Illo pattern

forgetting beetles , originally uploaded by Champignons.

I had a lot of good ideas for this, but I'm really into beetles at the moment, so I chose this.I also believe it's on of the best things I have done recently, in terms of interest. I'll explain the beetle pattern though, if that's ok.

In the autumn in the forest you see all these beetles -not stag beetles but big ones- crawling about, you even see fox poop that is black and shiney it's so full of beetle wings. So I think of beetles when I think of autumn, and I like autumn and beetles too. And then, wheeling the boy home from our walk on the common, I saw a stag beetle.

So I draw the beetle, quickly because my drawing are often over detailed and thats useful for spotters guide books but sometimes it sucks the life from a drawing. But it was still quite detailed, so I then redrew it from memory again and again over a day or two. So you can see a pattern emerging, eventually some quite important bits drop off thebeetle, like his antennae and his thorax, but he keeps his curly leg... I know the last beetle is no way accurate, but I love him the most. He is not a beetle, but he is what my brain perceives as essence of beetle..

Autumn

I haven't really got an excuse for my neglect- the summer holidays and their busyness jam packed with relatives and visits have been over a couple of weeks now, which means the summer is faded and glorious. The arrival of summer is a beautiful thing, to warm our chilled bones, but having had summer now, autumn is always good, especially these clear sunny autumn days when you get all the benefits of sun and none of the stickyness of sun cream.

Anyway, to my neglected sketchbook, and the autumn treasures therein. They are things I have drawn in the past, that I have found in my brain and drawn from memory. Brain treasures, if you will. I tend to draw in a detailed way, but sometimes that can squash the life out of a picture. Drawing from memory keeps it to is essentials:




What I am basically trying to say, is I am happy to live in a temperate region, happy when each season arrives. Day to daylife demands so much of us it is easy to get disconnected from nature, unrooted from the earth, to loose sight of little things like these.