Struggling

Sorry once again for my absence...I have just got a new job with more hours so have even less precious time for my coursework. So you can imagine how I chortled when I stumbled down my steps last night while putting the rubbish out and hurt my RIGHT hand while trying to save myself! Oh, I roared with laughter, I can tell you. I was in denial at first, and went to work today as usual - but the fingers swelled and were stiff and painful. So I ended up having to go to hospital. Luckily it's not broken, just bruised and inflamed. But the doctor told me it could be like this for TWO WEEKS!! Two weeks!! Well, I won't allow it. I can hold a pencil and draw a little (albeit wobbly) but I can't curl my hand round an engraving tool at all at the moment. Hand in date is 5th January. What a hoot!


Here's a rough I did just before IT happened.

Crit Day

Here's the drawing I did yesterday on the way to Cambridge. He had very big unruly hair, something I am very much in favour of. He reminded me of the eagle newsreader in The Muppet Show (which I am also in favour of) and was reading a book about Otters and Martens - breaking off to type important looking things on his Mac book. It's reassuring to know that while we ordinary mortals go about our mundane business, someone is keeping track of the Otters and Martens.

So, it was the Big Crit day at Uni, and, as if this wasn't stressful enough, there was a Japanese tv crew there, filming it. I mean, what next...naked crits? Crits while someone is whacking us with sticks or throwing water at us? (Luckily, though, they were only really interested in the, er...less mature students. Just as well because our tutor could not have held his stomach in for much longer!)

A tube strike meant that I had to break my journey to panic and get lost in London, phone home and cry, vow to give up my course and resign myself that I would never ever escape from the crowd I had found myself swept along in. Once I had done all that, I simply got on the tube as usual, (which ran completely normally), and carried on to make it home in better time than most weeks.

Here are the two drawings I did on the way home. Out Of Proportion Arm Woman, as I affectionately call her, was not at all happy about whatever she was reading - she kept shaking her head and tutting. She does have a hand, at least. Someone in the crit got their hand drawing criticized - and most of us admit to avoiding drawing them at all costs. One look at OOPAW tells you why.

Not really catching up.

No uni this week - I've been feeling a bit under the weather - plus it's half term, so I thought instead of abandoning my child I would try and catch up a bit at home/in the studio. That was the theory but, of course, millions of obstacles were put in my path. You know when you have one of those bad dreams when you're trying to get somewhere or do something and you can't move properly or you realise hours have gone by and you've missed something really important? Well that's real life for me buddy! Anyway I did get to try a bit more engraving.

Bea and her (newly acquired in the re-write) cat:-

And a mouse I did for my New Address card:-
Thank you and good - Nytol enhanced - night.

Pondering

I had a nightmare journey to Cambridge this week and was stuck on a train for ages due to points failure. That meant I only attended uni for the lecture before starting the crappy journey home again. To top it all I forgot my sketchbook - so no train sketches to put on this week.

Then at my studio yesterday I spent the day trying to storyboard my book which is definitely not fit to be seen here yet!

I've been thinking about picture books, as I have done a lot over the years, and in particular, the characters in them. I got to thinking about children with disabilities, and how it must feel to be so un-represented in picture books and literature; to feel different to any of the characters they read about or see in illustrations. When I worked in a children's book shop, the only picture books featuring any disabled people were books designed to "inform" children about the disabilities. Like "Emma has Cochlear Implants" or "My Mommy has a Wheelchair" (Not actual titles but you get my drift). The story, if there was one, was about the disability. Some were OK, but quite a lot were dreadful.

Anyway I looked around the good old internet on the subject and it turns out there is an organisation dedicated to this very matter. There are examples of work by lots of illustrators including Quentin Blake and Jane Ray (who is a passionate believer of inclusion in children's books and has written widely on the subject). There seem to be more books published now where disabled children feature, especially in books for the very young. The publisher Childs Play certainly seems to be the most inclusive at the moment.

I don't know yet if any of the characters in the book I am working on now will have disabilities. But it's certainly something I will always think about if I ever have a "career".

By the way the lecture was great - Fabian Negrin - absolutely stunning work and a lovely man to boot. (What a strange saying "to boot" is)!

Blimey.

Well, that all took longer than I hoped. What a faff. In short, I got huffy, Sky got dumped and I'm now online courtesy of BT. So, normal service has been resumed and there's some drawing to be caught up on. Not much, admittedly...but here's a few from the last couple of weeks. Alexis Deacon in a lecture...

And later that day a hideous journey home which didn't end til after ten and involved torrential rain...

Last week's train journey to Cambridge...
No drawing on the way home last week.

Back at the studio today, and I am still at the early stages of my new project. Wrestling with the story, and meanwhile learning the printmaking technique. Here's my character again only printed with oil based ink (as advised by the wonderful John Lawrence who I was lucky enough to talk to last week) on nice paper. And with added colour at no extra charge.

I love printmaking but I always seem to be in need of something crucial yet really expensive in order to carry on. I would so love a press...it would make my life so much easier and so much more enjoyable! And it wouldn't make my hand joints hurt so much and I could do etching as well as relief....sigh.

For someone who is proud to be non-materialistic I sure do want a lot of things.

In other news, I had cleared up three piles of poo before 8 am this morning (one cat, two dog.) The glamour.

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

Studio

I managed a couple of hours at the studio today. Finished the sketchbook I have been making from another recycled hardback. Here it is with its innards stripped out and the new signatures cut and folded.

Here are the signatures after the holes have been made...(thrilling, eh?)

And then after I sewed them together. It's really easy and actually relaxing.

Finally an abysmal attempt to do some drawing...I really need some inspiration.

Still

Still not really working creatively, so meanwhile, some extreme hattage.

Sketchbook

Some sketches of Charlie from my recent stay in Cambridge and just a page of doodles in my new sketchbook...bit meaningless really, as I can't seem to get stuck into anything. I did make the signatures for another sketchbook though ready to sew together next time.

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!