{"id":568,"date":"2004-04-09T12:17:29","date_gmt":"2004-04-09T12:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=568"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:58","slug":"back-to-the-drawing-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/back-to-the-drawing-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Drawing Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or There\u2019s No Place Like Home<\/h4>\n

Time has taken wing in a big way and suddenly a full month has flown\u2026
\nApologies for that, I had entertained illusions of actually keeping up a newsletter and deadlines, but the muse flew the coop along with the rest.
\nBut, I\u2019m back.
\nNot only back to what I hope will be a weekly setting down of thoughts and what not, but back from all manner of running about far from my studio.
\nThere seems to be a bit of travelling salesman involved in this illustration business; have just returned from the ultimate or at least penultimate opening of the Tolkien exhibition in France, and thankfully have no more major trips planned.
\nSaint-Nazaire was good fun, but one of those trips where there is not a minute to dally between trains, planes and the rest, straight to an opening where I make a dishevelled speech (at least I remembered to change my proper shoes for my sneakers, unlike that most recent opening, where I realised with horror halfway through my little speech that my decent clothes were still in the car\u2026)
\nLondon was great, the extended version of the Return of the King is spectacular, and don\u2019t count on me to spill any of it before the DVD comes out.
\nThe Paris Book Fair was another marathon of sorts, but I did manage to stroll around for half an hour, alas without finding the books I was seeking.
\nThe exhibition opened in Vitry-le-Fran\u00e7ois yesterday evening, and after that will be wrapping up, at least for a while.
\nThe boardgame is was madly working on is done and delivered.
\nSounds like I should be on vacation, doesn\u2019t it?
\nBut, no sooner do I finish something and I\u2019m late again\u2026 seven years this time around.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly a record, even for me.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

BIOGRAPHY<\/p>\n

Just could not resist this: a very kind fan sent a biography the other day. \u201cJohn Howe\u201d, by Robert F. Horton M.A., D.D., published by Methuen & Co, London, in 1895.
\nThis is so-o-ooo cool, all I need do is change the dates and names and I will have my own biography! Let me see, who shall I replace Oliver Cromwell with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Now, while that\u2019s all very well for the biography, there\u2019s still the autobiography to do. Thankfully, that\u2019s taken care of too!
\nThis next picture is from a book of Howe\u2019s writings that someone else sent me. All I need do it draw in a beard and moustache on the portrait, and change a few words in the title, and my life\u2019s work is done. (I may need to overhaul the text a bit\u2026 though \u201cthe vanity of this mortal life\u201d does definitely appeal to me.)<\/p>\n

LOST LUGGAGE<\/p>\n

Miraculously, my lost luggage was found! All rather battered, wheels torn off, everything inside squashed, torn, dog-eared, but all there. Even the sketchbook, which now has that kind of raffish seen-the-world-from-a-tramp-steamer look to it. Very romantic.\u00a0 Hard on the binding, though.
\nMEETING GANDALF AT THE STATION<\/p>\n

Oscar Nilsson sent me these a while ago. Gandalf is pretty much done, and Oscar will come deliver him towards the end of this month. Can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Or There\u2019s No Place Like Home Time has taken wing in a big way and suddenly a full month has flown\u2026 Apologies for that, I had entertained illusions of actually keeping up a newsletter and deadlines, but the muse flew the coop along with the rest. But, I\u2019m back. Not only back to what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,42,53,18],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-gandalf","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-oscar-nilsson","tag-tolkien"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-9a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}