What Is It?

A book by Danny Gregory, subtitled “A New York Diary”.

The blurb on the back says…

“Two years before I started drawing, my wife was run over by a subway train and nearly killed. Well, this book is about how art and New York City saved my life.”

It’s part autobiography, and part collection of drawings. All the text is in Danny’s own writing, mingled in amongst the drawings.

Any Good?

Yes. It’s an inspiring story, that really gives you some insight into how Danny has found his life changed, and how amazingly his wife Patti handles her problems.

The Text

Danny’s style is personal, and he tells things well. He doesn’t have the most professional writing style, but it’s quite good enough not to get in the way, and the slightly rough edges leave it feeling much more real, as if it’s a letter from a friend.

The Drawings

There are no rules to Danny’s drawing style. He just draws what he sees, as he sees it. Many of the things he draws are of no consequence, yet the pictures just feel right. The lack of perspective and accuracy sometimes grates slightly with my more geeky outlook, but most of the time, I like them a lot.

Danny mainly does ink drawings, with waterproof ink, then uses watercolour over the top for colour.

Worth Reading?

I certainly found it so. If you’re going through tough times, Patti’s attitude should be an inspiration. If you draw, the pictures, and Danny’s words on what he gets out of drawing, should be an inspiration. And if nothing else, it’s a good read, with some pretty pictures.

The Package

The book itself is very nicely bound – it’s a hardback, with a cloth spine, and feels a bit more special than most books.

Buy It

• Amazon UK
• Amazon US

GuitarGAS is going through their POD II, experimenting with the amps, and sharing their thoughts. We’ve got a POD II, and we love it. A little red kidney shaped box that emulates the sound of various classic amps.

Part 6 – Brit Class A #3.

Some excellent advice from one of my favourite artists/bloggers.

Cross hatching is quite miraculous. How is it that black ink lines on white paper have the ability to create an infinite number of shades of grey, to evoke all the colors of the rainbow and to suggest textures and materials and varied as silk and stone, glass and schnauzer hair?

It’s Sunday. I think it’s getting obvious I’m stretching for the pics by this point. I was oddly fascinated by the big blue block on the top of the building. Seemed a bit too big to be the usual lift motors.

Still not sure what to actually call these things. First came across the idea in an article in Practical Photography magazine about Michael Hallett. He calls them Photo-Constructions. The same magazine did a ‘how-to’ article on them the next month, and called them ‘Joiners’. They’re somwhere between panoramas and collages.

Note quite a panorama, because there’s no attempt to hide the individual photos. Not quite collage, because it should make (sort of) a single image of a scene.

I like the idea of playing with the perspective a bit more, though, so a couple of the signs in this are bigger than they were originally, and the rusted skips have been duplicated and zoomed in on in a separate shot above.

(Sorry, just re-read that, and it sounds quite pretentious. I pointed a camera at it, pressed the button a couple of times, then glued them together with The GIMP.)

Clicky piccy to see it bigger in Flickr – you really need to see it a bit bigger to get the idea.

Trevor starts with a quote from Scott Adams (author of the Dilbert cartoons and books):

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

He goes on to tell the story of some pictures he ruined after spending hours working on them…

I sprayed the drawings with Grunbacher Fixative. The ensuing expletives sent Storm the studio cat, running for cover.

…but somehow it all works out well. You’ll have to read the full story to find out how.

Bits of car park for today. I take pictures of some odd things at times.

Coolest speaker design evar. All home-built, too.

(Thanks to BoingBoing.)

GuitarGAS is going through their POD II, experimenting with the amps, and sharing their thoughts. We’ve got a POD II, and we love it. A little red kidney shaped box that emulates the sound of various classic amps.

Part 5 – Boutiques with Overdrive.

Michael took some fantastic shots during our stay in Brum the other weekend, and today’s picture struck me as one that would be fun to do in pastel, as once again I could layer up the sky and get absolutely covered in pastel dust .