The Brain Invasion of Dick Grayson

So I was doing some anatomy studies of the muscles in the male back -looking particularly at acrobats- and then one of them accidentally turned into Nightwing.  Don't you hate it when that happens!

I'm a comics fan (no surprises there) and although I'm talking about the medium at large, not just the superhero comics that everybody automatically thinks of, there is little spot in my heart for those too. And top of the list of those superheroes is one Nightwing, a.k.a. Dick Grayson.  He actually popped up in one of my first ever posts.  And now I've got him on the brain.

Who is this dude? Why do I like him? I doubt you care, but this is my blog so I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with it :)

Digging up old characters

When you've not drawn for a while sometimes it just builds up and gets the better of you, and you have a bit of a splurge.  Add those to the dozens of tiny doodles I produce on a weekly basis and it totals up to quite a large page of sketches.  

Some of it's just utter guff, but some of it's got potential - although you do realise some of your weaknesses too.  In this one I can see that I like deer at the moment, I'm not very interested in drawing legs, and why do all my figures seem to be facing left?

Also, spot the two counts of Fionna from 'Adventure Time'.  For those of you not in the know, she's the girl with the rabbit ear hat.  She's pretty cool.

Snow Day!

Every year, about this time, Brits wish for snow.  Well this year WE GOT IT.  It arrived mid-week, and by the weekend there was, in some places near us, a good foot of perfect untouched snow.  Magic.

The same old town: Thetford

It turns out my home town of Thetford in Norfolk is a bit more interesting than I gave it credit for.  That is if you like history, long stories, and unexpected tours from random strangers.  Which I do.

The Norman motte - Castle Hill

The day I went round the town it was raining (of course!  This is Britain!) but that's ok because it makes the cloudier photos come out all monochrome and grainy, which always looks a little classy.

The same old town: The Brecks

I always go home for Christmas.  I grew up in Norfolk, a pretty quiet county in East Anglia with a lot of great coastline, in a small town called Thetford.  For a lot of teenagers the place you grow up is the place you want to get out of.  It's the place where everybody knows you, remembers you when you were tiny and everything you've done since, and knows you as the child of your parents (which is not unreasonable, considering that they have been looking after you for your entire life so far).  In some cases you stay in your home town, you grow up, and eventually you find your niche there.  You carve out a place and make a life for yourself.

In other cases, you leave, and do your growing up somewhere else, but then you come back.  It's one of the trademarks of almost every questing myth that at the end the traveller returns home.  Often it's up for debate whether it's the place that's changed, or whether it's the person...

Canada Geese flying in formation across the Brecks

What I'm driving at is that when I came home this year I began noticing things that had always been there, but that somehow I'd never seen before.  It’s been a bit rainy, but that never stands in the way of exploration!  So here’s a whistle-stop tour of the place where I grew up, starting with the land it sits on.

Bath, Bands and Baking

The run-up to Christmas is a busy time, even if you're like me and try to avoid as much of the hype as humanly possible.  And then of course there's the recovery period, which takes at least as long!  So here's a quick update of what's been happening since I saw you last: