John Shelley's Blog

Riding the Waves

 Since shifting my blog platform to the in-built system on my Wix-run site, I've left this Blogger blog largely untouched, however I notice the imported images from here lost some quality in the transfer, and all the image captions were lost, so I'd like to keep this old ship afloat!

Here's some nautical themed images from the archive!

From A Canoe in the Mist (written by Elsie Locke, Jonathan Cape, 1987)

 

From The Mystery in the Bottle picture book (written by Val Willis, Scholastic UK/Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1991)

From Peer Gynt picture book (abridged from the story by Ibsen, words by Yo Kawasaki, Hyoronsha, 1991)

From Bella Baxter and the Lighthouse Mystery (written by Jane B. Mason / Sarah Hines Stephens, Aladdin paperbacks, Simon & Schuster, 2006)

From The Little Mermaid  (Hans Christian Andersen, Hyoronsha, 2006)

From The Boat in the Tree picture book (written by Tim Wynn-Jones, Front Street 2007)

From Charlie Bone -  The Castle of Mirrors (海にきらめく鏡の城) (written by Jenny Nimmo, Japanese edition published by Tokuma Shoten 2007) 
From Daldy to the Rescue (Douglas Walker 2021)
From Deodar's Voice (Douglas Walker 2021)

Blog Migration

Dearest readers, I have some news to announce!

Blogger has been the home for my blog for many years, but with a new website – it’s time for a new blog too. This is my last post in Blogger, as I'm integrating everything into a brand new website, launching today! Please follow my new blog here:

https://www.johnshelley.com/blog

Many thanks everyone - see you on the new site!

Happy New Year 2020!

Happy New Year of the Rat everyone! It’s a delicate new decade, promising lots of challenges, let's keep it in safe hands!

Things have been slow and steady here,  the last weeks up to Christmas I've been tied up with house repairs and curating Pictures at Play , the biennial SCBWI exhibition in London. But from the new year onwards it will be solid focus on new ideas and art projects.

Watch this space!!

Happy new Year everyone!

Inktober 2019 - the last 16 drawings

Day 16: WILD
Here are the rest of my Inktober drawings for 2019.

Day 17: ORNAMENT. Lack of time & scanner meant this was a quickie
During the month, though I never seemed to have much time for contemplation, I was repeatedly asking myself, where is the essence of what I do? How can I connect with that mysterious flow of creativity, when things seem to just come together, almost by themselves, without me having to think too deeply - let the rhythm flow.

Day 18: MISFIT. Drawn while watching a BBC4 documentary on Eric Clapton. Maybe it had an influence!
That is the goal of all our art of course, and one of the attractions of Inktober. Another reason why I didn't want to prepare anything in advance, it's all about responding to the prompts in a short space of time. Immediacy is paramount.

Day 19: SLING. Another late one, drawn in the morning before I had to rush out, time was very short - but I've had some lovely comments on this one!Ironically, it was often the most last minute drawings, squeezed in before going out, or racing the last minutes before midnight, that produced the most satisfactory drawings. Why does it always seem to be the case that the more pressure is on, the better the result (within reason)? Sometimes the more time I have to do something, the more consciously I mull over things, the more laboured it becomes, the flow of creativity becomes a dribble.

Day 20: TREAD. This might have been a reflection on the pressure of the day!
I don't like the way things ebb and flow with my brain. I like deadlines, I work best with a bit of time pressure, so long as it's not too much and prevents me spending enough time or energy on the drawing. When the balance is right on some days I'm on a roll, then something knocks me of my inspiration perch and I'm working like a slug for the next day or two. I don't like the way I can't control this.

Catching up again with a first edition for Day 21: TREASURE. The end of a tough week, and an unashamed self-portrait. Nothing pleases me more than rooting around in old book shops for hidden illustrated gems. Mister Beardy pointed out I drew the second N in antiquarian the wrong way around - I could fix that digitally, but decided to share again here in raw form, mistake and all! But we're not robots, the fact that creative energy is a bit of an untamed beast that refuses to be switched on - or off - at will is all part of the humanity of drawing. I wish I could pin down the algorithm that results in making good art. What programme do we need to follow? Drink this! Eat that! Do X, add Y, squared, and result = Zzzzzzzz....... Formulas rarely work when it comes to the mental process of making pictures.
Ghost Writer, for Day 22: GHOST. Back up to speed at last - this was a lot of fun to draw. Getting enough rest though certainly makes a difference. And getting out the house every day! I was definitely enjoying myself a great deal at this point in the month.
Day 23: ANCIENT This turned out to be a bit of a tribute to one of my 'ancient' illustration heroes Arthur Rackham (I've been a lifelong fan & collector of his work). I was enjoying the fun, and allowed the love to flow, though it didn't start out with that intention!
Continuing a fairy tale theme for Day 24: DIZZY. Not the first time the best laid plans have been scuppered by weather. 
There was more time pressure towards the end of the month as builders began demolishing my downstairs fittings, and I slipped into being a day late with posts again, but by this point the end goal was in sight, so onwards steadily....
Day 25: TASTY. Another roaringly busy day today, barely time for a quick inky feast before bed. But at least I got my scanner working again! Day 26: DARK - Busy times again, so another drawn late, disentangling from the day! Day 27: COAT. Still catching up!

Day 28: RIDE. At last, back up to speed. No more catnapping! Day 29: INJURED. A change of tone for this drawing, and a difficult subject to approach without appearing glib, after all I'm drawing from my studio in comfortable Norwich, with no experience of war. But when I think of the pain suffered by the people and cities of Syria, and continue to endure, it puts our imagined injuries into sharp perspective. Day 30: CATCH the Wind! A seasonal theme on the eve of Halloween Final Day 31! RIPE old age.So it was done! Inktober was so much fun this year, despite a couple of tough periods during the month, with computer/scanner breakdowns, volunteer commitments, and building work on my house. But got there in the end, and on time!

Inktober 2019 - The first 15 drawings

Inktober 2019 Day 1, and the prompt word was: RING
It's that time of year again, and once more I entered the maelstrom of feverish scribbling that is Inktober. Here are the first fifteen of my daily drawings (Days 16-31 to follow).

Day 2, prompt word: MINDLESS
If you've not heard of Inktober before, it's a social media challenge, where participants create and post online a drawing made in ink (of whatever kind), one a day throughout the month of October, using the hashtags "Inktober" and "Inktober2019". Artists are free to draw whatever they like, but some  choose specific themes to work on, or follow the official list of prompt words (there are also several non-official prompt lists).

Bear Baiting. Day 3, and the prompt word was: BAIT
Personally I like the challenge of the official prompt list, not because I'm particularly inspired by the words, which can sometimes appear rather puerile on face reading, the challenge is finding a way to fit the word with an illustration that digs beneath the obvious, that is both personal and coherent. And if you can add layers that respond to the prompt word on multiple levels all the better. The interesting challenge of Inktober is as much about ideas and interpretation as it is about drawing.

Frozen. Winter is coming folks, people need our help. Day 4's prompt word: FREEZE
This year I drew everything using the same pen, no experimenting with various tools. That's probably something to do with a certain degree of chaos at the moment - there's a lot going on this month in the household - dummy submissions, major building work on my house, volunteer commitments with SCBWI and so on, Inktober was squeezed in between these, I wouldn't say I was particularly relaxed during this process! And that's all on top of all the chaos in the news...

Day 5: BUILD. (an allegory)
All the drawings were made without pre-October preparation, no drawings pulled out of the stock draw or created/planned ahead. I looked at the word on the day, and drew it. Twice I fell behind a day, it happens, but managed to catch up before the end of the month.

Day 6: HUSKY
So what next? I'm considering carrying on doing daily drawings, maybe after a short break! Will I do it next year? Well, who knows!

Day 7: ENCHANTED Day 8: FRAIL Day 9: SWING Day 10: PATTERN
Day 11: SNOW Day 12: DRAGON Day 13: ASH. Aschenputtel is the German version of Cinderella, recorded in the Grimm Brothers' Household Tales in 1812. Day 14: OVERGROWN Day 15: LEGEND

More Tokyo train travellers

I'm approaching the end of our current month-long visit to Japan, so here are some more train sketches.


For me it's been a month basically looking up old contacts, finding the current buzz of what's going on for illustrators, and peering through the busy noise of central Tokyo, where I'm staying.





Usually nowadays I stay in areas outside the circle of the Yamanote line, though I was based within it for over half the 21 years I was "permanently" living here. As mentioned previously, my relatively central location means train journeys have been much more hurried and shorter affairs. It's a very different vibe staying in the central wards, and, although I loved being just a cycle ride from Shibuya in the '90's, now I think if I were to return to Tokyo my ideal location would be a little more relaxed, just outside the busiest zones, but within easy access reach of them.

It's pretty pointless thinking of ideals though, I'm making no plans while daughter is at school, and budget would dictate a great deal!

Anyway, here are a few more, often very quickly drawn and scribbly, sketches.

More Train Snippets!

Some more train sketches from my current sojourn in Tokyo.



I've been here over two weeks now and it's been a remarkably wet and cool July until now, the rainy season just carried on and on, with some significant downpours adding to the general drizzle. The cooler than expected weather meant getting about town was more efficient (if you could avoid being poked in the eye by umbrellas) but the general gloom was definitely sense in the mood of train passengers....


As mentioned in my previous post, I'm based in a central part of the city this trip, so trains tend to be more bustling, and I'm taking shorter journeys, which has made sketching a little more of a scribble-it-down-when-you-can kind of affair. Most of the passengers nowadays are engrossed in phones...

Or books....


I've a lot of drawings abruptly cut short!


Well, I'm in Japan until the end of the month, so hopefully a few more sketches to come. And the weather is starting to turn!

Tokyo Train sketches

I'm back in Tokyo throughout this month, and, as is my habit, have been drawing people on trains again.

As I'm staying in a central part of the city this time there are not so many long commuter train journeys, so sketching has been sporadic, on short journeys with bustling trains, when people move, get on and off more frequently, and (in many cases) block my view of my drawing model. So I'm getting a lot of false starts like this!



You've just got to get on with it.... and be quick!!



 However, when the opportunity arrives, some sitters are remarkably good models, especially when they're half asleep... 

Summer 2019

To all my followers,

Wishing you all the very best for a whale of a summer!

Happy New Year of the Pig!

   In the Chinese zodiac the pig (or wild boar as it’s celebrated in Japan) is known for being compassionate, artistic and jovial. In a year that promises to be full of many challenges, these qualities will be muchly appreciated! Wishing all my followers good fortune, empathy and tolerance in 2019! 
I'll be doing my best to make it a year of creativity through art :)