Commence the Dancing...commence the prancing!

Well I will be off t'interweb for a few days (thanks, Sky!) So meanwhile, here's something brilliant to look at.

Back to Uni! Hurrah!

Well it was my first day back at uni today and we're now second years...how scary! I came away feeling daunted, but inspired. So-o-o-o pleased to see my friends, and of course all their fab ideas for this semester. (Which of course all seem so much better than my ideas!)

Anyway, here are my train sketches.



I was going to crop out the song lyrics I doodled, but then changed my mind...Florence was part of my journey after all!

On the way back...much harder to draw pretty people with no wrinkles/glasses/double chins! And I think no matter how many years I travel by train it will never, ever become interesting to draw the seats.

Another Go

So after faffing about with resolutions, fonts and all that malarkey, here's a better version of the spoof ad for BANG's White Night comic. Hey! You can even click on this baby to make it bigger!

Trying Out Tools!

Well I didn't let the lack of a press or any proper paper thwart my efforts at trying out the engraving tools! Printed on brown paper with a spoon (which really does hurt my hands!) .

May not be much to show for a few hours' work but I enjoyed doing it and learnt a bit too! (Like why John Lawrence suggested darkening the surface with ink - it would have been much easier to see where I had scraped away!)

In other news, we have fleas. Fleas which I must get rid of before moving. It's all glamour, glamour glamour in my life, I tell you.

It's a Start! Jeez!

Well I had a good time at my studio - mainly cleaning the thick layer of dust that had accumulated since my last visit, and mourning my mangle press which someone has recently rendered unusable. (Grr!)

But I did settle on a story for my next project - it's an idea I first thought of years ago but never developed. It's for a picture book. So I will be writing a draft of the text in the next couple of days and meanwhile starting to develop the character, Bea. She's going to be about 2/3 and a bit feisty. Just started doodling an idea of what she might look like.

As I like to work on two things at once (so I can send one to Coventry when it misbehaves) I shall also be doing an animation with this character I think.

I really want to do some more printmaking before I go back, too. The engraving tools I was kindly loaned over the summer keep glaring accusingly at me. So tonight I shall remind myself how to prepare an engraving block and draw out a little design.

Also I have been thinking about opening an Etsy shop, so have also been thinking about things I could make - as well as things for my new beautiful and trendy home (which I will have one day).

So although it may appear that not much is occurring, in my tired desperate mind, it is! (It's competing with day job hunting and moving, but it's there and I am trying to keep it going!)

Today I am going to the studio so watch this space! (Well, not THIS one, onviously, but the next one.)

Don't say I don't keep my promises! Just managed this little spoof ad (well a first draft of it anyway) for BANG (Brighton Animators Networking Group) who are planning a fantastic event of animation, comics and theatrical delights at Marlborough House, Brighton in October - details here. Can't wait to join this creative bunch - once I can really call myself an animator, which I am going to tackle this semester!

A frustrating couple of days...I seem to have lost a printer and also a printing press, which is a real setback. But I am trying not to let it get me down!

I'm Alive!!

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry to have ignored you this Summer. You know when you suddenly have a massive personal crisis, get ill, get side effects to medication, get a destructive dog, get a seriously ill loved one, have work problems, money problems and family problems all at once? No? Well lucky you then. But all these things have happened to me during this summer of doom, and therefore Fluffycloud Studios remained empty and neglected.

However! Things are getting better I hope. A new uni semester looms, and two things happened today.

1) An email from my tutor arrived, gently reminding me that we are expected to arrive with ideas for the new module.

2) I met my lovely friend for coffee (who is herself a creative whirlwind) and she has inspired me to put pencil to paper again.

So due to the combination of these factors I hereby declare that I WILL post some artwork here in the next few days. And it'll be as if we've never been apart.

Liza x