In putting together a header, obviously the aim is to create an image that pretty much sums up everything on the site. Since my blog is self-evidently unfocused, this is a little tricky. So instead I attempted to draw chaos.

Here is the preliminary pencil sketch of the drawing I hope to use for my header image.

If I can figure out how to do it, I’ll have the tree pop up so it grows up next to the blog title, with everything else underneath where the default photo is right now. I had to include a tree in the image somewhere, because trees are sort of my fall back drawing: when I can’t think of anything else to draw, I end up drawing trees. Oddly enough, I still have a great deal of trouble drawing leaves, probably because I usually get bored by the time I get around to drawing the leaves and end up just calling it winter.

There’s an astronaut because when I originally started thinking about a header image my blog was still Living in Space, and after I moved over here, I decided I still liked the astronaut. It’s also sort of nostalgic, in that I always used to draw little space cadets jumping from planet to planet: People called me an airhead and I called myself a space cadet in self defense. It’s got a sword instead of a ray-gun because I’ve been a fencer for almost half my life. The robot is just there because robots are cool.

The octopus is there because I am weirdly fascinated by all ocean creatures, which is NOT why the whale is there. The whale is in fact a sand-whale, probably inspired by Beetlejuice, which has haunted my dreams. Sand-whales burrow down in the wet sand where the waves have just receded, and eat the toes of the unwary. Obviously. Anyway.

I’m having issues with the griffin: primarily that it doesn’t look anything at all like a griffin yet, but I think I’ll sort that out. Ditto with the faeries. I may add in a cat somewhere just because, you know, kitties, but we’ll see how it looks.

Regardless of whether the image actually makes any sense (and I know it doesn’t) I think it pretty well fits the way my brain works, and therefor should pretty well fit the general tone of this blog. Next step is to actually manage to finish inking it and get it all set up, in other words: follow through and actually complete a project, which, as I’m sure I’ll explain at some other time, is a whole different problem.

To see more of my drawings, check out my online gallery, or look at the sketches on my old blog, Living in Space.