Christmas etc.

Went to my Mum's place for Christmas. I was a bit bored there, to tell the truth, but my mate Alex was around, visiting his folks. Did a bit of drawing, but nothing spectacular. It brightened up when Katy came to visit on the 27th.

Good news on the job front. They offered me some work after that interview I thought I did so badly at the other day. 3 days a week. Not sure what the salary will be, but it sounds good. That means I will have 2 weekdays, plus the weekends to do as much drawing as I like. Brilliant! I am going to treat it like a job, and work as professionally as I can on my comic and other projects (stories etc.) The catch with the job thing is that I will have to get qualified properly before I can start. That means most of January will be spent revising.

Also, I brought my scanner back down, so I can scan in some pictures...

Job Interview

Had a good weekend. On Sunday, we cooked a huge Christmas lunch. There were 11 of us. Half were vegetarian, and half weren't, which complicated the whole process. It was a lot of work, but worth it, I think, in the end, and I cooked a perfect turkey! Katy made bread sauce and enough potatoes to feed the Russian army. Still looking for work. I just had an interview at the place I am volunteering at. I hated the whole experience, as usual. Still not sure if I want the job. The money is excellent, but the workload commensurate with that, which means - no time for drawing. Haven't drawn much for days. Going to do a page of Year Zero, my long project now.

Poetry Reading

Katy and I seem to be having a surprise date once a week, which is quite fun. Last night she took me to the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where there was a poetry reading by a poetry group called the Lazy Birds.

The last time I went to a whole evening of poetry reading, it was dreadful. I only remember one guy who made the rhyme "two recent divorcees from human resources", but that was the highlight.

These guys were a lot better. My favourite was Sjaaak which was a kind of Brechtian operatic poetry, but very funny too.

I drew some sketches - think I'm getting a bit better at representing people, but still need a bit of work. I'm using the technique with 9b pencil and blending stick which Anthony Zierhut uses on his sketchblog. Have a look.

Jews at a street corner

I'm staying with Katy, my girlfriend, at the moment. The area she lives in is full of Orthodox Jews. They make great drawing subjects, with their black clothes, or on weekends, their white capes over their clothes, and their cylindrical hats. One of these days I would like to go out and do a lot of sketches with some india ink and a pen, but the weather has been awful lately. They all stay indoors.

Who's a happy bunny then?

Not me, obviously, back in February, which is the last time I posted. Which is funny, because looking back on it, I had a high old time, with only the occasional stress-out regarding essays that were due in. That's what you get for studying a subject you have no talent in.

Anyway, a few months down the line, New York in the Summer, working for UNICEF, an MA under my belt, a one-month job with the worst boss I have ever had, lots of drawing, 9 months of bliss with my girlfriend, and it's nearly Christmas again.

My next task, should I choose to accept it, is to try to upload some sketches onto my blog, in the hope of shaming myself into drawing a bit better.