Drawlloween So Far

Drawlloween is coming along nicely this year, I have so far finished off 8 drawings for it and for some of the subjects *cough* bats *cough* I definitely had a lot of fun drawing so I went a bit overboard, but they are so far some of my favourites that I have done. Any and all of these I would love to tattoo as well so hopefully we get a few tattoos going with these as well. It has bee a lot of fun so far, so I will hopefully keep the ball rolling and get a few more done today.

I've added the list at the bottom if anyone else wants to join in the fun, I am going to try to go through the list in order now so that I don't end up at the end with loads of ones I don't want to draw. Should be fun!

Inktober

Got a few more drawing requests finished up today, one more nearly done but the final linework is still coming, both of these still are yet to be coloured but it will be a lot of fun, the brussel sprout is for Dixon so I think I will be able to drag him back into the studio soon for more tattoo times and hopefully I get to do the praying mantis soon!

Also its the first couple days of Drawlloween/Inktober, so hopefully I stick to this, but here are my first two efforts for it they were a lot of fun. 

Witches and Wicked Bodies

October is coming to a close, and I have hardly done anything Halloween-ish but that is now remedied. I have wanted to go to the Witches and Wicked Bodies Exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art since before it came out and what could have been a more appropriate day than seeing it on Halloween. The Exhibit was beautiful and everything I expected and more.  I loved seeing the works of Goya and learning new artists like Salvator Rosa and Frans Francken II.  It was also fun, and perhaps a bit childish on my part to giggle when the family who came in just before us quickly rushed each of their kids in and out of the exhibit. For some reason the painters penchant for drawing and painting witches with there bosom exposed seemed to make them zip right through. Plus it was a beautiful day at the start and the grounds of the Modern Art Gallery were beautiful. The only thing I wish I would have come earlier for is the book for the exhibit, it was unfortunately sold out, and it seems to be sold out everywhere.

I could add more paintings and sketches that I loved, that would probably meant the whole catalog, but here are some I took of the gallery.

And along the Water of Leith, just up from the gallery. 

From there we headed up to the Union of Genius, for some amazing soup and salads. I need to learn to make more kinds of soup, cause theirs was awesome!! And afterwards we nipped into the Greyfriars Churchyard because it has been recently found out that Tom Riddle (AKA Lord Voldemort) has his grave there. I had heard before that J K Rowling used to look at names in the graveyards around Edinburgh, but this is the first one I have seen with a full name.

I know I am pretty cool, but graveyards are always interesting to take pictures in and Greyfriars is particularly beautiful.

House Update

So I was trying to show someone the other day some of the things Daniel had built for the house, and I realized I didn't have any pictures of them, and of course that means that I haven't updated anything on here for the house in quite some time. The house is coming along great, I can't wait until we have sofas, but thats a whole other story but, sitting on the wee chairs we do have isn't all that terrible. It could be much worse. 

So in the alcove in the livingroom, he built a this up into it. There used to be a fireplace in the wall next to it and that's where the pipes and stuff ran into, since we didn't have the money to replace the old fireplace and it was deemed unsafe, we decided to wall it up and perhaps at a later date we can get a fireplace again.

An in the bedroom we had a small closet, but considering the amount of clothes and shoes we both have, it would have been relatively useless as a closet. So Dixon built up a vaniety into the space and it works really well, when we had the electricians in, we had them put a light in there so its basically perfect. I am still looking for the right mirror. I saw one in a coffee shop, but they didn't seem like they were going to part with it. Something like this or this. I will have to keep my eyes peeled.

So that is most of the improvements, I have already shown you my camera shelves so other than that I can't think of too much new stuff for the house.

In the parcel Camille and Caryn sent me, Caryn also included this wee guy! Ever since I found the cubedudes online, I wanted to make the Boba Fett one. Now I might have to visit my pal and get some of the lego I gave her family and build Batman! 

So that about wraps up what I have been up to lately, since it has been so cold lately and it is October and my application is in the post I thought I would treat myself with some Lush. A Pumpkin bubble bar, it doesn't get much better than that.

Packages

Its been an exciting couple of days for parcels! I got one yesterday and I was supposed to get one two days ago too but we weren't in, so in fact I got one today! Both of them are really exciting! From Camille and Caryn, Daniel and I got a bit of kitchen stuff, a timer, set of tea towel, and an apron. We have already used the timer, he works perfectly! And then loads of sweets we can't get here which even though Daniel doesn't have a sweet tooth, properly munch a bunch of the coffee crisp bites. I will have to try to eat all of this in moderation, though my Halloween spirit does usually have me eating coffee crisps for breakfast!

And from Sarah, Coffin Crisps! How cool are they. Also another brilliant postcard from Sarah, she always finds the most weird and interesting ones.

So needless to say, it has been a pretty excellent day off.

Part of my day was spent watching Hocus Pocus an October must, and so while watching it I sketched up the Sanderson Sisters, it was a lot of fun and not too serious just good fun drawing them, might be nice to one day do a proper proper drawing. But I managed to draw all three of them within the movie! Maybe not quite as much detail on Mary though. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show her hair, perhaps I will work on the sketch a bit more and show ya the whole think.

All Hallow's Read

I was thinking the other day that I really really should have done a post about this about two weeks back cause it would make a lot more sense, but because it is something I think is pretty cool I am going to anyway.

A wee while back I was snooping around Neil Gaiman's blog and found out about a new tradition he wants to start around Halloween. A slight groan could be heard from Britain, they don't really do Halloween enthusiastically as it is, let alone another tradition. I have seen more people dressed up in real costumes for a Bachelor party let alone Halloween, which is mostly dress in your pants night. But this tradition is a a little bit different. I'm not the most articulate so this video illustrates much better than I could ever tell you.

 

 

So you give a scary book this Halloween! Well I suppose I am a little late on spreading the word, but I am excited because my book I have sent hasn't arrived yet! So I am still quietly celebrating All Hallow's Read, while waiting for Marsha to get her book, so that next year hopefully I can do this again, on time. If I am lucky!

So for more information and book recommendations they have a website!

All Hallow's Read

The Haar

haar (pronounced hahr)

A haar is a type of cold mist or fog from the North Sea which frequently occurs along the East coast.
The east-coast haar has lowered temperatures in Edinburgh in the morning and evening recently.
The word is of Dutch origin, coming either from Middle Dutch hare, a biting wind, or Frisian harig, damp.

 

The past few days whats known in Scotland as the Haar has been rolling in over the Firth of the Forth and shrouding Edinburgh in a thick fog, the strange thing is I don't think that I have ever noticed it this thick and constant before. It was a pretty cool sight to see.  In all my time here, I don't think it has ever looked like this and that is what makes it so cool about living here. The fog I remember would be super strong in the morning and you would turn on the radio, hoping with your fingers crossed that the buses wouldn't be able to drive through it, but it seems it would almost always dissapate before getting your day off school. So you would still have to get all bundled up to go walking up your driveway anyway. We needed more fog like this!

It has turned out to be one of those things that when you didn't know it was called something and you have never heard of it before. Now that I know it is called The Haar, I heard about it all day from different sorces, its so weird when that happens.

 

And so the pumpkin carving begins, its was a mystical magical day the day before so what a day to start the pumpkin carving off with a bang. I haven't carved a pumpkin in a few years and this is the first time it is not your classic Triangle eyes, nose and toothy grin. I think it came out pretty awesome if I do say so myself. When I started I wanted to try one of the stencils that seemed simple, and cause the Bride of Frankenstien didn't seem to have too many pieces I thought it was an ideal choice, plus its supppppper cool! It was actually quite hard, all the wee bits are super hard to get at especially when you don't have a range of tools, just me and my pearing (pairing?) knife against the world. Though however long it took it was well worth it. Gonna carve some more with Dixon this weekend!