Heya, its been a while!

I've been having a bit of a sort through this website, doing a bit of housekeeping, and have removed most of the old blog posts since they weren't the most thrilling content.

So... what have I been up to? I'll give you the rundown of my last two years as briefly as I can...

Around the end of Febraury 2020, I started a univsersity project called "what is a book?" where we were asked to reimagine what a book could be if there were no boundaries between digital and physical. I had been planning some grand tapestry depicted a traditional fairytale that would have an augmented reality element (which I'd never done before but thought would be useful to learn how to do). And then... the world stopped! Lockdown hit and suddenly my project didn't feel like the best use of my time.

I chose to change my project to make something fun for children who were stuck at home due to the pandemic, so made an interative childrens book! The workings of it were based on the interactive adventure books of the 1980s/1990s where it would say things like "go to page 9 to travel north, go to page 45 to travel south" and you would flit about the book to go on a supposedly unique adventure. So my aim was to take this type of format but modernise it using technology.

The outcome was a fun, interactive book for ages 6-8 starring a dog called Jacky Russell and a whole host of characters that can be met on the adventure to find some lost treasure (all characters voiced by myself and my mother). I am very proud of how it came out and those who have played/read it have given positive feedback.

It also has its own website that you can access the book from!

At the start of my second year at university, I did a project about the BBC series Sherlock which was brilliant fun! I got to interview a popular fanfiction ("fanfiction" = fan-written fiction based upon pre-existing characters) writer, learn how to apply AR to my work, and explore my special interest in a level of depth I had previously only dreamed of!

Please check out the project in more detail on Behance.

From this I went on to animate the interview I had recorded of myself and the fanfiction author. This wasn't for my university work, no no no! This was done as a christmas present for the fandom and was released on Christmas day 2020. It was only an animatic style but it was such good fun to make and very well received by fans of the author's work.

Screencap from the animated interview

In 2021, I learnt the basics of how to model and animate in 3D! I never thought that I would learn how to do that, so it was a thrilling adventure (when it wasn't extremely frustrating). Here is my first attempt at modeling and animating in 3D.

Then I had the fabulous opportunity to create a comic for an international competition with the theme of "admiration". I felt very lucky to be able to enter this contest thanks to the help of my tutors, so worked hard to make sure I was presenting my best work for it. I chose to make the comic autobiographical, and focused on how I was first really introduced to the idea of pursuing art as a career, and the wonderful woman who taught me how to paint.

I didn't win the contest, nor was I shortlisted, but making this comic gave me something even more precious; it gave me the opportunity to reconnect with the person I admire most. I was able to find the lady who taught me how to paint online and reached out to her, and she was blown away by the work I have been able to produce as a result of her tutelage.

Read The Artist Who Believed In Me either on my website here or on Behance

This year was also the year I got properly back into baking! It was one of my favourite hobbies as a child but my health has been so poor for so long that I hadn't been able to bake for a long time. It still wears me out a lot to bake since I have to stand and I'm not too steady on my feet these days, but its been wonderful to expand my baking skills.

There's not much more I can show of my university work just yet but just know I'm still plodding on and working hard :)

So, happy new year and stay safe out there!

Talk to you soon,

C