Life in Melbourne so far

I have been living in Melbourne for just over a month now. I'm still looking for a place to rent as well as find an area I'd like to live in.

Me at Luna Park the other week. St Kilda beach is a really cool area for drinks, food and quirky shops.

Classic Flinders street station pic with the Eureka sky deck peeking over the top.

I went to the State Library of Victoria in the centre of Melbourne. Huge building, I sat in the main reading room. It was busy but very quiet. If someone was to cough it would echo forever.

Sun Theatre, Yarraville. We briefly wandered about the main street here, it was a nice little area.

Wander round Malvern - another area with the typical small quirky style shops you will find throughout Melbourne.

Lunch, including a Tim Tam milkshake which was ridiculous but amazing! I'm definitely going back here!

One of my recent book purchases - Anne of Green Gables. I've never read it before but I thought it would be a good book to read for inspiration for future illustrations.

 Been trying out a new style of drawing with ink and adding watercolour over the top. This was a first attempt, I think it worked out not bad.

Chicago

We arrived in Chicago on the 2nd of February. It was a huge difference to New York. Freezing cold! We stayed on the Magnificent mile at the Sheraton, which was really nice. On the first day we got some amazing pancakes for breakfast from a place called Wildberry Pancakes. So good! Then we walked through Millennium park to take some pictures of the bean and make our way to the art institute. The rest of the time we did some shopping and got a tour of the stadium Soldier Field. We obviously tried some deep dish pizza but never got round to getting some Garretts popcorn.

New York

I have started making my way across America. My first stop was New York! We left Glasgow on the 28th January on a 9am flight to London and from there we boarded the plane to New York. It was very exciting, this is a huge trip we are on plus the fact we are emigrating adds to all the excitement and nerves.

New York was massive, busy, colorful, smelly, loud, dynamic, energetic, fun, scary, chaotic and fast!
To sum it up in a few words, it really is the city that never sleeps. Our hotel was smack bang in the middle of it all so we were right next to all the shops, Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.

It's a great city and I really enjoyed walking about Times Square, Central Park and all the other famous landmarks. It was just a bit too overwhelming for me. Saying that I would visit again.

Leaving Scotland

So eh.. I thought I should probably post an update on this blog.
In four weeks I am leaving Scotland to visit America for one month. Then I will be going on to Australia.
I am so excited because I have never been to America before. First stop will be New York, then Chicago, Tuscon, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii then it's on to Sydney! Exciting times ahead. It's a long holiday which I wont be coming home from. So I'll be going to Australia to live and find work. It's scary and I'm nervous but you know what? I've lived in this shitty town in Scotland most of my life and there's nothing left for me here. Scotland will always be my home and I'm sure I'll miss it and if things don't work out I can easily book flights back.
I'm looking forward to more sunshine (fingers crossed) and a change of lifestyle. I will have to adapt to the Australian way of life and how they have conversations and their little sayings etc.

I am going to blog my experience to let others who are thinking about emigrating get an insight in to what it's like. Getting a visa was not easy, it was a long and tedious process.

bye for now

Nicola

Birds

This illustration was inspired by a song. Sort of. The song is called 'Waiting for Birds' and it is about waiting til the end of the night to get with someone you like, or waiting til the birds start singing.

So I came up with this. The song has violin in it and that is kind of how I came up with the strings attached to the heart. Originally I came up with a drawing that was just the heart with the strings being played with a bow. Then some birds pulling at the strings of the heart. This was just an experimental drawing that I liked and decided to go further with it. I quite like how it turned out. 

I used a fine liner pen to sketch it out, painted it with watercolours and then finished it in Photoshop.

Suzy Bishop

I love the film Moonrise Kingdom. I saw it for the first time recently and loved it. Directed by Wes Anderson, I very much enjoy the way his films look, they are so satisfying to watch with the attention to detail in every scene. Moonrise Kingdom is set on a fictional island called 'New Penzance'. It is a love story in which two out-casts run away aka Sam Shakowski and Suzy Bishop.

My sketch of Suzy with her binoculars, which she always carries with her. I sketched it out in pencil, then I drew it with a waterproof fineliner, then I obviously used watercolour paints.

My new little art space

I went to Ikea recently to get some furniture for my 'studio' which was basically a section of my spare room that had all of my art supplies and sketchbooks piled up against the wall. It now looks some what more like a little working space for me to draw, paint, listen to music, surf the web etc.

'Why do you always use binoculars?'  'It helps me see things closer. Even if they're not very far away. I pretend it's my magic power.'

Book Review - Tinder

If a book has a pretty cover, I'm pretty much sold. I do buy books if the story sounds good but this book by Sally Gardiner, I pretty much bought it because I loved the art work.

Tinder is a dark fantasy horror, haunting and mystifying at some parts, with a tragic ending. It was a very enjoyable story with dramatic twists, horrid characters and gruesome events. Death, despair and a bit of romance included.

The illustrations really brought the plot to life, I enjoyed flipping the pages to see the next drawing. They are all done in black and white with red being the only colour.

I wont give the story away and let you read it for yourself. Definitely worth splashing out the 9.99 that I paid for this.

Warrior King Illustration

Here is my latest illustration I am in the process of completing. I thought I was finished until I stepped back and saw that the cloak blended in with the background. Not good. Handy tip; always step back and look at your work from a distance, you will almost always notice something that doesn't quite look right.

I was influenced by some pictures I found on Pinterest of some people in warrior costumes on a film set or photoshoot.

I used pens and watercolours.