 to rescue them somewhat from the ancient bottom end of this blog and my old Livejournal account. Hopefully soon I'll catch up with myself and maybe then it'll become a place to put current work.

Abney & Teal on DVD

So far as I know (and that isn't very far) the first Abney & Teal DVD is released today! It is called Faraway Island and other adventures and contains eight episodes.

I don't actually have a copy, so I don't know which episodes are featured. I think they are not in series order as I do vaguely remember being asked, many moons ago, to check over a selection of themed collections with titles like this one.

Over-thinking inking

These are some line and wash drawings done mostly to get my mind rolling on an event that I'm doing in a month or so. I haven't got much detail on that event yet, so they may be pointless in that regard, but we'll see.
They are in some ways quite opposite to the colour work I'm doing, but it seems like I have to do opposite things in B&W to achieve the same goal. I think that the fairly uniform weight of line has a similar effect in B&W to using a light outline, or none at all in colour. I don't think I've really used line quite like that since I made monoprints using typewriter carbon for Moon Zoo and the Hans Christian Andersen book, but I hope my drawing's improved since then. I'd like to be braver with what I leave out (conversely I seem to be putting a lot more into the colour work). I've certainly become braver with noses, even if they've always been a feature!

I am a high achiever when it comes to over-thinking even the simplest elements of drawing. And yet, to misquote somebody or other, talking about drawing is a bit like dancing about architecture.