Featured on VSCO weekly selects

Last week I was scrolling through my Twitter time line during a break in some Commonwealth Games sporting action and happened upon a picture collage. Inside that collage I thought I recognised one of my very own snaps. "Nah, it couldn't be! Could it?".

It was a picture collage posted by the @VSCO twitter account (above) and included a link along with the picture collage to a feature they do called Weekly Selects. I clicked in it and scrolled down to what I was sure was one of my snaps and YES, there it was. My name!! I knew it! This was the picture, below. The staircase from the Jim Lambie exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.

Now, incase you don't know what VSCO is or who they are, here's some brief information. VSCO stands for Visual Supply Co. According to their website "VSCO is passionate about creating beautiful and efficient digital tools for the modern creative." Amongst the products they have is one of the many photography apps I use on my iPhone - VSCOcam. If you don't have it on your phone then I highly recommend you download it now as it really is a comprehensive photo app with many features and filters that you can use to tweak your photos to make them look their best. I tend to use it for the good stuff. The stuff I want to keep and post to my VSCO Grid - which you can view on the web version of VSCO. 

You can find and follow other people's VSCO Grids too but as far as I know you can't 'like' pictures in the way that you can on Instagram. I don't mind that though since you tend to get a better quality of picture over there. Well, less pictures of food and cats and certainly no selfies (yeeha!). At least I haven't seen any selfies on there.

I was overjoyed by this and RT'd it and thanked them very much for selecting me.

About an hour later I got a notification that I'd been tagged in one of their Instagram pictures too. (They tag all of the people they feature). That was very cool. But soon after that I started to get loads and loads of notifications of people 'liken' my pictures and following me there. I don't know how people with thousands of followers who regularly get millions of likes, cope. Turn the notifications off I suppose.

I thought I'd share my little brief piece of fame on the Internet with you. I know it's not much but I was thrilled and I've only been using it a short while. I've been on Instagram from the very beginning and still haven't had one of my photos featured anywhere by them.

What are your favourite photography apps? I'm always looking for new ones.

Angela x

Spreading the love

Been lazy, and i forgot to post something, so here's a couple of pictures. I decided to spread some smiles on Twitter tonight. I think it worked.

Angela xx

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Phase 77 - Designs on Life

I go through phases in life.  With everything; music, hobbies, routines everything.  An example of this behaviour is music.  If I buy a CD (rare occurrence these days) I tend to play it every day for months and then not for ages, anyone else do that?  Anyway something that i've always had an interest in is art, design, architecture, buildings, great photos and all that gubbins.  I even still have some drawings from when I was an imaginative and creative 8 year old designing the interiors of caravans.  Yes caravans!  I used to love drawing where i'd put the tables and sofas and built in shelving units and stuff...

For a few years i've been wanting to learn new things.  Perhaps even do a degree which I could maybe do at work but to be honest there isn't really a subject that is taught at my University that interests me a great deal.  Apart from where I work (of course!) and I couldn't do that because heck I produce all the exam papers, I log essays and i don't think it would be allowed.  There's Business Management and all that but... blah nah not for me. No my interests still lay (although they've been dormant for a hundred years) but they still lay in design...art... So i made a  decision.

I got myself an ILA account from the Scottish Government and booked myself onto an Intro to Graphic Design course at Glasgow Metropolitan College.  Woopee!!  I go on Tuesday evenings and have just had my third week.  The first week I was a bit nervous as there was so much to take in and i thought oh no i'm never gonna have enough ideas for this but three weeks in and i'm finding my creative mojo.  Don't get me wrong this is just an intro course and it's probably missing out a lot of things but we are bumbling along and were set the brief of designing a poster for an fictional exhibition called Adventures in Typography. Having read some really brilliant documents that Mr Seamus Murphy off of Twitter sent me (thank you!!) I was ready for this brief.

I done three quick sketches of my layout and where i thought things should be and set about creating it on Adobe Illustrator on a shiny new iMac (a fantastic piece of software and an excellent bit of kit).  My first attempt I wasn't happy with. The tutor has shown us a few tools to use in Illustrator and I tried to work these into my work. He came around and i wasn't happy with it.  His comments were "restrained" and I knew it was.  It was also a description of me that night.  It was good but i need to have more fun with it he said.  And so that's what i did.  I set about with this idea in  my head and got it down before i forgot.  I was inspired in a way by my funky coloured scarf i had on that night ad my purple Converse.  The class ended and i couldn't wait to come back the next week to get it finished.

As I headed to class last night I was eager to finish my design and maybe even start a third one then decide which one I'd submit. I added more detail and completed my poster. This time when he came around his words were "excellent", "you've got the idea of what the brief should be and where it's going", "gold star".  I was chuffed.  I explained what my ideas were and how i wanted to interpret them and he said it was spot on. FTW!!!

Next week we get to print off our designs and have a critique session by the whole class. Can't wait for that. I'll show it off, see what you think.
I'm loving this phase of my life. I don't know where it will lead but i think i'll have some fun while I'm doing it.

Ange x

Banksy pt II

She senses with some real trepidation that it’s nearly time for the Banksy print to be revealed. It really does seem like forever that it’s been lying there on the floor, in the corner of the dimly lit room, visible to her but never fully acknowledged. She is scared. The little Da Vinci print has pride of place on her wall and is so vibrant and clear and lucid and wonderful and colourful and energetic how on earth can she grow to love this Banksy? Is there enough room?..

Since those first few days after she’d taken delivery of this monstrous print she hasn’t dared to sneak a peek at it again, rather preferring to leave it wrapped in it’s by now yellowing bubble wrap to gather dust and just sit there. Some of those little bubbles have been burst too. She knows that one day, she will have to unwrap the print and put it on display for all to see. She’s not even exactly sure when that day will be but it is looking like soon. On that day she hopes her friends will endeavour to guide her into knowing what to do with it..

It seems that art is playing a huge part in her life just now. Joan Miro, Matisse, Kandinsky, Warhol, Da Vinci, Monet not to mention the Pantone Colour Chart! Now that is ace. All-singing, all-dancing bursts of colour, ideas and energy - wonderful. She likes it.. a lot!