**********Raygirl's art of the moment!************

by

Because she always draws the sexiest pictures of Drafter ever, it's only natural I'd want to feature them here ;D It helps that she's his biggest fangirl, it really shows through in her work, so thank you SO MUCH for this piccie Phoenix!

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HO BOY

Hello watchers and friends ^-^ Sorry for my massive absence for the last few days but this week has been BUSY

So what have I been up to? LOSSA things Expect a long journal and lots of spelling errors because i'm tired XD

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First and foremost I have a job at the moment. It's an unpaid one but it's animation based and it's working at familiar territory Karrot (the guys who did One Minute Wonders for the BBC) again, so i'm super happy ^0^ I'm surrounded by my geeky chums and playing MarioKart of a lunchtime and doing some really cool projects and learning new skills and generally having a jolly old romp ^0^ HAPPY THY NAME IS ME

Hence why i've not been posting anything recently, no time or energy to work on my own stuff XD this job is only on a short term basis for after a couple of weeks i'll be out looking for work again ;_;

Aw well

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So while at Karrot i take time to tromp around londinium and visit some local shops, one of which is a little movie bookshop just off Covent Garden. While there i picked up a SUPER BARGAIN

You know much much I love bargains

But this one was a DOOZY

THE ART OF SURF'S UP

FOR TEN POUNDS

ULTIMATE WIN

Reduced from about £25 to £18 to just £10, all because it was old stock and the plastic box it was in was damaged...the book itself was in mint condition with all the goodies (stickers, CD, poster etc) still inside.

I'M SO HAPPY :joy: I'm not a massive art-of book collector or anything (though i like them a lot), but the Sony animation films have some GORGEOUS art books (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a super one too). And i'd been admiring the book at *stressedjenny's house, AND NOW I HAVE MY OWN....FOR £10....BARGAIN FTFW!

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So the main focus of the last 2 days has been the BRADFORD ANIMATION FESTIVAL

I've never been to BAF, one of the best run and most popular animation festivals in the UK. I mainly went to pay homage to old friend Pat Raine-Webb who died earlier this year, and who has a special memorial showing of her fave films put together by her partner Margot showing at the festival. So naturally I was determined to go to show my support for both a dear friend and a dear departed friend who have always made me feel welcome and loved in the world of animation.

And because roadtrips to new lands are never fun alone I dragged *Araniel along cause she's based in London too atm

And thus began the JOURNEY FROM HELL

The trip from my home to the Bradford hotel we would be staying at for one night should have taken us a maximum of 3 hours 29 mins, giving us a full 2 hours before Pat's showing at the National Media Museum to get a little lost in Bradford, find our hotel, check in and relax. Just a jolly up the M1, and with 2 sat navs on our side showing the way what could go wrong?

The journey started out well, good mood, good music, Dylan Moran to entertain us....fab

Along the way there were warning signs that there were delays at junction 29 - 30 due to part of the M1 being closed, hence a diversion. Well not THAT horrific right? Just a short diversion between two junctions and we have loads of time. SORTED.

HOW WRONG WAS I

It took us SIX HOURS TO REACH BRADFORD.

SIX HOURS ;____;

Almost twice the time it should have taken us. Thanks to the diversion from HELL, leading us all round the houses (don't ask me where it took us, i was too pissed off and tired to care). Poor Araniel had to sit there while I fumed at the miles of seemingly ENDLESS traffic we crawled along, threatening to kill things whenever we ground to a halt. It was HORRIBLE ;_;

So naturally due to the traffic we were late for Pat's showing, but thankfully we did manage to see quite a few films, such as the WONDERFUL 'Hedgehog in the Fog' [link] by Yuri Norstein which I'd forgotten how much I adored ^-^ And 'Father and Daughter' [link] by Michael Dudok de Witt, a film that if you see it and don't feel even the tiniest hint of emotion, consider yourself dehumanised.

Then after another epic battle to find our hotel (we had raced to the cinema straight from the road) we were finally able to relax and try and take in some of Bradford and start enjoying the end of the festival. All that was left to see (apart from Fantastic Mr Fox which we skipped) were the BAF awards, so in essence we would be seeing the best of the festival in one showing WIN

So what prize winning goodies did we see? Well there was the utterly adorable 'Lost and Found' [link] by Philip Hunt, a madcap music video by Guy Ben Shetrit called 'Hey' [link] for the band Eatliz (a personal favorite), a super short short film called 'The Stupid Table' [link] by Andy Sykes, madcap and memorable Russian animated series Masha and the Bear [link] by Denis Chervyatsov and the superbly staged 'French Roast' [link] by Fabric O Joubert, just as a sample!

All worth checking out as and when you get to opportunity ;D

And after the showing and awards there was an aftershow party! With a buffet and 80's music and all round FUNTIMES I love 80's cheese music XD

AND I BOUGHT A DRINK FOR PRIIT PÄRN!!!!! *dies happy* Probably no one will know who he is but he's one of my favorite film makers EVER, the man who got me into Estonian animation in the first place, and I love his work, so buying him a drink and getting to chat to him was a joy ^0^ Araniel could only watch helplessly as I fangirled all over him XD

so after an epic party we spent the night in out lovely hotel, and then went back to the Museum to see an exhibition of work by Cardiff based animator Joanna Quinn, who is so lovely and her work is always cool to look at

and then we drove home....and thankfully driving home was easy as pie with no scary traffic evils ^-^

So a massive thank you to *Araniel for being my super driving/festival buddy and keeping me safe and sane, thank you to Margot and Jamie (my current boss) for always making me feel welcome at festivals and helping us meet people, to Joanna Quinn and Priit Parn for being awesome, and to the organisers and folk behind BAF for hold such an epic festival. I'll definately be going again...but maybe I'll take the train next time ^______^*

THAT'S ALL (for now) FOLKS

I SLEEP NOW *kathunk*

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Dedications

This journal is dedicated to -

A fellow Rayman fan who's style and characters designs add new flavour to the fandom. She's sweet, inventive and friendly, and the fandom needs more chica's like her who are multitalented and unafraid to try new things!



How do i get dedicated? - By being a nice person, a good friend, a good artist, someone I like or admire, or all of the above

Dedicated but not on this list? Please let me know, sometimes i forget to add people to this list if i dedicated a journal to them in the past

What's with the CSS raye? I'm trying to cut down on the time it takes to load my DA page, cause frankly it's slowing down my compy...as well as a few other people's. And the dedications list is making my journals a bit long and tedious (sorry guys). But i'm not about to just junk it cause that wouldn't be right. So I put in a scrollbox! I hope this works better