Things about space that you probably didn’t need to know

Hello!

Hope you are well and having a great new year!

As many of you know I get a little bit excited and giddy when I start blabbing about space, I usually get the space bug periodicity around the winter months when the skies are darker and there’s less daylight hours. Anyways I thought I’d make a few pictures about some of the wee bits I’ve learned so far about space and astronomy.

I hope you find them insightful!

Extra fact! The north star’s real name is ‘Polaris’.

Extra fact! In 5 million years our own sun will become a nebula, I am gutted I won’t be around to see it.

Extra fact! From a distance binary stars just look like normal stars, it’s not until you peer through a telescope you can see that it’s actually 2 stars really close together.

Fascinating!

Well I hope you enjoyed my post, as always any feedback is more than welcome!

Take care!

nx

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Reviewing my Shopping Spree Books.

Hello!

I’ve missed you! I hope you had a great Christmas and a fab New year if you’re reading this in the future.

As most people do during the Christmas season, I tend to buy just as many presents for myself. So after I got some extra pennies from commissions and sales etc I thought I’d go on a mad Amazon book buying spree! Some books were educated decisions, some I just bought because the covers tickled me and others I bought because I just thought they looked up my street.

And now I’m going to review them before your very eyeses! I realize they might not all be everyone’s cup of tea but you never know! You might read through this and find a new favourite artist or author.

Ok Let’s GO!

Robot… by S.Lem, illustrated by A.Klimoski and D.Schejbal.

Who remembers this google doodle? It was my fav.

This was made to mark the 60th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem’s first book.  Lem was one of the worlds best Sci-fi writers and I’ve been trying to read more of his stuff as well as Asimov’s.

So as an avid robot fan I thought I’d start here.

This wee gem is a graphic novel with 2 adaptations of Lem’s short stories ‘Uranium Earpieces’ and ‘The Sanatorium of Dr.Vliperdius’. What I found upon reading through this was it was far more surrealist than I expected. The stories take place in their own strange universes and deal with some heavy subjects like slavery, revolution and communism. But that shouldn’t put people off as it’s all presented on a fairly innocent level almost like a slightly alternative children’s book. Although don’t read it to your kids as there’s a nudey woman in the second story.

There’s also a lot to be said about the art, I think the simple blockyness lends itself to a distopian feel and reminds me of early surrealist films like Metropolis. So yea, if you into classic sci-fi, robots and/or indie comics this is a good wee read (it’s not as heavy as I’ve made it out to be) and a great introduction to Lem’s work.

Ok next I’ve got I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen.

This is one of the books I bought because the cover tickled me, I mean c’mon look at his face! That’s a bear on a mission!

As far as kids books go this was an absolute delight. As you can guess it follows a bear on a quest to get his hat back. He asks tons of animals, even a tortoise! And that swung it for me.

The art is this is very much adorable and the story is short and perfect. It’s also great to read along with kids as there’s plenty of opportunities to go ‘What animal is that?’ or ‘Can you spot the hat?’  or you can just read it by yourself and have a giggle like I did. An ace addition to your picture book collection!

And while we’re on picture books let’s look at Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers my favourite illustrator.

Oliver’s 7th book is a squeal to the penguin based heart warmer Lost and Found. In this one the penguin decides he wants to learn to fly so goes to amazing lengths to fulfill his dreams.

My awful photography doesn’t at all do the artwork justice. It’s very beautiful and at the same time simple and in my honest opinion the book would still work with the pictures alone. But that’s my beef, I’m not a huge fan of this story. Although it’s a great book I can’t help but compare it to it’s predecessors which feel far more unique and entertaining. I’d say if you’re a big Oliver Jeffers fan sure go for it but in my opinion although the artwork is stunning the story doesn’t match up to Lost and Found, The Incredible Book Eating Boy or my favourite The Way Back Home.

Ok let’s do one more and I’ll let you get on with stuff.

Here’s AMAZING EVERYTHING the art of ScottC.

I came upon ScottC through his Tumblr ‘Great Showdowns’  which is basically a blog full of cartoon adaptations of some the greatest good vs evil struggles in all history. And from that I decided to get his book which catalogs tons of his drawings, paintings, doodles and whacky inventions!

The art in this is very funny,very cute and very accessible, which is something I strive for myself. Being an art book it’s not really a ‘read start to finish’ affair, it’s more of a ‘flick through it now and again for a laugh’ kinda thing. So it serves as a great coffee table book, there for your friends and visitors to flick through while your making the tea. Or if you’re creative it serves as a great source of inspiration and motivation as ScottC’s simple style just makes you want to get up and colour something in!

Look there’s Morrissey, he’s dropped his tea bless him.

Right! That’s all from me today, I hope you found my post in some way interesting or useful. I’ll be back in the new year with toooons of new drawings and painting and silly stuff.

Remember I’ve still got some ‘How to be a Ghost’ books for sale here and you can read my last book review post here.

Thanks for reading take care!

nx

Birthday Blog Competition Winners!

Hello! Hope everyone’s well!

I am excited to announce that I had a great reception from this weeks birthday blog competition and had lots of beautiful entries to choose from.

unfortunately as much as I wanted to I don’t have enough stuff to give away to make everyone a winner BUT because I was so torn in choosing winners I have introduced two 3rd places, and all the runners-up will receive mars bars in the post.

Ok let’s get on to the winners! You want to play this while we do this.

Right in 3rd place is Isaac Lochhead, whom to my understanding is a budding young artist from the Glasgow/Paisley area.

Isaac adds “Happy Birthday Neil Slorance’s Blog!Hope you have a spectacular blogiful time,and you keep up the great drawings!”.

Thank you very much Isaac!(can I call you Ike?) I am extremely fond of this, especially the detail in my moustache and what looks to me like a drunk tortoise, your mars bar and print are on their way!

Also in 3rd place is Erin Kelly, also from the Paisley area.

As you can see Erin’s description is handily inside the picture! It’s clear to see this must’ve took ages to colour in and as some may know I’m a big fan of all things spacey and tortoise related so I could’nt not make Erin a winner.

Well done Erin! Your art and confectionary are on their way to you!

Ok moving on, in 2nd place is Rachael Gillies. Rachael’s entry is actually drawn onto an envelope!

Rachael adds;

Me and my best friend no longer live in the same part of the country so each week I write her a letter and draw her an envelope. Thought I’d send you my favourite one.

a) post is cool and is becoming an endangered species… we’re starting a postal revolution.

b) it’s nice to make your best buddy smile and this is one of the ways I can… a doodle from the heart!

If you’ve never drawn on an envelope before you should try it, it’s a lot of fun. And just think the postyman also gets a lovely surprise on his round. Always good because what if he has just been bitten by next door’s dog or had a Bridget Jones puddle moment.

I couldn’t help but find this entry utterly heart warming and as some of you may know from last years blog birthday, I’m a huge fan of keeping things in writing and using snail mail.

Well done Rachael, the colours are beautiful! Your prizes are on their way.

 Ok guys it’s the big one! brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm(that’s a drum roll btw) In 1rst place is Aldriana Amir!

 

 I have to say this picture just stunned me, it has everything I could ever want in a picture ever. Robots, penguins, a tortoise, a ghost, a Diplodocus, Spider-man AND a huge cake! But it’s not all about content, I really liked the simple approach that was taken as well as the bright and inviting colours and also the expressions and poses of all the characters.

 A very big well done Aldriana! Your prizes are on they’re way, congratulations :)

 Well weren’t they all fantastic? You all deserve a big pat on the back!

 Now then, let’s have a look some of the runners-up, This entry comes from Katy Penman of Girl Industries.

 

Katy adds ‘It’s called Goodnight and while it has little artistic merit, it has a lot of meaning.  When we say goodnight to our baby Amelia at nighttime, we always point out the star stickers on her ceiling and walls and count some of them, and try to look for the moon and planets hiding amongst the stars, and once she’s a little bit bigger, we’re going to start making up stories about the wonderful creatures who live in the stars, too.’

I was a huge fan of the picture’s back story, Katy your Mars bar is en route.

Next is a drawing from Morven McAlister

 

 I very much enjoyed the use of colour here, especially on the rainbow style brush stroke, I also love the use of ‘like a pro’

 Well done Morv!

 Ok last but least is an entry from Campbell Miller.

Thank you for your square pig Campbell.

 Well that’s it for another year! I hope you all enjoyed taking part, a very well done to everyone! It was a total pleasure hosting this competition and I have to say it was super hard choosing the winners.

 Here’s to another year of blogging!

 Take care

 nx

Some doodles for today.

Hello hi!

I hope you’re all doing well! Im just going to leave a couple of doodles here I hope you don’t mind. They’re not related or anything, just some random bits and bobs I thought I’d pop up for your amusement!

Well that’s it for today, I’ll be back with more next week! In the meantime if you get a minute please check out my etsy shop as I’ve put up some drawings for sale :)

Take care!

nx

Picking up the brush again

I have a new painting to show off, and no it’s not a little sketch or a glorified doodle it’s an actual painting which took me a good week (on and off) to finish!

To be honest, I’d love to blab for ages and ages about what it represents and how it has a deep philosophical meaning but the truth is I just wanted to paint and this is what came out.

Beforehand I was flicking through some of my old books and found a doodle of a robot sitting at a bar and I thought to myself ‘I’d really like to paint that’ so I went ahead just for fun of painting something.

Having that said, it might actually be a sneak preview of some of the stuff that’ll be going into the next exhibition :p

nx

My Nice Weekend

Hello! how are you?

I’m afraid I don’t have any work to show today,or at least none worth showing but I had quite a big urge to update the blog so if you don’t want to know about my personal life look away now!

As most of you know I play in a band and one of my favourite parts of band life is getting to travel. So this week we were in Northern Ireland, which was totally brilliant! We met some really lovely people, saw some really cool places and basically just had a really good time, it felt really more like a holiday than a tour.

Anyhoo I’m not to great with photos but I did take one, It’s from when we went to the beach beside my friend Pauls house.

But as good as beaches, beer and gigs are, one of my highlights would be visiting Belfast’s massive forbidden planet comic shop! Yup it was 2 floors of sheer comic heaven, I even bought myself a ninja turtle to add to my toy collection.

He’s a limited edition Raphael designed by Artist  Geoffrey Trapp to mark the 25th anniversary of the ninja turtles. Score!

On a totally unreleated note, last month I met a giant tortoise, He was super cool and I felt like we made a connection.

Ok I promise I’ll have more interesting stuff to show next time, as much as you all probably love hearing me talk about my toys and favourite animals I’m sure my art is slightly more interesting, at least I hope so!

take care!

nx

5 Artists You Should Know About

Hello! hope you’re all well, this week I’ve been mainly blasting through some big paintings and commissions as well as other bits and bobs, unfortunately some of the commissions are confidential and I’ve yet to finish any of my personal paintings so I don’t have anything to show. But that doesn’t stop me from showing you some of my current favourite artists!

1.Amy Sol

Just now, I’m totally in love with how delicate her painting style is, and also how beautiful her muted pallet is, more about her here.

2. Tara Mcpherson

As some of you may know, I’ve been a huge fan of Taras work for a long time now, what I like most is her characters and the amount of detail that goes into her work, always inspiring. more about Tara here.

3. Ekundayo

Although primarily a street artist, I cant help but be amazed at Ekundayos acrylic work, seeing his work made me take the medium a lot more seriously, more about him here.

4.Noferin

When I first came across Noferin I was immediately drawn to the cute characters and the little stories behind them, noferins work is often refered to as ‘the greatest children’s story never told’ I am fortunate to own a print and limited edition toy of theirs :) more about noferin here.

5. Jeff Soto

I’ve always loved Jeff style and how he constantly pushes his medium to its limits, his robots and surreal style have very much inspired me, more about Jeff here.

Well that’s It for now, thanks for reading! and if you know of any cool artists I might like please let me know!

take care

nx

Edinburgh Adventures

Hello everyone!

Just a wee update about my day today, It was mostly spent in Edinburgh in the Roxy Art House, there I set up shop for the day along with 20 something other designers and crafty types, basically my kind of people.

I took a wee picture of my stall mid set-up, I really need anew camera :/

It was a very lovely way to spent a saturday actually, I got talking to a lot of people about my stuff and even sold some bits and bobs.  I think for me though, I got the most out of talking with the other designers, especially the other illustrators, I don’t often get the chance to talk to like-minded people in person so for me that side of things was priceless.

But that’s not it! On my way home I decided to pop in to Edinburgh’s massive(compared to Glasgow’s) forbidden planet, where I almost exploded with excitement at the site of the thousands of comics and geeky memorabilia. It was in this nerd haven I found something very special, something I never dreamed of seeing with my own eyes, Chris Wares ‘Acme Novelty Library’. So without a second thought I nabbed it, and here it is.

Yes, as I previously said, I do need a new camera but you can clearly see it’s set apart from most comic books, first of all, it’s huge, secondly it has gold details that go round the spine. And on opening the book I was nothing short of amazed.

The amount of work and details that’s gone into the book is almost sickening,  to the point I almost want to give up. I just can’t get my head around how one man can do all this, from the delecate typography to the weaving story lines and amazingly technical drawings and perfet colouring, It’s almost beyond reason.

Well I guess on the plus side It’s always good to have something to aim for!

Sorry about my blabbing I got a bit carried away :P
nx

Time to Grow Up?

During the course of my day I’m usually confronted with some kind of remark against my life choices, this can be anything from ‘why don’t you get a real job?’ to ‘why does someone your age have so many toys?’ and even earlier today I was getting a slagging from the ladies at the post office for my messy handwriting.

Anyways I’m not going to get a ‘proper’ job or learn how to write anytime soon, and I love my robot collection so if you don’t like it go stuff yourself :P

nx

Right, enough about me.

As you may know, every now again between all my blabbing, doodles and adventures, I like to talk about other artists and Illustrators I like.

Well Today I’d like to talk about Gemma Correll, who I discovered by picking up one of her amazing zines from my favourite shop The Maisonette.

now usually in this case I’d go on about how much I love/am inspired by her work, but handily I found a comic by her which completely summed up all of my feelings :)

For more about Gemma and her amazing work please check out her site :)

take care!

nx