My Illustrative Life

It’s my birthday! In five days. What I’d like is for everyone to be as environmentally friendly as they can. But what I’d also like, is STUFF.

And for everyone to IMAGINE PEACE and get involved in Yoko’s great plans for general world improvement! Hurray!

Cross your fingers with me?

Yesterday my mum and my sister and I visited my Great Aunt, who lives a fair way away in (my ancestral) Coventry, and took her to Coombe Abbey. Coombe Abbey, if you haven’t been, is awesome.

I haven’t taken any pictures of one reason it was so awesome, because that is probably illegal - there were tons and tons of kids there. Loads. I know it’s half term and all, but it was a joy to see youngins running about yelling at ducks, enjoying forest pathways, climbing banks, shouting “I AM THE TALKING BUSH” and shaking branches from inside evergreens which branch from ground-level, walking dogs, and QUITE CLEARLY being on dates. Too cute. If you are ever thinking, “oh alas children do not like nature any more, only wii, how sad!”, you should go to Coombe Abbey (at half term).

It has buildings, and grounds (lots), and just about every type of country landscape you could ask for. There’s a pond at the front of (what I think is) the hotel that has a sort of aqueduct non-bridge pathway across it; on one side it’s nature free and wobbly and undergrowth, on the other it’s nurture - angular and groomed, statues in the water, box-shaped box hedges.

There are paths to follow in various directions, which managed to turn me completely around and take me by surprise. I thought I’d reached a new building, but it was the one we started at. Cunning! The whole place has a sense of mystery though, the way it’s lain out - there’s always something just visible through or past or behind what you’re looking at.

The grounds were really, really pretty. These don’t do them justice because I am not a good photographer (and the camera I was borrowing is kind of weird and colour-bleaching/non-focusable).

Coombe Abbey also contains the spookiest tree-bourne sculpture I have ever seen. The black dog in this picture was being called forcefully by its owners, but I was willing it to stay in the frame long enough for the darn picture to take..

Seriously, is that supposed to be.. what is that supposed to be??

What’s a day out without a fitting outfit? NOTHING, THAT is what!! In a moment of great serendipity, my super-fantastic dreamskirt from Modelle - via the NASTY GAL sale - arrived that morning..

I was sure I would be able to see my own foot through the trunk’s various holes if only I stretched far enough..

I couldn’t.

BONUS: Me totally failing to replicate the awesome height achieved by my first run-up, which my fool sister MISSED CURSE HER.

And with that, I’ll go back where I came from.

Having just watched a tv trailer for the movie Gamer, I find myself of the opinion that if you don’t have a female name amongst those made a Big Deal of in the trailer, you shouldn’t be allowed to show ANY ladies at all. Or girls. It’s basically demeaning.

Especially if the one lady you do show is winking, and has either dyed hair or a wig (which are both Hollywood code for HOTSEXY) and heavy eyeliner (which is Hollywood code for HOTSEXY).

EDIT:

The following are all of the Gamer stills available from aceshowbiz.com that feature ladies.

I am overwhelmed by the range of expression and personality that the publicists have chosen to display in their actresses. -_-

These professionals can also be seen in:

Hitch (Amber Valetta plays an A List film star, who is written respectfully and like a real person rather than a shiny object),

What Lies Beneath (Amber Valetta plays the dead wife of the Protagonist’s husband; she’s dead, but she’s not letting him win and she doesn’t hold a grudge against his new wife)

Justice League: The New Frontier (Kyra Sedgwick voices Lois Lane (Lois Lane!))

Mystery of the Batwoman (Kyra Sedgwick voices Batwoman (Batwoman!))

The Woodsman (Kyra Sedgwick plays a woman dating an ex-convict, who turns out to have gone to jail for child molestation)

Drag Me To Hell (Alison Lohman is cursed and has to fight to save her soul (please try to reject the gypsy stereotyping I have heard is in the movie)),

Or (if you don’t mind dubs rather than subs) the english version of Nausicaa Nausicaa (Alison Lohman voices princess Nausicaa is a warrior/eco warrior/pacifist trying to prevent war and save the world and it is animated beautifully).

I would recommend any of these movies over Gamer. That is what happens when you market badly, media people!

I just sometimes sit like one.

I’m re-reading The Seven Dials Mystery (which is an odd thing to say; it’s a skinny volume and I usually monster through books. I’ve just been.. busy, I guess?). Agatha Christie is a good end-of-summer read.. But she’s a good any time read. One of my favourites. She paints atmosphere marvelously and her writing is just so.. kind, somehow.

I’ve currently got access to no graphics programs at all. (My Photoshop Elements just WON’T OPEN) It’s nice in that it’s like permission to work fully by hand, but it’s rubbish for finishing and image-application. And it means it’s almost entirely pointless printing anything. My magnets are still in black and white only.. when I’m in town this week I’m hoping I’ll have enough for a colour fine-liner or two.

Til then though, Maggie Sue Fridge Wardrobe is still fun and available! And entirely hand drawn. Click for etsy sales page!

Doc Marten purple boots

Ladies’ equestrian trousers two sizes too big second hand

Dorothy Perkins top with fake useless buttons removed second hand also

VW neckerchief

And my glasses, which shall be swapped out for new, stronger-prescription galaxy-glitter frames this week. Aces!

Thanks for the title, TV Tropes!

 Today I had one of those dawnings of realisation that are too small and ridiculous to be called epiphanies. ‘Hey.. maybe it was called that Arts and Crafts movement not because some of them did art and some did crafts.. but because the objects they made were at once both ART and CRAFTS!’ :O

How clever I am sometimes. Haha! I can’t believe I missed that for so long. The reason for my thoughts on the matter:

I started experimenting with dolls.. back in my foundation year, I think?My first effort was fully plush, then I moved to DAS clay with individual wire joints, then Fimo with wire armatures, then with thicker wire, then wire wrapped in fabric and padded, with the shaping details sewn in. This is my favourite way to work, so far. It’s especially satisfying because I hadn’t seen it done before I tried it. I’m sure there are other people working this way, obviously, but.. they didn’t help me! I’ve always been particular about that sort of thing. Except when I’m not.This hand is what I started today. before it’s been full-body investigations, but I’ve been straying from my plan to do the hands for the small dolls in Fimo. I wanted to practice on a large-scale before trying small wire and fabric hands. I also just recently started experimenting like so:Working into the plain white “skin” (which, by the way, is white simply because curtain lining tends to be plain bleached cotton and the only “fabric shop” I could find in the town I just moved away from was a curtain-remnant box in a department store) in coloured cotton to give more definition and decoration instead of just “sculpting” the form with monotone thread.The hand hasn’t had any skin applied yet due to my having no printless cotton, so you can see the vein. Hopefully it’ll show through when the hand is finished, like a real vein. I also have particular plans for the final embroidery of this piece.

 I really enjoy this form of sculpture. And look, I even started teaching my sister:Smart, right?