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

Big News

Hi all,

Nothing much to say, except that as of today, Friday 21st of June 2013, I have officially been awarded a 2:1 BA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of Southampton! I also got a First in my Dissertation Graphic Novel Project, the details of which I will be posting on this blog at some point so you can all see it!

So chuffed!

Annie

xxx

First Impressions: Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid

Hey all,

So after a short hiatus during which time I finished my degree and sorted my life out (well, kindof), think I'll kick things off with a beauty review!

I went on a bit of a make-up binge yesterday, but the only thing I was really looking for was a new foundation. Though the Rimmel Wake-Me-Up has definitely served me well, and the finish and lasting power has made it into my new favourite foundation, unfortunately their colour selection just hasn't worked out for me. Their lightest foundation is still a bit orang-ey on my skin, and I really have to blend it down my neck and onto my chest if I want it to look at all natural. Which sucks as everything else is great about it.

Sooo, on a whim (and the closest Boots to me is pretty small) I bought the Maybelline dream satin liquid. I'd seen fair-to-good reviews online, and the thing which recommended them to me was their colour section went a lot lighter. I bought it in number 004: Light Porcelain, and it's a much better match to my skin. And though I'd love to be optimistic and say I'll be getting a tan, today has been the sunniest day so far in the last few months and it's already June...

The first thing I noticed was the texture, which is a little odd, but as Maybelline are selling it as 'air-whipped' with an 'airbrush finish', I'm guessing the mouss-ey texture is supposed to help with the application. I don't tend to use brushes (can't afford good ones!) but it blended pretty well. The coverage isn't as good as the Rimmel, but depending on how confident you feel wearing less. My skin is sometimes good, sometimes bad, and I have some scarring so I had to apply a fair amount of concealer. But otherwise, it's good, and I'm really pleased with the colour.

I haven't tested it's staying-power yet properly but I'll update you after I've done a full day at work and can really tell!

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm going to go and enjoy the sun!

Annie

xx

My week at Central St. Martin's!

So for my big Christmas present this year, my parents booked me onto a week's course in Enhanced Illustration at Central St. Martin's College of Art in London, which I've been looking forward to for a while.

The course was geared around creating traditionally-produced images and textures, and using Photoshop's layering, colouring and rendering techniques to create illustrations for a number of different publications. We had four different briefs, which I'll list below.

It was taught by Illustrator and film storyboarder, and general professional Creative Bill Wright, who was a great tutor and really got everyone involved in a very positive way. I'd done a course at St. Martin's before, and the tutor had been a bit intimidating, so I was very pleased with the way this week was being taught - it was obviously intensive (we had to pretty much finish a new illustration every day) but it was done in such a casual, comfortable and engaging way that it didn't seem like very much work at all!

So, anyway...

Brief 1: Create a series of hand-drawn pencil images geared around the theme of either a workplace, kitchen or make-up table, and then compose them around an article template.

So I went for Kitchen, and the article name we were given was 'Kitchen Madness'. I didn't really like the font they used in the article template, so I changed it up a little with one of the fonts I had on my laptop. I originally was going to do a design geared around a drawing I did inspired by that iconic war-time poster of the housewife with the tie in her hair rolling her sleeve up, but in the end I decided a more cutes-y them might be a better shout. Here's what I came up with:

This is a bit rough, and I don't think its the best I could have done but as we had limited time and just the images we'd already drawn to work with, I think it came out pretty good!

Brief 2: Create an illustration based around an article from a newspaper.

So I (being the positive soul that I am) chose a story about a mental health patient who, due to apparent neglect by the NHS killed herself. The story was about the mistreatment of mental health patients. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to scan the story, so I had to draft the title from memory and added in some template text just to get an idea of how the composition would look on paper.

I did like it, but I maybe went a bit off-piece with the design...I'm not sure my style (at the moment) is quite right for editorial work, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn! I made this using some hand-made colours/textures that I'd scanned in, and an inked drawing of a figure. It came out looking a bit like it had been digitally made rather than traditionally created but as a stand-alone piece I don't mind it!

Brief 3: Create a reportage-style image, either from life or a photo.

Reportage is basically where the illustrator will either be present at the story (i.e, in the courtroom) and sketch whilst the story is happening, or draw from photos that are relevant to the piece. I found an old photo from Reading Festival in 2009 of me and all of my friends sitting around the campsite, though I changed a few things while I was drawing to make it more moody. I think it came out well, though I'm not great with watercolour really, and I'm not used to using a rough, messy style so it was out of my comfort zone, whilst a load of the other students were really used to that so I felt like a bit of an amateur. I like the finished piece though:

I inked the sketch I'd done from the photo, then I painted the watercolours on some tracing paper and put them together in Photoshop.

Brief 4: Create a series of three themed illustrations, using all the techniques learnt during the course.

I think this was my best one, to be honest! Fantasy has always been my forte, and this one actually formed from a doodle I was drawing while I was waiting for my watercolours from Brief 3 to dry. It began with a sort of wooden/stone-type figure, and then she became the focus of all three images. Her arm in the first image is actually because I couldn't find a position I liked it in, so decided to have it crumbling away instead. That, then, became the underlying theme (whatever the theme was, ha)

These definitely took the longest - I scanned the pencil sketches, painted in some basic colours with india ink on tracing paper, shaded with charcoal on some more tracing paper, then put them all in together. The watercolours were actually just the spare paper I'd used to dab my watercolour brush on, but that's why you should never throw anything away! The background was actually just the back of my sketchbook, which I decided I liked the look of so scanned that in and manipulated the colour!

Anyway, that's all that I have to report, hopefully I'll update again soon if I can get my life together!

Annie

xx

Biffy Clyro at the O2 (06/04/13)

Hey all,

So i've not been able to update so much the past couple of weeks, but that's largely due to dissertation work, aaaand the week-long illustration course I've been doing at Central St. Martin's in London. It's been a great week, though getting up at 7am every day and commuting into town was a bit of a shock to my lazy student system. The flat I'm staying in is lovely, though I'm under pressure to keep it clean. The greatest part is that I can see the Shard, and London Bridge from my window, they're only about five minutes' walk away!

So anyway, yeah, lots to report! I'll do a separate post on the Illustration course as there's lots of pictures to post up :)

First of all - since going to Foals, I had another stroke of luck and managed to bag myself a free ticket to see Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro at the O2. And, even better, they were being supported by no other than Alexisonfire's Dallas Green, aka City and Colour (such a deep band name ha.)

Has to be said, I know Biffy fans will call this blasphemy but musically I enjoyed C & C a lot more. His voice is almost otherwordly, really clear and piercing, and the acoustics in the O2 are obviously amazing. He did go for an odd choice of cowboy hat but I'm willing to let that slide as his music was so gorgeous.

I really liked 'Sleeping Sickness' and 'Grand Optimist', both of which are in my Spotify top played at the moment. My headphones popped out on the tube the other day and the whole carriage got a preview too. Spreading the love, in a way?

Biffy of course were amazing. Although their vocals weren't as clean-cut, they were no less enjoyable. I think I look for vocals in a live performance as I'm a singer (not a good one, mind) and that's what I naturally listen for. But their gig was great, they were all topless and heavily tattooed (definitely a pro), and were endlessly energetic. Simon Neil stayed onstage for the entire gig, and barely even paused to have a sip of water...amazing!

'Black Chandelier' is their new single, and it was really great. I was also very happy to hear some old classics from my 16-year-old obsession, like 'Who's Got A Match?' and 'Bubbles'. Even if you don't like the music that much, they still know how to keep everyone on their feet (we were in seated, and everyone was standing by about 5 minutes into their set!)

Anyway, it was a great night out, and though it was a bit bizarre standing next to my parents while everyone around us was dressed entirely in black and head-banging furiously, it was still great fun and I'm glad I got the chance to see them live, especially as they're in much higher demand than they were about four years ago!

Anyhoo, art-related post coming soon!

Annie
xx