ELCAF: Catifying The Public!

I did portraits of people coming to ELCAF today.
Here are some cool cats who turned up:

Anti Austerity Protest: SKETCHES

I went to the Anti Austerity Protest today and took my sketchbook.

The march started at Bank. Here are some people assembling and wondering if they are in the right place.

Here they worked out that they are in the right place. 

Still at Bank. The streets are closed. The athmosphere is friendly. Drumming, chanting, leafletting.  Every few minutes a sudden cheer goes through the crowd, not sure why.

Lots of families here. The crowd is starting to move.

There's not much police, surprisingly. Much less than I expected. A lot more protesters than I expected... really a lot.

Some surreptitious tagging going on at Bank. There's the first helicopter.

The chap in the background is inviting people to join the Socialist Party, I think.

Moving into Fleet Street.

There's an overwhelming amount of groups. Goths against austerity, Chefs against austerity (here in the foreground). The blimp is tethered to a fire engine crewed by the Fire Fighter's Union. Lots of local groups turned up to protest about hospitals, council housing and assorted public services (there's Haringey).

Here's a cluster of artists, mostly.

And some music.

Someone was asking "why don't they chant back?" Because they are the National Union of Sign Language Interpreters. They are chanting, look.

The Strand is packed. There's a tired child with a CUTS KILL paper hat, she perked up afetr a few minutes of being carried.

Sisters Uncut had an impressive presence, their crowd spanned the width of the road.

Some masked people. Most wore their masks on the back of their heads, like this girl with the princess backpack and the YOUTH FIGHT AUSTERITY placard, and her mum.

That dragon statue is quite alarming from the back.

I've never seen so many people marching together, and I didn't see anyone being aggressive to anyone else. I just watched the news, they did get some footage of "fireworks" (smoke bombs, the colourful sort, I stepped over a pretty bright purple one in passing) and people dressed in black with masks trying to block a road. They didn't try very hard. No point anyway, the city was full of people peacefully protesting.


(This is all scanned with my handheld scanner, excuse any wobbles.)

There's an Opera Flashmob happening in London, and you can be part of it...

The amazing Katherine Kontz devised a new piece for the Tête à Tête opera festival. I drew the poster for it and I'll be participating in some way or other... will you? Sign up if you want to be come a part of the art.

An invitation to bring your rolling suitcase along and embark on a musical journey of boisterous wheels and beatific voices in sunny King’s Cross. Prepare for a dose of flip-flopping holiday fun!

Read more here... It'll be great.

Bath Kids Literature Festival Fundraiser

I just sent off my artwork to be auctioned off for this excellent fundraiser in aid of Bath Festivals:

This is your chance to own a unique piece of original art by one of the UK’s best and most popular illustrators. Come along on the night to bid on one of several framed pieces of art – each depicting the famous Bath Children’s Literature Red Chair.
Amazing artists including including Chris Riddell (Goth Girl), Ben Cort(Aliens love Underpants), Nick Sharratt (The Story of Tracey Beaker),  Korky Paul (Winnie the Witch), Alison Jay (Welcome to the Zoo), Michael Foreman (War Game) and Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo) have all donated pieces featuring their own, entertaining interpretation of the Festivals’ iconic red storytelling chair.
Help secure the future of the Bath Festivals internationally renowned programme of popular Festivals and be in with a chance of acquiring a piece of artwork to treasure for your family, school or business.
An Online Auction of many more Artworks will be launched on the night.

My picture is painted using all materials I have picked for the art lessons and workshops I'll be giving soon via The Kraken Studio - all cheap stuff but really nice.

Go and admire the rest, there are some Mighty Fine Red Chairs to be had.

Reasonable Art Materials Review: BIC easy click fountain pen

Here's a little review for those of you who are considering trying out fountain pens but don't want to spend much: an OK pen for under a fiver.

I needed a new cheap fountain pen to write with - I always write with fountain pens, it helps my handwriting. Ballpoint pens tend to run away and scrawl when I use them. I don't like writing with my sketching pens, they aren't designed to move that quickly.

I wanted a pen that uses standard cartridges - normally I like writing with LAMY pens, but the cartridges are expensive, and although converters are available I don't want to carry a pot of ink around to refill it.
I had to climb up a ladder at the stationer's to get to this one, they put it out of reach, probably because it's so very cheap. Anyway, it's surprisingly nice to use: it's got a chunky grip, so it would be good for school children to use and it won't give you writing cramp as quickly as a slim pen.

It's got a very pleasing mechanism that grabs the cartridge and clicks it into place, so no accidental messy unscrewing.

You can write quickly with it, it's not the smoothest but it doesn't scratch - a good everyday writing pen.

If you want a fine line to scribble with, you can turn it upside down - that means that the grip isn't as grippy, but it's a nice line, good enough for a quick sketch when you didn't take any fancier equipment along.

Henry Finch Worksheets

There are couple of free worksheets on my website, go grab them!

Tiny preview, big files here