A Summer’s Day
“It’s hot,” Tina said.
“It’s really hot,” Claire agreed.
“It’s too hot,” Ethel insisted.
“It’s not hot enough,” said Daniel.
A Summer’s Night
It was dark outside. Really dark. You couldn’t see a thing. But you could hear it all. It went on and on. It would not stop. Don’t they ever sleep out there?
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Notes:
1. Written on May 6th, 2021
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__________
Notes:
1. This was written on April 25th and April 26th, 2021
2. And then illustrated mostly on April 27th.
3. It’s a sort of sequel to A Book Of Beasts
4. But with people this time
5. Instead of things
6. Although there ended up being lots of things too.
7. I started writing it while reading The Milk Of Dreams by Leonora Carrington
8. For the 99th time
9. You should read it too it’s wonderful
10. As are all her things.
11. It seeped in most directly here with Ted
12. And his lack of a crocodile
13. Which is based on Humbert The Beautiful from (The Milk Of Dreams)
14. And his actual crocodile
15. Which actually bites people
16. Presumably.
17. I also read We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson last week
18. Which I’d never read before.
19. It was brilliant in almost every way.
20. The house this is set in is not that house
21. But it might be related
22. In some way
23. And so might some of the people that live there
24. But which ones I would not like to say.
25. Agnes wasn’t based on Agnes Varda
26. But was named after her
27. Purely because if I was going to have a matriarch for this family, surely she would have been the one to keep things in check
28. With kindness and wisdom
29. And endless inquisitive genius.
30. Also Agnes and Antoine were married once
31. And Ethel, Claire, Tina and Daniel are their children
32. Or so I intended when I began
33. Who knows now
34. They have their own lives to live
35. It’s not for me to decide
36. They are free to make our own choices
37. As are we all.
38. David is a self portrait
39. More flattering than I deserve.
40. Simon is an interloper
41. From the aforementioned Book Of Beasts
42. You can ignore him if you like.
43. I think Oya and Yulia work in the shop
44. While Anna spends her days reading beneath her parasol
45. In the ruins of the abbey
46. Or by the entrance to the cave
47. Or wherever else she pleases really.
48. She is who I want to be.
49. The spider dreams of a million children
50. The cat dreams of pleasure
51. No one dares say out loud what it is the crows are dreaming of
52. But we know it in our hearts.
53. We shall speak no more of the mayor.
54. I cannot draw cafes
55. Or shops
56. Or caves evidently
57. Or very much at all, I’m afraid
58. Especially not people
59. Which is a bit of a hindrance
60. In a book about people
61. But here we are.
62. Weirdly, I wrote this burned out gallery one the day before I started reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
63. Which starts with a gallery being blown up
64. Or slightly exploded at least.
65. I assume some of it burnt down.
66. The doll is based on this wonderful image
67. From this strange book I had as a child (My First Picture Dictionary, illustrated by Albin Stanescu, ABC Books, 1975)
68. Where everything was slightly wrong
69. Images of our own world
70. Broadcast here from another.
71. The phrase “There is nothing as frightening as the passing of time” is taken from ‘There Is Nothing More Frightening Than the Passing of Time’ by The Supermen Revenge Squad
72. Though I misremembered the wording of it.
73. Anyway, the final track of that album is almost perfect
74. I have listened to that song 103 times in the last two years apparently
75. 104
76. (The title of that song is taken from this comic strip by David Lynch)
77. (Which I was thinking of when I made the Violent Penguin comic strip, a couple of years ago)
78. (And the Violent Penguin Television Series, a couple of weeks ago)
79. The moon and the sun have joined us too, from that book of beasts.
80. But they exist everywhere
81. And cannot be contained
82. Just like the sky itself.
83. (I know this doesn’t really extend to the level of theft, but I think I took that phrase from this song)
84. (by this band)
85. (that i used to listen to incessantly)
86. (20 years ago now)
87. (or more.)
88. And I think that’s all the notes
89. Now all we have left to is do dream
90. Of everything they’re going to do
91. And everything they aren’t
92. Goodnight
93. Sweet dreams
94. *The light is switched off*
95. *The door is closed*
96. *Around us all the house creaks*
97. *And sighs*
98. *And dreams*
99. *Of whatever it is that houses dream*
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
__________
Notes:
1. Written on June 10th, 2019
2. Please also see this previous flying directly into the sun escapade
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Notes:
1. This was made on August 19th, 2013
2. This was an attempt to make a book of overlays
3. But unfortunately I only had tracing paper
4. So it didn’t really work
5. The images were all stock images from nasa
6. Which I stole
7. I suppose
8. A little while after making this I got One Night Far From Here, by Julia Wauters
9. Which uses overlays really beautifully
10. (With acetates, rather than tracing paper)