Let It Snow!

Misery guts that I am when it comes to snow, even I am a little bit excited at the prospect of a white Christmas! I did this at home today straight into my sketchbook - how brave am I!?

Then it was yet more Christmas shopping in the hellish dome of torture that is Churchill Square. At one point I had so many carrier bags hanging from me it was like a sick, twisted game of Buckaroo. I was also dressed a bit like the woman in the above picture, (with very similar posture too I might add), forgetting that Churchill Square is heated to the point just before everyone bursts into flames. In fact I think I've got a tropical disease.

Tenth time lucky!

I waited at the bus stop for half an hour intending to go to Brighton to do some shopping and drawing, and when the bus finally came, the driver wouldn't let anyone on because it was too full. Oh, how I laughed! Anyway, I went to my studio but it was too cold to work up there (ice on the inside of the window), so I packed a case of stuff and did this lino print at home. It took ten attempts to get anywhere near a decent print (I use a spoon as I don't have a press) and my hand is like a stiff claw now.

Other news, we went to see Where The Wild Things Are yesterday. I'd heard lots of posh people on Radio 4 saying it was boring, and long, and not at all like the book, so I wasn't expecting to enjoy it...but I actually loved it! I don't know what all the complaining is about! I loved Max, I loved the Wild Things, I loved the soundtrack, I loved the direction. I liked the interpretation of the book - admittedly it's more suitable for older kids and adults who had the book as kids. But it was great. Gorgeous to look at and weird and just like being a child. What's not to like? (Well I suppose I didn't like the thimble of ice cream for a fiver.)

Studio antics

We had our final group crit this week, and the groups were mixed up so that we got to see some of the second years' work. It was great and so inspiring!

Anyway Martin suggested I add some more printing to my work and/or some work from memory, so I didn't feel guilty about spending the morning in my studio listening to Radio 4 drinking peppermint tea instead of traipsing round a freezing town centre looking for couples to draw! As much as I have come to love sketching it is a bit draining having to commit to doing it for long periods every week.

So I did this little monoprint and also started something in colour which I'll post when it's done. Got a really busy few days ahead starting with a 12 hour working day tomorrow (it's late night shopping...yawn...).

Oh, and we got our Christmas tree! Usually it takes hours and involves shortlists and standing back and twirling them to check for bald bits. But this one was chosen randomly, without even opening the net - how daring am I!? It's smaller than usual because I get fed up with clearing up the needles after dragging them through my narrow hall. And it's lovely! I'd actually feel Christmassy if I had time.

Slow, slow train

Can't believe the first term (and therefore the observational drawing project) is nearly over. (Only a load more drawings, a reflective piece of writing about the drawing, and an essay to go!)
It was an absolute nightmare getting home today. It took 5 hours. Loads of trains were delayed or cancelled, and those that did run seemed to travel at walking pace. Still, I did get time to do a drawing on the Cambridge- Kings Cross...

Sorry about the crappy scan - I had to try and do it in two halves, which I'm not very good at! I am still quite scared about using tone, although I am enjoying it.

Darkness suits my mood at the moment - especially as I am reading "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood. It's one of the few of her books I hadn't read, and I thought I should, as she has now written a sequel. It's so chilling - a kind of post-apocalyptic story in which a disaster has wiped out the people and genetically spliced creatures roam the earth after initially being bred for organ transplants. It goes back and forth pre and post disaster, through the eyes of Jimmy, a survivor - later called "Snowman". I haven't finished it yet but it's brilliant. Can't wait to read the sequel.

Saturday - still Friday 13th in my opinion.

What a total arse of a day. I have condensed the day's events down to easy-to-follow bullet points. You can fill in the details for yourself.

• Up. Holiday. Prepare to draw!
• Purse. PURSE?
• Panic.
• Scream.
• Cry.
• Ransack.
• Automated phone calls.
• Hours.
• Prepare again, drawing AND shopping. Penny jar.
• Walk.
• Rain.
• RAIN AND WIND.
• Shopping heavy. Mood heavy. NO drawing.
• Walk home. Decide big painting from window at home.
• Home. Paints? PAINTS?
• See bullet point 6.
• Dejectedly do drawing below.

• Bad light stops drawing.

Etching

So I'd asked for the next available week off work (I usually work Fridays and Saturdays), so I could spend two whole days drawing and maybe catch up a bit. My boss said this week would be OK. It just didn't work out though...a whole lot of Friday 13th style problems plus the torrential rain meant that I just went to BIP and did this etching , and then went home exhausted after no sleep the previous night. Better luck tomorrow I hope.

Anyway it's hard and soft ground on steel with some aquatint. Next week I'm having an induction to etching at uni which will be great (and save me a fortune too) - they use ferric chloride though which I don't have any experience of - BIP uses nitric acid.

More

This evening Beed and Gemma kindly allowed me to attempt to draw them while they watched Corrie...they said I can go back again some time soon too - what heroes! (I think they could see I needed the practice!) I did swoosh some colour on before deciding I'd had enough.

I came home to find Charlie sulking because he couldn't find where he had saved something on the computer. I'm now re-downloading it, and have been for over an hour...don't be surprised if I disappear from the web for some time!

Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone

I had a shortened drawing day today and couldn't go to Brighton so had to make do with Sainsbury's instead. This couple were bucking the trend by being quite happy and contented...but sadly didn't stay long enough for me to draw their legs. (The title is the Gomez song I had on my mind at the time, and still do! I don't mind - it's a great song.)

I've been really busy since last week, including going to BIP where I prepared a new plate to start etching again...despite being poor, I just can't wait for the etching facilities to be up and running at uni!

Talking of uni, we now have a group blog, Comfort Zone, where we'll be sharing work and info on stuff of interest.

Not much else to report, except that my parenting skills hit a new low this week when I failed to find a single firework to watch with Charlie and then the next day sent him to school on an inset day. Sigh. Now to tackle a kitchen way beneath the levels of safe hygiene standards.

Mushroom Face

Blimey. I feel really terrible today and have woken up with a face the colour of a mushroom. I'll keep this brief I think before I go off in search of some kind of drug. Great day at uni yesterday...I lost the lino print I did (see last post) and was worried about not having enough new work to show. But drew this couple in the park before travelling to Cambridge..

And also went to the pub Tuesday night and did a bit more drawing there. (Much more fun with friends than trying to draw alone!) Had great tutorial at uni and then went into Cambridge Market to draw with the lovely (but sickeningly talented) Jo and Mary. We found a great spot to draw but when I reached into my bag for my sketchbook It Wasn't There. (Cue dramatic music). Although I kind of believed Mary when she insisted I had left it in the studio, I got so anxious I actually got chest pains! On top of this I was forced to draw in my newly trimmed other sketch book (oh, the trauma!).

After returning to uni (and being reunited with my sketchbook!) we had a lecture (which I will talk about later...feel too rough). Did this on train home in between puffs on inhaler.

Time

I never seem to have enough time. Every second is accounted for. I've been asked to work extra days next week and it's part of my job to do this, so the little time I have a) to draw and b) to spend some of half term with Charlie, has been cruelly snatched away. Feel REALLY fed up. Don't know how other people fit everything in, and I am worried about my project. Couldn't get out to draw yesterday for various reasons, so I took a small part of one of the scribbles I did in Churchill Square the other week...

...and made this rather crude linocut from it which I cut last night and have just printed now before going to work. Not too pleased with it, but I've done something, anyway!

I did it with a spoon which after all the cutting is really hard on my hands - I have arthritis in them anyway. That's why I don't do as much lino printing as I would like!

As if things couldn't get any worse I've got to go to the Jobcentre this morning. They have asked for proof of my income for the ooh, about 16 millionth time, and because of the postal strikes I am taking my payslips into our local branch in person instead of sending them to Southampton. I wonder if they will accept this? Oh, I can hardly wait to find out!

Hey! Guess What!

Yes! I drew some couples today...are you shocked? To vary things a little, and really bring the scene to life, here's a taster of how the conversation went with my lucky companion Brad as I was drawing.

Me: This is just ridiculous, I mean we might as well go home, it's like I'm drawing the same people over and over again, my sketchbook is going to get repetitive, and I don't just mean for the people looking at it, I mean me as well, God, how am I supposed to get tone in as well, tone as well as draw people in two seconds? It's just bloody impossible! Oh yes, that's right, just get up and move while I'm drawing you, you bastards, I mean don't mind me, it's just my career going out the bloody window. Honestly this is just pointless, we might as well go home, look, I mean look it's just a mess!

Brad: ...I hope you're not going to be like this for two and a half years...

Anyway...I find it inspirational to look at other people's sketchbooks (one of the many reasons why I enjoy uni so much!) and here are a few of my favourite sketchblogs. Sketch for the Day, Urban Sketchers and Nina Johansson. Go and enjoy more sketches and less complaining!

Mood Map

So last week on the train home from uni, I read an article about something called Mood Mapping. Apparently you make an appointment with yourself 3-4 times a day and note down your mood, to discover what triggers downward swings and when you're at your best. Great idea, I thought. So the next day I tried it.

Morning - Charlie lacing up his Converse at the speed of a reluctant tortoise without full use of limbs meant yet again late for school despite me screaming til hoarse. Mood - Bad.

Lunchtime - Got on bus to Seaford, found no one to draw, livid, (time wastage is pet hate), got bus back from Seaford to draw in Sainsbury's Newhaven, and messed up sketchbook attempting to use tone. Mood - Dangerously Bad.

Dinnertime - Spent afternoon waiting outside Brad's flat for delivery (he had lost spare key) which was late. Came home to tackle hurried tidying up due to visitor, mountain of washing up and much loathed cooking of dinner. Mood - Understandably Bad.

Night time - having broken record for exhaustion, pushed aside mountains of clothes and books and fell into bed for usual broken sleep and bad dream. Mood - Bad.

Conclusion of Mood Map Experiment - am miserable old bag.

Anyway, here is the least awful of the sketches I did during my day from hell.

Actually I've seen this man around Newhaven quite a lot. He always reminds me of Yoffy from Fingerbobs. Remember Fingerbobs? I always felt a failure because I couldn't make any of the puppets to my satisfaction.

Yet more!

Just another page from my sketchbook. I did this last week actually, but have had a terrible cold so blogging slid down to 199th on my list of things to do. (Complaining and feeling sorry for myself went to 1st).

Anyway yesterday at uni I had a tutorial and Pam suggested I use more tone to represent the figures, and start to give more of a suggestion of context ( I knew that was coming!). So I'm looking forward to giving both those things a go! Then we had a talk from the wonderful, wonderful John Lawrence. I need this book. You need it. Everyone needs it. Go and get it while it's still in hardback. (But preferably from your local independent bookshop rather than Amazon). And go and see the illustrations when they are shown at The Illustration Cupboard. What are you waiting for? It won't be around forever! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Happy Birthday Charlie!

My youngest son's now a teenager! How did that happen?

And just in case you thought the world had gone mad...here's a couple.

I thought...

...that uni was supposed to be the stressful part of life and home the easy, relaxing, fun bit. I'm annoyed with everyone in my house at the moment and I can safely say that they're annoyed with me too. Even the cat's just given me a dirty look.

I suppose I may have been just slightly irritable when I came in. I suppose it's no-one's fault that the shoulder strap of my lovely vintage leather case snapped at the station and I had to carry it for three hours in the same hand as a heavy carrier bag whose handle had transformed into piano wire, and have under my arm a folder (which never did fit in lovely bloody vintage leather case). I suppose it's not their fault someone sneezed in my face on the Victoria Line and now I feel as if the inside of my head and throat has been sandpapered. But jeez, surely a woman can expect to come home to a sea of welcoming smiles, a perfectly clean and tidy house and a hot dinner ready... can't she? Anyway. Here's my attempt from yesterday at drawing the lovely Pam and Dave spending a happy evening with some pens, some sketchbooks, and Basil Rathbone. And me of course!

The more it rains,

the more I'm going to have to draw in cafes, and the fatter I'm going to get. (Obviously I had to have a mozarella and tomato panini and cafe latte while I drew this).

I did do this one in the library - not in a library book I hasten to add - but there were no other couples in there, and these two weren't exactly all over each other so I didn't spend too much time on them!

Then, the rain smudged quite a few pages of my sketchbook.

Surprise surprise

Some of what I have got in my sketchbook isn't even recognisable to anyone except me as being people, so you got off lightly only having to see this one. Brighton Pavilion gardens -a nice place to draw.

In other news, I'm tired, skint, and my house is a mess. I'm not sleeping well, and am therefore a bit obsessed with sleep. It reminds me of having a newborn baby - the first question you ask other parents is "What's he/she like at night?" (If he/she sleeps through you strike them off your Christmas card list.)

I count the hours I do and don't do it, and compare the quality of my nights with other people's. No, I haven't tried Kalms. That would mean admitting I have a problem. I do sleep quite a bit actually but it's broken and contains bad dreams.

Did I mention that I'm really tired?

Another cafe, another couple!

First couple were in Newhaven, the second in Seaford. Both in cafes - I'm going to get fat doing this course! Seaford looked good couples-wise - loads of them about. I'm going to go back tomorrow.

It's quite a stressful time at home at the moment, for various reasons, and sketching is a really enjoyable, absorbing activity. I don't feel guilty either, because it's for my course! I have noticed, though, that the vast majority of people look stressed or tired or both! I am going to make it my goal to draw some happy couples tomorrow!

More couples

I went out for an hour in Newhaven last night expecting to find tired middle aged or old heterosexual couples and found these two instead!

I know the scan is rubbish and I'm sorry. My sketchbook doesn't fit in it either - maybe I should have stuck to the Moleskine, but I was seduced by this one being square and chunky and most of all having Cambridge School of Art printed on it!

I didn't have a very good day at work yesterday - Saturday afternoons are quite stressful because the town is usually deserted except for people who have been drinking in the pubs all day and gangs of kids. At least in the week we get people going to and from work and school. It's sad really - even I remember when it was a really busy little town with lots of independent shops...now there's not even anywhere to buy a CD or a ball of string!