August 2022 - Gish 2022

It is a good job that I finally posted that Gish 2021 round-up in February, because I haven’t posted a blog since, and last week marked Gish 2022 (The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt). It was all a bit different this year, I knew I was having house guests, and that I’d be busy, so rather than approaching the week in the manner of an over-excited, rabid, tasmanian devil, and turning the house upside down, I approached it… well, like an adult. I didn’t get dehydrated, I didn’t put too much pressure on myself, and I didn’t make a mess, (not much mess anyway).

I chose three items from the hunt list on the Saturday, all of which I completed by the time my guests arrived on the Tuesday.

The first task involved taking two short poems, from two different genres, and using all the words (you were allowed to add and take away conjunctions and articles) to make a new poem. I chose “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne, and Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep – originally Immortality by Clare Harner. It was tricky because both poems have a repetition of words, so, there was quite a lot of “I”s and ‘now”s. The result is a little abstract, and I’m sure some people would read it and say something like, “Shouldn’t that say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’?” – well, no, because the word ‘were’ wasn’t available. So, try to leave everything you have ever learned about grammar to one side, and just go with it. I called it “Death is Born”, which sounds a little glum, but I like to think that it is about a spirit who is transitioning between passing on from a human life and becoming a reaper. Everything is new, but also old, they are a bit confused, and trying to make sense of the remains of human memories they have mixed up with their new role.

The second item I chose from the hunt list was also related to poetry. It was to create a piece of animation to accompany a poem by Misha Collins, chosen from his book, “Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You”. I chose a poem called “Old Bones”, because I like its warmth, it feels simple but authentic. It was also pretty short, and as I knew I was going to do some kind of stop-motion animation, I wanted to make sure I didn’t bite off more than I could chew, because I didn’t have much time to complete it.

Finally, I chose to create a cover for a graphic novel edition of the podcast audio drama, Bridgewater. I know some of the covers by other teams are absolutely brilliant and feature some of the characters, but again, I decided to keep it simple and concentrate on shapes and the environmental elements. It is an eerie, supernatural story, based on lots of real folklore, and a lot of the action take place at night, so I stuck to black, greys and white. There are some tall swamp trees in the background that can vaguely be seen, then there is a big rock with a ledge, then we have a fire, lit by a cult at one of their meetings, and a cult member with a knife (for carving symbols into the rock). There are also three mysterious balls of light, and general leafy foliage. Intrigued? Bridgewater is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim & Mild, and you can read all about it here, and listen to it pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts.

It does feel a little strange to have only completed three items, to have remained completely calm the whole week, and not be faced with the aftermath… I didn’t even get post-Gish blues this year. I can’t promise the same will happen next year, old habits die hard. Should I end up feeling like I missed out I can always catch up on the Zoom webinars that I missed on YouTube when they become available. The webinars have guests invited to give a talk and share their expertise, and it can be be on any kind of subject, from adventuring to storytelling, to rejection (a few examples from last year). This year I only managed to catch Sam Maggs and Patrick Weekes talking all things writing and fanfic, but it was marvellous, and I look forward to seeing the others.

So after three items, I pulled back from Gish and instead, I tidied the house, went on walks, outside, and saw the sunshine – these things rarely happen in a normal non-Gish week. We even popped to Cowdray to raid the farm shop, look at the ruin and eat a spot of lunch.

I even got to have a little walk alongside the sea, and got a bit high on all the pastel, jewel colours in the evening light, how can anyone not love those colours!

That was my first week of August? How was yours? The second week is looking nowhere near as promising as my neighbour is on the roof repointing the chimney – it is noisy!

Until next time… Now where are my headphones…

A Late Round-Up: Gish – Saturday 31st July - 8th August 2021

I just can’t seem to get back into the habit of blogging, I have photos and videos on my phone that remain unshared, and various rough drafts sitting on devices, and I’m determined not to let them go to waste. The last year has been a bit difficult for me, and I have been very distracted, but I will keep trying to catch up the best I can. This catch-up is all about Gish 2021, I thought I had better get this one posted before Gish 2022 rolls around, it’s only 5 months away…

Oh Gish, how I love thee. For those who haven’t heard me babble on about Gish before, it is a yearly, week-long, global scavenger hunt. You pay to enter, and some of the proceeds of the fee go to charity. You find yourself a team, (it could be people you know, or anyone across the world), or you are automatically placed in a team, and then on the last Saturday of July/first Saturday of August, a list of tasks appear on the website or app. Tasks aim to be fun and weird, they might be artistic, such as creating portraits from spices, or infuriating, such as polishing a coconut. There are tasks that help those in need, or those in your community, such as taking supplies to food banks or dog shelters, or maybe sharing a local dog, that is up for adoption, on social media to help find them a home. There are tasks that raise awareness for groups of people, or world issues, such as LGBTQI+ or the climate emergency, and each year there is also a four day “Change a Life” fundraiser to help specific people or communities. In 2021 money was raised for the children’s ward at “EMERGENCY”, an NGO and charity hospital in Kabul. To be “Gishy”, is to be kind, be supportive, willing, and a bit weird, and it is the loveliest community. This was my fourth Gish, and I’ll be honest, I came very close to not signing up. Life was very much getting in the way, and I just didn’t feel like I had much left in the tank to contribute to my team. Thankfully, my wonderful team captain, Sonya, assured me, they’d rather have me ‘there’ doing nothing, than not be there at all. I am so glad that she convinced me, because it turns out that I had never needed Gish in my life, quite so much.

I didn’t complete as many tasks this year, and the ones I did complete were mostly not fulfilled to the greatest standard, but I did also try to complete a few that were not in my comfort zone. To be clear, my comfort zone is something creative that doesn’t need me in a video – this year I put myself in three videos. It still isn’t something I’m comfortable with, I’m the biggest introvert, so I’m only brave enough to share one of them here, (the other two will be left forgotten, in a folder somewhere on my computer, hopefully to never see the light of day again, unless one day, I really need to remind myself how brave I can be). I guess the point is, I wasn’t in a great place, but Gish still makes me feel safe enough to give things a shot.

So, the first item on the list that I completed was : Tokitae the orca was captured from the Puget Sound 50 years ago and has been imprisoned in a small tank at the Miami Sea Aquarium for years. Her mother and the rest of her pod are alive and living near Washington/Canada. The Lummi Nation has a sea pen ready for her and want to bring her home, where the Lummi people and her pod can care for her and prove that orcas will recognise and accept family even after 50 years, but the owner of the Miami Seaquarium won’t let her go. Write a haiku with a watercolour image of Tokitae about family belonging together.

This is very much within my comfort zone, as I created a haiku for an aye-aye in a previous year. I’m beginning to think that I could start a collection if there is another wildlife based illustration and haiku task in 2022.

The next item I completed was: Salt and pepper go so well together. They are a match made in heaven. Let’s use the magical symbiotic powers of salt and pepper to unite two feuding personalities in art. Take two legendary nemesis and unite them on a cutting board or plate, one depicted in salt and one in pepper.

So, I may have interpreted this one a little clumsily. I read it as “feuding personalities in art”, as in ‘the world of art’, so I chose Pollock and De Kooning (who didn’t feud so much, but were pitted against each other by art critics), but that is okay, Gish likes to be a little offbeat. I figure that at least it was an unorthodox choice compared to more obvious nemeses like Batman and the Joker :D.

Next up: Waffle House. No, no we mean a REAL Waffle House. Let’s see your best flapjack house. Your best Eggo edifice (thank goodness for Stranger Things or anyone outside of the U.S. would be flummoxed). Your best hotcake homestead. Your best crepe condominium. You get the idea.

I made so many waffles, and bought so many waffles and pancakes, but it was definitely worth it. I didn’t have a solid plan for this, and I woke up on the Monday morning feeling really low and sad, but do you know what? By the time I finished that waffle house at 2pm I was in the best mood, talk about therapy (or possibly the consumption of sugar). I highly recommend getting lost in a task that ultimately has no meaning, and can also be eaten – that vegetable patch was delicious. (I’ll also add that my sweet little waffle house made it into the Gish 2021 coffee table book, which can be quite the challenge, so I was very pleased, and I’m also proud of my team mate who made it in there too, it’s the first year we had two images in the book).

The fourth task was (and this is where I start getting a bit shy): Bees communicate through dance, and so do you. Make a beeline to TikTok and show us what the Beeline dance looks like  – and you must be dressed as our cat/bee mascot when you do it. (Every year Gish has a different animal hybrid mascot).

So, this one I don’t mind sharing because it made me laugh so much (which was a real tonic), and I was just so proud (I’m not sure that is necessarily the most accurate word) to do it, because I never put myself on the internet, I really just had to say “screw it, this terrifies me and I’m doing it anyway”. I also realise that it isn’t the most successful costume in the world, but I wanted to create it without spending money and with as little waste as possible (the tail which was made of a pair of tights stuffed with socks, is all back in a drawer ready to use as tights and socks again, and the painted, yellow, paper stripes are in a folder ready to use for collage).

The next two video tasks are just too painful to share, the first one was: Resting B**** Face The Musical! Write a song with happy uplifting lyrics, and perform the whole thing in a monotone, one chord/one-note fashion, with resting b**** face the whole time.

I can confirm that monotone resting b**** face is not an attractive look, it encourages you to create your very best double chin :D, I’ve never looked so bad, but I am bloody good at it – who knew? A skill I never realised I had! I haven’t got a great singing voice, but it is really hard to try not to sing at all and remain monotone, and also not smile or animate your face. I thought my song was quite cheery, it had a little hearty tune, even if I couldn’t use it!  

The third video was me attempting to shout/sing/butcher Pearl Jam, and I won’t inflict that on your ears, it is quite the punishment. The item was: It is International lost in karaoke night & you’re up next! Choose an English language song and translate it into at least 3 different language via google translate, then back to English. Then sing the resulting lyrics.

I chose Evenflow by Pearl Jam, and I think I used Hawaiian and maybe Welsh, I can’t remember, I tried a lot of languages.

Both ‘singing’ tasks were particularly terrifying, and as a result the videos were a bit boring and could have been funnier if I had put more thought into them, but for where I was and how I was feeling at that time, the important thing for me was to just try, and not try to be the best, or do something quirky and outstanding, I literally just wanted to be brave enough to do it, brave enough to submit it, and then forget it ever happened. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a better job next time.

The final item that I completed alone was: Gotta catch ‘em all: rejections that is! You want be the very best (like no one ever was) and to do that you have to collect as many rejections as you can between now and the end of the Hunt! Create a Pokemon-style trading card set of 3 of the lovable “no” monsters you collected, detailing what you asked for, how powerful a “No” it was, and how the experience strengthened you in some way.

As I was very much completing tasks from home, most of the ‘nos’ I experienced came from me restricting myself, and I had to use my imagination a little bit, I didn’t have much negativity to play with, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I do love to draw any kind of character, so I just went with it.

The final task was part of the Gish closing ceremony the following Saturday night. It was a group record breaking attempt: In celebration of 10 years of Gish, we’re attempting to set our first GISH World Record: the most handwritten notes of kindness posted on Instagram in an hour! Encourage all your teammates as well as everyone you know to join this effort.

This was fun and emotional, in all the right ways! Lots of people were on Zoom, and everyone was posting their notes all at the same time, and I spent most of the hour looking at the #GISHnotes hashtag (which you can still look at if you need to read some good and kind words right now), and reading all the beautiful things people had written. Mine was directed at the whole of the GISH community because I was just so grateful (and emotional) to have taken part, it really made me appreciate all the wonderful things that this weird (not so) little game does.

So that was it for another year, or was it? There was a fun, free, participate if you feel like it, “Halloweird” in October (a task a day for 13 days), and I couldn’t resist completing one of the items, to illustrate the poem Black Cat by Misha Collins. I just got it into my head that I wanted to cut out some paper and layer it somehow, just like the waffle house, there was no particular plan, I just sat down and worked it out as I went along, and I think it turned out alright considering I winged it.

I’m pretty sure that is GISH done until summer ‘22 – for me at least – but you can never quite tell. I can’t wait to see what happens next. 

August 2020 - Gish 2020, Books and T.V.

We are almost in September and I’m feeling really confused. The year seems to be whizzing by and I can’t seem to keep up, in my head it feels like we should still be in May or June, anyone else feel like that? Admittedly, I have kept myself pretty busy in August. I’ve continued to work towards my picture book pitch, although I am really missing the weekly zoom meetings I had while on the course, it was a great way to stay focused and motivated, and while my motivation has remained high, that little voice of self-doubt has returned, so I end up spending some of my time wrestling that back into its box. At the minute I’m winning, I’m largely doing this by sticking my fingers in my ears and just continuing to ‘do’ (which is quite an accomplishment considering my fingers are in my ears).

The first week of August, for the third year running was the annual Gish scavenger hunt. It took a few days for me to get into it this year, I think my head was still thinking about my picture book, and it was quite hard to just drop that for a week and concentrate on other random tasks, but I did, and by the Tuesday I was in full Gish mode. I only managed six items this year, which was slightly disappointing, but I did spend a ridiculous amount of time on a wedding dress made from plastic bags. Other items of note included a stop-motion animation showing you planting a “seed” that grows into something unexpected, a poster of the Queen and actor Misha Collins as a famous duo from a scene in a classic film (I chose E.T.), and a cryptid created from salt (I chose a kraken).

I was really pleased with how the dress turned out, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed creating an illustration in salt. I’ve created images in spices and in pencil shavings for Gish before and they both went okay, but there is actually something really satisfying about pushing salt around, its much easier than working with powdery spices, and as I was working on black paper, I really enjoyed the contrast of black and white.

I tried to be more sensible with my book buying this month (although I say that most months and it still seems to get out of hand), so my question is, is seven still too many? I fear it might be, considering how long it has taken me to finish Girl, Woman, Other. When I was younger I always had the problem that I would race through a book and finish it far too quickly if I was really enjoying it, and then I’d be disappointed that it was over. Now I have the opposite problem, if I’m really enjoying a book, I savour it and try to make it last for as long as possible. It is a bit like Charlie Bucket when he gently unwraps his Wonka bar, although he never necessarily knew where his next chocolate bar was coming from, and I have unread books coming out of my ears!

So the books I’ve actually finished reading this month are:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo.
Brilliant, so many different stories about women, so many different lives, such great observation of people, and I won’t spoil it, but I thought the ending was wonderful.

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog, I’ve had it for such a long time, but it fell victim to the “oh this is so beautiful I need to save it” daft method of thinking. I finally read it and it was as wonderful and as adventurous (and beautiful - obviously) as I hoped it would be.

The Fox, The Wolf, and The Woodsman by Joe Latham
I’ve had this for a while too. It is a great book split into three chapters exploring the perils faced by creatures living in a wood. The illustrations are just wonderful and I love how Joe tells the stories silently, through images alone. I have an idea in my head that I would like to write a wordless picture book, so I have found looking at these images and seeing ‘how’ and ‘what’ they communicate really fascinating.


The book I’m currently reading:

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
I haven’t got very far yet, but I am enjoying what I have read.

The books I’ve bought his month are:

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
I really enjoyed Station Eleven so I thought I would give this a go too.

Smoke by Dan Vyleta and Soot by Dan Vyleta
I have no idea if I’ll like these books, so took a bit of a punt by buying both of them, but I liked the cover designs, and I really like the concept of bad thoughts being made visible by smoke coming from the body.

Llama Glamarama by Simon James Green and Garry Parsons
A dancing llama learning to embrace his individuality? What is not to love???

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
I love Matt Haig, I follow him on Twitter and he always seems to have some wise words to share. I’ve also read most of his children’s series starting with The Boy called Christmas, which I love, but I’ve never read any of his adult books. I don’t know why, I’ve always been interested in them but I’ve never ended up buying one, until now - you put the word Library in a title and you push me to make that purchase. I actually ordered my copy from Rossiter Books as it was signed, and if you are interested, when I posted this blog (August 2020) there still seemed to be some available - here. (This was actually one of my instagram impulse purchases, after Rossiter Books posted about it on their feed).

Walking Distance and The Way to Treasure Island by Lizzy Stewart
Speaking of Instagram impulse purchases, Lizzy Stewart mentioned she only had a few copies of Walking Distance left in her shop, and I’ve been meaning to buy it for ages, (and I would much rather give my money to Lizzy than Amazon), and then I accidentally tripped and popped a copy of The Way to Treasure Island in my basket too. I’ve loved Lizzy’s work for years, I used to follow her illustrated blog/diary “Solo”. I have three zines from Solo that I probably bought back around 2012 (ish), I loved Lizzy’s combination of image and a few well chosen words that could communicate so much humour and warmth, and they were just such beautifully observed snippets of life.


What have I been watching this month:

Umbrella Academy Season 2: It feels like we had to wait such a long time for season 2, but when it was finally here, we binged it and really enjoyed it. I feel like the characters had the opportunity to develop this season. Klaus has always been a favourite (Robert Sheehan has been a favourite since Misfits), but I felt like Luther was given the chance to be really funny, and I loved being able to see more of Ben. I also enjoyed the addition of Lila, and I’m really excited to see the direction it seems to be heading in. (I haven’t read any of the comic book series and now I’m watching it, I won’t read any until it finishes, as I don’t like to mix up my TV adaptations and my reading, it’ll just lead to some kind of spoiler or disappointment, I keep them separate).

Tales From the Loop: Firstly I love that this is inspired by an art book by Simon Stålenhag. His art is so captivating, his worlds so believable and intriguing, that they made a television series from it, that is just amazing! Secondly, I love the slow, quiet pace of the episodes, how there are whole chunks without dialogue, and the story, the mood, the feelings and opinions you have for a character can be created through visuals alone. I also like how each episode is like a short story for a different character, like we are having a secret little snoop into people’s lives. I can see a lot of people not giving it a chance because it isn’t as loud and brash as programmes we are used to watching, which is a shame because I have found it to be beautiful and nuanced and really inspiring.

What is coming up? I can see September being busy. We will hopefully be seeing some of my family for the first time in months. It’ll be my birthday, although we aren’t planning anything too exciting, this year has taught me not to make too many plans or get my hopes up. I hope to work a bit more on my picture book and potentially start on another story or two. September also usually sees me start planning for Inktober. Anyone who can take part in Inktober, for every day of October without any planning has my respect, if I don’t have a plan I end up spending far too much time on each illustration each day and I fall behind. I’m also tempted to try a few prompts by Furry Little Peach this year too, we will see how I get on, I have a habit of giving myself too much to do! I also want to get back to my Little Mouse Illustrations, he has taken a back seat recently, but I have a whole load of roughs that I need to complete, I’ll let you know how I get on!



All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I either personally made purchases from or that at the time of posting offered the cheapest price. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020

April 2020 – Another month gone ... but where?!?

You would think that lockdown would result in the days dragging, but April seems to have gone by in a blur of sameness, so it was a bit of a surprise when I realised that it was the last day of the month and it hadn’t occurred to me to start a blog post.

The Guardian

So what has happened in April? Well I finished the week-long instagram illustration challenge “Dream Week”, you can find all of the illustrations posted on my instagram grid. It was good fun, I’d been desperate to include one of my Caran D’ache fluorescent dry highlighters in a palette, and the colours I chose for these drawings were such fun and a bit of a change for me. I do tend to choose bright colours, but there is still usually something quite traditional about the colours I select as a whole. Dream Week saw me using lots of pinks, reds and purples, with some neon yellow thrown in. The highlighter pencil obviously wasn’t ideal for illustration, its a little too waxy, but I’m a big believer in using any medium you have at hand to make art.

‘Little Mouse’ work-in-progress

I’m also continuing to create ‘Little Mouse’ illustrations for the Inktober52 art prompt challenge. I lost a little inspiration this month, and actually considered missing a week, as all the prompts were colours. Colour prompts are great if you are a traditional Inktober participant using black ink, as a pop of colour can be really effective, but if you are already using colour the prompt feels a bit vague. However, I’ve managed to create three illustrations prompted by a colour (well, almost - I should be finishing one now), and I think there will be a final colour prompt later today, so I’m feeling pretty pleased that I didn’t let myself get too despondent or give up.

A hand washing haiku

The other thing that happened in April was mini-Gish. I’ve mentioned Gish in this blog before, it is a week long, global scavenger hunt that takes place every summer. However, since lots of people are stuck at home, the organisers thought it would be fun to create a 24 hour version, to help raise money for charity and to give people something fun to look forward to. It was a lot of fun and it also taught me that the things I create really don’t have to be perfect. I tell myself this every time I play Gish, but I always find myself trying my very best, and sometimes restarting projects, and giving myself several attempts to ‘get it right’. If you have the luxury of a week, you can do that, but I found in 24 hours the first thing I created stuck, it didn’t matter if it was wonky, imperfect or laughable, because ultimately it didn’t matter, it was just a bit of fun, (I always tell myself this, but this was the first time I truly practised it)

Tim MInchin (supposedly) in pencil shavings

I completed 5 tasks – in the last week-long hunt I achieved 9 tasks – so it just goes to show how my approach to tasks has altered, it has left me wondering just how many I can finish in the summer hunt.

Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes in toothpaste, on a bathroom mirror.

For those wondering I created:
• A haiku about hand washing to be put above the sink.

• A portrait of a favourite famous person created using some kind of household waste (I chose Tim Minchin in pencil shavings, he is pretty wonky but it was 3 am).

• A miniature portrait of someone famous who makes you smile, on a mirror, in toothpaste. I chose Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster.

• A representation of your dream couch carved from a potato.

• A sun hat made from weeds.

I’ve also been trying not to spend too much money this month, I have mostly been putting it towards food parcels. I had two sent to my parents and was fortunate to be on a video chat when one of them arrived. It was really nice to see them get excited about the things they were pulling out of the box. I’m also quite weak-willed when it comes to making spontaneous Instagram purchases, I’ve really tried to resist, but my willpower failed me twice (almost three times, as I almost made another purchase yesterday but you had to pay by card and I couldn’t be bothered to go and fish it out).

I bought a Sofie Hagen ‘Self-Isolation Care Package’ bundle, which included her signed book, access to two of her shows online and a handwritten card. I love Sofie, she is smart, warm and funny, but also doesn’t take any crap! Obviously I haven’t read her book just yet, it has been added to my massive to-be-read pile.

I also bought a beautiful John Bloor print entitled ‘Thrift and Rocks’. John was having a sale on instagram so it seemed rude not to make a purchase. I’ve bought a print from him previously but it was for a gift, so it was really nice to buy a print I could keep for myself this time. You can find this print here.

That was all the excitement I experienced during April 2020, which considering how restricted we are, hasn’t been so bad. I definitely still feel very lucky. I’ll hopefully be back at the end of May for another update!

Mid-Year Update 2018

So much for regular blog posts! I have no idea where the first half of the year went, but I certainly didn't spend it updating this blog! I don't want to send anyone to sleep with almost seven months worth of details so I'll just hit you up with a couple of highlights! Firstly, the site has had a bit of a work update, there are now new sketchbook collages to see, as well as a new section featuring an ongoing project where I illustrate heads. 

Secondly, one of the projects I've worked on this year is writing and illustrating my own story, "Miriam Makes A Difference".

This was actually a birthday gift for Lewis, my friend's son. It was inspired by a day out we had together at Longleat, where we saw a variety of Mantis. Miriam is a Praying Mantis and the story revolves around her saving herself and fellow buggy creatures from a horde of hungry bats (to keep it simple we politely ignore Miriam's eating habits). 

I gave myself four weeks to complete the project, from coming up with the story, right through to tying all the painted pages together with ribbon...but it took me eight, (sorry Lewis!), even though I rushed a fair bit and kind of cheated. I say 'cheated' as I took full advantage of the qualities of a Praying Mantis when illustrating. Usually if I wanted to illustrate something sequential I would be thinking about flow, points of view, scale... but the thing about the Praying Mantis is that they spend lots of time being very, very still, so I kept her in exactly the same spot, at exactly the same size on many of the pages - even when she does move it is only one arm! So while I played on the static nature of my main character, I tried to make up for the lack of movement by changing small details, so sometimes Miriam might have an umbrella, or sunglasses, or a hat, and on each page, each little buggy friend has moved to a different spot and is doing something different. I think it is a project that could definitely be developed and improved upon, but the most important thing is that Lewis liked it and didn't mind that it was late! 

Finally, I recently spent a week Gishing! (Gishing - not fishing). Gish is the Great International Scavenger Hunt that takes place for one week each year. It is hosted by actor Misha Collins (who some people might know from Supernatural) and has been running since 2011. I've only recently started watching Supernatural, so needless to say I've only just started snooping on the instagram accounts of actors, and I've only just discovered Gish. I was a bit apprehensive at first (so much so that instead of signing up, I first bought a t-shirt and then donated a Gisholarship, so someone else who couldn't afford it, could take part), seeing pictures of past items, such as "VIDEO. Find someone you love and butter them up; literally, cover them in butter and then give them a big hug." made me nervous. However, I had a week before registration closed to decide and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I liked the idea of doing good, raising money for charity (via registration fee and t-shirt sales), having fun and breaking away from my usual routine. So I registered and set about, via the Gish app, finding a team to play with. I ended up joining team Smelly Friends (A F.R.I.E.N.D.S reference - we don't actually stink), thanks to a lovely friendly invite from our Captain Natasha. There were 15 of us spread throughout the UK, Ireland, the U.S and Australia. It has been such great fun being able to chat with complete strangers, of varying ages, from around the world, all working towards the same goal! The hunt involves a list of over 200 items that teams can attempt, some teams know each other physically so can take part in challenges that need several team members to complete, but we each chose items that could be done either alone or with the help of family members. Each item is worth points, the team with the most points wins ( it was a trip to New Zealand this year), although we were a 'just for fun' team, so aren't holding out any hopes of winning - some teams really appear to be, 'life-on-hold-in-it-to-win-it!' Naturally I veered away from the challenges that involved causing myself too much embarrassment (maybe next year) and opted for the creative challenges, so I thought I'd share some here. 

Item 31: You are never too old to...
So this is the most 'outgoing' I get, plastering myself in make-up in a childlike manner, but only because it also gave me a good excuse to build a fort. Unexpectedly, this may have been my favourite item to complete - I was really fond of my simple little fort. 

Item 155: Using only the contents of your spice cabinet, create a portrait of one (or all) of the Spice Girls
I knew I wanted this item as soon as I saw it, then once I had assigned myself to it I wondered what the hell I had let myself in for! I enjoyed this because, although it wasn't easy, using the spices turned out to be less challenging than I had thought - as long as you resist the urge to blow tiny particles out of the way and sneezing. My magic tools turned out to be a mini skewer with a paddle on one end, and a teaspoon, but you only ever put the tiniest amount of spice on the spoon at one time, no matter how impatient you are getting, if a tiny bit falls in the wrong place you can nudge it, or cover it with a different spice, if loads of spice falls in the wrong place you may as well grab the hoover and start again! I'm not the most patient person in the world so I was pretty impressed with the focus I had doing this, I also really liked how her hair turned out. 

Item 118: You know Winnie the Pooh. But have you met his cousin Vinnie da Pooh? Show us a page from the book about Pooh Bear’s mob-boss cousin.
This was another item that I knew I wanted to complete. In hindsight, having seen submissions from other teams I realise I could have saved myself a lot of time by doing one large image and a single line of text... but when have I ever made things easy for myself? (The answer is never - if there is a longer and harder way of doing something I'll inadvertently do it). Naturally, I decided to not only create two illustrations but to also start writing a whole story - I guess it is just what I do! I really enjoyed trying to capture the style of the original, non-Disney, Winnie the Pooh. I suppose it isn't too far away from what I do with outlines and watercolour, but I really had to concentrate on the detail in the line work, and keeping the colour delicate and not too heavy.  

Item 162: A painting of Castiel alive in the time of dinosaurs. (You may do this with traditional media or digitally).
I didn't have a full week of Gish as I was off on my holibobs, so decided to take this item on, on my last full day at home. It went okay. I was annoyed that I couldn't get a good likeness of Cas, but I didn't have time to sit and worry about it, or try and keep redrawing it if I wanted to get it completed by the end of the day - I just had to get it done. For anyone familiar with Supernatural, Cas is telling the dinosaurs what he learned from the pizza man... and they seem to be pretty interested! It was the first time I had approached drawing characters by firelight, again I'm not sure why I decided to make it harder for myself, but by the time I came to paint it and actually started considering colour use, the sketch was all done and ready to go, so I just rolled with it. I'm quite pleased, I think I've managed to get a fairly good contrast between the light and the shadow, and although there is room for improvement, it isn't bad considering I knocked an A3 illustration - concept to finish - out in a day.

Item 201: It's recently been discovered that there's a lake on Mars. Show us a summer alien "Beach Day" at the lake, complete with picnicking, fishing, and swimming aliens. (You may create this as a photo, a drawing, or a digital painting).
So in my infinite wisdom I decided that I could maybe squeeze in one more final item the night before my holiday... although the fact that I chose to do it digitally suggests that I wasn't that confident in completing it before leaving and would maybe have to take it with me. It was nowhere near completed by the end of the night so I ended up continuing with it in the car while driving up to the Peak District (obviously I wasn't the one doing driving, I mean I can multitask okay but I can't actually drive, so I certainly wasn't multitasking on this occasion). I then finished it off that evening while sitting with my family and drinking wine. Again, it was a bit of a rush, I did have another day to do it before the Gish deadline, but I wanted to spend that time with my family, so I only gave myself that night to complete it. Originally I wanted to create my own aliens, but knowing that I was on quite a tight deadline I decided that not having to think up entirely new characters would probably be easier (maybe I did learn something from the previous items about not doing the hardest-most-time-consuming-thing after all). 

So that's pretty much everything for now. Hopefully I'll be quicker at posting next time, and with a bit of luck it will also be a bit shorter!