re-thought storyboard again today, taking us back to pretty much my original story in the first place. figure three minutes is basically a pop video, there isnt any time, for character placement, explanations, lead ins, nice conclusions, basically, heres a girl, heres a wolf, heres the hunters, this is what happens, and heres the result will have to do. Its getting too late in the day for all sorts of sub plots, so any more wrangling & i'm tempted to say, " okay, heres a film which features 3 minutes of girl & wolf playing in a forest, NO plot at all "

been up to neck in it recently, trying to work most days, and deal with son moving to his own place & daughter about to leave home too, on top of trying to crack on with the film, and organising our first public open day at the fire station.
Knocked out the film storyboard sat in a car park one day, the only place to get peace.
needs a huge squish to fit it in 3 minutes.

Last night worked late putting up marquee, and collecting giant bouncy castle etc.
Today, a very successful opening attended by enthusiastic & intrested people. Behold Crew Manager Preston flipping burgers.
Gasp at the way we removed two doors & a roof off a car in front of crowd in 10 minutes & 30 seconds. Be afraid of the 12 tonne engine we borrowed for the day, the 6.5 er is quite enough on these single track roads thankyou very much. laugh at the childrens bouncy castle merriment. Pictures of Fire fighters being attacked by hoards of bouncing children not included.

Took Ishie to the Belladrum tartan Heart Music festival, which she was very grateful for.
an unusal method of moving forward to near the front of the stage involved a big beastie and lots of drumming children with shields. Its that sort of festival, lots of great stuff to look at, shame about the band line up. heres Tal & Jonny, after 'The Automatic', if we had a quid for everytime a drunk eeejit sang the tag-line " whats that coming over the hill, is it a monster?" that weekend, in the "quiet" camping zone, when we were trying to sleep, we coulda bought a fairy costume and sparkly cowboy hat each, and even a pint at the piss stinking beer tent.

conclusion ? we grown ups are getting a little old for this malarkie. Next time the kids can go theirselves. please.

Camping trip of doom, cut short due to midgeys and monsters from LOST. continuing from the irish rope bridge theme, above the waterfall in pic below there is a tiny bridge which certain reluctant persons were tricked into crossing.
Heres the Ishmeister on the viewpoint above the 200ft deep corrie shalloch gorge

Bruno guards the camp.
north coast of scotland sandy beaches & amazing rocks ( and spooky black nights ). Thon wee specs below are my camping chums.meanwhile our other cats disappeared since the old one was put to sleep.

and work on the animation wolf film has started, ive got 9 weeks only to complete it. eeek !

More pix from N' Ireland, Heres the Giants Causeway from cliffs above, or in fact from a giants view, the tiny weensy white speckles below are tourists screaming & running to take cover under ..erm... rocks when rain showers passed over.


looking east from causway, very similiar scenes to north east Skye, same volcanic stuff going on.

view from the other side of the rope bridge, and suddenly i find out everyone on the planet watches CBBC, which is possibly why they all seem to think a bridge is a scary thing, it was great i could see guillimot swimming underwater way beneath me n everything.

Dun Luce Castle, which was very cool indeed and we plan buying when our lottery numbers come up.

Had a fantastic weekend last weekend in Northern Ireland. took a billion pictures of the giants causeway. wobbled across the famous rope bridge, was driven up the scenic Antrim coast. The differences & similarities with Scotland where fascinating, its great to go to a another country that still has a distinct culture of its own rather than some tesco led tele-glued hedgeomony.
All of which is secondary of course to the wonderful company i was in, but i'll stop before i make the casual blog reader feel ill. Next weekend i get my own back & drag my Irish companion around the north coast of scottieland, in the slightly less luxurious mode of camping & the miniscule mouse infested bou-mobile.

meanwhile, full time work continues a pace. I had to get our old cat put down as she was dying in a slow unpleasant manner. No art is getting done whatsoever...eeek.

Working flat out this week & a couple of late night shifts & a call out in the small hours too. Busiest week of the year summer visitor wise as its been the weekend of the Lochcarron Highland Games. ( photos of tossing the caber & pipers not included ). The games themselves are of course secondary to the beer tent & the friday night dance, both of which i avoid like the plague.
The Boys raised a lotta money with the Engine & a raffle, of course all basking in the attention of tourist ladys, everyone loves a fireman.

Tho on call, i was in civvies selling crafty arty stuff to the apathetic masses, which bored me greatly. i think i managed to offend a couple of people with the Wild West Wendy comic, but was pleased to sell most of the ones i had. I think i'll have to find another way of flogging the tat i'm compulsed to make as direct selling frys my brain. why do i live here again ?

meanwhile, lots of art to get on with but very little time...

The Kyle Fire brigade Annual Charity raft race, its murder ! We're the wee dark blob directly below the gap between the two islands & next to the long blue raft.
We came in forth overall but were the first all firefighter crew so got the fire brigade trophy, hurrah !
Thats the crew, me, dave, Ollie, Sandy.

And heres some of our trusty cheering on-shore support team;
cameron; hayley; Ishie; natasha; Claire; Flora; Anna. Alex; daves mum & shona.
All good fun, and hopefully some funds for local charitys. Thanks to Applecross for the borrow of their raft.

( This all means i Missed DR WHO final episode with is worth triple the sponsor money ! )

Heres us doing sea-trials on a new raft for the annual fire brigade charity raft race tomorrow. As per usual muggings is one of the crew on the raft, its bloody murder ! anyone laughing at my pink wellies is in big trouble.

and heres a lovely dragonfly that Ollie ( above ) ' s son found injured, sadly it didnt survive. sniff.

heres a text story that we all provided illustrations for;
http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/fiction/2006/roguetrooper/nuearthtearjerker.shtml

i hope its anonymous Author produces some more soon.

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.