Kittys Drawings

A post on a fellow Voguette’s blog, Le Blog de Sushi a little while back had some gorgeous images of that chick from Twilight – you know, the cute pixie-like vampire? (terrible terrible movie by the way)….

Anyway, I think she has a beautiful profile and I loved one of the photos. Really nice lighting too. Which I have sketched here Cos I was feeling guilty for not posting in a few days. Does anyone else feel bad for not posting as often as they would like? Compound this with the fact I need to DRAW too and if it’s not kept up, my skills start to wane. Tsk tsk.

So I’ve whipped this up in about 30mins. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination…But I can tell you I am LOVING the new technique! I feel way more ‘free’ in my sketching on the computer. And so, I am quite happy with this…YAY I may be making progress with my skillz.

ALSO!! Big news! Award night time! NEXT WEEK I find out if I win $15K!! Woooo!!! LOTS more exclamation marks!!!!! !!! !!!!

BUT…I don’t know how I will go…..Eeep the nerves will start again! Tune in this time next week for the RESULTS!!

I really really do!

I was soooooo nervous! Though that is normal for me…I get pretty spacko when in social situations that I did not instigate. If you get what I mean? Like, I’m okay meeting new people if it’s a ‘level playing field’ but things like interviews, public speaking or even some parties where I don’t know a lot of people I get really really nervous. And this especially, because there is so much to gain from doing well.

I hope I stressed my versatility enough. As you know, it was the Lithographic Institute of Australia, and the only place I have learnt about litho is through school and my small dealings with getting business cards done for my parents. At work we print flexography and rotogravure. Two quite different methods of printing with each their own special considerations to do with the material you are printing on and the inks etc.

They asked me a lot of technical questions about file formats, resolution and screen angles. Some of the hairy questions which I don’t know if I answered in the best way were about whether the printing terminology is adaptable across the formats. I also not sure I answered what my job description is very accurately. Of course, I know all the answers to these questions! Just the situation you see. Doh! There was discussion about what I’d do with the money and the state of letterpress at the moment. They were of the impression that I might be taking on too much too fast but I’m pretty confident in my ability to figure stuff out – which I am not sure I stressed enough.

When I get nervous, I find it very difficult to keep a train of thought going as my mind gets blank and I forget what I was meant to be saying. I hope they could see through my nerves and I hope I haven’t let myself down. I’m pretty sure I came across more as an artist because that is really my intent with the letterpress stuff. I do love the printing industry in all its forms and while letterpress is not a competitive part of it any longer, it still holds its value as an artform. It’s up to the judges to decide whether they want to support me starting a business in such an antiquated part of the industry. It’s very much alive today but not in the way that litho is.

And I hope I’m not coming off too negative – more I am thinking of the things I could have said better. Don’t we all do that?  The positive notes – I think I past the technical stuff with flying colours. Work is not a problem for me and I can make decisions about what I think will print well. They were also very encouraging of me finding suppliers for the letterpress stuff. One of the judges suggested I look into intaglio printing as he knows someone who is doing it on the same scale as letterpress. Intaglio is similar to gravure in that the plate is etched with the image and then filled with ink, with the excess ink being wiped off the plate. Then the paper is pressed against the plate with pressure from a roller, which transfers the ink to paper with a slightly raised, tactile effect. Pretty much the inverse of letterpress actually, where the plate pushes into the paper.

There will be a dinner next month to announce the winner which should be fun. Now that the interview is over with, and while I would LOVE to win more than anything…I certainly won’t be a sooky sore loser if I don’t get it It’s not going to halt my career that’s for sure. Hehe.

Guess what!!!!

I just got a call today today to inform me that I have been nominated for the LIA/Heidelberg Print Industry Apprentice Award…or something like that. I can’t really remember – its quite long….

And I am one of EIGHT – in the runing to win a whopping $15,000!!!!! Oh. My. God. There will be an interview in the next couple of weeks where I have to show my resume and some samples of my work. Thankfully there is tons of that but I am a bit worried about my resume because I haven’t needed on in 5 years.
All that aside, I do have a perfect thing to spend $15K on – My letterpress of course! Nothing could be more perfect. I’d be able to buy everything I need to start the business. Thanks to my wonderful parents, I already have the most expensive thing…but I could buy inks, new rollers if I need them, a Boxcar base to stick my plates to, a bunch of plates for some initial prints, paper, clean up equipment….Everything!! And then still have a bunch of cash left over to travel to the US of A to learn how to use a letterpress!
Well, that would take precedence actually. The learning is more important. All the other things I could aquire over time.

Even if I don’t win – the interview and nomination is enough. I’m really happy now that my schooling has paid off. To tell the truth, I was a crabby little biyatch after the RMIT Industry Awards because I thought I had missed out on any of the awards. I was miffed because I’d won in previous years and then nothing even though I worked much harder in my last year than any other. I was also disappointed for my classmate as she wasn’t considered for any of the big prizes either and yet she is already in management and hasn’t even finished her apprenticeship yet. So I really hope she has been nominated too, even though she would be very stiff competition as she’s very accomplished and a much better ‘people person’ than I am.
So this will teach me not to be such a sore loser. Ha.

Fifteen. Thousand. Dollars.

*sigh*

;-P

And here’s a little kitty I whipped up for you. Inspired by Goma