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...

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.

Welcome to my crib!

Everyone once in a while, I like to tidy up my bedroom, because well, seeing so much shit all over the place just isn't very nice at all. So without furtherado, I show you my nice [well, almost] clean bedroom!

This is where I spend up to 90% of my waking time. I forgot to tidy up around there, as my desktop usually gets really messy with glasses, wires, discs, candy wrappers and my sister's make up wipes. Oh and there's my new guitar, and my sister's old CD player that she gave me. All too often will you hear songs by Enya and Lesiem playing out loud on this, hehehe!

This is where I keep some of my junk, like DVDs, CDs and SpongeBob products. I've been collecting SpongeBob things for about 4 years now, and it's hard to fund out where to keep it all! Underneath this shelf is my printer, scanner and my games consoles [PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast and Mega Drive].

Recently I was given this desk where I shove most of my art materials onto now, along with this nice lamp I got for my birthday. It's a bit narrow at the top, but it's big enough to hold an A4 piece of paper I guess. I'll tell you something though, it's better than doing drawings on the floor like I used to. I also stuck all my watercolour paintings on this wall for inspiration and decoration.

And here's a close up of the desk. It's pretty damn nice to keep all your tools, books and that in place, and man does that lamp make such a difference?

Cowabunga!

OK, I admit. In recent days I've been rather obsessed with the heroes in a halfshell, the Ninja Turtles. It was the painful neurotic type of obsession, the kind that makes me feel miserable and find it hard to keep my feelings in without spilling it all over the Internet. When I simply can't get the image[s] out of my head. But what was bugging me most was whether or not I should pay nearly £7 to see the new TMNT movie in the cinema.

In the end, I did, just today. And it was such a BRILLIANT movie. I couldn't stop moving around in excitement, the animation was just stunning. And to think that I wasn't that big of a TMNT fan throughout my childhood [personally, I thought that the new version looked awful, I tried to watch it but just couldn't]. As for the old series, well you know what 80's cartoons are like being horribly animated and inconsistant at points, but it was more bearable. What I do find fascinating though is the difference between the original intro and the UK version of it [I live in a country where it was known as HERO turtles at the time] - oh man, the edits! They're hilarious!

Man, feels good to have watched A movie after about 1 and a half years. It's damn expensive though, that's the thing, but it's nice to treat myself to something special every once in a while. I'm gonna be shouting shit like "Cowabunga dude!" for the next week now! Either that or what me and my sister used to sing over the old theme tune - "Heroes in a halfshell, PEEL-A-PEEL!"

Art dump numero uno

Man I haven't posted any art, drawings or whatever in like, forever since my last commission. So yesterday, I suddenly had a boom of ideas and tried to draw some of them down... some of them however... these two I've done of my "fish-sona" have got to be the scariest things I've ever drawn.

Summary of my new job. I hope no-one in the library saw this one.

Um...OK...what?

Well, here's a less scary, un-inked picture of the Robo meditating while listening to Lesiem albums..."Wherever I go, wherever you are, the peace that you bring has lifted me so far and now I see, its a miracle..."

"WILL YOU START THE FANS PLEASE?" I can watch the Crystal Maze in the kitchen now that we've got a Virgin Media box in there ;)

Straight after drawing Richard O'Brian and his crystals, I looked at a few jars that were next to the telly. Guess which one's which.

Also drawn were a few new Rayman and James Pond fanarts which I might post next time. Or colour them. Whatever I feel like doing. God it feels so good to be drawing again.

One week without my internets

Man what a palava that last week was. I've been without home Internet for an entire week and I had to pay £1 a pop on one of those computers in McDonalds. They're awful - they have no mouse so you have to literally poke the touchscreen just to get it to scroll, and the metal "keyboard" is a surefire way to break one's fingers. You can't even cut and paste or print, save or basically do anything apart from going on the Internet.

Thankfully, I got my broken modem plug replaced today thanks to someone from Virgin Media who came round and put a new digibox into the kitchen. Oh I missed real internet so much!

Anyway, while I was away I did loads of different things. I finally got to see my sister's flat after a trip to Ikea, I've had an interview at a PDSA charity shop and got a trial to start, and I turned to the golden age of 20. I had a lovely birthday on Wednesday...

Me, mum, my sisters and Carla's boyfriend all went to London for shopping and stuff. I wanted to look in Forbidden Planet first, which took us about an hour just to find and I didn't even buy anything from there. Then we took a bus over to Harrods to meet Dean the boyfriend's sister, and that's where I bought a Mr Krabs plush in the toy department, along with pissing about with display toys.

Lastly I had a good look in Virgin Megastores and HMV for a bunch of CDs I wanted, but only came out with two - Lesiem's Auracle and Enya's Day Without Rain, which made good use of the gift voucher Danielle got me. I also opened up to a new SpongeBob bag and socks, a Once Upon the Forest DVD [used to love that film as a kid], and a nice new 160GB external harddrive. Cool eh?

As for art, well at first I didn't do much, felt rather uninspired. But yesterday I bought some new dip pens and nibs and an A6 sketchbook [for whenever I go out]. I wasn't too happy with the former at first and I ended up breaking the feeder on one of them, but I soon got used to one of them. So far the one I like best is slightly better than my 4-year-old calligraphy one.

I also finished a commission while I was away, which will be on DeviantART shortly.

A new hope maybe...?

The other day, my sister came home and stayed for the night. The next morning, she gave me the suggestion that I try apply for some local voluntary positions in places like libraries and chairty shops. So I joined a site called Do It, and sent my profile there to a few jobs.

The next day, I got a letter from the PDSA. It came with a guide to what voluntary jobs are on offer, and an enrolment form which I've yet to fully complete [just need two references]. I really hope I get this, for so many reasons - the PDSA charity shop I want to work in is only down the road, so that's a great opportunity to get a good morning walk more often; I need the work experience, and most importantly, to get out of this house! I can't stand doing nothing but be trapped in here.

Of course I can't keep all my hopes up, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I've also got another commission! Thankfully I won't have to ship this one, as it's going to be CG'd. When I went to ship my last commission I had to pay £6 for a recorded delivery! I must remind myself to update my commission info at DeviantART.

One more thing, I'm into a new band! They're called Lesiem, and by god it's amazing stuff! Can't seem to find the Mystic Spirit Voices album in the local mall yet though, but I might be lucky in London. Who knows, I might be able to bag hard copies of Lunatica and Delain albums while I'm at it. Oh, and I wanna get Within Temptation's new album as well.

I'm cold...

I don't know how I've become like this, but I seem to get really cold so easily, despite being clad in one of the warmest pyjamas I have, and having socks on. I do have a radiator right next to me, but I don't have it on in case it gets too hot in here. And I can barely be arsed to put my dressing gown on. So yeah, I'm kinda bringing this on myself, but who do I get so cold in the first place? It's March already and it's supposed to be getting warmer.

I guess I just don't feel at my best these days. I really miss my older sister since I hadn't heard from her in almost a month, I had a PMT triggered tantrum the other week because I couldn't get home in time to tape Harry Hill [which I did in the end thanks to a repeat], and I've barely been able to go out since if I ever get a £20 note it's spent faster than I can type the next paragraph.

While I did manage to get that Ducktales DVD at last, within the past two weeks I decided to try herbal tea. First I had a go at green tea, which is pretty much like normal tea but without the milk and sugar. Then last Friday I tried nettle tea. Not bad actually, but it does taste strange. It's supposed to have iron in along with loads of other nutrients, since my mum thinks I get anaemia. I haven't noticed any of the benefits kicking in yet though...maybe it's to keep drinking it more or perhaps not using boiling hot water. I would have thought it'd be expensive, but I got my box of 25 for just £1.05, not bad at all!

I really feel the need to take a good long break from computing, but what will I do within the time? Everything on the internet just annoys or upsets me and I feel so snappy and miserable. Life outside the internet is so boring because I have no job and I'm barely given any chores to do, neither do I have much money to take myself somewhere a bit nice than Romford. I guess that's what happens when you live on a maximum of £20 a month in benefits since I can't find a job that's suitable for me.

Ugh, and I feel a headache coming on now...

Keep on Spinnin'!

So much for my Youtube rant when I find things like this.



You've probably seen me go on and on about this all the time, but here's why.

I can think of about three times when this whole ITV schools on 4 thing used to scare the complete shit out of me. First was when I was just a wee girl in infant school, aged about 6 - so the class I was in were sent to the main hall one day to watch Time for Maths, which was an equally scary CGI programme which was set in a farm. I can remember a scene from this which involved a spider so bloody clearly!

But what else I can remember clearly was when I first saw the "ITV" rotomotion...everything from the music to its plain 3D creepiness had me trying to avert my entire face, but it was only when the clock came on...I actually screamed and tried to run out of school! I only made it through half the corridor when I was caught by a teacher, taken back to the hall and then made to watch the programme.

Act 2 took place a year later, when I started year 3, and they still had tapes they recorded within the time ITV Schools on 4 had run. This time, we were taken to an upstairs room and made to watch what I think was Believe it or Not - well, it was definately a programme about religions, since I can definately remember it being about Sihks. And you know what happened? The 3D clock came on, and yes, I freaked out again. My teacher even rewinded it to see if it was that I was reacting so badly to. I spent the rest of the lesson with my eyes closed and ears plugged. God knows what my teachers must have made of both these "incidents".

After Easter in that year - 1994 - I had to be sent to another school, where I had to be in the special unit for since my old school couldn't figure out why I was being such a retard with everything, not just ITV schools. Act 3 actually didn't involve the CGI graphics, as they were long gone by the time I moved into that school. But the memory I kept still caused silliness when we were made to watch school programmes.

Instead of the roto and the clock, there was just a picture of what the programme was going to be about [in this case, Ancient Egypt], and a simple number countdown. Thinking that the clock would still appear, I just simply couldn't stand to watch the TV, so I was sent to a table where I did the same eyes-closed ears-blocked thing as I did last time. Not only did that kept me in late after the day ended, it also costed me a trip to the British Museum.

Later I was then finally reassured when I actually tolerated an episode of Science Start Here, and saw no sign of the dreaded CGI.

It's funny when you think of one thing so differently now than when you were a kid. Mind you, I didn't like anything 3D when I was little - I didn't like the Herbs, Morph, Huxley Pig and lots of other things that were 3D. Nowadays I just laugh it off and watch it like it doesn't scare me at all.

And another thing - I know why it is now, but back at the time I used to wonder why in bleeding hell there was a huge ITV thing on Channel 4! This whole thing is almost 20 years old now, and to celebrate, I'm planning to make a remix of Just a Minute, the song that was used in the clock. Because I'm uncool like that.

And to reassure myself, I wasn't the only one.

Traditional Toolkit!

Better make this one as quickly as I humanly can, it's really late here...

This past week as been nothing but dog walks, tidying up and laughing at Britney's head. But I've been wanting to do this for a long time now.

Well, I have to come down to this and say that in recent times I've become such a traditionalist. It was only when I realised that I had LOADS of watercolour paint left anf I thought, why not use it?

So I pulled out my camera and took a few shots. I must warn that this will be an image heavy post, so dial-up users brace yourselves!

Well, here's most of it. Markers, paints, pencils and all other bits and pieces are kept here.

The rest is kept in here - oil paints, Karisma pencils, a couple of pallettes and a box of spare Copic markers.
Here's where I keep all my sketchbooks and pads. I tend to buy a lot of them over time, and I get though them so quickly drawing all kinds of crap in. I usually get either A4 or A5, but I happen to like 10x7 inch ones best now. Just the right size.

Paint, masking fluid, a Nutella jar used as a water jar, and white ink. I have black ink as well which isn't shown here. The pallete below is the latest addition to the toolkit. Personally I don't really like tubes that much, so I decided to use the paint in "pan" style...

Pens, pencils and erasers are kept in this little tin. This could do with sorting out big time, since I shoved all kinds of pens in there, however old and worn out they are. You can also see a few plastic rulars and a cutting mat, which is obviously more durable than cardboard.

Brushes now, and as with the pens, I keep an assortment - meaning old and worn to brand spanking new ones. I use old ones to mix paint and apply masking fluid on.

These are Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, and in the tin are gouache paints. I hardly ever use the gouaches, and I've barely touched the pencils in forever. They're such a bitch to sharpen, now I remember why I sharpened them with a knife rather than a sharpener!

I just LOVE these - Copic markers. I've used these for about a year now and they're perhaps one of the best types of traditional tool I've ever used! Shame they're so expensive and hard to get hold of! I have to take a train ride to one shop I know that sells them. There's also one Kurecolor too which I used to be able to get locally. They can be just as good as Copic, but not many colours are available.

Now here's all the random crap I keep. I really should get rid of some of this, since I don't even use it. It just ranges from crappy old oil pastels [oil pastels a few of my artistic mortal enemies along with charcoal] and a toy water pistol.

And here's the rest - curve rulers, sharpeners, knifes, scissors, adhesives and the rest of the bunch are kept in here.

Of course, just because I have tons of art materials there it doesn't mean I've stopped using Photoshop! That's one of my more important tools for when I need to do stuff like colour adjusting, colouring, inking and cleaning.