Month: November 2022

Family Tree

Family Tree

I’m currently catching up with a free FutureLearn course Genealogy: Researching Your Family Tree from the University of Strathclyde and thought that this oak in the Capability Brown parkland (drastically remodelled by the National Coal Board Opencast Executive in 1975!) at Temple Newsam this morning was perfect for a basic family tree.

On the course we’ve been warned about the dangers of getting sidetracked – in my case that would be my Truelove great uncles – especially one particular Great Uncle Joe who had a rather colourful life. Coming back to this basic tree with aunties and uncles excluded makes me realise where I need to put in a bit more research into the basic structure. I’ve probably got most of those missing great grandparents covered in my folders of research but this is all that I remember without riffling through the various census forms and birth, baptism, marriage and death certificates that I’ve accumulated.

But I do look forward to getting back to my ‘bad’ Great Uncle Joe and the wife, Mary Tinker who attempted to murder him . . .

Sidecar, Screen Mirroring

sidecar screen mirroring
Screen mirroring in Photoshop: iMac Retina, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Sketchboard Pro.

I’ve been struggling to use the mouse as a brush or an eraser in Photoshop on my iMac Retina with any accuracy but I’d forgotten how to set up Sidecar – the facility that enables you to use an iPad as a second screen for your Mac.

For screen mirroring, this is how it works:

  • In Systems Preferences on the iMac go to ‘Displays’
  • Click ‘Add Display’
  • Select ‘iPad’ and ‘Mirror and extend’

At this stage the screen on my iMac transforms itself to fit the narrower proportions of the iPad and the whole set up works as I’d expect it to: I can use the Mac’s mouse pretty much as normal and I can use the Apple Pencil on the iPad for the brush or eraser in Photoshop.

Note: Mac and iPad are connected to the same wifi network. In the settings the iPad ‘Handoff’ is enabled.

Unfortunately working in Sidecar doesn’t improve my drawing skills!

Slow Veg

Slow veg cartoon

As so often, there’s spontaneity about the roughs that I struggle to carry over into the finished artwork.

Slow Veg cartoon
Rough as album cover

The final version included cheering crowds lining the streets and bunting, but I forgot to scan it but hopefully Abby- happy birthday Abby – has it standing in pride of place on the mantlepiece and can send me a photo.

And she has. It’s not on the mantlepiece though but it is looking good on the kitchen windowsill.

Slow veg cartoon

Abby was hoping that she’d entered a prize-winning butternut squash in the Vegan Marathon but it got stuck behind a group of country pumpkins from the slow food movement.”

Published
Categorized as cartoon

Rainshadow

Rainshadow
OS 10 inch rainfall map, 1881-1915, Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland, maps.nls.uk

You wouldn’t think it this morning but we live in a rainshadow area. This OS Rainfall Map from 1915 records over 60 inches average rainfall on the crest of the Pennines above Holmfirth and less than half that amount, around 24 inches down in Wakefield just 18 miles away.

So that’s about 5 feet of rain per year on the moors, 2 feet in Wakefield and getting on for 3 feet in between around Emley, where we’re heading this morning.

Thorncliffe

A rainy day proved a good opportunity to catch up with my Wild Yorkshire nature diary for The Dalesman but a trip to the Thorncliffe Farm Shop at Emley, gave us the excuse to see the outside world.

I drew these sycamores, almost devoid of leaves now, from the cafe.

Thorncliffe

I put the Chicken Superheroes artwork this morning but there were some familiar looking characters in the farm shop cafe . . .

chicken draft excluder
It’s those Chickens again . . .
(It’s a draft excluder, would go well with any chicken-themed interior design scheme)

Voles

Voles cartoon

Voles with impeccable taste for [milk tanker driver] Wayne’s birthday card.
Other dairy products from international farmers’ cooperatives are available but we’re with the voles, we like Arla.

Published
Categorized as cartoon

The Ultimate Chicken Superheroes

Chicken Superheroes

I’ve finally had time this weekend to settle down and hatch out the final version of my Chicken Superheroes commission.

Chicken Superheroes, pen and ink

To get a crisp black and white drawing, I drew on Bristol Board, on Daler Rowney, A3 250 gsm. I was going to use a dip pen but the first time that I loaded up the nib with Nan-King Indian Ink, it dropped ink blots on the paper, which luckily was my roughs notebook, not the final artwork.

lightbox

I brought my various roughs together in Photoshop, added lettering in InDesign and printed out a full size version on two sheets of A4, then traced over this onto the Bristol Board, which despite the name is more like a thick cartridge paper. I made a few changes to poses and accessories along the way.

colour swatch

It’s a tradition for superheroes traditionally wear primary colours, partly because of the limitations of colour printing on the poor quality paper that was used for American comics in the 1940s and 50s. I needed yellow for the lettering and red for the wattles and the mask that I’d decided to give each chicken, so I searched for ‘red and yellow colour scheme’ on Google and came up with these swatches that add two purples/violets to the mix.

Stations of the Metro

Stations of the Metro cartoon

Happy birthday to Richard, who’s so lucky to have such interesting Metro stations around him in Paris. We have to make do with Finsbury Park, Mornington Crescent and Crouch End. But Harry Hill, the I’m Sorry, I haven’t a Clue team and Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg have made the most of those three, although Crouch End was a fictional tube station, featuring in Shaun of the Dead.