natalie portman.

 

#4.

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Well, well... 'ello, 'ello! My, it's been a while, blog, hasn't it? (I've missed you, so!) :) So, I'll begin... 

Well, a long while ago now, back in November, after having a rather lengthy break away from drawing, I finally picked up my pencil once again and started working on, and finished, my drawing of the beautiful Natalie Portman. After hours and hours of (what seemed to be) endless shading and rubbing little bits outs and sharpening my pencil again and again, I finally reached a point of completion. So, voila! Sorry it's taken me so long to post it here to show you all- life's really gotten away from me recently and my blog has suffered for it! I've even turned 20 in the time since I last posted (gosh, I feel old! It feels like I was only 16 going on 17 yesterday!) Well anyway, hopefully, I'll get back in sync and back into the habit of posting bits and bobs more frequently, soon. I've got lots of things stored on my hard-drive ready for me to sort through and post about, and I finally started a new portrait last week, so keep your eyes peeled for all of that soon! :) 

  

WIPs.

Well, I won't keep you any longer- I've got a bajillion photos to sort through and edit, pictures to plan, draw and paint and I've got to cook my dinner, so I'll be off and let you get back to your Thursday, now. Oh, and I know it's been a long while since, but, nevertheless, I hope that you all had a wonderfully Merry Christmas and I wish you all an extremely Happy New Year while I've been away! I hope you're all happy and well :) 

Lots of love, Mari-ann ♥

fragments.

 

***

Hello, you lovely lot! Sorry for being quiet for a little while- time's really gotten away from me recently! Well now, these are a few self-portraits that I've played around with in Photoshop, putting two polaroids (one of myself and one of something around/near me) together and seeing what I can come up with. I'm actually thinking of turning this into a little side-project of mine, experimenting every now and again whenever I take some more self-portrait polaroids. And, possibly in the future, I may be brave and go out and meet new people and take pictures with them to add some variety to it all? Hmm, ideas, ideas... :)
Whenever I look at them, they sort of make me think of dreams, and old nostalgic memories, when everything's sort of hazy and surreal and beautiful. All soft and nostalgic and fading. Hopefully you like them! Okay, well, anyway, on a quick side note, I'm sorting out some more posts to share with you as I write this, some with some more polaroids and others with some digital work I've been doing recently, so hopefully you'll be seeing them all soon! I hope you've had a lovely week, that you have a good Friday and enjoy the weekend ahead of you, and that you are all happy and well! :)

Love, Mari-ann ♥

days of summer. VIII

the wash coming off of the ferry.

the sun setting by the Isle of Wight.

the purple sky.

Emily watching the sunset.

light-leaked sea.

one last windswept self before home.

a windswept pair. (awkward fact: most of the hair over Emmy's face is actually mine... it was so breezy!)

a quick snap of all of the instax photos I took on holiday, all lain out on my bed when I'd got home.

Homeward Bound

France - England, 2011.

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Here are the photos that I took while we were all on the ferry, going home across the Channel, from Normandy back to Portsmouth. It took about 6 hours to get back, and so, after getting settled and then having some dinner, Emily and I had plenty of time to go about our business while Nani and Grandad read and relaxed in our seating area :) After watching 'Paul' in the cinema, we went for a final wander around the ferry, eventually ending up on the top deck- my favourite place to be on ferry! Foolishly, I'd forgotten to bring a hair-band and so my hair went everywhere while Emily quickly ponytalied her hair and looked perfectly normal, especially in comparison to me, what with the sight of me standing next to her! In my mind's eye, I'd say I looked an awful lot like Mrs. Twit from 'The Twits' by Roald Dahl. Oh dear, haha, what a sight I must have been...

by Quentin Blake.

Anyhoo, once I'd gone past the point of caring about the state of my hair, and Emily had stopped laughing at me, we found a spot facing out to the sea so that we could watch the sea and the sky go by as we talked about things and just chilled out. After a while, and after taking many pictures of the Isle of Wight as we neared Portsmouth, we got a bit chilly and so went back to Nani and Grandad for a little while. But, as soon as I saw a streak of deep pink in the sky, I persuaded Emily to come back outside with me so that I could take pictures of the sunset! And, voila!, these are the photos that I took that afternoon/evening on the ferry :) I hope you like them, and I hope you haven't got too bored or annoyed with my frequent blogging this week! Thank you for all of the lovely comments I've received about them :) it honestly means so much to know that people are actually seeing my pictures and actually liking them, so, from the very bottom of my heart, thank you! I really hope that you're all happy and well, and that you're all having a lovely day or evening, wherever you may be in the world!

Lots of love, Mari-ann ♥

days of summer. VII

Emily and her daisy crown.

my beautiful little sister.

   

not the most flattering of photos, on my part, but a nice picture of us together nonetheless.

once the sun had almost completely set, the moon began to rise over the tree by our camper.

a blurry self-portrait.

France, 2011.

***

Throughout the two weeks of staying at Cabellou, I'd longed to take pictures in the daisy field opposite our camp-site! Leaving it almost literally to the last minute, I finally braved it and went for a little wander with Emily with my digital camera, my film camera and my instax camera... I certainly came prepared for taking many-a-picture, haha, that's for sure! While we were out there, the sun started to set and, having always wanted to take photos with Em in a big field at sunset, I jumped at the chance and just went with the flow, taking lots of pictures as the sun slowly set. Together, we made a big daisy chain crown to wear and we just hung out together, singing a little and chit-chatting a lot, while I took lots and lots of pictures to make the most of actually being out in the field, surrounded by knee-high daisies! I hadn't taken very many, if any, pictures with my sister all holiday as well, and so I really wanted to capture some memories of us together in France for us to have and be able to look back on when we're older. I hope you like them and that you're having a lovely day :)

Love, Mari-ann ♥