Tree and Tree

Did a couple of tree drawings yesterday. Book tree! And the other you can see I turned into a new header for my blog.

I love trees.

Incineration!

Hello!

I'm sorry I know this isn't illustration related but I can't get the message across in a tweet!

Herts County Council and Veolia have planned a domestic, commercial and clinical waste incincerator to be placed in our little village! Boo!

It will be 41 meters high with 2 chimney stacks (100 meters high) on top! It will be seen for miles and miles around. It will be about half a mile from my flat, if that.
Incineration also contributes greatly to climate change and is the most expensive form of waste disposal. It also provides no incentive to recycle!

What really gets my goat:

- It will close down our central resources Library!!

- It will cost apparently millions to relocate the special needs school which is directly opposite the site and then move them back again to be right next to the incinerator. Fun, fumey times in the playground for them! :(

- It is being built on green belt land, which is also a home for various "protected" animal species. Not so protected now!

- There will be up to 458 'traffic movements' every day. Meaning that hundreds of 38+ tonne HGV's will be in and out of Hatfield and our small neibouring village all day every day!

Not fun.


Closing date for objections is Jan 31st and so far and (us being a very small community) we apparently only have around 400 registered objections. We need thousands to start to make a difference.

If you'd like to help us, please send your objection to newbarnfieldplanning@hertscc.gov.uk

Look! I'll even make it easy for you. If you like, just copy and paste this into your email and sign your name. Easy peasey lemon squeezy!

______

To whom it may concern,

I would like to register my wholehearted objection to planning application 6/2570-11 by Veolia environmental services to build an incinerator (RERF) at New Barnfield, South Hatfield/Welham Green.

I am especially upset by the negative effect it shall have on the surrounding area, such as the closing of New Barnfield Central Resources Library which is so valuable to our community and the loss of green belt land. It is green belt for a reason and it's reduction shall have a disasterous effect on local protected species. I am also very unhappy in regards to the increased levels of traffic it shall bring to our neibourhood. This will not only make our roads less safe, but will increase pollution, noise and congestion also.

I believe the incinerator itself is not the most effective method of waste disposal as it contributes to pollution and climate change, is very expensive to run and provides no incentive to recycle or to reduce levels of waste.

I truely hope that these issues are taken into consideration.

Yours


______

ok, rant over. If you get a mo to send an email I will be very thankful and.. erm.. make you cookies?

Thank you!

You're a wizard Harry... but so are these other guys!

If you know me, it's not big news that I love the Harry Potter books.

But I thought i'd just share with you a couple of other messy-haired, bespectacled boy wizards you may not know.

Tim Hunter

I'm a big Gaiman fan, but I haven't yet read any of The Books of Magic, a DC comic series originally released in 1990. It follows Timothy Hunter, a boy wizard with some rather strikingly similar physical features to the (at the time) unborn Harry, whose round glasses, messy hair and signature snowy owl is now recognised the world over.

Tim also attends a boarding school and has some traumatic childhood experiences including the death of his mother. But as far as I can tell (having not actually read it) that is where the similarities end.

There were a lot of rumors concerning Neil's feelings about the success of Harry, which appear to be fabricated (as nearly all rumors are). He responded with: "I wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school".
True that.

(Jon Foster's cover illustration-
scan from ImagineFX magazine, July '09)


Thanks Neil, that leads me on nicely to an even earlier 'Harry'.

Thomas

The Magic in the Mist is a wonderful children's book by Margaret Mary Kimmel. It was illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman in 1975 (who has an entry on my Friday Favourites page).

It tells the story of a young boy wizard who lives with a toad called Jeremy, in (a very Hagrid looking) hut, in the Welsh countryside. He is rather poor at magic but one day finds a dragon which changes everything.
As you can see, very strong connections to the future Harry in appearance! He even has a Gryffindor scarf on! Well perhaps not Gryffindor exactly.

(scan from The Magic in the Mist)


So, to conclude, black messy hair, round glasses and a stripey scarf = good look for boy wizards.
It's obviously the magical fashion.


Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Timothy Hunter, Tim Hunter, Books of Magic, Mary Kimmel, Trina Schart Hyman, Magic in the Mist, Illustration, Jon Foster, Owl, Glasses

Dragon Girl

Recently saw Fincher's Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and it was so amazing.
Even after reading the books and seeing all the previous films, it still felt fresh and very impressive. I am so inspired by Rooney Mara and her physical and mental dedication to this role, she really captured the more subtle parts of Lisbeth's character as well as going all out on the bolder aspects, such as all the piercings and hair shaving which she had done for real!

This film has been on my mind every day since I saw it.

So naturally, here's some sketches.




I saw the film with Chris, who loved it also, so naturally, here's some Lisbeth inspired work from him too:


You can watch the trailer HERE
IMDB

Lisbeth Salander, Girl with the dragon tattoo, David Fincher, Rooney Mara, Steig Larsson

Twitterings

Just to let you know, being a little bit of a twitter geek, I tend to stick bits & bobs on there, odd and ends sketch wise which aren't necessarily anything to particularly blog about.

Here's my twitpic account with said bits and bobs on :)

That is all x

Twitter, twitpic