Book Finito!

I've now finished The Tower of Ravens which was the brilliant book I had been reading for the last few weeks. Normally I polish off a book like that in a matter of days but the last month it has been read in little snatches when I have time.

Will write up a proper run down of the book when I have a free moment. I'm attending an event called Media Minx's and Art Tarts tonight so it probably won't be until tomorrow when I can make myself some cocoa and snuggle up in front of my PC in my Pj's. It should be illegal to write a book review unless you are in your pajamas.

(just remembered that I have yet to return it to the library..and it is now overdue...DOH!)

The Tower of Ravens - OMG this book is fab.

I'm currently ploughing my way through 'The Tower of Raven's by Kate Forsyth. It is obviously a book written for girls who dreamt of finding a unicorn in the forest or piggy backing a wandering pegasus when there were ickle. The attention given to the horses in what I have read so far would leave most self respecting males either baffled or placing the book firmly back down on the coffee table in disgust. It is the sort of book that I probably usually wouldn't freely admit I was reading except for the fact that it has a fantastic saving grace; if you get over the obvious horse focus, this is actually a pretty gritty book. There is a section within the first chapter that left me somewhat stunned with the graphic nature of it. Death, Sex, bodily fluids are freely talked about in a very matter of fact fashion which is really refreshing. The characters are well fleshed out, and as a fantasy novel, it has what seems to be a unique world of magic that you can truly get lost in.

It is a book that I've been struggling to put down, which is always a great feeling, and have even found myself looking forward to an early night with a hot cup of milk n' honey and a hot water bottle. I'm sure I sound very PG movie but sometimes it feels good to be a stereotypical girly girl when it comes to reading books. All that is missing are the cookies.

I will most certainly talk more about this book when I have actually finished it but I've been enjoying it so much that I had to give it a quick mention now. Just goes to show that a trip to your local library is not a waste of time, even if the only Volume 1 book you can find seems to look like a real stinker when you look at the cover. I'm sure there is some saying about that......

Blog Overhaul

(Hah, look at me go. I'm even editing this post so that it reads better...this is an improvement already!)

As you can see I'm currently working on a pretty major overhaul for this blog. I've added the Grooveshark widget, my twitter feed and now I'm recolouring and replacing the blog header. I'm trying to make this a blog that I get excited about updating instead of it being a bit of a chore.

I'm a lot more comfortable with the blogger software now which means adjusting things isn't as painful as it once was. I'm still struggling a bit to make this a graphical masterpiece so if anyone out there is an htm genius and knows how I can replace my background colour with a background image I'll send you a cyber hug and a cuppa tea if you can let me know your secrets. The image I'm using as a header is a placeholder for now as I have recently pur-chased a new Dell PC and need to install some graphics programmes before I get busy with the art.

A big inspiration for this blog is Felica Day's blog http://feliciaday.com/blog . I love her style and was watching the Guild, a series she has penned and also stars in, whist fiddling with this colour scheme. For those that recognise her but aren't sure where from, she was Vi in the last series of Buffy and is also from Dr Horribles Sing A Long Blog.
I've also decided that in order to write better blog posts I need to read more. At the library yesterday I wandered into the Fantasy book section and attempted to pick up some good ole fashioned Orky/Dragony stories. Actually I ended up getting the only 3 books that were Vol 1 of any of the trilogy's that they had on the shelves. It was amasing how many Volume 2's and 7's they had, but to someone who is starting to read again after a really long reading hiatus, I needed to begin at the beginning.

I also wanted to pick up a copy of the Watchmen to brush up on the story before the film comes out. Alas it was not to be. They seemed to have every manga comic under the sun but I was dissapointed with the old school western comic section they had. Don't get me wrong, I love manga (particularly Chobits and The Tarot Cafe) but sometimes I crave the beefy looking men from superhero or gritty-er comics which manga usually fails to provide. ;-)

So, expect a big change in the next couple of months. This blog has acted as a good practice ground for my writing and I've had some nice comments but it is time to step it up a gear, get a bit more focus and create something to be proud of. I want to write more about what I'm interested in, perhaps mention some of the comics that I really like as well as games and books I enjoy. Basically I want this to become the place where I can completely GEEK OUT. I try and get my fill of geeking out via the numerous web forums I belong to but sadly discussions often get lost in the ether so here is where I can annotate the geeky/arty/awesomeness that I find both online an offline and keep it as a permenant record.

Time for a humungous cup of coffee.

Rain drops ting-a-ling-a-ling

Snow is still loitering around the house but traveling to work is no longer wracked with danger. Life, it seems, is returning to normal.

Twitter is my most recent web discovery. We are in fact tweeting all about the development of Cletus Clay here
http://twitter.com/CletusClay
Things are getting all serious on the Cletus front. I'm busy model making which is great and some of the models I've made in the last couple of weeks are my absolute favourite out of all the strange things I've created over the last year. Now that Tuna actually owns Cletus I can even start to leak a few photos out so people can see what I'm up to (see above).

Whilst playing with the interweb I also discovered groove shark so now you can all enjoy the bizzare music concoction that I abuse my ear drums with.

Snow Ranting

I love snow. Yes I do. I love the fact that everything looks clean and soft. I love the fact I can leave distinctive foot prints in the now. I especially love the fact that my cat hates snow because the entertainment value of watching her try and make it to her favourite peeing spot on the lawn is priceless.

What I do not like are little shitty children throwing snowballs at me that contain not only snow, but rocks. I mean for god sake, throwing snowballs at your friends it totally fine. I love having snow ball fights. If that is what you want to do with your friends then please do. Hell, shove a whole snow drift down the back of their jumper for all I care, but leave perfect strangers the fuck alone.

If you had not already guessed, yesterday I was walking home from the shop when a bunch of nasty, grotty little 12 year olds started pelting me. Thankfully the little shits were a bad aim so most of them missed. However I still arrived back at my house dripping wet and very very annoyed. I know I should have completely ignored them but I couldn't help myself..I turned around and gave one the finger.

The leason I learned from all this? Children piss me off.

Fable 2

Well, I've been playing fable 2 since Christmas and I STILL haven't finished it yet. I keep meaning to give over hours of my time to this game as I have been enjoying it immensely.
My dog is beautiful and golden and I walk around the game world with a permanent halo. I rock.
When I do get round to completing the game in 'good' mode I am going to boot up again and this time unleash the horns! Lay pillage to all cities and cause general mayhem.

Well, just over a week ago I had my first sketch meet. Alas only one person showed up. Still we had fun. I taught our one member how to draw human faces (not faeces) whist sat with a nice cuppa tea. It was all very gentile.

Went out on the town later that day with said member and friends from work which was a lot of fun. Still not sure about the club Plug in sheffield. I don't know whether I just keep having bad luck when I go but I'm still not impressed with the music there.

Just about managed to avoid a hangover the next day so twas a great weekend all round!

2009 Already??

Jeez last year went fast. I swear that it wasn't that long ago that I was complaining about the heat. Now there is snow and ice and general brrrrness. Happy Christmas and New year to those I failed to reach during the festive season. Have started up a sketch group in my hometown so I have a feeling this year is going to be all about the art.

Fruity num nums

My little brother and I have a birthday tradition. Each year, we get each other presents that are completely random. Most recently, having turned 23, my brother posted me 2 DVD's that he found. He bought them for me because he thought the titles were amusing.

Last night my partner and I sat down and tucked into the first of these DVD's; Fruits basket. Hell, we thought, it surly can't be as bad as the novels he bought me from an earlier birthday, the 300lb gorilla was abysmal.
Anyway, it turns out that Fruits basket, although terribly cheesey, makes for good lighthearted mushy tv. It is obviously aimed at a younger audience than I am but it did take me back to when I thought shoes with multicoloured wedges were cool and when I actually did spend hours wondering if that certain boy in English actually did like me. As pay back for this delightful birthday gift I sent my brother a 'Cheeky Monkey poof chair' for his 21st. Happy belated 21st Bro!

Going back to my roots.

Recently, and quite randomly, I seem to be revisiting all the sites and watching all the shows that I absolutely adored whilst in my teenage years. It was a real blast from the past to watch episode 1 of Buffy. I remember how my friends and I used to assign each other characters. Willow was my avatar for quite a while. Bubblegum Crisis 2040 is an anime that I collected on VHS that I've recently been rewatching via the wonders of youtube. I've even started drinking copious amounts of diet coke again.

Soon I'll be replaying all my old Final Fantasy Games and forgetting to wash for days at a time.
Perhaps that is an area of puberty I'll try to avoid revisiting.

Wedding bells are a ringin'

Yup yup yup, my partner in crime and I have finally set a date for our wedding. We tie the knot near christmas 2009! Now the date is set, the fun part begins. Wheeeee for honeymoons!

Kitteh!

Here is some more vector art fun.
Kitteh!

Sex Change Munny

Over the weekend the gender of my Munny changed. Thankfully the procedure of changing man munny into lady munny was relatively painless.

I'm not sure if she is finished yet. I'm at the stage where I don't want to over work the design but am not entirely sure if its missing something??

The name 'Piffle' has been suggested and I find it rather fitting. So folks, meet Piffle, the possibly half finished she-beast!

Name Ma MUNNY!

Yup, he's fresh out the box and before I even think about what design to paint him, he needs a name. I've decided that he is a he, not a she. If he were real, I have a feeling he would like cookies, milk and jazz music. All suggestions on a postcard please....or in the comments section.

Lil Critter

For some reason over the last couple of weeks I've been obsessed with creating little creatures in fireworks. Vector art is the shitz.
This is my newest little dude. Perhaps I'll put together a whole collection of them.
Whatcha think?

Imogen Heap

Being a fan of Frou Frou, its surprising that I've only just discovered the voice behind that short lived indie band.
I'm slightly ashamed to admit it but I originally thought that it was a man that provided the somewhat androgynous vocals. In fact those vocals are voiced by a lady known as Imogen Heap.

Imogen Heap keeps a video blog which makes for pleasant watching. Her sense of style is definitely individual and she occasionally lets you hear what she is working on. Discovering how tracks are thought through and how certain sound affects and vocal arrangements are created is something most artists like to keep under their hats. It's refreshing having that insight with Imogen and her music. Her fireplace is also damn nice (you can tell I'm trying to do up my house at the moment).

Sometimes she rambles a bit in her video entries and a few of her tracks really aren't my bag. I am however, known to be seriously picky about what I listen to so for an artist to only have a couple of tracks that I don't like is very unusual. Regardless, I like her approach to her fan base and most of the time her sound is right on the money.

InfamEEY!

A Munny I painted a couple of months ago is FAMOUS!
Look at the little chap, isn't he shiney?
I look at his weird little expression and pokemon eyes and feel a touch of warm fuzzy pride.

My vinyl toy fascination is a relatively new thing, although I've always collected 'figurines'...I just didn't know they were called vinyl/designer/urban toys. Now I know that its acceptable to still have toys at 22 years of age I'm going to flaunt them.

If some small angry woman comes up to you waving small plastic toys in your face, you now know that it is because she has had a vinyl toy epiphany.

Attack of the mucus.

If there is one thing I hate more than anything else, its having a cold. I'm one of those people who seems to always get 2 colds a year. Once in the summer and once in the winter. My biological clock seems set on flagellating itself twice a year.

Right now I'm typing this whilst watching the Matrix, for some reason this film always cheers me up when I'm full of mucus. There is an impressive mound of used tissue to my left and a slightly irritated looking cat to my right. I've sneezed on her a couple of times today. Apparently that doesn't go down well in cat decorum.

My lovely hubby-to-be has been spoon feeding me ribena and honey for most of the day which has also helped immensely with the mucus situation. Hopefully a good nights rest is all I need.....and lots and lots of drugs.

Yes, finally I have done it. The thing I have been meaning to do for YEARS.
Thats right, I bought my own scanner. Now I can subject the interweb to every godforsaken doodle that I choose to commit to paper. You lucky people.

Its due on either Monday or Tuesday next week. I hope it comes with all the cables and stuff. The reason I hate PC world so much is because they sell you the monitor/tower/webcam/grandma but with none of the cables you need to actually get it set up. Then they charge you a fortune to get the cables. Fingers crossed that amazon have got their shit together.

Well, it has once again been a while. Things have been zipping along nicely with my new job and I'm hopefully picking up some handy skills for the future.

I've been doing a lot of traditional painting over the last few weeks. As soon as I get the goddamn internet at home (at the moment it doesn't function....never get Sky broad band, it sucks monkey balls) I'll post some pictures just for you...my pretend audience.