Student Nature

I'm a bad person! I've been a neglectful blogger... :(

Isn't it always the way though...when something becomes something you 'have' to do, even if it's something you really enjoy, you just don't want to do it anymore?

I think I'm going to miss you the most, Gary the Vampire Slayer...

Hence. I have a dissertation to finish and two essays due for Friday, so here I am blogging. :P Oh dear. I would blame it on student nature, but I don't think that's a real thing, so let's just call it what it is: a momentariness lapse into sheer laziness. 

This is what I do when I've been involved in something epic: I put my everything into it, then have a huge crash afterwards. It was true after I designed and headed art department for a short film last year, it was true after I was Head Scenic Artist for the RSAMD's panto, and it's true of this. 

Outpost was huge for me, for so many reasons. Obviously the work was hard; but that's just the nature and reality of Scenic Art, and one of the things I love about it. It's good, old-fashioned, sore muscles and collapsing into a real true sleep kind of day. It's hands-on, it's dirty, it's losing all vanity and accepting that you will be stained, hurt, cold, and probably stinky at the end of the day. For me, it's life. And my life would be empty without it. 

But all that aside, when I went to Outpost I had the added stress of knowing that I was actually being assessed by my Head Scenic Artist. I know she had many other things on her mind at the time, but I was also aware that at some point she will be forced to sit down and actually reflect on my time there, write down her thoughts, and send them onto my lecturer. 

No pressure...but I had to be amazing! 

Time management, attitude, work ethic, competency, workshop awareness...I had a mental list in my head, trying to keep myself constantly in check, and worrying far too much. Too much to actually just enjoy myself sometimes, maybe, but that's a lesson in itself, don't you think?

So after I was done there, I had a bit of crash mentally. Didn't really feel up to anything hard, so I returned to uni with bright ideas for working on pieces for our graduation showcase in between whatever production work was happening in the department. It was a bit like coming home when I arrived at the paint shop. I even caught myself inhaling (with pleasure) the weird familiar smells of the still new building. 

You know it's bad when you get excited because you recognise stains on the floor...

I allowed myself some time to recover. 

I set myself up with a bit of a 'warm-up' painting and spent a blissful three days staring at a beautiful bird. 

It's a self portrait. Recognise the nose?

I haven't really painted anything since summer last year, which is a nonsense. True, in scenic art you won't often get to do much 'fine art' painting, but it's silly to not keep your skills sharp anyway. So cue Wee Beaky here to get me back in the swing, before tackling a nice new painting to display at the Grad show (maybe) It's looking promising, should be finished before the weekend so will keep you updated ;)

This week I've been a bit hyperactive. I'm full of beans, and words, and ideas and energy. I wonder if it's because it's creeping towards the end of term. Usually the summer term is my best one for progress and results and all that so I'm excited to see what's going to happen! I'm graduating soon, and I'm feeling a bit like the world's my oyster. 

In the immortal words of Charlie Sheen: I've got tiger blood. Winning, anyone? Sounds like winning!

Perhaps should wrap this up. Get some essays written. Get some folk emailed. Get some Oreos scoffed.

Wishing you all a pleasant night! 

Love, love, love, love! 

Xx

"I look back at where I'm from, look at the woman I've become, and the strangest things seem...suddenly routine." - Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Shuttering, Immaturity and Warring Hamsters

The majority of my week at Outpost 2 has been spent 'shuttering' once again. To give the illusion of shuttered concrete, these lines are to be added to every part of the new set using artex and a template method.

The theory is simple. The reality is not. A two person job, and a lot of faffing required to make it beautiful...in a job where high speed is desired, it's a wee bit stressful. But oh so satisfying when it looks good :)

As with most jobs of this nature, somebody usually becomes the designated expert (or muggins) and with shuttering, that person is me. So safe to say I've been doing a lot of it - with many different partners. 

I actually like the job for the simple reason that it is so sociable. With one person  holding the template and another measuring, adjusting and spooning in artex, you are very much in each other's space with nothing to do but chat. I've had the chance to get to know people through shuttering, and that's probably been one of my favourite things about this job. Every week there are new faces in the team, some I know, most I don't, and I love learning about different people. 

Maisie has unorthodox ways of drying the pipes quickly...

My fellow RSAMD scenic art girly Maisie came early to help this week :) I haven't had a lot of her chat since Panto as she was slogging away in her minor subject, construction, since the beginning of term. 

She was part of the team during panto when I was completing my management role, so it's been good to bully her again :) Don't judge me, it gets things done!

It's a third year's prerogative to bully the second years after all!

Maisie and I polished off the last of the pipes together before moving onto some shuttering. The pipes are now done! I kind of miss them...

Also this week at Outpost...immaturity from the Scenic Artists 

Lynsey made a fake poo out of artex to prank the chippies. We enjoy it.

Also this week I nipped back to the Academy for a wee Albert Herring paint call. 

We got the back of the stage painted with a sort of horizon design, which was a bit of a new challenge as it required the use of a tallescope and a scaff tower. I'm not really used to working at that height for anything more complicated than priming, so it was an interesting way of working.

 

Gary's crazy hands and JoAnne chatting  

Jo is the Head Scenic Artist for this opera, so she was in charge or organising us and keeping us on track with our schedule. She even brought some carrot cake to motivate the masses! It worked. 

:) 

Being in a heated building was a complete shock to my body and I spent most of the afternoon overheating. A first for me, that's for sure.

I don't enjoy a tallescope. I know they have their practical uses for others, but as a scenic artist it's always a tight squeeze up there, and not enough room even to put down a pot of paint. But, in true scenic artist form, we got oor it. 

We have another paint call on Tuesday, and I'm really looking forward to it. There are some really nice bits and bobs to do, so stay tuned. :)

A bit of a hamster update...they hate each other.

The last time they were happy together...

Depressingly, B-Bop and Rock Steady have reached a fork in the road in their relationship, and they decided to beat each other on it. Although we took care to get two males, and a species which tend to be lovers and not fighters, we unfortunately also got landed with two alpha males! And they just couldn't get along. Being hamsters, there's not much room for compromise. But they're our hamsters now, and they will be ours for all their little lives. So, a trip to Pets At Home later, and new free cage, bedding and home, and our little furry friends are now much happier chaps. 

Oh well. Best laid plans of hamsters and Iansy...

And you know what else? Here's another photo of recently baked goods. Because they make me happy. 

Lemon muffins, because we were craving them!

Xx


"Come on, girls, God wouldn't have given you maracas if he didn't want you to shaaake 'em!"

- Dirty Dancing 

Spreading the Love (and Chocolate)

Another hugely busy week, full of baking, painting and making. It occurred to me earlier that my life could easily be described as a life of hobbies...especially this week, as I've been thoroughly bitten by the baking bug, and have used it to get me through the endless hours of arts and crafts involved in making my brother's wedding invitations. 

But more of that later! Let's recap with the latest news from the Stepps Nazi bunker...

It's been another prep week mostly for me - the biggest jobs are still priming areas, artexing, and 'shuttering' concrete (adding some artex lines to the walls) I've got mixed feelings about these kinds of jobs. On the one hand, sometimes there's no better feeling than that your work is cut out for you, and you've everything you need to be kept going all day - it was a it like that for me with the pipes, and it's same with artexing. It's a low-pressure job where you can lose yourself in the work for a bit, allow your mind to wander, and I can sometimes find some peace of mind during these times. However, there is the obvious down side that it can be tedious after a length of time, and a problem perhaps more specific to this job, but staying still for too long can result in painfully numb extremities. 

But on Thursday I got a bit of a break from all that to go do a wee cheeky bit of finishing! :D I was really excited to get my teeth into something which required a bit more thought, and I was able to be fussy about what I was doing because it was the finished piece. I was, however, surprised when I got a tiny touch of 'the fear'! That moment when you suddenly become doubtful of everything about you and your abilities, and you've no idea why you're in that position of responsibility, because really you're quite daft, untalented, inexperienced and generally unpleasant. 

It passed. I carried on. 

What's life without a little panic?

One of the reasons I love scenic art is because I can usually find a lot of joy in simple parts of the job. Like how whenever I dipped my brush into this wash, a few minutes later when I glanced back, the most incredible, beautiful shapes would be slowly swirling in the bucket...

Looking at our tea breaks this week, you'd think we'd been breeding. Our scenic team went from four to ten, including some first years from the RSAMD, and my fellow scenic major 3rd year, blogger and general banter chum, JoAnne. She came for a few days to help Gary carve out a giant mine shaft, which was at the end of our tunnel of love where many hours of shuttering, and manoeuvring heaters for 'light' was had.

It was a good week. I've become a it in awe of the professional carpenters, probably because it's something which I will never be able to do. It's hard to believe that next week is my 4th...it's flown by. 

Considering the fact that I am out the flat for 11 hours a day, an amazing amount has happened in my personal life this week! The most exciting being the additions to our little family...that's right, congratulations are in order - we have two baby dwarf hamsters! 

Introducing B-Bop

and Rock Steady

A life-long dream of Iansy's and I like them too. :) I know there are a lot of cynics...but these two little creatures are really different and loads of fun! B-Bop is mental - he likes to nibble anything he comes into contact with, even his house and he enjoy gymnastics in his spare time...

Rock Steady is a bit more mellow, and a lot more skittish. He's still a bit scared of us, but we'll win him over. We like narrating their life for them :)

They're only two weeks old, and Iansy's new favourite thing in the whole world. They will be well loved and adored. 

This week I also embarked on a new baking adventure, inspired by Lorraine Pascale a la 'Baking Made Easy'   and her AMAZING looking brownies. I decided I would make some for my brother's birthday as he's a choc fiend. The recipe is perfection, easy as promised and they look as fantastic as they taste...

Nothing like ig chunks of Oreos to make you go 'OOFT'

Highly recommended to anybody with a gooey chocolatey sweet tooth...they've gone down a treat. And honestly, very easy to make, although if you want my advice I would make sure you get a good dark chocolate as it makes all the difference with brownies. Recipe! Enjoy :)

My week's also been filled with finishing the invites for my brother's and future sister-in-law's wedding. I've been working on them on and off for weeks, but this weekend I ploughed through and got them mostly finished. It's been many hours of double-sided sticky tape, ribbon, and scrapbook mish-mash invites...I think they're looking quite nice - and though I do enjoy this sort of thing, I'll be glad when they're out of my hands and I can check that one massive job well and truly off my to-do list. 

Other highlights of the weekend include a visit doon to Hamilton to see some of the Cocozza clan, and give the gift of chocolate brownies to brother Cocozza, and spend a bit of time with my newest nephew Cocozza :)

Franco with his daddy

Franco blue eyes <3

So sad to be watching football

Biscuits make it all better :)

We love a Friday night mud mask

Shall endeavour to blog at least once more before the weekend - it'll save from these mammoth posts every Saturday or Sunday :D

Up this week: back to the Academy for an Albert Herring paint call on Wednesday, and my super elite team of 2nd years come for some bunker action. 

Stay tuned :)

Xx

"Cos without love, life is like the seasons with no summer. Without love, life is rock and roll without a drummer. Darling, I'll be yours forever cos I never want to be without love. So darling, never set me free."

- Hairspray

Artex, Artex, Pipe, Artex, Biscuits, Artex, Artex < 3

Greetings from Outpost 2!

 

I've had a really brilliant time on my work placement this week. Give me artex, pipes and poo-lookalike paint everyday of my life and I'll be a happy, happy lass. 

The majority of work so far has been prep work: priming and basing paint, initial texture coats which will be worked into later with washes, sprays and dry brushing. Boring or tedious work to some, but I actually get a lot of enjoyment out of priming set. Sometimes it's lovely just to have your work cut out for you, everything you need to get on with a job, and the only thing to think about is how much you can get done

This was the first half of my week, with a hundred million pipes to paint. (OK, fine, but there's was at least over a hundred) Most were old cardboard tubes, and all had to get their first coat of 'rust' - brown paint which looked remarkably like sewage pipes had got confused about how they work...

It's paint and sawdust, I swear!

Poop Pipes...

Pre-poo pipes

 Rest assured! They're going to look amazing when they're finished - but that's still a bit away. The foundation of scenic art is layers. It was a big job, but I was not alone - I had Christine there for moral pipe support, although it was mostly too noisy to chat. I sang the entire score of Evita to myself several times like the happy bunny I was. Sometimes I replaced words with 'pipes'. Sometimes I sang to the pipes, they sometimes would duet with me. Maybe Lynsey was right to take me away from them...

More pipes

Christine gettin' in aboot some
pipes

As the chippy's fire up walls all around us, we're chasing them brandishing our buckets of artex and massive scrapers. There's a huge amount of set still to be erected and it all awaits our magic artex touch. The original set from Outpost is almost finished, and soon it'll be onto the super-secret new sets. I'm constantly really impressed with people on this job, and a bit in awe of the sheer skill, knowledge and competency I'm seeing all the time. It's amazing how much happens in one week. I'm proud to be part of it for my work placement.

Which is why I was unreasonably excited when Lynsey asked me if I would want to do a little bit of set by myself! YAY. Can't disclose too much (hush hush, secrets and lies) but it's the little project a girl on placement sings about! A good opportunity to take something from start to finish, and I'm so excited to get my teeth into it. Did give it a wee start on Friday, and it should be finished on Monday. 

Geeze a wash!

The warehouse is still cold, and I'm still rocking the multi-layers, but the temperature is increasing slowly as more walls and ceilings go up. Good news, because last weeks paint was taking up to 5 days to dry, which simply isn't good enough! But we all agree the best part of the day is unpeeling all the layers of clothes and feeling very good about how thin we look.

This Wednesday we also had a little birthday celebration as Iansy turned 24! Ooft, he's a real sugar daddy now. A budget birthday was in order. We were both working, but in the evening I gave him a wee prezzie, and took him out to the City Merchant, Glasgow's oldest seafood restaurant (he got the chicken, grr) and then back home for a pot of tea and a batch of special banana and walnut birthday muffins.

Every boy's dream

I don't take the paintstains
with me when I leave :)

Happy Birthday Iansy! <3

So it's been a packed week for me, I thought I would be able to blog a few times a week but I've literally not had a single night to myself until now, hence the marathon post. So get oor it! I've a busy life these day. 

I'm on t'telly!

Amy and Maw Preston over to
shower us (him) with gifts as I showed
off new camera photos

Other highlights include a visit from Maw Cocozza, and JoAnne, the eating of fajitas, and Friday night dinner at SoHo for Franny's birthday. Which I think was possibly one of fifteen birthday celebrations of hers I've attended! Ian lusted after her boyfriend's cardy whilst I caught up with folk I haven't chatted to since high school (a distressingly long time ago now) it was a really lovely night! And what's that? Finishing it all off at the Polo Lounge? Don't mind if I do... ;)

I'm off now, to tan a whole bag of doritos and watch Iansy fail at Crash Bandicoot. Feels like I'm twelve but without a bedtime :)

Big love and painty jeans!

Xx

"Put me down for a lifetime of success! Give me credit, I'll find ways of paying..."

- Evita

Zombies Are Easy, Scenic Art Is Hard...

I'm at the end of my first week; a productive, artex-happy, wet and wild week of numb toes and loving my life.

We arrived at our set-building location and home for the next few weeks on Wednesday, and the first task of the day was unloading the vans of tools, kit, paint, and all our materials, as well as some large set pieces. A good morning of heavy lifting distracted me from the bitter cold of the warehouse, and allowed me to delude myself that it really wasn't that bad. When we sat down to talk through the next few weeks of work, I could kid myself no more; tomorrow it was out with the thermals and watertight shoes or I'd soon be dead.

Perfect for cartwheeling 

OK, I may be exaggerating slightly, but it was cold. (We would occasionally take our breaks outside, to get a heat)

5l Roscos! I'd never seen one before!

As with most first production weeks, there's been some false starts and lull moments - the calm before the storm as Lynsey quite rightly put it, but actually as I look back, we got loads done, including the first bits of what will be many, many, many hours of artexing. I also used coloured wax for the first time on some pieces for exterior scenes, which I loved! Expensive as most useful materials are, I'm thinking I'll invest in a wee pot for my kit. Great stuff to work with, weather proof and does amazing things under a heat gun. Ooft. Scenic art, baby.

The wonders of coloured wax

Yesterday, as the first walls went up and we were able to contain some heat in a space, I was positively buzzing with love for artexing. After I found the knack, it was so satisfying. I've been seeing concrete walls every time I close my eyes, and I had really better get used to it!

Gary and his breath

We are a team of four at the moment, but starting next week we've got some more bodies in for the Scenic team. I can't wait for Monday, I'm amazed at how quickly that barren space became so homily, although I'll still be rocking a layer of thermals and get the fear every time I need to use the bathroom.

Our friend, the only working tap

Valuable member of the team -
the artex mixer 

Also this week Iansy and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary, and though I went low-key with a handmade card and some framed family photos for the flat, the boy blasted my 'thought that counts' ship out of the muddy waters with the most AMAZING present -

New camera baby!! And not just any new camera...a freakin' Sony SLR. I'm in love with it. I'm afraid to take it out the house. This is going to make my life so much easier with taking photos for my portfolio! A shout out to my old camera, which has been with me four long years, and has taken some of my favourite photos, and a lot of abuse, and will still be my 'painty' camera. But really, you can't argue with what Wee Sony can do...

We're going to take it on a trip to the Botanic Gardens tomorrow. Love you Iansy bear :) 

Xx