Started New Job with great group of kids whos lives would put perspective into all of ours. Turns out Art therapy also involves rough n tumble football games. It was great fun.
Ishies got two new pet rats called Ozzy & Hendrix.
Tali had a great weekend at RockNess festival with fat boy slim etc.
and I have to go & do some art to clear my 'artists' block, right now, I promised.

well heres a fairy that i painted in with Gouache paints. But in many ways i prefer the photoshoppy colours that Rich did.. which i can't find right now to post up here, bah ! i really MUST learn this colouring, scratchy brush strokes are all good & well in their place, but so's smooth gradiated blocks of colour. I'm itching to play with acrylics next but progress is terribly slow here as i'm a bit all over the place.

Tis the moments between moments that we capture on camera, when we participate, fully, we're can't pin down the moments in 2D. The most precious times in live lie behind the images, freeze frame in memory & senses only.
Heres the shore at 'Sands' Applecross peninsular, this weekend, haze & drizzel that went un-noticed. mountains hidden in mists. graffiti in the sands. mesolithic rock shelter & simple moments shared.
Heres what Ish thinks to it all.

Monday collage making down at the day care centre, it always takes a while to get going cos they've never done anything like it in their lives & just don't get it until they see a picture starting to take shape. we're working on a group mural next week.
Nothing to show from art class, my muse hasnt left me, its just not quite reaching the paintbrush.
And then the brownies came to the fire station for their fire saftey type badges, quite a lot of complex concepts to get across to hyper little uns, but theyre quite clued up, which shows that the whole big fire service modernisation thing of pushing fire prevention is filtering through.

Proud of daughter Ishie who demonstrated the breathing apperatus without complaint despite losing clumps of hair which happens to us girlies, why do you think firemen all have short hair ? yeah she didnt panic at all , i do ! i hate it, but then i generally associate it with pitch black, thick smoke, extreem heat exhaustion, confined spaces, carrying fecking heavy hoses and heavy dummies, or in the case of real live incidents, live electric cables & feck knows what else around the next pitch black 200degree sweat soaked corner. nah, it may be rock & roll, but it is scary.

Applecross Seafood & music festival weekend.
people come from far n wide for this event , so the least i could do was sell them some arty crafty stuff, been busy all week making costume jewellery & framing pictures etc.
so there we were 1000ft up the road, yes that famous road which always seems to be an adventure of some sorts, when my gear stick went all wobbly...

don't worry girls ! i can't control the car, its only this metal thing underneath has sheared away.. That was the gear linkage. luckily there was still a phone signal where we were, and i managed to freewheel the car & turn her into a passing place, and then we waited for rescue.

ever resourceful we set up for a days trading... not many punters around.
prehaps the midges ate them all ?
then James ( dudley ) & his wife came & stayed later, which was lovely. They've gone on a seal trip today, & its breezy so not so many midges.

GREAT NEWS !
remember i made a film proposal about a wee girl & wolf friendship ?
well i assumed it had been long since chucked on the slush pile, but got a letter today that its been accepted !! !
so i'll get trained & mentored & get to make a wee animation film which will be shown at the inverness film festival.. Maddness eh !
my how things turn unexpectedly.
whatever next ?!

fairy number two. afraid ive not been much a drawing this week.

well chums my apologies for not updating this here blog since bristol, ive not been sucked into a vacuum of couch potato nothingness, ive just replaced my manic job-list goal setting for a more mellow & mild just getting on with things approach. Which is weird.

Bristol Comic convention 2006. comic conventions generally seem to entail; good intentions which fall victim to brain fugue, moments of side splitting halarity at the most inane, twisted and/ or bizarre gibberish; moments of vacant exhaustion; lots of talking, inane, twisted and/or bizarre gibberish; hiding from scary freakoids; laughing at scary freakoids; realising that in fact we are all scary freakoids; etc



This con specifically involved; giggling about Eds new comic concept of "s**b**c*ing";
Dom Reardon and gnillips and everything around them being selloptaped down ( photo too blurry ); evaluating droids arses; tom jones magical hand; the hotel bar emptying en masse when DR Who came on; lots of gorgeous manga lady artists approaching Richmond with lovely art; failing to collect sketches or talk to Colin baker Dr who as i was too hungover; Bristol centre being full of pirates and fairies ?

great comics i'm looking forward to reading : of course WILD WEST WENDY; futureQuake6; something Wicked from FQ; Mangaquake2; omnavistascope by Paul scott; Solar wind the photo edition featuring us lot.( see previous post with me & moustash ); the End is Nigh; shido; & more

below; a pre Dr who slump in the bar.


and now we have the post con good intentions of great ideas which will rust away another year once reality takes precedence.
A Thanks to Tharg for looking over my folio. Big Thanks to all the lovely people who kept me company, especially my long term collaborator and his righteous disgust.

Ta da !

nearly there. i'll finish this in t'morning.

doing a Wendy painting just as an exercise.
bah, i thought I'd be a smarty pants & show how fast i paint n stuff, but it takes aons to get the camera to work. anyway off set that speed against lazy boned slug inertia & it evens out.

Gouache paints rock, theyre so versatile, ive been using watercolours for decades, why ? gouache can do the same effects as well as gloppy, or blendy or intense.
remember the Wild West Wendy comic is now available via mail order here

yes the book is now just about ready to roll out to the printers. We'll be selling it at Bristol Comics Exhibition next weekend. Its also available via mail order from here for £2 plus p&p.

also exiting news today, i went for a job interview on the Isle of Skye



and i got it ! Its an Art worker for a Charity that supports children who are carers, they do great work, its going to be challenging & exiting. couple of days a week starting next month. so i'll be seeing a lot more of those mountains on the 125mile commute.
and thats the view this evening back on the mainland looking across to skye.

We were working on a secret comics related project today. But the resultant photos are funny enough to break the secret secrecy & risk the wrath of a wrathful editor. All will be revealed at Bristol Comics exhibition.
Give those girls an oscar, and me, wilkinson sword.

Put up wee exhibition of my art classes work today , Its down at the local day care centre & theyre having a coffee morning tomorrow , hopefully rich olde ladies will buy all my wares. Really pleased with how good 'my students' work is looking all mounted & framed. shiney happy feel good.
Also proof that my doggies arent really evil.

wrestling vikings.

Also today the hampster died.

The stupid dog is in the frame for lamb killing after picking up a two day old corpse & strutting it proudly in front of the nastyiest neighbours of doom. StreSSSSSS.
and then a grass fire 25 miles away.

time managment? realistic goal setting ? forward planning ? got my nose so far into Wendy drawing at the moment , but still behind my schedule. 9 hours yesterday without pausing to get dressed or anything & still behind schedule, damn day to day functioning, chores, resposibilities & putting out fires ! theyre getting in the way of my ArT dammit. Discovered a new source of handsome men tho , hurrah ! my daughters kerangg posters & magazines, theres a nice proportion of cheekbones in the ROCK world.
had a nice little stove fire yesterday, smoke getting into house thru knackered chimney etc, i did some balancing on top of roof, getting smoked & soaked action, suffering today tho, coff coff.

and made 100 badges for a viking event this weekend, which is held at the heritage Centre who are trying to rip me off over my shop, i could always ask the 20 or so Vikings who are coming to do some hacking & maiming for me, slash, burn , Kill....

All these tasters are all very well , but i dinnae want to spoil the story. So in the meantime please laugh at Wild West Wendy's gran in reference photo.But don't laugh too much, shes kind of grumpy.

Its spring ! The daffs are out; my dogs are ridden with ticks; the labrador keep running away to chase the mangey chav jack russel doon the road; Bob the gender confused parroqueet is trying to do courtship dances with me, the cat, or that nice shadow on the wall; and all sleep and paid work is lost as the Bristol Comics Exhibition deadlines loom.

having funky dreams tho, warzones where a helicopter drawn by Jock flew to the rescue, and being cuddled by a 20 foot robbie coultraine as a film extra in surreal medaevil costume drama... thats what happens when you draw sloppering fat kids.

Chapter 2 of wild west wendy is done, only 3 to go in minus time. no i'm not panicing noooo.
I'm praying , like Wendy, that great Grud himself will bestow me with a living wage, 6 extra hours a day, and a shot gun that i too may dole out justice to the unclean, the unrighteous, the unholy , and the gruddam un-interesting.


actually scrap unclean, i can live with that one.
damn computers, i can't post this post. my scanner won't scan, photoshop won't photoshop...bah