Having a hard time concentrating on anything today because I’m just SO EXCITED!

In other news, something funny [...]]]> I can’t contain myself!!! We are picking up our kitten TOMORROW!! Andrew refers to her as the ‘office cat’ and I think he expects her to be typing up reports and answering the phone hehe.

Having a hard time concentrating on anything today because I’m just SO EXCITED!

In other news, something funny happened the other day. I was talking to an insurance company on the phone and the guy was getting a gazillion details from me. I had to liaise with Andrew about some of them so I put the person I was talking to on hold. THEN HE STARTED TALKING ABOUT ME!! When I put someone on hold I can still hear what they are saying, they just can’t hear me (effectively the phone just mutes itself from my side). So this person was talking smack behind my back. They were saying stuff like “oh I’m obviously talking to the wrong person, this is just a PA”…! I’m not a PA but isn’t it hilariously funny that the call centre person feels superior to a PA?!

So I guess the lesson is, when someone puts you on hold, don’t mouth off about them as chances are they might hear you! (unless that is your intention of course)

As much as I enjoy painting I’m not that prolific creating it (not because I don’t want to, but usually because of self doubt and other such issues). [...]]]> I’m currently taking an online art class which is run by my friend Tam. It’s called World of Whimsy and it’s a lot of fun!

As much as I enjoy painting I’m not that prolific creating it (not because I don’t want to, but usually because of self doubt and other such issues). Beside a few sketches the below portrait is the first ‘finished’ piece I’ve created using the skills and techniques Tam is teaching. I absolutely love the shading techniques she uses, they’re quite easy and produce a subtle but nice effect.

I’m really proud of this one actually! The scanner hasn’t really done it justice though. Come to think of it, I really need to clean it, there’s a ton of dust and little specks on everything I scan.

I’m really enjoying working on this [...]]]>

Hope & Joy WIP, originally uploaded by rrreow.

Painting this for my aunt. She has two cats called Hope & Joy. Her birthday was earlier this week so I’m a bit behind schedule but I’m hoping she’ll like it enough to see past that =p

I’m really enjoying working on this so far. Working bigger than usual, which is actually a lot easier (I know Tam, you told me that!)! Working bigger I’m not so frustrated with my brushes not doing what I want because the margin of error is much bigger and I’m finally getting to grips with mixing acrylic paints and glaze to get a nice texture that I like working with.

The right cat looks a bit messy and I wish I’d done better on that, but I really struggled with the pattern of its coat (based on what the cat looks like in real life). However I’m VERY pleased with how the one on the left turned out. Also pleased with the girl’s face and her hair. All in all having a very good feeling about this and that’s quite rare for me to feel about my art!

So I’ve been thinking that I want this blog & site to be a bit different. OK I go [...]]]> Soooo I haven’t updated since August! I’m so bad at sticking with something (like blogging). I’m so good at starting stuff, just not great at finishing, it’s the story of my life I swear!

So I’ve been thinking that I want this blog & site to be a bit different. OK I go through a phase thinking that every so often and then fizzle out, but gosh darnit this time I’m serious! I think.. Soooo this blog post is gonna just incorporate everything that I was thinking this site will incorporate too, which is pure and undiluted ME. What else did you expect, right?

First of all, what has been happening in the life of Iris since August 2008? Well, I guess the most groundbreaking, earthshattering and interesting fact is that.. *drumroll* I got married! The lucky victim was (and is) Andrew, my boyfriend of 4 years. We got married in London on 31 October 2008.

We went on our honeymoon to Leicestershire (how exotic, I know) where we had rented a narrow boat. It was so peaceful and amazing. I would recommend this type of holiday to anyone. And even though we went in November and it was cold, that didn’t make it uncomfortable or anything. The weather was just part of it and we had some amazing days.

I did a bit of art while on the boat but haven’t taken pics of that yet, but I will soon. I just can’t stress enough how amazingly tranquil it was, SUCH a good place to get inspired and do art. It’s also nice to be in a place that doesn’t have the usual distractions of computers & the internet.

Now that we’re married we’re incredibly poor. *cries* I know I know, children in Africa are starving and I don’t know what the word ‘poor’ really means. It’s been good for us in a way though, because we’ve had to really evaluate what we spend, and what we can spend. Nevertheless, at certain times it depresses me a bit because going without luxuries, even though very doable, can be a bit of a dampener on our spirits. It also makes socialising very hard. People suggesting we go catch up with a drink/dinner, a friend of mine who has invited me to her wedding. Can’t afford to do those kind of things. Blegh, talking about it is making me feel sad, so I’ll just move on!

On January 5th it was my grandmother’s (if I recall correctly) 92nd birthday! Isn’t that amazing? As she doesn’t really need anything and we couldn’t afford anything, I made her a present! I created a painting for her.

Because of the ‘deadline’ (her birthday) this is actually the quickest mixed media piece I have ever done (2 evenings). I think that was really good for me, because it meant I had to just DO IT, rather than thinking about it for ages and ending up leaving it half finished in a drawer somewhere.

Apparently it made her cry profusely which was weird on the one hand and very touching on the other. I think maybe she thought it was supposed to represent me and my mother. I painted it having in mind a grandmother & granddaughter figure though (not necessarily me and her).

When it comes to work, work is just.. work. I wish I liked it more than I do. Just a bit of background, Andrew and I work together on our own video production business. He started it up about 2.5 years ago and I’ve been working full-time for the company for about 1.5 years. It is not my passion, nor what I want to do with my life, but I DO want to support Andrew and help build something for us. I just hope to figure out sooner or later what it is that I actually want to do. It’s all well and good knowing what you don’t want to do, but that still doesn’t help me find out what I do want to do. There are way too many do’s in that paragraph so I will stop it now.

This update is starting to become pretty epic so I think I will wrap it up, that way hopefully I will have something more to say when I update again soon.