I Spoke Too Soon...

...when I said in my last post that I wasn't exactly ill! Afterwards I went down with an awful fluey-type bug which has left me with a sinus infection. I had bad financial news too and loooads of other problems I won't bore you with, which all added to the general pooness of my week from hell.


Anyway at least it was back to uni this week, even if I wasn't well enough to stay all day. It was lovely to see everyone and get lots of inspiration for our new projects. This time it's the Sequential Image, and I think I shall stick with the couples/relationship theme and see what stories develop!

Just to prove I've tried to carry on sketching, here is a quick pen & ink sketch of Brad watching the football recently!

Sleeping for Victory

Uncharacteristically, I have given up the ghost for a while. I'm in bed, in the middle of the day, with a glass of co-codamol and The 19th Wife (a book - I'm not behaving that uncharacteristically!). I don't feel particularly ill, except for a major headache, but all of a sudden the stresses and strains of life have rendered me deeply fed up and exhausted. Nothing a holiday wouldn't cure - but no chance of that at the moment so sleep it shall be! I did the same yesterday and no-one suffered unduly because of it so I am doing it again today! So there.

Save the Children Haiti Appeal. Donate Now.

Harmony

A bit of drawing as promised. I got a lovely book for Christmas which had a disc with beautiful 1950s patterns on, which I wanted to use for this - but since my computer went wrong, Photoshop has gone all weird. I don't understand Photoshop very well when it's not being weird. So instead this was painted with very unsuitably sized and shaped brushes, because all mine are either lost or ruined. The theme came from a prompt on Inspire Me Thursday - "I don't think there is enough______in this world." I chose harmony, and the fox from yesterday made a guest appearance.

NB - The woman in the picture happens to be suffering from "ear". An ex-girlfriend of my son told me about this condition, which basically means your ear sticks out of your hair. Just in case you need to use this phrase in the future, and want to sound modern and young, you might word it like this: "OMG, you've got full-on ear!" Even if both ears are affected, the condition is still known as simply "ear".

Enough, already!

Today was the final day to hand in my uni work. So imagine how I whooped and punched the air with joy when I looked out of the window this morning to ANOTHER surprise day of snow?

I mean, the kids have been out sledging and made snowmen, the countryside looks pretty, most people have had at least one day off work. There's no further use for the snow! Jeez!

Anyway I made it OK, and genuinely did feel like punching the air once it was handed over. I feel so sorry for those who haven't made it yet - especially my poor friend whose work has been sent on a UK tour by Parcelforce.

When I got home, Charlie showed me these photos he took today from our very window:-

As someone who has always lived in towns (albeit small boring ones) I do get very excited at real live wildlife. And he or she is so beautiful! He must be very hungry to come out in the day. (Needless to say, tonight I will be leaving him a nice dish of treats).

I know there was something else I wanted to tell you but I just can't remember what it was. Maybe it was just this - I do promise to post some sort of artwork tomorrow.

Pesky snow and lovely books

Still no images to show you I'm afraid. My computer has recovered, but all I have been doing (like most people) is battling through snow and ice to get to work etc, or sitting indoors watching telly. I have not watched as much telly in one go since the days of Champion the Wonder Horse, Why Don't You and Multicoloured Swap Shop. Only yesterday I watched The Gruffalo, Superbad, the two Christmas episodes of Dr Who, and three of the BBC Ten-Minute Tales. All good, I might add, although it did feel a bit sinful.

Anyway onto much more important and exciting matters. Two lovely friends of mine have books available to pre-order. See how I hob-nob with genuine authors and illustrators? They are "Lob" by Linda Newbury, wonderfully illustrated by Pam Smy, and "Good Dog, Bad Dog" by Dave Shelton, a fantastic comic strip you might recognise from the Guardian and the much missed DFC. Order them both, quick!

(NB - Both books will of course be available from your local independent bookshop, if you want to be all ethical about it. Which I hope you do.)