Bank Holiday

... turned out all rainy and cold, so I was stuck indoors at a bit of a loose end. So, I decided to go through the old toolbox underneath my desk - I miss working into my journal the way I did when I was at uni, so I had a good creating session!

Photos from a 2016 journal

Ever since we've moved house it's been hard to find some spare time to journal, but I very much enjoy it when I do. I did manage to complete one diary, given to me by a very good friend, Nanette. Here's some photos from that journal:

 



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Other artistic goals of mine accomplished this year along with my journal:

- Designed and successfully stitched a Crash Bandicoot sampler - once it's framed, proper pictures and a post to come! I'm very proud of it. I also successfully completed some Steven Universe character stitches (patterns documented below), more of those to come hopefully.

- Designed and stitched a 50th birthday sampler for my Mum (which is now pride-of-place on top of the bookcase)

- Crocheted many pairs of socks and gloves for a charity drive this Christmas

- Crocheted three baby blankets for 2016-babies (and currently one on the go for a 2017-baby).

Happy 2017, everyone! Let's hope it's a good one.

Journals From Last Summer

Hooray - I now have a device that can access the internet, and an easier way of getting photographs from my camera! I'm now back in business, although I spent a lot of tonight going through all the shots I've taken in the past year or so.

I'll start with some Embodiment Journal shots. Sadly Embodiment has fallen by the wayside since The Wonderful Smaz and I moved here - there's just been so much going on that I've rarely found time to sit and journal. I need to get back into the habit of taking it with me wherever I go, so I can snatch a few minutes here and there. Logging back into Flickr - although a pain as I've not done it in such a long time that my brain needs refreshing on logins and passwords - was very inspiring. I can't believe how much I got done in the earlier days of the challenge, and how crammed my notebooks were ...

(click photos to enlarge)


 


The above two were a prompt I received over Facebook (I think?). I've never been camping before so I idealised the heck out of it - in reality we'd probably be in a damp tent huddling around a hot water bottle!! It might be fun to try one day, though.
 
Sadly, my Nana passed away in August last year, after a very long struggle with vascular dementia. This journal page was done after the last time I visited her in the home - she was asleep for most of the visit, and I was in the room alone with her. She looked so peaceful but so different from the Nana I knew growing up - the journal page shows some of my favourite and most vivid memories of her.





Some designs I quickly sketched out for Smaz's video game, Dark Matter Hudokai. Itami, the character shown, appears in one of the story arcs and is part of a cat-like alien race - and I tried to get across her cutesiness without making her look 'catgirlish' especially as the character description called for pink hair.



And finally ... a quick watercolour of next door's garden. I was stunned when I first looked out of our hobby-room window - their garden really is lovely!

Yarn Along: Feet

The past couple of days I've been crocheting a pair of socks, although it's a surprise who they're for. I can make them up quite quickly now, and the yarn I'm using is a really nice shade of purple. Fittingly, the book I've currently got my nose in is The Girl With Glass Feet, by Ali Shaw. I'm not very far through it yet but so far it's very interesting - it gets the balance of fairytale and realism just right, and I love Shaw's use of description. You can't see it here, but each page is gilt-edged with silver to match that lovely cover design.

I've also almost finished my eleventh Embodiment book. I have a day off tomorrow, so hopefully I can finish the socks and the journal!

(Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along.)

Polyrhythm the Busy

Hi, blog-readers! Like many university students now, most of my time nowadays is devoted to job-searching. While I do get the occasional commission coming in (which I really love doing), it's nowhere near enough for me to live off of. So far I've had some positive experiences (and one not so great ... but it made for a good story). I just have to keep my head up and keep busy, and that's what I've been doing. It's very easy, when you are out of work, to feel useless. Sadly, charity volunteering is out of the question right now as I have to remain flexible. I have learned that flexibility and a driving licence is very desirable to employers ... and I only have the former.

So I've been preparing for Christmas already! I have quite a sizeable family, and a few friends who I'd like to give presents to - but I somehow think I'm not going to be too flush this year. Even if I get a job, it'd be unwise for me to spend a lot in the festive season.

So, I've turned my monetary situation on its head and challenged myself. This year, I will be giving everybody (well, everyone on a usual Christmas 'buy for' list) something handmade. I have a ton of yarn lying about as well as spare embroidery floss and spare Aida, so this will be a great chance to use it all up as well as ensuring I stay creative ... and get well into the Christmas spirit. Everyone wins, especially my bank account!

(The things above are pin-badges, by the way.)

CMTV has started up again! While there isn't anything official (videos, a YouTube channel, a site) released yet, I'm part of the team behind it once more - and this included writing a short story. The short story - the origin of Polybot - is being told in webcomic form, as seen above. You can read it here (opens in new window)!

The Embodiment journal is still going as strong as ever. I've completed this beast of a book above, and have moved onto a little Cath Kidston number. You can see all the public Embodiment page spreads at my Flickr, here - newer photos are at the bottom!

Kawaii, Oh My

First off: If you're not busy this week, head down to the Vyner Studio! You may recall me mentioning that the pieces in the entry below were being done for an exhibition - well, they're on show there as part of the Tea Party Club's 5th Anniversary event! Check it out!

I'm still going strong with the Embodiment project, but I think my Moleskine (notebook) is getting a little tired of watercolour washes over and over again. Taking the hint from my good friend Addy, I bit the bullet and ordered from Modes4U.

I ordered a couple of 10-pack deco tape sets (very cheap at about £3 per pack) and, as I'd just received a paycheck, some adorable stickers. They posted them out to me within a couple days, and got here today - super quick for overseas shipping!

They also threw in an extra deco tape (Rilakkuma-themed) as a thank you for ordering from them. How sweet! As well as journalling my adventures, deco tape is also good for sealing packages or adding a bit of cute to thank-you cards. With good prices, excellent shipping and customer service, I'd definitely shop again with Modes in the future.

As for Embodiment spreads, as I've not done one of these posts in a while:

Includes the laminated Loli conbadge I'd done for myself at the event.

Even things like business cards and packaging for teabags cannot escape my journal!

And, to top it all off - my Three Lolifriends image was used as a design for the back of a compact mirror for the Tea Party Club's Sunday tea party event. One of my Lolita friends, Jennifer, was kind enough to take a photograph for me as I couldn't attend the Sunday tea party:

I'm well chuffed!

Hothead

Thanks to Ad, the Hell's Medic for the prompt! This painting was done in my Embodiment journal (and bled right through onto the other page ... I was a bit heavy handed with the gouache) in-between university drawings. It's a self portrait, while at the same time representing the element of fire.

I used gouache, Daler-Rowney pearlescent liquid acrylics (which I've taken to collecting) and good old fashioned inks.

I will get to uploading some university work soon - it'll be a long post but it's a needed one!

Embodiment in the new Academic Year

Very soon (in less than a week), I shall be a second-year student. How time flies.

On my 'off days', I like to muck around with pressing teabags into the journal pages (overnight is best, makes a great imprint), staining, paints, all sorts of lovely mess. This has given birth to a few page spreads.

A Polyrhythm is very many things. This was based from an exercise I had to do way back at the start of my GCSE Art course (that was many years ago).

This one got a bit of popularity on my Tumblr. I like how each layer is visible - like many scanned pieces I find it's nicer in real life, but generally I really like how it turned out. My journal, as well as being a diary of sorts, is a place where I can experiment with techniques and then take them further if they work out.

FEATURE: Ad, the Hell's Medic

The first artist I'm going to feature is Ad - Addy to his friends. This guy is a good friend of mine, and an amazing artist - he is a huge inspiration for my collaging and journal work. The wonderful work he produced (and still does!) got me to start up the Embodiment challenge a year and a half ago, a challenge that's still going strong to this day.

I love how vibrant the colours are, especially in those skies - this got me digging out my gouache paints to try out similar techniques for clouds (which I've always had trouble with).

My personal favourite is Webbed, pictured above - I just can't get over how intricate yet free-spirited the lines and brushstrokes are.

You can visit Addy at his Wordpress blog, Hell's Medic. Go have a look - it's a great read with lots of artwork to ogle over. If you're interested in buying some of this delicious artwork for your own collection, he also has an Etsy here.

All images are © Hell's Medic, 2011.

Embodiment Update

Ah. Looks like April went without its quote of the month. I'd remedy that but we're already in May. *d'oh*

I'm still doing Embodiment in between university work and my paid part-time job. I've been going a bit nuts with the needle and thread and gouache paint. Very all over the place - less 'deep dark sekrit' and more 'I wonder what'll happen if I do this ... ?'

It's hard to believe I've been doing this project for over a year now. 

Embodiment: One Year, Four (and a half) Journals

I picked 'The Day's Leisure' because it's such a nostalgic tune. Clannad isn't particularly nostalgic for me (although I've liked the series for a while), but the music just ... is. Gotta love Key.

Anyway. This is sommething I've been wanting to do for New Year's Eve to mark my first year in journalling. After I finish Book Five, I'm thinking of getting a Moleskine - I flicked through one belonging to one of my university course-buddies and the paper quality is beautiful, it'd be a real dream to write and collage on.

The photographs are ones I took over the course of the year, which is nostalgic in itself. The journals themselves are currently in storage and not very easy to get to (with the exception of Book Five, which I'm still working in) - also, I treat my journals like time capsules. Once they're put away, I'd like to leave it several years before digging them out again. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of Book Two, which was a text-only, spiral-bound A6 journal - but I do still own it.


I wish everyone a super 2011!

More Embodiment

Not a lot is really happening art-wise right now - a lot of my time during the week is taken up by my part-time position in an office. I actually really like most aspects of my job, so this isn't entirely a bad thing - but this has resulted in me pouncing on the prompts in Embodiiment and doing something artistic with them.






Last week, I retrieved some of my A-level artwork from my old sixth-form college. A lot of the stuff there I left behind, but I took most of my canvasses, a couple of sketchbooks and a few large paper sheets (also, my 3D cups-and-teapot piece). I expected to be there only for a few minutes but I stayed for a while just looking through all of my old art - most of which I hadn't seen in over a year, but it feels so much longer! The things I took home are on top of my wardrobe now (along with my Foundation portfolio) with the exception of my Spider canvas - that's hanging above my desk - and my teapot n' cups piece, which are on my window ledge.


That's really about it so far! As awesome as I find the Embodiment project, I am hoping to practise my artwork beyond this little book sometime this summer. (Maybe even get back into doing some digital work, as I haven't seemed to use my tablet in a while.)

Embodiment Project Goes Fourth

So this weekend, I finished my third Embodiment book, and started my fourth.


Nice n' simple.

I haven't posted much on the project - it's quite hard, given how personal this little book is, and how this blog is less so.





Although I write a lot in these books (and although offline it's very easy to tell what kind of mood I'm in, I don't find venting anger or frustration verbally an easy task) I'm getting quite artistic. Collage and painting is very therapeutic.

This needs updating

I've been pretty busy.

First things first (I use that saying so much online and offline) the exhibition is now open! The opening night was last Thursday, and so many people came in to see our work and support us. There were some last-minute changes to mine involving mounting some sepia-toned photographs onto the wall behind my main piece (the table, the doll and the book) and having to re-mount my lino-cuts for the exhibition into a folder, as my original plan of mounting them onto an A1 sheet like everything else did not work (not one of my proudest moments, as lino is weighty and I should have known that, AAAARGH). But in the end, everything worked out for the best. Photos soon. *phew*


I've also been doing more in my Embodiment art/text journalling project. I've gone back to Ryman sketchbooks (I tried the lined journal, and although I like the compact nature of it I needed tougher better quality paper and A6 was a bit too small) and I think I'll stick with them as I just love working in them so much.






(You know, watching this back, I'm really heavy-handed with the gluestick. o_o)


The video only shows the making of the background; the writing and heart-stickers were applied during a train-journey on my way to visit Smaz (who is alongside me in the photographs I use). I also got the chance to use up some of the old wallpaper that I've had since last summer (and before then were on the walls of this house before my family moved in) and although it takes a lot of glue to stick down, it's quite a nice texture.


Also, I recently finished colouring a poster for Korusan's game Tita Gasman, which is featured in this year's CM Home-Cooked Games Expo. I highly, highly suggest you check out CMTV's feature on it - the gamers are talented fellows and they've put in a lot of work over the months. Check them out!




For now, I shall leave it. There's more to come - next up will most likely be the exhibition post. I'm overseeing it tomorrow and Wednesday night. :)

Pirates and Deep Water

'Fraid I don't have the full picture with me right now (I'm at college) but here's the video I uploaded yesterday of me painting in my embodiment journal. I'm very much inspired by others who film how-tos in their own journals. :)

The Importance of Embodiment

Quoted from the Embodiment community over at LJ:

"THE GOAL OF EMBODIMENT: To write in a paper diary/journal every day, beginning Jan. 1st. Entries may be as short as a word or a sentence, or as long as several pages. Visual journal entries are also encouraged, including sketches, collages, or photography. Missing a day is not failure... but the GOAL is to keep a journal to document a year of your life, so, if you miss a day, two, or twenty - pick up that diary again and press forward!

WHY? Because in this digital realm where we can so easily delete and repeat, concretizing and externalizing in the form of a paper journal just feels good. If you still want to delete your thoughts when it's all over, you can have a ritual burning."


My first ever entry. I'd done this as soon as I got home from buying the sketchbook.

When I first started my embodiment journal, back at the start of January (I was a little late to the party, I started mine around the 4th or 5th) - something about it hooked me. Even though part of the embodiment challenge is to write or do something every day in your journal, I enjoy the freedom. You can do as little or as much as you like. Back in my early teens when I tried to maintain a page-a-day written diary, I didn't stick with it for longer than a month, because it felt so rigid - one page a day was either too little, or way too much (after a while of using other pages, I used to type it out instead, print it, fold it up and paperclip it to the page).

What did last longer was a little blue notebook I kept as a fifteen-year-old. This wasn't a traditional diary, but a notebook where I drew mind-maps, occasionally doodled and scribbled in bullet points (in various colours). At one point I even cut into the pages with scissors because I was that frustrated. That period of time in my life was a difficult one, and the notebook was a great comfort. I stopped using the book when that difficult period was over (and have since disposed of it along with my other handwritten diaries) but I still remember it perfectly and what it did for me.


This doodle was done the day after I received my second Lolita dress just after Christmas. It never fails to raise a smile.

The embodiment journal is a book I want to keep. This diary, hopefully, will not have the fate my others did - this one is hopefully going to be looked back on in ten years' time, twenty years' time. This diary isn't just going to document times of stress, but almost everything that goes on. There have been times where, if I've been stuck on what to write for the day, I've written about songs that have memories attached to them. If I can't sleep, I'll write about a memory or whatever it is that's on the mind. It's wonderfully therapeutic, and as the book grows thicker I've realised how much I don't want to forget. This has become one of my main reasons for embodimenting now - I don't want to forget, and if I ever do I can always turn back here.

Life seems to be moving very fast right now. If everything works out in my favour, I'll be at university by the end of the year. This time last year I was in sixth-form. This time three years ago, I was in high school. Heck, I'm nearly nineteen and I don't feel like it. I felt eighteen on the day of my birthday, like I'd jumped up a year, but I'd be lying if I said there weren't moments when I had to stop and think about it when I was asked what my age was, because I've felt younger.


A collage I did very recently - over Valentine's Day, I went on a short trip to spend time with the wonderful Smaz. The drawing of me is a photocopy of a commission he did for me last summer.

Embodimenting at least helps me sort out all the craziness by writing it down, drawing, painting or collaging. And maybe, when there's a peaceful period of time in life (like my retirement or something :P) - I can read through it all and start to make some sense of it.


If you're thinking of taking up the challenge, I urge you to. I was inspired by a friend - I hope that the journal entries I share can be an inspiration too.

This is blog-related

I've started an embodiment journal recently, inspired by my friend MirAngel's work. Collaging is a lot of fun, although as this is a very personal book of mine I'm picking and choosing the pages I show.

I'll include some pretty art so that this is somewhat on-topic. I know I said I'd curb the personal life stuff in the New Year - but the last paragraph in this post explains all, m'dears.

So, I've noticed Caleida, the blog site, has finally gone to the huge Update-Journal button in the sky. I'm a bit sad, to be honest, even though last time I used my most recent journal there it was November 2008 (remember my icon journal? Even if you don't, it's gone the way of the dodo now.)


It was kind of like a poor man's LiveJournal. I don't mean that as an insult because we loved it anyway - but it wasn't as good as LJ itself mainly because it wasn't as active. It was one of the clone sites - we could even use LJ tags and codes and they'd work just fine. However, back in my AOL days I had Parental Controls on my account and couldn't access LJ due to it being blocked. I could access the Caleida site, though, and I wasn't the only one in that situation of having that mysterious LiveJournal site blocked 'but here's something similar!'. I was extremely jealous of all of those who had Caleidas, because you could only obtain an account if you got a code from an existing user (before they opened it up to everybody).

My first journal was opened when I was about 13. I even had a super-cool username (it involved an x and an underscore, and my layout was purple and yellow with a Gryffindor icon - THAT'S how hardcore I was) and I kept it up for about a year before just ... dropping out of the habit of using it. I was writing short stories and fiction in Microsoft Word; I guess writing about my life didn't seem as appealing then, heh. I did set up a few new accounts afterwards; one was deleted, the other one completely private (I didn't use it much anyway, but re-visiting it last year was interesting ... I didn't know whether to laugh or cry). The third was my icon journal, which I think I've already mentioned up there.


The thing about Caleida I really did like though (this is going to sound quite sinister, but I honestly don't mean it to) is that it had a 'Recently Updated' list and I loved reading other people's journals. During 2008 and 2009, those last years, there were a few personal journals that still kept going. All the communities were dead - most went kaput in 2004 and 2005 when Caleida decreased in popularity and everyone moved to LJ. A few communities struggled to 2006, but only a handful and even then those posts never got replied to. But those few personal journals (and I was one of them back when I blogged regularly there), when they were public - were good reads. Two or three of them were private accounts - well, Caleida was so quiet, I guess it was added security for those who really wanted to write in private. A lot of the public-journal users were older than me, in their twenties, just blogging about their life. Once, a girl mused about how Caleida was so popular then everyone just disappeared - and she got four replies from the few of us left who shared the sentiments, me being one of them using my most recent account. We laughed a little, one of them even brought up that we should make a new community on there to try and revive the site a bit by reminiscing. A lovely idea, but I think even if we had done we may have been the only four on there.


I'd say it's down to nostalgia that I'm sad to see it just go. All the communities with their old entries, the old journals that their users have probably now forgotten completely ... I knew it wouldn't be around forever because the webmaster stopped using his own journal in about 2004/2005, but still.

I'm not quite sure why I wrote this here - I guess it's in case any old Caleida users try to visit the site, find out it's down, and go off to Google to see if there's any discussion on what happened to it. There isn't really; a question on Yahoo Answers that's now deleted asking what happened to it (thanks, Google Cache!) but that's all I could find. So if you come across my little ol' post here - yup, I was a blogger there once too, albeit a very young one, and it was part of my early internet life.


And here's one with some writing!!111!!