Monkey sculpture

Mother and baby macaque Monkey sculpted from an old tree stump. This is at the entrance to the Trentham Monkey Forest. We went a couple of weeks ago and saw a few babies, a bit older than this one. They were swinging off branches and twigs and learning to climb. I think the guide said there have been eight babies born so far this year.

They are happy in our climate because they originate high up in the mountains in North Africa so they are used to wide temperature variations. The monkey forest is part of a group of parks, the rest are in France, and they are working to conserve the Macaque population. Worth a visit.

Blogging!

How do you waste the most time every day?

I curse myself sometimes, because I can spend far too much time blogging and posting to social media.

I do have a purpose, as a part time artist and illustrator I like to keep people informed of what I’ve been doing during the day. So I posted pictures of the life drawing session I went to earlier on today.

I also post little poems, I don’t pretend to be a poet though, if it rhymes that’s a bonus.

Truly though, I ought to give it a break, but is it dopamine hits you get from picking up your phone and seeing you’ve got a like? If social media removed the buttons perhaps they would get less traffic. And that’s what it’s about isn’t it? Keeping people occupied and interested in the next new thing, be it politics or advertising. So then you get the “I’ll just watch one more video” feeling, and by the time you realise its 3.30am in the morning….

So yes, blogging is probably time wasting, it’s also shouting into an echo chamber, you hear yourself, but does anyone else care. As the saying goes “why don’t you just go and do something less boring instead?”….

Hang on, just got a notification, must check my phone…

My cat print!

My friend always sends me a photo of cards or things we send him so we know he’s got them. But I was surprised when this popped onto my screen. My hubby had sent a card of a black cat that I had printed last year. I had been experimenting with lino cutting and I had forgotten that I had made them. It’s a surprise and nice to see one of the again!

Have you noticed?

Big feet?

I keep seeing cartoons of people with tiny heads, small bodies, long legs and big feet. Why? it’s fashionable I guess, artists and illustrators are as susceptible to that as anyone else. But is it lazy, or is it what clients are demanding? I can imagine a conversation, “we like your work but can you tweak it?”, “how would you like it?” can you exentuate the feet and make the face small? “,” OK “….

I can understand the concept, the viewpoint is low down, a bit like when a child looks up to a parent. It also makes the subject figure appear stronger because it towers over it’s surroundings, like a giant with seven league boots striding over a diminished landscape. But to me? It’s getting boring. There is no nuance, the parts of the figures are like cut out pieces of paper, no real shading.

There are various illustration programmes that allow you to stitch together a figure by dragging and dropping various elements to ‘build’ a figure and it’s environment. Like other AI and tech systems it’s taking over from real artists and real interesting designs. It’s basically safety as opposed to unique ideas. Dumbing down another profession. I appreciate it makes life for clients easier, but where is the innovation?

Similar

Great minds think alike?

I drew this this morning but hadn’t published it. I was just going through the reader section of WordPress and found someone else had done a very similar image. I did this digitally, playing with a drawing that I had been altering over the last couple of days. The other person’s art is four different female faces, using a totally different technique. It’s so interesting that artists come up with similar ideas from different beginnings. I like her style and work, good to see the creativity here!