Gloves & Boots

These are drawings I've made during the past week. I've been experimenting with layering clothes over the basic person shape, rather than constructing the entire clothed figure as the base drawing. It's made me consider more carefully the shapes that the clothes themselves make as separate objects I've also really enjoyed giving my characters more defined hands and feet by adding gloves and boots. The two layers of paint and pen work well together because the base painting lets me construct an effortless shape with lovely texture and colour, whilst the layer of pen on top lets me add precision and definition to the characters and their personalities.

Listening to: Nina Simone - Feeling Good

Mashed Berry

In November last year I wrote 50,000 words for the sake of it in the brain-melting endeavour known as NaNoWriMo. The story is called Mashed Berry because its underlying plot revolves around magical, mind-altering berries which are utilised in various ways by the story's characters. 

Synopsis:

When rich scientist Dean Gaffney and a spooky electoral candidate team up to moderately inconvenience the world, Lilly is forced to help, but how can she help fix this unpleasant situation, and how are a bunch of slightly rebellious alien teenagers involved?

Excerpt:

"Dean Gaffney ordered a suit of gold leaf on the internet and lay back in his racecar bed with his goblet of $900 whiskey. He switched on a shopping channel on his new 6D television and watched intently as a smiley, bleach-toothed man who looked as if he was in receipt of frequent electric shocks rambled excitedly about a pair of dinosaur earrings with precious gemstones for eyes. Dean was quite impressed and wondered if he should get his ears pierced and start a collection of such beauties. He grabbed his mobile phone from atop his personal minibar full of amaretto and 29c lager, stopped for a split second to admire his own name scrawled unintelligibly in diamonds on the back, and dialled the shopping channel’s number. He sang along jollily to the hold music before purchasing the dinosaur earrings for $670. He was going to look gorgeous."

This is an unedited draft, and most of what I've written was forced out with my only goal being to meet the word count at all costs, so there is a lot of truly awful writing here, but there are parts of this story I really love too.

I am presenting the entire unedited text for your scrutiny/enjoyment/embarrassment. Good luck in there.

I LOVE OBLATE SPHEROIDS

 

Here are some of the latest drawings from my notebook. Full of lots of  shapes and flowers and smiling folks with blunt fringes.

Listening to: Indiana - Solo Dancing

Diary: "tasty cheddar and spinach sarnies"

All I write about in my diary is tea and food. I guess those are some important things. Is the "bread butt" the best part of a piece of bread? I think so.

Listening to: Moloko - Pure Pleasure Seeker

Fitting Room Focus: Tesco Florals

I have finally ripped myself away from H&M to visit the exciting world of Tesco again - the land of baroque patterning and 1D t-shirts that act as mood rings when their design starts peeling off at the first sign of you feeling thirsty or inquisitive and you're left inquisitively frowning at Louis Tomlinson's face as it flops away from your t-shirt sadly, almost as if it could feel distaste. Those are the two thing you can buy, basically (unless you want a t-shirt for your 3 year old son with the phrase "ladies' man" emblazoned on the chest, and I really, really don't).

Anyway as you can see below, I've accidentally dressed as a plum.

plum cosplay

top - £8

This is not a good photo for my hair, but consider an exercise in honest hair representation. We all, those of us who have hair, know that it rules us, not the other way around.

I needed to show you the only important part of this top - the cool detail. I could easily fantasise that all my tops have a lavishly detailed see-through panel. Why don't they have this? This top makes me question my lifestyle with its fancy panel.

top - £14

After retrieving my mind from the fantasy land of lace panelling, I tried on this top, which has an interesting and very cushiony pattern. If you are in the habit of dressing up as a cushion, this could be the top for you. It's a comfy one, and the cut is nice. All you have to do next is apply tassels around your edges.

top - £16

I saw this top on a rail and I thought the pattern was so cute. I've been wearing daisy patterns leggings recently so I've been in a bit of a daisy haze. When I tried it on, however, it felt as if I had put on an inflated balloon. The shape and size of the thing was impossible to understand, and I wondered briefly if this top had been made for a car engine to wear. It certainly wasn't human-shaped.
Lovely pattern, absolutely awful garment.

I couldn't bring myself to continue after the daisy top monstrosity. It could possibly fit my scanner, but my scanner refuses to wear anything other than crop tops. Speaking of which, here's a bonus H&M shot for any H&M fanatics out there:

"mon petit cheri" crop top - £3.99 H&M, daisy leggings - £3 Primark

Listening to: Yael Naim - Toxic

Sections

Sometimes it's good to cut things down. To take a small section of something and appreciate it singularly. To construct new collages out of small cool things extracted from big things. Discarded paintings, trees, your body. Everything you make, believe, and are is a collection. Don't forget your rotating potential to curate your experiences and images.

Listening to: The Damned - Melody Lee

Diary: "sunscreen smells amazing"

Here's my diary entries from this week in which I have mostly been in a sweaty 1D haze :-)

Listening to: Echo & the Bunnymen - Pictures on My Wall

Fitting Room Focus: Mate, It Is Pretty Sunny

top - £12.99, shorts - £12.99

This week is a somewhat shorts-centric post as the sweat-beams have started to zap Britain and the only solution is to be as naked as legally possible. It's another H&M visit as the comfort of a familiar H&M is almost all I can bear whilst deep inside the haze of sunny delirium that renders me 32% conscious at the best of times.

I found these shorts and hearts began to float out of my eyes. I love the distressed grey and they are the perfect tight fit. As for the top, the neckline is the winning detail, and the lace sleeves and shoulder panelling is a nice touch for hinting that you're in a 90s girl band without making it too obvious.

Socks are H&M, shoes are Primark.

skirt - £5.99

I also found this airy skirt, which is really light - perfect for coping with obscene heat. What I really like about the look of this skirt is the line of  black buttons running down the front. This would probably look ace with some cycling shorts underneath too.

lace dress - £19.99

I love dresses but don't wear them that much because I find separates more convenient usually, but in hot weather it sometimes feels a lot more free and breezy to wear a dress, as you're not having to lug around jumpers and things. I like the understated, relaxed peachy colour on this - that nice space between bright and autumnal. People need a rest for their eyes in super sunny times and this dress offers it, with a nice bit of lace detailing to ensure it stills subtly stands out.

Listening to: Saraya - Back to the Bullet

Doubles

For this post I have duplicated myself. It would be really useful to have another me to dance with and to quicken the dish-washing process and that sort of thing, but I think realistically we would end up fighting to the death. Not ideal.

Listening to: Paula Abdul - Straight Up

FLOATING INSIDE A BEAUTIFUL DREAM

This is a post of some of my most recent paintings and drawings. I have enjoyed focusing on painting these pages as a background for pen drawings added later. I've found that working in layers like this is really fun and encourages wild spontaneity and pleasing texture from the paint as well as fluid, expressive lines from the pen. The notebook sketches at the bottom were done whilst I was a little nervous. The characters and the scribbly pen movements help to focus me, calm me, and pour my negative energy into both creating something and reassuring myself.

Listening to: One Direction - One Thing