Incipient

Hello! ♡

So it's official - I am finished with my degree! I managed to pass everything well and I am super happy with how everything turned out! Now it is just time to play the waiting game to see if I am accepted to do the masters degree and be prepared for the graduation ceremony next year! Very excited but also a little nervous. :) Three years have flown by so quickly and I feel I've learnt a lot about design and where my skills lie, but of course there is much life-long learning to be continued.

I have started working on those personal illustrations that I have sorely neglected during this year (now that I have my holiday time), but I will finish them soon, otherwise I'll feel unfulfilled as I always feel when I haven't finished something I've started. (I have too many notes all over my phone and computer of things to complete!)

This work is just a little amalgamation of all the things at the current time I find comforting and pretty, just a little illustration to pass the time.

This is titled Winter Harvest and relates to the season of Winter, the notion of cycles, seasonal vegetables, fruits and herbs and protectors of the forests and their respective wildlife. I have entered this into the Yen Young Female Art Awards, which you can check out here.

My illustration of Boudicca is quite close to its final stage, however I still have to work on perfecting certain elements, but I have left it at home as it is too hard to safely cart around watercolour paper on airplanes. This was the last photographed stage it was at.

Here are a few snapshots of things that have related to my life at this present moment. (From L-R, top to bottom):
1. Photo editing and in a current phase of loving white and roses. Plus, these sunglasses are so perfect for summer.
2. Finding nostalgic childhood books that are so wonderfully illustrated.
3. Setting up the Christmas tree, it looks so magical.
4. Starting the first in what I want to be a series of small portraits of women I find intriguing and inspiring, This initial sketch is of Virginia Woolf. It doesn't resemble her greatly; it is funny how the simple stroke of a pencil can dramatically alter the expressions within a drawing, something so tiny can have such a great impact on the resemblance of the subject.
5. My cockatiel Buzz, a strange parrot indeed - she only likes one person in my family and it isn't me!
6. One of my 21st birthday presents, a gold diamond ring from my grandmother. ♡

My holiday afternoons will consist of reading the newest Frankie and Lula magazines, and drinking plenty of tea.

I have been listening to a lot of soundtracks from some of my favourite films of late, this one has been permeating my mind for quote some time now. It is the Love Theme and Finale by Ennio Morricone from the 1997 version of Lolita. So beautiful and peaceful. ♡



That is all for now, until next time,

Darling Buds

I had quite a lovely weekend simply reading, baking and painting. It was a lovely change from the usual hectic work-filled weekends I've had consistently over the month.

I found a nice and simple recipe for plain lemon cake. I altered it for muffins and came out with these little precious darlings, 12 of them all baked away nicely in the oven. It felt so good to bake properly again and I had much fun in preparing the batter, although I did manage to injure myself on the grater (being as clumsy as I am!) They taste amazing with a little bit of raspberry jam and they are not too sour and lemony; just containing enough lemon juice and zest to pack a punch.

"What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream."
- Miranda, Picnic at Hanging Rock

“It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

I have been reading Lolita and Picnic at Hanging Rock over the last week, I have been enjoying both of these novels, the writing style is really flowery and poetic, full of hazy and dramatic atmosphere which makes me feel that I am actually surrounded by the descriptions I am currently reading. I finished reading both now (I'm speed reading now that I have the time for it)! Both of the novels were really good reads which kept me entranced through till the very end (both of which were bitter-sweet and sorrowful). I have seen the Picnic at Hanging Rock film quite a few times and I studied it in high school. I have yet to watch either version of Lolita but now that I have read the novel I feel it is a good time to watch both the films. I usually have this thing where I prefer to read the book before watching the film, but I don't always stick to this rule!

That's all I've got to share for now loves, good-bye. x

Birdy - Skinny Love