This sucks. But it still works so… (Vomit-coloured carpets in background curtesy of British landlords)

Don’t drop laptops! On another note I could’ve gone on for ages without a proper, decent workspace in our new flat. I just ignore the fact that I can’t work until the last days before a deadline and then I start working where ever. But when Sloppy finally took the last desk and made herself a cosy, nice workspace (below) I realised I’m the only one without a place to work in the whole flat. And I realised the key to being productive is a nice workspace. (Well, that’s just a phrase, it’s actually one of a whole heavy key chain, from which there always seems to be one or another key missing.) Like Stephen King writes in On Writing, I need somewhere I can go and close the door to focus on the work that is already there, waiting for me. (Well, my desk will be opposite of Sloppy’s, on a little balcony above the kitchen. Again, just a phrase…) It’s not as easy to work with different projects scattered in different cases all over the house.

All this is obvious, I know, but when I don’t have it I’ll go to great lengths not to think about not having it. Next: Ordering Vika Blecket/Artur from Ikea Edmonton.

Oh, and Hampe & Musse are here visiting, so all I really want to do is go to The Field with them, but instead I have to fill my Daler-Rowney sketchbook with sketches for tomorrow’s crit. And while typing this I just noticed my fairly new D-R just broke! Almost the whole inlay has come off from the hard-back cover. Come on, throw me a bone!

Meta-blogging! This post in the background of this pic.

Apart from this happening before (I’ll just drain the whole thing in glue), and that the pages usually come with a slight breeze of vomit, I really really recommend this sketchbook (!). The pages are thin but not see-through, acceptable of most markmaking tools, quite yellow, and perforated. Funny, only the first one I bought, three years ago, came odour-less. After that I’ve always been reminded of hang-overs when I’m drawing…

This week the charity/activist organisation Ctrl.Alt.Shift is publishing an anthology on corruption, during the Comica festival here in London. I’m featured with the story “Happy Birthday to Me”, written by Fredrik Strömberg. Here’s and article in the Guardian.

Edit: Order Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption here.

Here are some more life drawings from last year. Another reason why I love life drawing is cos the normally quite negative self-critisism is the whole idea. You’re supposed to look for flaws, preferably in every single drawing, to make the next one better. Also there’s so much fun to do: Do you capture the volume, spaces, shadows, light, lines, anatomy, realism etc? And once you start getting bored you just switch between pens, pencils, brushes, nibs or whatever and start over.

Click the above ones for slightly larger pics. And these are photos so the angles are a bit off.