writing letters

Beyond the final page (word prompts)

| Anna Cull

These six-word stories were prompted by the Page Flutter Six-Word Story Challenge. The background is an excerpt from a letter to my teenage self written in 2012. If you’re interested in reading it, you can find it here.

10. December? The year’s almost wrapped up!

11. Stories continue beyond the final page.

12. Failures are necessary. Defeat is optional.

13. Small victories are not always enough.

14. Years past flickered like December lights.

15. The merrymakers were corralled for carolling.

16. Kissing underneath mistletoe smacks of myth-information.

[December prompts: wrapped, final page, failures, victories, years past, carolling, mistletoe]

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

| Anna Cull
Poles apart – Christmas design, 2012.

Here is my entry for this month’s Tigerprint design competiton. The theme, Coming Together at Christmas, provided an opportunity to explore what Christmas means to me and to look at what things provide those “I love Christmas” moments.

For me, it’s about connecting with family and friends. When they are far away, coming together at Christmas also means sending handmade cards through the post (yes, the old-fashioned way). It’s one of my favourite things about the season.

My ‘Poles apart’ design features nine little scribble birds/animals (representing countries all around the world). I imagine them on wrapping paper, gift tags and bags. The design looks particularly festive in red but I’ve also made a bright green version and one using a brown paper background (see below).

Christmas design – penguin, 2012.
Christmas design – polar bear, 2012.

I think my two favourites (penguin and polar bear) would also work as cards. The ink drawings have been scanned and turned into vector images. The backgrounds are a mixed media and digital collage of vintage stationery. Sometimes it pays to be a magpie : )

Polishing cats

| Anna Cull
Unpolished cat sketch – ink on paper, 55 x 60 mm, 2012.

My friend has introduced me to the wonderful world of polishing cats.* Closely related to procrastination, it’s a term for doing things that don’t really need to be done right now but which mysteriously rise to the top of your ‘to do’ list when there is something important that requires your attention.

I’m supposed to be working on a logo. I have the concept, the reference material and I’m now ready to draw it. I really like drawing and I enjoy designing logos but, for some reason, I can’t seem to settle into the sitting-down-and-getting-on-with-it stage. Instead, I have posted a birthday card, put petrol in the car, done the dishes and finished my mise en place for dinner. I’ve also written to my friend telling her all about it and now I’m preparing this entry for my blog. That’s a whole lot of shiny cats… and still no logo.

*DISCLAIMER ~ The author of this blog does not advocate or in any way condone the literal polishing of cats. That would be silly.

Two birds, one stone.

| Anna Cull
Sparrow sketch – ink on paper, 95 x 105 mm, 2012.

Actually, it’s one bird and a rock — but that’s not the point.

I’m going to be working on a painting for an art auction/competition this week (at least that’s the plan) and I thought I’d make a start on the sketches for that project and write to my friend at the same time. We always include a sketch in our letters to each other, so here is the little sparrow I drew for her.

I hope she doesn’t read this post before she gets the letter.