John Swanson

Urban sketching, life drawing, story illustration, and whatever else comes my way.

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

On the 9th of April, the beloved leader issued an Executive Order ending restrictions on waterflow through showers. He said this was so he could wet his beautiful hair in under 15 minutes.
#trump
#TrumpShowers

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

@EHMarbleHill Hello Marble Hill. There's a dead fox in the park, stinking quite badly. It's in the bottom left corner (looking towards the river) above the lower path.
Unfortunately, my dog thinks it smells lovely.

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

A new drawing.
#Trump #putin #gaza #Ukraine

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

@DAaronovitch Hilarious that economics is the 'best', by a wide margin. Who did thus analysis?

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

Spring is coming. Richmond riverside, lunchtime.
Dip pen ink and watercolour.
#Richmond
#richmondriverside
#thethames
#thames
#urbansketcherslondon

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

@swansonian I'm reading it now, for the first time. I thought I was enjoying it, but now you've made me doubtful. Still, 400 pages down and only 100 to go. May as well persevere.

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

@presentcorrect @desdelboy That's something the designers of social media software understand, but I'm not sure the result is universal happiness.

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

@StuartMaconie I'm impressed you are still using Wainwright's books. Last time is was in a YH in the lakes with my battered copies I was looked on as if from another age!

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

The American singer-songwriter Jim White writes many songs telling stories, and in 'Objects in Motion' he tells how he 'found a suitcase full of love letters floating down a cool brown river. Unsigned and undelivered.'
#JimWhite #illustrationasart #illustratingStories #americana

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

3rd pic for Cormac McCarthy's novel Outer Dark. As Rinthy Holme wanders the country she passes 'rows of new corn putting up handhigh through the gray loam ... If crows had not risen from a field she might never have looked ... to see two hanged men in a tree like gross chimes.'

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

In one scene they appear at night and steal farming implements from a farm where Culla has found work.
#bookillustration
#cormacmccarthy #outerdark

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

2nd illustration based on Cormac McCarthy's nightmarish novel, Outer Dark. Culla and Rinthy each go their own separate way across the land, by foot. Three devilish figures, never fully explained, follow Culla, bringing murderous havoc in his wake.
#cormacmccarthy

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

watching him with bland gray eyes.
Sickness here, he called. Got sickness.
The tinker halted and lowered the shafts to the ground ... What kind? he said.'
Here's the scene, drawn with charcoal pencil.
#cormacmccarthy #outerdark #americangothic #illustration #bookillustration

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

Cormac McCarthy's nightmarish novel, Outer Dark is a grim tale about brother and sister, Culla and Rinthy Holme, who live in remote, rarely visited country. It begins with Rinthy going into labour with, as becomes clear, an incestuously conceived baby.

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

A tinker arrives, pulling his cart of goods & Culla rushes out to send him away.
'When the tinker came rattling his cart in drunken charivari through the clearing he was there with wild arms like one fending back a curse. The tinker looked up, a small gnomic figure ...

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

Saturday afternoon drinkers outside the Princes Head pub in Richmond. The pub appears as the Crown and Anchor in Ted Lasso, and is a big attraction for tourists taking selfies.
Drawn with ink, pen and brush.
#Richmond #PrincesHead #TedLasso

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

This boat was moored near Richmond Lock a couple of weeks ago. It had a huge mast and sails still furled. Looked like it was being got ready for filming.
#Richmond #RichmonduponThames #thames

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

Richmond riverside on a sunny summer's day. Draw with a mysterious ink called Doomesday, made using a medieval recipe. It smells of cloves and red wine.
#Richmond #RichmonduponThames #Thames

[John Swanson @jyswanson]

Richmond Artist of the Year competition was held today, in Marble Hill Park, very near where I live. This was my entry. I'm not artist of the year, or even shortlisted, but it was fun, on a hot day that ended with a huge thunderstorm.
#ArtsRichmond #MarbleHill #englishheritage

[Classic FM @ClassicFM]

The coronation classic that everyone is talking about... 👑

Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’ in a supermarket flashmob.