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(Or anybody that might be in London over the next few weeks...)
The wonderfully talented author of the Fetishman comics,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fetishman currently has an exhibition running, in the appropriately bizarre location of the toilets at Coffee, Cake and Kink.
Head along to check out the artwork and give him that warm tingly feeling that can only usually be inspired by a repeated disciplining by a spatula-wielding dominatrix.
(If you have never before seen the not-necessarily-entirely-safe-for-work fetishman comics, a quick click on the banner will take you there.)
Also, while I am pimping stuff:
Eating the Elephant! Hull! Friday! FREE ENTRY! Screaming Banshee Aircrew! Three, count em, three DJs. Kris and I shall be in attendance, as shall billions and billions of lovely people.
(Okay, billions is a slight exaggeration. But there will be an elephant.)
(Okay, there probably won't be an elephant. But the people really are loverly, and there WILL be Banshees and Birthdays and Buxomness and other good things beginning with B!)
Lindi, would you (plus company?) still maybe like a lift over? We shall be heading to Hull Friday evening-ish and coming back the same night, so will be able to keep away-from-the-boys time down to a minimum. And Vix may spank you if you don't...
In other news I am currently working myself to death over a project that has a March deadline (partly on the grounds that if I'm not done with it completely way before then I shall go completely cuckoo-doolally.) Work ethic good, but health and stability seem to have gone completely out of the window in the porcess, which is bad. Still not finding that elusive balance, which is now making me ill and slowing down work.
In order to deal with this escalating situation, I am putting aside eating, sleeping, socialising and exercise in order to get the work done. Cos, you know, I'm clever like that.
Besides. I just want the bastard done with and signed off.
Plus I have a head full of soppy atrox spacetroopers, alien butterflies, warrior shapeshifters, vampire detectives, kiler Red Riding Hoods and hamsters with no hands that I NEED to start getting out of there soon before they stop fighting among themselves and start breeding. And I need to get together more commercial type illustration in a range of styles, with a definite aim of getting my portfolio down to London early in the New Year. Still determined to make the push across to illustration from graphics, or at least tilt the balance that way.
What's sort of frustrating is that for all I know I could actually have a strong enough portfolio to approach publishers right now and get work coming in. But I just don't have the time or headspace to sit down and think my way through the application and submission procedure, and it seems silly to just launch in unprepared when I have the option of getting portfolio advice from the Association of Illustrators. But of course, I don't have time to get down to London to sort that out until next year now... which gives me the opportunity to drive myself even more nuts doing all the work under the sun so I have a "wider range of styles" to show them.
(Did I mention I'm feeling very clever right now. *sigh* But I'm doing it anyway just cos... um... move along, nothing to see.)
Oh, and I REALLY need to update my Curved Spaces website so it has newer examples on it than 2004 and earlier. I think one of the reasons I keep putting this off is that it's probably going to mean taking down half the stuff that's up there - I mean, it's good work in it's won way, but I've done lots of better things since. Still, it hurts to just discard pieces that meant a lot to me at the time. I'm also trying to work out whether to have Curved Spaces as a graphic design site, and start a seperate one for illustration, or to have seperate sections on there for design, illustration and photography and keep everything together. Not least because some of my corporate ID work is hard to pin down as entirely graphics or illustration. Time and headspace once again.
(Not to mention that the photography section is currently in about 20 boxes in the dining room and 30 folders on my computer - all of which has to be sorted through, assessed, the best ones kept and catalogued and the rest archived - and that includes scanning the ones in the dining room, cos the 30 folders is just the recent digital stuff... what's annoying is that a large proportion of it is crap, and even more hugely repetitive as it's mainly playing around with the camera and learning how to use it - but I know there are one or two gems in there that I really should rescue.)
Oh, and that would be the dining room which this weekend is supposed to become my new office. (It's a huge, light and airy room, we never use it for anything apart from hanging out washing, I feel cramped in the boxroom... and if I move out Kris can then have that as HIS office (he has less desks than me) and dedicated studio for his radio stuff. Good deal all round.) So my parents are up this weekend to help me move... and the place is still piled high with unsorted photography and still-to-be-dealt-with tax papers (La la la I'm not even thinking about that right now!) and my office space is sprawling with junk rather than being packed up neatly to be moved downstairs in logical steps. I was hoping to get as much moving as possible down this week and then have my parents help me with the organisation stuff when they come over, but that's looking less and less likely to happen. Still, I can't afford to just dump stuff down there - I can't afford to be without a working office for more than a day or two. (panic. big big panic.)
Still, it'll be nice to have a change of scene and more space around me - there are times in here that it feels like the walls are closing in and then I look up and realise they're not really, they just are actually that damn close. And some kind of move WILL happen this weekend, come hell, Hull or high water.
And I need to start painting again -nowadays there's stuff I can do on a computer I could never manage in the past with traditional media (I had an issue with airbrushes - they instantly malfunctioned and exploded paint EVERYWHERE if I even so much as looked at them, but my photoshop airbrushing is usually better than using clone stamp.) But I miss getting my hands dirty.
Also, the past year or two I've been giving drawing lessons to a talented 14 year old, and it's brought her drawing on no end, but I'd like to be able to offer some occasional forays into paint, pastels etc too. There's a bit of a vicious cycle in play here... giving the lessons has also brought my drawing on no end - it's probably at least back to where it was at A-level, if not at Uni - so teaching that stuff would not only be an extra step for her, it would probably also bring me back up to speed with a bump. But I don't want to just introduce it without having done any for 5 or 6 years, as that's just not fair on her - at the end of the day, the lessons are for her benefit, and if I get stuff out of them too, that's just a bonus.
I do get annoyed with myself though - apart from initial sketches for illustrations, those lessons are the only time I do any "real" drawing, and I should be doing a lot more of that on my time, for myself. (Yes, time again. Probably in relation to headspace.) And it bothers me that when I don't even do that, I'm never going to get round to playing with paints again. And I miss it. And I was good at it, which kind of makes it worse. I really want to get back to life drawing too, as most of the illustrations I do at work involve people, so it should improve that. And of course if I do want to get more seriously into comic art I need a complete knowledge of the human form, how it can move, body language... even if I end up distorting or simplifying characters in the finished style. (Do I have a style yet? Of course not! Narrowing down to one would require that fabled T&H-S - and besides, why do one thing when you can smother yourself with 50?) Got a horrible feeling I may have missed the chance to sign up for the College of Art life drawing lessons though, which is a shame... may have to badger them and see if they can suggest anywhere else if not.
And don't even ask about the writing :-( I can barely hear the characters in my head these days, I think they're drifting slowly into sleep. This makes me sad. And envious.
I would very much like to sleep now. Instead I shall drink lots more coffee and get back to work...
The wonderfully talented author of the Fetishman comics,
fetishman currently has an exhibition running, in the appropriately bizarre location of the toilets at Coffee, Cake and Kink.Head along to check out the artwork and give him that warm tingly feeling that can only usually be inspired by a repeated disciplining by a spatula-wielding dominatrix.
(If you have never before seen the not-necessarily-entirely-safe-for-work fetishman comics, a quick click on the banner will take you there.)
Also, while I am pimping stuff:
Eating the Elephant! Hull! Friday! FREE ENTRY! Screaming Banshee Aircrew! Three, count em, three DJs. Kris and I shall be in attendance, as shall billions and billions of lovely people.
(Okay, billions is a slight exaggeration. But there will be an elephant.)
(Okay, there probably won't be an elephant. But the people really are loverly, and there WILL be Banshees and Birthdays and Buxomness and other good things beginning with B!)
Lindi, would you (plus company?) still maybe like a lift over? We shall be heading to Hull Friday evening-ish and coming back the same night, so will be able to keep away-from-the-boys time down to a minimum. And Vix may spank you if you don't...
In other news I am currently working myself to death over a project that has a March deadline (partly on the grounds that if I'm not done with it completely way before then I shall go completely cuckoo-doolally.) Work ethic good, but health and stability seem to have gone completely out of the window in the porcess, which is bad. Still not finding that elusive balance, which is now making me ill and slowing down work.
In order to deal with this escalating situation, I am putting aside eating, sleeping, socialising and exercise in order to get the work done. Cos, you know, I'm clever like that.
Besides. I just want the bastard done with and signed off.
Plus I have a head full of soppy atrox spacetroopers, alien butterflies, warrior shapeshifters, vampire detectives, kiler Red Riding Hoods and hamsters with no hands that I NEED to start getting out of there soon before they stop fighting among themselves and start breeding. And I need to get together more commercial type illustration in a range of styles, with a definite aim of getting my portfolio down to London early in the New Year. Still determined to make the push across to illustration from graphics, or at least tilt the balance that way.
What's sort of frustrating is that for all I know I could actually have a strong enough portfolio to approach publishers right now and get work coming in. But I just don't have the time or headspace to sit down and think my way through the application and submission procedure, and it seems silly to just launch in unprepared when I have the option of getting portfolio advice from the Association of Illustrators. But of course, I don't have time to get down to London to sort that out until next year now... which gives me the opportunity to drive myself even more nuts doing all the work under the sun so I have a "wider range of styles" to show them.
(Did I mention I'm feeling very clever right now. *sigh* But I'm doing it anyway just cos... um... move along, nothing to see.)
Oh, and I REALLY need to update my Curved Spaces website so it has newer examples on it than 2004 and earlier. I think one of the reasons I keep putting this off is that it's probably going to mean taking down half the stuff that's up there - I mean, it's good work in it's won way, but I've done lots of better things since. Still, it hurts to just discard pieces that meant a lot to me at the time. I'm also trying to work out whether to have Curved Spaces as a graphic design site, and start a seperate one for illustration, or to have seperate sections on there for design, illustration and photography and keep everything together. Not least because some of my corporate ID work is hard to pin down as entirely graphics or illustration. Time and headspace once again.
(Not to mention that the photography section is currently in about 20 boxes in the dining room and 30 folders on my computer - all of which has to be sorted through, assessed, the best ones kept and catalogued and the rest archived - and that includes scanning the ones in the dining room, cos the 30 folders is just the recent digital stuff... what's annoying is that a large proportion of it is crap, and even more hugely repetitive as it's mainly playing around with the camera and learning how to use it - but I know there are one or two gems in there that I really should rescue.)
Oh, and that would be the dining room which this weekend is supposed to become my new office. (It's a huge, light and airy room, we never use it for anything apart from hanging out washing, I feel cramped in the boxroom... and if I move out Kris can then have that as HIS office (he has less desks than me) and dedicated studio for his radio stuff. Good deal all round.) So my parents are up this weekend to help me move... and the place is still piled high with unsorted photography and still-to-be-dealt-with tax papers (La la la I'm not even thinking about that right now!) and my office space is sprawling with junk rather than being packed up neatly to be moved downstairs in logical steps. I was hoping to get as much moving as possible down this week and then have my parents help me with the organisation stuff when they come over, but that's looking less and less likely to happen. Still, I can't afford to just dump stuff down there - I can't afford to be without a working office for more than a day or two. (panic. big big panic.)
Still, it'll be nice to have a change of scene and more space around me - there are times in here that it feels like the walls are closing in and then I look up and realise they're not really, they just are actually that damn close. And some kind of move WILL happen this weekend, come hell, Hull or high water.
And I need to start painting again -nowadays there's stuff I can do on a computer I could never manage in the past with traditional media (I had an issue with airbrushes - they instantly malfunctioned and exploded paint EVERYWHERE if I even so much as looked at them, but my photoshop airbrushing is usually better than using clone stamp.) But I miss getting my hands dirty.
Also, the past year or two I've been giving drawing lessons to a talented 14 year old, and it's brought her drawing on no end, but I'd like to be able to offer some occasional forays into paint, pastels etc too. There's a bit of a vicious cycle in play here... giving the lessons has also brought my drawing on no end - it's probably at least back to where it was at A-level, if not at Uni - so teaching that stuff would not only be an extra step for her, it would probably also bring me back up to speed with a bump. But I don't want to just introduce it without having done any for 5 or 6 years, as that's just not fair on her - at the end of the day, the lessons are for her benefit, and if I get stuff out of them too, that's just a bonus.
I do get annoyed with myself though - apart from initial sketches for illustrations, those lessons are the only time I do any "real" drawing, and I should be doing a lot more of that on my time, for myself. (Yes, time again. Probably in relation to headspace.) And it bothers me that when I don't even do that, I'm never going to get round to playing with paints again. And I miss it. And I was good at it, which kind of makes it worse. I really want to get back to life drawing too, as most of the illustrations I do at work involve people, so it should improve that. And of course if I do want to get more seriously into comic art I need a complete knowledge of the human form, how it can move, body language... even if I end up distorting or simplifying characters in the finished style. (Do I have a style yet? Of course not! Narrowing down to one would require that fabled T&H-S - and besides, why do one thing when you can smother yourself with 50?) Got a horrible feeling I may have missed the chance to sign up for the College of Art life drawing lessons though, which is a shame... may have to badger them and see if they can suggest anywhere else if not.
And don't even ask about the writing :-( I can barely hear the characters in my head these days, I think they're drifting slowly into sleep. This makes me sad. And envious.
I would very much like to sleep now. Instead I shall drink lots more coffee and get back to work...
no subject
Hope you have a splendid time and say hello to the lovely Vix from me!!! *beam*
no subject
Hope you are feeling better soon *more hug* If dropping round for a coffee and random chat at any point might help perk you up, give me a call cos it would be lovely to see you :-)
no subject
graphics stuff:
mate of mine's a designer/illustrator in london and managed to wrangle some of his stuff into the getty images library? pays not awesome but he gets a constant trickle as people use it?
no subject
Hope the exhibition is going spankingly well :-)