A friend with a good camera and a few hours spare!
I am in need of your help and I will pay in cookies and coffee (or other similar things!).

The reason for this?

I actually need some good photos of me for the first time and I don’t feel that Photobooth on the mac does the job.

Don’t want to say why I need these photos just yet, in case something changes. So yah.

Yarr!

I officially support the atheist bus campaign!

A little devilish part of me wants me to wear this when I get approached by those scary preaching people in the centre. Just so tired of being pestered all the time. :)

The Atheist bus campaign sparked lots of online discussion amongst atheists and religious people.

I just found this one so excellent I simply HAVE to use it in some sort of story sometime!

A Christian comment:
Furthermore, you should note that it takes a certain frame of mind, body and spirit to find enjoyment in the ways of christian life. I can certainly see how a non-believer might not find the way of christian life to be enjoyable, but that is because his heart is not there in it. Nobody said being a believer would be easy. Is that what life is about, it being easy?

As someone beginning an exercise routine, it can be hard to find it enjoyable (it’s often painful) until you’ve begun to immerse yourself in the active lifestyle at which point it becomes immensely enjoyable when it becomes clear that following the workout schedule and diet (which you know are best for you) is very beneficial when you begin to see and feel real results.

An Atheist reply:

Yes the Jesus Diet, I’ve heard it’s excellent.
My friend lost all rational thinking in 2 months.

Atheist Bus Campaign comments

Had my tutorial today. Got so much work to do and so little time that I almost explode into a big bang of stress. As usual, I get support from my lovely tutors. :)

… on my art blog.

Hello!
We art zeh back from zeh wales!
It was Tom’s birthday, so we had a weekend in a cottage out there with a few friends.
Very cosy and must be done more often. No internet connection (not even on the iphone!), so you’re pretty much isolated from the rest of the world. :)

In the dining room. :)

Out for a walk by the cliffs!

Very windy!!

Zomg water!

We discover a small cave during the low tide and decided to explore. I must say it was slightly claustrophobic, but very cool!

Ow flash camera inside the cave.

In the cave! Look at the rocks.

Tom removes flash from camera and we get a slightly better picture of what it was like. :)

We come out on the other side!

Met by rocks. :O

So we had to climb up the cliffside again before the tide came in.

Insert cheesy music? :D

The shepherd! Julian actually got some sheep of the road with that stick. :D

Yes! So all in all it was a very very pleasant escape from Bristol.

Now I’m back and it’s instantly back to work. I’m still doing pop up roughs, but my other narrative project on the side is not going to be on period pains…

… It’s going to be the continuation of Nebo.
I’m finally plucking up the courage to get on with it.

I am very happy to say that the doctor couldn’t find any cause for concern with my little hump on my leg. It was basically just a muscle/fat irregularity. Nothing that’s harmful at all.

Soooo! Back to work for me. I’m really relieved.
Had my tutorial today to check up on the childrens pop-up book I’m doing. I got a very positive response from my tutor regarding my ideas and he even threw in some more for me to have fun with!

I asked him how surreal I was allowed to go for my story. He replied: “How surreal can you go?” implying that it’s entirely up to me and that I shouldn’t feel any restrictions.

So with this information in mind, I take my glass of tawny port and get back to work. I will post links here whenever I add something new to my art blog.

Wish me luck!

Aaaah. I feel like I can breathe again. Yesterday was the big day. The day I haven’t been able to speak about much. Hence my overall silence in the blogosphere. :)

But let me begin by saying that I have been itching to blog for so long that I just cannot hold it in any longer! Hopefully this doesn’t mean that this entry will be 483948934 pages long. I’ll try to be to the point and non-rambly.

First of all, I want to share the less exciting news with you. Just to get it out of the way.
A few months ago I noticed I had a lump on my inner thigh. I kept on saying that it was nothing, even though my friend who is studying to become a radiographer was adamant that I should have it checked out. Better safe than sorry. So finally, about two weeks ago I booked an appointment with my GP and was pleasantly surprised to be fitted in the very next day. I went there with Tom, a very attractive young doctor with shiny shoes felt my leg, I was slightly embarrassed, and so on. I expected him to say that it was a normal fat lump. “It’s completely harmless. You can go home”, or something along those lines, but instead he booked me in for an ultrasound and explained to me that it wasn’t a fat lump. He didn’t know what it was, but assured me he didn’t think it would be anything dangerous. The ultrasound would just be a precaution. I went home with Tom, feeling like a mute. It was like all of my inner babbling just went silent. To be honest, I have no idea what this is, and I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t worried about it.

My ultrasound is next week on Tuesday afternoon.

Sigh. Right, so we got that over with. Now to the GOOD bits!

We’ve started our new project at University. It is one single module that goes until June or so I think. The brief states the following: “Create a visual narrative”
That’s it! The rest is up to you. I started off by making short stories around period pains. It’s very close to my heart. :P
I had lots of fun and it was all great. Then we had an announcement. Paul Gravett is coming to our class to do a talk. For those who do not know who Paul is, here’s his homepage: www.paulgravett.com
In a nutshell, he is considered one of the world leading authorities on Graphic Novels and Comics. My tutor considers him THE world leading guy on the subject. He has written many books and has published people like… Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. He’s worked with Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. In short: He is made of awesome.

After this announcement, my tutor brought me and Rich into his office and told us that we had been selected to have a personal talk with Paul after his lecture. “We paid lots of money to get him here, so we are damn well gonna put him to good use for you!”. My tutor asked us to keep quiet about this as he didn’t want it to seem like favoritism. Paul simply would not be able to see everyone. I was shocked and surprised by this offer and was walking on clouds for the rest of the day. I had asked my tutor what I should bring for the talk. He said: “Everything.”

At this point I couldn’t think about anything else. My project was being worked on and all, but I just didn’t know what to show Paul when the time did come. What did I want to get out of it? I sifted through my old work and didn’t like any of it. The thought of showing it to someone like him made me scared.

Finally, the day DID come. It was yesterday.

I had decided to bring my Nebo prologue to show him what I did about 3 years ago. Then snippets of Nebo pages and artwork. Then some other random artwork and narrative pages. Then the current project. And finally some of my inspirations (Strangers in Paradise, David Mack, and Silver).

After the lecture (which was amazingly inspiring, I wont go on about it because I just wouldn’t stop), I waited for my turn to talk to Paul.

The moment came when I sat down with him and pulled my artwork out. I found him to be a very approachable and gentle character. He was also radiating optimism! We went through my stuff, he picked out things he liked and things that could be better. He asked me questions about what I want to do in the future. We had quite a long conversation. I wanted a longer one, but had to think about Rich who was going to talk to him after me. :P
I can’t remember exact quotes, but I’ll try to relay it as best as I can.
He said that my watercolours were great. That I had nailed it and should definitely keep doing it. He commented especially on some of my character designs and my nebo pages. He said that for reproduction, the only thing that would have to change on some of the pages would be the light pencil line that I tend to have. It would have to be slightly darker so the printers can pick it up.

After we had chatted a bit about autobiographical comics and my interest in them, he suggested I start up with short comics online just about my life.

But what really stuck in my mind was:
“You have great potential here.”

I didn’t know what else to say than ‘thank you’.

He will be coming back in May to check on our progress. I will have more comics done by then.

The fact that someone can inspire so much hope in me is amazing. I think I might have a chance. I might be able to do this. Just need to keep at it. Get stuff up. Get it done.

After the talk, I was hardly touching the floor. I was just sort of floating around. I had to talk to my tutor Jonathan, because I felt like I wanted to change my current project. Just needed to get my head around things. So we chatted. During our chat, my other tutor named Chris (the head of the Illustration course) walked in and said to me: “We need you to win Macmillan this year, so I can get a free meal!”
I replied: “But, but, Macmillan is a childrens book competition… I’m drawing period pains…”
I never draw childrens stories.
Jonathan agreed with Chris and told me I should enter a pop up book after the success with me previous project.
“Noones entered a pop up book for years.”
I felt like the world was sort of turning up side down at this point. After the talk with Paul, I wanted to get started with graphic novels, not bleedin’ kids books! But then I thought about the fact that I’ve never done kids books. How can I comment on it without having tried it?
Jonathan said that this project can be in two parts for me, as the deadline for the Macmillan competition is in the end of April. So after that I could continue on my period pain project or whatever I wanted to do.
I told them I would give it a shot. Why not. We only live once. Lets try to create a pop up book in less than 8 weeks. Hahaha. … Ha…
The intense work that is required for pop up is quite frightening. You become a recluse and live on the livingroom floor, surrounded by paper… It’s just not possible to do the work in a coffee shop. :P

Summary:

I have a lump. I will have it ultrasoundeddededed on Tuesday.
I’ve met Paul Gravett and talked about my work.
I’ve promised to enter the Macmillan competition with waaay too little time to do the actual work required.
I am feeling more inspired to do things than ever. Maybe I can pull this off.

… I smell like sweat.