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Has it been a year since I last blogged? It can't be? I guess my Easter resolution is to now write more blog stuff. So here I am today writing about my new website. I built it. Yup, I built it using Wix and it was quite easy (well sort of), apart from the SEO stuff which I'm tearing my hair out over!
I'll be bald, bald I tell you if it goes on any longer. I cried tears into my easter eggs yesterday. Anyhoozles, here's my new site. www.louiseprentice.co.uk
Hopefully this'll kick me in the pants to write new stuff. Interesting stuff and not just about doughnuts and sweets.

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Rejection is a shite bag. Or so i thought. My experience of rejection in the publishing world sucked ass, big time, but this guy (Jia Jiang) decided to get over his fear of being rejected by actually being rejected 100 times and videoing it to boot. Jiang then went on to giving a TED talk......very interesting.
Get over your fear of rejection and go kick some ass, people. I am :)

http://www.entresting.com/blog/

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I.am.here...




and here.....



..............................................and here........................and over here.


In fact i feel all over the place at the moment.

I have a lot going on. I shall write a list....it goes something like this:



1. Part two of the business course is on my doorstep. I do not have a business brain. It’s like trying to suck jelly through a straw trying to learn all this stuff to do with ‘business’. I aint got the foggiest.



2. I am redoing my illustration portfolio. This speaks for itself. I have sooooooo much to do it’s unbelievable. Well, actually, it is believable, it just feels unbelievable because I have set myself a stupidly short deadline.

3. I have workshops to write. 7 of them. SEven. SEVEN. 7. 7. se7en. Nope, as much as i write the number 7, it doesn’t change how stressed i feel about it. 77777777777777777777777777777777

4. Operation. No, not the game. Real time scalpel action. Soon. Ugh

5. My 40th is creeping up on me. Say no more.

6. I have new masks to make. Loads of them. I have so many ideas in my head, i don’t have enough hours in the day to make them. maybe i could make just one huge mo-fo of a mask and be done with it?

7. I need to print some prints and make some cards. Loads of them. FReaking loads of the feckers.

8. Those paintings aren’t going to paint themselves....I need to PAINT.....arrggggh

Firstly i shall do the most important thing....procrastinate and eat more donuts. Uh huh. Yup. Here goes a heart attack in a juicy little round sugary thing going down my gullet.

Sugar coma, i love you.

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I left it so late last night that I was too tired to write anything, so I've decided after today to blog in the morning/afternoon. Makes sense really...

Anyway, Stuff on my mind...
1. Why did the execs stop 'My Name is Earl?'
2. Wondering if my bear is ok in the studio?
3. Why do some people NEVER smile?
4. Why is the shop owner near the studio act as if he's better than everyone else?
5. Where's my ideal job?
6. Will being 40, suck?
7. Better start the baby portrait I've been asked to do.

Such a boring list. I'm glad I wasn't thinking about serial killers and ghosts like I usually do...

Here's a random picture I found in my phone...

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I must remember not to leave my Blogary until the evening, I just can't be arsed to write it. My brain is saying "leave that **** alone" but I've already missed one day, admittedly on purpose to see how I'd feel not writing this blog (bit poopy), so I must endeavour to write earlier.
Anyhoozles, I got to thinking about things I've done in the past but never admitted was me...

1. I shaved my Barbies head and not the friend I blamed it on.
2. It was me that 'passed wind' in the cereal aisle and not the guy I looked at in disgust when a couple were twitching their noses at the nasty niff.
3. The tender age of 15 I found a purse and never handed it in. I then lost my purse a week later. Karma I love you.
4. It 'twas I that had the smelly cabbage trainers on the bus and not the sports guy coming home from the gym.
5. I found the exam too hard and cheated by having some answers up my sleeve.

Maybe I'll write some more later but that was difficult!!!
So instead I'll leave a photo of the new wall going up in the studio :)

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Well it's that time again. Here I am trying to find something to write about, something interesting I can read back on when I'm older. However, only silly words are coming to mind; like, bum-crack and poopy. So instead I'll leave a little photo of a mask I'm working on at the moment (I much prefer saying the word poop, than sticking an almighty amount of diddly feathers down)

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ok, 27 days until doomsday, or something like that. I wonder if i’ll feel different? So many people say life begins at 40, but i reckon it’ll be just the same day to day goings on....choosing which underwear to put on, leaving the washing up until the next day, looking in the mirror to see if anymore grey hair have arrived. Today i got to thinking about the choices we make each day and this lead onto ‘guilty pleasures’. We all have them, no use in hiding as it’s human nature to find yourself being drawn to the crappest t.v programme, but loving it nonetheless.

So, i thought about a few of mine and decided to put a few down...

1. Cocktail Sausages - not real meat but taste great when you’re starving.

2. The Shaytards - a YouTube family from the USA who vlog everyday. I never miss it. I love their unity and love for each other.



3. Wearing ‘WonderWoman’ pants. Self explanatory.



4. Watching ‘The real Housewives of .....’. Utter tripe but i can’t look away when it’s on.
I really can't bring myself to post a photo!

5. Fascination with Victorian photos. They had good creative minds!


6. I can eat a whole tube of Pringles in one sitting. I still feel violently ill afterwards, but i don’t care whilst eating the cretins.


There’s loads more, but i have yet to come to terms with them. Oh and i can eat a whole pack of jammy dodgers.....but they give me constipation, so i don't do it often :)

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Another day down in the countdown.
Feel a bit poopy, so I shall just fill this space with a favourite image of mine by Arthur Rackham...

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"Mom. Mom. MOM!! I've painted some happy clouds. On a door. And it was snowing outside. And we ate beetroot."

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Hallelujah. My 2nd day of Blogary. I don't know how some people Blog/Vlog everyday as I'm already stumped for topic. It's not like I can write about how small chihuahua puppy poop is again or staring in fascination at a man's toupee for the duration of my 30 min bus journey, only to realise it was a hat. No, that would be boring. So .... On the theme of boring, here's my lunch captured momentarily before it was snaffled up.
(tomorrow, I'm in London, painting clouds. Expect more rubbishy updates :) oh and yeah, 30 days to my 40th. Gawd.

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loo prentice - illustration and wafflings: Goal setting, blog writing and 40th birthday

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Eeyoop. Over here. Can you believe it? No, neither can I. I'm writing a blog again. What's inspired me? My looming 40th birthday, which is just over 4 weeks away. Soooooo I've decided to write a blog/diary a day until my 40th d-day....I mean b-day. Ive also decided to call it a Blogary. It's a diary in a blog form, so viola, Blogary was formed. I'm sure I'm not the first to call it that anyhoozles.

I'm going to kick off with an introduction to my studio space, seems appropriate as I'm sitting here....ahem....working...

Here's some piccies...

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Well, i think it's possibly finished, finally. I didn't want to put too much colour into this image as i think it works better with the suggestion of hue. I'm waiting to hear from the client and then hopefully i can hand it over soon. I have a 2nd one to do for them and am chomping at the bit to get that going. It's all formulating inside this brain, so i need to get that down on paper. I'm pretty pleased with this image as a whole.

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Just getting to the end of a commissioned piece for a friend of a friend. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing this pencil image. I pretty much had free reign apart from a few requests. I'll soon be adding colour to a scanned copy, which i'm really excited about as i can't wait to experiment with colour on this. I've still to add more to the back ground and darken some areas but i'm really happy with what i've created. Hopefully i'm getting my confidence back, finally, after a couple of years of it hiding away.

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Well once again i look at the lack of entries into my blog and feel a bit cacky-poop i haven't written in a while but since the move from Exeter to Brighton, it's all been a bit hectic and unsettled. So finally i feel a lot lighter and more inclined to start blogging again. So here's a little peak at the image i am working on for a new story.

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Gosh i haven't blogged in a long time, i haven't even visited my blog in a long time. I think it needs an overhaul, i think i'm just too lazy to try and make it look nice (well not lazy, just that i find it hard work trying to put something together that looks nice for me, whereas i like doing it for other people!)
So as of today i shall start my blog, and write....write....write and maybe show some work. I thought about trying' 'do a drawing a day', but that's too much pressure, so i'll 'do a drawing whenever'...

Here's to 'doing a drawing whenever'.

Much ado
Loo
x

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Just thought i'd share this image i created recently for a charity called Home-Start. I was asked to pick a month for a charity calendar and create an image with Home-Start in mind. This idea for April came very quickly to me as i'd always wanted to create a flying machine of sorts, just never thought it'd be a flying egg! As much as it is obvious that it's a flying machine, i also wanted to incorporate a weather vane, external and an internal. We all get sad some days and i wanted to express that with a bit of help we can change our internal weather-vane to something happy and that is where the rainbow comes in. It's quite a meaningful image for me as i am too aware of how life can have it's lumps and bumps, how people can come and go, how we can be served a curve-ball smack in the face. With a little nurturing, with help and a bit of love we can change how we feel.

I have recently been feeling slightly dampened with my work and creativity, but from people reaching out to me, my internal weather-vane is starting to change shape and colour. I had a lovely email from John Pollex a wonderful potter, who i'd never met or heard of before. Just giving me a bit of encouragement and making me realise a few things made me feel very warm. I also received a lovely email from Louise Mortley who helps run Home-Start with words of encouragement too. People never cease to amaze me when they share their feelings and kind words. We all need it, some more than others but i am always grateful when someone reaches out past their own selves to share their thoughts and feelings. so a big thank you to those that have. I also want to thank Cass for pushing me to show my work and give me some good advice, it's always appreciated :) and my very good friend The Garrulous Griffin, who ALWAYS has wise words to share (see his blog, it's bright and shiny and new)

Who knows what is in store for me this year, i'm not sure if i'm still working with the publisher any more but i do still love drawing and painting so will keep on keeping on.

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I've been looking up at the moon recently (not forgetting the stars too) and wondering about my work and where it is going. Since having a few knock backs from the publisher, i noticed, almost in slow motion, i'd been floored by it all. I like drawing, i like painting, i know what i want but when someone else is in your way it's difficult to move such a mountain.

I constantly questioned whether i should be doing this art thing, but i never ever stop (unless it's to be floored by publishers), i wonder what would happen to me if i did stop this artymalarkythingy? Would i combust into a ball of stars/moths/dust/lego? Would i fall into a stooper that smells like a storm trooper? Would i rot away like a mouse in a trap?

I'm in limbo, that's where i am. I can't give this up, i don't want to. I just need to find my way around the mountain that has been placed in front of me. I need to carry on looking at the stars but i also need to let those stars guide me instead of me being still.

Maybe i'll take some tea, cake and a polar bear; sit down, stare into the sky and decide upon my next move. I hear North is a good place to go (or under the bed with the fluff bunnies).

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Wow, it's been a while since i last posted. I did one around xmas time but it wasn't in keeping with my illustration stuff so it had to go *chop chop*.

I think I've not posted because I'd been working so hard on the book and getting stuff done for deadline. I finally sent some work to the publisher which i was really proud of and thought would make great pages. Due to some mis-communication, problems and hair pulling i was told they weren't suitable. I shan't list the negatives as it'd only refuel my thoughts I'd had about this and anyway it'd probably feel like pulling a plaster off real slow.

The negatives knocked me side-ways, upside down, all over the place and i found it difficult to pick myself back up. I'd worked so hard on these images and to find they only liked one small vignette and wanted me base the rest of my work around that was hard to stomach. I didn't pick my pencils/paintbrush up for a couple of weeks and sought advice from anywhere i could get it on how to pull through this. But at the back of my mind i thought...

*It's hard to face a bag of negatives in a positive light when you're only offered a positive in a negative reflection*


My thoughts started to spiral downwards and i became very negative. I can honestly say i cried quite a bit. It felt like someone was stabbing me over and over again. My brain kept saying *what do i have to do to please these people*, but i was told over and over again by friends that *these people* are business people and in the end they have to make money, so my feelings aren't really a concern.

i really thought I'd got a grip of negative criticism over the years, but this made me realise i needed a new safety net for when i fell.

From all the negatives , i had to eventually find some solace in the little positive remark and the remarks from friends and strangers. But mainly, I had to realise that i am not just book illustration, that is not who i am, i am more than that. I can't rely on that external work to pad out my own psyche, i needed to reach inside and get back to me.

I can't say it's been easy, but i can say it's been a bloody weird journey! I am still not 100% but i feel better about myself and my work. Who knows where all this will go, maybe i am not destined to stay in this industry, i can't control that but i can have bloody good stab at it.

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What a blast the past 6 weeks have turned out to be. I've been lucky enough to work with Community Artist Sophy Miles on the Devon County Council Christmas card. The whole project started out by having my name put forward to do the card, of which i totally forgot about until i was told i had been chosen along side Sophy. I'd never met Sophy before so we decided to have a get together and see what we came up with. When she came around, we hit it off immediately and i knew we'd work well together. Sophy has such spirit, enthusiasm, spark, drive, creativity and determination (plus a bit of OCD that kept us....erm, i mean me, on track!). We literally hit the ground running and we carried on 100 miles an hour after that first meeting.

As part of this project, we were to work with a group of pre-school children from the hard hit area of Hatherleigh. We were to run a workshop with about 20-25 children to create an image for the Christmas card. Our planning for this took us into shops to buy the most delicious papers, glitter, sequins, buttons and ribbon that money could buy. Oh what joy it was when we found THE purplest sparkliest paper ever, so beautiful we'd spend a lot of time just staring at it.

When the workshop day arrived, we journeyed into Hatherleigh with Clare, organiser of the whole thing and Angela, Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive :o). All the lovely materials were laid out and we waited for the kids to arrive. Panic set in when only about 10 kids came (weather was absolutely atrocious....boooo). But watching parents working with their children totally made up for it. Some of the children were toddlers and preferred to stick their hands together, rather than stick lovely paper to baubles, snowflakes and christmas trees; but that didn't matter, they had fun!

So eventually we had their decorations and we made some of our own to pad the whole thing out.

We'd decided to make a mini toy theatre with a Winter Wonderland theme. Getting the whole kaboodle to fit together was tricky but we managed (well Sophy did, she got the wood and managed to fashion a base that stood up. My effort would have definitely fell over!)


Then it was time to start the back drop. All i can say is my front room was sea of material, baubles, glitter, snowflakes, glue, paintbrushes, pins, wool and strange little alien creatures (well the last bit was a lie but i reckon there were some gremlins hanging around hiding the scissors, needles and blue-tak when we needed it).

mmm lovely purpley colour. We were ever so excited at what would transform in front of our eyes. Pinning, cutting, shaping, making, pinning, cutting, shaping, making, spinning, putting, maping, paking, pitting, putting, muting, shooting. Our eyes and minds went a bit barmy whilst surrounding by so much STUFF. Arrggggg. We found ourselves laughing our heads off at the smallest of things. I think our sanity was saved only by knowing the outcome would be fantastic. (it also didn't help when we started chatting, we got on SO WELL at least a couple of hours would go by. Envisage n

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I've sat here for a little while trying different beginnings for this blog, when i got to 'pumpy, pumpy pumpkin,' i knew it was time to come down off the ceiling and cut out the caffeine. Just finished working on adding a bit of colour on the illustration for my story i posted a little while ago. It's been an interesting journey; one of layers and layers of learning, photoshopping, chewing my nails and eating far too many cookies. But i am happy with the finished results, although i'm sure i'll try another version soon and like that one better, but for now i'll be leaving it there and get another started.

Things are still slow with the publisher, it seems that Frankfurt(er) is getting in the way of them pushing the book on any further! Damn you Frankfurt(er), i shake my cookie crumbed fist in your direction and stick my tongue out to roll off a raspberry just for you!

Right i must go and do something productive....i wonder if there's another packet of cookies that really need eating?

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Well, i've finally put pencil to paper and got my head around this story . It took me about 5 days to complete and i'm pretty darned happy at that! Now to pass it onto my agent and see what she can do with it. Right onto the next piece!!

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