Blood will Flow

It's been a while since I posted anything arty that isn't fanart, but I've recently started a new art class, similar to my old sketchbooking one, where the challenge is to try lots of different things and push yourself out of your comfort zone.

The theme of the first two weeks has been caricature, and after sticking to pencil last week, this week it was all about going straight in with the indian ink, and using bamboo pens and sticks to make sure I wasn't too precious. Wanda Gág with her giant palette was the first one I did today, and I really liked it!

Last weekend it was time to see the Boys again - and this time the Saturday was my birthday, so I just had to go to this one, didn't I?

When our little group of con-friends were looking at conventions this year, initially it was just going to be Nat and Chris, Darklight veterans Wendy and dizzojay, and myself. Then tickets didn't sell out, and the J2 effect started to take hold, and before you know it, Elisa and Anne had bought tickets too, and I had myself a roomie!

The venue wasn’t a hotel, and there were two halls for panels, which were supposed to mirror each other (newsflash, that didn’t exactly work out), and the schedule was exactly the same on the two days because all the tickets were day tickets – and I’m not sure that really worked either. Certainly the Saturday was a lot busier than the Sunday, which kind of worked in our favour as we’d all (apart from Elisa) bought Angel passes for the Saturday, and Demons for the Sunday which meant Sunday having fewer attendees didn’t impact us too badly in terms of queuing times.

Some things didn’t go so well – but first, the good stuff. Chris’s birthday is on 9^th June and we are both hitting 64 this year, so we decided to share a group op (which amazingly included the Js!) for a joint 60s themed birthday celebration, and it went pretty much to plan! The sunglasses didn’t quite get distributed, and Jared held the inflatable banjo behind Gen’s head like a halo, but the improvisation was great fun and everyone was in such a great mood, even though it all took place in such a short few seconds, it was definitely memorable!