yurt doodler

[yurtdoodler]

Only one more day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2014 left! I was based outside in the public area, but I was press-ganged/ given a Yurt guest pass by the wonderful Stuart Kelly.

Most of the time I used my sketchbook, but here are some of this year's Yurt acetate sheet doodles, which I made whenever sitting in one particular corner.

My glamorous assistant is holding them up to the light to let you see the separate layers. Together the acetates form a time-lapse window of Yurt life, where I sat still and the authors kept changing. 

Recognise anyone..?

[yurtdoodler]

August 2014

Now engaged in Top Seekrit Project!

So, I'm afraid that my Yurt Doodling at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2014 may be minimal this year. I know, I know, it's shocking.

If you want to hear what I was up to last month, head over to www.filterfeeders.org.uk for a listen to the various augmented soundscapes and locative literature from the project 'Filter Feeders' on The Meadows. Or take a break from Charlotte Square and head across to the real life Meadows, and roam free among the trees to track down each of the Filter Feeders QR codes with yer phone to listen in the fresh air. Or rain. 

If you're interested in seeing the whole collection of EIBF Yurt Doodler 2012 and 2013 sketches and portraits, they are being archived, along with my Edinburgh Writer Sketcher activity from West Port Book Festival 2012, Blackwells, Waterstones and The Edinburgh Bookshop launches, because an art exhibition of writers is on the incoming breeze. And yes, I give in, there will be a tiny bit of EIBF 2014 Yurt Doodler artwork in there too. x

[yurtdoodler]

And so to the warm innards of an Edinburgh bookshop, armed with my pencils and ready for a very interesting book launch. I've attached one of the sketches here.

Appearing at Pulp Fiction tonight was Cory Doctorow, newly escaped from a fog-bound London, and ready to talk surveillance. Charles Stross was also on hand, taking time away from penning his latest novel in order to co-sign copies of his and Cory's joint venture 'The Rapture of the Nerds'. Talent spotters will also have noticed the infamous Ken MacLeod in the audience. 

Pulp Fiction also offers the best bookshop loo view of Edinburgh castle.

[yurtdoodler]

The final Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series of EIBF 2013 focused on social communication through images, looking at both overt and covert content.

[yurtdoodler]

[yurtdoodler]

This weekend is providing a rare treat: artists and illustrators outnumber wordsmiths at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The EIBF is providing two days of the Scottish graphic novel marketplace punctuated on Saturday night by artists doing their thing on stage alongside the storytellers at Illicit Ink's Jura Unbound, as well as the performances and epic workshops by illustrators during both days.

Last week our Jura Unbound night went well too, this time mixing words with music rather than with art. Six of us from Writers' Bloc read in and out of tracks from the brand new albums by Poppy Ackroyd and John Lemke, performing live on stage.

I'm see I'm going to have to post these doodles in reverse order.

If the world could just pause for 48 hours I could perhaps finish and post my EIBF 2013 doodles, get some sleep, and be ready to join in again with a good day's work in Charlotte Square tomorrow. What, no?

[yurtdoodler]

Sketching a crow can be harder than sketching fast-moving authors. 

[yurtdoodler]

On the shortest day of the year, this paint sketch of Edinburgh acro-performers is my winter solstice gifts to my readers. Thank you for following my doodles! xx

[yurtdoodler]

West Port Book Festival 2012

Final night! Global panel discussion on the future of book festivals, at Edinburgh University's cutting-edge multi-media venue Inspace, run by Mark Daniels.

[yurtdoodler]

West Port Book Festival 2012

The entrancing tales of Elaine di Rollo and Kirsty Logan at Lovecrumbs on West Port this evening. Selkies, mermaids, trenches and douchemen. With cake.

[yurtdoodler]

West Port Book Festival 2012

Unexpectedly historic Gaelic penis poetry with Peter MacKay this afternoon at Provenance Wines on Home Street.

[yurtdoodler]

West Port Book Festival 2012

Today's been awe-inspiring at the West Port Book Festival. Expect photos from literary paparazzo Chris Scott very soon. In the meantime, here's another #wpbf12 sketch from yesterday's opening night amid the bookshelves.

[yurtdoodler]

And the fifth West Port Book Festival is underway! 

I thought I was safely tucked away behind a low bookcase. I didn’t realise I’d been spotted by the infamous West Port Book Festival photographer Chris Scott...

This was a friendly nibbly opening party at Pulp Fiction, followed by 'Book Covers', the ECA collaboration with Main Point Books, then 'Take Tea with Turing' at Inspace, then Rally & Broad cabaret at the Cuckoo's Nest. Then bed.

Ignore the rain, WPBF will always warm you up.

[yurtdoodler]

Countdown to the fifth West Port Book Festival!

[yurtdoodler]

Waterstones book shop also hosts some pretty good evenings of authorly entertainment. This sketch was done at the launch of Elsewhere.

A few weeks later I was back at Waterstones for Hooky, the Joy Division bass player, and his new book Unknown Pleasures. Hooky kindly moved me into a prime seat, with the best sketching view of the stage. I’ll put those sketches up here next time.

[yurtdoodler]

Three of the authors from a September evening of readings at Blackwell's book shop. The scent of the rapidly approaching Bloody Scotland crime festival was in the air.

[yurtdoodler]

The final hours of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Strange Unbound things happen in the Spiegeltent after dark.

From today's doodles I've chosen:

David Walliams during his book signing marathon.

The Falkland veterans and military authors Tony Banks and Ian Gardiner discussing their experiences of the war in 1982, chaired by Angus Konstan. 

I particularly enjoy sketching a panel or pair of guests with a host because while one is animated and talking, the other is quietly listening, so if I only draw the one not talking, I can draw them more slowly and in more detail, and eventually have a pretty good portrait of each person on stage. It means my picture is not a snapshot of a moment in time, it is time travel. 

Appropriately, this was also the case for authors Chris Beckett and Ken MacLeod during the dystopian Sci Fi event chaired by Stuart Kelly, another excellent event which brought to a close the exhilarating 2012 EIBF programme. 

It rained, but it was a brilliant day.