Belphegor

Well, Christmas holidays have come and gone. I got really nice presents - a box of watercolours, a hot pebble massage, a box of foie gras (which we ate for New Year's and was delicious), Chinese bowls with chopsticks, a box of Beatles coasters, an invite to a hands-on cooking lesson... but the present I treasure most is a little jar of hard dried pine resin, with a photo of my great-grandfather on it and the words "My great-grandfather was a pine-tapper". In French it's called "un résinier" - or a "gemmeur", and collecting resin was a traditional Gascon job. My mum found a big chunk of resin while emptying my grandparents' house for the upcoming sale and sorting their things; she broke it and she filled two jars (one for me, one for my sister) and kept one for herself. It's a little bit of my Landes legacy, and it made me quite happy :o]

I drew and doodled quite a bit these holidays. I also read a few of the Muppet Sherlock Holmes comics, and laughed and laughed and laughed :D With Gonzo as Holmes, Fozzie the Bear as Watson, Kermit as Lestrade (well, LeStrade) and Mis Piggy as Irene Adler... Holmes is a Cloud-Cuckoolander and a Bunny Ears Lawyer Detective, Watson is a well-meaning bumbling doctor (maybe) and Lestrade is a first-class Deadpan Snarker. Well, it's Kermit ;o)

So I made this (a bit quickly, plus I forgot the little moustache). 'Cause Kermit is the coolest frog ever :o)

( Inspector Lestrade... well, Kermit :o) )

Two pages of the little notebook I got with the watercolours:

( Pretty colours )

Plus a few Megamind doodles, because I saw the film and I loved it. Not OMFGAWESOMESTAWESOMEEVAH loved it, but it rocked and left me with a happy warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. And let's face it, hearing Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train in the middle of what is essentially a cartoon is just plain exhilarating :D

So here's my first drawing of 2011, really - a doodle of a guy and a woman in love. Happy new year, everybody! ♥

( SPOILERS - Look who got the girl after all! )

Roxanne Ritchi, TV Reporter and Serial Kidnapping Victim Extraordinaire, and clearly not impressed :o)

( Oh, *please...* )

Although Megamind is probably my favourite character in the eponymous movie (and I can count the films where I prefer the main protagonist on the fingers of my hand), Minion is a very close second, because that fantastic little fish is full of awesome. And a drama queen to boot :P

Funnily enough, in French the adjective "mignon" (pronounced exactly like "minion") means "cute" :o)

( And cute he is! )

And finally some Metro Man... Because honestly, Captain Marvel and consorts have nothing on Metro Man where ham - and cheese - are concerned :o)

( Some cheese to go with that ham? )

I'm getting up at 6 tomorrow again after two weeks worth of (pretty stressful) holiday, and it's a rather depressing thought - but for the moment... "♫ ♪ Welcome to the jungle, we got fun 'n games...♪ ♫" :D

Sherlock Holmes is one of those fandoms I come back to every so often, and between the 2009 film with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law that I saw again recently, and the BBC's fantastic new series Sherlock (set in 2010 London), I find myself engrossed once more in the Canon (coming up to the climax of The Hound of the Baskervilles as my bedside book) and various fanfics (FF dot net author KCS writes excellent stuff, by the way, especially if like me you're a fan of both Holmes and Watson).

So, as usual when the need to draw takes me, I doodle. Here's a couple I did after hitting the 'Pause' button on my player during the end titles of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes:

( Scruffy!Holmes )

And Watson. Rather proud of that one.

( Low angle shot!Watson )

And since I'm working on a SH meme, here's my answer for question number five (I might post it when it's finished) - the first drawing of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as John I'm (somewhat) proud of. Somewhat.

( The original Dynamic Duo )

Oh, and I did a DC meme way back in January - and had a lot of fun.

( Aw yeah DC! :D )

Colours at last :o)

Now, school's started again, and believe it or not it was a genuine blast to see all these faces again. The kids are so sweet - I got welcome back hugs (more like flying tackles for some!), grins, and "When are we going to the library/computer room with you again?" questions. Plus, there's been some changes in the staff, and a teacher who was very stressed out (and stressed everybody out) is gone, replaced with a charming, funny teacher whom I got a good feeling about.

Now there's just the question of how I'm going to go to work on Tuesday (bus strike), and how we're going to move into our new future flat (after four years of living in a one-room one, it's a welcome change) and when. It scares me a bit - I don't like moving houses - but we highly need the space and François needs somewhere to work that's not the bedroom. (We're gonna have a bedroom! Proper! Yay :P)

Now, if only I could find I Shall Wear Midnight in my bookshop...

I took up watercolour pencils again, partly because François was on the computer and I wasn't :P but also because I wanted to water a drawing I'd done and hadn't had the occasion to. Anyway.

So a few days (weeks?) ago I did this drawing of Inara Serra (from the great show Firefly) and here it is in watercolours.

( Inara )

The other one isn't fanart; it's more random characters who come and go through my head as the mood fits. But I'm rather proud of these, especially the blonde one.

( Faces under the cut )

The eyes never fail to give me trouble, I'm afraid :D This, plus the smudges on her cheek and on her neck. But I'll get better eventually :o)

G'night!

My  mum had given me a box of watercolour pencils for my birthday last year, and till now I can't say I've used them a lot - but I suddenly got "inspired" and tried my hand at doodling a bit and afterwards run a wet brush over them.

...They aren't too shabby, I guess, but I'm not really there yet :P

( The Lady in Blue )

( Piper doodle, in pencils and watercolours )
( Comics!Trickster and Flash )

( Colours! Colours everywhere! :o) )

That's all for now, folks :o)

In other news, it's so darn hot here - the heat's gone up to 40°C today, and now it won't go lower than 25°C at 11PM (that's 104° and 77°F for you Farenheit people)... How on Earth will I be able to sleep tonight is beyond me :S It's especially weird because not four or five days ago, we got temperatures lower than 10°C in the morning (50°F)... Okay, Mark, not funny, dude - stop messing with the climate! ;o)

Len's Everybody Goes To Harry's chapter is being a bast.... a bit of a pain, so I thought I could take a break from writing and doodle a bit :D Liabrown posted a link to her (Con sketches) Rogues Gallery :P and I pretty much fell in love with this picture of Mick and Len arm-wrestling/agreeing on something (... holding hands? Nah :P) and decided to try my hand at it. Complicated (at least for me) picture, and Mick's posture came out a bit weird because he's almost facing where he should be three-quarters or in profile, but the inking isn't too shabby. I can't draw hardcore tough guys, so they both came out looking a bit... softer than the original, I guess.

( Big picture under the cut! )

Also, today on the bus I was listening to the Scissor Sisters' I Can't Decide:

( A bit of lyrics for your convenience... )

And thinking about the Master (the Doctor Who villain, who does this Crazy Awesome and Hilarious... stuff) and was thinking how awesome it would be to have a little cartoon where the Joker goes through all this stuff Tex Avery-style and came up with this doodle.
( Homicidal Maniac!Joker doodles :D )

Honestly, this guy is so much fun