Since I last posted (pretty much a month ago exactly) I have seen two movies in theaters, written about three quarters of the first half of a novel, remembered how much I enjoy baseball, started watching Avatar, and signed up for hand-to-hand combat classes at Front Sight.
For all y'all who don't know what Front Sight is, basically it's a gun school. You go there, they teach you how to safely use/carry firearms, so you don't go out literally
half-cocked and accidentally cause
mayhem rather than
assistance.
It teaches you how to be a responsible gun owner. MmmHmmm. Anyhoozle, so I'm signed up for the hand-to-hand combat part of it (because it is my first time and I'm a little intimidated at the idea of doing guns first) and I shall be heading down to Pahrump tomorrow - along with my sister Amanda, and our "sister/friend" Sammi. I am trying to figure out how to wear pants. As I am strictly a shirt and skirt kind of girl, pants are a whole 'nother kind of ballgame. But one simply cannot wear skirts to a martial arts type of setting. Awkward.
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| Unless, of course, you're Golden Sparrow. |
I saw MINIONS and ANT-MAN.
I gotta say, I was a little disappointed with the Minion movie. I enjoyed the bits with the actual minions, but there was some stuff in there that I thought was totally unnecessary and inappropriate for kids - such as that disgustingly overweight sumo wrestler wearing next to nothing and leaving NOTHING to the imagination.
The Cat did not approve. Also, I kind of would have preferred that the Minions met Gru earlier, and worked together to bring down the baddie Scarlet, even though Sandra Bullock voiced Scarlet and I could just "see" her getting into the role. I felt they could have done MORE with the movie, but instead relied on people being such fans of the minions they would overlook some loose plotting.
There really was some funny stuff, like Stuart and his fire hydrant:
But overall, I thought it could have been fabulous rather than just good.
ANT-MAN, however... yeah, I liked Ant-Man. Instead of being like the Avengers (WHICH I ADORE, BY THE WAY! IN CASE YOU THOUGHT I DIDN'T), Ant-Man sort of goes back to the "simple" Marvel movies, focusing on small but important bad guys, and instead of saving the world focusing more on just bringing down the single villain. Plus,
Scott Lang (Ant-Man himself) was freakin' hilarious, and his stupid criminal friends were adorable idiots. The script was spot on, and I surprised myself by actually liking Michael Douglas. Normally, I don't like anything about him, but he was a really good character in the movie and I quite liked him. So, I would recommend you watch Ant-Man, but I would advise you to wait on Minions until it comes out on DVD. :-)
As for my writing, I'm knocking out the first half of my novel quite rapidly. It's going to be told from two points-of-view, but since the timeline is a little "weird" for one character, I'm having a hard time switching back and forth, so I'm doing one character at a time, and I'll fit them together later. (All hail the revision process!) Besides, the second half will need a bit more research into the landscape, and mapping out the world being travelled.
So, I'm procrastinating on the part. But the completed project will be great, I promise!
That's all for now. Hope y'all have a great day!
God bless!
The Cat
So let me see... what has happened since Easter?
Well, first of all, we made fabulous ravioli for Easter. Like, handmade,
beautiful ravioli. Like, check out
Treskie's blog to see HOW beautiful this ravioli really was. (And you can enjoy the overall post, anyhoozle. If you want.
Don't feel pressured or anything.)
Then....
Theeeeeennnn.....
Thhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.............
I apparently have a boring life, because I can't recall much of what has happened between then and now.
Well, I take that back. I had a
jury summons, for which I HAD to appear (which, by the way, is one of the few things that can put me into a state of hysterical panic), and then, for 1-1/2 days, I got to sit in court while the judge and attorneys made up their minds who they really wanted as their jurors and alternates.
They didn't even choose jurors the first day. The first day, all of us potential jurors got to complete a hardship form if we wanted to (Like, if you miss three out of five days of work for five weeks, can you survive on what little pittance of money you WILL be making?). Then we got to fill out a 30+ page questionnaire of random questions, like WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HEALTHCARE?
The second day, by 10:30 a.m., eighteen people were chose for jurors plus six alternates, and
I WASN'T ONE OF THEM! Praise God. But then none of the rest of us could leave, and we had to sit in the courtroom while the attorneys took turns asking jurors "pertinent questions" from their questionnaires, and the judge told us to make sure and pay attention because they would be "winnowing" their jurors and choosing new people to take their place.
Joy.
We had to adjourn for lunch, and we came back to the courtroom at 1:30, at which point eight people were excused from the jury box and eight more people from the audience were chosen to take their place. Again, I was not one of them. Praise God.
After endless questioning, three people were excused and three more chosen (none of them me).
Then SEVEN people were excused and seven more chosen! (Thankfully, again not me.)
Then three more people were excused and three more chosen. (At this point, I'm still safe.)
Then two were excused and two more chosen. (I'm still not a juror.)
Then two more people were excused, and THIS time my name was called. At this point, it was 4:00 in the afternoon and I had been in a state of constant panic that my name WOULD be called.
But God had not abandoned me, because over the course of the loooooong day and the questions, questions, questions, I had realized my job as a medical transcriptionist would conflict with some of the rules regarding the case, and when I pointed this out to the attorneys they seemed to agree with me and I was excused from jury duty.
PRAISE GOD.
So THAT wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but I survived.
On a happy note, prom for the high school was last night, so this week at the flower shop was busy making corsages and boutonnieres, so I had tons of fun doing those.
Also, I signed up for singing class. Hollah! I haven't gone to singing class in something like 2-1/2 years, so I'm super excited. I've missed it so much!
Speaking of the Phantom of the opera, we've also been binging quite a lot on musicals - Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, and sometime in the near future we are going to watch Oklahoma! We are also listening to a lot of musicals - the best parts of Jekyll and Hyde... the Anthony Warlow version; Phantom (Duh); and we will be listening to Jane Eyre (tolerated because of Mr. Rochester. Amazing voice!); Secret Garden, and Tale of Two Cities.
A lady I know, the Amazing Jan Fields (better known as the
Ghost in the Machine and Administrator of the Institute of Children's Literature chat boards, the Writer's Retreat) is having a drawing to win an autographed copy of her two books, The Wellspring of Magic and The Emerald Dragon. Plus, you can also win a super cute doll who represents a character in the book, and she is holding a bear. Check it out
here. Isn't that
fantastic?
I haz also been drawing a little.
First, I did dis dragon for my brother, who requested it:
Then I did these two character sketches for the two characters in a book I'm actively/passively working on:
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| Aliry Thyme |
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| Dragon |
And I KNOW there has been other stuff happening, but for the life of me I cannot think of them. So, until la'ers, I shall leave you with this thought:
Bye! ~Cat
Some more pages from this new Moleskine sketchbook, in which I am teaching myself to draw. It's really hard to get out of some habits, right? To leave your comfort zone and all of those other cliches. The drawings above are from the first full spread in this book. I couldn't give up on the those things I'm always drawing. Little things; the buttons, the tags, the scissors, the stamp.
But, I'm not learning from that. So, I'll keep on pushing myself in other directions. Cos that is the point of this sketchbook; no pencils, no perfect neat drawings, no same old same old.
And as each page goes by I feel I am letting go a little. As I become a bit more confident of drawing things that scare me. And there's a real sense of achievement in drawing something you would have previously avoided and it turning out okay.
Yeah, there are some that turn out pretty rubbish, but they always seem to be the ones I've overthunk.
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Your "rubbish" still blows away the best efforts I could make. Very nice.
I guess for most of us your insecurity about your drawing seems absolutely ridiculous, since you are so good at what you do. If I could draw like you I'd be jumping around happy and showing my work off at everybody like some proud 5 year old going 'look look LOOK, look what I made!' and just knowing that they would ooh and aah over everything.
I guess everything is relative ;-)
Really gorgeous pages, as a viewer I can't see the flaws just enjoy them. Thanks for posting these x
I love that you drew the Moley book mark in the second one!
You just get better and better. I too am diving into my moleskin with same goal-learn to draw-love following you on twitter now.
We all have a comfort zone, and you seem to be more comfortable than most with a pen. These are wonderful.
As long as you're learning and it's effecting the direction of your work it doesn't matter what you sketch. What things do you have in mind? Where do you want your drawing to improve or grow?
Yeah, this is so hard. I have been trying it for all of 2011. It's so hard to break tried and true patterns. I so easily slip back into the same things that are comfortable for me. Bravo!
These are fantastic! and I like the idea of drawing what we would rather avoid. It can be very freeing.
I agree with Caatje and Bryan. I would be absolutely thrilled if I could draw such "rubbish"! ;-) Your drawings are wonderful. I think I've got all your zines.
Cool, you are actually scared of drawing some things!? I agree with everything Caatje has said. Your drawing 'ROCKS'
Lovely work Andrea, and very inspired. I too love sketchbooks and moleskins (and have recently bought one of your zines). I have been inspired to create a zine of some of my sketched from the last couple of years, so thank you for that.
This latest work of yours shows consistent quality. I love the attention to detail. Your eye for perspective and tone is so very good. Keep it up.
Lorrie x
The sketches all look perfect and neat to me...you've a unique talent
As artists we are always learning, and developing our drawing skills, so it is always worthwhile spending time honing these skills. I never feel my drawing is good enough, except for some odd days where the sun is shinning and I feel in tune with the universe so I know exactly what you mean.
You're teaching yourself to draw?! What?!? You mean you don't know how!
Love seeing your work and being inspired. But more than anything I love how you continue to be so down to earth and approachable. (heart) Love from Mona in Vermont
Wow! Thanks, guys.
I didnt expect such a great response to these drawings and this post. I never know whether I should post this stuff, but your kind words make me think I was right to! I'm also, really not fishing for compliments. I have a LOT to learn; the human body and architectural drawings are top of my list.
Thank you ALL. You make my day.
Following your last comment, interestingly...despite as a student having done enough life drawing to last a lifetime, nearly 30 years later, I am in fact undertaking some life drawing workshops, as I feel I have forgotten so much. So, yes...you never stop learning, and relearning.
p.s. if you ever feel like posting a tutorial on creating an artist's zine, I for one would find it very useful indeed.
Lorrie x
Thanks, Lorrie.
Because I am self taught I've never learnt those things, but I am starting some life drawing sessions next week (eeeek! ssshhhh! don't tell anyone).
As for the artist's zine thing, I think this is a really good idea. I am in fact hoping to have another zine made in the next couple of months so that could fit in very nicely. I was actually thinking on making one page (of the new zine) about zines and making zines as my frineds, who are not neccessarily familiar with the zine concept, keep asking me 'what are zine?'. So thanks for that. I will definitely do it.
Cheers, everyone.
I think you are doing great. It is good to push forward but that doesn't mean you can't add a button, snap, stamp or other familiar item to a page if you need that little bit of comfort. I'm always surprised when a subject I thought was too difficult turns out pretty well but really, your past experience with seeing objects and drawing them will translate forward into your more difficult items. Keep up the good work.