Accordian Man

Playing around in Photoshop again. I think this will be too small to see his eyes? I could really get into colouring and distorting with this software. I look at videos of cartoonists colouring in on "YouTube" and marvel at their ease with this programme.

The French all seem to have vanished from the village in the last few days. The beach is full of Spaniards from Zaragoza this morning and, hooray, the first touch of autumn in the air today. There is a strong wind and the air is shining like glass.

The Dream Team are planning a barbeque tomorrow. They planned one for the other day but cancelled. They never had their roast beef lunch either as when they went into Reus they found it was closed. Virtually the entire town deserted because it always is in August. Dream on...

Beach Collage

An experiment in Photoshop. I am wondering if I can incorporate real photos with illustrations? I used the cutout tool on the photo but it still looks a bit real for me. Pasted the other drawings at 70% opacity. I'm not sure exactly what effect I'm after yet.

Not going to the beach today. Too hot and too many people. The supermarket has hiked its prices up because it is the busiest time of year. What a swizz, a packet of wienersnitzel, escalopes or whatever they are called, have more than doubled in price. Everything has gone up loads and the dear gas company (yes, we are still on bottled gas here) are charging 120 euros to replace the rubber tubes that connect the canisters to the house. I could buy the same tubes myself in the hardware shop for 10 euros but then the gas company wouldn't renew the gas permit. Catch 22 situation. The lovely council wants 800 euros for paving the street outside whilst two streets over the roads are free. Oh, and 300 euros for the luxery of having a street light outside. This street has been here over thirty years. It took them that long to do the road but we still remain in inky darkness at night.

Am I in a bad mood? No, not really.

The gentleman who lives next door is having a spectacular row with his new girlfriend. I am surprised they are still talking. She smashed his windows last night. Husband went out to check she wasn't actually slaying him and found a German guy standing by his gate shaking his head. "Poor Henry," he said. "A catastrophe with women."

"Do you think I should call the police?" husband asks. "No, no," the man replies. "This is nothing. Henry's used to it."

Where's the rest of me?

Just experimenting here. Drawn in pencil, scanned and darkened the lines with Photoshop but when I come to fill in I invariably find I have left a gap in the lines somewhere so too many parts fill in with colour. It's not my style usually to have all the lines closed and I find it really slows me down.

Cycled along the beach at eight this morning and hardly anybody there except for the joggers and cyclists. Another incoming batch of tourists later in the morning and the cars are double-parked outside the supermarket. Always count to seven at the zebra crossing after the pedestrian light has lit up. It seems an average of three cars jump the red light.

My copy of "Rough Patch" by Richard Bell arrived today.

http://www.wildyorkshire.co.uk

I am really, really pleased with it. It's like owning somebody's sketchbook with the added bonus of notes and stories. It's overflowing with sketches and illustrations of plants, wildlife and bugs. I shall treasure it and look forward to dipping in and out of it.

I see on my site meter that someone often visits this site from Regina in Canada. I wonder who on earth they are? A visitor from China this morning. That's a first.

No room at the beach.

Cycled in the opposite direction today. The main beach is getting too crowded and despite the tourists are on holiday they seem to be a grumpy bunch. The main road is a constant stream of cars and long distance trucks and because the layout of the streets is particularly badly designed, there are a lot of car accidents. Quite a few lamposts have articial flowers tied to them.

But, I love to see the astonishment of a child's first visit to the seaside. Armed to the teeth with new buckets and spades they rush and stagger towards the sea with parents flailing behind them. Then, they suddenly come to a screeching halt as the enormity of the water stretching to the horizon meets them. Quick check over their shoulders that mum/dad/granny/grandpa are still there, longer look back at the sea, back over the shoulder again and on with the work of digging holes and building sand castles.

The firework display in the next village has been cancelled until Saturday because of the huge storms. Hail stones the size of tennis balls smashed all the car windscreens in another village nearbye. The rainwater was up to my knees by the garden gate. Plastic coke bottles floating down the road.

The Dream Team are doing a barbeque tonight. More about them later. They are Real Estate agents. This town is not that big but there are 72 registered Real Estate companies here. That's about one every three meters in every direction.

One of the restaurants on the main road has collapsed in the middle of the night.

Playing with Photoshop

Playing around with the opacity, layers and generally distorting things. We didn't win the lottery but it doesn't matter, I wasn't expecting to. Too hot to write anything today.

Faces

This is sort of a thinking out loud about Maureen's world but I invariably get distracted. Somehow I want Maureen to exist in a world that although is real, is also capable of sliding in and out of other centuries. Mainly because I want to include "The Voynich Manuscript" and "Kinght Templars" and "World War One Fighter Pilots."

Meanwhile, the town is in chaos. The traffic has come to a virtual standstill on the main road. Two cars executed a classic rendition of colliding into each other on one of the side streets the other day. The reason being that the drivers involved had spotted a topless woman taking out her rubbish. Would the woman's insurance company have to pay? 32 degrees in the shade today. It's cooling down.