Oh my God. You would not believe how much time I spent messing around with this. You might have noticed that I’ve moved to using Photoshop to create ‘clouds’. This is because I have found that using vector clouds with shading doesn’t really sit well with me… It just looked… Weird. I wanted to create a soft dreamy feel, while maintaining the clean lines of the vectors so I drew the clouds in Photoshop instead, and cleaned up the rest of the colour a bit.

Ehh, there are a few things I could probably still mess around with on this, ESPECIALLY the clouds but right now I think I’ve done enough manipulation on this for a month at least! I really wasn’t that happy with the waterfall either… Sigh. Photoshop has done some weird things to me.

Anyhow, there are a few things I aim to do this year on this website, some of which are:

• Update this layout (Cam and I have something pretty cool in the idea factory…we’ve yet to make a start on it though  :o)
• Update this blog once a week with either a new drawing, tutorial, inspiration/idea post, and/or other random fun stuff to be decided soon.
• Make a zine or three to make a new section on the site – I’m nearly finished with my first one! But I bet you all won’t be surprised to see what it is once I’ve scanned it rofl.

Umm…yeah…that’s all I’ve really thought of so far. I’m sure I’ll keep adding to the list as the year goes on. I mean it’s only the end of January after all.

On to more recent news, I came across an unfinished illustration today of a huge ice cream I did last year some time (I know big surprise right?) It was supposed to be for some random competition but I completely forgot about it and didn’t bother finishing or entering it….mainly because the competition was focussed around global warming and I thought my idea might be a bit too sarcastic to submit  SO I cleaned it up a bit today and added a few finishing touches. I have to say I’m a bit rusty at editing colours in Photoshop so that’s why the colours in this are kinda really dodgy. Oh well, I had fun making bokeh light effects anyway (Don’t know what bokeh is!?!? Find out how easy it is to make cool lighting effects in my next post  /shamelessplug).

So without further ado – here is my first drawing for 2012 – what else than giant ice cream.

Everything in this poster was meant to be a satire of “green” products…except I made it kinda cute. I CAN’T HELP IT I can’t do serious.

Well it’s mini and it’s a mouse!

In all seriousness, I think I can totally relate to this.

Anyway I’m really sorry – I’m kinda on another ‘holiday’. Will be back with a postcard from next week hopefully!! Also yes I know promised a huge update about my recent travels – it’s coming! I’ve just been so busy and tired at work lately…

You know when you get a shiny new notebook, and you say to yourself you won’t scribble in it, or treat it badly and keep it pristine til the last page? And… you end up making a complete mess of it by the 3rd page in?

Well… this is what happened a few days ago, when I had to sit through a training course. Not that it wasn’t informative or anything… but when it’s an all day thing and all you hear is powerpoints, scribbling really takes the stress out of thinking too hard!

Also, I found some really old stuff on a CD just then – plus all my old neopets screenies!

If you’d like to take a look at some screenies please visit my neopets website. (haha I know…so lame) Nostaliga 101!

One more update: You may have noticed on the 365 postcards page, there is now a progress meter, mostly thanks to Cam! Not only is this motivational to me, you can now see just how far along I am with my 365 postcards.

This is what happens when you’re finding out about random secret smilies on Skype.

Feels like I haven’t blogged anything in ages.

I was actually going to blog today about how friggin FRUSTRATING html editors are.

Perhaps it just wasn’t my day….but long story short, I had to make a html template at work today for a campaign we’re initiating soon. I’d already made the flyer- I thought the template making would be easy since its just slapping some text into a table with some pretty images. But here’s the thing- we have to use an online marketing program to create these templates- and on this program is the SHITTIEST html WYSIWYG editor EVER.

YOU KNOW SOMETHING’S WRONG WHEN THE EDITOR WORKS BETTER IN INTERNET EXPLORER THAN IT DOES ON FIREFOX/CHROME.

Seriously enough said?

Anyway, since the editor on the program is pretty much useless, I decided to create the html with another editor, and just put the html into the program. I decided to use Dreamweaver, because I know how to use the program and its just quick and easy. But oh my god. I’ve never used CS4 til now but the Dreamweaver version….just absolutely sucks. SO BAD. It’s so counter intuitive its ridiculous. I use CS2 on my mac and its so quick and just gets stuff done really easily. CS4 however…its like they’re literally stuffing CSS down your throat. Web standards are one thing, but I don’t want to create a CSS tag for every different font style I use!!! THIS IS WHAT CS4 DOES. It pretty much forces you to use css to change everything around like font size, font colour, etc. and its just ANNOYING. It makes things so much slower.

They also seem to have changed the window panels and stuff around…..for the WORSE. It’s like they reorganized everything around to confuse you even more, and to make it seem like they’ve updated CS3(which they haven’t really). Anywho, I just gave up on Dreamweaver and coded the text and images myself. Except, the template which we are supposed to use for every campaign…..it’s…erm….it uses a lot of nested tables. I wouldn’t say its the best way to lay everything out, but hey, maybe its just the program that forces us to make it that way(trust me, its REALLY BAD as I’ll get to in a bit).

Anywho, nested tables are friggin confusing. Especially if you’re coding it by hand. So I started using another editor called Seamonkey to properly see what I was doing. And when I saw the preview in both Dreamweaver and Seamonkey it looked fine. It was just….an amazing piece of work.

Then I saved it as a template on the marketing program which promtly deleted half the code and messed the tables up. WHY!? It might have something to do with the fact that the html template contained russian text. But it made NO SENSE. It was seemingly random- I’d save it over and over again, and the same line of text would be deleted from then on down, then other times it’d be other parts of the text like the footer or something. SO WEIRD.

After hours of fiddling around, I was becoming really angry but nearly got it right- so I sent a proof to myself and it looked ok. I went to edit it again because I want things to be perfect- and it was messed up again. Seriously wtf?! Then, I thought I’d gotten it right again after much fiddling in the actual shitty editor itself. The online preview looked fine and everything. Then I send a proof to myself and EVERYTHING is all over the place.

Seriously…………………

……….

I never thought I’d have this much trouble with putting together a html table with text and images in it.

Other than that work has been going well. Learning lots, enjoying everything heaps. I think I’m pretty lucky- ok the pay’s not that great but I seem to enjoy my job a heck of a lot more than a lot of other people I know!!! I’m also really enjoying working with InDesign. It’s really easy to use and has a lot of really cool features- unlike Dreamweaver, the CS4 version is pretty good.

Which reminds me, new issue of dotdotdash is coming out soon! Can’t wait to see the next issue- its on food so you know its going to be exciting. We’re having a music themed issue next, with a CD of local Perth bands by Spaceship News so that’ll be exciting. It’s time to start designing new spreads for the upcoming issue, and because I haven’t used Illustrator in a while I’m feeling kind of…stuck at the moment. Plus I haven’t really had much time to do much lately but I’ll hopefully get some of that done on the weekend!

The aussie dollar’s been really good lately, and I’ve wanted to buy a few things but don’t really have that much money to spend atm……..I have to say though, I am NEVER buying a book from a bookstore in Perth again. Book Depository.co.uk is where its at!!! Seriously, the prices of new books on there are just SO AWESOME. Plus its free shipping on every book which works out slightly cheaper than Amazon. I got The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, and the third Swamp thing book recently, and maybe its because I havent read a good book in a while now…but having something to read again is so exciting.

On that note, Alan Moore is a literary genius. No one can write like he can. Seriously, the first page alone was amazing:

While his lover sleeps, the swamp creature sits in the smoldering pink dusk and overlooks his territories.

To the east, paperboys have wearied halfway through their rounds dumping their remaining papers somewhere discreet and telling the newsagent he must have miscounted. The dead headlines dance upon a lukewarm wind, monochrome tumbleweed bowling through the failing light.

He watches sheets of newsprint flap like huge moths, crippled by their own weight, hopping clumsily amongst the black trees. Their papers are full of obsolete tragedies and discarded faces; all the carefully logged hysteria of a world he no longer belongs to.

Behind him, his lover mumbles three dream-submerged syllables, but does not wake, and he is content beneath a darkening and volcanic sky. The swamp engulfs them. It is their own damp cosmos, and the troubles of the world beyond seem no more than the whispered conversations of distant madmen…

It has more of an effect in comic form. But seriously, just that opening paragraph…you can just tell how much of an amazing writer he is.

Omg, and the funniest thing happened the other day. I read part of my olldd diary, back when I actually WROTE STUFF DOWN from when I was in primary/high school/uni!! Reading it was like reading a different person. I remember feeling all those things and experiencing all those things…but wow. It was very nostalgic, especially high school. Because it’s like….high school happened just like ‘that’. I had a photo stuck on the back of my year 5/6 year when everything was all good and we were all just little kids. All I can say is funny how things turn out…

And yeah! I think that basically sums everything up. And now its really late and I have to get up early tomorrow. Good part is, its THURSDAY! Which is one more day closer to the weekend! Yay! I have quite a few things on this weekend apparently, so it will so action packed and fun, fun, fun.

I would have liked to include a pretty picture with this blog post but right now can’t really be bothered…..

Random though: I’ve been thinking bout getting into the Ex Machina/Transmetropolitan/Fables series but don’t really know if I’d be into it……recommendations on any, anyone? Personally not a big fan of the superhero storylines so definitely interested in seeing if I’d read any of these particularly Fables!

Well now its really late and I should go to bed. Goodnight everyone~!

If only every adult in the world could drop everything for five seconds and see things with unjudging, unspoiled eyes. I think it’s amazing that we have the ability to see beauty in everything- every being, every tree, every building. Sometimes we just pass by things without even so much as looking at them, and it kinda sucks! Life is beautiful. The world is beautiful. I think people should appreciate everything they have more!

I haven’t really blogged in a while so here are some random updates from me as I think of them randomly! And my first random thought was….life is beautiful.

I started my new job last week! I feel pretty lucky because I’m actually really enjoying it. There is SO MUCH STUFF to learn and sometimes it’s a bit overwhelming but I’m slowly learning everything and it’s all really varied and fun so that’s all cool. My manager’s going away for two weeks at the end of this week too so that’s kinda scary! I hope I’ll have learnt all the basics by then, especially how to use all the different programs…

I got to design a print ad for the China side of things yesterday! That was actually pretty fun, but also kinda stressful because I had around an hour to finish it completely and I was still figuring InDesign out. I suppose that’s what designing/marketing is like, because there are deadlines…but there’s ALWAYS something to change and fix up. I think I’ve got the basics of InDesign figured out though. It’s very user intuitive, which is good. It’s kind of like Illustrator actually, but yeah, it’s been interesting learning how to use that.

Also got to interview some people for an internal newsletter, which was also pretty interesting! Journalism is definitely a learning process, that’s for sure. The interviews were really enjoyable though! I think that’s kinda what I like about the job- I can write, and design stuff, and organise things, and admin stuff… the days don’t even seem very long because I’m always doing something!

It also means I’m in the city all the time now, and so I can now explore different parts of the city! Ok well it’s not that interesting. But there are really cool nooks and crannys here and there which are really cool.

Cam was kind enough to bring me lunch on my first day at work, which I thought was totally sweet of him. Oh- he also got me another present for my birthday, and it finally arrived last week!! (well actually, the Friday before last) It’s a metal steampunk butterfly steampunk necklace and its SO pretty and awesome. It has a watch mechanism and a small heart locket and everything! <3

He also taught me how to solve the bigger twisty cubes (seriously..isn’t he amazing)! I can now solve the 5×5 and 7×7 cubes though I am preeettty slow at it. I’m trying to solve the 6×6 one now, but its kinda hard because it’s an even numbered cube(there’s no middle piece to go by). Even the 2×2 was hard to solve!

My friend Matt also got me a birthday present and it arrived last week too. It’s a huge book of inspiration from artists’ and designers’ sketchbooks, so now I don’t really have an excuse to not finish mine by the end of the year! I have heaps of sketches though, its just a matter of finishing them and making them look all pretty. The book’s pretty awesome though- thanks Matt! :3

Soo now I’m currently chillaxing and wondering if I should start watching Paris Je T’aime or surf ebay/amazon. Seriously, how FREAKIN AWESOME is the exchange rate right now?! So good for buying stuff online. Seriously, I have so many books I want to buy from Amazon. Books in Perth are SO DAMN EXPENSIVE. Even specialty book shops….its insane. It’s SO INSANE. Watchmen here is on average 35-40 dollars. You can get a copy in Asia for ~25-30 dollars.

I went to Quality Comics yesterday and checked out book prices. They have a pretty wide range, but whyyy does it have to be so expensive I know its got something to do with Australia’s import taxes but still…it’s like Australia’s purposely barring everyday people access to quality books(libraries can only go so far!). Most of the books at Quality Comics are pretty expensive(Planet has most of them cheaper anyway). But even still at Planet, they don’t always have the books I want. And even then, its WAY more expensive than prices online. On Amazon, I can get Y: The Last Man Book 2 for 20 USD. It’s 50 AUD here. The Swamp Thing is ~15USD bucks there. Over here its 37-47 AUD. Yeah I know you have to take into account shipping, but if you’re buying in bulk you clearly save a LOT less. And even if you’re not buying it all at once, you’ll probably still save money. It’s ridiculous.

Omgosh, I also saw The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro is out when I passed by Fantastic Planet today. ARGHHHH CANNOT WAIT TO READ IT. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited by a book series in a while actually! The way Del Toro and Chuck Hogan write is unputdownable. I will probably buy it when I get paid! I’ve also been meaning to get into Chuck Hogan’s books, apparently he writes really good thrillers. The Town was actually based on one of his books, The Prince of Thieves, which I really want to read. Hopefully I can find that somewhere soon too!

I don’t really have much else to update you all on…..I want to share this though:

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ‘ulterior motive’ … She KNEW what the Nazi’s plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi’s broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize …. She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

…and visit this site. I thought they were funny!

P.P.S. If anyone can find the original website for this image on threadless, that would be awesome. I WANT THIS SHIRT!!!

Kinda wishing I had a tray of TV Dinner cupcakes to celebrate my birthday right now. Instead, I’m going to do an impromptu blog post about being 21, and, my thoughts on life so far.

…because I have nothing better to do with the first hours of my birthday, and I have a few things to say before I actually go out into the world as a 21 year old!

I’ve never been one to celebrate birthdays. I just really don’t get into celebrations or parties in general, and this has always been the case for me (YEAH, I’M BORING, SUE ME). I’m having a little get together for my 21st though, only because I haven’t had a real birthday party in years, and I felt like I probably should since a few people were making a big deal out of it. In that way, I guess it’s kind of made me realize just how far I’VE come in life, and how much of a milestone being 21 really is. Yeah, that’s right. It’s my 21st and I’m recognizing just how awesome/scary/mind blowing it actually is!!!

But really, why exactly is turning 21 so important? Sure I’m now officially legal in America (which we all know, is the centre of the world…ha-ha). And I’m now of an adult age to do everything I want with all of the free will and resources that I have. But since I turned 18, and became officially legal in most aspects in Australia, I’ve realized just how much of a transition I’ve made in those three years, and now that I am FINALLY 21, I’ve come to terms with just how much more I’ve matured and grown since the day I realized what a cruel, beautiful, unfair, incredible, sad, amazing world we live in today. I’ve gained friends and lost friends, and no matter what’s happened, life goes on and people move on.

People aren’t who they say they are, people can say things behind your back, people have ulterior motives for every action and word they say…

…but there are also the people who you can talk to in the early hours of the morning, people you can giggle with over the most inane things, people who share the same love for music and movies as I do, people who constantly show me new things I’ve never heard of or experienced…

Finding those kinds of people are definitely worth the hurt and confusion of the people that let you down/disappear completely from your life, and while friends may come and go, finding true friendship is something incredibly hard to come by, probably in any day and age.

I don’t think I’ve ever really had a best friend, because my interpretation of ‘best friend’ means something completely different to many other people. Sure people have called me their best friend before, and I have no problem with that. It doesn’t mean I like them any less than they do, I just think the term ‘best friend’ encompasses a lot more than what they do. I suppose having a best friend to me would be like having a really close twin you can talk to any time of the day, about absolutely anything that’s on your mind. It would probably be a lot like a really close relationship but without the intimacy involved!

I think deep down, everyone’s searching for that best friend, and while I’m sure many people can agree with me, having that revelation that we are all truly alone while lying in bed is frightening, I have also realized just how awesome I have it here, and how LUCKY I am to have friends I can count on.

I really didn’t see my 21st as *that* big of a deal – hell I almost forgot my 18th birthday! And even then, I quickly organized a random dinner thing which turned out to be a small happy gathering of people drinking bubble tea and laughing at hilariously bad b-movies. It was fun and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. And that’s exactly how I want to spend my birthday this year- with friends that have been there for me, laughed and cried with me, and shared various details about life and insights with me about the same world we inhabit and people we’re surrounded by. It makes me sad that some people can’t get along and some people can’t forget the past and move on, and some people can’t take the high road instead of the low one but….that’s people for you I guess.

Three years since I turned 18, I feel like a different person. I didn’t think I’d changed much at all since then, but looking back now I actually really have. I was naive and ignorant about a lot of things, perhaps a little idealistic as well. Maybe I still am a bit today…but I also feel a lot older and a lot wiser about many things. Things they don’t teach you at school, and stuff people don’t usually talk about.

I’m standing on the brink of full adulthood and its downright scary. Like a choose your own adventure book, I could make the right choices, or the wrong choices, and I have no idea where I’ll end up. There’s so much I want to do and so much I want to learn and yet at the same time it all seems like such a huge task to just start something and finish it in its entirety I don’t know where to start.

And its been a grand total of FOUR years since I left high school, and a month since I graduated from uni. Being 21 and being here in my room, being able to type all this on the internet, and being able to express myself in so many different ways has made me realize how lucky I am to just exist here in this place, and have a wonderful bunch of friends and family to depend on.

I am so thankful for everyone that has touched my life in some way- good or bad, it’s helped me learn and experience things in ways I never could have imagined. I’m thankful for being here, and thankful for everything that has been given to me. It’s been a confusing, tiring, satisfying, adventurous, angsty, wonderful year overall for me, and while I admit I said my birthday didn’t feel like a big deal, I want to make the most of my first year as an adult, and my first year as a free agent.

And now that the birds have started crowing, my computer going all slow and me starting yawning, I think its time I went to bed.

Sorry for any grammatical errors. It’s early and I’m now quite tired.

I love you all. Seriously.