two for the price of one

hey hey hey - roll up roll up roll up - today's special offer is indeed two for the price of one - hurray!

well, it's only because time has alluded me once again and i managed to by-pass May somehow... how did that happen? anyway, i have uploaded a-drawing-a-day for May and a-drawing-a-day for June on my facespaceplace...

so, what has been happening?

well.....

....still not heard from BBC about being the new Miss Rolf Hart, which in tele speak is a big fat NO - they are all a bit too busy in tv to update each and every big fat no, aren't they?

ocht well, just let me know when you have a slot free and i'll pop over and perform in your living room instead - payment in tea and biscuits (half up-front, half at end of stint)....

....i decided to combine making an info sheet to help with GMAC's application for funding to first light with my c/o:minx homework for june, the subject of which was 'give us a clue' and came up with this...

....i also took part in the comic con as Team Girl's graphic facilitator during Gillian Hatcher's talk, which you can see a wee bit of at about 1:21:00 in this BBC report and BBC 2's Artworks Scotland at about the 04:45:00 mark - woo!

....i took one of the characters i made for the comedy sting in april and placed it in a frame and entered it, along with a collage of my friend Marianne, for the Jerwood Drawing Prize

...i had a crazy eventful day on the day of delivery - the drop-off point for all submissions in scotland was at WASPS in Edinburgh so i was all set to pop into my studio and pick up a couple of other artists' work, as well as my own, and have a day in Edinburgh looking at the galleries - it didn't quite happen like that

....i headed off to the bus stop about 10am, and about 100-150 yards from the bus stop i saw the bus coming, so decided i should run to catch it, at which point i fell completely flat on my face - it was amazingly fast how it all happened - the pavement just came up and smacked me good and proper right in the face! - ah! still suffering flashbacks....urgh!

anyway, i bust my chin, both my lips and scraped my nose and hands badly and also managed to sook up an entire muddy puddle into my top, which was covered in blood, and so therefore looked like i'd just been in a massive fight - i thought i'd knocked out my front teeth, but they are thankfully still in place!

luckily for me, my most lovely other half was with me and took me back up the hill to my flat, where i had a shower, put on fresh clothes, some plasters and we started off again on our journey.....

we did eventually deliver the work, but didn't really have any time whatsoever to nosey round Edinburgh's galleries, so instead a good walk back through Stockbridge, which is full of some really funky happening wee shops and boutiques well worth checking out, and back to Glasgow to the opening at the Glasgow Project Room.....

i didn't get any work selected unfortunately.....

the moral of this tale - do not try and run in MDBs!!!

....another not so happy tale is, that my volunteer time at Project Ability is up - AW!

i've been volunteering once a week on a thursday since february and have had a really great time working with all the staff and participants - thanks guys! x

....on a much much more upbeat note however, last week saw me applying to Screen NETS (which is now based at Screen Academy in Edinburgh) to possibly become their animation trainee for 20 whole weeks!!! and.........i got through the first part of the shortlisting and have an interview on 12th August - oh my!!!! that is uber uber exciting!

on that very same subject, Jess Ashman, one of my trainees from the Generating Animation Skills Programme, that I used to manage for Scottish Screen has become the FIRST EVER filmmaker on to win 3 awards at Limelight - including £10,000 production prize for her next project - GO JESS GO!!!

....i also stumbled upon a really old blog entry for Forbidden Planet from December last year, where there was an advert for interns to work with Gary Erskine - i know it's like 7 months since the ad was posted, but i decided to email Gary anyway and see if he was up for squeezing me in...i met him the following day - what a lovely man i must say! i don't think i knew what to expect really, but his photo on his blog looks a bit like Shawn Ryder (no offence intended Gary if you don't like Shawn!) so i think i thought he may have Shawn's personality too for some obscure reason - no he doesn't, he is possibly the opposite, in ALL the positive ways, phew!

anyway, i got 3 pencils to take to my studio and work on inking up - MAN!!!! this is possibly one of the most hard things i've tried to do on a long long long time! blimey!

my attempts are, so far, incredibly dismal and fall way below an acceptable level, but i do have a obstinate persistence about me that means i want to crack it - i will not let it lie - i will defeat the ink demons!

the only way to do that is.....

practice, practice, practice!

which is exactly what i am off to do now - how exciting!!!

xxxx

here is the long awaited May update!!!

well........long awaited by me anyway - not sure about you guys, hee hee...

anyway, i don't know what's been buzzing round my head for the past month disabling my blogs, but let's hope it's buzzed off now - i've had a fair bit to say too and i've done lots of drawing, but somehow for whatever reason i've been unable to blog it out there - mince!

so, deep breath, here goes......i decided quietly to myself, probably due to the 28 drawings later escapade in february, that i would upload a drawing a day over the next year, so feb is done, march is done and i've finally just uploaded april - may is going to be up next week already, as it will be june, eek, eek and triple eek!

i've also uploaded some photos of props i made for a 15 second animation tv sting to flickr

what else have i been up to? errrrr, um... oh yeah - i'm going to be at free hetherington zine fair event on thursday 2nd june, 3-7pm, with a bunch of my iamconsumer booklets, a few postcards and a small selection of prints all for sale if anyone fancies coming along to check it out

i've also been working on getting the new web site for glasgow independent studio & glasgow project room up and running - there are still quite a number of gremlins to iron out, but it is actually live now, phew!

another thing i did that was brilliant once i'd done it, but was one of the most scariest experiences i've had in a very very long time (being a proper mature grown up i tend to steer clear of all scary challenges, i just do straight forward non-threatening challenges usually) - but here was me, in front of a camera for the bbc, undertaking a screen test!!! yes, indeed! i was showing off my 'on-screen presence' and art skills for the chance to possibly be the new tony hart for an on-line educational resource for teachers - to be honest, i was so much more like rolf harris!!!

i've got my fingers crossed for this job - it would indeed be a dream come true for me to be the new tony hart or rolf harris - i would love so much to do that, but it's been a couple of weeks and i've not heard back so my happy little cheeks are beginning to deflate sightly with each day unfortunately....

ocht, not to worry - i can always just come round your house and do it live instead!

xxxx

Working the streets to pay the bills....

yes i am! thank goodness, it's about time too!

finally after working very hard towards going bankrupt in style via a forth month of minus income i have managed to convince a few folk to pay me for my services - though whether or not this will meet my outgoings or maybe even exceed them this month is dubious, but, nevertheless, it's better than absolutely bugger all, yeah!

the thing is, i do a lot of work, but i never seem to get paid - it's weird, i'm not entirely sure how this became the 'absolute norm' within my life, but i seriously can't remember a time where i haven't been doing work for free - and the weirdest thing about this fact is, that much of this work that i do for free, other folk get paid top dollar for.....!

so, taking this fact on board, i believe it is high time for a 180º about turn - and so, my new mantra is thus:

it's time i got treated like everyone else on the planet

it's time i got respected for my knowledge and skills

it's time i got paid just like every other mucker

so that i can actually pay some bills

ok, so i'm not a poet, ha ha, but you get the drift......

today i have been back to making something really complicated - it's using one of the drawings i did in feb for the 28drawingslater project and working out how to turn it into a fully animated paper character...

the whole point of this process is to test some ideas i've had for a while now (the book launch for 28drawingslater is this saturday where a real live book containing drawings from the project, including 2 of mine, will be on view to paw - woo! i'll find out more details of how to buy a copy and circulate if any of you fancy).

hope all is well in your world and you like the sunshine xxxx

twentyeightdrawingslater - part 5

it's like star wars - five parts!

yes, here is the final part of my project - i apologise terribly for it being nearer the middle of march rather than the end of february for this, but i do have a very good excuse, honest, i do! i have been designing and hand-crafting, constructing and installing the set for a new show which hopefully i can tell you more about soon, but at the moment is still under wraps....erm, that doesn't sound like a good excuse at all does it? but it is, honestly, and day 26 is a very small peek at some of the work i have been making for the secret show i can't tell you about yet.....

anyway, back to the project....

Tuesday 22nd Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a live chive plant at 99p, a pineapple at 99p, a bag of chillis at 50p, two red peppers at 82p each (all needed to make the most excellent scrumptious good for you salsa!!!! mmmmmm, yum!), 3 limes at 80p (for margaritas!), bag of 5 lemons at 99p, a cucumber at 69p and a pint of milk at 52p.

Wednesday 23rd Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a bag of baby potatoes at £1, a bag of mange tout at £1.50 (that's pretty pricy!) and a bag of 6 tomatoes at £1.

Thursday 24th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of 2 pints of milk at 86p, a punnet of plums at £1, two onken biopots for £2, two oranges at 28p each and a bag of crispy cox apples at £1

Friday 25th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a box of kitty biscuits at £1.35, 6 cans of kitty food at £3.96, a large chargrilled vegetable and pesto pizza at £3.99, a packet of 4 apple and cinnamon super soft hot cross buns at £1, a packet of 6 classic super soft hot cross buns at £1, a packet of potato hoop ring styleeeee crisps at 49p, two little gem lettuces for 99p, two carrots for 26p and a very lovely jar of hot chocolate for £1.99 which is called LOVE POTION! and contains a mix of herbs (basil and whatnot!) - very tasty, and if the intention is for it to get you in the mood for the act you love the most, and that act being sleeping, then this is the right potion for sure!

Saturday 26th Feb - today's pic shows the end result of the drawing i started on this day - this was for the secret set i mentioned earlier which i can't tell you about yet! i drew the plants on photocopy paper, then cut out the paper inside the lines of the images and filled the holes with tracing paper - during the following week i constructed some bags from cartridge paper and attached the cut-out drawings to the front and added some lights, et voila...c'est ca!

Sunday 27th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of two pints of milk at 86p, a large bag of kitty litter at £5.60, two pots of arrabbiata sauce for £3, two packets of filed pasta pockets for £3, a packet of reduced pancakes at 80p, three packets of red nose special crisps for £1 and a box of delicious dates at £1.68

Monday 28th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a hand-knitted grey jumper (with hood and kangaroo pocket- my most favourite attributes for a piece of clothing to possess!) from a charity shop in Partick for £3, a fish-shaped water jug from same charity shop for £4 (this joins my collection, so now i have a whole shoal of 4 of these jugs - i love them! they are for adding water to your whisky, but the most exciting thing about them is that they make noises as you pour - the shape means bubbles of air get caught in the tail end and so when you tip the jug back and forth, it glugs! cool!)........then for lunch a can of cream of tomato soup at 79p, a loaf of bread at 99p and a small austrian smoked cheese for 89p - what a good day!

twentyeightdrawingslater - part 4

Well, here we are, day 21 of the task - only a week left - blimey, it's gone by fast!

Sunday 13th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of 3 packets of crisps which are part of the Red Nose appeal (the Stephen Fry Up pack was absolutely disgusting according to my better half!), a box of dates (utterly delicious!), a bag of bananas, a punnet of reduced strawberries, a punnet of plum tomatoes, a box of breakfast cereal, a tub of cauldron moroccan veggie pate (amazing!), box of eggs, some scottish butter, a jar of raspberry jam, a bag of plain flour, a bag of icing sugar and a bag of granulated sugar - yes indeed, cooking fancy biscuits was on the menu - me and the mr made our very own scrumptious array of jammy dodgers!!!!!

Monday 14th Feb - it is St Valentine's Day!!! here is my card for my most wonderful other half xxx

Tuesday 15th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a packet of Ainsley Harriot Bulgar Wheat at 89p, a can of soup at 69p, a tub of olives at £1.69, a tin of sherbet filled boiled sweets with Snoopy on it at 59p, a packet of toffy-ooze biscuits at 69p, a packet of 3 iced-fruit slices at 99p (which we took to Plan B and shared with Tom over coffee and book perusing - if you like comic books, then you'll love Plan B - check it out!) and a black and white film at £6.29

Wednesday 16th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a pint of milk

Thursday 17th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' of 2 pints of milk, a packet of washing powder, a packet of 6 rolls of toilet tissue and a can of tuna for my kitty-cats!

Friday 18th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a packet of crackers and a packet of tea biscuits (I was very hungry when i sat down to draw them, hence the poor quality drawing, sorry!)

Saturday 19th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a large vanilla steamer from Tinderbox on Ingram Street - although the drink was indeed vanilla flavour, it was disappointingly not steaming, far from it in fact, it was pretty luke warm and therefore not worth £2.40!

Sunday 20th Feb - catty looking girl...

Monday 21st Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of some olay face awakening cream (it's got mint in it, so it does king of slap your face awake in the morning weirdly enough!), some chinese tea, some thai veggie spring rolls and some spicy vegetable and noodle dish (this was sooooooooo tasty this meal from a place called four seasons on cambridge street - go! it's good value too - this came to about £8 i think)

twentyeightdrawingslater - part 3

hey hey hey, how good was last night?!!

well, if you were at the opening at Market Gallery for Telling Stories i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did - even though it was really really busy, hot and sweaty!

it was so good to see so many friendly lovely shiny faces of folk i know, but also incredibly cool to actually meet Victoria Evans who organised the 28 drawings later escapade that this blog entry and the previous 2 are focused on - oh yeah!

so, here as a 'catch-up-penny' session is my past 5 days work {uh-oh, slipping into a 'big' catch-up there due to exhibition opening last night - it's my story and i'm sicking to it!}....

Tuesday 8th Feb - drawing of a girl flying with three foxes

Wednesday 9th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a box of 80 regular teabags £1.39, two boxes of 20 green tea teabags £1.26 each, 2 pints of milk 86p, a 'hot cross bun' loaf reduced to 99p, a packet of ready salted crisps 44p and a packet of tomato ketchup crisps 46p, two fancy-assed pot noodles 69p each, a tube of toothpaste for £1 and four packets of webbox cat delight meaty sticks at £1 a pop...

Thursday 10th Feb - oh man, i just realised that since i started a new journal for 'iamconsumer' on 7th Feb all my dates have been wrong coz i have consistently written Jan instead of Feb - whoops! ocht well, not to worry...let's see, 10th of Feb consists of one seeded finger-roll at 37p...

Friday 11th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a pot of carrot & coriander soup £1.29, a cheese roll 31p, a galaxy chocolate bar 59p (i pretty much never buy chocolate bars for myself, it's weird, i just took a notion, even though i balked at the price - jeesoh!), a can of ginger beer £1.30, a can of mango juice £1.30, a box of kitty biscuits £1.25, pack of six cans of cat food £3.96, one refried bean & cheese taco £1.49 and one butternut squash quesadilla £4.99....

Saturday 12th Feb - i've been a portrait model all day since 10am-4pm, so felt the need to do some therapeutic drawing, et voila.....

tewntyeightdrawingslater - part 2

Saturday 5th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' showing 2 packs of pasta (only £1 each!), 2 cartons of soup (only £1 each!), 2 activia snackpots (buy 1 get 1 free), 1 litre of semi-skimmed milk, 1 box of honey shreddies, and for my poor feet - a pair of insoles & a pair of socks, and... because i managed to stab myself in the hand with a scalpel (aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!) i also bought a tube of germolene & 2 boxes of plasters!

Sunday 6th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a large reduced loaf of bread, a tub of bertoli olive spread, 1 carton of soup (3 bought though), a box of filo pastry spring rolls filed with goats cheese and balsamic onion, a box of sage teabags, a bar of olive oil soap, a packet of linseeds, a packet of turmeric and a packet of foam sweeties - having a c/o:minx meeting, hence the lovely food! we're preparing our work for a show that opens at Market Gallery this Friday - eek!!! the show is called telling stories and also features work by David Shrigley and Frank Quitely - double eek!!!

Monday 7th Feb - drawing from 'iamconsumer' of a pack of sugar snap peas (yum!), tub of salsa (very hot actually!), a bag of mandarins (not manda rin!), a bag of oranges, a tub of hazelnut yoghurt (how 70's is that??), 1 pint semi-skimmed milk, a box of kitty biscuits, another pair of insoles (my poor poor feet!), a pair of tights, a pair of slippers, 2 bras and a shirt.....yes, i did go primark crazy!!! everything was so cheap - i got confused - then spent too much - bugger!

twentyeightdrawingslater - part 1

hey there - woooooo! new month, new project - yeah!

and this month...... as well as my 'iamconsumer' project..... i am taking part in 28 drawings later

i have done a drawing every day this month (it's only the 4th today), but i'm only scanning and uploading them today as today is "catch-up-penny" Friday....

Tuesday 1st Feb - a drawing of my 3 kitty-cats looking every-bit the mob of gangstas that they are!

Wednesday 2nd Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' which shows a box of plasters (as i really ripped my heels of in my boots- i'm too used to trainers, my poor wee feet can't cope with real shoes!), a box of surf washing tablets, two A4 frames which were 2for1 at Boots and some flowers (anemones and roses) for my mum's birthday!!!

Thursday 3rd Feb - a drawing of my favourite christmas present - which as you can see is a robin shaped cup - it looks hilarious on top of my telly with my weirdly deformed googly-eyed cactus sticking out of it - it makes me smile!!!

Friday 4th Feb - a drawing from 'iamconsumer' which shows a packet of go-ahead! biscuits, a carton of tomato and basil soup (YUM! all gone now - consumed entirely!), a packet of pitta bread, a pint of semi-skimmed milk and a packet of coffee biscuits (which were only 50p! - bargain!)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

hello 2011 and bye bye 2010!

ah, the new year is upon us - let's hope it's a guid one all round!
it's definitely a very strange time of year - i'm feeling conflict in my brain because i think that i should be feeling full of joy and optimism, but actually i am incredibly deflated and down - is that the post holiday blues, or is that just me?
i'm aware that sometimes this year i will loose confidence, and at some point i will feel worthless, and possibly there may even be times where i am convinced that i am completely talentless...
however, i am still committed to trying no matter what, because - i LOVE drawing! - i LOVE creating images! that's all i need to remember this year.
from now on, next time is right now - and it's right now every time! all the time! no matter what the time! the time is now!
bon chance, mes amis xxxx