Greener Pastures

Dear readers,
I have truly enjoyed getting into the swing of things on this address BUT I write now to let you know that I am moving. My new blog (which, you'll be pleased to know is the same but better) is at tumblr- due to it better suiting the needs of what I want this site to be.
So please follow me now at elizabethandays.tumblr.com
The best thing is that I will soon be featuring guest-bloggers which could, easily, be you. I very much encourage your input, telling your personal take on Elizabethan Days.
Also, If you are not a tumblr person then please do stay in touch with me and my work via facebook.
My new blog will update instantly to facebook so doing so is made easy for you. I like a good spoon-feeding.
Lots of love,
Elizabeth xx

Sinking into Summer (almost)

This past week has been a funny mixture of food poisoning, computer mishaps/disasters, and the contentment that comes with a slowly brightening season. While the wind still blows cool, I now officially can feel the beckoning of summer and it makes this place grow greener, lazier and better.
There is something about the shift of the season now that makes me want nothing more than to sit, like a little granny, in De Wynn's and eat Bread Pudding and watch the boats
s l o w l y f l o a t a l o n g . . .
In between a shift at work and going to college, I made it down the road to the beach and lay there and read for a couple hours. While I often walk or run along the coast, I haven't been to sprawl out on the sand for months and I was happy to find it felt again foreign and luxurious.

Lately I find that all of my usual attentiveness to making plans, goals, and happily checking things off on my to-do-lists goes out that wide-open window and I feel more and more like just lying around.Odd, because I would guess that is a more common symptom of winter.

With this said, I do keep calm and carry on and have made a couple illustrations to send off to a tshirt competition.

Volcanic Ash

It has been an amazing couple weeks in Falmouth- Spring has rolled in smoothly and, even with the biting wind, the outdoors have turned crisp, clear and persistently inviting. Falmouth feels isolated, safe, and sometimes odd. The Volcanic cloud supposedly swept over us a week ago half past midnight and some locals said their cars were dusty in the morning, I don't know if that's true. But when I am walking, or taking a run, along the coast I like to think about that big volcanic cloud, full of ash and fire, floating heavy and slowly over the earth.When you think about that act of nature and others that haven't happened to us yet, the conspirators and palm-readers worried about 2012, the seas slowly getting higher- the ocean becomes a whole different thing.

It looks to me sometimes almost like it did to the Classicists: horrible, chaotic and full of monsters and things we ought not know about.

But on a good day, when I am being brave, it is the best thing there is.

There are lovely things about the other places I have lived or visited. (Edinburgh is a place I find hard not to miss.) But being so near the sea- looking out at it and seeing that it doesn't end- is something that really makes me feel my luckiest. D and I got restless and went for a walk along the beach yesterday. It was windy and choppy and the sea looked deep blue and dangerous. We walked along the rocks from one sandy beach to the other and liked best balancing over the rock-pools and enjoying the parts you can only see in low-tide.

I can't wait for the summer, when the winds (hopefully) die down and we can lay on the beach in the sand and work up enough heat to jump into the cold, cold water.
More soon xx

Wine

At last I have a whole week (off work) to catch up on college and my health and habits, all of which I've missed almost bitterly. It's been a very, very busy past few weeks- too much- but not all of which has been trouble of course. Above are a few sketches from a recent commission for Spotlight magazine, focused around different positive student topics. They were a lot of fun to do and it was sweet to have a short side-project... and a job that doesn't require a name-tag.
Please do have a look at the final illustrations here.
It's a crazy time now, lots of change and much to do. My new husband and I are in the middle of a move into a lovely lodging house on a high-road in Falmouth. Our big window looks out onto the cascading red and green roof-tops of the town and even shows a peek of the dark blue water of the harbour and boats sitting still atop.
We keep the company of two lovely owners (the landlords), a couple other tenants, a collie-dog and a black and white house-cat. The first thing you see when you walk through the door, fully fashioned with a Tall Ship door knocker are two big, glowing fish tanks with all sorts of lovely fish that I wouldn't know how to name. It's maritime all the way and I feel slowly that Falmouth is starting to really sink into me. Or me into it. I look forward now to a full week of moving, running, swimming, and drawing like mad.
More very soon.
x

Hearts

Above is a design I did recently on behalf of my grandmother, Christine Kaufmann. It is to be sold for a children's charity on the German home shopping network this June, or thereabouts.
Fun, huh?
x

Detour

I have been naughty again with sparce posting and too much work elsewhere. A lot of the reason for this is that I am working on a big project (as part of my MA) that is in a way, a secret. A mystery actually. I don't want to give it away.
I did do some wee drawings last night, while watching an old film in the dark, and have posted them below.
The seagulls are calling outside my window, and other chirping has been ringing loudly all morning too. We get different birds here than in Edinburgh I think. They sound different. Helicopters have been going all morning too, they must be doing coast-guard training in the Bay. It seems a lot of acitivity for such a grey and wet day.
Xx more soon.

Stor(m)y brew

Character sketch. Rich, the Insomniac.






















Type-tests.






















Very rough draft of a page from my upcoming comic book- where most of my work is going these days.

More soon. I am back to Falmouth after the best Florida holiday/wedding/christmas ever. Funny how then it all goes back to normal.
Xo