Monday, 16 May 2011

Towerbar Takeover

"Jade, draw me." "No, Dean." "How about now?" "BUGGER OFF DEAN."

I've been meaning to do a write up of the takeover night, which was a couple of Thursdays back, it was such a good event. Run by my university's Japanese Anime Media Society, it was a Japanese-themed night of sumo-suit fights, riceball making, sake drinking, calligraphy writing, anime watching, face painting aaaaand PORTRAIT DRAWING! I was selling manga-style portraits at half my usual price on the night, and boy did I draw a lot! I couldn't take a break to see everything going on so I ended up having the sake and riceballs brought to me by the lovely gentlemen Dean and Antony respectively. Thanks guys, I was fatigued!


*POUT*

So at the start of the night, business was pretty slow. It was pretty hot in there too, I was wearing the outer layer of my Kobato kimono, yukata style. It was pretty comfy!

Uncle Rob didn't think much of my business cards from uk.moo.com, but I love them. He proceeded to try to act like my agent, so I made him an Uncle Rob sign and left him to sit quietly in the corner XD Good thing the event didn't go on 'til Midnight or we'd have turned the sign around...

Buuuuut eventually people started becoming interested, and once I'd got a few done everyone was lining up! It got pretty damn busy >_< Even the event manager of the bar wanted one (you can see it next to my elbow in the photo above).


I had heaps of fun, and got to sneak glances at the calligraphers all night. In the above photo I'm drawing Madam Johnway. Our crossdressing geisha.


... Don't ask.



One happy customer!


and RAINBOW MAAAAAAAAN.


Rainbow Man Elliot and the new president of the anime society (also my boyfriend) Dean. On a side note, that rising sun painted on his face took forever to come off. The sink in our flat looked like a murder scene! That poor bar of soap.
And finally, here's some of the portraits I got done both on the night and a few done shortly afterwards (I couldn't get everyone's done in the 4 hours of the event, haha.)
I think I did around twenty+ portraits in the end, they were so much fun to do. Definitely going to continue to offer these at other events, such as the London Expo at the end of this month (eee, so excited for that, it's right after my degree show.)

So anyway that was the Japanese takeover ^_^ Anyone living near the University of Lincoln should keep an eye out for more of these events in the future, as the society seems keen on running more - and you never know, ya might bump into moi~!

Saturday, 14 May 2011

Vintage stalls, hipsters and Phil Collins




Hokay so I feel pretty hipster today. So hipster in fact that I bought these cheap glasses^. It was too funny at the time not to. BUT ANYWAY. Along with my flatmate Sarah (http://www.sarah-a-illustration.co.uk/) I took a stroll down to the How Bazaar event at our university, where a whole bunch of awesome people were selling some great handmade bits and bobs, and illustrated prints too.


I ended up spending more than I intended but there were some awesome people behind the stalls today. It was especially nice to meet the illustrators behind work I'd seen at last years degree show; I ended up buying badges and prints from Jake Lockett, Katie Upson and Kyle Underwood (hope I got yer names right!), and was surprised to find that Kyle has been reading my webcomic Cafe Suada! :D Result.


Also saw a fantastic print highlighting a major issue: The difference between Jafar cake and Jaffacake. SO easy to get them mixed up. It was a fun event to say the least, and it had a kickass soundtrack to say the most! First step inside and Back to the Future starts playing, followed by Phil Collin's In the Air Tonight, followed by MORE AWESOME.

Yup. 'Twas a good Saturday. But now I must return to getting ready for the degree show. All of my final project stuff is pretty much ready to go up, it's just that I need to hunt down and sort out all of my competition work into something presentable... I'll do my best. U_U'''






I leave you with Jaffacake: http://qkme.me/2s63