Streets of Fire.

Heima.

Halloween, Brooklyn, 2010.

Happy halloween, guys. Our Movember project for Mint Magazine starts tomorrow. Get involved!

I really want to go to Iceland this winter. Someone hook me up.

Lemonade (with Boys Noize)

Some of these I tried to touch up in photoshop because they're just scans from a dirty sketchbook covered in fingerprints. But somewhere along the line I realised that I am a little too hungover for meticulous photoshopping, so gave up. And so here they are, still rather scruffy. Character developments for my Scott project in pen, pencil and water colour.

Twelve Roses.

I really like this guy.

Just a quick scan from my sketchbook. Pencil, ink and water colour image of Lieutenant Ernest Shakleton in all his Arctic garb and glory. My main project at the moment is based on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's journeys to the South Pole. The research for this has been fascinating. So many first hand written accounts, photographs, film footage, interpretations, cigarette card illustrations, newspaper articles... Hopefully I can produce something witty and original with this subject. We shall see!

Badlands.

Today I woke up at 6.45am to a pitch black, cold flat. I put the heating on, swanned around for bit, filled my Bialetti and sat with some cereal and fresh coffee, listening to Radio 4. I continued this process of coffee and Radio 4 all afternoon but relocated to my university. And at about 9.45am Stephen Fry came on the radio, reading extracts from his new book.

Every so often on this radio station I hear something from someone I admire, who seems to be talking about exactly what is playing on my mind around that time of my life. Like when Morrissey did his desert island discs and I agreed with everything he said about marriage and loneliness and had been thinking similar things for a while, trying to develop some sort of final solution from it. And so today Stephen Fry, that bloody lovely man, talks about being a jack of all trades. Broadcaster, actor, writer, producer, presenter... you can't tie that man down. And now I'm about to graduate university and people are asking me what I do, and yeah I study illustration but that's not the entirety of it, is it? I take lots of photos, I write, I draw, I am a learned networker and would flourish in PR... so which would I rather persue? How about all?

One thing Stephen said was how can you ever express "regret" at not having narrowed yourself down to concentrate on one thing? To be brilliant at any one of these things takes time, talent and effort, and to say you regret not focusing on one is to admit you think you are talented enough in one area to fully flourish while doing it. And how can you ever admit that?

I've always known I've been a jack of all trades. My concentration span and level of intelligence does not allow me to linger on one subject for ample amounts of time. My art career as such is already cluttered with half finished projects, my photography with half finished internships and commissions never started. But is this necessarily a bad thing? Or can I even change it, even if it was?

We met this fella outside Harvard bookstore in Cambridge, MA. He had the must intriguing instrument, the most intriguing manner and the cutest dog. He gave me his card and told me to let him know when I posted this on my blog.

So, Mr. Hurdy Gurdy man, I hope you enjoy!

Girl and the Sea.

Outfit shots, Manchester and Broadstairs, June-August 2010

Maxine Peake... who knew she was so well dressed?

The Melody of a Fallen Tree.

Leeds Castle, Kent. June 2010

Hopefully I can go back in the winter and see how it has changed. Leeds Castle is my favourite house and gardens to visit.