Orifice Box Sketch (with Teeth)

As some of you may know, I've been working on a series of wooden box sculptures that feature carved orifices. This sketch, from my pocket sketchbook, shows an idea that I've had for a possible future orifice box sculpture - one that has teeth.

Mini Skull Scribble

Ever since I was a small child I've been drawing skulls and skeletons, and I've still not tired of it. Considering have varied human faces are I shouldn't really be surprised at how much one human skull can vary in appearance from another – but it still amazes me. If I see someone with a really interesting face I often wonder what their skull looks like underneath all the skin and muscle.

I made this little drawing in my pocket-sketchbook whilst sitting on a train. At the time I was in a drawing mood but didn't really have any strong ideas that I wanted to put down on paper, so I fell back on old faithful, and started scribbling away until a skull shape started to appear. Very relaxing!

It also features as one of my Inktober drawings on my Twitter page.

Reptilian Automatic Drawing

  

It's sometimes odd what comes out when you decide to draw but don't really have any idea of what you want to draw. The hand moves, marks are made on the page, and the brain quickly interprets what it thinks it sees developing and goes with it.

New Orifice Box Ideas

I've just realised that I've not posted anything on this blog since June - shame on me! I must try harder (something that always seemed to appear in the school reports, I seem to remember) in future.

Here's two quick drawings from my pocket sketchbook. They're ideas for a couple new Orifice Box sculptures that I plan to make at some point in the near future.

This first one will be a variation on my Horned God Orifice Box, but with real horns, not twigs. I found a bag of polished horns in a charity shop and am looking forward to using them in a few sculptures.

And this tall version of one of my Orifice Box sculptures came about just because I found a set of casters on long poles, that were being thrown out at the V&A Museum (where I work), and I thought that proportionally, a long-legged Orifice Box would just look plain daft. So I'll have to make it.

Ollie Bennett Secret Cards Revealed

Now that the 2013 Ollie Bennett Secret Cards sale is over I can reveal my entries. Here are the six cards that I created for the show.

This year's entries are all painted in acrylic and based upon details of my large painting, Death by Twister, which was originally created for a FOAD (a rather raucous art collective that I was involved with back in the noughties) exhibition called 'By Misadventure'.

RCA Secret 2013

Darn, it looks like I've definitely been neglecting my poor little doodle blog lately. Never mind - daddy's back now! 

Okay - lets post a few pictures.  
 

These two postcard-sized drawings are two thirds of my submissions to this year's RCA Secret at the Royal College of Art's swanky new building in Battersea, London. This curved skull tower one is adapted from an earlier sketch that I made for a sculpture that I'm planning to start, once I've moved and settled into my new studio, later this month. I'll post an image of the original drawing (and a follow-up painting) later on, and something about how I came by the skull that I'll be using in the eventual sculpture. 
 

I don't really have much to say about this second RCA Secret card apart from that I got the idea for it after coming across a photocopy of a drawing that I made years ago, at a trippy in-door festival-type event that took place in the arches under London Bridge. 

And this is the photocopy. 

Okay – I know that this isn't a drawing but it's the third 'postcard' that I exhibited in this year's RCA Secret show so I thought that I'd show it to you.