Illustration Friday - Entangled

spiders depend on insects getting entangled in their webs for their survival - and they also seem to trigger some primal fears within us

Illustration Friday - Music

this topic was easy, I've been reading E. Annie Proulx's Accordion crimes and I love the drawings of accordion playes on Coreopsis' Blog Occasional Musings and Scratchings so I knew I needed to draw an accordion player - this is actually a bandoneon but I'm not sure of the difference. This is based on the wonderful photograph on FLICKR by jovivebo

Illustration Friday - Unbalanced

had a very hard time coming up with anything for this topic, well, you have to deliberately unbalance a seesaw for it to be any fun.

Illustration Friday - Blur

we recently went to Chicago mainly to see the recently completed Contemporary Gallery part of the Art Institute Of Chicago. Like the rest of the museum it was wonderful, one of the best art museums I've seen. There was a room of works by Gerhard Richter including some of his blurred out of focus paintings based on black and white photos. This is a quick pen and brush portrait of Richter touched up in Gimp with the Gaussian Blur filter

Illustration Friday - Skinny

The first person I thought of for this topic was Twiggy, as it says on her website - Twiggy was the world's first supermodel: a skinny kid with the face of an angel who became an icon.

Illustration Friday - Fast

Gandhi was one of the most interesting political figures of the 20th Century. He used fasting extensively as a non violent means to attain political goals as shown in these excerpts from a biographical timeline

1932 - In September, while still in jail, Gandhi begins a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Untouchable caste. The fast ends after six days when the British Government accepts a settlement agreement between the Untouchables and higher caste Indians.

1933 - In April Gandhi fasts for 21 days to again focus attention on the plight of the Untouchables. He is released from jail during this fast but rearrested with his wife and 30 followers on 31 July after commencing a new "individual" civil disobedience campaign and sentenced to a year in jail.

1943 - On 10 February Gandhi begins a 21-day fast to win his freedom. The British are unmoved and refuse to release him from custody.

1947 - Sectarian riots erupt as Muslims in India flee to Pakistan while Hindus in the Pakistan flee the opposite way. As many as two million die in north India, at least 12 million become refugees, and a limited war over the incorporation of Kashmir into India breaks out between the two nation states. Gandhi pleas for peace, using fasts to shame rioting mobs into order.

"If the peace is broken again I will come back and undertake a fast unto the death and die if necessary," he warns.

1948 - On 30 January Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi while on his way to his evening prayer meeting. His assassin is a Hindu extremist who opposes Gandhi's willingness to engage in dialogue with Muslims.

Illustration Friday - Frozen

Icicle formations by Lake Ontario, winter is coming, this year I'm determined to enjoy it