Bits and pieces

Pfft, got lots to say today!
I did my face painting yesterday- which, by the way, was a complete and utter shambles! The craft fair had little to no people coming to it, and even then they were mostly 40+ so didn't want their faces painted. I did my own face, my mum's and also a little girl who belonged to a stall holder anyway- so only one paying customer! I did take some photos though of my Mum and myself, and also I'm putting in a few I've done on other people too. I like face painting! The model is my little sister, she's strange but cute!

ALSO I've got to renew my passport! Rubbish! It expires before I go on holiday (Ibiza July 2010 woo woo!!!), and did you know it costs £77 just to renew it?! I have no money, I'm a poor student!

I've just remembered a LOAD of pictures that I've made in the last year at uni that I've never put online, so I'm gonna put those on flickr. It's a childrens book that I made for the final bit of my 1st year. I also did a pretty cool video (I thought so anyway!) of the character, Sockmonster Jeff, so I'll upload that tomorrow on youtube and link you to it. It's just really simple stop motion, but it took me ages! The song is Twenty Flight Rock by Tiger Army, for anyone who likes it.

Anyone here do free art? I'm well going to do some once I've finished Apricot Cat. Maybe I could leave some Apricot Cat artist's books around. If you get any free art from anyone please let me know, I'd love to see it.

Anyway got to go, Salvador seems to be shedding her skin so I'm just gonna check she's doing ok! :)

Apricot Cat Artist's Book

I've finished the line work for the Apricot Cat artist's book! Yay! :) On the left is a (quite bad, sorry!) photo of what it looks like so far. You can see more of it on my flickr, and there you can see how the idea developed to some extent too. I plan on colouring this in watercolour and maybe pencils, and also maybe photoshopping it too before I make it into a book. Hopefully the colour should be done in the next week or so, so I'll keep you updated with that :)

I'm face painting on Sunday at a craft fair- somewhere near Nottingham I think- so hopefully I'll be able to take some photos without looking too inappropriate! Look out for those pics :)

Is anyone going to the 4th Manchester Artist's Book Fair? I know it's a bit early to be planning really, but for those of you who are interested, the website is here. Take a look, artists books are mint I promise! I've gotten well into them lately :)

Anyway I'm off, party to arrange for tonight! Wish me luck and keep updated :)

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Trip to Page 45

Those of you who know Nottingham should know of Page 45 (www.page45.com), a WICKED comic book shop which is quite central, and where the staff are really friendly, happy to help, and actually know about what they're selling. Well we went today and I had to treat myself... I got 2 artists books.

One is 'Trains are... Mint 5' by Oliver East. www.rollingstockpress.co.uk

It's really good- not read it all yet but it's basically a journey that he's made and what has happened on the way, with lots of colour illustrations. I picked it because I liked the way the illustrations look full of life- there's a lovely imperfection about them which I really like in artwork. The colours are really nice too. Page 45 are selling this for £4.99 at the moment so it's an absolute bargain- it's A5 with quite a lot of pages, all in colour.

The other book is a 2-in-1 comic (you flip it over to read the other story), 'Peanut Butter and Marshmallows/ Cat Hearts' by Lizz Lunney. www.lizzlizz.com

The illustrations in that one are really cool and above all the stories made me laugh :) I like the way she's coloured it too- there's only one colour and white for each story. Also, all the stories are about animals which I think will help give me ideas for 'Apricot Cat' and 'Animools'. Page 45 sold this one for only £2 so I recommend that one too if you're a bit short of money like me and you'd like something to make you laugh!

I spent aaaaaages in there trying to decide because they've got this whole massive shelf now dedicated to artist's books which I've not seen before- although I probably haven't been in for over a year because of being in Birmingham. Anyway you should go and look it's really good, and because it's an independent shop I don't mind them having my money :)

Animools

Starting on a series of drawings of animals, titled 'Animools'; so called because it's my own slant on drawing them and is apparently (according to Haydn) how I say that word. (And 'chemicools' instead of 'chemicals'.)


Have you heard of Apricot Cat? It's my new project. (See above) It's how I came about with the idea of Animools. The idea is that a cat eats an apricot stone and... you'll have to see what happens! I think it's going to end up as an artists book so contact me if you're interested in following the progress and getting a copy once it's done.

chloe.cook@students.bcu.ac.uk

Keep up to date with my images at www.flickr.com/photos/start_today and also follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/starttoday89