CURSES! I've been foiled. Last night I spent hours over my drawing, this time a computer drawing, and then at ridiculous past 4 in the morning my computer crashed losing my work. I spent a further hour or so trying to get the work to recover. No such luck. I went to bed very dejected. This morning I started on the work afresh. Hopefully, I will be able to post it up soon, but in order to prevent missing out on the submission for the week I am going to post this link to the website and fill in the drawing later.

Here is a temporary sample of the little I did save:

EDIT: And here it is. It was much quicker second time around *sigh*:

This one looks roughly done, and it is roughly done. I had a nice idea for this drawing and it never came to fruition. As usual I left it to the last minute and didn't get the down the idea I had in my head. I wanted to do this as a possibly animated picture of the girl flying the kite (maybe indoors for a reveal). Drawing it though was another matter - I can never produce anything approaching the ideas in my head. I threw this together in the last couple of hours. Pen and ink and watercolours. I want the outfit I have drawn her in - boots, dress and coat. Also, I can't draw hair to save my life - or most other things for that matter. It's yet another case of "oh well... at least I drew something when I thought I was going to miss it altogether this week."


"The weather was breezy - just perfect for kite flying."

I sort of forgot about Illustration Friday this week - I spent a lot of time under the bedcovers having a sleep (still not feeling so good). So it occurred to me a few hours ago that I should at least make an attempt to put something together. I did a little research of the topic and remembered the Freudian ideas of the Death Instinct (Thanatos) and Life Instinct (Eros) - the need to reproduce and the need to destroy. This is my attempt to incorporate those two ideas in a picture: the beetle will fight to destroy a rival because of an instinct to procreate. I found a photo of beetles fighting online and took liberties with it, painting the beetles with acrylics onto an old Easter egg box :D. On the computer I changed the card to the green colour. As you can tell this is pretty rough and was completed rather swiftly. Not the best, but ok.

Ok, this is a bit of a cheat this week - it was Joanne's birthday so here is the card I made for her to represent the theme of "Celebrate". Yet another fox, and in some ways similar to the girl drawing. This time this fox is celebrating a birthday. I feel guilty for being a bit cheaty this week but I have not been so good this week. If I get around to drawing my original idea for the week, then I will post that up too and update this entry, but just so I have something up for this week:

Ok, I'm really not happy with this week's one. I spent far too long faffing around this week, wondering how I should draw an owl. Consequently, I ended up doing the whole of the drawing last night. It is not what I envisioned when I had the idea last Friday. It'll do though and at least I have managed to draw this week.

It is a bit of a 3D construction - painted cardboard, bits of coloured card, pen and ink and acrylic on brown cardboard. Then, all of this was stuck onto my bedroom wall.



"His teacher, who was incidentally also a witch, was a strong believer in the concept that a person's punishment should fit the crime. Therefore, the punishment, she concluded, that should be endured by a boy who was rarely on time for anything, was to be put in a place where he should never forget what time it was. In this instance that place was the classroom clock. However, the witch/teacher was not what you would call a very logical creature, and inexplicably turned him into an owl to boot. The noise was excrutiatingly loud to his small ears."

I am mildly happier with this illustration than the one for last week - partly because I felt more inspired and partly because I spent a longer amount of time over it in short spells (as opposed to last week when it was a concentrated afternoon). My mum quite liked this one too, which makes me feel better, but dad didn't register much interest in it. So, this is a mixture of pen and ink, collage, poster paint and computer editing. I realise it is not up to the standard of most of the artists that do Illustration Friday, but hopefully I will improve.

I shall do a proper life related update and the photo requests sometime soon.

EDIT: Thank you to the lovelies that gave such wonderful comments - they have really cheered me up.

I am debating as to whether or not to submit my link to the Illustration Friday website. I only really started on the picture this afternoon. I dislike everything about the picture except for the shape of the fox. It doesn't really fit the topic too well either - he is meant to look like he is trying to climb the tree but can't. Sigh... at least I drew something this week.

I signed up to the Illustration Friday thing. The newsletter they send out is a little confusing. Anyhow, even though I had an idea for last week's drawing, I never got around to actually putting pen to paper before the deadline. It was my nana's birthday yesterday and she is in hospital recovering from an operation.

I haven't been to visit her. In fact I haven't seen her in ages. I am a bad person. I think I might be getting a cold though (sneezles) so perhaps I should stay away. Then again the sneezing is not a clear sign I am ill and I might just be making excuses.

I thought I might like to get in on the fun, so I have copied this from saywhatyousee, however it probably won't work as well as it has for Anneke or Nadia, since I have very few friends:

1. Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life you're curious about.
2. Leave your requests as comments to this entry.
3. Please look at the previous requests as to not do repeats.
4. I'll snap the pictures and post them.

Am I particularly clumsy, or does everyone burn themselves when they do the ironing? I burn myself virtually every time, usually by punching the iron by accident. Normally, it is only a small burn on the knuckle, but this time it is a bit bigger and therefore more painful. Oh well, I guess I have learnt something - the skin goes all flat and shiney instantaneously it would seem.

So, New Year and that... and there doesn't seem to be much hope of a job, which is poo because I need to pay back my overdraft by June. There are no jobs around here and it is only set to get worse with all the shops closing. The only job vacancy I have seen recently is for waiting staff in a pizzeria, but from what other people have told me there is no point applying - ridiculous hours, underpaid and too picky.

Other stuff:
- I can't get over how good League Of Gentlemen is. As soon as I finished the boxset I started watching it from the beginning again.
- My Patrick Wolf photos have racked up more views in the week or two since I put them up on Flickr than my other photos have in the months they have been there. Also, my drawings for cards do better than photographs on deviantart.
- Charlie Brooker is excellent, for Nadia's benefit (if the sizing is wrong for you let me know and I can adjust it for you):

His latest column made me chuckle: Here it is in a nice version where we don't have to read other people's comments afterwards

This year's Christmas card from me that I put together this evening. I would probably redo it if I had the time since I screwed up a fair few things on it i.e. the paint, trees etc. ... but I put the effort in and that is what counts. I am sorry that I couldn't afford/didn't have time to send some cards through the post.

Anyway...

I've not got much to say - I'm not too good at this blogging/diary keeping lark. I don't think I have ever really managed to keep a diary and I have little to no interest in doing so. My life isn't active enough to have anything worth writing about.

Here's a summary of the past couple of weeks or so:
- Blew up my television with Pan's Labyrinth still inside it. (Later managed to rescue DVD).
- Had new television bought for me as present for finishing my degree.
- Sister back from Jersey.
- Television has computer connection in it, so I buy a VGA cable which allows me to start using my laptop again (Until I can afford a new one).
- Spent so long doing the washing up that I hurt my back and was in pain for 4 days.
- Put £5 in my account in 1p and 2p coins.
- Was slightly disappointed at the outcome of the promo artwork competition that I won, but bought a copy somehow.
- Was more pleased when I actually received the CD.
- Felt that I have isolated myself so totally - no gigs, no trips to anywhere to see friends, no new albums etc., so nothing to talk about, no money, limited Internet access. In other words felt sorry for myself.
- Somehow ruined my bank account card by getting the online securecode wrong too many times and now it is blocked.
- Set up a Flickr account for some inexplicable reason.
- Watched so many episodes of Summer Heights High with my little sisters that we can't stop quoting it.
- Informed sisters about the creatures shown in Monster Hunter, leading to a slight obsession with the pombero legend and much stomach poking.
- Received letter about graduation.
- Went for several walks, so I won't get quite as fat.
- Showed my mum and little sister La Vita È Bella - they both loved it almost as much as I do.
- Applied for a part-time job at Superdrug which I won't get.
- Went to feed the squirrels yesterday and took photos.
Other than that I have achieved precisely nothing - I have not even managed to do any ironing or anything like that.

Anyway, at the moment I am really torn on the whole graduation situation: I don't know how you can get the certificate thing without attending the ceremony, but I desperately want to avoid going. For a start it is embarrassing, not to mention expensive. The thought of going up on to the stage in one of those stupid outfits, and having pictures taken fills me with dread. I don't feel like I have achieved anything that would make it worth my while going to the ceremony. However, my mum wants me to do it, so that my nana can have a picture of me and that sort of thing, but I really don't care about any of it. What do I do...? Someone help me make a decision

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