And it burns, burns, burns, this baptism of fire... this baptism of fire.

I am currently undoing a baptism of fire with Illustrator as I'm having to redraw work I'd done in Photoshop ASAP for commission purposes. Methinks I'm getting the hang of it. If not, I'll go mad. Either or.

Until I have the time to post something more interesting (read: long and rambly) here I am with Santa Claus during his college years:

Photo credit goes to the wonderful Charlesworth.

I saw the last Hallé Carol Concert of the year so I am significantly in the Christmas spirit now - my Christmas never feels quite right unless I hear the Hallé Orchestra play Sleigh Ride but I have this year and this pleases me greatly.

So, if I'm not back here beforehand then I leave you with a Bill Bailey styled Merry Christmas: Happy Primary Gifting Period and an Excellent Auxiliary Generosity Zone to all. I hope tis spiffing.

Many happy returns...

... to one of the most inspirational people I've ever come across. Happy birthday, Mike Scott. This man and his music have changed my life, most definitely.

This photo is taken from this blog post featuring a lovely interview with Mr. Scott.

Plus, the man is so damned suave I had to share said suaveness with all.

Apologies I've neglected this blog in recent months. I have been up to stuff. I'll inform you of it all soon, I swear.

I live. For now...

Long time, no speak. Many apologies.

So, I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art. Proof:

Or at least proof that I had a nice photograph taken with a fake degree.

Just before that, I did my first paid singing gig back in The Ham of Old. Proof:

This is about the only photo where I'm not pulling a silly face from singing.

I finished my scarf. It just needs the loose ends hiding and tassels adding to it. Proof:

Methinks it's about 7 and a half feet in length.

I did my final Fringe festival as an Edinburgh resident (for now, at least). I met some very ace people. Proof:

Charlesworth and I with The Axis of Awesome.

Charlesworth and I with Norman Lovett, most famously known as Holly from Red Dwarf

.

(I got very excited about this. Red Dwarf is my favourite TV programme and therefore its cast are some of my favourite people ever so to finally meet one of them and finally see his stand-up made me extremely happy indeed.)

Charlesworth and I with Jon Richardson. He wished me good luck job hunting.

Excellent times all round.

I have also just been paid for my first illustration commission. I would put proof but I'm not sure the drawings have been fully approved yet (they are instructional drawings).

Now I have entered my final month of living in Edinburgh before I move back home. I have been reading, catching up with my book of Codewords for every day of the year (I've only just got to the beginning of May) and other such stuff before my boxes and bubble wrap arrive tomorrow and the packing begins. In the meantime, here's a drawing of my dear friend Kay and myself and the possible conspiracy theory we may have uncovered:

I have no working scanner currently. Apologies.

Stuff what is going on.

This has been my life recently:

Degree Show

The front of my postcards and business cards:

The back of my postcards and business cards:

The Animation exhibit on the Business Opening:

Note my hand in the 'Making Of' projected on the screen.

My station in the exhibit:

My brother, Morgan, and I (aka Jay and Lori in my film) on the Family and Friends Opening night:

The degree show's been going really well, us animation folks have had a lot of positive feedback, which is grand. The whole degree show is pretty damned strong so I highly recommend people around and about Edinburgh having a gander before it closes on Sunday evening!

Other than that, I've been drawing and doodling again now that I don't have to draw Jay and Lori a bazillion times over.

Drawings

A couple of parent and kiddywinkle sketches. I shall be colouring them soon. I'm thinking of doing two different coloured versions for each, one digital, one traditional.

A Forest by The Cure came on the radio whilst I was drawing in Starbucks, so I was compelled to draw this as I do love that song a great deal:

Whilst I've been invigilating I've been sketching to stop myself from going a bit spare staring at the same bit of wall for 5 hours, so this is what spilled out of my brain whilst on duty yesterday:

Because I am small.

I saw a girl with knee socks watching one of our films so I suddenly felt compelled to draw socks.

Knitting
I've also been knitting. I am working on a scarf, and this is how it's looking currently:

Singing

Tis time to practice the songs for the gig next week again. I'm singing Complainte De La Butte by Rufus Wainwright, Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed, Port of Amsterdam originally by Jacques Brel but I shall by singing a Brel/David Bowie hybrid and El Tango De Roxanne from Moulin Rouge!. Practice is going... alright. Some of them are not too bad but some of them *cough*Port of Amsterdam*cough* are proving to be a bit of a nightmare. Plus, I seem to be developing a sore throat and that is exactly NOT what you need for singing times. Here's hoping it'll be gone for next Friday...

Anywho, now to more tidying and packing. Charlesworth is arriving tomorrow to see the degree show and then I will be traveling back to Oldham with her in order to watch my brother's last Showcase concerts with Oldham Music Centre. Then back to Edinburgh to graduate.
So... next time I'm back here I might have a funny picture of me wearing a mortar board to share.

Two Little Ducks

Well, hello again. Just a little update of what's going on before the degree show occurs.

Well, first of all, I turned 22. My mum was in Edinburgh visiting for my birthday and we had a rather good time. The night before my birthday (well, I say the night before, it had turned midnight and therefore was actually my birthday) my friends and I went to see Neil, my sound designer, play drums for one of his many bands which was much fun. I had to inform Neil that we had just been told we needed adjusted cuts of the films in four days time which wasn't fun but Neil, being the excellent chap he is, made the changes I asked for and everything was superb. Later on my birthday, my mum and I went on a charity shop raid and came away with loads of stuff. Methinks my favourite purchase was one that felt as though it was fate.
I had said to my mum and brother that a present I would rather like for my 22nd birthday would be two little ducks. This is because the bingo call for 22 is 'two little ducks' and therefore is the best bingo call, in my eyes. It was suggested that my brother should buy me the two little ducks seen as I seem to have a tradition of buying him duck and/or penguin themed presents for his birthday/Christmas.
Whilst we were on our charity shop raid, my mum and I stopped outside one of the charity shops and looked in the window. What should be there but two identical ducks and a larger duck in the same style. My mum naturally bought all of them for me (we said that the two little ducks are my brother and I whilst the larger duck is our mum). Here are the two little ones:

Two little ducks, with the two little ducks card that Christina gave me.

Twas fate, I tells thee.
Other than that, my mum and I went to two concerts in Glasgow that were the main part of my birthday present. One was to see the Groundhogs, whose lead singer and lead guitarist, the legendary Tony McPhee, had a severe stroke two years ago. I was blown away by how phenomenal his guitar playing remains. He was sensational. He only sung three of the songs as he still clearly struggles with speech; he lost the ability to speak when he first had the stroke. Considering that, he's come on leaps and bounds and although his singing was quite mumbly there were moments were you could hear his amazing gravelly voice shine through. At this point, I found everything rather bittersweet but the band then informed the crowd that they intend to release a new album soon. The material is all ready, they are just waiting on Tony's voice to be better for recording. So hazaar, he is confident he will be back to business soon! If you've never heard of the Groundhogs before (and I'm sure you probably haven't), you should check them out. The next day, we went to see Roger Hodgson, formerly of Supertramp. I didn't realise how steep the gallery seats in the Pavillion theatre are, so my crippling fear of heights and vertigo didn't take very long to kick in. Thankfully, Roger and the band were such an excellent distraction. The most wonderful thing about this gig was, just after the interval, Roger came on and informed the audience that he'd just found out he'd become a grandfather two hours previously and then played what he said was one of his favourite songs he's written, which is one of mine too. Congratulations to Roger!

Finally, on the music front, I am currently in the process of rehearsing for The Blind Tiger Burlesque: Vice Night with special guest Anna Fur Laxis. Before you ask, no, I will not be doing any burlesque dancing. I shall leave that to Charlesworth's older sister, who is the one behind the event. She needed a singer so I was asked to perform so that is what I shall be doing, singing about the cheery subject of whores! No better way to pass the time! This will be my first paid gig too, for every concert I've ever done has been with a choir or school so obviously I've never been paid. Should be pretty good!

So now that my obligatory music ramble is over, back to degree show stuff. Just under a week to go and it's getting pretty exciting. It would seem that eca have picked me to be the representative of Animation and be mentioned in the press:

• eca website
• The Trend Boutique

This stuff was also mentioned in a newspaper apparently, though I do not know which one. This is the Animation section on the official 2011 degree show website and here is We Are Animation, a website that the wonderful Sarah Keeling has put together for us, so be sure to check that out!

Finally, what we've been working towards: The Filmhouse!


Lots of links for you to enjoy there, so get to it! I'm going to get back to practicing my songs. Adieu!

Softly, As I Leave You

My degree is finished. That's an odd thing to say, but it's true so there we go. Here are a few things about the final days of said degree:

This is pretty much all the frames I drew for my film:

My attempt at being organised.

I've just tried to quickly count up all the frames I drew and methinks it comes to roughly 1149. Poor tree.

This was my desk at half 7am on the day of the hand-in:

Messy.

I'd stayed all night in the studio, dressed in my pyjamas at Sarah's suggestion (and what an excellent suggestion it was), finishing off my supporting work and such. Considering I'd been awake for over 30 hours (which was far less than some people, might I add), I was wide awake the whole time. Maybe I was running off adrenalin, who knows. I will say that when I got home after a celebratory drink I changed into my pyjamas, made myself a cup-a-soup and was about to watch Neighbours when I crashed out for 3 hours, woke up at about 11pm and crawled to bed, leaving both Neighbours and my cup-a-soup sadly neglected.

This was the book full of my supporting material:

Note how my finger is propping it closed. This is what happened without any propping:

It no shut. It wasn't even finished at this point. Somehow, after finishing 240-odd pages into the book, I managed to make it prop itself semi-closed. I'm not sure how I did this. Naturally, this book was from a charity shop and I placed all my work in it using photo corners, the idea being that all of my additions can be taken out so the book can still be read. The book was Principles of Immunology so if you're looking to read up about the subject, I may be able to help you out.
More book photos:

But that was over a week ago and I have been free since. I've been back in The Ham of Old for the past few days to celebrate my younger brother Morgan's 18th birthday, which was on the 21st. I insisted I has a picture taken with my best friend on this momentous day but he wasn't too keen on the idea, as you can tell:

He loves me really.

Morgie had a concert with the Oldham Youth Choir in the evening so he didn't have a choice in how he spent his birthday but the concert was wonderful and I enjoyed it immensely (and was super jealous that I wasn't back singing with them as they sung a couple of pieces that I've sung and adore: Locus Iste by Bruckner and the first movement of Vivaldi's Gloria - look them up!). Morgie was part of an 8 voice close harmony group dubbed The Candy Men and they were fantastic. Morgie was the lowest voice part in the group and was dubbed as the steadiest, rhythm-wise, but the conductor couldn't think of something to compare him to so I now call him "steady as a steady thing". I adore close harmony and that was definitely the most fun part of the evening, but methinks my favourite piece was the choir's performance of Softly, As I Leave You.
Now, if you've never heard the piece (you might have heard it played when Jack Duckworth died in Corrie), then you must (I can only find an arrangement for male voices. The version the choir sung was four part harmony for soprano/alto/tenor/bass):

Morgie and I think it's about an elderly couple and one of them is about to die and goes quietly before the other notices. It's such a beautifully moving piece and needless to say that the choir hadn't even finished singing the first line and I was already crying and continued to do so throughout the song. Mum was set off too. Just magical music making. Couldn't be more proud of my brother. What a wonderful eighteen year old he's turned out to be.

I'm going to go and relax now, as the three of us have just had a meal to celebrate birthday times (as my birthday is in a few days - I have often said that Morgan is my twin for all except the fact he is 3 years and 360 days younger than me) and I've eaten a lot of rice and drank a fair bit of wine. I am content.

Brain. Dead.

Whilst I take a break from drawing charity shop backgrounds (which is NOT fun), I shall ramble for a short while.

So, we're into the last 10 days of the project *cries*. I'm hoping I can pull everything together, but we shall see... I have finished my timed edit of the film so, in theory, all I need to do now is slot the remaining coloured frames and backgrounds in and voila! A film! We'll see about that...

Here's a shot I finished today, a nice pan of the charity shop:



Anywho, back to it... *slumps face down onto desk*