Some Sketches (Or: The search for a profound title)

Some sketches from Sunday night at the pub.

Caesar's salad. The origin of a classic.

A quick sketch of Napoleon.


Notes and sketches. I didn't draw everything on this page, by any means. I would tell you which, but it's more fun to let everyone guess.

Trivia in the Pub (11)

This week, something or other was happening at the theater near the pub. Probably a show or something, since that's usually the type of even that happens at theaters. One could almost say it's their function. In any case, this meant that the pub was busier than normal. We weren't able to grab a normal table, or even group of tables, large enough for our team, so we had to sit at the pool table converted into a table by having a board placed on top of it.

This table is uncomfortable, since your legs cannot fit under it. Anyway, enough griping.

The first thing I was asked to draw was Asterix. There he is top left. Oh no, wait, that's an asterisk. Very different. Then Obelix was requested. It's been years since I'd read any of the comics, so I'm relatively happy with what I managed to recall. Makes me want to go and read them again though. Ah, nostaligia.

I was then asked to draw Tintin. Moderate success here, Milou doesn't look like Milou. Then I drew my friend Dan's head. Couldn't be bothered drawing the rest of him, so it remained a disembodied head, dripping blood, for effect.

Next was a mermaid version of me. Happy to oblige, it's nothing like the Little Mermaid, but that's ok. Continuing the fairy tale theme, Sleeping Beauty, followed by a Picasso rendering of a woman's face. Finally, Rapunzel's tower. A friend then drew her hair and the prince, prepared to rescue her.

Here we have a water nymph. Got into a bit of trouble from the requester for drawing her in a schooner :). Still, was funny at the time, and still is. I was then asked to draw a dryad. Not a problem. The magic of Paint also gets rid of the horrible lines that I couldn't erase on the night. Ah computers, how I love thee...

That was Trivia.

We lost, sadly. We were doing very well until the last all-or-nothing question. "Which author had an asteroid named after them in 2006?" The answer was J. K. Rowling. Who'd have thought? They name asteroids after anyone these days...

Six Prompts Drawing Meme

Found and completed this drawing exercise.

Had a lot of fun doing it too. Enjoy!

Trivia in the Pub (10)

Trivia in the pub again yesterday.

Unfortunately, it rained as I was walking to the pub from the station. I was too lazy to get my umbrella out, or to run, or even to walk at more than a leisurely pace, so I got quite wet. It's quite amusing to be walking sedately and seeing other people dash for cover from the wind and rain.

Cutting to the chase, here are the sketches from the night:

We have, starting from the top left: Le Petit Prince. (For all you uncultured Philistines unaware of who that is, I refer you here for some much needed education.) We have some wine, a stick figure with boobs, some of my teammates, an attempt at a Canadian Mountie. Yes, I perhaps have been watching too much Due South. And then last sketch was a woman in a bikini. No reason. Well, I'd had some wine, so... yeah.

We didn't win trivia. As usual, I helped answer the Pirates of the Carribean questions, so I felt validated.

Better luck next time, I suppose.

Sydney Dust Storm : Sign of the Apocalypse?

Imagine waking up to an orange sky. There is no sun, there are no clouds, there are no birds. Everything is covered in dust and you're fortunate if you can see a couple hundred meters in the distance.

This was this morning. The end of the world.

Or at least, it would have been kind of awesome if it were the case. I wonder how many Christians, particularly Hillsong, woke up thinking it might be the rapture. Would that make them happy or afraid?

Still, apocalypse or no, I still had to go to work. How's that for dedication?

Here's the view on the way. Incidentally, a colleague I showed this photo to said he was mugged on that very corner. Saved by a woman from the brothel nearby (to the right of where I'm standing), who screamed when she saw the five men, one of whom wielded a knife, which made them run away.

It was simply surreal walking through the city with an orange sky. Pretty awesome too though, at the same time.

Some of these photos look like they were edited to be in sepia tones. It gives everything a classy look, perhaps we should try and keep it from now on...

I was worried for a moment my bus might be cancelled, the streets were quiet, much fewer pedestrians than normal and fewer cars as well. Save for the sound of sirens and a firetruck whizzing by, the city seemed muffled.

Crossing the Harbour Bridge, it wasn't possible to see anything at all. I couldn't make out the Opera House. Not even the water. For all I know, they have been engulfed by our new lord and master, Cthulhu.

I kept looking up to the sky, half expecting these guys to make a showing, Now that would have been really neat.

I was fortunate enough to get a lift shortly after getting off the bus. A colleague saw me walking up the hill and figured he'd spare me walking 30 minutes in the dust laden air. Worked out pretty well. There was a fight to get cars in the undercover parking, of course, since no one wanted to leave their car to get covered in (more) dust, or to have trees fall on it, which, I'm told, is a possibility.

I can't wait to see how the rest of the day pans out.

The Ones that Didn't Get Away

There are two kinds of birds. The ones I manage to take photos of, and those I don't. These are the former, I'll have a post about the latter later.

Here was the duck I saw again yesterday, in exactly the same spot. Sadly, I didn't see Mr. Duck this morning, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Mr Duck gets up as I get closer. I really need more zoom on the next camera I get.

"Aaah, the strange man is following me. Waddle! Waddle!"

"Oh great fowl in the skies, the birdity of it all! Why won't the bad man stop slowly chasing me?"

Mr Duck eventually remembered he could fly and did just that, to get away.

Here are some smaller birds I saw this morning, chirping away in a tree. Cute little things.

At one point, all three birds were on one branch, but before I could take the photo, they flew away...

Perhaps another time.

Trivia at the Pub (9)

For once, just about everyone got to the pub before me. Which was very very odd.

Wasn't hungry at first, though I ended up finishing half of two of my friends' meals, so I guess that counts as one proper meal. Hooray for leftovers!

Here are the sketches from the night.

A vampire James Bond. An octopus, a grandfather clock (are there such things as grandmother clocks?). Two requests, a horse eating a strawberry and a vampire cat. After drawing the vampire kitty, more blood and some sort of mouse corpse was demanded, and it was so.
Detective Turducken is from this video which I saw at an animation festival at UTS.

There was talk of geisha, so there's half a sketch. I think it was because I was fanning a friend with, well, a fan.

The last is Dianne, craving the toblerone I had just been given. To be fair, the two enormous bars of toblerone do look delicious... yum.

After this, I was too busy drinking to draw, so um.. that's it.

We came second thanks to my help with questions such as:
What is the Riddler's real name? Edward Nigma (E. Nigma).
What was Will Turner's father's name in Pirates of the Carribean? William. (Aka. Boostrap Bill).
And so forth.

Free drinks for everyone!