forgetful

I forgot.

I love the new Doctor.

I hate to turn my back on David Tennant, but after watching Matt Smith's first turn as the Doctor, I am so glad he totally outdid the expectations I had. And as for Amy Pond, isn't she beautiful!

discovery

I apologise in advance for the first bit of drivel. If you like pictures, scroll down and forget this bit! (Or look up and enjoy my new banner... if that's what it is meant to be called?) I'll mark the start and end of it so you can skip it how nice of me.

look away now

I never intended this blog to get personal, but I came across something a few hours ago that surprised me, something that was written to me that I have only just read. I won't post a link to it, they know who they are, I reckon.
Things at the start of this year got messy, and I didn't know how to handle them - but I know now that things in the past are unchangeable, doesn't matter how petty and insignificant or huge they might be, life is as it is in the end.

To make it clear, I'm not looking for resolution here, I just want to say this. I hate to read things that I know are intended for me when the person writing doesn't feel like they can tell me, and by writing this obviously I am doing the same, but there isn't much else I can do with this information at this point. At first I felt a little cheated and hurt, but now I realise that it's simply just happened now. It's history. Everyone wonders what ever happened to those people you lost contact with at some point in your lives, but sometimes life sees an improvement without those people, on both sides. There are some people from my past that I truly miss, and it's my responsibility to get back in touch with them, and there are those that I left behind because I had to. For my sanity.

This is by no means a personal attack, however. I am about to do something totally lame and terrible, yet strangely apt - I just watched the video to a Destiny's Child song, and those words they sang are just right for this, so I'm going to quote them. Laaaaame!

"I'm wishin' you the best,
Pray that you are blessed,
Much success, no stress, and loads of happiness,
(I'm better than that)..."



read again now

Back to important things. New banner - hope you like it, it's stuck together bits of other illustrations because it's all I have at the moment!
I have re-discovered tweeting as well, still don't fully understand it but I think I am getting there, someone might be interested!

For those of you that think this blog is full of too many words at the moment, here are some pictures, hooray! I made a birthday cake for a friend of mine who turned 21 at the end of last month, and I got creative with the decorations...

I scoured Kidderminster for that Giraffe. £4.75 they wanted, in Early Learning! Christ! Eventually I found a bag of assorted jungle animals in BM, with awesome faces. For £1.99. Awesome. Someones getting an elephant cake next.

I can't remember if I posted a picture of Millie's birthday cake.. oh well seeing as I am putting cakey images up here I might as well rekindle the joy with food! I realised recently that when I have a camera in my hand I love taking pictures of animals, plants and food. I have probably said this before and I stand by it, they are just better behaved than people! Maybe one day I will be able to control a perfect portrait shoot. But, here's a cake in the mean time.

parrots

there has been a lot going on but I am far too tired to recount it all right now - I will post again soon so I can really go through! For now, here are some photos I took at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. In these particular ones I focused on birds, namely macaws and budgerigars, but I do have many of the plants which I might put up tomorrow. I do think these birds are rather beautiful, especially the one that squawked "ello children!" at us.

four

repulsion number four - my iPod is broken. it works but it cannot be clicked.

damn.

some work coming soon.. :) hate not having a laptop

maps

I'm currently embarking on a project that involves creating an illustrated map. I've never done a map before, and I'm still going through my usual trouble of creating interesting linework and not knowing how to add colour to it, so it should be an interesting journey. I have been experimenting with using pen and ink instead of fineliner at the moment and it seems to be working quite well for me, shame I spilt half of my black ink pot all over my desk at uni the other day though! Here's a page from my sketchbook with some pen and ink experiments..

I also went to the Tate in St. Ives today, and saw their exhibition of Dexter Dalwood's paintings and collages. I'd never heard of Dalwood before, but I enjoyed the way that he used collages as a starting point for his large oil paintings - the way he faithfully reproduces the images, right down to the torn edges and cut pieces of paper was visually stunning. I also found the back stories of each piece quite interesting, particularly the series of interior paintings that represented events in popular history.

Soon I will be starting another blog - a film review blog - which will include illustrations and my own writing. I'm not really expecting a big readership but it'll make a good hobby and a good project in the meantime.

repulsion

I repel technology. I really do.

Repulsion number one - Laptop Charger. I am writing this blog fom my boyfriend's laptop, as my laptop charger is currently having a fit. I have no idea why, maybe it broke because...

Repulsion number two - we had a ten hour long power cut. In the midst of this power cut my flatmate managed to give me a fat lip by way of hug/walk collision. AND I missed Being Human, so I don't know quite how to feel.

Repulsion number three - my lovely Skullcandy headphones have broken... which makes me feel very sad. I've had them for about six months now and the headphone plug wire has come loose... good job I have some old spare headphones I can use!

Seeing as I don't have my laptop at the moment, I had to refer to my deviantart page to get some form of work to show. (http://cultcartoon.deviantart.com/) So here is a photo of my cousin's cat, for your enjoyment! :)

people

Since completing my information project, I have been home to research for a new project that started this week. In that week I had the pleasure of surprising my best friend on her eighteenth birthday with a visit, which was an absolute delight. She had been begging me to come home and I managed to convince her that I couldn't come no matter what happened, so to see her face when I appeared standing behind her was a wonderful thing - I even made her burst into tears! Her appreciation at the mere fact I was there made me realise how much I appreciate her and miss her while I am here, and made me think about friends. I'm the kind of person who doesn't need hundreds of friends and cherishes the ones that are closest to me, and they are all so different that I feel lucky to know them all. Oh, cheese, please.

Moving on. For the past two weeks I have been scanning fashion magazines and it is safe to say I am quite obsessed with floral patterns at the moment, particularly roses and big colours. It is the only trend I will be following however, as I can't see myself in yellow or sportswear or modern army gear somehow! Since learning of the tragic death of one of my favourite designers, Alexander McQueen, a couple of weeks ago, it has made me question what is going on in fashion and I hope there are people like him graduating so that we have fresh and unusual pieces coming back into the world soon.

Finally, some pictures, yipeee. I have scanned a couple of spreads from my reportage sketchbook that I keep for my course at uni, I admit I am not very good at keeping it so these are some of the better spreads. Enjoy!

complete

Finally handed in my information project, which I have been working on ridiculously for the past few weeks. That's why I haven't been posting in a while, but now that I have a little more time on my hands I'll be able to come back with some more probably not very interesting stuff to talk about.

First off, I saw this link on facebook and think it is fantastic, a great resource for any illustrators or freelance graphic designers out there - http://www.escapefromillustrationisland.com/

it covers many topics and has a large community of fully fledged and just starting out illustrators, discussing important topics. I've only read a few so far, but even from there I can see it's going to be a great source of useful information.

Next I thought I would share a little of my drawing with you, just a smidgen, seeing as it's been a while since I actually post something on here. In the next week I'll be working on something as a birthday present, so after the big reveal I'll be able to share that one with you as well. This image is an information piece that didn't quite make it into the final artworks, it's simply showing a step from a recipe I wrote for the book.

Over the next week I'll be doing some brainstorming and things to get my head together for the next project, which is based on my study visit. Looking forward to getting out there and finding some new inspiration!

lapse

so you can probably tell I'm no good at sticking to things. The only thing I've really managed to stick at is drawing and my relationship, both of which I have a soulful of passion for, and even then my passion for drawing sometimes wanes.

But I have seen a fair few awesome blogs again recently and it's given me another jolt to start writing this again. Plus the fact that I have to fulfil the cliché of having a new year's resolution - hey it's a bit late coming but I did it.

New year, new projects, new horizons. Currently embarking on an informational illustration project revolving around cakes (shockingly) and it's getting me involved with photography more. I recently purchased a Nikon D40 and I am rather in love with it, I'm still learning the subtlety of controlling the settings but I think I'm getting there.

also, I've been reading a lot of film magazines recently and I have become very excited about a number of films that will be hitting screens in 2010, namely -

• Up In The Air
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I
• Eclipse
• Food, Inc.
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Prince of Persia
• Precious

and there are loads of others. If I get to see all of them I'll let you know how good they are. But for now, here I am back on blogger, and hopefully won't lapse for three months again. enjoy