Lead & Light

Back in Durbs

2007-01-18T09:59:00.000+02:00

...and back at work. For some absurd reason, that goes against the laws of the universe, I was actually really looking forward to getting back to work. All the promise of a new year, clean slates, new accounts, fresh ideas and opportunities and all that. Im sure the novelty will wear off quickly enough.

This is my first day back at work since the trip. I was supposed to return on Monday but I had complications that went pear-shaped with a cold and throat infection from hell. I owe Ian a huge thanks for taking me to the doc and putting up with the miserable, awful, crying mess I had turned into. My throat had swelled so much that the pain was excruciating, it was a struggle to speak and breathing had become an issue because the throat was swelling shut. Got put on a nebuliser, got jabs in my ass and a healthy dose of adrenalin and after throwing up the meds a couple of times at home, I eventually succumbed to a happily drug-induced sleep.

Paris was cool. Disneyland was great. I'll have to post some pics of that. The trip as a whole was pretty brilliant. We did something, went somewhere and took a million pics virtually every day. Next on the agenda is Israel for about August. But in between that we have to pull our pennies together for moving in together. Next month is flat hunting and furniture shopping, which Im really excited about. And I think Im up for my review next month so hopefully that will result in a couple of extra bucks in the bank, which will help a whole lot.

Off to Paris!!

2007-01-07T08:53:00.000+02:00

We are off this morning to catch the Eurostar train at Waterloo station to Paris, where we will be Until mid next week. It's 7am here and still pitch black! Not even a smidgen of sun.

We've been really looking forward to this part.

Starstruck!!

2007-01-03T01:50:00.000+02:00

My being a fan of theatre I was super keen to see at least one West End play. And I was even more keen to see a play with on-screen actors because it would be cool to see if they could actually act. There are no fancy camera angles, clever editing, special effects or making mistakes.

So we booked tickets to go see Love Song with Cillian Murphy, Neve Campbell, Kristen Johnston and Michael McKean last night.

Unfortunately, Kristen Johnston was "indisposed", whatever the hell that means, and her understudy took over her role. The play itself was quite good, with Cillian Murphy & Michael McKean being really really good on stage but the treat of the evening came after the play ended. We went outside and the cast were coming out the backstage door and agreed to sign some autographs. So we got to meet Cillian Murphy and Neve Campbell and I got their pawprints on my play program!!!!!!!

Thanks to my stupid bladder, I had missed McKean but thank goodness the other guys hung around!! I have to say that Cillian is very polite, very nice and friendly and patiently grinning at us kooks and answering our daft questions and making an effort to respond to any comments he recieved. I was really impressed. After he was done signing he politely asked to be excused to go home and walked off down the street.
Miss Campbell wasnt anywhere near as friendly, which was a bit of a disappointment, and made the time to growl a bit at one person before she ducked into her cab. Maybe she had a rough day. But I got her pawprint anyway so I should just be grateful and shut up.

Unrelated sidenote: we also finally made it to Forbidden Planet prior to the play and cleaned the store and our wallets out. Those bastards know all of my weaknesses.

PPS: I can't sleep.

Camden

2007-01-03T01:30:00.000+02:00

Last week sometime, we headed off to Camden for the day. It was totally brilliant, especially for the weird gimmick geeks that Gareth and I are. The above map was in a Starbucks that we stopped at to warm up. I have come to the conclusion that there are no spoons in all of England. They give you a cup of coffee or hot choc with piles of cream and a stirring stick the width of a toothpick. How, precisely, is the mountain of cream meant to be consumed? I've now got a system where I utilise about three stirring sticks together to make a spoon-like contraption. I refuse to drink my cream. And stirring stick things just push the sugar around instead of dissolving anything. Pshhh.

There are plenty of goth, tattoo and punk shops around, all equipped with some kickass displays.

The doggy in the pic below is the size of a couch. It's awesome. I want one. Won't fit in the luggage though.

There are plenty of flea markets around as well. In fact most of it seems to be that. I bought tons of rubbish. Cool clothes, bags, etc.

And below is the only photograph permitted of the coolest, wackiest shop in the universe. Inside is custom, original-designed clothing and merchandise that fits the term Cyberpunk. The clothing is all plastic/latex supershiny, luminiscent with neon spikes and quirky zips and electronic attachments. Think exactly the kind of clothing they wore in Hackers. And Rollerball. And I mean EXACTLY. And the staff are works of art on their own entirely. Pierced, punked, tattooed, neoned and full make-up. They look astounding. Very very cooooool!!

Windsor Castle

2007-01-02T02:07:00.000+02:00

We went to Windsor Castle twice. The first time we missed entry by about 20 minutes, bugger. Unfortunately you arent permitted to shoot pics inside which sucks because the place is unbelievable. Very very opulent. And they have amassed the most astounding collection of artwork.

Oxford

2007-01-02T00:59:00.000+02:00

Shirley, Gareth and I decided to do an impromptu trip up to Oxford yesterday (okay, I decided and whined until I got my way).

The architecture of the place is incredible. I took hundreds of pics and they weren't enough. It's just a shame the sunlight is so damn shy in the UK. Look at the vines growing up the side of that building-very Shakespearean, hehe.

We walked around aimlessly for a bit and then happened upon a 1000-year old church selling maps and guidebooks.

This pic and the one above are of a massively huge college called Christ Church. We thought the place reminded us of Hogwarts and Harry Potter and it turned out that this is precisely where some scenes from the HP movies were shot.

This dining hall should look familiar to the Harry Potter fans.

Although it is a LOT smaller in real life, it's no less stunning. There are the original paintings up of Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII

We climbed another tower in St. Mary's church to see the rest of Oxford from above.

Stonehenge

2007-01-02T00:00:00.000+02:00

We went to Stonehendge last week. As Gareth said, "Stonehenge rocks!" (insert groaning).

The sun sets really early here. It was about 2:30ish when I took these shots.

Peace

2006-12-26T11:55:00.000+02:00

I havent participated in illo Friday in too long. At work, however, they've started a similar concept that they call Blank Canvas and last week the topics sort of coincided. So this is my submission for both.

I was thinking more along the lines of sleep because that's the only time some people ever get any peace! I wanted to to bring in the tactile aspect-the pillow & blanket so I scanned in some textures and incorporated them into the image. It was done in Photoshop CS2.

PS Happy Holidays!!

And we're here...Ver 2.0

2006-12-24T00:43:00.000+02:00

I couldn't type up a proper entry earlier because uploading the damn pics took so bloody long. Anyway, here's the breakdown so far:

Our flight from Durban was initially delayed by 10 minutes but by the time we took off it had been nearly an hour. This meant that we ran, like maniacs on the amazing race, from Terminal A in Jhb International to Terminal B, which felt like 500 metres away. We ran a lot. We panicked more. By the time we hit passport control, the lady informed us we had 5 minutes until the gates closed. We made it with 1 minute to spare.

The first few hours of our flight were cool. Im used to cramped spaces and dodgy food with El Al. But when it hit 6 hours into the flight it became challenging. We flew Olympic, so the cabin crew were all greek. Surprisingly, they spoke very basic English and responded in Greek. Also, they were rude and disinterested, but I was prepared for that because that's pretty much how they had been described in every entry on airlinecritic.com . A passenger next to us asked for a glass of water. The steward told him it was in the back and he could go fetch some. The passenger was Greek too so I was surprised he wasnt getting better treatment. But he refused to fetch it himself, insisted on the Steward getting it. Good for him. I just irritated the steward by going to the back and taking as long as possible-I picked up one ice cube at a time, slowly, relishing the space I had to stretch my legs. He got annoyed and took over, hehe.

We landed at Athens at 5:50am. The airport was dead silent. There were passengers passed out on benches all over the place though, quietly sleeping away. That should have been a sign because we werent in the general airport area, we were sent directly to the transfer lounge, which is beyond passport control.

Gareth was dead on his feet, we hadn't managed to get any sleep on our 9 hour flight fom Jhb and the last time our heads rested on a pillow was the previous morning. We found a McDonalds that served coffee and had a few cups. We walked around, grabbed something to eat (EUR11.10 for two sarmies and an orange juice. That's over a hundred Rand for the uninformed. Yeowch.). We walked some more, shot some pics, I bought some souvenirs and more coffee and found that the electronics at Duty Free was cheap so I bought a new memory card for my camera. Then we found some benches and went to sleep until it was time to go through to the boarding gates.

At 12pm we checked into the boarding gates area because our flight was due to board at 12:30. The time came and went, the waiting lounge filled up and nothing happened. Then at about 12:45 there was an announcement in Greek that made the entire lunge groan collectively. A fellow passenger (with awesome shoes, damn) translated for us that the flight was delayed indefinitely due to bad weather and they'd let us know as soon as they knew. Only ever second or third announcement was given in English as well which became annoying.

At 2pm the news was that boarding would happen at 3. At 3pm we were told the flight would board at 4pm. At 4pm, it was delayed for 5pm. I think we finally boarded at 5:50pm, exactly 12 hours later. The airport gates were packed to mob proportions with irate passengers. The alarms kept getting set off, who knows why. Outside was madness, I made the mistake of stepping outside because I was looking for a phone card. I started getting squashed in the masses of people (started having an anxiety attack, I was literally getting crushed and couldnt find a way to squeeze out at that point and because I look Greek, all airport staff kept speaking to me in the language and the one security dude got highly ticked off that I was not responding to him but I was too busy hyperventilating at the time to explain that I speak English.)

Anyway, turned out that Heathrow had been under heavy fog for days and it had not relented. We were one of only 4 flights permitted entry, every other flight to London was cancelled. BAA suffered something like GBP28 Bill in losses. Terminal 3 in Heathrow (I think it was 3) was full of people who had been forced to camp there, some for days. 12 hours didn't seem so bad anymore!!

They changed our plane to a giant one and boarded everybody. Half the people boarding had been waiting for over an entire day for their flight as it had been cancelled the previous day and again that morning. So we were very lucky were were boarding at all.

The flight was meant to be 3 hours but lasted over 4 because we had to circle Heathrow and wait for clearance. The fog was so thick that visibility was 0%. When we landed on terra firma, the blanket of fog was just as heavy on the ground. It was amazing.

We went through customs, no hassles (I had been really worrying abut that) and everyone was amazingly polite and freindly. And then Shirlz met us at arrivals and it was home from there.

Anyway, so far it's been really awesome here. Taking the tubes is a novelty that wont wear off for a while. I love how organised this place is. And it's quiet and safe. And it's bizarre, but it feels like after 5 pm all the grown-ups and parents recede into the darkness and it's just one huge party until the last train home. Tesco's is awesome, they have an entire aisle dedicated to food from Israel that I haven't seen since my childhood. They also have Ben&Jerry's ice cream, Haagen-Dazs and Krispy-Kreme donuts (YUMMY!!). Ian would love this place because it's Pepsi everywhere. Pepsi & 7up. You really have to hunt for Coke.

Everyone here dresses very stylishly. There are not just bookstores here but dedicated Design Bookstores when in SA you are lucky to find a single design book in a shop. And Art bookstores. And Film bookstores!! People here are also very friendly when drunk and if you go partying in a club with a girlfriend and no accompanying male it seems you are free game! Shirlz and I weere partying it up at the Walkabout and the boyfriends were having drinks on the other side of the place and we were pestered by some very (VERY) detrermined guys. Boyfriend is not a word in the English dictionary apparently.

We're here!

2006-12-23T04:13:00.000+02:00

Waiting at Athens

Our plane, ready to board but the weather at Heathrow resulted in hundreds of flights being cancelled. We were fortunate to only have to wait 12 hours..

Foggy streets in Harrow. The thick fog had been around for a few days apparentky and was the reason for the chaos at Heathrow.

Christmas lights on Carnaby Street, near Piccadilly Circus

Hamleys, biggest toy store ever had some amazing lights up too

Piccadilly Circus

A funfair on Leicester Square. And I love those phone booths.

Taking the underground home after spending all day in London. The evening was spent first at a pub with an awesome name, the Slug and Lettuce, and the rest of the night was at a huge Aussie pub/club called Walkabout. We ate Kangaroo kebabs for supper. Seriously.

Shirlz, Gerhard and I

One very tired Gareth

Illo Friday: Rain

2006-06-27T09:46:00.000+02:00

Dance

2006-06-22T16:38:00.000+02:00

Cutting it close this week (missed last week unfortunately).
Anyway, the topic for the week is fairly relevant and close to my heart seeing as I do the Flamenco thing (Spanish dancing for those not familiar with it). One of the things I love about Flamenco is the bright, bold colours that are often contrasted with black or darker colours. It's reflective of the passion and intensity of the dance style. I tried to reflect some of that here.

I couldn't get the arms right, that was a real problem. That was really frustrating.

Picnic

2006-06-14T09:29:00.000+02:00

On Sunday afternoon we had a picnicky thingy at the Durban Botanic Gardens. It was a bit of an impromptu event so a few items were left behind. But at least the food made it, hehe. Anyway, here be the piccies, and should anyone object to their image being displayed on the blog, let me know.

Wacom wax off

2006-05-31T10:42:00.000+02:00

On Friday I decided to give the drawing tablet a go. For those not sure of what Im talking about, a Wacom tablet is digital tablet that comes with what is known as a stylo and allows you to illustrate on computer, without havign to use a mouse. Prior to that, I've always used a mouse to draw, which is why my previous illustrations, including the recent not so wonderful cake one, are in that cartoony style. It's just much easier to execute that style with a mouse.

Anyway, I gave the tablet a go. I wanted to see if I could imagine the shading of a person correctly. Im satisfied with my first attempt because I used no reference. Although, having just looked at it again, referece would have been a good plan. The face is too long, hair too high and it looks smudged and stained instead of shaded. Aww, but I is liking it anyway (evidently, this lack of self esteem is precisely why I need to spend more time practicing than complaining about the results).

The stylo is impressive of note. It is pressure sensitive all over the nib, not just the very tip, so the strokes vary in both width and depth. And it's very sympathetic to hand movements, so it emulates drawing on paper wonderfully (in other tablets, curves tend to go squarish-try drawing loops with the pencil tool and a mouse in photoshop-it looks kinda like that with a stylo that is not as great).

I love it. The Wacom tablet, I mean.I want to marry it and have its pixelated kids. Gareth will understand.

EDIT: Strangfely enough, the topic this week (June 05) for Illo Friday is "Portrait" so I've submitted this image for it. Looks like I was a week ahead, hehe.

Cake

2006-05-30T11:01:00.000+02:00

It's been at least 6 months since I last participated in illo Friday. Better late than never.

I spend so much time deliberating over the topics and over criticising any idea I may have in regards to it that I dont end up submitting anything at all. So, instead of harping on in the post about the inadequacies of the image, I presnt to you: CAKE! I wanted to show gloppy gooeyness. Im happy with it. It's a good starting point to get me back in the habit of submitting again.

Flamenco frenzy

2006-05-11T16:16:00.000+02:00

When Im not harping on about my dogs, I actually do something vaguely more constructive. I go to Flamenco dance lessons. Or Spanish dancing. Anyway, it's a form of dancing that has always appealed to me because of the lack of fluff. No tutus or pirrouettes and pointy toes. It's about shaking tushy with a vengence and showing the floor who's boss by stomping the hell out of it. It's assertive and confident and helps me pretend that I am too.

Anyway, as much as I love the hobby, Im also not very good at it. I am a slow learner and it takes me a long time and a lot of practise and patience to learn new steps. As a result, most people in the various classes only need one lesson, or about an hour a week to absorb new stuff. I need 5. In the past, I would get so despondent seeing the other people catch on so quickly that I'd dread going, it became an embaressing ordeal. So I stopped. This year I decided that in order to get to their level, I'd just have to shake ass a little harder and more frequently. So I attend two classes on Saturday, two on Wednesday and one on Monday.

Okay, now my woe: We have a show coming up, and Im dancing in three different things and Im good at about half of one of them. Im screwed. Im terrified. Last night was the first official rehearsal for one of the dances and I went blank. At rehearsal!! What the hell is going to happen in the actual show??!

Free

2005-11-22T20:02:00.000+02:00

I havent submitted anything for weeks. It's been a difficult time.

This topic response varies greatly from my usual illustrative style. I photographed myself and manipulated the image into layers in a digital collage utilising one of my greatest loves, Photoshop.

The image is abstract, but I tried to communicate a breath or a spirit escaping out of something. There are other images hidden in that one. It also looks a bit macabre, but I guess Im trying to be all deep and say that just because you have escaped, doesnt mean you are free.

Remote

2005-10-25T15:49:00.000+02:00

Im quite surprised at the very abrupt change my style of illustration has aquired. I attribute it to state of mind.

Im not entirely satisfied with this image, I find that the "button" glossiness is a bit detached from the rest of the rough texture of the illustration, however adding the same texture to it made the entire image look...wrong somehow.

All done in Photoshop. When will I get off my lazy hiney to learn Illustrator?

Comments, critiques and offers of undying love or eternal slavery are always welcome.

Cold

2005-10-20T23:25:00.000+02:00

I've been having fun with creating patterns in Photoshop. I wanted to integrate that into a piece and as a result this week I was more inspired to make something retro-ish. More design than illustration.

And my idea of cold is what I've been suffering from for the past week and Im sure there are millions out there who can relate!

Comments & crits always welcome :)

Conspicuous

2005-10-14T17:23:00.000+02:00

This is my first submission for Photo Friday.

con·spic·u·ous adj.
Easy to notice; obvious.
Attracting attention, as by being unusual or remarkable

I have a friend who inspires a lot of creativity in me and when I saw the definition of the word "being unusual or remarkable" she immediately came to mind.

Only she can casually walk around in fishnets, leather pumps and flaming red hair and make it look stylish.

That aside, I love contrasts and I thought that the stockings against the backdrop of weathered wood served the topic well.

Comments & critiques are welcome!

Lost

2005-10-08T17:43:00.000+02:00

I wanted to communicate that awful feeling of dread that suddenly overwhelms you when you realise you are completely and utterly lost on your own. It's that Creepy Feeling™.

That's why I integrated those tendrils in the foreground-they aren't necessarily attached to anything-it's representative of not knowing what's out there but imagining the worst.

Float

2005-10-03T22:48:00.000+02:00

I had fun with this one. You can see the Arabian Nights influence! Creating the patterns and the fuzzy tassle-things for the trim of the carpet was the most enjoyable part. I did struggle with the hair a bit.

I wonder if the moon isnt a bit distracting. I tried an option without it and the image became bland.

Everything was done in Photoshop, as per usual, using a mouse and creating custom brushes and whatnot.

Comments, critiques & suggestions are always welcome.

Fresh

2005-09-25T21:32:00.000+02:00

The image was made entirely in PS, no vector programs were used as a result of my being lazy, plain and simple.

I find cows the most comical of creatures when illustrating them, they inspire a lot of amusement and often pop into mind, so I was very pleased to have a topic that would enable me to involve a moo.

Anyway, you don't get any fresher than that, as far as milk is concerned.

The focus this time was more on conveying expression than refining technique. However, critiques are most certainly welcome.

Escape

2005-09-20T11:34:00.000+02:00

Typical damsel in distress, except she isn't planning on hanging around for Prince Charming to rock up. She's outta here.

Depth

2005-09-12T19:11:00.000+02:00

This in response to the topic of the week, as listed on www.illustrationfriday.com

Incidentally, this is my first submission.

I've interpreted the topic quite literally. I am trying to determine a style for myself, so my focus is more on the object than the subject. I quite enjoyed doing this illustration.

Photoshop, a mouse and my imagination was employed in the execution of this.

Experiment

2005-09-12T17:00:00.000+02:00

Im a designer by vocation, but I have weak illustrative skills. Specifically, drawing. And I don't believe a designer can be much of a success without developing this fundamental technique. So I'm utilising this blog as a sketchbook and as a place to post work for www.illustrationfriday.com .

Shirley Out.