Two art posts in one week, wowee.

This is concept work for my website mascot Hoo.





He's supposed to look moody. He must be a relative of Claude ;)
He'll be dotted around my site grumpily welcoming visitors.

Just wanted to know what people thought of him, anything that could be improved.

Also thinking of having him animated. Nothing major, just blinking and twitching to make him less static. So if anyone would like to help with that (or knows someone) who I could commission to animate him please let me know :)

Sorry for another "disaster!" post, but this time it genuinely is a disaster; a natural one.

Currently in the UK we've been hit by a serious amount of rain, and it affected the little town near me on a shocking scale.

( Photos )


It still won't sink in that I've been to these places. You never think it'll happen to anywhere near you.

Luckily my house is halfway up a hill so that's okay, but I know a lot of people who's homes and shops have been completely devastated.

Current Mood: Indescribable

Only a few days to go and I won't be a teenager anymore. Some of my friends were freaked by this when they reached their 20ths, but I'm not to fussed. I think it was because I realised it last year and came to terms with it then.

I'm actually really looking forward to it. This time last year I didn't know half the people from university I know now, so I never did anything for my birthday. It made for a pretty crappy birthday, nothing bad happened in particular, I just felt incredibly lonely spendng my birthday on my own.

But this year I've organised a big night out. I'm not one for bgiant shindigs and a lot of fuss, but I've never had a birthday night out before.
The theme is 80s cartoon characters. People seem just as excited about it as I am. So far I have people going as smurfs, the scooby doo gang, ghost busters, super mario and luigi, Jem and the holograms, strawberry shortcake, GI Joe, and Jessica Rabbit. One of my housemates brought a tonne of boxes from work to make an Optimus Prime costume. Should be sweet if he manages to make it in time.

I'm going as a Thundercat, but it's just hit me that I won't be wearing any pants :/ It's funny how I'll be covering more skin than the slags you see out at the weekend on nights out, it'll just be rather tight. Think this has come from the fact I dressed up as Catwoman for my mate's Supervillain themed birthday last month, and not many people showed up for it (I was led to believe there would be other people in slinky costumes: Poision Ivy, The Baroness and Scarlett for G.I. Joe etc). Leaving me and feeling exposed and an absolute idiot. I don't normally dress up like that, but I'm worried about getting a reputation, lol! But if you can't do it on your birthday, when can you?

Current Mood: anxious

Apologies for the lack of updates. Projects coming in thick and fast. The final deadline dates aren't until November so I'll post my reworked and refined stuff on here around then.
I like the fact that in my last project my final image in my work was deemed inappropriate. So I have do a bit of censorship, lol!


In the mean time here's a list of websites I use when I'm wasting time and putting off work. You're guaranteed a chuckle with these.

Lamebook All the annoying fucked individuals of facebook on (complete) public display for the world's scorn.
Regretsy Just recently discovered this, it's amazing. Basically it's all the wierd stuff and utter crap people will sell on Etsy.
Ugliest Tattoos Funny and terrifying tattoos. Everytime I consider getting a tatt I look at this website.
Comixed Captioned images but set out like comics.
Help I'm Bored Simply ingenius. Updated regularly with more stuff every so often.

I also saw this awesome image the other day of Sarah Palin in ~~majestic wolf t shirt~~ style, but I can't find it anywhere :c

Current Mood: tired

Really quite annoyed right now.

At the moment my university's student union (I think it's occuring all over the UK too) is holding a vote to whether or not the National Blood Service should be allowed on campus to collect donations (of bloods).
The main point people are campaigning against is that homosexual men are not allowed to give blood, based solely on the fact they are gay.

The arguments that people are using in support of this policy is bullshit. It makes me incredibly sad that in this day and age, this sort of thing is happening in my country.
Basically homosexual mean are equally if not more healthy than heterosexual people, so why the prejudice?
The National Blood Service screens every single donation, so why are they denying a large 'group' of people from donating based on what is basically superstition?
The most common 'group' of people to have or catch HIV is heterosexual women aged 20-22, so should they be banned from donating as well?
Don't get me wrong I'm all for blood donation, I think it's one of the most vital charities we have. But when you constantly hear about the constant blood shortages why is the NBS putting themselves at a disadvantage over prejudice?

There are two facebook groups up at the moment, one for yes and one for no. On the "No" group I found a lot of very interesting debate going on. Along with some dumb-assed statements:
"The NBS dont let gay men donate for the same reason that they dont let people who take drugs, have ever had sex for drugs or money"
Wait... WHAT?!
"Theyre trying to keep the blood safe to give to recipients"
Yeah 'cos homosexual blood is UNSAFE guys!
""You cant just say they are homophobic because they do not allow gay people to donate blood."
Er.. then what would you call them, then?
Even though there's a lot of stupid statments above, people are going about it in a contained and civilised way.
But when I looked at the "Yes" all I can see on the wall is "WHY WHHY WHY would you say no???!! Do you want people to die?!"
The Fuck..

[EDIT] apparantly now if you have one homosexual friend who agrees it's stupid to 'get offended' by it, it makes your opinion greater than everyone else's. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

Current Mood: angry

I recently recieved a message on Flickr in regards to one of my photos from my York trip off someone representing Schmap Guides.

"I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the ninth edition of our Schmap York Guide, to be published at the end of this month.
While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr."

I've been propositioned by people in the past who want to include pieces of my artwork in a free art book, the benefit being 'recoggnisshion' and my reaction was "HELL NO!" But I don't see (my) photography in the same way as my artwork, it's not nearly half as precious to me. I put snapshots from my travels up on Flickr just to share with others, not as artwork.
Also the propositions for artbooks were from random individual deviant art users, not a company with a website.

Here's the terms and conditions, they seem legit, but just in case I haven't picked up on anything screaming out that's no good.

( TERMS OF SUBMISSION )

Current Mood: confused

The Rules:
☞ Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
☞ Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
☞ Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!



I left my laptop unattended and my little bro changed my desktop to this. It's a quote from the kickass show "Inbetweeners". Because it made me laugh so hard, and it reminds me of home while I'm at uni it stayed :)

Well the beginning of the second year is under way. After my first night out since I've been back my feet still kill, I've lost the big toenail on my right foot. A good start to the year, yar.

( House photos (links x8) )

Goals for this year:
- Work my ass off in terms of coursework. Last year I did fine but my marks undulated too much. I need consistancy, and I need stuff I'd be proud to put into a portfolio.
- Get fit. Basically in terms of fitness I'm a joke, so weekly gymn visits are on the agenda too (gymn virgin, argh!)
- Save up some money. Maybe get a job depending on what the work load's like this year. Last summmer was too long and boring so I want to go travelling next year.
- Not waste my time on assholes. Last year I tried to get on with everybody and you just can't do that.
- Get a boyfriend grip.
- And ultimately; to have fun. I won't be a student (or teenager for that matter :'{) forever so I need to make the most of it. I currently have an 80's cartoon character theme for my birthday in November so that should be kickass :)


Thanks for the feedback on the Pudgekin concept work. I'll be replying to comments tomorrow and tallying up the results.

So when Inglorious Basterds came out there was a flurry of commotion. I wasn’t really caught up in it. I was intrigued by the title and the promotional posters, but had no interest of draining the internet for every snip of information, which is what I do for new films that interest me.
Main reason being that I heard a lot of bad things about Death Proof. How Tarantino was losing his ‘edge’. I did watch the infamous “Lapdance Scene” which I found severely disappointing. It seemed Tarantino was using the fact he had an omagosh EXPLICICICIT lap dancing scene just for the sake of shock. Some clever camera work would’ve made that scene so sexy and unique, or if it was supposed to be repulsive he could've done it so much more successfully. If I wanted to watch a detailed scene of a plain girl rubbing her ass on an old perverts dick I’d go down to my local cesspit of a stripclub,, then go run myself over in the carpark afterwards.

SO, when I heard other people had seen Basterds and it was pretty damn good, my ears pricked and I finally checked out the trailer. And I was severely impressed. As soon as I read “Once upon a time, in Nazi-occupied France” I was hooked in. This is the kinda spine-tingling anticipation I got from Pulp Fiction.
The trailer basically says what the film is about when boiled down, “killin’ Nazis”. If there’s something I love it’s films which have ludacris acts of revenge and justice (Sin City is a perfect example). But for this film the audience already knows the backstory for the acts of vengeance. There’s no need to extract the audience’s moral outrage by playing out injustices to a main character: we already know the Nazis were twisted and cruel bastards. The grungy guitar riff, complete with unnerving squeakiness, helps heighten this sense of anticipation and blood lust. To top it, Pitt then mentions scalping. Some old and mysterious form of violence. Basically we are guaranteed to see some blood-curdling scalping action because god-be-damned Pitt really wants those scalps. Hitler is then suddenly shown comically screaming "NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!" repeatedly in contradiction. It is funny. So from the trailer I gathered this film has everything: history (lol), explicit gore, sweet sweet vengeance and comedy Hitler.

Tl;dr version: The trailer promises us blood and gore, and this is what makes a film good, the only thing missing is the promise of boobies.

( Movie review. Cut for Spoilers )

The thing I worship in these kind of films is the detail. I’ll see it again and notice so much more in it. Even after watching it ten times I’m sure there’ll still be elements in the background to be discovered. For one example, Aldo Raine’s neck scar is supposedly from a failed lynching, what happened there then? The story doesn’t just end with the film :)

Tl;dr version: Even though I was drunk off cider, I still remember all this information to compile a review. Boo ya!

And if you don’t like reading, here is my review condensed down to one minute twenty two seconds on youtube.

Also to give this post substantial content, check out this artwork http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=154377792999&h=joDr2&u=Uww-z&ref=mf
It's one of those things I kick myself for not thinking of myself. So simple but so damn awesome.

Current Mood: People honestly give a damn?

I don't know if any of you remember but earlier in the year before summer there were repeated break ins at my halls a university. One even involving smashing through someone's window and grabbing her laptop. The security was so fucking poor we had yobs simply climbing the walls and getting in.
I made a facebook group about it so we could all be united and informed, since the uni refused to tell us what was happening. Some people had no idea what was happening, or even that there'd been a burglary, .
When the student union found it they took it to the university board and argued our case.
I recieved a message from them the other day thanking me for creating the group and getting everyone involved.

Because of this the following changes will be made:

- Main access doors to be refurbished, reinforced or replaced to satisfactory condition where needed.
- Keypad entry system to be updated.
- Installation of two new CCTV cameras.
- Window Locks to be replaced to make the halls more secure.
- Increasing the use of anti-vandal paint on the courtyard walls.
- Increasing of security patrols from two to four a night, while also offering an on-call security service.

These should hopefully be in place before the new freshers arrive. I'm just pleased this kinda thing is attempted to be prevented, since it was quite a scary experience to have thugs running loose with no one doing anything.

Wow so facebook groups actually work? Cool :)

Sadly we're now faced by more assfuckery by the uni. It's looking like we're going to mass protest and are currently getting the local media involved. I'll post about it later 'cos it's lame and I don't want to angrily ramble on too much and bore people.

So I haven't been drawing a lot this summer that's obvious really. It seems since my first year of uni I'm in the mindset of sticking to briefs and anything I want to draw personally I can't help being over critical and constantly berating myself with thoughts like "this has been done before, how can you make it original, how can you make it beat expectation?" which just pisses me right off.
Instead I've been focussing on thinking of new characters. But that's turned out harder than first predicted. Making a character is just like adding random concepts together: turtle + mohican= NEW CHAR!1 It needs substance though as well to make it quirky and clever.
I love little fat birds and I've been designing small bird plushes (I just need to learn how to sew properly and buy a damn sewing machine to make them!) so I came up with the idea of this guy:

( Pudgekin )

Pudgekin the obese garden bird (probably a siskin or something). It amused me imagining how a fat bird would fly or eat off normal bird feeders. So maybe expect to see more of him :)


In direct contrast to that I've been thinking of a human character for some time now. I've never been able to come up with one (beside a Digimon character I made up when I was ten but we won't go into that lol) until now.
I'm such a fan of amazonian women, mainly because I aspire to be like one (*facepalm*). I love the fact how egnimatic these women can be, it's always fascinated me. Characters such as Taarna from Heavy Metal, the chick of South Park's "Major Boobage" which was inspired by Heavy Metal. Brutal Legend has picked up on the Amazons too. And real people who have that mysterious sexy aura too, like Lita Ford etc etc.
Anyways enough of me justifying this character and my nauseating personal aspirations. Here's character concept number 2.

( Sim Concept )

Please forgive the shoddy anatomy. That's another reason for a human character; I need to draw them more!
What I want to know from you guys is any suggestions or criticism. Are there parts that are too cliche? I was thinking about the cowboy hat, because I basically love them, but not too sure..
I'd love to hear your feedback. Gotta keep up momentum and keep drawing before I crash and burn again..

-I know this guy http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/teen-thomas-strong-strips-naked-ataturk-statue-deported

this made me laugh though: "Turkish authorities believed Strong must be drunk or suffering from mental disorders"

I can see where they got "mental disorders" from though, he's a bit insane.
But he's recieving death threats in the article comments. His facebook accounts gone too so I presume he's been threatened there too. That's a bit hardcore.. :Z

I just feel the need to say- sorry America.
I'm kind of ashamed to be British right now.

I don't know what... there are no words...

Hmm well, haven't posted in a while..

Memorable stuff that has happened over the past month:

-My summer job is going well.
-Went to York for the weekend, lovely city. (Photos on my Flickr)
-Witnessed a carcrash on the way home from York. It was seriously brutal but the guy was okay. Kinda distressing though.
-Currently working on a painting commission. Updates soon.
-Trying to get into textiles and clothes customisation.
-Moving stuff into my new house for university. My room has been painted and I have a proper "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" brass bed. It's so damn awesome.

Current Mood: thoughtful

So stuff's okay at the moment. Work's going well, I'm now zooming around the kitchen whacking out duck dishes and chocolate marquise. The headchef is also an absolute dude. You expect him to be someone with a huge ego and short temper (there is a chef like that there, but by his status he shouldn't act like that) but instead he dances and sings around the kitchen, throwing flour in my face and putting cardboard boxes on my head.

This Saturday I'm having a Zoolander themed night out, which me and my mate have had planned since before summer. I'm aiming for a sort of Hansel look with some crazy tribal thing going on, Empire of the Sun was a big inspiration for it :)
Might post some pics from it, that is if we survive the night and don't get knifed by chavs.

Also wtf is with Shakira's new song? I can see a million new stupid facebook photo albums with lines from the song. She seems to be following the crappy seemingly-artistically-deep-but-actually-shallow lyrics like the likes of Lady Gaga (eeeeeugh).

And on the internet I can hear millions of furries and therians having a collective orgasm at the prospect of this. Any day there'll be a flurry of crappy inspired anthro art and "OMG SHAKIRA HAS WROTE A SONG ABOUT MY SPIRITUAL LIIIFE" journal entries.

Current Mood: happy

These guys lived in the flat above me at university last year. Sums up a lot of the randomness from my first year at uni (not the rolling it up part though, lol).
I found that trolley outside the halls the day after shooting it and wouldn't what the heck was going on.
Kris is American (if you couldn't tell) you could always tell when he was leaning out the kitchen window and smoking weed. He arrived on move-in day with nothing but a guitar and a backpack. Also two of the guys in the vid are on my course.

Just some wtfery to share with you. The song kinda sticks in your head though :D