Digital workshop preparation

I had spent some time during lockdown preparing all the pages of Issue 2 of Ms Blackbird's Home For Peculiar People for zine printing, and working out how to run workshops via Zoom, downloading some useful teaching resources, and preparing some tutorials.

Then, just before my birthday, the worst thing happened.

My iMac decided that now was the perfect time to die.

I tried to restart it, only to find a folder with a suspicious question mark on it, and various attempts to fix this didn't work.

So, despite thinking that Apple might be kind enough to provide me with a new machine for my birthday, I tried with no luck, and took it in to a repair shop.

So it's back up and running for now, so I can at least run Zoom meetings, check emails, write this blog, and you can still commission or buy my work!

But for the time being, I will need to focus on analogue commissions, as I cannot get Photoshop to work atm.

The good news is that I had a really nice sale recently, so that made me smile :-)

There was also a very scary period in which I was made to think that all the data on my external hard drive had somehow been lost, which includes all the zine work, workshop prep, and Cloudbusting!!

But thankfully, it is recovered!

So I've been using an app on my phone to make reference "sketches" for some new tutorials for workshop participants.

Continuing Ms Blackbird's Self Isolating Self Care Workshops, I have been exploring some new and old locations during lockdown.

These images were taken on my first visit to Whisby since lockdown restrictions eased, which means that there are a lot of visitors.

The kingfisher hide is still closed.

So I have discovered a more isolated place to explore, and it's this abandoned railway building and nature reserve. The building is a Mecca for graffiti, so I'm thinking I might use it to test out some potential murals.

I've been pleasantly surprised by foxes, these deer (above, right), and a rich source of wildlife to illustrate.

This inspires ideas for a Catbus Stop, Spirited Away imagery, a Roadrunner fake tunnel mural etc.