Illustration Friday - Breezy

I was feeling quite breezy myself today, so I thought I would walk to my studio and spend a couple of hours on this week's IF. I arrived at the studio and realised most of my painting stuff was still at home, so I walked back. Then realised I'd still forgotten the paper tape, so went home again. But hooray, the weather is all Springy at last...I even took my gloves off in the studio!

Pie & Mash & Puppets

Had a trip to London yesterday. Here are some sketches from the train journey. I'd booked tickets to see an adult puppet show at the lovely Little Angel Theatre in the evening, but had nothing else planned, so we went to east London first and had a massive lunch at Maureen's in Chrisp St market - the best pie and mash shop. Mine was a vegetarian pie of course, but I had mash and liquor like a proper cockney! (I'm not a cockney but you know what I mean.) Apparently Maureen's even has its own appreciation society on Facebook, and well deserved too!

We went to Upton Park market as well to see Brad's dad. Every other stall there seems to be a butcher's - it was pretty gruesome, and as we were leaving we even saw some men pushing a wheelbarrow loaded up with bloody carcasses of some sort. Funnily enough I didn't hang around to do any sketching.

The puppet show was great - it has inspired me to get on with some puppet capers of my own before I dive in to the MA. Don't quite know what they will be though yet!

Here are my train sketches from the journey home.

Today I have a collossal headache, so I've decided to forego a trip to the studio and get some fresh air instead before embarking on a funding application tonight...

Guess What....

... I GOT IN!!!!!!!

I got a letter this afternoon! Yay! The letter says it's a conditional offer and that I have to supply copies of my educational certificates. I think most of the courses I took were before certificates were invented, so this should be interesting!

But anyway...HOORAY!

I Survived!

Hi everyone! I survived my interview, thanks to my lovely friends - especially the fantastic Pam and Dave, who gave up so much of their time to be kind, supportive and all-round good eggs really. I think my shingles made me a bit of a wet blanket and they cheered me on throughout the whole thing! (Well not through the actual interview of course - that would have been far too noisy).

I think the interview went OK. I should know within a couple of weeks so now I have to play the waiting game. (Or, as Bart Simpson said - "The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hippos!")

I arrived home to the welcoming smell of poo. I haven't yet found the source. I have my suspicions though. I'm not naming any names, but the cat has given me several triumphant glares lately.

Back to Oxfam today. Just to prove that I wasn't only sketching for my interview, I did these at the station and on the train (in my new Moleskine - a present from Brad)...

The woman at the bottom had a terrible cold and was going home early.

I'm going to my friend Jenny's later to help her daughter Leigh use her new sewing machine. I tried yesterday but we couldn't get it to work - all I achieved was to get everyone singing "Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up..." particularly frustrating as no-one can remember the next line. Today we are going to phone the Customer Helpline. Maybe they will know.

Fat Dog

A picture I forgot about and found while sorting stuff for Cambridge. Feel ill.

Prints and stress

I've somehow gone down with shingles around my right eye, two days before The Interview. I feel really low, not to mention thoroughly pissed off. Thank goodness for my printing class, where I did these...



The tree is etching and aquatint on zinc, with chine colle. The red riding hood at the bottom is just a proof - next week I am going to make a colour plate for the girl's coat so that it prints red. So far on this plate, it is etching and aquatint. On steel. It's still damp, so sorry about the wibblywobbliness of the paper.


I have recklessly signed up for another 6 weeks of printing. I'd leave too much unfinished business if I just stopped now. I can't afford it, but I am telling myself it's an investment....

Yet More Sketches

The river, the fish market, the doctors and the shops. I cannot yet cope with anyone watching me draw (apart from at home of course). I mean if you saw someone sitting there writing, you wouldn't say "Oh, look, a writer," and go and try and read over their shoulder, would you? It didn't matter by the river because there was no-one around, so I got my paints out. I really liked using the brush pen - so quick! -and I am going to get some coloured ones when I can.

Other news, I have a massive bruise on my arse, from a freak "surfing-through-air-on-loose-laminate-floorboard-while-chasing-cat" incident. I live a slapstick life, I really do, I think I am Harold Lloyd or Charlie Chaplin reborn. Anyway, I'm off to hang off the hands of a giant clock (as long as I don't slip hilariously on a banana skin first).

Welcome to Newhaven

Here's a little bit of what I have been busy with this week. I have recklessly thrown away my pencil and rubber and gone straight in with ink and/or paint. The people were drawn in seconds...it's hard, but fun. You should try it. I also tried a couple of buildings, which I hate drawing. You can see the start of one in the top pic - but as soon as that man appeared with the fag in his mouth and two Somerfield bags, I had to flip the book round and draw him instead. The man in the bottom pic was leaning up against the betting shop window and the girl was waiting at the cashpoint.

EEK!

Firstly and most importantly...I HAVE AN INTERVIEW FOR THE MA!!! Omigod omigod omigod! I won't tell you when, in case it jinxes it. Yes I will - it's the 19th. (So if I don't get in, consider yourself blamed). I am panicking, to say the least. After a proper talking to from my long-suffering friends Jenny and Pam, I won't say that I am going to make a fool of myself, my work is all crap and I'll say something stupid - no, none of that, I will be fine. I WILL be fine. EEK! I do need to sketch like buggery though. I need to sketch like Billy-O.

Well it was Snowday yesterday which of course meant no work or school for most people, and after skidding bad-moodily down the town to pay my rent, I helped Charlie make the obligatory snowman, named Ronald and sporting a lovely carrot nose and top hat. Then Charlie and Joe went sledging, which is where I draw the line as far as cold, wet "fun" goes. (Especially since realising that the snow on Lewes Road Rec cunningly hides all the dog poo...)

Today I went to my printing class (on two buses) only to find it had been called off and they'd forgotten to tell me. Oh, how I laughed. But all was not lost. I went into the Garden of Eden - a cafe in Newhaven which is, I imagine, very much like the original, and did some sketching.







After this, I went to my studio and ruined one, and possibly two, of the three doll heads I had previously made. So at home I collapsed on the sofa in a heap of headachey self pity, and doodled a couple of people from trashy chat shows on the telly. Here's one of them.

It was the Jeremy Kyle Show. No wonder she's crying.

No news at all from the place I have applied to for funding for the MA. If I don't receive any funding I won't be able to do the course. So, in a true Gemini style, I'm managing to simultaneously long for, and dread, getting a place. How do I manage that?

Who needs sleep anyway?