The Importance of an Outdoors Education

Apparently our kids are spending less time than ever before ‘outside’. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/25/three-quarters-of-uk-children-spend-less-time-outdoors-than-prison-inmates-survey This is a shame. Here’s why: Now I’m not normally one to be politically or socially campaigning for a cause – but this issue is probably the one I feel most passionately aboutRead more…

Pencil sharpner

Il faut aiguiser nos crayons

After Voltaire, who said: “Il faut cultiver notre jardin” (We must cultivate our garden) – To this I add: “Il faut aiguiser nos crayons” (“We must sharpen our pencils*”) [*I hope!] First, literally. – ‘Start the day with a sharp pencil’ as I like toRead more…

Grave Concerns

11th May 2017 Middle-aged existential worries. “Perhaps the men of genius are the only true men. In all the history of the race there have been only a few thousand real men. And the rest of us – what are we? Teachable animals. Without theRead more…

Prince: Purple Legend

The year is 1994. I’m on a bus (that’s right, a bus) on a school History trip travelling from Scotland to Spain. I’m 14. On my Sony Walkman I have a tape of Prince’s Purple Rain that I must have stolen from my older sister,Read more…

Reflections on Childhood Dreams of Great Expectations

Musings of reality vs. fantasy as I start out and commence the heady world of self-employment, written back in 2006. Before me – literally – lay a blank, empty page. Rabbit-in-the-headlights stasis. Before I had a plan. (Do I now? – is the constant question.)Read more…

Gesture Drawing and Fast Work / Developing a Style

Gesture Drawing and Fast Work / Developing a Style In this blog post I want to show you about developing a style, and how I advanced my drawing/sketching technique – primarily by doing more gesture drawing. Going to Art College In 2002-2003 I went toRead more…

Spare a thought for us perfectionists at Christmas

I think it was someone like film director James Cameron who was once quoted as saying, “People call me a perfectionist, but I’m not. I am a rightist. I do something until it is right, then I move on to the next thing.” Ha. IRead more…