New Year, New Studio

Well it's been quite a while since I've posted - things have been busy once again. The holidays flew by (what holidays?) and projects that were postponed from December came back to eat up my spare time. But more about that later.

My holidays were mostly spent at home, fixing up and cleaning our poor little house which was very neglected in the last few months of 2006. Yes, scrubbing bathtubs, cleaning shelves, weeding the garden, dusting and deodorizing, that is how I spent my vacation. A lot of work (okay, in between family get togethers, smoked salmon & champagne and bbq's, I must admit) but it was all worth it.... I'm no longer embarassed if someone just 'pops over' unannounced (unless it's 2pm and I'm still in my pyjamas, as sometimes happens when I'm working at home)

But I digress... the best part of this whole cleaning frenzy was fixing up my studio, which i started doing in October or so - got it to functional stage, but not aesthetically pleasing stage. Well now it's all done, including shiny new 20" iMac, and I love it. Love it love it love it. love. it. It feels so good to be in here. I keep saying to A, "I feel like a real illustrator now!"

so here are some before and after pics:

my old G4, and table I used for drawing. (2 pics stuck together - that's why the table looks askew!)


"shelves" for books made from old wooden boxes


and, ta dahhhh...... (click to see bigger)

oh so much better. so much more room. notice the bench top on the right which runs from wall to wall (thanks A!) and houses my scanner, computer, drawing board, supplies and light box, with a bit of extra horizontal surface for piling things on, which is always good!

here are some closeups of other stuff






it's not a huge space (though not small either) but I think I've made it work and I feel really happy with it. Plus it's just in a nice part of the house - though the last photo was taken standing in the kitchen; my studio doesn't actually have doors which I often lament - but the good part is it ajoins the lounge which has french doors out onto the garden. So it gets lots of light, is warm, and just feels good!

still haven't gotten back to Illustration Fridays yet but I am working on a few other fun things which I hope to post soon....
xx

ps. just for the record, it is really hard to handwrite on a computer, even using a wacom tablet. My writing isn't THAT bad, I swear!