Dundee Degree Show

Today I went to the degree show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. It was the first place that I'd been to a degree show (last year) and I was glad that it lived up to my high expectations of it. My favourite exhibits were:

1. The beautiful paintings and prints of women in Chinese clothing by Jill Zhang. I would have bought one of these if I could have afforded it! But I had to make do with a postcard!

2. Genesis, an animation by Yeojin Jung based on Korean paintings.

3. The "Tea Monsters" illustrations by Jen Collins.

4. The works by the Jewellery and Metal Design students, many of which featured beautifully intricate patterns.

Chinese girl - finished drawing

I think this is finished now!

More progress on the Chinese girl drawing

There's still a bit of work to be done on this but it's getting close to being finished.

My cards on the wall!

My mum framed these cards I made and they are now hanging on the wall.

Cherry blossom snow

This is the third Sunday in a row that I've gone to the Meadows in Edinburgh to try to take photos of the cherry blossoms, and finally the conditions were perfect although a bit cloudy. The petals had started to fall from the trees and the breeze was helping this process along and creating cherry blossom snow.

Work in progress

I'm working on a coloured pencil drawing of a girl I took a couple of photographs of in China. There's still a lot of work to be done on it but I'm quite pleased with it so far.

Dad's birthday card

And now the birthday season is over for another year!

Christian Aid booksale

Today I went to the huge Christian Aid booksale which is held every year in Edinburgh. I bumped into a friend at the bus station so I had someone to talk to on the bus journey there. Unlike last year the weather was sunny and warm. Here's what I bought at the sale:

Ladybird - Knitting
Ladybird - Action Rhymes
Ladybird - Finger Rhymes
John S Goodall - Escapade
John S Goodall - Before the War
John S Goodall - An Edwardian Diary for 1979
John S Goodall - Victorians Abroad
Walter Crane - Flowers From Shakespeare's Garden
Mike Wilks - The Annotated Ultimate Alphabet
Laurie Klein & Livia McRee - Photo Crafts Sourcebook
Will Ferguson - Hokkaido Highway Blues
Koji Yagi - A Japanese Touch For Your Home
Donald Richie - Introducing Japan
Michael Macintyre - The Shogun Inheritance
David Scott - The Japanese Cookbook
David Scott - Far Eastern Vegetarian Cookery
Alexander McCall Smith - Portuguese Irreguar Verbs
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
Jed Rubenfeld - The Interpretation of Murder
Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

It's a pity I didn't take a list of what I was looking for, because I ended up buying two books I already had!

Catbus

This is the Catbus from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro. I finally got round to making this for my brother's birthday. I'd been thinking about making one for some time, after making a set of Totoros (and a soot sprite) for him and his girlfriend a few years ago. So now they finally have the Catbus to complete the collection.

Birthday card for my brother

Based on his Mii.