2 paintings and Gertrude and Alice Cafe

Here is a little sneak peak of a couple backgrounds:

I have been painting backgrounds all day every day for awhile now. It's feeling a little weird to sit in my cave as it has come to be called, all day each day. I want to write stories and create films. I like to craft a film, to storyboard and collaborate, I like picking colours and painting and animating... But some parts of the process are not completely my cup of tea and it's easy to start feeling doubts or concerns when so much time is spent. The collaboration I crave is for the most part, missing. I have given up on exercise and exploring and I am living as frugally as I can. It's just a strange existence! I am not complaining though. Next time my project will be smaller, or more collaborative and I will focus on the elements I am most passionate about. I am glad that I am learning a lot about the whole process.

My new book!

Yesterday, Sunday, was my weekend essentially and I trotted down to Hall Street with Steve where we popped into a great cafe slash bookshop for a sippa. It's called Gertrude and Alice Cafe Bookstore. I walked by said cafe about a week ago when the evil postman forced me to head that way to pick up an electric blanket I had ordered. It was the rainiest, windiest day I can remember. So windy that it was actually harder to walk with my umbrella open. There is a post office a 5 minute walk from my house, I think the postman deliberately gave the package to a further away post office. Actually, he had buzzed my apartment and promised to leave it inside but when I went down there was no package left for me! Anyway, when I was at this cafe, Steve and I crammed ourselves into the only two available spaces in the place on a soft green sofa. The cafe was bustling with staff, book perusers and coffee sippers. The first book I saw in the $2 bin outside was a hardcover book of Ronald Searle drawings! I snapped that up. I think it was worth more than $2. As I sat with my coffee I noticed that right next to me was a wall with lots of Shakespeare and plays and scripts. Then, past Steve and a woman sitting opposite him was a wall of books on filmmaking, directors and films. Everywhere I looked there were fabulous used books! We found a book with a list of all known heavy metal bands piqued Steve's interest. There were books on medieval armor and artists and their works, a wall of fantasy novels and newspapers and magazines scattered around. It was delightfuly chaotic and inspirational to sit there for a bit. We left after maybe 30 minutes to make room for new customers and to get back to work. But I will be back...