Summer School

I've just spent a week at an Illustration summer school at Edinburgh College of Art. Our project for the week was to produce a book with 6 pages of illustrations on the theme of Journeys. We spent a lot of time developing our ideas, and our tutor Mina Braun gave good advice on how we might improve our work. By the end of the week I had produced some illustrations that I was really pleased with, and learned some new techniques like mono-printing and using a dip pen (I loved this so much that I have bought quite a few colours of ink to try out).

The people on the course were really friendly, and it all seemed to be over so quickly! I was really exhausted by the end of the week (especially after doing the mono-printing).

The book that I made was based on a young-adult novel called Little Sister by Kara Dalkey. It is based on various aspects of Japanese mythology, and tells the story of a girl going in search of her sister's lost soul.
More photos

Chanel

When I saw a beautiful advert for Chanel Coco Cocoon handbags, printed in shades of grey, I decided I had to try to recreate it in white paper. I've been wanting to do a picture made of white paper for a while, and this was the perfect subject. I messed up a bit on the model's face, but I'm quite pleased with it other than that.

Mariel's new look

I finally finished Mariel - filled in some of the bald spots on her head, did a bit more lip carving, added some pastel make-up, and styled her hair.

Decorated notebooks

I decided last night to decorate these Moleskine cahiers. I used a white Sharpie marker and coloured pencils. One will be for notes on my favourite TV shows and those I'm thinking about watching, one for my favourite music and concerts I've been to, and one for plays etc that I have been to. I will keep tickets from the performances in the back pocket. I will keep them with the books and movies cahiers I've already decorated. When I get some more cahiers, I will start one on art exhibitions I've been to. I found the black ones were not as easy to draw on successfully, but maybe I just needed a thinner white pen.

Dad's birthday card

It's almost a month since Dad's birthday, and I haven't got round to blogging his card. It's been a busy month! The idea for the card was not my own (I saw the idea on a website for kids) but it's the sort of idea I would probably had by myself eventually!

Comics course

On Friday night my friend Aurora held a course on writing autobiographical comics. We started off by listing characteristics of our personality and appearance, then tried to draw ourselves. It was lots of fun and gave me lots of new ideas, and I feel a lot more confident about drawing people now.

Dundee degree show

Yesterday I went to the degree show at Duncan of Jordanstone. I was pleased that the show was back in the art college building this year. The things that stood out for me were:
Zuzannna Bukala's amazing wooden dolls. They are a wonderful mix of traditional and modern, and they are the sort of thing I would love to buy if they ever go into production.
Sarah Bissell's illustrated Synaesthete's Alphabet was particularly interesting to me because I have synaesthesia.
Johanne Cameron's illustrations
Naomi Archibald's paintings
Meg Park's animation Kahani
Kelly Gray's paintings of road signs
Ian Ritch and Alison Mehta's pop-up book
Linsey McGregor's paper jewellery was fantastic - it reminded me how much I enjoyed experimenting with paper at the paper engineering course last year. Her pieces were very tactile and sculptural, and I would have been interested in seeing how some of the shapes would translate into precious metals. I also was interested in the work that she had done within a school, encouraging children to come up with their own wearable paper art.

Just a tiny rant - I really wish that artists who are having degree shows would make sure that they have a website (even a blog, it isn't difficult to set up) and that they have the correct address printed on their postcards. I always like to give credit to those artists whose work I particularly enjoyed, and some of them don't make it easy!

A great weekend

I had a really good weekend - Les Miserables with my uncle, aunt and cousins on Friday night, and my future sister-in-law's hen night on Saturday. Les Miserables was amazing! I've been listening to the music on Spotify ever since. It probably was the first musical I had been to see at a theatre since I saw Annie when I was in the guides (and in the same theatre)! It was great spending time with my cousins on both evenings, and I made some fun new friends.

Christian Aid book sale 2010

This is my fourth year blogging about the Christian Aid booksale at St Andrew's and St George's Church in Edinburgh. I wasn't sure if I was going to go, because last weekend was so busy, but I'm glad I did!

I bought:
A pair of Korean dolls £5
A tiny Swedish Dala horse (I've wanted one for ages) 50p
90-Day Geisha by Chelsea Haywood £1.50
Hotel World by Ali Smith £1.50
Out by Natsuo Kirino £1.50
Kyoto Gardens £1.50
Origami Birds (which is so cute and retro) 50p
The Courtesan and the Samurai by Lesley Downer (which was on my Amazon wishlist, and is by the same author as a book I bought last year at the sale)£2
A Japanese print £30
A pair of Japanese geta sandals £6
A grand total of £49, which is not as much over budget as I thought (I usually try to stay under £40, but the Japanese print pushed it up a bit this time!)

When I sat down to have my lunch, I discovered I was right next to a Japanese print, and decided to think about it over lunch. Then someone bought it while I was still eating! Then I went round a corner and discovered some unframed Japanese prints. The prints were £30 each so I thought long and hard before I bought this one, and I'm glad I did. It's got cherry blossom on it!

And I'm so pleased to have a pair of Japanese geta at last. They are fun to walk around in although I didn't really buy them to wear!

Garden of Cosmic Speculation

My friend Aurora invited me to go to the Garden of Cosmic Speculation with her and some other friends. The garden is just north of Dumfries, so it took us a few hours to get there from Edinburgh. It's only open one day a year. The garden was spectacular, and there was so much to explore.