Good Luck England

Get yourselves Englanded up and hope for the best. x

Having a break

Just wanted to let you know that I'm having a break from blogging (and normal life in general) at the moment, because my mum's seriously ill in hospital.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my wonderful, wonderful friends who are helping me through this, and the other difficulties I have recently faced...you know who you are and I love you.

Hope to be drawing and posting again soon. x

Sketchbook!

Here's my finished sketchbook. I refilled an old hardback that was going to be thrown away, and sort of followed these instructions, which are for reloading a moleskine.

I chose this one because of the handy size and also because I thought it would confuse the rail staff when I am working on the train.

I used some of the original pages for endpapers, and also kept the title page.

The pages are a bit wibbly wobbly, but that doesn't matter for a sketchbook. Well not to me, anyway!

And I end today's broadcast with a quick ink sketch of Poppy, done at my studio with a brush pen and quink. (No pencil, Ladies and Gentlemen! No rubber! No safety net!)

Ooh! An exciting parcel has just arrived from Amazon! I shall resist opening it til my birthday!

Beach time!

Well it was my first day back at the studio today since The Big Hand In. Poppy came with me, and was brilliant. She met the dog of my studio neighbour who did have a quick attempt at raping her...but she forgave him.

It was really strange not to have my speed dating book to do! Anyway I did one of the first things on my list of things to do...I made myself a sketch book! With signatures and everything. Just gotta attach the cover and I'm all ready to fill it up! I took my camera to prove it but forgot the memory card. So instead here is a picture of Poppy's first trip to the beach (that I know of!)

She absolutely loved it and ran for miles and miles - she even paddled in the sea!

Introducing Poppy!

Look who's come to live with us! It's Poppy, an approx 8-month old Bassett cross (they think crossed with a Collie). She came from this rescue centre and was rescued on her last day at the pound before the chop!

She is absolutely adorable and loves people - when you stroke her, she just slides to the floor!

It was a real eye opener looking at the rescue websites. I work for an animal charity and even I had no idea of the sheer number of unwanted dogs in this country. Lots of the dogs from this place are ex-breeders - after seeing all this I'd never buy a puppy. There's just no need to.

Anyway I'm sure I'll do some drawings of her soon.

Wowzer

Well here is it, what you've all been waiting for...and it's even better than we could have hoped.

THE KNITTED BIKINI!!!

And men, guess what, you don't have to feel left out in this fashion bonanza! These two hunks are probably pointing at the sad fools who don't have their genitals cradled with lovingly knitted trunks.

In case the pic won't enlarge, the text says "these trim fitting trunks for a teen-age boy and his elder brother will make a welcome gift." Well I have two teen-age boys....hmm....I wonder, what with summer coming up....

Well all the uni work's been handed in! I can't believe the first year has gone already...it's flown by. Feeling a bit flat now actually. Oh well...if all goes to plan I could have some fab news to tell you on Sunday.

Proper book

Yay! Look what arrived from Blurb this morning...my book, all proper!

I'm really pleased with it. The cover turned out a bit strange but hey - a small price to pay for having to do next to nothing in order to get a nice book.

Under the table in the top picture, you can see our family's World Cup sticker album. I suspect there will also be a wall chart in due course. (There won't be flags, though...what do you think we are - losers or something?)


Oh, and if you have a spare tenner (or any amount of money) and are up for being incandescent with rage, look at this. (Isn't it funny how rage is the only emotion you can be incandescent with?)

Interlude

While I am busy writing an essay, a reflection on my work and a proposal for the next module, I'll leave you to enjoy these high fashion hats.
I hope my friends would put me straight if I were ever tempted to wear anything looking like a cottage loaf on my head.

Belated Response

...to the election result. Brighton - WOOP! WOOP! Rest of the Country - eh?

PS...two of the eggs have hatched!

Did You Know

...that you are allowed to go and cast your vote dressed as a pirate, or wearing your pyjamas - but you are not allowed to wear a giant rosette?

I thought I would tell you now and catch you before you go to the polling station.

No matter how I drew this woman on the way to Cambridge this week, it always looked as though her head was on back to front. I came to the conclusion that it really was, and thought about pointing it out to her, but decided against it.

It was the Big Crit this week so an intense day - but great to see the diversity of everyone's work. Very inspiring. Also got to see John Lawrence! I showed him my new Spitsticker and he tried it out and said it was really good...I am extremely pleased that the first person to use my Spitsticker was the one and only John Lawrence and am now hoping it is enchanted with a bit of his magic!

My scanner and computer apparently fell out with each other in my absence. The computer insisted there was no scanner installed and the scanner said it now worked for someone else. But I turned them both off and on again a few times and they have at least made friends for long enough to scan this woman who had a lovely little dog with her on the way home - who resolutely faced the other way for the whole journey!


Ooh, it's voting day...how exciting. I very much hope I am not going to be extremely disappointed, scared and depressed by this time tomorrow. But I rather think I am just going to be confused.

(It really is voting day, even though the computer says it's Wednesday!)

Sulking

I am sulking. You are the only person I am currently communicating with.

There are, today, three able bodied - in fact, some would say, strapping - young men in my house. There are, in my garden, three broken fence panels and one trellis which has been smashed to smithereens by the wind and my neighbour's kids. I really want the fences and trellises secured. I don't even care too much what they look like and I have offered the deposit on a Bestival ticket (which let's face it will probably end up being the whole ticket) in return for even a bodge job. But the response has been less than enthusiastic. One is watching cricket, one is on his i-phone and the other on is on his PSP. All activities which left unattended can go on for hours, if not days. The consensus is, the fence can't be repaired. Why can't it? I'm too old and tired and busy to mend the fence. I'm not interested in it, I don't want to go and buy things for it. I just want it to be whole. Most people have fences...why is it so hard for me to have one? WHY?

Anyway here are a couple of the photos Charlie helped me take yesterday, of Ophelia. I couldn't borrow a decent camera so I had to use our awful one which shows the tones in reverse and no colours at all.
They turned out pretty well I suppose, considering the taking of them was so awful and involved me barking instructions and screaming.

I have recently been having a bit of a health worry, which is exacerbated by stress. I've been trying not to get stressed about things. Can you tell?

By the way, in all the time it has taken me to write this, no-one has noticed that I am sulking. I think I will go and finish my sulk upstairs. Until Coronation Street starts anyway.

Busy-ness

Well another action-packed visit to Cambridge, including much cutting and sticking, which I am not very good at at all. But my little dummy book is now as ready as it's ever going to be for its cover which has been letterpressed (above!) and I will attempt to put on the book tomorrow!

No train drawings to show today because the person I started drawing on the way there got off almost immediately, and on the way back I just didn't feel like it!

In other news, I walked to John Lewis in my lunch break, somewhere I have never been. They didn't have what I wanted (tape for bookbinding), and somehow, I left the shop from a different door to the one I entered, and ended up in a weird arcade/shoppping mall where I most certainly didn't belong. Disorientated and late, I floundered around amid lots of posh people for a while and did seriously consider crying. But instead I adopted my "calm, capable woman" persona and searched for natural light. From there I guessed which way back to uni and was right! Never again will I venture to John Lewis.

Cheer yourself up

...and look at this! In previous years you have been able to look at pictures from the Peregrine Falcons' nest on the Brighton tower block. Well this year there's a live webcam and it's fab! Will all the eggs hatch? It's so exciting!

Arty Fun

A happily busy time in Cambridge this week, watching Photoshop demos, scanning in my Speed-dating images and starting to print them, and even going down to lovely Letterpress to make my front cover. (At least, I set the letters ready for printing next time).
Here are the usual train sketches - above on the way there and below on the way home. The man above's companion took photos on her phone the whole time, making really loud "shutter" noises. Every time he dropped off to sleep she did it again and woke him up. He never said anything though!

I was just thinking as I was drawing this man's hair how awkward it was to draw, when I happened to look at the piece of paper he was reading. It said "Firstly please accept my apologies for my atrocious hair." (At least that's what I thought it said until he moved his thumb revealing the word "handwriting." But I like my version better.)

Another common exchange in my life:-

SOMEONE: So, what are you doing at university?

ME: An MA in Children's Book Illustration.

SOMEONE: Oh! So you're arty then, are you?

Sigh.

Later...

...I think these two are going to be creating a LOT of static.

No new work to show - I made a tentative visit to the studio (no illness today thank goodness - the very nice man next door has agreed to leave the heater off for a while to see if it makes a difference) - and played around with a shadow puppet tree for Ophelia to drown beneath. Just a mini version, until I make the real thing.

An unrelated point...the following is a very common exchange in my life:

SOMEONE: So, what are you doing at university?

ME: An MA in Children's Book Illustration.

SOMEONE: Oh. So, what do you want to do at the end of that, then?

Er...I think the course title gives quite a big hint, don't you? It makes me feel silly answering. I think I'll start varying my answers, perhaps saying, "Well I thought I'd start off as a quantity surveyor and if that doesn't work out, I'll have a go at cage fighting."

Without Delay

...go and have a look at m'good friend Matt Robertson's new work. He's busy creating a stash of marvels for the forthcoming Brighton Festival, where he's taking part in this Open Studio. You'd be a darn fool to miss it.

Woop! Woop!

Today I finished the bulk of my speed dating project. Will just be tweaking, and the cover from now on. Unless my tutors tell me to re-do it all that is! (In which case I won't have time to post here for a very long time!) Anyway here's a little peak.

Life's been pretty normal and boring really. Here are the dramatic highspots:-

• My cat had a huge fight and Charlie had to throw water over them.

• I have been avoiding someone, because they have been reminding me to do something which costs me money. Charlie's suggestion was to clothesline the person concerned and then squat over her. That's a wrestling move. I couldn't do that, so today I couldn't avoid doing the thing anymore and am now, unbelievably, even poorer.

• I realised that my studio neighbour's gas heater is making me feel ill.
• I realised I don't know how to get rid of bullet points, or the huge spaces in between some of them.
• Goodbye.

Hair Today

I went to the studio bright and early today - before 8am - and didn't leave til 7 tonight apart from a brief foray to the bank. Consequently, I am now a hunchback. But at least I finished Ophelia! I also did another image from my speed dating book. Seven down, six to go! Two days at work now and then it's Easter so no more studio lark til Wednesay.

I really really hate Easter. There, I said it. But that's not to say I don't wish you all a very happy one.