3000 views!

I am genuinely excited by the fact that I've now had over 3000 page views on this blog, which is pretty incredible considering that 99% of it is made up of random thoughts (usually abstract and with some kind of motivational overtone) that I would have expected to only make sense to me.

Saying that, I have no gurarantee that anyone actually viewing this blog actually knows/cares/ understands what I'm talking about. They might just like looking at pictures or something...


Speaking of which! It's been ages since I did any image editing on GIMP, so guess what I did last week? Yep, you're looking at it, and I know it's kind of "Valentine's-Day" themed, but love can last the whole year, right? The layers aren't quite as well-blended as I would have liked, but overall I'm quite happy with it, but that's mainly because of the quality of the original images, I think.

I haven't done a crazy amount this week (like every week) but it's still been pretty good, so I'm happy :) oh, and last weekend I went to a city I'd never been to before, and it was sunny, and the whole town turned out to be massive and had loads of different sections to it, so I had fun just exploring - it made me want summer now :( I miss just being able to roam around "foreign"/ new places, for hours, without a timetable and with the weather being nice...

Something a bit different, experimenting with patterns, particularly those that are found in nature, using "sun spot" and "fractal" effects, to create these surreal, repeating and slightly geometric looking images, which randomly remind me of sort of Indian art & culture? I don't know, but I do rather like them :)

Edited the detail in this picture but did not take it :p, I just loved the idea of the fish in the bubble, the key, and finally the pebble-mesh background, which was blended with the original grain background of the photo I found :) It's all about the details, small print, fine lines, whatever you want to call it - much like life itself, it's the little things that really count.

Girly. Because I felt like it. It's been too long since I did any proper surreal stuff or cubism, for that matter, and this photo I found was too good to waste - I've always loved glass perfume bottles, especially coloured ones. They are the height of class :) still have Dior's "hypnotic poison" perfume I won at a raffle when I was about 10, and seriously did not know how expensive (and nice) perfume can be...

You know how I said it's all a matter of perspective?

It's amazing how you can turn an old photo of a plain English town (well actually this is Camden market) look like a painted seaside master piece, complete with a fake sun for that unreliable British summer weather :)

I love photoshop.

Perspective. Life depends on it.

Attempting to throw myself back into the school routine, and remind myself that in the bigger picture, getting up at half seven and working from nine 'til five, is actually for the greater good.

And of course, putting this into the perspective of the entire world, I guess it's not that much of a big deal :)

It's all a matter of perspective really.

A nice, random collage, as it's the holidays, and so the resurrection of my creativity after last term's exams temporarily killed it...for the time being anyway, until I get bored, which is unlikely as I just found a stash of old "vintage stamp" images I have saved on my computer!

As why for all of the little animals....I have no idea, they just looked good and then I turned it into a kind of theme.

A change in the weather this week, and with it a change of heart, where I am it definitely feels colder, and the atmosphere these last few days seems pretty depressed - or maybe that's just me. Here's to the weekend and remembering that Spring must always follow Winter (even in England, eventually) and after that Summer will finally arrive; bringing with it a mass of sunshine, warm weather...and exams.....

Little bit of glitter for a very grey weekend, here's to getting through the winter blues, and seeing the beauty in everything...

Such a stressful week. Peace and quiet needed.

I just love this. It's my current desktop background, and it just about stops me from getting completely stressed out when I look at it. Just about. I found several stunning scenic photos and blended them, using the sunset colours, and am very happy with the result, so I thought I'd share it with everybody :)

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year

(albeit a day late...) New Year is always a little daunting what with all those resolutions and promises, but New Year is also a completely new leaf, a second chance, a fresh start, I love the fact that you can just forget the bad parts (but remember the good times!) of last year and look to the future!

This piece is about the start of a story, a fairytale, so perhaps could 2011 be the start of a fairytale new year for all of us, regardless of 2010.

Merry Christmas

Christmas collage! Well, it's more wintry than Christmassy but I still really like it, and yes, the gingerbread house is in fact a photo of a real gingerbread house! A big thanks to the beautiful site http://beautyineverything.com/ I look at the photos everyday, for inspiration for my art and just because they're such amazing photos!

It's absolutely freezing here and there's snow everywhere, have a great Christmas wherever you and a Happy New Year 2011!

*I won't be updating this blog for about 2/3 weeks as I'm going to stay with family the other side of the country after Christmas until the first week of the New Year.

3rd Sunday of Advent, and only 5 days until I finish school/work for Christmas! I haven't got an advent calendar so my blog keeps track of the weeks for me!

I'm in a winter-but-not-quite-Christmas mood, and so made an image based on stars/lights and a very nice looking tree :) it looks even nicer now it's been lit up!

Only a week to go! I keep looking around for inspiration for some Christmas images...

As one door closes another one opens :) I have no idea where I got the idea to make these, but it looks cool - don't you think?

50th Post!

Still obsessed with Fairytales, downloaded a great fairytale-like font, found this image from Enchanted and just had to make this picture! The line at the bottom is taken from another Disney film - Snow White.


*In less than 4 more weekly posts it'll be Christmas, >.< !

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Based on one of the most famous plays in American history and literature, which I went to see at the Oxford Playhouse theatre on friday night, as I'm studying it for my AS English Literature :) , one of the most emotional plays ever.

This week was the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, so I decided to make an image dedicated to one of the main actors, Emma Watson, who has played Hermione Granger for the last decade of her life.

Hopefuly so will be able to recognisied for doing something other than Harry Potter in the future, or she might just continue with her studying in America - who knows where we will see her next, but this collaboration remembers Emma as a person, not just her infamous Harry Potter character. (images taken from various Vogue/ Vogue teen photoshoots)

Fairytales, definitely the theme for today, and winter always reminds me of fairytales?

Ironically I started off this image using a picture of sleeping beauty, but then cinderella somehow worked out much better? Either way I'm quite happy with it, and the little roses and stuff I added in just for fun!


"Today was a fairytale you were the prince, I used to be a damsel in distress,

You took me by the hand and you picked me up at six, today was a fairytale..."

* Today was a fairytale, lyrics from Taylor Swift

HAPPY HALLOWEEN :)

Not a scary picture, despite the occasion, and I felt like I was using too much black & white/sepia/ greyscale, so I made something colourful and different, as I "cut out" round the distictive shape of a "Scotty" dog and then used the background of some of my other pictures to fill the stencil shape!