September visual diary

September has been busy. I'm not entirely sure how I've managed to keep this up this month, but somehow I have, and I think it's been good for me. I've had a ridiculous number of lovely visitors... My two major exes Martin and Huw have both been down to stay, plus old school friends Sam, Mike (and their partners Ceri and Emily), and Gareth. Uni friends Michael, Lucy and Lyall also popped down for the day. Add into the mix extremely busy work times, exciting Alex DJing night and a whole bunch of other fun stuff... I'm tired. But happy. Tired and happy. Here's to a hopefully slightly quieter (but no less fun) October.

Having said that I had a busy month, the most exciting thing to happen on September 1st was eating a bag of milky way magic stars. They're just SO GOOD though, right?

The 2nd was when Huw came to visit. He was visiting David really (our housemate and another of my best old school friends), but we roped him into eating a big bowl of risotto and playing a game of Galaxy Trucker. It was nice. And didn't play out at all like a scene from Scott Pilgrim.

 Um… brains are weird?

YAY DYMO! This one looks kind of weird because a) I'm bad at drawing and b) it's the kiddie version so it's designed for little hands. I want one. (A dymo not a child)

David is doing a cosplay in a couple of months… I don't know who the character is, but he clearly really likes belts. We spent an entertaining half hour with David stood in the middle of the living room, trying to work out how an earth it was all meant to strap together. Fun.

This is a fairly accurate depiction of the most ridiculously rained upon I think I've ever been. Me and Alex set off to cycle to Bevendean, but were rapidly thwarted by apocalyptic rain and HAIL. It actually HURT. When I stepped off my bike at the Elm Grove lights in defeat, my converse-clad foot went into a puddle halfway up my calf. It was nuts. And stopped nearly as soon as it started, so by the time we got home, drenched and miserable, the sun was coming out again!

Not sure what happened to my body. Just woke up in the middle of the night feeling horrifically nauseous, and then spent the next day feeling very mopey and miserable and gross. Boo. I love my bed though.

Yep.

Picked a load of elderberries from the garden. I'm unhappy about how many spiders there are in the garden, and now Mildred has moved out (THIS IS VERY SAD but she's gone to live with her real owner in a probably-much-more-awesome coop) there's no one around to eat them!

Sometimes I worry that I'm actually really really terrible at being around people and everyone thinks I'm awful but tolerates me out of pity. This was one of those evenings. Lovely people though.

This isn't a particularly creative one, but I just want to alert everyone to the existence of the Chilli Pickle's INSANE takeaways. Alex described it as 'like a cardboard mansion where every room is a foodstuff'. This is my annotated version of the diagram that comes with it.

I don't even know if I should like Grand Theft Auto, but we watched David play it for a bit when he was first getting started and I think it's pretty brilliant.

AND IT WASN'T EVEN THAT GREAT IN THE END

Excitingly, at this point, I finished my first visual diary book! Which, if you're interested in what all the faint lines were in the background, was this.

I decided I liked the size, so figured I'd give moleskines a try. I like the new book - it's nice to have a thinner book which will lie flat better on the scanner, but the paper is a little thin and ink tends to bleed through (despite the paper feeling similar to the previous book). It's my own fault though, I should just buy proper sketchbook with proper thick paper, but I don't like the feel of the thicker paper. I am difficult. Anyone know of a good sketchbook which has thin paper but ink doesn't bleed through?

Anyway, first visual diary in my new book is about my boobs. YAY BOOBS.
Well, BOO BOOBS in this case, as I've always found throughout my life, whenever I put on even the slightest bit of weight, the first places it goes on are my already slightly pudgy tummy and my already far too large boobs. Miserable.
TMI, but this bra is an F cup. F!! Boys get apparently get excited about the idea of DD's, but F is almost a bit weird and gross really. Ah well. This bra makes them look normal again, rather than the dreaded 'quad-boob' which I was starting to get with some of my older bras. Gross.

Gareth came to visit so we slept in Alex's room for a few days. I like it in there but futons make me ache, and by the end of the week I was glad to get back into my own squishy(er) bed.

Fairly self explanatory, but this was an interesting puddings day. In the evening we went to Food for Friends (excellent) for David's birthday, and as well as amazing main courses, we had that rare thing where everyone ordered a different pudding, and everyone individual was really really pleased with what they had, and didn't have any pudding envy/regret upon seeing other peoples. Lovely.
However earlier on I'd tried to make some flapjacks for David because he loves cereal, so I made them out of his favourite cereal. But despite following the recipe perfectly, they stubbornly refused to come out of the pan, and in the end I just had to pry them out with a blunt knife which left me with a sticky mound of shapeless clumps of flapjack. Disappointing.
However, after doing this diary I actually tasted them and they're pretty great… and the tupperware full of clumps has disappeared into David's room, so I can only assume they're going down well.

Went over to my granny's for her 93rd birthday party. She had these great napkins so I stole one and made this. I'm still not very good at drawing people.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

More next month. Hopefully no more slugs next month.

August

Well, I don't think the visual diary has gone so well this month. I wonder why? I'm going to blame being super busy at work, and hope that things get back on track next month.
It's weird, I've just been feeling quite uninspired a lot of the time. That, combined with being quite short of time has meant that a lot of them were a bit rubbish!

Oh well, here's a few of the better and/or more interesting ones...

I really enjoy cooking, and I enjoy it most of all when it's for friends. 

We travelled up to the RA in London to see the summer exhibition. It was hectic and beautiful and inspiring as always, but Grayson Perry's "The vanity of small differences" series really blew me away. I'd go as far as to say that they were the best 'art' that I've ever seen in real life. I'd seen pictures of them, but they absolutely have to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated.

They took up the entirety of the last room of the exhibition, and I spent longer in that room than in any of the others, despite there only being six pieces to look at. But the detail and craftsmanship was second to none, and the story running through the pieces was so incredibly executed that I had to walk round again and again, taking it all in. I did this very poor reproduction of one small section of one of the tapestries, which me and Jess were both cooing over. "It's just a tree! But LOOK at it!"
You can see it as part of the tapestry here.

I was absolutely wracked with guilt about this afterwards! I've relayed the story to several people and have been assured that the kids would have got much WORSE language if they'd been in my shoes, but still. I'm not a swearer. I felt like a monster. A big horrible pink fat monster. (I have put on weight, and am sunburnt.)

Our landlord has done nothing but emergency/essential maintenance on this house in about 8 years (and most of the house looks like it's gone a lot longer than that). So when some workmen pitched up to finally paint our rapidly crumbling windows, we were pretty amazed. Even more amazed when they didn't just paint the windows, but the entire front of the house, including shiny blue front door!
We used to direct people to our house by saying 'it's the worst looking house on the street', but no longer!

It's that time of year. Brochure season at work means ridiculously hectic days - this year especially hindered by my computer deciding that now would be a good time to start glitching and error messaging all over the place...

Oh, and a LOT of rainbow wheel. ARGH.

A new friend came over to our house last night, and after going up to the bathroom, he came back down to fetch his camera because: "Your bathroom is so amazing, I need to take a picture". He came back with an amazing panorama view.
A weird number of people have this reaction to our bathroom, which is interesting, because the first time I came to the house I was genuinely a bit disgusted by it. The ancient toilet with the horrible rust stained bowl, the mustard yellow sink and bath, the dark wood panelling and low ceiling… But I've come to see it does have it's good points. For starters, it's MASSIVE. Like, you could have a little party in there. For seconds, a series of housemates have all added their own decorative touches, which means, as my friend with the camera put it "I wanted to stay up there for ages looking at everything".

However, as this blog entry touches upon, it's never REALLY clean. Like, there's only so much you can do to tackle about 50 years of ingrained bathroom grime, no matter how determined you are. (And I am pretty determined.)

So I've started going back to Quaker church every so often. Most of their worship is in silence, but anyone is welcome to stand up and speak about anything that they'd like to share. One man stood up and talked a bit about various conflicts around the world, and he said this. It really touched me, so I decided to write it down. I decided to leave in my pencil sketch lines, even though I know they look rubbish, it just shows me how I develop things. I am annoyed with myself for spelling visitors wrong. I spelt it right in the pencil, and then spent ages staring at it. For some reason it just looked wrong, so I changed it in the ink, and it looked even worse, and then I felt like an idiot.

Everything at work eventually just turned into a blur of frantic amendments. (My senior designer did humour me by letting me include some drop shadows though. Drop shadows are my guilty pleasure.) If I get around to it, I'll post some pictures of the finished brochures. They look GREAT and it's been a while since I've shown you any 'work work'.

Alex knew everyone at work was sad and stressed, so he bought us rocket lollies. What a hero/best boyfriend ever. <3 p="">

In a brief respite from stressful work days, me and Alex spent the evening with Elly and Kitty (and Jonny and Kris) while they were dog-sitting. We went down to the beach for a paddle by Fatboy Slim's house, then boardgames back at theirs. I am definitely dog broody.

So some days, I just don't know what to draw. Nothing that happened seemed significant enough. So this day I decided to draw several small (and fairly rubbish) drawings of some very minor events in my day. The little writing in case it's too small to read…
1. Colleague Dave spent ages on the phone arguing with a Russian airline over a £10 booking fee. "It's the principle of the thing!"
2. I've had the same sandwiches every day this week and they've been great, until today when they were really disappointing.
3. I had a rant about people leaving litter around the office assuming it was Wayne, but actually it was Marina and she apologised and I felt bad.
4. Anna bought a child into the office. It wasn't hers, but it was also called Anna.
5. Decided to walk home because I had lots to carry. There were loads of flying ants.
6. David made noodles for dinner, he found them really disappointing and swore to only have cereal again from now on.

Gave blood. Fun times!

I did this at about midnight so it's pretty poor, but anyway, this is a visual review of why I don't think the Mongolian Barbecue is a very good restaurant. (I did have an absolutely lovely night though, good company made everything good!)

More at the end of September, I hope.

I done updated my website! And some related ponderings...

So I'm not entirely sure what came over me, but at about 10.30 on Friday evening I became overwhelmed with the irrational desire to update my website.
For some reason it suddenly started to massively bother me that I'd basically not updated it since I got my job two and a half years ago. Mainly because anything involving html, ftp transfers and 'backends' fills me with dread.

But I overcame that dread, and thanks to the wonderful Tristan's beautifully crafted html from back when we first built my website, (plus a couple of years more experience and patience on my part), I managed to pop some new content up there without too much stress and tears and banging my head against the desk.

So, if you're so inclined, feel free to stop by my website and see some new stuff that isn't actually new at all, because if you've been reading my blog you'll have seen it all already.

As I say - I'm not even sure why I felt so compelled to do it - I've no plans to leave my job any time soon, so I'm not in full-on self promotion mode, but I guess I'm aware that when I do freelance work, prospective clients might google me (hi!) and may judge me poorly if all that's on my website are projects which were clearly done in university.

But now that my website is updated, it's got me to thinking about something which has always given me some concern.

It's all just a bit… varied.

Some might say variety is a good thing, but I've always been concerned that I've never really found my style. And for prospective freelance clients that's also (rightly) a concern - if they commission me, they really don't know what they're going to get!

If I look at it from a positive perspective, I guess part of the reason my style has never settled is because I'm always challenging myself to try new things. Looking at it from a negative perspective, I'm a magpie. I look at things a lot, I see things I like, and I take them and build them into something new. This means that my work has never really settled into a style that is distinctly my own.

At this stage of my career, I would say that I am a confident graphic designer. I might even go as far as to describe myself as 'middleweight'. Ooh-er. I use grids and paragraph styles, I know how to build a pretty badass table in InDesign. (And much more, obviously)
I work in-house for a group of international colleges, and, at present, my graphic design 'style' is the in-house style. While I do influence the development of that style, there's no doubt that I am also good at adapting to fit what had already been built by my senior designer. I enjoy my work, and I love working in-house - not least because it forces a 'style' upon me, which means all my work with them does have an element of consistency. When I do freelance graphic design work, I am influenced by the aesthetics of the work I do in my day job, while tailoring that to meet the clients needs. I guess not having a distinctive style isn't such a worry with graphic design (at least, not at this stage in my career)… it's mainly about meeting the needs of the client. It would be nice if people hired me because they've seen my work and like it, but realistically most of my freelance work comes via word of mouth, and people just want 'a graphic designer' rather than 'Emma Charleston'.

But illustration is a different story. I do envy illustrators who have a style so distinctive that anyone who sees it can tell it's their work. Apart from some recurring themes (I love circles, and I like using the 'outline stroke' tool in illustrator), there are very few things which link all of my illustration pieces together. I wish I could settle on one 'look' and then gradually evolve that look over time, but then someone asks me to do an illustration for something and I have this amazing idea that looks like nothing I've ever done before, and ho hum, still no 'style'.

I'm still trying to work out how to get my brain to focus in one particular way, but so far that's not going particularly well. I also don't feel like I've got particularly good at any specific way of drawing yet. I guess I keep hoping that by trying lots of different things I'll stumble across something that just 'clicks' and I'll want to work in that way forever more. Is that how it goes? Or maybe that's not something to aspire to. I don't know.

Anyway, this is meandering and not particularly well written, but I have a habit of writing blog posts and then thinking I'll come back and perfect them later, and then I never do, so I'm just going to go nuts and post this one RIGHT NOW.

Now go visit my website and give me some page views so that I feel like paying the server fee is worthwhile. It made me giggle irrationally to make every instance of me saying 'my website' into a link, so I hope you'll click on at least one of them.

Plastic Pieces and Cardboard Worlds

My partner Alex wrote a blog about boardgames. You can read it here, it's a good 'un.

I did a drawing for it, because, much to my surprise, I've come to quite like playing boardgames too.

Visual Diary: July

I'm still slightly surprised that I've managed to keep this up. Past visual diarying attempts have generally lasted little more than a couple of months, but I've managed a drawing a day since January. It's got to the point now where I feel actively guilty if I haven't done it by about 11 at night, so hopefully that bodes well for keeping it up till at least the end of the year, if not longer.

Anyway, without further ado, JULY:

In which I bought myself a ridiculous giant iMac. I got it from Solutions, and thanks to their massive ineptitude yet astonishingly good customer service, I got it £500 cheaper than I should have done. It's a 27", 3-yr old ex display model, and when I asked how much, the guy told me £600. I agreed that price, asked them to put it on reserve, and told them I'd come back with a taxi to collect it the next day. However, the next day came around, and when I called them to confirm, the guy sheepishly told me they couldn't sell it to me for £600, and it should actually have been £1,100. The guy had accidentally read me the cost-price. Well, I didn't even throw that much of a strop... I just told them I was really disappointed, and they agreed to give it to me for £675! Which is a ridiculous price for what it is. It's my first big purchase since getting a full-time job 2 and a half years ago, and I'd been saving the whole time with something like this in mind. Suffice to say I spent about three days just sitting in front of it, basking in it's glow.

Although I did pretty quickly realise that having full screen skype is terrifying. GIANT FACES.

Giant screen distraction is also my excuse for why the above drawing is so utterly terrible.

And here we are, lying on my bed in the dark, watching the Apprentice on my GIANT SCREEN. We're so cool. (I did this drawing in near darkness. That's the excuse why this one is also pretty terrible.)

That makes it sound like I spent all day drawing this shoe and it was exhausting. Obviously not. I had a tiring day AND I managed to make time to draw this shoe.

There is a reason though. It was for this illustration...

For this piece by Alex, about Warp records heyday.
Basically he mentions having the rug pulled out from under your feet by hearing certain incredibly moving new music when you're a teenager. I took this a slightly different way, and the illustration is supposed to represent the world shifting and changing around you as you're growing and maturing during those formative, music-loving years. The shoes are the kind of trainers I spent most of my teenage years in, and the ground beneath the feet are some pictures I took a long time ago of the ground back in North Wales where I grew up. I used to walk in the countryside near my house for hours while listening to new music, and something about this idea resonated with me, even if it probably makes very little sense to anyone reading the piece. BUT I'D HAD A LONG DAY AND I WAS TIRED, OKAY?

Anyway.

I was pretty psyched about how hot it was that day. Little did I know it was ONLY THE BEGINNING.

The beginning of things like being able to go to the beach in the evening and not even having to take a coat! Admittedly I did get a bit chilly and Alice had to lend me a snood to stretch around myself like a wooly straightjacket.
Anyway, I'm a bit less pleased with the quality of a lot of my diary things this month... But I'm hoping that's a good thing, because I've been trying to challenge myself to actually make the effort and draw things, and often to try and draw things from memory. Clearly these don't really look like people, let alone the people they're trying to represent (Adam, I am so, so sorry.) but it's a start.

And here is more of a start. On the 13th, the wonderful Chris and Anna got married at a beautiful farm north of Shoreham on the most ridiculously sunny day you could possibly hope for. It was an absolutely beautiful day of all their favourite people in one place, with plenty of amazing home-made food, music from their many incredibly talented musical friends, and festivities into the early hours. Oh, and camping, but let's not mention camping.
It was such a wonderful day, and the only way I could think of to capture it (in my sleepy, exhausted state the next day) was crude, childlike drawings of the bride and groom and everyone else I could remember at that moment. I've probably forgotten some people. Also, Adam, I'm sorry again. I really can't do beards.

Anyway, I didn't quite get back up to full power for a couple of days afterwards. I mostly blame camping and heat for that though...

This isn't a particularly creative one, but... I decided to take a couple of disposable cameras to the wedding, and this is my favourite photo which I got from one of them.

I love Mildred dearly, but she can be spectacularly annoying when you're trying to hang out washing or do the gardening. She'll be moving out soon though, (to go and live with her owner Jess in her new house) and I'm going to miss her so much.

More with the heat. But in case you haven't noticed, it's been really quite hot. I'm not complaining though.

Colleague Dave kept some ragworms in the fridge all day. Ever seen a ragworm? They are not things which you want in your fridge with your sandwiches.

I'm a member of my church's PCC. Ever seen the Vicar of Dibley? Just like that. Except probably less funny. It's nice though, I love the people. But I do find finance deathly dull.

I don't want to be one of those boring people who goes on miserably about their weight, but... I'm getting a little pudgy. I'm the heaviest I've been since I was a teenager, and if I stand wrong, my tummy is bigger than my boobs. And I have fairly big boobs. Currently in the process of trying to decide whether I need to do something about this, or whether to embrace the pudge and just start buying bigger clothes. Until I either a) find a sport that isn't horrible or b) decide to stop sneaking down into the kitchen late at night to dunk giant chunks of bread into olive oil, it may have to be the latter.

Slightly soppy one. Sorry. But I'm proud of the perspective! A person and a room and a screen and they're all at the right angles and in the right places!

Decided to start going to Quaker church again every so often. I went there for the entirety of my first year of university, but the sad truth is, I'm not very good at sitting in silence and emptying my mind. I just find myself composing food shopping lists, or wondering where the lady next to me got her shoes, or counting the number of repeat patterns in the carpet. And I don't think that's what you're meant to do. So I started going to a church with a bit more structure to try and keep me focused. And it worked, but I really miss the Quaker community. For those of you who look for any excuse to diss the church/religion, read a bit about the Quakers. Throughout their history they have been an incredibly ethical, forward thinking community, and their thoughts on sexuality, the environment, worship and many other topics may surprise you. They offer a quiet but warm welcome to absolutely anyone who enters, and conduct themselves with an incredible dignity and selflessness. I honestly can't speak highly enough of them, and really want to try again at being part of their community. But I tell you what, sitting completely still and silent for a whole hour is a very challenging exercise. At least, it is if you're me.

I love impromptu meals out. 

I JUST CAN'T HANDLE THE UNCERTAINTY OF THIS WEATHER.

Anyway.
Don't feel like July has been my strongest month, but ho hum, hello August!