Oh Faustus...

I HAVE A TUMBLR. Anybets I move there instead of this blog and start up a family.

http://hollowvault.tumblr.com/post/11283744657

sketchsketchsketches

Sketchbook

And where there is light...

There is always dark.... in the form of trash art, my Fabien, my experimental monkey with whom I hack into with my photoshop scalpel. Oh, he enjoys it, trust me.

More workshops

And with every image I draw I think of them, young and adventurous in the house it broke his heart to leave. And I think it might break mine too.

From Hollow Vaults below....

If therefore thou by cunning of thine art,

Canst raise this man from hollow vaults below,

Where lies entombed this famous conqueror.

I am studying again... History. Nothing inspires me, ignites some passion in my spirit more than History does, I adore it. Anyway, currently we're looking over Christopher Marlowe... mmm, Marlowe. <3

In re-reading Dr Faustus, I came across this passage...the Emperor asking of our good Doctor to raise Alexander the Great from hollow vaults below. I took the name of this blog from those exact words, hollow vaults... there's something beautiful about it.

I am surprised I forgot so soon where I claimed it from, here's to you Christopher. Died a day before my birth, died in a pub run by an Eleanor Bull.

This onnee

Moar red

Oh decisions why you so hard

Orrrr colour, hmm

It's all got a bit quiet...

But my sketchpad hasn't been... well, maybe for a week or two. Here's a label I've been ...laboring over, for my beautiful Red House. They recently harvested their very own delicious golden honey, and this is going to adorn the jars.

PRB Red House ongoing sketchbook work

I GOT A TABLET.

Whut

So...

I was going into the realms of uber stylized with Fabien, and I reached a point... ala first image, where I thought.. no. I like cartoons, but this is not working for me anymore.

So I'm trying again.

The plot for his story changes so much, at first I had snippets of a fairytale sort of thing... but no, its going to roll loosely like this.

Fabien looooves old people, in particular old men. He's a strange creature, 300 years old... perfectly senile, but also still a creepy giant feral child. He likes the very young, because they are prone to misfortune, and the very old... same reason.

He's going to be following this man, I haven't invented him yet... this lonely widower I guess, who sits in Parisian café's a whole lot. Fabien watches him, creates soft, beautiful havoc... and also triggers other unlucky troubles which will likely happen in small areas of each image. He's a bad omen, he can't help it.

Because he's... utterly bonkers, he has a lot of strange lapses in memory, he flips back to his grisly Revolutionary past a lot. Good, because in those scenes I establish his history, but without having to meticulous show it in length. It'll be like.... a day in his life, I guess.

His long, dusty life.

PRB Red House gang

<3 I love these guys, I swear.

Janey Morris

So I'm starting my new project... designing 8 illustrations based on the recorded information of events that happened at Red House. AHAHAHAHA I'M TERRIFIED.

Automaton or puppet...

Puppet... or automaton?

Puppet, and then automaton?


SSAkdnafnaf;afmakgnskm;

Websites, and terrifying new project. HERE WE GO.

Okay so all those stamp designs down there got made into lovely official rubber stamps for my darling Red House... allow me to wax lyrical about it again, since I adore the place.

We have a very exciting exhibition getting set up... one of Janey's prop dresses has come to us, a beautiful chair, some Philip Webb candlesticks... ah so much LOVELY. I can't wait for it to get all set up.

I'm also beginning 8 illustrations based on the wonderful stories of Red House, and I am very excited and also very SCARED about it. Drawing William, Janey, Dante, Lizzie, Ned, Georgie... the girls... in their youth, in Red House... arrgh! Keep your fingers crossed that I do them all the justice they deserve!

I'm also working on a NEW website, www.carlabull.com ... which is very exciting, since my old one was horrid. This one, I hope, will eventually be lovely and professional. Aha... don't look at it yet, its full of test paragraphs and rubbish.

BUT THIS POST ILLUSTRATES HOW MUCH IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW, OKAY? BYE.

Red House stamps

Just some rubber stamp thingys for a workshop for the oh so lovely Red House. Hard not to get inspired with all those Morris designs everywhere!

Red House stamps

Omen stuff

So I should likely be sorting together some final compositions for this proposed book since I technically have his CHARACTER CARVED ON THE INSIDE OF MY SKULL NOW.

Instead I want to make a side cranked automaton of him designed like one of those pay by silver fortune teller booths... Zoltar Speaks?

Mmm.... automatons, I need you in my life.

Thomas Kuntz kickass Automatons

I have entered into a world of delights with this, look at these works of absolute genius. Urrhgfhghfsz.

Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Automatons...

So, I've always had a bit of a 'thing' for shoddy funfairs. The air brushed Ghost Trains, although.. you rarely see nicely painted ones anymore. Gaudy stripes and bulbs, they are disconcertingly lively places. Pier amusement arcades, noises, flashing lights.

It also transfered into 'theme' parks, dark rides, anything theatrical and audio based. I am especially enchanted with animatronics, I guess it must be that sense of the 'uncanny'.

Yesterday I discovered the sheer ecstasy of delight that is the 'Automaton'. They are so captivating that I actually feel the most intense desire to research, and make one of these myself. Here are some of my absolute favourites.




Apparently her harp is only visible at the point of death.





I also discovered Arthur Rimbaud, who might be my new favourite figure. And I nobbled a bunch of fantastic books from Red House's second hand stash, THEY ARE SO SO BEAUTIFUL. But damn I need to draw so bad it pains me, this weekend coming... I must do some.

WHOO.

My workshop went really good! It seemed to go down really well, with both kids AND adults getting involved, much to my delight. We even had people come back the next day asking if it was still on! And they made some really beautiful cards too, it was lovely weather.


My job is amazing, so so amazing... but trying to fit in illustration work as well is the hardest thing, argh. I get in so exhausted, but... I am going to start trying to cram in drawing everywhere because... I'm rusting up, look at Earnshaw's stupid legs. Eeesh.

Work and secrets

WORK. Illuminated manuscript Easter card people, I'm trying to avoid MY way of working for these... which is difficult as I'm rather set in my ways. Edward Burne-Jones is helping me through it.



But also here is a sneaky bad omen, aaaahhhh... I have a book planned for him stiilll... I need to think about cutting off his ears and tail and giving him a fox friend or something, I dunno.