Above, Below, and Inbetween

Above, Below, and Inbetween (alternate link) is a prototype for a children’s flip book thing, where you can choose the three different sections of a scene by flipping either the top, middle, or bottom section over (this version just randomly chooses them each time you reload it).

Contains 18 aboves, 18 belows, and 18 inbetweens for a grand total of 5832 combinations.

(Also it runs better if you download it – either here or here – because then the images appear straight away instead of having to slowly load in.)

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Notes:

1. Made on August 15th and 16th, 2023

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The Solar System And Almost Everything In It

The solar system and almost everything in it, all drawn to two slightly different scales

So that the planets are all scaled to the size of the sun*
and the distances are all scaled to the distance of the earth from the sun
and both these are then the exact width of a page

I’d have done them to one single scale, but if I’d stuck with the first, the book would have had to have been 5000 pages long, while if I’d stuck to the second, the sun would have been 2.5 mm wide, and everything else invisible to the human eye. So instead you’ll just have to accept that either the sun and the planets are a 100 times too big, or that the space between them is 100 times too small.

*(some of the smaller planets and probably all of moons are slightly oversized, due to the unfortunate blobbing of paint as I applied it inexpertly to the page, and the asteroids are so oversized that there’s no real excuse for their appearance, except that I love the asteroid belt, and all the asteroids who linger there)

Contents

Page 1: The Sun
Page 2: Mercury, Venus, Earth (and its moon)
Page 3: Mars
Page 4-5: The Asteroid Belt (barely visible, but there, I promise)
Page 7: Jupiter (and some of its moons)
Page 9: Saturn and its rings (and some of its moons)
Page 21: Uranus (and some of its moons)
Page 41: Neptune (and one of its moons)
Page 51: Pluto (but none of its friends)

(And I would have liked to include Eris, too, but unfortunately I’d have needed this book to have 98 pages, at least, for that, rather than 60 or so)

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Notes:

1. Painted on November 15th, 2020
2. And planned the day before
3. Although really I’ve been intending to make this for about four years or so
4. Since whenever I got this sketchpad
5. From paperchase or wherever I bought it
6. In a sale
7. For maybe £2
8. Or possibly £3
9. If I was feeling particularly extravagant that day

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Bronto Time

Notes: I wrote this when I was about five, I think.

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“7 o’clock. Time to get up”

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“8 o’clock. Time to wash”
“9 o’clock. Time for breakfast”

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“10 o’clock. Time to clean up”
“11 o’clock. Time to go shopping”

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“12 o’clock midday. Time for dinner”
“1 o’clock. Time to dig the garden”

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“2 o’clock. Time to paint the fence”
“3 o’clock. Time to read”

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“4 o’clock. Time to play”
“5 o’clock. Time for tea”

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“7 o’clock. Time to have a bath.”
“8 o’clock. Time for bed”

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“12 o’clock midnight. Bronto is fast asleep”

THE END

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Further Notes: My mum found Bronto Time in a box of some of my old schoolwork last week, although I don’t remember making it at all, so it’s possible it’s actually my brothers. But that’s not going to stop me claiming it as my own. Because it’s beautiful.

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A Book Of Beasts

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Notes:

1. Written and drawn between the 22nd and the 25th of July, 2020
2. Using some new pens my sister had bought me for my birthday
3. And an old square notebook that I had had for some time
4. So long in fact the pages had begun to yellow
5. And the cover been enthused with a glow of dust shall never leave it soul.
6. A list of inspirations, homages, plagiarisms, thefts, explanations, apologies etc follows.
7. It is probably not exhaustive.
8. The Mobius Snake shows why I did not colour the rest of the book in, for though my black pens were conatined by the page, the colours were not
9. Thus ruining poor old Violent Penguin’s return to the page.
10. (I didn’t start colouring them in until I’d got to the eyeball one, but soon realised the error of my ways. Please forgive me. It is done now. It cannot be undone.)
11. I also messed up Violent Penguin by using a too thick marker pen to write the descriptive text. I did not do that again.
12. If you would like to know more about Violent Penguin, please follow this link, so as to peruse his complete adventures.
13. One of my nephews draws people like Simon, their shoulders becoming their mouths. I like his style.
14. My nephew is not called Simon.
15. I know no Simons at all.
16. People. I remember people. But only in the most abstract sense.
17. I wrote the thorns after reading The Snow Child by Angela Carter (which is in The Bloody Chamber)
18. And also after getting caught on a thorn.
19. An exciting occurrence, I’m sure you’ll agree.
20. The Ohm is just an Ohmu from Nausicaa
21. I quite like drawing them.
22. Flaffs are also basically stolen straight from Ghibli (the soot things from My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away)
23. Though I was thinking more of a Jib-Jib
24. Largely because I’m always thinking of Jib-Jibs
25. The Fury: whenever I see a dog, it barks at me. I imagine them all eating me away to nothing.
26. Spiders. I like spiders. If you would like to learn more about spiders, please read Spiders Are Wonderful, an educational book for all ages.
27. In fact, the poem one is basically a re-use of the proposed illustrations in an unmade sequel to Spiders Are Wonderful
28. Called Books Are Wonderful.
29. Because books are wonderful.
30. Especially self referentially infinite books all about themselves.
31. The bees one is a reference to one of my favourite things in the whole world, and definitely the most beautiful, which is this entry about bees from a medieval bestiary. “Bees are the smallest of birds.”
32. (Another unmade Toby Vok educational tome insisted that Bees Are Horrible, but in this Toby was wrong).
33. Also this is called A Book Of Beasts because the medieval bestiary book I have is called The Book Of Beasts.
33. The hat one is a Miller’s Crossing reference I suppose
34. Although was not necessarily so at the time
35. (It was windy)
36. Dragonaire might be another Ghibli one.
37. Or maybe it’s the Rainicorn from Adventure Time
38. Or maybe it really was just a cloud.
39. I spend a lot of my time these days staring up at clouds.
40. There’s very little else to do.
41. Loom is basically the Groke
42. Who is the figure in all of literature I most wish to be.
43. Edith is about Edith Swan Neck
44. Who seems finally to no longer be reduced simply to her neck
45. By the curses of history.
46. Bright Horses are from the song Bright Horses, by Nick Cave
47. Which might be the beautiful song I’ve ever heard.
48. And makes me often wish to cry.
49. Which is a nice way to end this book
50. Of beasts