Scribble of the week #002

My sketch books are forever filled with random mind-scrawlings and scribbles that will otherwise never be used for anything or be seen by anyone, because of this I bring you "Scribble of the week".

Scribble of the week is a weekly feature(on and off probably) where i'll be posting a random sketch, scribble, design or element from one of my various sketch books. These will always be unfinished pieces of work and will often, most likely, be very eclectic.

A very recent work in progress, still very early in it's conception.

Scribble of the Week #001

My sketch books are forever filled with random mind scrawlings and scribbles that will otherwise never be used for anything or be seen by anyone, because of this I bring you Scribble of the week.

Scribble of the week is a weekly feature(on and off probably) where i'll be posting a random sketch, scribble, design or element from one of my various sketch books, these will always be unfinished pieces of work and will often, most likely, be very eclectic.

Recently I discovered a lot of my old sketch books, notebooks and old photographs had been ruined by an unfortunate leak in my garage. This horribly aggravating event coupled with the fact I recently went through my current sketch book and stumbled upon a lot of unfinished and finished sketchs and illustrations i'd completely forgotten about has inspired me to start up this potentially weekly feature.

This particular piece of work is of my dear(seven and a half month) son, Marley. I drew this about 3 months ago when he was distinctly more babyish than he is now. It's a silly scribble but was quite a lot of fun.

The characters around him represent some of his favourite toys and the bottles, ofcourse, representing his one true desire at this stage in life. The concept in my mind at the time was to make a sort of pseudo heavy metal album cover with an obvious sense of irony.

For comparison, here is a photo of the little chap himself, taken around the same time.

..ground control to Major Tom...

Kitty on my foot...

Busy day for photography today.

Here is a selection of cat photographs submitted to All Animal Rescue for their "happy ending" section.

*Click* I'm stealing your flash *Click*

So the shoot is over and the hand-in of the first few shots is iminent.(As of this moment)

The shoot itself was tremendous fun and the Constellation guys were a very patient and entertaining bunch to have as models. Due to poor weather we decided that "studio" shots were likely to be the best bet to start the day and after a short set-up period we were storming through the shots.

Having seen the shots now it's easy to see where the "studio"(Setup in my lounge) could've been prepared a little better. Certainly the muslin sheet that formed a background wasn't the perfect material and the lighting in some shots wasn't setup quite right, however when it was setup right the lights performed well, which is reassuring.

Anyway, as soon as the studio shots were more or less done and hunger pains were getting the best of us all, the weather seemed to clear up a bit, so we all decided to give some external photos a quick go with the remaining daylight and time we had left. So we legged it down to Throop Mill.

... and in the last remaining light...

So, yesterday I posted that I had set up a rather impromptu photo studio in my lounge. (The post itself was partially an experiment in doing mobile blog updates)

The reason being was to give myself some practice with the lighting equipment that i'd only recently acquired in preperation for this coming sunday where I will be photographing the local band Constallation, to whom i have posted about previously.

In the meantime however here are some examples from my practice photoshoot using the only models i had to hand, Belle(the kitten), Kate(my wonderful Fiance) and my scruffy self.
The objective of this exercise was for me to see how detailed I could get the images. I wasn't expecting 100% perfect results as i've never used such lighting before and I only chucked a bedsheet over a curtain rail to serve as a background.

What i wanted to see from the photographs was detail, pores, scratches, scars, the colours of the eyes, every strand of hair, etc. I was quite happy with the results.

Here are some examples, with minimal tweaking.

New studio lights!

In preparation for the Constallation shoot this weekend I've setup an impromptu studio in my lounge.

I spent several hours tweaking flash settings, strobes, adjusting umbrellas and soft boxes, fiddling with shutter speeds and apertures whilst Belle and Naomi (our kittens) dutifully leapt about and posed for me.



- Posted from my iPhone, photo also from iPhone.