|  8
p.m.
A day writing: now I'm desperate to draw!
'Shall we catch up on a video?' asks Barbara.
'No, I'd rather draw.'
Even this little stack of sketchbook, letter, paperback and glasses case
on the coffee table seems to be saying 'Draw me! Draw me! Draw me!'
 New
Neighbour
The baby wool is out again. It's a neighbour's baby that has inspired
Barbara to take up her needles again after many years.
We heard them setting off at 11.30 last night and our new neighbour -
Alice - was born at 1.30 a.m..
The Golden Egg
 After
creating a pen and sketchbook in Vue 3 yesterday I found I had
an urge today to create a plate of egg and chips in the program. The plate,
consisting of a highly squashed cylinder and an equally squashed torus
(donut shape) is easy enough, as are the slightly too symmetrical eggs
(Vue provides an eggshell finish as one of its rendering options)
but when it comes to the fried egg I'm struggling: the best colour/texture
I can find for the yolk is pure gold.
Squashing and stretching a couple of spheres has given the egg a rather
regular shape. I'm not familiar with the modelling potential of Vue
yet so perhaps there's a way around this.
I remember that Bryce 3D, which, like Vue, I found on
a cover CD, had more potential for modelling, a greater range of textures
and the possibility of creating your own textures. It's still on my computer
so I start it up and in a few minutes create this pebble. I like that
sandstone banding.
I found Bryce complex when I first tackled it but, having got
familiar with Vue, which I think is a friendlier program for
a beginner, I feel ready to have another go at Bryce.
November's 3D World (which, paradoxically came out in mid-September)
includes a full modelling program Amapi 3D 6 on the cover. Perhaps
I'll be able to cook up the perfect fried egg in that program.
'Think of landscape-creation packages,' says Mat Bromfield
in a review of WorldBuilder Pro 4 in 3D World, 'and
you think of a continuum from real-world accuracy to artistic accessibility,
with World Construction Set at the near end of the scale, Bryce
and MojoWorld at the far end, and Vue and World
Builder somewhere in the middle.'
'Bryce and MojoWorld are much more immediate, inviting
you to start creating fantastical scenes instantly. However you wouldn't
want to use either of them when you're planning how close to a cliff to
build your house . . . '
Sounds like I'll enjoy Bryce.
Awakefield Diary
 I've
mentioned John Welding's Awakefield Diary before.
I met John at the weekend at the Readers' Festival in Wakefield and did
a trade with him (I came off best from the deal) of my latest Sushi
Sketchbook for his three latest Diaries.
While I was writing today I read these three latest installments during
my tea breaks; it's great to have such a swathe of strips to read through,
to get immersed in the rhythms of the story. The drawings have a strong
graphic quality, like energized woodcuts, which John is quite puritanical
about maintaining; he'll agonise over which pen to use and cycle ten miles
to stock up on his favourite calligraphy pen but there are a few glimpses
into the darker recesses of his psyche with an unintentionally devilish
self portrait and a migraine-inspired gothic view from the bathroom floor.
It's a tough life being an artist/journalist.
A favourite page for me is his bird's eye view in issue 3 of the coal
yard where his house is situated. As I've probably said before, the house
could have come from the pages of a Raymond Briggs story.
Barbara and I make a brief cameo appearance, blink and you'll miss us,
at the start of issue 4 but you won't miss me later in this issue. Do
I really look like that in shorts?!
John doesn't draw like Curt Swan (the Superman artist) and when
it comes to my legs he doesn't need to.
It's probably absorbing John's everyday scenes that made me so keen to
draw this evening. 
Related Link
John Welding
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
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