Electric Visitors and a restful Wednesday

Aaah. Wednesday. Who would have thunk they could be so relaxing, Wednesdays.

I've decided to have a slow day today.
I switched my desktop background from swirling engraved lizards to a snowy photo I got in the mail from Oslo, which helps.
I wish I'd taken the Hatifatteners home that lovely Lauren seeded on my desk (next to my slightly scary sign of "Ordnung is das halbe Leben", which is very apt if you've read the Moomins). I famously deal swift justice to people who leave things on my desk but can't argue with Hatifatteners. They are electric.


Otherwise... like last year, I've given up on hitting the NaNoWriMo word count, my arms hurt and there's other books to make. I'll probably just add small bits for the rest of the month. I'm feeling really inspired to get working on my picture books again - I did need a break from them, but now I'm feeling really grateful to get back to work.

Good luck to everyone else who's still NaNoveling!

Skerple

*cough*

Okay, I have a cold now. It's not too bad, I'm sneezing my way through rolls of paper and my voice sounds funny.
My flatmate is packing for his drawing trip to the Galapagos, he's been training for weeks now, working out his perfect utility belt and action-man drawing vest filled with materials, designing a drawing paper carrier bag stapling a ribbon to his hat so it won't blow into the sea. He's looking rather awe-inspiring by now. In five weeks' time he'll return with studies of giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies and I hope I won't have withered away with loneliness in the meantime. There's such an air of going-awayness in the house that I can't quite believe that I'm staying here...

So I'll be using the studio more again - I'm already making plans what to put on my shelves at last. So far I've been using the place for art material storage mostly which I've been busy writing at home. Now I need to get going on some comic characters, and maybe a new promo section for my website with papercraft cats...

Ah, and also: my new favourite marker pen. I just like the name.

Marvellous Dress Finished!

I finished the dress last night just before midnight while watching some classic Star Trek to keep me going. By the end I couldn't make sense of any of the dialogue any more... I felt a cold coming on and wanted to get it done before that arrived... and I managed! Ha haa!



Here's the front - I decided on a different part of pattern because the guys lean towards the middle so nicely there...



...and the Silver Surfer still gets pride of place. Also my friend suggested the Hulking Butt. And the Green Goblin just obliged all by himself there, with his evil eye exactly where the button will go (so far it's still a badge holding it up).
I still need to adjust one shoulder a tiny bit but otherwise... DONE!

Am very proud, that was my first venture using a bought pattern instead of copying another dress.

P.S. yes the pattern pretty much matches up at the seams, would you believe it.

Marvellous Dressmaking - planning stage

So today I'll finally make my New Marvellous Dress out of a comic-patterned duvet cover from Argos.
My flatmate's mum has a brilliant collection of vintage dress patterns, and I picked one that looks suitably respectable from the front (my Moomin dress is sometimes just a bit too girly) but interesting from the back... it's held up at the neck by one big button. I haven't worked out what sort of button to use, I'd like something that goes with the theme, maybe a badge...



Yesterday I made a very rough test dress from an old pink sheet. It's got most of the seams on the outside, and I scrawled notes on it, tore it up, stitched it back togetehr with extra bits... it looks almost conceptual by now.
Lacking a mirror I used my webcam to check the fit. I think it'll work (I have to place the darts more carefully when I do it for real).

Then I drew a panel grid over it with a fat crayon (I didn't bother to take the dress off, which was fun but I hope I didn't mis-measure that way). And here's the pattern overlayed, using the crayon lines as a guide.

A bit more Green Goblin than I'd like (I know my mum would say: why did you put that horrible witch in the corner??) but I really want to have the Silver Surfer and the Thing in the middle. I guess I could re-arrange the panels but I don't want a seam right across my chest, really. - I'll make up for it by putting Captain America and Wolverine on the back. And I think I might not have the vertical darts and sacrifice some subtle shaping for not making the Silver Surfer frown even more.

WOO HOOO!

Hello world!

I just went grocery shopping, meaning to get some emergency pasta mostly, but suddenly somewhere around the cheese aisle a brilliant bit of news a friend had told me earlier sank in and I bought artichokes, expensive juice, salad ingredients and two sorts of ice cream, and I started humming a song to myself. By the time I was halfway home I had the words to it, and now I am writing it down, it has to become part of the NaNovel to make up the word count, but it fits in nicely. - There's been such a lot of fuss in the last few months, and I'd been building up some sort of emotional carapace to let at least some of it bounce off, but now I feel like I can crack it open, put it in the corner like a Viv-shaped iron maiden and take a deep breath of November air. I think I shall buy pizza for the whole household tonight and celebrate.

And: when I opened the fridge to put away the groceries I could smell some butter. I've not smelled butter since May! I think my sense of smell really is coming back, by and by.

Anyway, I must write a whole lot of words, several thousands, I'm still behind on this project and I seriously have other work to do. There's a whole book to be coloured in, adn tomorrow I'll ink in the text changes in the "There are Cats in This Book" sequel.
But: it definitely is a very useful thing to do, and I'm noticing that making myself write thousands of words every day is doing something very useful to my brain, it's like I am learning to switch into "output" mode much more quickly, and stay there for longer. And I am enjoying some of what I'm writing, and also the memories it's bringing up...

And, before I forget, "There are Cats in this Book" has been nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. That's also very nice. Shortlist will be announced in January I believe, hepp - ho!

Recaffienated

I'm back from Cornwall. I'll show and tell you some pictures when I've got time.
Right now, I can tell you that I am several thousand words behind on my NaNovel and so I get to use the Emergency Coffee Mug.

I really have NO idea what I'm going to write today, only that it better be about 3500 words on the spot. Most of my NaNoWriMo writing sessions have been like this, and most of it was awful stuff but every so often there were things I know I'd never have thought of otherwise, so...

Decaffienated

NaNovel is being written.
Lectures are set to go.
Workshop is planned.
Now I just need to clear out my room so new windows can be fixed while I'm out.
And all that without coffee. Actually I'm getting three times as much done without coffee, so far, but heck do I feel frazzled.

Off to grey windy Cornwall tomorrow... I'll send messages whenever I can get a signal.

In the meantime... here are a couple of lovely free/cheap games you can grab from the internet:

Machinarium, which is a point and click adventure featuring cute robots in a sprawling city. The art and animation is impressive and endearing, the puzzles are just on the right side of infuriating and the soundscape is funny and athmospheric.

Windosill, which is a beautiful surreal game. I still can't believe how well it is made, actually.

Neither of them requires you to be able to read English, so: nice treat for the kids. (I haven't played Machinarium all the way through yet so I can't promise it's completely child-safe, but something tells me it's very probably okay). You can try them out before you buy. Have a go! I hope there will be a lot more like this going on soon, I've missed these little adventures ever since Monkey Island 2...

Travel preparations again

Ah. I am fully awake.
My morning coffee that is normally needed to kick-start my brain has recently been replaced by strong tea. My flatmate has added me to the pet-care routine, that is, in the morning he uncovers the birds and makes me some tea. I am very grateful and hope he keeps doing it, it's the best thing ever.

Today I shall be finishing the slides for my illustration/writing talks at the University of Cornwall next week. I must make sure I've washed enough clothes as well... I think i shall be taking my standard travelling uniform of nice t-shirts with long-sleeved jumpers to wear underneath, and a couple of 501 jeans. I worked out a couple of years ago that the shape fits, and now I can just buy ones on ebay instead of going to clothes shops which I loathe. - The shirt-over-jumper thing is a recent innovation which allows me to keep wearing my T-shirts for longer. Hooray. I definitely am going nerdier with age. Am expecting a ponytail to materialise soon.

Anyway, yawn, I better go and bounce on the trampoline a while seeing I'll be sitting at this desk most of the day...

Found something nice to do with pretty boxes

Just Some Tuesday

Today, I shall be colouring in many hamsters. I decided to try and check over all the characters in the whole hamster book, and make them hamster-yellow while I'm doing that.
Then it'll be easier to think about the background colouring.

Otherwise... I'm taking two big bags of clothes to the charity shop at last, I'm implementing a new Zero Tolerance policy for clothes I don't really like very much - I'll only have clothes I love, and none of that "This t-shirt is still good to sleep in" or "maybe I'll be wanting to go to a costume party in this" talk. My clothes cupboard already looks so much better... I might throw out a load of old books next. Yay.

Oil Tanks

I love my Tate membership. I love walking into exhibitions for free, not knowing what to expect and not feeling like I have to get value for my ticket (sometimes it's very nice to just walk straight back out of an exhibition). I love sitting in the members room and thinking and drinking rose bud tea. I go there by myself to feel completely happy and inspired... but I will upgrade my membership so next year I can take a friend, just in case something like the Oil Tanks Tour happens again.

I was allowed to explore that sprawling lovely dark industrial space with a group of other curious Tate members, and I can't wait to see it opened to the public for performances and exhibitions. It's brilliant. They are planning to keep the industrial feel of it, and I really hope that means they'll keep all the different levels - when I walked around there I kept suddenly noticing walkways and doors and stairs high above or beneath. It felt like it might stretch for miles even though we I strolled around for fifteen minutes or so.



Everyone took pictures with their mobiles, most of them probably look like this.

I enjoyed wearing a hard hat, and I enjoyed that they were projecting bits of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Planet of the Apes". I felt like saying "Thank you for having me, Tate, I had a Lovely Time," and like maybe I'd be given a cup cake on the way out. Instead I went to the cafe, which was good enough.
I'm happy now.

The Return of the Tea

I HAVE A KETTLE!
I CAN HAVE HOT BEVERAGES!

That's the most important news. Cheers.

Otherwise... I had a lovely meeting yesterday looking through my various projects with my main publisher, and you know what, the projects are looking good. The sequel to "There are Cats in this Book" is colourful and pretty, I took home a printer's dummy to have a last think about all the words (there aren't very many words in there, so they better be all the right ones).
We looked through the book that Alexis wrote and I illustrated, and even after months the stupid cute little characters are so distracting to look at that they interrupt meetings because anyone may in the middle of a serious discussion of layouts suddenly realise how stupid they are and start laughing. That includes myself. I can't quite believe I drew them.
Then we had a think about other projects... it's all going rather well, I'd say. I'm glad. There's much for me to do, and all of it enjoyable.

Today, however, I am cleaning the flat. Scrubbing floors and everything. Except I just ran out of steam, and all I'm doing is drinking lovely cups of tea while watching Stephen Fry being amazed by animals on the BBC, and animals seemingly being amazed at Stephen Fry. It suddenly reminded me of this vivid dream I had years ago where somehow a small booth with Stephen Fry's head in it was installed on all street corners for the benefit of the public, and I wondered how they managed to get so many of his heads... anyway, I thought: hey wow, it's come true! Stephen Fry on demand!! Amazing. I feel I predicted Twitter.

No, I haven't filled in my tax returns form yet.

Yes, that's a photo mug. No, you probably can't make out what's on it: it's a pig head, a knitted bunny, a basket full of sock monkeys, three canary eggs, a melted gingerbread man and a chalk drawing of a cat.

I'm thinking about talking animals

Flatmate gave me a toy sheep and a toy bear for my animal collection. I'm carrying them in my pocket and thinking about the comic I'll be drawing soon, featuring sheep and a bear...
Here's the sheep.



I spent half the night thinking about a workshop I'll be leading in Cornwall... I thought about things I have to teach, and remembered that one of the main things is something I've been neglecting myself in the past months. If you can't make something you want to write or draw exist in your head, make it exist some other way first... play with toys. Go for a walk and pretend something. Draw a map.
I got so excited about remembering this that I had to take a sleeping pill after midnight, otherwise I'd still be in bed making plans about what to build next.

So now I am drawing a map of the sewers that my characters need to go down in the chapter that I've been trying to write for days... it's a very scrawly map like a child would make, with a lot of arrows and scribbles that mean DARKNESS or WHAT IS THIS??? IT'S WET!!! and WEIRD NOISE.
I think it's working.

NaNoWriMo Approaching

It's almost November! Which means that soon my tax returns form has to be out of the house and on its way to Glasgow, but more importantly it means another month of frenzied typing trying to write a 50,000-word novel. Yayyy! It's almost NaNoWriMo already!
This time it'll be something experimental that I wouldn't write otherwise, to keep me from getting precious about it (which is what happened last year after two weeks or so). I won't be writing it in order, but in a jumble of scenes which I'll shuffle about in Scrivener to keep myself amused. It'll be autobiographical every time I can't think of anything better and wildly made up when I can.
Come on, join up, what else are you going to do while Winter creeps up on you... get yourself one of these blankets with sleeves on, think up a password and a title... add me as your writing buddy - and in two week's time, LET'S GO!

Oh and mentioning Scrivener (again, I'm still in love with it you see) - they are doing a rather brilliant deal for NaNoWriMo. You can try the program for free, and if you manage to hit the word count by end of November and want to buy it it's 50% cheaper. Here's the special trial version.