Episode 93 'Return of the Blogger'

Well then! Look who's come crawling back after nineteen months of web page silence (me, I'm crawling back). And with a jolly good reason folks; I simply miss being creative with my writing. I miss summarising my recent ventures with photographs and silly videos. I miss rambling, and getting away with using words like pandemonium and phooey [exclamation used to express disdain or disbelief. "so phooey to sophistication"].

In reality, I am temporarily working from home, so time is on my side. And why not delve back into the thriving medium of blogging? Why not indeed. Full of top quality content, mixed with the grief and regret of a hangover; a winning combination. I must admit that I am perhaps a little rusty with my wording (at one point I considered Grammarly), however if you bare with me I'm sure we'll all come out of this with something. 

So what the bally-hey-ho has happened over the last year?!!

In the last twelve months I have been given a couple of projects that truly integrates my passion and focus; illustration. If you follow me on Instagram you may have caught a glimpse of the style, which usually has a Quentin Blake inspired vibe to it. I tend to use a light pencil (3H is a firm favourite) to sketch out the subject and go over it in a thin black fine liner, before finishing with a splash of watercolour paint.

I am currently working on the second official project (by official, I just mean PAID!), but I'm hoping that it might become a larger part of my freelancing career. The first project was for an Italian company called Educo, an educational company who work with International students, where I was to illustrate one of their new exercise books. It was quite a lucky break, as they'd only seen a handful of my drawings on Instagram, but nonetheless it was the style they seemed to like!
     The second project, given to me by one of the Educo folk, is more of a personal project (for the client). I am working from photographs taken by the client and illustrating in the same style. I don't know how much I can reveal at this point, so I have carefully angled the image below to only hint at what I'm working on.

I'm a fan of getting that paintbox in shot

Working from home is quite a disciplined art. When I say that time is on my side; it can also be your own worst enemy. *Sighs* (looks out of the window) many's the day that procrastination has gotten the better of me. The solution? Act within the realms of a working day. It sounds simple, but it really works. I tend to use my schedule from my days at Factory Create; 09:30 start, 13:00-14:00 lunch, 18:00 finish. It is currently 09:11 so I have time to waffle away before I put my shoes on (another variable that helps to emulate a studio environment).

I have only recently plucked up the courage to spruce up the basement to it maximum workshop potential, whereas before it was merely a well organised storage facility (Raiders). As fun as it was to play a human sized game of Tetris, the clutter was slowly building up and left no room for creative inspiration. But lo! I have managed to tidy an area, sort out my tools and put up some posters to establish a rather nifty little grotto. This is now where I reside for these freelance projects of mine.


Here, let me show you around...

As you can tell, the constraints of working from home are visible. They guise themselves as loneliness, madness and self deprecation. As a resolve I have adopted a new Droid. It (or 'he') has helped with the loneliness, but furthered the madness and certainly done nothing to aid my self deprecatory status because he always agrees with me. Oh well, at least I don't need to feed him. 

If you're ever in need of a playlist for those creative moments or lazy mornings, then ponder and peruse no more! The video link above is of a live channel with twenty four hour music to help relax or inspire; heck, I'm listening to it now (find the playlist with the raccoon). I also love the animation with its simplicity and charm, but perhaps it's because I'm going through a Studio Ghibli phase. The collection was recently on Film4 so I recorded the bally ol' lot of em'!

My cousin Rosie got married last year and wanted some illustrations doing as centre pieces for each table at the wedding breakfast. Rosie has a wicked sense of humour, and along with her father (good ol' Uncle Howard) they sent me a list of 'celebrity foods' to sketch up. Take a look below and you'll see a few of the results...

I have been making progress with a new website. It is still under construction, so I can't share anything with you just yet, however, the idea was to finally showcase all of my work and experiences on one platform. Admittedly it has been a long time coming, and even though Instagram has done wonders for me over the last 12 months, it's not ideal to show clients. 

     Since working as a freelancer, especially for live action CBBC shows, set builds for theatre productions and various commercials, the demand for a website is quite understated. Yes, a business card will extend your contact details and Instagram can display your paintings, but it's not quite the professional statement that a website has to offer. 

And that is quite possibly the most mature I have ever sounded. 

Henceforth, I shall continue to doodle away in my basement, ahem, studio and hopefully in the near future this ol' website shall be up and running. Now, I am most certainly going to ride this water colour phase that I'm going through...

Inspired by watercolor_guide on Instagram

Next time... Hobbiton diorama with Bonsai trees, something Star Wars related and more murals!