Happy Late St Andrews Day!

Here is a little somethin' somethin' made for my dear boyfriend on St Andrews Day (I'm afraid its only a picture, I may try uploading a small video clip of it up to Vimeo at the weekend - but for now you shall just have to be content that it was a simple flash animation of a bunch of Andrews dancing to Wham's "Wake me up before you go go!", for an Andrew was in that band, don't ya know?)

Dusty Windowsill

Hello hello! Yes, long time no see my imaginary readers!
Since getting my new job, my free time appears to have diminished rather a lot (who would have thunk it!). But I'm really enjoying it (even though its really rather crazily busy at the moment!), I'm getting to practice my skills everyday, and I'm even able to draw quite a lot! I would even say that I'm drawing more now than I did before this job, which is cool!
Anyways, I would love to chat about what I'm actually working on…but I'm unsure as to whether I'm allowed to as of yet, and Claire don't want to get into to trouble!
Although I have done a couple of small projects in the last few months, so lets take a look:


Christmas in Antarctica by ~Naffynaff on deviantART

I made this (very early) Christmas card for my friend Emily, who (believe it or not) has gone off to Antarctica for 3 months to drill ice cores! She is one hardcore missy! I hope she enjoys it there, and this card portrayed her dining with the King and Queen of Penguins, which I'm pretty sure she'll discover whilst shes over there! Its another watercolour picture (as per usual), hopefully one day I'll have time to hone my skills and make my watercolours look much more professional. But until then I shall just have to be content with the homely feel of my watercolours!


Birthday Card by ~Naffynaff on deviantART

Next is a sort of birthday poster/card for a friend in work (it was her niece's birthday). This was hand drawn, scanned in and then "coloured in" using textures and such in Photoshop. I've really enjoyed experimenting in this style, and I'm hoping to use it a lot more in future projects! Also, I got to draw Pikachu, which is just plain awesome anyways! Pokemon is AWESOME. (Only the original 150 though, none of these new fangled claptraps!)


Crazy Faces by ~Naffynaff on deviantART

About a month ago I made a set of stickers for my boyfriend (as he said he would like some after he saw the ones I made for my business many a month ago!). I decided to go for different facial expressions in my usual flash stylee. I feel I was in a bit of a rush to do these so I think they could have come out better, but my boyfriend seemed pretty happy with them, so all is well! I used a really cool website called Moo.com to get them printed. They're a really awesome and affordable website for printing stickers or business cards, so I fully recommend them to anybody!


3 Years by ~Naffynaff on deviantART

And finally, a little anniversary card I made for my boyfriend. This was very much an experiment in using Illustrator and a small step in developing a vector style for myself. I really like Illustrator and just how professional it can make your illustrations look!


Phew, thats a lot of pictures. But thats pretty much what I've been up to in between work and sleep. I've also cut down the rest of the Christmas cards I had printed (LAST YEAR…eep) and instead of stamping them I ordered some festive 'Merry Christmas' stickers to put in them. (I learnt my lesson of asking for the cards to be printed on satin, as it doesn't hold stamping ink very well.)
I've also been replaying Kingdom Hearts because I'm a big kid. The older I get the weirder I think it is that Haley Joel Osmond did the voice of Sora. But yes, not sure why I enjoy the game so much, I just wish Kingdom Hearts 2 could have matched it (or preferably surpassed it), but oh well! I may give Kingdom Hearts 2 a go after this one….or Final Fantasy VII…I'm not sure…
TV I've been watching is mainly Adventure Time, because it is AWESOME (lots of awesomes in this post!) Lumpy Space Princess is my favourite, and I've been told (by my sister) that I do a mean impression of her, which I'm not sure whether to take as an insult or a compliment!



But yeah, I really like her and I want to make a cushion of her.
I went to go see an exhibition at the FACT in Liverpool called ZEE, and it was freak-ay. Worth going to see, but I would have to say its the most uncomfortable I've ever felt at an art exhibition, woo and mama!
Books I've been reading are Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca', which was really good and I'm now re-reading Robin Hobb's 'The Ship of Magic'. Man oh man, it was the first Robin Hobb I read, and its still awesome on the second read! I would love to see or try to do my own illustrations for her books, just because they are so cool. I feel like my style is too childish for these books, but I suppose you never know until you try, so I may give it a go when I've got some free time!

And that is my waffle-age to cover the last few months! I hope all of you imaginary readers are well, and I shall try and speak to you all soon! Bye, love you Bye! (Also went to go see Adam Buxton at the FACT too! Dude! I could have wet my pants in excitement!)

Batty batty batty batty batty!

Heeey, do people like my mascot in work?

And the rain, it pours, it pours! I love it! Autumn is here! Hooray! Shame I haven't got any decent shoes to wear for the rain… Anyway, off to play Psychonauts because it is AWESOME.

Dites NON a la mauvaise escargots!

Psst psst! Another 'Say NO to bad' things sticker set! Hooray!

Hey ho, come on lets go!

Heeeey Party People!
As you can tell I have been pretty busy the last couple of months being slapped in the face by the harsh world of work and realising how bloody well tired it makes you! But I have been enjoying my job thus far, I've learnt a ton of stuff and hope to learn a lot more in the coming months!

I haven't had much spare time to do creative stuff outside of work, but I am trying! I recently made a cuddly toy dinosaur for my boyfriend's sister as a 'Congratulations!' on passing her A-Levels! (Woo mama, those days seem so innocent and far behind now, I tell ya!)
So prepare for the surpisingly garish but still so slick (and please keep in my mind this is the first time I've made a cuddly toy dinosuar) HOME-MADE DINOSAUR!

Well there ya go! I enjoyed making her quite a lot, and I learnt how to sew sequins, which I feel is always a useful skill to have incase I lose my job and I can only get work as a seamstress at broadway musicals (which I think would be pretty impressive in itself!). But yes, I may make more in the future, who knows?

I also made a little picture to commemorate my boyfriend's graduation (he got a first in Mathematics!! How awesome is that!)

Anyhoos, there ya go, not much to show, but hopefully some more in the future! Seeyaaaaaa!

Possibilities

Hey hey! Some possibilities have popped up this week, which have made this week slightly better than last week! Which is good! I've applied for 2 design jobs (which always makes me feel good, cause I feel like I've actively done something!). Have been given an illustration job to do. Have worked on some more style sheets for the new resource…not sure how they'll go down though! And I've started work on my entry for the E4 stings competition this year! Which is exciting!
So yes, I'd say I've been sort of productive this week! Wa-HOOOO!

And now I am eagerly awaiting 5.30 when I feel I'm allowed to 'clock-off' as it were and have some chicken, beans and chips (with maybe a few onion rings snuck in there…don't worry I'm having salad with it too! …What? I'm REALLY hungry!)…the simple meals are the best…

Anyhoo, thats about it really, if I remember anything else I'm sure I'll mention it on Twitter!

(Oh yeah, I just remembered! I've finished my editing work for my friends project! And I'm sort of happy with it because it didn't turn out as bad as it could have (don't get me wrong, its still probably pretty bad in an editor's eyes), so yes! Plus I showed my sister it last night, an she burst out laughing at it…which is good! Cause its not supposed to be ultra serious! Unless people want to take it that way!) Anyhoo, its being exhibited (alongside the other 2 films) next Thursday in a place called BLANKSpace in ye olde Manchester! Oh the excitement! Yay!)

Oh the bums of it all

Hello!
I started contacting clients on Monday (those who hadn't responded) about my mini portfolio. I've had a few replies, and everyone has been really friendly and encouraging, but unfortunately don't have any vacancies at the moment. I think I should have prepared myself more so for this response, as I think I was too busy just sending things out and junk; so now I'm starting to find the whole thing a tad depressing…
Oh wello. If this doesn't work out, it will be off to find any old job for me; and my blog and website will become a hobby type thing. I graduated from uni nearly 2 years ago now, and to still not be in permanent employment…well, its a bit crappy to say the least. I'm tired of it. I feel like my enthusiasm for animation/graphics has depleted since university, and now I just want a job.

Anyhoo, I'm working on editing some stuff together for my friend Jen for an exhibition coming up. Unfortunately the topic is the AV referendum, and I am not the most enthusiastic person about politics…I find the whole subject pretty dull and beyond my control, so why waste precious brain power getting annoyed about it?
But the idea Jen has for it does make it a lot more interesting! I'm just not sure if my contribution to it will be any good because I'm not very clever whenst it comes to the world of politics (or maths…or geography…or physics)
Plus I've only made a 2-minute video and After Effects is taking two billion years to export it…

I think the nice weather needs to come back…I feel it will cheer me up…

Arson Around...

Hello hello! Has been a productive few weeks. I sent my little baby portfolios off into the big wide world last Saturday to be seen by companies I had researched. I've had a couple of responses, and although none of them haven't any vacancies, most of them have been really friendly and helpful! Which is nice!

I've also been working on packaging for the Domestic Violence DVD for the Ariel Trust (now named Face up [to abuse]), which has been experience as I've not really professionally designed packaging before. Sure I've whipped together CD labels/covers for friend's mix CD's and such, but it didn't matter then if they were rubbish, they kind of need to look good if people are gonna buy the resource!

I'm kind of proud of it...

I've been asked to undertake another project with the Ariel Trust, which is exciting! I'm currently drafting out some possible 'looks' for the resource...I'm not sure if they'll like them. The Ariel wants it to be hard hitting but because its for primary school children (10-11 year olds), it has to be subtle too; which is a difficult combination to work with. I've decided I can't really go for the cartoon-y style that I employed in the Domestic Violence DVD, as I feel that might look a bit childish for the subject that is being tackled. (Its teaching kids approaching secondary school about the people you will meet and falling into the wrong crowd and the gruesome (in this example it is) results of this - I always deal with such lovely topics. One day I hope I can make a resource about animals in the rainforest or something!)
So I'm a bit out of my comfort zone, as I do like a hand-drawn sort of stylee-o. But shall spend the rest of the afternoon exploring drawing characters in biro and such...maybe.

And finally, I've done some brainstorming for the D & AD graduate design programme and E4 stings competitions. I'm gonna have to get my bum into gear over D&AD, as the deadline is the 27th!! I will hopefully be in the mood to do stuff over the weekends!

Anyway, that is all for my update! Adieu! Au revoir and all that jazz!

"I still love Easter, baby"

Hey, I told I'd be back, you weren't expecting it so soon were ya? Yeah! Anyhoo, here are some pics of my Nafftastic Mini Portfolio (actual content, I mean) that I will be sending out to potential clients on Friday/Saturday. DID YOU KNOW that you can buy a book of FIFTY Large Letter Stamps? Well you CAN! For all those people who didn't know, I braved our local post office to find out! (Our local post office is full of old people. Who like to chat with the staff and generally be slow. But they didn't bother me too much today, I let patience win the day! And I walked out a happy chappy!)
But yes, where are those pictures??

Woo mama, there ya go! Good times for all!

On another note, I watched 'Catfish' on More4 last night, and even though it was slightly creepy and weird, the main thing it do to me was make me want to paint pictures? Was the point of it completely lost on me? I'm not sure...they just made the lady look quite imaginative and quirky in the end! Rather than a slightly scary woman who totally messed with somebody's life for nearly a year!
I'm getting a bit perturbed as I can't seem to get my SWF files to work on DeviantArt! Hmmm, some trawling is required here...wish me luck!

AfterNote: And May the Fourth be with you! Hoooooraaaayyy!!!

Promotional Pack COMPLETE!

Hooray! My promotional packs (as I have decided to call them, as it sounds oh so professional!) are done and dusted! Waiting in some carrier bags to be posted either on Friday or Saturday morning! My plan is for my letters to get to the company next Monday, and then its like 'Hey! Something cool and colourful at the beginning of the week!'...Maybe.

So yes! Thar is my promotional pack! I hope I can get some feedback from them! I'll try and upload some screenshots of the CD-ROM in the next few days!

I've also started to be a bit more active on DeviantArt after years of just stalking other people and sneakily favouriting their art. So you can take a look at my profile here:
Claire's DeviantArt
You'll probably just find stuff on there that I have already blogged about on here, but I think DeviantArt is just a cool/convenient way to show people what you've drawn recently, all in one place!

Anyway yes, thats what I've been up to. I've also been playing Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (or whatever its called) and it is similar to Back to Nature but it seems a lot more difficult! You have to pay to build bridges to the islands that you lift up from the ocean before you can even set foot on them? Whats up with that? (As Jerry Seinfeld would say)
I've also been playing Drake's Uncharted (or whatever its called), which is the first shooting game I've played for longer than 2 minutes. Its pretty good, but I've had to force myself away from it because I was getting ridiculously angry at the thing - despite the fact that I have it on Easy mode (I have no qualms about this, I am a complete beginner when it comes to shooters)! I watched my sister play the sequel to this game and I recall there being a lot more puzzle elements in that one than there is in the first one. But then again, I was working on RATS 2 when she was playing it, so I wasn't giving it my full attention. (Except to sing along with the sound effects whenever Drake took a jump over a gap that just that little bit too big!)
I've ALSO been having quick go's of my sister's iPad, and I have to admit that I'm a little bit impressed with it! Dagnabbit. I wish it supported Flash though. (to say what everyone is saying!) It makes me sad.

Anyway, there we go. Now here is a gift >>>>>>>


A Reflex Energy Head Massage! Just for you! You deserve it!

Sunshine lollipops

NAFFTASTIC WEBSITE IS HEEERRRRREEEEE
Wa-hey! At last, its taken a lot of searching, sobbing, and confused looks out the window, but I finally have a working website! Check it out if you'd like to see my portfolio of work! Next step:
- Research more clients to send mini portfolio to
- Make corrections to mini portfolio and burn 40 copies of it
- Mock up a cover letter & personalise
- Print off contact stickers

And then theres other such things to do like plan out what I'm gonna animate for the E4 stings competition and other competitions I want to enter.
I'm about to finish Robin Hobb's 'Dragon Haven', it seemed a bit cheesy romance novel at the beginning, but its definitely picked up as I've progressed. It makes me miss The Liveship Trader series. They were the first Robin Hobb books I read and I really liked them!
I have also bought Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands for the DS recently as I thought it looked similar to 'Back to Nature' for the Playstation, so I'm going to woo all the ladies! Woo I say!

My work for the Ariel Trust regarding the Abusive Relationships (previously called Domestic Violence) CD-ROM is drawing to an end, and theres going to be a launch in the Liverpool Radio City Tower apparently, so thats slightly exciting (if not horrifically nerve-wracking as I'm expected to say a few words about how the Ariel Trust has helped me, eeep!). I think its going to be in June so I shall give more of an update nearer the time!
Oh yes, and also I forgot to say that the Ariel Trust has got an example game from the Abusive Relationships CD-ROM on their website, so you can take a looksy HERE > Ariel Trust's Website So yes, you can have a play of that if you like!

(I've also ordered my business cards, made up the packaging for the CD-ROMs, and received coolio Nafftastic stickers that will be included in the mini portfolio packs I'm sending out! Things seem to be finally coming together sort of!)

Do-It-All Dating Game

Heeeey, everybody!
As you can tell by the slideshow on the side, I have actually stepped out of my house and not gone eating/to a pub! I went to old Nottingham -shire and watched a show my friends Jen & Clare (The Cutting Room) had curated at the Contemporary gallery in Nottingham. It was pretty hectic and messy, and also quite funny! Plus I got to help out with some stuff (I bought a battery for a microphone and made the salad, AND got some tap water! Man, am I useful!)
I should explain really though. The show had the same premise as 'Blind Date' ("Blinda Datea!") in which there was one contestant and they had to ask questions to 3 strangers and then choose one for date! But in this version, the strangers had to multi-task whilst answering questions and so had to bounce on a trampoline, draw a picture (of the contestants choosing) and make a sandwich. So yeah, it got pretty messy, as you may expect. I should also mention that the artist who sort of made the whole show was Oriana Fox. Yeah.
Anyway, I enjoyed myself, plus I got to visit lots of artsy places (and a REALLY nice Indian restaurant) in Nottingham and sort of got a taste of what its like to be a curator!
(I also got to meet my friend's dog called Mr Snuggletons, and you should be able to see him in my photos, and I also believe he may be the largest dog in the world. Woah. He was so cute!)

And yes, other things I've been up to are just getting materials ready for the promotional Nafftastic pack I will be sending out soon. I currently have 1000 striped sweet paper bags in my bedroom. I have no idea how I'm going to use all of them as I only need a small amount...bugger!
I also got stickers I'd ordered off moo.com t'other day and they look so cool and professional! I'm made up with them! Hurrah!
Anyway, must be off, trying to tinker with my website (I have now moved to moonfruit.com and am just in the process of decorating, I'm hoping it will spruce it up over the weekend and it will be done by Sunday/Monday! So if its done by then, I will be back here to plug it! See you then!)

Nilbog!

Dude, I went and saw the infamous Troll 2 on Tuesday...and it has changed my life...in a small, minute way, but still...its changed my usual quotes for a while!
Yeaaaah.... go see the Worst Movie ever...

Woo Mama!
Is it wrong that I want to make the Worst Movie Ever, in the rare chance that it could become a cult film because of its bad-ness? No...that is not wrong...I plan to do it! YEAH!

Bobs Burgers

Wowzer. I know I ain't been round for a while. Had various bits of work to do, and also some how slogging along trying to set everything up for my business! But heres a screenshot of the Domestic Violence application I'm working on:

Its come together pretty quickly, and I have to admit I'm kind of proud of my design for this application. Its been a bit more interesting than RATS 2...although a bit more nerve wracking too! (In terms of using my own design - as with RATS 2 I had the original to work to!)



Anyway, I thought I would give a quick mention to a new TV show on E4 called 'Bobs Burgers', which I'm finding to be 10 kinds of awesome at the moment. I really like the style of it, and I was pleased to discover that its directed by the guy (Louren Bouchard) who made 'Home Movies', which was from many years ago (and I wish I'd watched more of but I was too busy being a moody teenager at the time). But yes, I'm quite chuffed that this show is so good, I hope it carries on and doesn't get axed or what not...

And something else I must mention, does anyone remember the cartoon called 'Odd World'...or something similar to that? (No I'm not taking about the alien thing that I just looked up on Google Images) I fear I'm going insane as I've tried searching for it but to no avail. It had a similar style to 'Home Movies'. It was about this town were weird things would happen every so often...to hilarious effect!! Yeah. It was good. It was funny because it was clearly more adult humour, but Nickelodeon must have bought it and not realised till later, which is why I think it was taken off the air...heh.

But yes, toodle pip and all that jazz!

(Psst...I'm loving the new series of Skins....don't tell anyone...)

Cakery!

Would you like a cake? Here you go! Choose from this lovely selection!