New Year

I'm hiding out in my room away from all the action, squirrelled away and saving up my free time as people rush around fixing things up for the New Year party. I love our friends; I just need some space to be alone for now before the real thing. I'm enjoying the holidays, but indulging far too much - this morning my face didn't appear downstairs until quarter past one in the afternoon, which is a first!
The lovely Gav and Jane, who live in Cornwall, have come to stay with their little girl Daisy, along with some other friends, Tony and Becky. We're expecting rather larger crowds than that at our peak, however, and people are still having apoplexy over where on earth everyone's going to sleep.
I have a new character who I invented while playing an old game from our childhood with my sister. She's called Nessa and she's interestingly part Medusa. Now there's an idea I haven't explored before.
She lives in the Between, which is a world 'in between' the human world and the world of Magic. Her parents were both human, but one of them had been bitten by a Medusa's snake, causing their child to be inhuman. For the most part, Nessa looks normal. However, her eyes don't fit properly in her face, being the eyes of a snake. She can briefly paralyse people, and while her hair appears ordinary, it often restyles itself when she is uncomfortable or upset.
She is a Scavenger, surviving only on the remains of the dead who have been left on the streets. Isn't that cheerful?
The Between is almost entirely populated with hybrids, some part human, most cross-bred Magic creatures. The portals on either side lead to either Earth or Magic, but they are chaotic, and you never know where you will end up when you step through unless you are strong enough to control the portal. Such people charge a lot of money to direct the portals to the wishes of the traveller, who also needs to pay for an illusionist to spell them into looking human if they are headed to Earth, or as a fully Magic being if they are going in the opposite direction. The journey is expensive, the transition between worlds arduous and often painful, and the rewards minimal. It is not undertaken lightly or commonly.
I sketched her but she didn't turn out right, so I'll try again tomorrow. Until then, I'll try and get some sleep :)

Aftermath of Christmas

Christmas has been and gone, and we have to wait another year for it to come around again! I spent Christmas with my grandparents, and my lovely Brazilian cousin Sophie. Thumbs up if you're reading this Sophie! I meant what I said about Portuguese. Eu estou aprendendo!
My parents gave me a beautiful set of professional brush pens and quality cartridge paper which I plan to use very soon! My grandparents left me the proud owner of considerably more teal/turquoise clothes than before which are lovely. It was a great Christmas despite an illness going round the family from which I was apparently excluded (so far, so good)
Me and my pencil are free again, so I expect I'll be doing more drawing than blogging for now until the holidays are over, with the exception of the crazy New Year's party that's got my family in a right tizz trying to find places to sleep a dozen or so people!
Hope you have a happy New Year!

Christmas and Myers Briggs

Okay, so it;'s been ages since I posted, but here we go. It's nearly Christmas, so I'm happy :)
I've done some little drawings for presents that I might try to make more of, as they're useful gifts. I actually don't have much to do with my time, which is something I'm definitely enjoying - I had a lie-in yesterday morning until about 11!
Life's fairly uneventful otherwise, so I can just type, listen to music and hope for tomorrow. I've been stricken by the plague of deep and complex thinking, which is a lot of fun for me - I'm not sure about the people on the other end who I insist on having meaningful conversations with!
If you haven't already discovered the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, you should probably check it out at http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp.
There are some great descriptions of your type's personality - I happen to be a strong INFJ, which shows that I'm introverted (as opposed to extroverted), I am intuitive (as opposed to sensing), I see things through feelings (as opposed to logical thinking) and I make decisions based on judging (as opposed to perceiving).
Please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong as my grasp of these meanings is perhaps not as strong as it could be! However I have done some fairly extensive research into the typical personalities of my type and found them to be very accurate. The good thing about the Myers Briggs/Jung typology is that it doesn't put you in a box as such, it just gives a guide to the strength of your preferences for the above ways of the mind.
Merry Christmas!

General

I spent the morning copying an old sketch that ended up taking up four A4 pages onto a piece of A2 paper. At least it fits properly now, and in fact I prefer the new version. Listening to Joni Mitchell now, drinking more tea and trying to get well ASAP, since I have an exam tomorrow! Planning on doing a couple of Christmas-themed drawing for people as pressies ;-)

Drinking tea...

*Smile beatifically and sips fifth cup of tea*
Tea is the king of comfort drinks. Indisputably.
I've decided to take tomorrow off, but I'll do some sketching at home anyway so it's not a total waste of time. I've been writing quite a bit since when I'm at home me and my laptop have plenty of time for some heart-to-hearts ^^
I think I forgot to mention the family's ducks (technically they belong to Briana but everybody loves them). They are fun-loving pets that love to get in our way when someone goes out to do some weeding: Monkey (don't ask), Dorito, Arwen (that one was my idea) and Alderney. Odd names for the pets of an odd family.
They are accompanied by the three chicks, who are really chickens now, Bibble, Babble and Bubble. Every morning they take their daily flight up a tree to escape the cat that stalks them menacingly with an evil laugh: Muahahahaha! Well, maybe not. But it would be funny if it did.

Sick...

I went home early today due to a sore throat and non-stop coughing. Grace was very sympathetic :)
Now I have settled down with a cup of tea and a duvet, and have decided to give myself a break. I might not post again until Friday in this state! Still, at least I can relax a bit. Ah well :)

More work (!)

Just done some of my arty work stuff, which took a while but at least it's out of the way! Sorry for the lack of update yesterday, as I ended up busier than ever. Not much happened recently, had a peaceful Sunday which was definitely nice! I'm going to an art workshop in January run by www.derbyshireartist.blogspot.com.
That should be fun (she has promised cake...)
Otherwise, my life is fairly boring - Wanda almost set my hair on fire this morning, for which she earned herself a severe scolding, but apart from that the dragons have been keeping themselves quietly busy. Again, too much workload to cope - I reach the weekend, collapse and then realise that by doing so I have condemned myself to working through the night to make up for lost time... not fun. I'll be back soon!

Today's Update

Mike and Laura have come to stay for the weekend along with their dog, Helly. After a muddy walk through the countryside to the Hollybush pub and a delicious lunch, I did a little more work on Caz's story (as yet unnamed). Things are really stressful for her at the moment - she's been through a lot and her world's been turned upside-down in a single day. Now an unprecedented attack has been launched on her, and she's fighting for her life. Ah well. She'll win, of course. BTW, her full name is Calandra d'Alisa. :)
Wanda was sat on my desk looking as good as gold when I got back, which means I have yet to discover whatever horror she has planned for me.
It's been a long day. I have tons of work to do with a deadline of Monday, and I'm putting it off, which is never a good idea. I've sorted through all my artwork and formed a portfolio of the stuff I haven't chucked away, which is definitely progress.
I'll probably post again tomorrow, but right now I need to sleep. Tomorrow = less of the fun stuff, more of the boring yet compulsory stuff. D:

Characters - an introduction

Sometimes I write about my characters so much, and know them so well, that they become real. To me, anyway. Like the three dragons, who I wrote about when I was very little and who decided to stick around, I have a couple other people hanging around in my house. The annoying thing is that no one else sees them, so I am apt to laugh out loud at Caz's sarcastic sense of humour, and then my family stare at me like my hair has turned blue.
Various other characters are at the other extreme, or somewhere in the sliding scale.
Ah well. You'll be hearing from these guys fairly frequently, I suspect, since they are inherently nosey.

Music

Okay, so now I am seriously overtired. I've been drawing whenever I can, and I'm hoping to be able to get a camera with my Christmas money so I can upload my stuff here. I'm also stressed out, as shown by my inability to cope with the stains on my carpet. I tried hoovering and a carpet cleaner, but it's still got stains on it and it's driving me insane.
Waiting is fine, as far as my patience stretches. But I may explode if I have to wait for my new stain remover much longer!
I've been listening to the same eight tracks for about a week now, so I've switched to a Tina Dico phase. It probably won't last very long, but it might give me a prompt for a few more sketches at least. What I listen to and what's going on in my life are the two main things that influence my art the most. I've been drawing morbid things recently (hint), but the sketch of a kind of cute little feathered dragon may signal a significant change in mood. Who knows?

Grace and Inspiration

It's 10 PM and Grace is trying to dance the can-can (or something) on the ceiling. This has just given me a fascinating idea for a drawing. Evil chuckle.
About Grace: Picture a dragon. Then make her gold, eight inches long and give her a sarcastic sense of humour. Then imagine her dancing on ceilings to boot. Heh. I think she's a lot like me.
Not many of my posts are likely to be particularly serious or philosophical but rest assured that such things often cross my mind. (Check out freedom-muse.blogspot.co.uk for philosophy) This is possibly an exception.
Inspiration is something that does not obey the whims of humanity. It comes and goes as it pleases; but I like to think of it as a subtle creature, on a radar that not everyone easily tunes into. If you were to go out and wait for inspiration, perhaps it would come and perhaps it would not. Perhaps just seeing something triggers a flash of an idea that blossoms into flower, so that you feel the overwhelming urge to sketch or scribble immediately.
When you are having difficulty tuning in to inspiration, there are many things that sometimes help, a little bit like honey to attract insects. What does inspiration like? Music, and words, and the natural beauty that lies all around us. Go out, immerse yourself in inspiration up to the neck and see if it decides to pay you a call.

A long hot shower can work too.

Day Number One

What a daunting idea this is. I am a terribly disorganized person, though at times I seem otherwise: I have tried many times (unsuccessfully) to write a diary or a journal, and I am sincerely hoping that I will manage it this time using a blog.
I've done fairly well with smaller things like MSN on updating my status. My insanely busy life means my main worry is finding the time to do this kind of thing. It's a new resolution ;-)
I think I'm supposed to introduce myself in a roundabout kind of way. I am a writer, an artist and an avid reader and lover of the outdoors. I also love words and linguistics, and other more abstract things like laughing and the colour silver.
I will try to post my ideas for writing, and use this as a kind of mini gallery or portfolio. I love running and long mountainous walks, and conversely I also like doing my hair and makeup, and a girls' night out.
That's as far as I've got today, but I will be regular if possible. We have holidays planned upon which I unfortunately cannot allow my laptop to accompany me. :(
I have three dragon companions who are a constant source of information (and occasionally very irritating) called Grace, Wanda and Shadow. If you read this regularly, you'll have to put up with them as they love to intrude upon whatever new thing it is that I happen to have occupied myself with. They come out with some pretty cool things sometimes.