Saxon Bullock
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saxonbullock.bsky.social
Saxon Bullock
@saxonbullock.bsky.social
12 followers 66 following 33 posts
Writer, fiction editor, artist. Lives on a boat. Regular contributor to SFX magazine. Walk without rhythm, and you won’t attract the worm.
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saxonbullock.bsky.social
Just finished watching Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS. Absolute stone-cold classic, with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman on spectacular form. Claude Rains is the MVP, and ye gods, there are some Spielberg-level immaculately staged ‘oners’ in this that make it feel surprisingly modern.
April 29, 2025 at 9:04 AM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
RIP Val Kilmer. Once sat right next to him at a round-table press junket for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (in which he is fantastic) - he was very charming, and smelled *incredible*. Wish he’d got the chance to do comedy more often, as he was really good at it. youtu.be/QcI-2sTCvDY?...
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Harry Tosses Perry's Gun
YouTube video by quicksilvermad
youtu.be
April 2, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Reposted by Saxon Bullock
tommchenry.bsky.social
Posting GARY PANTER'S SKETCHBOOK TIPS to save a life -- the site that used to host these took em down years ago, and they are as useful a list about this kind of thing as you will ever find.

They are like a favorite dogeared paperback to me.
INTRODUCTION Get a book-size (or paperback-size)d sketchbook. Write your name and date on an early page and maybe think of a name for it — and if you want, write the book’s name there at the front. Make it into your little painful pal. The pain goes away slowly page by page. Fill it up and do another one. It can be hard to get started. Don’t flunk yourself before you get the ball rolling. You might want to draw more realistically or in perspective or so it looks slick — that’s is possible and there are tricks and procedures for drawing with more realism if you desire it. But drawing very realistically with great finesse can sometimes produce dead uninteresting drawings — relative, that is, to a drawing with heart and charm and effort but no great finesse. You can make all kinds of rules for your art making, but for starting in a sketchbook, you need to jump in and get over the intimidation part — by messing up a few pages, ripping them out if need be. Waste all the pages you want by drawing a tic-tac-toe schematic or something, painting them black, just doodle. Every drawing will make you a little better. Every little attempt is a step in the direction of drawing becoming a part of your life. TIPS 1. Quickly subdivide a page into a bunch of boxes by drawing a set of generally equidistant vertical lines, then a set of horizontal lines so that you have between 6 and 12 boxes or so on the page. In each box, in turn, in the simplest way possible, name every object you can think of and draw each thing in a box, not repeating. If it is fun, keep doing this on following pages until you get tired or can’t think of more nouns. Now you see that you have some kind of ability to typify the objects in your world and that in some sense you can draw anything. 2. Choose one of the objects that came to mind that you drew and devote one page to drawing that object with your eyes closed, starting at the “nose” of the object (in outline or silhouette might be good) and following the contour you see in your mind’s eye, describing to yourself in minute detail what you know about the object. You can use your free hand to keep track of the edge of the paper and ideally your starting point so that you can work your way back to the designated nose. Don’t worry about proportion or good drawing this is all about memory and moving your hand to find the shapes you are remembering. The drawing will be a mess, but if you take your time, you will see that you know a lot more about the object than you thought. 3. Trace some drawings you like to see better what the artist’s pencil or pen is doing. Tracing helps you observe closer. Copy art you like — it can’t hurt. 4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you. 4. Most people (even your favorite artists) don’t like their drawings as much as they want to. Why? Because it is easy to imagine something better. This is only ambition, which is not a bad thing — but if you can accept what you are doing, of course you will progress quicker to a more satisfying level and also accidentally make perfectly charming drawings even if they embarrass you. 5. Draw a bunch more boxes and walk down a sidewalk or two documenting where the cracks and gum and splotches and leaves and mowed grass bits are on the square. Do a bunch of those. That is how nature arranges and composes stuff. Remember these ideas — they are in your sketchbook. 6. Sit somewhere and draw fast little drawings of people who are far away enough that you can only see the big simple shapes of their coats and bags and arms and hats and feet. Draw a lot of them. People are alike yet not — reduce them to simple and achievable shapes. 7. To get better with figure drawing, get someone to pose — or use photos — and do slow drawing of hands, feet, elbows, knees, and ankles. Drawing all the bones in a skeleton is also good, because it will help you see how the bones in the arms and legs cross each other and affect the arms’ and legs’ exterior shapes. When you draw a head from the side make sure you indicate enough room behind the ears for the brain case. 8. Do line drawings looking for the big shapes, and tonal drawing observing the light situation of your subject — that is, where the light is coming from and where it makes shapes in shade on the form, and where light reflects back onto the dark areas sometimes. 9. To draw the scene in front of you, choose the middle thing in your drawing and put it in the middle of your page — then add on to the drawing from the center of the page out. 10. Don’t worry about a style. It will creep up on you and eventually you will have to undo it in order to go further. Be like a river and accept everything.
March 19, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Saxon Bullock
pixelatedboat.bsky.social
Every time I read The Great Gatsby, the final paragraph brings me to tears. Breathtakingly powerful writing:
"I'm alive!" said Gatsby, roaring past on a speedboat. He'd faked his own death and gotten away with everything. That's why they called him the Great Gatsby. "Out of the way, current!" he yelled at the water. "This speedboat is bearing me ceaselessly into the future!"
March 17, 2025 at 5:39 AM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
Heading back to London tomorrow for the first time in *years*, to spend an afternoon trying to network as ferociously as possible at the London Book Fair. I'll be the beardy guy dashing from place to place while trying to talk to EVERYONE. :-)
March 11, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Saxon Bullock
comixbychloe.bsky.social
God I adore McGinnis
sotocolor.bsky.social Chris Sotomayor 🇵🇷 @sotocolor.bsky.social · Feb 5
Robert McGinnis turned 99 years old a couple of days ago. A living legend and huge artistic influence for many in comics.
February 6, 2025 at 8:41 PM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
So, the ‘Netflix cancels The Sandman because of the horrible Gaiman stuff’ isn’t quite as cut-and-dried as it appears. Yes, it’s easy to interpret things that way, and no, there’s no way in hell it would ever have gotten another season if this all had come out in, say, 2022… 1/
February 1, 2025 at 9:54 AM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
Just had a go at doing some gesture drawing practice, using the lessons from the fantastic Foundations of Drawing book by @marcobucci and YE GODS I THINK I MIGHT FINALLY UNDERSTAND GESTURE DRAWING. Or at least, I’m getting it way more than I was. #drawing #pencildrawing #art #gesturedrawing
January 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
Without downloading any new pics, what’s your energy going into 2025?
It’s Willem Dafoe. He’s a big scary beardy man, his hair is wild, his eyes are staring, and he’s very, VERY mad about something. Also he’s in black and white and his lighting contrast is extreme. (It’s a still from THE LIGHTHOUSE).
December 31, 2024 at 2:26 PM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
Currently watching a Ricky Jay card-magic TV special from the 1990s - first time seeing him do magic, and I understand his legendary reputation now, because the guy was a goddamn warlock: archive.org/details/rick...
Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants [1996] - RF Rip : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
NOTE: DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE COMPRESSED MP4 THAT ARCHIVE.ORG AUTO-GENERATES. This is an RF rip of Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, to date the greatest card...
archive.org
December 23, 2024 at 11:31 AM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
HELLO BLUESKY! (*Yells at sky*).
November 14, 2024 at 12:42 PM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
Gracious. Had some likes and even a follow from a small handful of art posts I did a couple of days ago. Bluesky really does feel like a completely different planet.
November 14, 2024 at 12:41 PM
saxonbullock.bsky.social
I’m currently having a go at teaching myself to draw, so here’s an ongoing thread where I’ll be putting a selection of my sketches and drawing up. I’m honestly having a great time with this, and it‘ll be nice to see where this takes me. #art #drawing #sketching 🧵
November 11, 2024 at 10:29 PM