46 Rue de Archives

It's been really nice to draw again, and i plan to do a lot more in the next few days. My hand isn't feeling strained, although i do still have a little less feeling in some of my fingers but perhaps that will just take time to fully come back. Here's an image in the meantime. I'm feeling a bit rusty as far as drawing goes due to the small break but it's a start at least. Updates soon of some wonderful presents i got for Christmas and some plans and things for 2010.

Home for Christmas

It isn't really Christmas without a bit of snow and thankfully this year we've seen quite a lot of it. Walking to work has been a bit of a winter expedition everyday, with the paths not being cleared and the slush freezing over creating mini ice rinks along the route, but it's been fun. Thankfully warm gloves and my big furry hat have kept me warm, and i've made it to work on time everyday. I've not been blogging lately as my internet ran out for the month! I'm now back at home for Christmas, settling into a nice relaxing routine for the next fortnight which will involve eating chocolate, listening to Christmas music, watching lots of films and reading new books. I had a mini Christmas with my boy before we both left to go home, which included turkey and all the trimmings! I received some lovely gifts from him too, one of which is pictured here, a Finch & Fouracre model of a tenement. I love how the lamp makes the windows looks as though they're lit up. Perhaps a little tiny family is living inside. A brilliant early Christmas, and now it's nearly time for the real thing!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and i'll get back to regular updates and drawing posts after all the festivities! Have a lovely holiday! :)

Christmas shoppers

Hoards of Christmas shoppers: similar to normal shoppers but with the added stress of a deadline, a mother and law to please, and the weight of 20 bags on their muscles (the price of which, also weighing on their mind), descend on the shops of the city. Everyone bundled up like walking turkeys compelled to buy cheap rubbish, the brainwashing of the festive period convincing them it's all worth the money. Stomachs grumble as they fail to stop for food and drink, focused on the task at hand. This in turn causes their mouths to grumble at shop assistants, whose festive spirit has been numbed by their holiday working hours. An extra dose of excitement has been added to stir up the crowds even more: sales. The shopper murmurs their Christmas list over and over again in their head. In a crowd of hundreds of busy bodies, all lips are trembling out a costly item and ticking it off an imaginary list. No one has a fully functioning brain in situations like this. Look a Christmas shopper in the eyes and they don't even blink. The only question they are able to stammer out is, "Can i get a gift receipt with that?". During all this, a sleazy sales guy at a stall wearing a cheap Santa hat tries to stop these passing zombies by offering them free samples of his "hand cream".


I wrote this quickly whilst observing the throng of people rushing through the Overgate the other day. Thankfully i could sit back and enjoy my soup, as all my presents were bought and wrapped. I hope all those people managed to get what they were after, and are now about to enjoy a relaxing Christmas Eve tomorrow.

My first lomo pics

I've been waiting on seeing the results of my lomo pics for quite a while now and was happy to receive the prints the other day. I've included my favourites here and i'm quite pleased with the results. This was just a trial to see how they went, and before taking some new ones, a flash is on the top of my wish list. I'm looking forward to taking more in the future, and gathering some accessories bit by bit along the way.

Christmas tree, saving a doll and a trip to Glasgow

Lately i've been resting my hand from drawing but managing to do a little piece of sketchbook work here and there to stop it from getting drawing withdrawal. I've had lots of other things to keep me busy though, including the opening of the Martin Boyce exhibition at DCA, another successful Yuck 'n Yum event and a lovely trip to Glasgow with my boy, which although was freezing was a perfect Christmasy day. Not knowing Glasgow that well at all, i got a lovely tour from him so got to see many shops that were very much my kind of thing. He took me to an amazing antiques shop. In amongst its treasures i found an old doll. I hate seeing old discarded toys, and at this time of year it's even more sad to see them, especially buried in piles of old bits and bobs. I saved her from her cramped conditions and gave her a home and now she's my new doll Jane, named after part of my granny's name. After a little bit of a dust and having her face washed, she looks a lot happier and seems very much at home sitting at my window. I'm not sure exactly how old she is. It would be nice to find out. I got two very interesting books from the sad chaos of Borders, which i'll talk about more when i've had a bit of a read of them.

Christmas shopping has almost been completed, and as usual i have been a Christmas card failure and left it a bit late to make or get any so i'm trying to do as many vocal "Merry Christmas" greetings to people as i can to make up for it. In the next few days i'm going to have to make a start to some drawn Christmas presents i'm planning to do for a few people so hopefully the amount of rest i've given to my hand will have been enough to get the heavy workload i have planned done and completed this week. Tesco value has enabled me to get a Christmas tree and some decorations, so here is my cheap and cheerful tree with its first present under it.

support

After my first day back at work this week, i realised i'd need a little bit of support for my hand, as after typing for only a short length of time, my wrist stiffened up. I'm getting the feeling back in my fingers, but i could tell by typing a lot, that it must be that which caused the whole thing in the first place. This wrist support seems to be helping a bit, especially due to the fact it's keeping my hand warm as the cold has made it worse. So i'm back drawing carefully. Baby steps need to be taken, but i'm happy to have my pen back in my hand.

sketchbook pages update

So it's been a little while since i've posted up any sketchbook pages. It's hard trying to fit in time for them around my jobs, but i'm slowly managing to get a drawing in them here and there. So here's a few to catch up.