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Wednesday, January 25

Alice + Moving to Tumblr

Considering taking this page now as I practically spend most of my blogging time on tumblr now (I am sorry for sucumbing to temptation) this page gets hardly any views too so it kinda makes sense :P
Here are some links to where I'm at. See you on the flipside!

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com
missnicolarachel.tumblr.com
twitter.com/Nicola_Rachel

Monday, January 23

30 Seconds to Mars

This has to be my favourite band. I tried to see them a few years ago on their This is War tour - had the ticket and everything, but our transport dropped out last minute so I couldn't go. My heart is still crying :'(

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

Sunday, January 22

Old Eidolon

A page I found when I was clearing out my room today. It was one of my intial drawings for my soon to be webcomic. It's fantasy post-apocolyptic.

I watched a few of Studio Ghibli's movies lately - Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away and Princess Monoke. Howl's was definitely my favourite, Spirited Away left me completely mindf*cked.

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

Saturday, January 21

College

After freaking out for weeks, I finally had my college interview Wednesday for the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design. I was so nervous, but the tutor seemed pretty pleased with me and offered me a place on the course there and then, unconditional! One step closer to having my own webcomic!

Next Thursday is my Chemistry exam - wish me luck!

Monday, January 16

Fanart - Mias and Elle

Practised using my tablet and GIMP making digital art and made fanart .... seriously need to work on it some more, this looks nothing like how I draw lol! #fail the character is Mias from StressedJenny's characters!

Statues of Freedom

Whoa-ho-hoo! Almost forgot to post my recent scan.

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com



January Update

So I noticed I don't really do much blog type things on here... and the place is called 'Blogger'... so here's an attempt at blogging!

Well firstly, you may or may not know that I am in my final year of sixth form, which means it's time to start thinking about university and foundation courses... yaaaay. So I applied to my local college to do my foundation course there, as it gives me another year to save up some money for uni (and then blow it on clothes, makeup and ukuleles).

So I applied, thinking I had all the time in the world to ready my portfolio...! WRONG! They gave me just over 2 weeks to have everything ready, and so now I'm sitting here at home trying to catch up with my mountain of art coursework ready for my interview on WEDNESDAY! The 18th!! Arrrghhhhh!!!!

I just have so much coursework to do and so little time - I've had to redo my English coursework 4 times now, I've been going to London to visit art galleries to make my portfolio look better, I'm behind on the work that I'm supposed to be doing and I have my first exam on the 26th on January in Chemistry! I think I might just faint!

And so now i've written this huge moan about sixth form life. When I could be actually doing some of it. I think alot of us do that - procrastinate work because we know we have alot to do. I don't know why we do it, just part of human nature.

I would delete this, but as I said, I don't write blogs often.... and this is why. lol.

Hope 2012 is treating you well, until next time...

Saturday, January 7

Updated WIP

Been working some more on my art seperate from my coursework (there's not alot of that). Turns out it's a good time to do so as I got my college letter saying I have my interview in less than 2 weeks, I need a portfolio including work I do outside of coursework... hmm. Not much good stuff...

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com



Sketches

As you can see I've been working on my watercolour techniques... my favourite sketch is probably #5 (the one on the right), it has a mix of blended soft colour and sharp colour which creates a nice effect

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

Thursday, January 5

WIP

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

Tweet Tweet

Joined the world of Twitter today (again, not that I understand it any better). Probably will get bored of it quite quickly... I've added a Tweet box on the right hand side of the page..!

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

The Countess

My first draft of my English coursework. I posted it on DA to get some (nice!) criticisms on language, literary devices etc. to add to my criticism from marking.

Some things you should probably know beforehand if you want to read it - we had to combine two already written texts (we were given a list of authors we could choose from) and transform them into another genre, audience etc. so I chose 'Porphyria's Lover' by Robert Browning and 'The Lady of the House of Love' by Angela Carter. It would probably best if you skimmed those first to fully understand the context... otherwise, just enjoy the story :)

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The man traipsed through the winter forest, wading through the thick, deep snow. A solitary bird chirped out in warning: now you are at the place of annihilation. The swallow sung out in fear, but the man could not hear him. The man heard nothing, except the last breaths of his lover – the only thing he could see were her ocean eyes smiling at him in relief and admiration before she finally fell into the darkness.

Porphyria; the woman had only one fate and it was intertwined into every fibre of her being and in every strand of her golden tress. Society saw it as callous and brutal, but he knew he gave her salvation – an escape from a life of misery. No one understood, and so he had no choice but to run. It was a convenient time to finally explore Europe, he had thought.

And now, here he was at the foothold of Death itself. He stumbled into the desolate village, thinking not of his safety from vampires, but of food, water and shelter. A fountain with a preying lion's head stood in the centre of the clearing, exuberating from the entrance of a new victim.

The man knelt beside the fountain and tried to drink the water before it froze. The snow about him melded to his shape, entangling him like vines. As he looked up towards the winter sun, he saw the silhouette of a woman coming towards him. He stood up, and inspected her as she came into view. She was old, her hair tied up neatly in a bun and she wore a dark dusty maid's uniform. She made gestures of eating food and sleeping with her hands. Finally, an angel had come to save him from his exhaustion and famine.

He followed her through a veil of plush roses, the smell so sweet it made his stomach churn. As he passed through, he saw the large castle looming over him in all its glory, leering at him and challenging him to enter its confines. Perhaps if he had his senses, he would have the wisdom to turn back.

The door to the castle was twice the size of them; it was wooden, the paint peeling and fading. The maid took the rusty metal knob and pulled the door with a tug. Their footsteps echoed in the porch, and the man shuddered. Cobwebs and old white sheets decorated the furniture, making the place feel lonely and abandoned. The man suddenly became alert, unsure of what to make of the place, but the sound of his stomach rumbling reminded him why he was there.

The maid beckoned him to an old damaged door with loose hinges, opened it and ushered him in. He stood in the doorway, clutching the bottom of his coat and wiping his cold, sweaty palms onto his trousers. A young woman in a long elegant white dress sat at her mahogany table with a deck of finely illustrated cards. Three cards were face up – La Papesse, La Mort, La Tour Abolie. The man looked at the cards perplexed, and looked back up at the Countess.  She had a defined face with large glossy eyes and thick lashes – she reminded him of his late Porphyria, though none shone as beautiful as his love – not even this maiden with rose red lips.

The Countess gestured to him to set before her. He dusted the aging chair and places his self onto the chair. The old maid entered, gliding across the floorboards soundlessly with a plate of food and a steaming cup of tea. The man's stomach rumbled once again, the sound echoing around the room – his face turning as red as the tomato on his dinner plate.

The girl opened her mouth and her words were like songs of Angels. She spoke of the weather, and her abandoned village, and small talk to fill the silences.

"Tell me, what brought you to Romania?" she asked him, not truly caring for the answer.

"Back at my home country, England, there was... talk about me. Talk that caused speculation. It became rather troublesome," he took a sip from his tea cup. The translucent skinned Countess looked at him with narrow eyes and flared nostrils.

"What kind of speculation?"

"Oh, you know how it is. Some tragedy happens and so people panic, they find someone to blame and it escalates from there. But like I said, it doesn't matter," he replied, fidgeting in his place and avoiding the Countess' gaze. She looked at his face, trying to read him, translating his body language.

A moment passed.

"Did you notice the trees talking on your journey?" she asked gazing through the window.

"Sorry?"

"The trees. They whisper. You can hear it in the wind – listen." They both paused their actions to listen to the wind.

The man chuckled, "well I think you must have very acute hearing then as I can't hear much at all!" He only paused for small moments between desperately piling the moist food into his mouth.

"They talk about things that happen in faraway lands. They talk about friends, and lovers… and killers." A fire set alight in her eyes; a burning passion for vengeance.
His eyes darted to her and quickly moved away again.

"Of course, it's all entertainment for me," she said with a small smile.

Once the Countess' visitor had finished his meal, she rose from her velvet cushioned chair and gazed at him. He looked at her with widened eyes as she gave a little smile at him. The napkin on his lap was soon lifted and folded onto the table, the sounds of his knife and fork clattering onto the empty plate. He rose too and followed her into the bedroom, thinking of his one true love, Porphyria.

As the night came to an end, the maid entered the bedroom to carry out her usual duty - bury the body in the garden and clean up the mess. The Countess sat on the edge of the bed staring at her prey, feeling truly satisfied for the first time in her life of eternity. The man had the one thing she wished for her whole life: love. And he threw it away as if it were nothing. The woman had her whole life to live, and he made the decision to cut it short. He had no place in making that decision. And for all these reasons, the Countess was happy about her revenge.

God had finally spoken.

Sal'li

My main character from City of Heroes: Freedom
(Find me on Union server!)

nikkiandrews.deviantart.com

Body Parts Small Quick Sketch

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