Designing our own Crash Bandicoot sampler, wedding edition (part 1)

So, this has been a long time coming! Ever since The Wonderful Smaz and I started making serious plans for our wedding ceremony, I knew I wanted to sew my own sampler to commemorate it (like how a Poundland 'wedding plate' is rolled out for every Royal wedding - except, y'know, far better). However, I didn't really know where to start - I knew I wanted it to be Crash-themed, but that was really about it.

Designing this one first really helped, especially when it turned out better than I pictured. Forever a cheapskate, I am still using graph paper, and my resulting designs have become very dog eared, crumpled, and liable to change at any moment. At my day job, they call this a 'living document'.

There are so many elements about my first sampler that I really like but the iconic items (crystals, gems, crates) were particularly fun to work on, so I used that idea of iconic as a starting point:

The top four panels are based off the wall textures from the levels Sunset Vista and The Lost City in the first ever Crash game. Smaz and I have always loved the aesthetic of these levels, and the music's pretty damned catchy too.

 

And below, our names worked in backstitch, the classic Crash icon on the left (again, introduced in the first game although you can see it in the N-Sane Trilogy edition too), Aku Aku on the right, and the Wumpa fruit with clear gems in the middle space - all four of these, can't get much more iconic than that!

I picked ecru aida as I really love the look of unbleached fabric; I get why if you're not a fan, but to me there's a beauty in no two similar pieces. It adds a lot of texture and interest to my needlework and in the case of bright colours (see Aku) it really makes the design pop.

Stay tuned for part 2 ...

Radio silence

Oh wow. June already and I last updated in ... February.

Admittedly I do have my reasons. Some very good news is that The Wonderful Smaz and I are now settled into our first house! It's a little old property in a small village, with plenty room enough for my stash of art equipment, and his stash of video games and Doctor Who DVDs.

Then my laptop packed up.

It still works technically - I just have to keep it disconnected from the internet, or else everything freezes. It's doing me some good; I now get much less distracted with the web and have a lot of time to get other things done (knitting!! sewing!! oh my), but at some point I will be getting myself a replacement as I'm currently updating on Smaz's laptop!

Here's some art-related photographs of what I've been getting up to. I've been really into my cross-stitch recently, so I've taken a few shots of the cards I've put together. Some of these were done a while ago, but I don't think I've uploaded them here.

(click to enlarge)

The Graduation

(Thanks so much to Florence for being my photographer!)

So, my birthday - 3rd March - coincided with my graduation ceremony this year. Three years of hard work, and I was presented with my degree. It was a wonderful day and I was bouncing off the walls (I loved wearing those robes, I wanted a ruler to smack tables with), but now looking back at the photographs, they're a little bittersweet. I loved university to bits, and now, it's really over. But, still, onwards and upwards, and as long as I keep learning I'll be happy.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I hate to say it, but I don't draw anywhere near as much as I should nowadays. A full-time job takes up most of my attention, and in the evenings I'm often too drained for artistic inspiration, so I sit with a crochet hook instead. However, when I get into a rut like this, I go back to self-portraits.

Fun fact - I really have made a hat that size. It's humungous but really warm.

And now I've learned how to make socks (and how to use Bluetooth on my new handset).

A 'family portrait' of the Taxman's family, from CMTV. I sent a copy of this to my friend, inserted into a Christmas card written by Taxy himself.

(I've also done the lineart for a design for next year's Christmas card - with any luck it'll actually be finished by Christmas 2014.)

Dark Autumn

The tip of my nose is getting cold, and my hands are hiding up my sleeves. The clocks went back one hour yesterday, and there's blustery weather forecast for tomorrow. Working on a great little commission that I should have done by next week, and I seem to be keeping on top of things at work. All in all, it's been a productive October, and a happy fifth birthday for Polyrillustration!

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!

Mother's Day - Vintage Cards

It's a coincidence - I finally got a chance to scan these tonight, and there's no better time to share them! My grandmother and I are currently spring-cleaning her house, and last week she was going to recycle a lot of the old cards she'd received on various occasions. As I love vintage paintings and illustrations, and am researching old postcards/greetings cards for my current project, I asked if I could keep a few, and the ones that I kept were mainly congratulatory cards for the birth of my aunt, two uncles, and my mum. Sadly I do not know of the artists - there aren't any signatures on the illustrations nor details on the back of the cards as far as I can tell, but if anyone does recognise them or know how to find out let me know in the comments!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums, and to my own lovely mum :)

I really love all the rich colours and attention to detail - I really hope to get some of this in my own work for the upcoming degree show!

Money, Money, Money

Have some relevant illustration.

Aside from having a Facebook account with the odd status, I tend not to go into personal life happenings in public, especially on the internet ... but when I did this illustration a few weeks ago I had no idea how relevant it'd actually become to my own life.

University - especially if you go into an art-related course - is a very expensive deal. I've always known this, of course, but it particularly hit this year when my loan turned out to be a lot less than I'd hoped. Due to the workload from uni I'm currently unable to look for a new job 'til 2013 (when my dissertation is out of the way) and after a bad day in the studio or just a generally shitty mood hanging over my head, I'd come back to an empty room. Sometimes, some of my belongings or food would be missing from the kitchen, too. It doesn't do anything to help the atmosphere or my general temper.

When I get to a certain low point - which I've been at since the start of the month, at least - I shut myself away and it's hard for anybody to get much out of me. Florence was amazing but even then I rarely socialised. On the whole I really like my university coursemates and I'm very glad to know them, but I won't deny that sometimes I feel like a bit of an odd duck. Doing work and throwing myself into the course is great, but all the other parts of my mind are pre-occupied with brooding on my situation. Brooding drains a person of all their energy, especially when it's about money. I keep it all to myself. It's a mixture of pride (out of all the sins it's easily the one I am most guilty of), and not wanting to burden or worry anyone.

So, this weekend, I've made the decision to move out of my accommodation and back into the family home. It's where my parents and fiance are, my favourite people in the world. Chances are I will have to find a new tenant for the flat if there isn't a waiting list, and I won't have moved back in fully until December, but I already feel that a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It's not going to get rid of all the stress that university causes but this way, I can be with the people that I love most.

Trip to Florence

I've been awfully quiet the past week or so on all fronts - and it's because I've been exploring a new city! Yes, this week I went to Florence with a group of people from my university. For approximately £250 we got four nights in a hotel near the city centre as well as the return flight - an opportunity hard to get elsewhere and Florence is (or rather, was!) on my bucket list of places to visit. Below is an account of my first trip abroad for nearly four years.

I approached it with some nervousness. I have a pretty bad fear of closed spaces and not being able to escape, and although I'd flown once before as a very young child (after watching Turbulence, at that), the fear had developed since and I'd not gone near a plane in over a decade. One of the main reasons why I decided not to go along to the university trip to Berlin last year was because I hated the thought of flying.

However, see "bucket list" sentence - I really couldn't let this one go, especially while I had the money, and that outweighed the anxiety about flying. I was a wee bit tense at Heathrow especially as we had to wait three hours to board, but on the plus side I whipped out a Kinder-egg container, some water and my mini-paint palette to try and capture the beautiful sunrise from the window:

Sadly didn't do it justice but it was a great way to help me relax.

Eventually we got on the plane and although I was fearful and a bit shaky, we got to Bologna very smoothly with no disruptions, a beautiful blue sky and with little turbulence - I even fell asleep for the last half hour of the flight. The snack wasn't half bad either. When I flew to Spain as a 9-year-old, I distinctly remember the skin that had formed on my foil tray full of baked beans and curly fries (which I'm not entirely sure were meant to be curly). Eugh.

Nice view!

Again ... this is November we're in.

After getting to Bologna (where it was so warm - so much for winter weather!) we went on a two-hour long coach ride to Florence. I slept for most of this and was still a little weary from all the travel when I hopped out. A few moments later we were being sorted into our rooms for the hotel - I shared with a very nice lady from the Photography course called Saadia, and we had the room (made for about five people) to ourselves thanks to student numbers. How lucky were we?!

After a spot of unpacking and a chance to get settled, we then headed out to get our bearings around Florence.

Trying to figure out where to go ...

The first of many, many photos of the amazing Duomo. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip and I'm going to love doing some real paintings from the photographs I took (sadly, with all I did I didn't get much of a chance to dig out the watercolours again).

The sheer size and detail that has gone into the building is magnificent, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I could probably happily paint this for years on end as there's just so much to it.

After admiring the Duomo from the outside, we headed into a small side-street where we came across Zecchi, which is a tiny little art shop that has some amazing things for cheap prices. I was on a tight budget on this trip, but I managed to get a pocket-sized sketchbook (which I filled during the trip) for about 2 Euros, and a book of Fabriano watercolour postcards for 3 Euros. Happy days!

We then stopped off for pizza at a small local cafe. After trying pizza made from scratch, I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to the frozen ones we usually get in the UK - it just can't compare!

I crashed for the night at about 7PM, the earliest time I think I've ever gone to bed while healthy - but I slept well! The hotel was definitely the most basic of basics (and I daresay the youth hostel in my 2007 Belgium stay was more comfortable) but as I only used it to sleep and the staff were nice enough I didn't really pay much mind to it.

Next day was the Galleria dell'Accademia visit! Jack and I originally planned to get tickets for the same time but by the time I booked, his time had sold out and I had to get one for half an hour later. In the meantime, I sat on a bench in a street near the museum and did a little drawing while tourists and locals went about their daily business:

Sadly, photos in the Accademia museum were not allowed, but I stuck around for about 4 hours drawing and drawing (some scans shall be up soon). There was so much to get down onto paper! I got to see Michelangelo's David in person, too - a 17-foot tall statue with his own wing of the museum.

Afterwards we headed to the Piazza della Signora. I can't remember now what we were looking for - I think we'd seen a crazy spire in the distance and had wanted to find it to examine the building further, but ended up coming across here instead so we stuck around for more sketches and people-watching. It's right next to the Uffizi Gallery, which we were due to visit the following day, so finding this place was useful in more ways than one!

It was also on Tuesday that we took a proper look inside the Duomo. We were to save climbing it until Thursday (to spread our activities out a bit, and we were still pretty tired from travelling) but I was still enthralled by the interiors of such a magnificent cathedral:

Click the image to see it full-size. It is worth it.

It was then I joined Jack in the pub for a wind-down before I headed back to the hotel for the evening. I had my Embodiment journal with me to recount the day - already proved useful as when writing this post I've forgotten what I did on which day and when! I also painted a postcard for my dad (after working out how to buy stamps for the three I'd bought) and caught up with Saadia on what she did with her day.

Wednesday was the Uffizi Gallery! We'd all tried to book for the same time but I only really saw a handful of coursemates while I was there. I'm not surprised as the Uffizi is humongous, and again I spent a while there sketching and absorbing the atmosphere. No photos from here either, I'm afraid, but I'll have some scans to show you! It was here that I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus in person.

After this, Jack, Kieran and I headed to a lovely little local cafe that Jack had visited earlier (and told us of its 1-euro espressos). We stopped for a drink and a little something to eat.

Sadly I didn't get to try any gelato while I was away, but the food presentation was gorgeous. I never thought I'd photograph so much food in my life.

Thursday was the big one - climbing the Duomo, one of my favourite parts of the entire trip. I am proud of myself in that I only had to stop once to get my breath back during the 460-odd fairly steep steps up the tower, and that's because I was rushing.

You can see why here:

What a fantastic view! The weather was also glorious, there was a lovely breeze, and it felt like a summer's day as I sat there and just soaked it all up. People can also climb the tower above, but as that cost extra I chose to give it a miss and kept it to the Duomo (free to visit but 8 euros to climb to the top).

Jack and I then headed to the Bargello which was also a favourite of mine (I wish I could have stayed longer!) but unfortunately they had to close early that day, so we could only hang around for about two hours. We got some nice sketches done, though, and what we did see was definitely worth the 2 euro entry fee!

Friday was spent preparing for our flight to go back. The plane ride was a little bumpy but we were all just desperate to get home by that point, all illustrated out and totally tired - and this morning I really felt rotten as all the travelling caught up to me and then some - but this visit was worth it all.

Good stuff!