Glad that's sorted

I told the hairdresser to do whatever she felt like. Came out like this:

BzzzZzzzZzZzz

Snow snow snow

I woke up under a blanket of snow.

Bedroom Window, Snowy.

I went downstairs and looked out of the window... outside fat flakes of snow are dancing, hollywood-style.

I turned on the radiators and lights and made coffee, replied to all my mails with "that's ok, see you later" and now I am sitting on the sofa. I will eventually start drawing. But right now I am just sitting. It's very quiet out there, and I'm thinking about how much I've been worrying this winter... I shall have a snow day, wearing my warmest home-knitted clothes, eating soup, drinking tea and drawing. And no worries today.

Sofia Vlazaki

Sofia Vlazaki

Sofia Vlazaki

I went to college with Sofia (we did the same MA authorial illustration course in Falmouth).
Look at her brilliant drawings, do.
I love them.

It's been a good weekend.

Lovely Fan Art

My New Awesome Wallet, containing hand-bound sketchbook (and a pen)

Ice skating at Canary Wharf

I also went fencing, and, in the words of the coach, "Who won? Probably everybody". I sure enjoyed wildly attacking frightened strangers. And I crewed my first game of survivor sports for Fire Hazard.

Stressed? (Apparently, yes.)

I seem to have bought a T-shirt in a bout of insomnia. I forgot all about it straight after. I have no idea why I felt I needed another t-shirt, or how I got to the site. I was pretty much sleep-shopping, guided by my subconscious.
So I was VERY surprised when it arrived.

It is now my favourite T-shirt. I absolutely love it, and so did everyone I ran into so far while wearing it.
You can buy it here if you like it, too, in John Allison's scary-go-round shop.
If anyone could enlighten me what the link is to my waking life, I'd be very grateful. How did I get to that shop? Did anyone send me? What made this happen?
Actually, his other shirts are bloody brilliant, too.

Back in Plymouth...

They gave me the tiniest room at the B&B, which I am very happy about - I prefer tiny rooms when I'm by myself,  large ones sometimes worry me at night. Then they gave me a huge mug of black tea, some biscuits and the WiFi password. I like this place a lot!
Shall huddle up in bed and write now. Tomorrow I'll be teaching illustration at the university again...

New stylish backpack and extremely nice washbag.

Which reminds me, one of the foundation students I lectured to last time sent me some results:

Cats and dogs by Kathy Evans

Hurrah!

That was the lecture where the projector exploded and my memory stick was killed by a virus and generally a good time was had by all.

Dream Shelf

I just fixed this by my bed - it holds tiny cardboard speakers to plug my mobile into and play white noise when I can't sleep, plus my dream diary and a pen, and a tiny sheep. (The app is "Sleep Now" for android - it's not bad at all, comes with row-boat noises and a heartbeat, too.)

I also finished painting the shelf, got some silk cocoon fairy lights from Muji and framed up a print-out of my favourite picture by Tim.
The room is slowly becoming cosy.

I think I'll huddle up in bed with some strawberries and a cup of Rooibos tea with honey, and do a bit of writing. Tomorrow I'll be off to Devon again to do some teaching...

It's Cold.

Looks like every branch is still hanging on to exactly one leaf. How organised.

Just bought this in the bookshop.

This little kitty is going to the market

I am getting most of the artwork of "There are no cats in this book" ready to be sold in a gallery. This morning was all about locating the parts and cutting them out with a scalpel, because they were originally collaged digitally because scanning physically assembled collage artwork is actually more fiddly. So these original cats are meeting for the first time on actual paper.
If you think you might want to buy some, get in touch and I'll let you know when the sale is on.

Now my hands are very cold and I am warming up at the cafe across the road from the studio with Lapsang Souchong... Brrr I got so cold that my back hurts. Bah.

My mother knitted me the best dress in the known universe.

Captain Moonpie travels on

Captain Moonpie is still travelling, making friends and sending me pictures, and sometimes trying to phone. I'm not at all sure where he is at the moment, actually... but he seems to have good travel companions.

Hello?

Home Improvements Ongoing

The staircase is so much better with a framed print of an egg-shaped pigeon by Joseph Sumner.

I delivered my files

One chapter of comic linework to art director, who wasn't in today, so I left it on his desk guarded by a sheep because I was too sleepy to think of a note to write. He'll know what to do with it.

Day Off

So I decided to take the day off for home improvement purposes.

I WILL MAKE YOU GREEN.

This shelf, now, is more green than brown, but reluctantly so. I will get back to it. And I will have things framed. And I will paint the other shelf. All this will happen.

However, halfway through this I realised that I am supposed to be handing in all the finished linework for chapter two of "The Sleepwalkers" to my art director on Tuesday, and that the only possible time to finish those files was RIGHT NOW. So much for my day off. And while I was at it I ordered some new toner for the printer and printed out the layouts for another book I am pitching at the moment - I wrote a test chapter on the train from Plymouth, and it sure is weird. I am quite pleased with it, actually.
Then I noticed my hand got firmly glued around the paintbrush with green, and I had to soak it off in the sink.

At least the morning was rather perfect. My lovely boyfriend cooked me some porridge, which is doctor's orders for breakfast. It's much less awful if someone else cooks it.
We cycled to a couple of places that we might want to use for exciting future events.
Then we went and had Vietnamese lunch, and I was (as often, these days) so happy that I had to remind myself humans don't express themselves in weird yelping gurgles of joy in public while running in circles around the object of their admiration. Not in Deptford, anyway.

Needful Things

Today I bought a desk lamp for the studio. I can't quite believe that it took me this long to do this.
It cost me ten minutes and fifty pounds in Argos, and it is actually really pretty - heavy black metal with pleasing joints, it looks like a friendly robot. And I CAN SEE WHAT I AM DRAWING.

Light at Last.

I also put a radiator on the desk, another beside the chair, and Simon helped me to sling a lamp on a cable across the ceiling, to be suspended from big hooks as needed. Clever construction.
I got some drawing done, although the paper felt a bit damp. It really is getting cold. But I refuse to worry. I'll just keep making it more comfortable and warm.

I slept late, because I felt I had to - I noticed my writing had become a bit incoherent and my drawing a bit wobbly, and I felt like crying for no reason. I was just very tired. It's hard, changing my life around in so many ways, and keeping track of what needs doing - I want to have more time to go into town and make use of London, for one thing, and I want to get my room to a point that it makes me happy to walk into it, and the studio to a point where I can just sit down and start drawing any time. Tomorrow I will paint my bedroom shelves, and have some prints framed. It's strange, last year I would never have paid for framing, I'd have done it myself... I'm starting to feel strangely grown up, paying people for things I don't have time for. My life used to be all time, a big bag of assorted time... now it's a big bag of assorted work. Brilliant work, but nevertheless, it confuses me sometimes.

I started having little silent chats with my comic characters while I have a rest on the sofa, or before dragging myself out of bed, and they are very reassuring. They seem to be much less tired than I am myself at the moment. It's good to think they know what they are doing, and I just need to keep putting them on paper. They've become my friends. Especially Wolke Daune, the white sheep, who sometime tells me to stop, have a cup of tea and look at my calendar and see that actually there's a bit of space somewhere so I can go and buy a dressing gown after all to make my mornings happy, for example.

I managed to merge all my digital calendars into one, thanks to gcal, and to get them all up on my android phone, and for the first time I can really see how much I am taking on because it's right there in stacked up coloured stripes across the days and weeks. And I can spot the places where the stacks are too fat, and move appointments and mark days out for life things rather than work things. It's great to have a smartphone, it really helps. It's also been good to be able to deal with my email on the move - in the post office queue or waiting for my desk lamp in Argos, in fact. It even watches over my 20 minute power naps and the assorted pills I need to take. And at night, if I can see a planet through my window, it tells me which one it is. It's great. In fact, have a list of apps I've found useful, after the jump, if you like.

Prehistoric Yellow

Cornwall

London

Rah. Back from Holiday.

I've been away, I am back! More precisely, I've been teaching in Cornwall and Devon and holidaying in Land's End, which seemed to be the best place to get away from it all. It sure was silent out there.
Teaching is fun - I am now on the staff of Plymouth University (well, I am associate lecturer, which I think just about counts). I spent two days doing tutorials, and I hope I was useful. It'll be good to see all those guys again in two weeks' time and see what's happened.

Otherwise I had to go to the doctor for feeling completely awful stomach-wise, and now I have tablets and advice which includes things like not to live on tasty salads and making sure to chew some of the time, possibly it might help not to eat and work simultaneously.
And that's why this post is short: I have to both do a lot of stuff and a lot of nothing at all today, to keep on track with work and to not fall over with exhaustion.
See you later :)

There are NO Cats in this Book... THE VIDEO!

It's here. It's now. It pops and purrs. It's in HD. Set it to full screen NOW.

There Are No Cats in This Book from John Peacock on Vimeo.

Tell all your friends! THERE ARE NO CATS IN THIS BOOK! :)

Humans and Totems Exhibition - Some Pictures

Tim's Paintings are beautiful.

Alexia's "Foreigner" is awsome. She made the tiny lizards out of something like papier mache, using tiny brushes.

This guy is my favourite. (Also by Alexia)

I dressed up as a ghost, I think people just thought I was ill. That's my donkey painting in the background.

It went well, and the exhibition is on until the 12th of November. Things are for sale. Come and see.

There are Cats on this Poster!

I just picked up a big roll of library posters from the post office! They are so nice!
One of them goes in a frame for my room, the others go to friends if they want them. So get in touch, friends!

I'm having a late lunch break - oh, actually, very late lunch break... it's one of those days that needed to be laid out and mapped out on paper before breakfast. I am busy. Yesterday I spent brainstorming a new book with John, and in the process covered the lounge in paper. I still need to write up the pitch we came up with before the day is over. Tomorrow I'll edit another chapter of graphic novel, and then I'll need to seriously get ready for my new job as associate lecturer at Plymouth University. Rah! And I just arranged which artworks to sell from "There are No Cats in this Book" - Pretty much all of them, as it turns out. More about that soon.