Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Finally did something original...

And by that, I mean not a copyrighted character.

There's loads here that I need to work on in future, but I'm proud of the fact that I can pull such an artwork off. This comes from a number of drawings I've done of anthropomorphic animals which were derived from a book about animals I love to look at everytime I go round my nan's. It's just that the way the animals have been depicted that make me imagine something human about them, like this creature called an olm - makes me think of a jazz musician for some reason - and some bird called an umbrella bird that makes me think of Elvis. If anything though, I just HAVE to make a picture of a cock-of-the-rock, which is basically a bird that looks like it has an orange segment on its head, not to mention how funny its name is.

Wish the weather here would better itself...

Friday, June 15, 2007

Life I guess...

I can't say that I've had anything truly exciting happen to me in the past couple of months. So I think I'll make a low down:

The job. I work as a retail assistant at a charity shop, the PDSA [People's Dispensary for Sick Animals], where I spend about two hours either changing over clothes - that means taking them off the rails, replacing their tags with a new date on them, and taking them back again - sorting through donation bags having to throw anything that's in poor condition, and steaming, which is like ironing but it's like a hoover with an iron at the end.

The only catch is that I don't get paid for it, as for all voluntary jobs. Luckily it's only down the road and a ten minute walk away, so I don't need to take the bus there and back. The people I work with treat me fairly, we can all get free snacks and drinks, we can even buy stuff we find in the sort before they get put out on sale, so what's to complain about? Well, I can't seem to feel the difference for me yet. Of course I'm getting more exercise by walking, and when I want to I can take a walk in the park, but all in all I still end up sitting here on this PC for hours on end, so I don't know if two hours is enough for me or not. But I guess any time I spend there is experience, which is what I'm aiming for.

Next thing is art. So yeah, I've had another commission and I made a new piece of fanart of The Trap Door that I submitted to DeviantART today, but other than that I don't seem to draw much other than silly little doodles. The other day I tried to do some oil painting, but all I seemed to do was just smudge paint all over the piece of canvas and getting everything dirty at the same time, hands included. Perhaps I need to study more, like the local park for example. I love it there, from the bridge and brook to the view at the top of the hill. Running down it with the dog like I did some time ago was thrilling, oh why can't I be bothered to do that on a regular basis? One day, I need to take my art supplies to the park and actually get recordings of it. Feck only knows how that would help me in terms of both my artistry and my health.

Lastly, last month I finally got to stay for a night round my sister's flat in Westcliff. Though I felt withdrawn from not having internet, it was brilliant to get away from the humdrum that goes on back at home. So that night, we spent it watching telly mostly, from stuff that's on Virgin TV On Demand or my DVDs that I brought over. The next day my sister took me to the shopping centre in Southend, where I bought a couple of Tria Markers for real cheap in an art store that's just as heavenly as Hobbycraft, and that's before something funny happened. On our way home to her flat, we stopped at a bagel shop where this nutty woman looked at me and said "Have you seen Happy Feet?" She also kept saying to the shop owners things like "What part of Israel have you been too?" and "Do you have desserts here?"...oh gawd, we just wanted to finish our bagels and get the hell out of there. It was a fun day nonetheless, and it's time like that I feel I'm at my happiest.

Before I go to bed, I must tell another funny yet embarrassing story. I was at work on Tuesday where I was tagging clothes, when one of them fell down. Clothes that fall down piss me off, so I bent down to pick it up, and my favourite jeans had ripped a massive hole! God this was so embarrassing, I had to keep my arse covered so that nobody could see it. Since I work in a charity shop, I could easily buy a new pair for just 49p, so that was what I had to do. The thing about jeans is that most of them have legs that are too long for me. I loved those jeans I had, because they fitted me well, though not perfectly since my arse is too big for them now. Something tells me that I have to cut down on the candy.

I'll leave you with a small illustration.

God I love Stoppit & Tidyup.