Friday 27 September 2013

WOTO, Chamomile and WIPs

Hi all!

So just thought I'd update you on a few things!

At the moment I've been starting a lot of things (and not finishing them, ha) but I thought I'd show you where I've gotten to anyway. I've also begun at a new job recently, so that's taking up a lot of my time - once I've gotten into a routine I will try to stop neglecting my blog...

So the first thing i started a few weeks ago was a piece of mock-concept art. I actually scanned in a sketch first, and painted on top of it, which is something I'm trying to keep going with as it creates a much more painter-ly, almost realistic effect:


I'm pretty pleased with this so far, her face isn't quite right but it's getting there :) I had a nightmare deciding her hair colour but went with this turquoise in the end as I thought it'd give it a slightly futuristic edge.

The other project I started was just an autumn/winter inspired, stereotypical picture of a girl drinking coffee. Sound familiar? I'm loving painting hair at the moment, so I'm having fun with that. And faces, I think I'm getting better at faces but practice makes perfect!



Aand finally, just for a bit of fun, I love the WOTO boys on youtube so I drew them a little piece of fan art. Liam favourited it, so I'm super happy! Here it is:


If you don't know what a flatface is, then I refer you to this video: 



That's all for now, I'll try to keep updating but I'm very busy at the moment! Hope you're all well!

Annie
xx



Thursday 19 September 2013

What I Wore: New Job Edition

Hello all!

Just a quick sketch as I felt like drawing something - so here's a What I wore! (In celebration of my newest job!)



Nothing very exciting! The Blazer has become possibly the most useful item in my wardrobe as it automatically turns something casual/old into something smart, which means I haven't had to buy many new formal clothes! Similarly, the skater skirt (which was £16 from Topshop, bargain!) works with most of my tops, and I'm very glad I panic-purchased it in an effort to look smart for my interview. Can't have done too badly, I guess?

Have some links if you fancy some cheap formal wear:

- Skirt, £16.00 Topshop
- Blazer £24.99 New Look

New art posts soon, or at least some WIPs.

Thanks for reading!

Annie
xx

Sunday 8 September 2013

Boomtown Fair 2013

Oh. My. God.

Honestly one of the best slightly 'smaller' festivals I've ever been to, and I'm not just saying that. The whole premise of it is individual: They create a fake town. Like an actual town. With walls and a Bank and a Town Centre and about 30 little 'buildings' with stages inside them.

When we got there, the queue was pretty massive, I'm not going to lie. And I think the only thing that could possibly drag this festival down a couple of notches is the HILL. This is the very steep, very high hill that one must either stumble down or hike painfully up at least two or three times a day in order to see all the acts they want to. I mean, exercise-wise I probably lost about five pounds that weekend, but it is the last thing you want to be doing with loads of heavy camping gear or on a hangover.



Annoyingly, this hill connects the two main 'districts', which are Uptown and Downtown, which obviously are at the top and bottom of this hill. Uptown is where the Town Centre, Ballrooms, Lion's Den and Bank are located - and the music ranges from Electroswing (my favourite) to Ska, Hip-Hop and Dub. Downtown (where we camped) had the Boombox, Arcadia and El Barrio Loco, home to house, angry, loud electro and gypsy/balkan.

We camped near the back of the the Boombox, which was hilarious. They'd built a giant Boombox which the DJ sits inside of, and we'd be having breakfast to a weird mixture of jungle, chart, 90s classics and dubstep at about 12pm every afternoon.


We were also pretty near to Arcadia, which if you're not a festival-goer is basically a giant mechanical spider-monster-thing with laser-eyes, moving claws and the loudest, pounding, electronic, bass-y music you've ever heard. It migrates the country, showing up at most festivals in some form, and even when you're completely sober it's a little bit overwhelming. It's loads of fun, and she (yes, she) looks a little something like this:


We can only assume her owners/servants have to sacrifice goats to her, and guard as she lies in wait during the daytime.

Getting onto bands, I couldn't possibly name half of the ones we saw, because there were so many. To mention a couple, a highlight definitely came from German band Rotfront, with awesome Gypsy/Balkan-style songs including Berlin-Barcelona and Sovietoblaster (which we sang for the rest of the weekend).


Another band who I definitely recommend are Kitten and The Hip - I'd listened to them a bit before the festival and as they were one of the only British Electro Swing bands I'd ever heard of, I was pretty excited. Their most catchy songs are definitely Don't You Worry and Shut Up and Dance - they do have some songs which are more geared towards electroswing, and others which are more ska/reggae. They drew quite a big crowd from intially about 3 other people, so was pretty impressed. Plus Kitten is literally the most beautiful woman alive, very jealous:


Aaaaand last but definitely not least were my Highlight of the Festival, The Parov Stelar Band. I'd never heard of them before, but as soon as they started I was pretty much hooked. A lot of the music is instrumental, but when you want a dance, and some good old-fashioned Electroswing, they tick all the boxes. They performed in the town centre, during the last slot on the Sunday night, and I had so much fun! Even tried a few swing moves, don't worry, it's not something I plan on doing very often. Parov Stelar is a DJ/Brass Musician, and though being very talented on his own, he brings a whole band along with him, including sax, trumpets and an amazing female singer. All in all, definitely worth a watch if you can catch them!


Other highlights from the weekend included my friend's disgusting/hilarious baby-head, panda hats, general silliness and also the uniting of said creepy 6ft5 baby with Elmo:



Photos borrowed (stolen) from my good friend Rachel who is the master photographer and all should bow down to her.*

Goooood times.

Anyway, thats a wrap for now!

Annie
xx

*this should always be combined with bowing down to K

Latitude Festival 2013

Heya!

Well, I have to say that I don't think any summer would be complete without at least a couple of music festivals to break up the bore of reality. And to be honest, it is kind of like a different world - but that's why it's so addictive.

The first of the two I went to was Latitude Festival. It's based in Suffolk, in a large leafy area on the outskirts of Southwold, and is annually home to some of the biggest indie/folk/alternative acts on the international music scene. To illustrate this point, this year's headliners included two big-name indie British bands, Bloc Party and Foals, and bizarrely, the so-called inventors of 80s techno, Kraftwerk, who hail from Germany. It also has a variety of alternative stages, where there is everything from comedy and theatre, to poetry, literature and classical dance. I think that's why it's become my family's favourite - there's so much to offer and if you're not as obsessed with music as I am, you'll still find something weird and/or wonderful.


However, for me, the highlights were definitely the bands. I discovered a couple of new ones, and enjoyed some golden oldies from years ago - and most of all, I got to see a couple of the bands I had been wanting to see for months! These included The Tallest Man on Earth (who doesn't come across very sane, but he sings good), Villagers, The Family Rain (who were excellent and I will be doing a separate post on how amazing they are) and I Am Kloot, the lead singer of which my dad made best friends with when I wasn't there, which is super annoying. 

He has a rare talent for spotting musicians I love when I'm not around - which is something that happened at Latitude a few years ago. He and my mum went for a coffee in a nearby town while we were all still sleeping, and managed to sit at the table right next to Jonsi and his entire band. On the bright side, I got a programme signed by the entire band, but still! Next time I am tailing my dad as closely as I can, which is not something I ever thought I'd say.

My favourite performance definitely came from Alt-J. They were incredible. I'm not going to talk about it, I think i'll be lazy and show you a video. Hopefully this will explain:





I'll be doing a separate post on BoomTown, as I have a load more pictures for that and it needs its own segment because it was THAT incredible. I don't really have many photos from Latitude as I went with my family and my best friend, and nobody bought a proper camera, typical.

More soon!

Annie
xx

Breaking the hiatus, Proud Camden and New Job!

Well hello,

Yes, i've been awful, but I've also been ridiculously busy! I promise I have a good reason for being rubbish!

I've just finished a 3 Month Internship with Proud Camden in London, doing all sorts of design-y fun things, but it was very stressful a lot of the time and had me running around London, organizing things, calling people up, and overall tiring me out massively - so when I got home, the idea of blogging was far too stressful, and all I could really do was be engulfed by the sofa and stare blankly at american sitcoms till I decided it was bedtime.

Buuut, it was a fun three months, and whilst there were definitely bad days where I had no idea what I was doing, I also got to work on really fun projects, like a wall mural for one of their VIP rooms:


This was actually my first project with them, and I was essentially told to paint a room black, then take some white graffiti markers and scribble all over it. I like how it turned out, though these are just pictures from my phone while I was finishing it. Basically the premise was classic album covers for the Karaoke Room, so I combined everything from Hendrix to The Beatles!

We also got to work on a promotional event for Disney's Lone Ranger - which though I couldn't be there for the actual event, I got to spend a lot of time sketching Johnny Depp's face, and also making wanted posters to put up around the bars:
                                       
                               

So yeah, it was a great start in the Design Industry and there were loads of projects that I got to have a lot of fun with!

And as of yesterday, I have a new job! I'm going to working with a bespoke kitchen company, doing a mix of design and marketing - which means I'll hopefully be learning a few things about commercial design along the way. Plus, its only 2-3 days a week, which means more time to blog and be generally creative!

In addition to all that, I went to two festivals and spent a lovely week with my boyfriend near Stratford-Upon-Avon where he lives, and we did lots of things, like seeing an open-air play, visiting a zoo (where ALL of the baby animals were out and I have never been so happy in my life) and shopping in Birmingham. I will try and squish all of that into an update with some photos :)

But yes, I promise I'll be more punctual with these uploads, and I'll see how many I can whack out in the next few days to make up for the past few months. More arty and life-y type things coming up soon, promise!

Thanks for reading,

Annie
xx