Superheroes & Villains!....

Ok, so I'm running behind on my Amelie & Atticus Photo Challenge. Forgive me! The day-job is TAKING OVER MY LIFE. No time for reading my favourite blogs even! So I'm very far behind on what all of you are up to "out there". Anyhoo, back to matters at hand....

These shots are for the Superheroes & Villains theme. Now I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the subject, so had to scout out a suitable model. I could not have hoped for a more compliant one! Stay tuned - I might manage to catch up on the rest of this months challenges on the weekend....

Consume!....

Cover artwork by Adam Nickel.

Oh my! I'm way too busy at the day-job to do anything even remotely creative, so it's good news that the latest issue of blanket magazine is here! This way, I can at least read about creative people and aspire to one day join their ranks. Of course, I'm sturggling to find the time to read it, but I can at least look at the pretty pictures. Get yours here.

Black & white....

This month's theme for the Amelie & Atticus Photo Challenge is 'Couplings', with the first week being black & white. As I don't allow any photshopping of my images for this challenge, I've tried to take colour photos which look like they could be b&w photos (does that make sense?). I think I've pulled it off - when you look at my photos with the rest of the uploads on flickr, some of which are definitely coverted to black & white, I think they fit in pretty well (though I'm not convinced they work as a foursome).

Are there no original ideas?....

Ok, that's a bit dramatic perhaps. It stems from 2 things I've found online today. Firstly, via a bit of a blog link journey, I came across this story of plagiarism to the extreme. An amazing Chicago-based artist Lauren Nassef (that's her drawing, above) has been blatently copied by a UK textile artist. This was not a case of one artist being inspired by another, but of a person stealing designs in such a calculated manner. Read the first link to see examples. It's shocking and indisputable. And also very sad.

I moved on to the black apple, a blog I visit every few months. There I found some adorable alphabet prints. The conundrum? I've been working on something so very similar for the past 3 months! I know the 2 situations don't compare as I certainly didn't see the black apple's designs until today, but it made me feel a little bit unoriginal. I think I'll keep working on my alphabet, as I'd like to see it through (plus, there's a bit of a twist). Ho-hum.

**postnote: It appears Lauren Nassef isn't the only victim. For a follow-up, see this post at Book By Its Cover**

Happy birthday to me....

Yesterday was my birthday and the lovely Mr Stink took me out for tapas at the new Andaluz tapas bar in the city last night. Oh my, how delicious! It's great that Perth is finally getting some kickass little bars to stop us all from moving to Melbourne. Thanks babe! xx

One spoon or two....

I bought some lovely sugarbowls recently. 60, to be exact. They are so creamy and smooth and I just couldn't resist! But don't worry - I haven't lost the plot. They're for my new ceramic decal designs which I've been toiling away at when I find the time.

I've got 3 different design ideas on the go at the moment, and all will be done (in due course) using the same technique I used for these.

I'll show off the first design idea later this week. I hope you like it. :)

Something to remember....

take off your clothes via design for mankind

I read a lot of blogs. I love following people through their creative pursuits to get an understanding of the process. The blogs I read are generally of people who do their creative stuff for a living full time and that's where the problem starts. I work full time at a completely uncreative job (career, even) and when I read all this inspiring stuff, I forget that these people don't have to squeeze in what they do between 50 hours a week of uninspiring stuff. So this post is just a reminder to me (and maybe to you?) not to be too hard on myself when I don't accomplish as much as I would like to for the sunday project. And to perhaps be more realistic about what I can (and can't) achieve.

It's also a good time to reflect on what the sunday project means to me, and with that in mind I'm trying to address that pesky work-life-sundayproject balance which is pretty off skew these days. I've got some exciting things coming up this month which will hopefully help me change my focus a little. Fingers crossed.

Green (finally)....

I really struggled with green for the Amelie & Atticus Photo Challenge. I tried to photograph the winter landscape but I just couldn't do it justice. I tried plants on sand dunes - no good. In the end I folded some green paper and worked with that. I still don't love the results (partly because the green is so yellow) but it's time to move on to the next challenge! Be sure to take a look at all the July photos on flickr, especially those of ernie.louise who is this month's winner.