Have you been out today?

John Purcell Paper A5(ish) sketchbook number 3, begun 25th July 2001

A race to the end of this one. Very little of any worth in these spreads. Think I must have become dispirited by it all as there are a few unused pages after these ones. Then I must have abandoned this book and started a new one. Hope there's better stuff in there (haven't looked to check yet.
















Ah ... those notes on different types of gladiators (Thracians and Murmillos and the like) date this spread as early 2002, I think, when I was doing some tryout pieces for a fortnightly magazine based on the Horrible Histories books. Nick Abadzis was working as an editor on the title and suggested I get involved. Despite my producing what I recall being a really rather iffy audition piece, the mag provided the bulk of the work I did over roughly the next four years and meant that, for a while there, I had something faintly resembling a proper career in illustration.








Click for bigger, if, you know, that's what you want.

Blimey. Has it really been more than two months. That's very bad.