(in)voluntary experience

my it is late in the year - i apologise!!!

i have been severely distracted from blogging it up! i have been doing my drawing, there has been no slack there...
just not really felt like sharing my experiences of late...but now seems like a good time to reflect and share, so i hope you enjoy and can join in and add comments too....

i have managed to almost (NB - almost!) put the whole of iamconsumer project up on my face book page - it runs from the start of 2009 until the end of June this year - so, yes, that does mean that it's August and therefore July should technically be up there too, but it will be very soon, I just couldn't face the 30 minute warm up of my decrepit old pc (10 years old and still going - all be it very very very slowly!) - i will make the effort at the end of August and get both months up simultaneously, forthwith, i promise!

here is a quick highlight, linking to one drawing from each month i've been working on this project...with added memories!!!
january 2009 - this is the day after my friend's Shona's birthday, for which a bunch of us were up in Aviemore celebrating
february 2009 - this is a large stack of cat food, one of the usual suspects in this project
march 2009 - this is a big shop day, complete with the price of everything
april 2009 - i like this page for several reasons: firstly, i got the date wrong - for some reason i still thought it was march, but my friend, who is actually called April, has corrected me and put it a note to say it's her birthday! secondly, because i features the dvd volver, which coincidentally i watched last night, for the very first time!!! wow!
may 2009 - ok this one features the day i bought the sparkly silver glitter resin toilet seat which still adorns my bog at home and some floor paint and plant food - nice!
june 2009 - this is my shopping from when i was at the Annecy Animation Film Festival - i think this was the first time that i had gone there with other folk i knew (Jess, Claire, Ulli, Steven and Scott) - it was a fantastic festival, great fun, thanks guys x
july 2009 - this features a tea towel in the background which i gave to my friend Lou for her birthday and which i bought in the Collins Gallery, part of the University of Strathclyde's campus - i went to this gallery last week actually and discovered it had been closed down, which is a great shame, it had some brilliant exhibitions in it - anyone know why it closed?
august 2009 - this one features kitty litter, another usual suspect in this project, but also 8 bottles of beer...
september 2009 - i chose this one simply because it is so weirdly laid out - it's funny, most of my drawings consist of me trying to find space on the page o fit things in - for some reason, on this day, i obviously decided there was another way to approach drawing altogether!
october 2009 - wow, this is lots of things! bought on a trip to London to visit my Uncle John and other friends
november 2009 - i like this drawing because, it must've been one of the few occasions when i'd discovered i had no book with me to draw in - yikes! what do you do then? ah, draw on something else and stick it in the book after of course, phew! this was in waterstones in Edinburgh - i'd been through to visit my trainees and ended up running too late to get the off-peak train back to glasgow i think, so was wasting time dinking and eating cake, yeah!
december 2009 - lots of goodies to make christmas presents with! plus dinner for me and the cats :)
january 2010 - ah, this one just reminded me that i used to scour the charity shops for classic paperbacks which i would then redesign and hand-draw a new cover for and give away as presents - i still have a few of these, i should put them up on etsy or something....
february 2010 - this shows what i bought for my mum's birthday - i've no idea why i hadn't actually seen her on or at least closer to her actual birthday, but there you go - only 2 weeks late!
march 2010 - this one shows how difficult it is to record purchases when out at social functions, ha ha! that and it's tea and scones! luckily it was a meeting with Heather and Evy for c/o:minx, the first all female group of comic artists i was involved with (and still am!) good work girls! thanks for not eating or drooling on the scones before i got them sketched up xxx
april 2010 - this one is round about my first week or so working at Once Were Farmers - i went out and had a top treat from pret - oooo, check me!
may 2010 - this one features the male grooming kit i bought for my lovely partner Innes's birthday - he still uses it, so that's good!
june 2010 - big shop day!
july 2010 - terrible to admit it, but this features paint that still lives in my kitchen unopened!!! i did use the one on the left in this drawing in my living room, but the one on the right, no, sorry, not yet....
august 2010 - not a very good drawing i apologise, but again, time constraints - this mug was a birthday present for my boss Will at Once Were Farmers - i was sneakily drawing it under my desk before i gave it to him, ha ha!
september 2010 - i remember this day included a trip to Paisley for their Open Doors Day - the 4 rhubarb pies were eaten by Innes, Sinc, Allan and myself in front of Paisley Abbey as Allan was doing a Pie & Abbey project, ha ha! the link to Allan's blog for this is here.
october 2010 - this was a day trip to Edinburgh - i think Innes and I were through to drop off something at the RSA maybe, can't remember, but i got these brilliant empty cigar boxes by making a donation to save the children collection at the tobacco shop on the Royal Mile - nice! and also, this wig i got for Hallowe'en down the Grassmarket - i remember the woman in the shop said i wasn't allowed to return it if i bought it  which i thought sounded a bit ominous....turned out the wig does look bugger all like the image on the front of the box! it does not in any way resemble Dolly Parton at all unfortunately... oh well, you live and learn - if the person behind the counter gives you a warning, you should probably heed what they say!
november 2010 - woops, this isn't actually meant to be up but never mind, it shows the actual sketch book off a treat :)
december 2010 - old habits are hard to break....
january 2011 - ah, what a glorious piece of equipment, no more squatting down in the bath getting sore legs because the over the tap version is so ultra short - what is that all about, why is it so short?
february 2011 - this is pretty regimented drawing - it's funny how my drawings change like the weather...
march 2011 - this was my birthday, so here you can see the shoes i bought and also the sweeties and bottle of lambrini i bought to take into the cinema - i went to see that Simon Pegg film with the alien in it, Paul, but was disappointed i'd already seen ALL the funny bits in the trailer already, hmmmmpft!
april 2011 - this image has quite a strange snaking composition - it also features the bargain priced MDB shoes that have made me fall over on a number of occasions - they are not for running for buses in, no!
may 2011 - this is Innes's birthday - it features good food and some mixed nut called 'ding dong'!
june 2011 - it's a creative time of the month, what can i say?
july 2011 - this one features a musical cow toy i bough for my friend Mark's new baby boy, aw!
august 2011 - this was the day i had an interview in Edinburgh at the Skills Academy - it was a really big day for me as i really wanted the opportunity, but unfortunately i was not successful on this occasion - boo!
september 2011 - 1st day in Slovenia celebrating Innes's 40th and enjoying the Graphic Biennial - great days!
october 2011 - this was the second last day in Slovenia where many presents were bought for friends and family back home
november 2011 - kitty litter and kitty biscuits - just exactly what my kitty likes!
december 2011 - down in London on the last day of the year - those cakes were superbly scrumptious and bought at a small cafe/patisserie called coco-maya - YUM!
january 2012 - things purchased in China town in London town - i do so love going away places! this time Innes and I were down for a wedding...
february 2012 - St Valentine's Day - what better than a good veggi-sosage roll and a trip to the theatre? we went to see the Davenport Brothers at the Citizens featuring Gavin Mitchell amongst many others, great!
march 2012 - double milk!!! arrrrgggghhh! it's even drawn in a dark corner! i've drawn an awful lot of milk in the past few years, you'd think i'd be good at drawing it, but i think it's the fact i can't really bear to look at it anymore that makes my observational skills dwindle and shrink back and therefore so pitifully dire! sorry!
april 2012 - it's Easter! time for lovely presents all round - a chance to celebrate something and get away from the intense film project i was working on at the time for GMAC
may 2012 - the day before Innes's birthday and we are in Edinburgh buying comic books, yeah! this page features one comic that has two front pages, so i drew both sides - one side is drawn by Gillian Hatcher and the other by Adam Smith, both good friends - i have to say it's quite a weird experience trying to copy an image one of your friends has drawn, let alone two! but it's an experience worth having for sure - go do it now!
june 2012 - this was part of a trip to Loch Lomond to celebrate Mr Allan Miller's birthday - i seem to have just bought some seeds...how strange!

that's it for now - hope the comments help flesh out the pictures slightly more

until next month, when i'll be posting up two for the price of none,

xxxx