365 Days of Art: Fanart

194. Fanart (Kindzi from Defiance)

I've been very infrequent with my 365 Days of Art posts, but I'll write more about that in my next entry. For now, here's number 194: Fanart, which is of Nichole Galicia as an Omec, Kindzi, from the SyFy show Defiance. It's a digital painting I did for my friend Nasu (we watch the show together), and even though it doesn't look so much like Kindzi, I'm reasonably happy with it regardless.

Other than that, I was in a silly mood and added some text...

Because pancakes make everything better, I guess?

Walks in the Park with a Weirdo

There's a park near me that I've started going to this year quite regularly; I took my niece and nephew a few times when they were visiting, and sometimes I go by myself, but most of the time I go with my dear friend & housemate Nasu-pie (who does not like being in photos very often). Anyway, to get to the park I walk along a main road and there's another entrance that leads to a dual carriageway, but once inside it's such a peaceful and lovely place! 

A Monday in London: Up at the O2 and Down the Spiral of a Carsten Höller Slide...

The O2 with walkway.

From August 30th to September 1st my sister & her family very kindly let me stay with them in London. On the 31st it was a bank holiday Monday, so I also managed to meet up with my creative and lovely friend Kei - she blogs at Doing A Thing and Unfortunately Oh! - and we had some silly, fun adventures! I should point out here that I didn't take many photos, so any that are marked with "Doing A Thing" were taken by Kei and used with her permission (thank you!).

The O2 with the blue walkway arching over the top of it.

First, we went to the O2 Arena, as we were going to "climb" right over the top of it a little later that afternoon! However, as we were still a bit early we had a look around inside first. There wasn't much going on at the time, but we did find this interesting looking wall panel...

Visitors could change the music being played via touch screens.
There was a matching one to the left of it as well.

After a short wait, our timeslot for Up at the O2 came, so we went into the briefing room to meet our guide, Phil (he wasn't the mannequin modelling the rather fetching climb suit!)  and to watch a safety video.

Then it was time to get suited, booted, have some photos taken by the photographer (available for purchase at the end if you so desired; we didn't), have a few things explained, and begin the ascent.

Information about the O2 on the viewing platform

When we reached the viewing platform, 52 metres up at the top, it actually didn't seem that high. Even though there was a lot of cloud coverage the view was still great though!

With Kei at the top,

It rained the entire time, but I like rain, so it was enjoyable!

We needed to do this pose.
It was necessary.
It was.

We were on the viewing platform for a while and our guide came and told us some information about the various landmarks that could be seen, including The Arcelor Mittal Orbit, which will have a giant slide added to it by spring of next year! (Incidently, that slide is being created by the Belgian artist Carsten Höller, but more about his work a little later in this post). 

The way down was a little steeper, but actually much easier and the time seem to pass quite swiftly.  It was a fun experience and absolutely worth doing!

Next, we headed over to the Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery in order to see the interactive exhibition, Decision, by Carsten Höller (told you there'd be more about him later). We entered via a long, dark tunnel (the "claustrophobic" entrance) that we had to navigate around by feeling along the walls. The sound echoed around and it was difficult to tell how far away from the other visitors you were at any time. Also, it gave me the feeling of wanting to stoop down to avoid banging my head constantly, even though my head was nowhere near touching the top. It was a great start!

Flying Mushrooms
The end of the tunnel and the mushroom orrery.

We emerged into a brightly lit room featuring what can only be described as an orrery-like structure , only with giant toadstools circulating in its mechanism instead of celestial bodies. Visitors were allowed to push the mushrooms around and I couldn't resist having a go...

The look of stupid awe and glee when I get to touch things in art galleries!

To avoid this entry getting extremely long, I won't detail everything here, but I'll share a few more images with you (if you'd like to know the context, Kei explained it over at her blog, which I'll link to below).

Moving on, at this pile of pills I was encouraged by a grinning security guard to take a pill and told "good luck" before he laughed a little. I appreciated that he got into his role (though he didn't have to), and took a placebo pill at the water fountain, haha.

Pill Clock

Divisions (Wall Painting with Aphids)

Snake and Half Mirror Room
There were two snakes and a mirrored wall

Kei: Upside Down Goggles
Dice can be seen in the background

Me: Upside Down Goggles

Isometric Slides

Isometric Slides was absolutely the best way to exit the exhibition (I went down the left one/right one on the picture)! I did feel bad for the two women in charge of helping people onto the slides and the guys taking the sacks back at the bottom though, because it must have been a boring job for them. 

Despite Two Flying Machines and Adjusted Hayward Sign not being open due to rain, I still liked this exhibition and actually appreciated the ideas behind the installations once I had read about them afterwards too (I always like to experience things without knowing the meaning first, for some reason). 

If you'd like to read more detailed accounts & or see additional pictures of the two experiences, you can check Kei's blogs about Up at the O2 and Decision.

As we were wandering back to the tube station, I also took photos of the murals/wall art below. The first one has been there for a while, but I hadn't seen the second one before. Either way, I think they're both gorgeous!

365 Days of Art: Colour on Concrete Part 2

The Pale Man, Sharknado, Rainbow Snail, and Tentacle Beastie

The weather cleared up briefly and the concrete part of my garden dried enough to draw on again (though some of the old pictures still remained), so I decided on a new theme: A Week of Monsters. There was no real reason for it, I just felt like doodling creepies in chalk!

Pictures after the jump below...

Rose Chafer Beetle Brunch

Rose Chafer Beetle chomping on some brunch

Occasionally, when in my garden, I happen upon these stunning little metallic emerald and bronze beetles gleaming out at me from in amongst the flowers. They've always piqued my curiosity, as I've never been quite sure which type of beetle they are and they're both adorable and fascinating to watch.

Adorable face

Fortunately, a lovely little fellow decided to seat himself on a rose and then dined on its pollen for a good portion of the afternoon - yes, I had time to watch a beetle for a good portion of the afternoon! So, with the help of the website Safari UK I was able to identify this one as a rose chafer beetle (Cetonia aurata). 

Tentatively extending a wing

I also videoed the beetle for a short while, during which time there were other insect inhabitants milling around, as well as visitors buzzing in briefly. Please excuse the background noise and low quality video.

Additional images after the jump below:

365 Days of Art: Colour on Concrete

346. Colour on Concrete

It's been a very long while since I've posted a picture for the 365 Days of Art challenge (which I took as 365 themes in a year, rather than one each day), but that doesn't mean that I haven't been drawing anything. In fact, I've probably created more in the past three months than I did over the past year! With that in mind, I decided that it's about time that I started updating this blog again, however infrequently it might end up being.

That brings me to today's challenge theme: 346. Colour on Concrete

Whilst sitting in the garden after filming a gloriously iridescent beetle (there will be more about that little wonder in another post), I found some pavement chalk sticks and decided to try drawing with them. 

The colours were limited to reddish pink, yellow, green, blue, and white, and the sticks were thick and chunky, which didn't exactly make them perfect for the uneven concrete, but I did my best. It was actually a lot of fun and so I continued adding one additional drawing each day over a week and a half. Sometimes it rained and the pictures were washed away, but that just made more room for something new.

The first picture didn't go so well...

Visions of the Future

Mondoshawan costume from and a poster for
The Fifth Element

In 2009, I had the pleasure of attending an exhibition of science fiction items at Torquay Museum, called Alien Invasion, containing all manner of wonderful things from films and television series Alien, Predator, Forbidden Planet, Mars Attacks!, Star Wars, Terminator 3, Robocop, The Abominable Snowman, Hellraiser, Doctor Who, The X-Files, Invaders from Mars, and V. It was wonderful and since then, I've hoped that there would be another, similar event that I could attend. (Of course, I did go to LonCon 3 last August, which is a massive science fiction and fantasy convention, but I'll just ignore that right now, haha). 

Anyway, my wish was finally granted and from the 27th of June this year there has been a new exhibition called Visions of the Future. Yesterday, I went along to see it and was certainly not disappointed! 

Props, costumes & posters from
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
and I, Robot

This time, the items on show were from/relating to: Alien, Prometheus, Predator, Frankenstein, Metropolis, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Andromeda, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, I, Robot, Moon, Ultraviolet, Children of Men, Chariots of the Gods?, Chronicles of Riddick, and there was even a prototype of the Beagle 2 lander as well.

General Utility Android costume from Andromeda,
with a design inspired by the "Robotrix" from Metropolis
(film poster behind)

Most of the items were either on loan from other museums / institutes or from private collectors, so it was quite a random assembling of artefacts, but that just made it all the more fun to look around. Also, even though there was a lot to see, the museum is small enough that you have time to read the accompanying information boards, take photographs (without flash, as per the rules, of course!), and look at everything as much as you want before moving onto the next piece, which was really nice. 

Visions of the Future is running until the 5th of September, so if you have a chance to see it, you absolutely should! More photos below:

Tea for Tuesday: Dr Stuart's Tranquillity

Dr Stuart's Extraordinarily Good Teas: Tranquillity

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates here lately; I've been rather busy with everything and nothing all at the same time! However, that will change quite soon :)

Today is Tuesday and so, of course, that means it's time for another Tea for Tuesday post! This week's tea, Tranquillity by Dr Stuart's, is another that was sent to me by the lovely Kei from Unfortunately Oh! and Doing A Thing (also, sorry to shamelessly keep plugging my friend's sites, but she's hugely creative and recently re-opened her Etsy store, Little Deer Day Dreams, which sells the most gorgeously unique, up-cycled jewellery! Please take a look :D).

Before I start, I should point out that I have a slight cold, which means that my sense of smell and taste are probably a little off at the moment. That said, even before the tea was in the boiling water it had an aroma of liquorice to it, so I was expecting it to taste like that as well. However, it had a similar taste to nettle tea mixed with the tongue-numbing effect of aniseed, which was rather pleasant! 

The back of the packet informed me that the ingredients were listed on the box, but as I didn't have the box, I went to the company's website. Apparently, it's a blend of limeflower and hawthorn, which is excellent, not only because I liked it, but because I've never tried either of those before! Also, on a side note, the picture on the box is great:

Tranquillity box
Stolen from the Dr Stuart's website because I'm a naughty thief

Whilst this tea won't turn you into a leaping butterfly face (boo!) it is delicious and I'd love to try it again.

Tea for Tuesday: Twinings Liquorice

Twinings Liquorice Tea

Today's Tea for Tuesday is the Liquorice tea from the "Comforting" range by Twinings. I like liquorice, and the packaging design is quite pretty, so I thought I'd give it a try. The tea is made from 100% liquorice root and, as with all the teas I'm trying, is caffeine-free. However, there is also a warning on the pack about the harmful effects that large quantities may have on those with hypertension, so if this applies to you, it's probably one to avoid.

Quite soon after the water hit the bag, it turned a bright shade of yellow and the sweet aroma of liquorice emanated from the mug. Unlike the other teas I've tried so far, the taste and smell of this one were nearly identical. Unfortunately, although I enjoyed the aroma, the flavour was too sickeningly sweet for me and finishing a whole cup proved challenging. In order to confirm that I hadn't simply over-brewed my first beverage, I made a second, weaker one, on another day, but it made little difference. 

If you're used to having sugar in your tea and enjoy the sweetness, then perhaps liquorice root would be a perfect flavour for you. Personally though, I don't think I'll be trying this one again.

Tea for Tuesday: Twinings Blackcurrant & Vanilla

Twinings Blackcurrant & Vanilla

Tea for Tuesday time again; this time in the form of a Blackcurrant & Vanilla fruit infusion by Twinings. As the flavours diffused in the mug, the water took on an orangey red colour and had an almost pink hue in certain lights.

Whereas the Blackcurrant, Ginseng & Vanilla infusion gave off a strong odour of vanilla when the boiling water touched the bag, this one had a distinctly stronger aroma of blackcurrant. The vanilla also came through, though it had more of a perfume-like quality to it. This was also true of the flavour: a slight tang of blacurrant with a vaguely vanilla after taste. It didn't have the same smoothness as the ginseng infused blend, but it was still delicious.

Another one of my favourites so far!