A very half-arsed trip report
Feb. 25th, 2014 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
motetusI would make a boring and terrible travel writer, so my three weeks in the USA are going to summarised in a handful of photos, with minimal droning on. And a couple of sketchbook pages, except those are entirely unrelated to anything I saw on holiday, because I refuse to pretend to be a Proper Artist.
Totally a fresh and original tourist photo of San Francisco.
An adorably froggy at the California Academy of Sciences.
Then we rented a car and drove up highway 1, which was a very pretty drive, despite the heavy rain that started and how the very winding road meant I was demanding PULL OVER OR I PUKE every 15 minutes.
Eventually the rain got so bad that we thought sod it, we're staying indoors and gluing ourselves to the internet all day. Luckily I had![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bauble to harass keep me company in chat and demand I draw her dodgy pencil things from upcoming chapters of Sex Bucket, so here is Arthur as a hot academic.
Redwoods, sea lions and more rainy beaches from Crescent City (depressing dump of a place, but the surrounding area is gorgeous).
I still couldn't shake offbauble and her incessant demands, so here are more sketchbook pages (so much for my plan of taking it along to draw, um, trees and stuff), this time of a younger student!Eames to match the previous academic!Arthur, and a couple of quick, rather dodgy, photo studies of young Tom Hardy to warm up and get familiar with his stupidly pretty face.
We eventually made it up to Portland, which is a city I like a lot, mostly for the food and how a man can walk down a street with a cat on his shoulder and no-one really gives a shit. I ended up at Powell's, where I bought the only Sutcliff book it had. I already own The Lantern Bearers, but this was the first edition with lots of really lovely ink illustrations, so I couldn't exactly not have it. Here's a copy of Aquila from the first chapter - drawing them out really makes you notice how cleverly the lines flow and curve into each other.
Then it was on to Hawaii, which was... not as bad as I was expecting? The enforced socialising was pretty awkward at first, and I grumbled a bit at staying at a characterless luxury resort which is not my kind of thing at all, but the two mornings we got to escape to go diving were fantastic. I saw green sea turtles, reef sharks, moray eels, octopuses and barracuda. No rays, which was a little disappointing, but there were dozens of humpbacks and their calves around, and it was so cool hearing them sing to each other while underwater. It's going to be hard getting back to Scottish diving after that. :(
Sorry,goblin_dae, I completely failed to get more than one photo of Hawaii for you. If it makes you feel any better, this was the one moment where there was a bit of sunshine and everything looked really pretty. You'll have to go for yourself, but also take me along so I can learn how to surf, yes?
Totally a fresh and original tourist photo of San Francisco.
An adorably froggy at the California Academy of Sciences.
Then we rented a car and drove up highway 1, which was a very pretty drive, despite the heavy rain that started and how the very winding road meant I was demanding PULL OVER OR I PUKE every 15 minutes.
Eventually the rain got so bad that we thought sod it, we're staying indoors and gluing ourselves to the internet all day. Luckily I had
bauble to Redwoods, sea lions and more rainy beaches from Crescent City (depressing dump of a place, but the surrounding area is gorgeous).
I still couldn't shake off
bauble and her incessant demands, so here are more sketchbook pages (so much for my plan of taking it along to draw, um, trees and stuff), this time of a younger student!Eames to match the previous academic!Arthur, and a couple of quick, rather dodgy, photo studies of young Tom Hardy to warm up and get familiar with his stupidly pretty face.We eventually made it up to Portland, which is a city I like a lot, mostly for the food and how a man can walk down a street with a cat on his shoulder and no-one really gives a shit. I ended up at Powell's, where I bought the only Sutcliff book it had. I already own The Lantern Bearers, but this was the first edition with lots of really lovely ink illustrations, so I couldn't exactly not have it. Here's a copy of Aquila from the first chapter - drawing them out really makes you notice how cleverly the lines flow and curve into each other.
Then it was on to Hawaii, which was... not as bad as I was expecting? The enforced socialising was pretty awkward at first, and I grumbled a bit at staying at a characterless luxury resort which is not my kind of thing at all, but the two mornings we got to escape to go diving were fantastic. I saw green sea turtles, reef sharks, moray eels, octopuses and barracuda. No rays, which was a little disappointing, but there were dozens of humpbacks and their calves around, and it was so cool hearing them sing to each other while underwater. It's going to be hard getting back to Scottish diving after that. :(
Sorry,
goblin_dae, I completely failed to get more than one photo of Hawaii for you. If it makes you feel any better, this was the one moment where there was a bit of sunshine and everything looked really pretty. You'll have to go for yourself, but also take me along so I can learn how to surf, yes?
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Date: 2014-02-25 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-02-26 12:00 am (UTC)Ugh, why did I not drop everything and follow you out there.
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Date: 2014-02-26 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 12:10 am (UTC)I've snorkeled in Hawaii but other than that, all my diving has been in the Caribbean. We are talking about a trip to somewhere in the Pacific one of these days!
It looks like you had a great time!
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Date: 2014-02-26 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 12:24 am (UTC)Where were you in Hawaii? I'd love to go snorkeling in the area (no diving for me, I'm scared of going down too far).
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Date: 2014-02-26 11:17 pm (UTC)We were in Maui - went diving at Molokini crater where other people were doing snorkeling too. Wish I could have spent more time going around the islands and trying different dive sites!
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Date: 2014-02-27 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-02-26 01:47 am (UTC)witchcraft
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Date: 2014-02-26 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-02-26 05:40 pm (UTC)It was also lovely to finally meet you! :)
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Date: 2014-03-05 12:09 am (UTC)Haha, likewise!
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Date: 2014-02-26 08:12 am (UTC)+Humpback calf envy
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Date: 2014-02-26 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-26 10:21 am (UTC)Your copy of Aquila is BEAUTIFUL.
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Date: 2014-02-27 12:31 am (UTC)Hah, well, my only skill is copying, the original artist deserves all the praise. I love his/her work, they're all so beautiful and cleverly done, and Aquila looks so perfect, so much closer to how I imagined him than even how I drew him in the last Swap!
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Date: 2014-02-26 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-02-26 07:59 pm (UTC)You do super holiday sketches!!
Way better than mine, LOL.First edition Lantern Bearers? So cool <3
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Date: 2014-03-02 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 06:14 pm (UTC)But the quaint theory is always nice to imagine :D
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Date: 2014-02-26 09:00 pm (UTC)Oh highway 1. So lovely and so so pukey. Pretty drive though, isn't it?
And I adore your drawings of Tom Hardy's confusingly gorgeous face. And academic!Arthur. DAT HAIR PART.
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Date: 2014-02-26 11:29 pm (UTC)It was a very pretty drive! I'm sure it's even nicer when it's not bucketing it down, but hey, I'm kind of used to constant rain, given where I live...
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Date: 2014-02-26 09:28 pm (UTC)Cool, you went to the Academy. We had a lot of fun there when we were in San Francisco. The rainforest dome with the animals and butterflies is awesome. I'd love to go to Powell's in Portland some day too (before books completely disappear from the world!). Portland is a great city. My father lived there for years, so I've been a few times; would love to go back. How was the weather? Constant rain? :)
I love your drawing of hot-academic Arthur!
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Date: 2014-03-10 11:26 pm (UTC)Haha, yes, there was a fair bit of rain! Luckily I'm not the sort who demands endless sunshine on holiday, and the scenery was so stunning that a torrential downpour couldn't ruin it... but yeah, we did spend a number of hours sitting in the car, playing candy crush saga on our tablets, waiting for it to ease off a little! :P
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Date: 2014-02-26 09:47 pm (UTC)I've told you this before, but it bears repeating: I love the sketches! Arthur looks so professorial in his adorable glasses and turtleneck and glen-plaid jacket. If I were a student of his, I'd sit all the way at the front of class and leer without subtlety.
And Eames' little pretty face! His adorable outfit! He looks like the kind of student who is constantly up to no good and who succeeds at charming his way out of any consequences that may befall him. I will refer to both sketches constantly as I write
dirty roleplay porndeep, meaningful interactions between Arthur & Eames.It's a good thing you had internet for the trip otherwise you might have died of loneliness without me.
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Date: 2014-03-11 10:44 pm (UTC)I am so glad you like the sketches! Your description of Arthur in his adorable academic outfit was just too charming to stay locked up in my head for long, and I'm always willing to do things that result in more fic being churned out! No more furries though. No, can't do that again.
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Date: 2014-03-12 08:00 am (UTC)His academic outfit is indeed adorable and impeccably presented (both in the dream and in your sketch)! Once I post that chapter, I will include your drawings as visual aids for readers :D
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Date: 2014-02-26 10:00 pm (UTC)That's right, we can go to Hawaii for one of our many holidays together! Psst, apparently there are also surfing holidays in Morocco so there ought to be diving ones as well, I'd imagine...
Right, now you're back, we're going to see Non-Stop at some point. RIGHT?
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Date: 2014-02-27 06:47 pm (UTC)Uh, YES? I know nothing about Non-Stop aside from what I can remember of the trailer from several months ago, but I'm putting £10 on Lady Mary Is Secretly Behind It All. You just can't trust that one.
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Date: 2014-03-02 08:49 pm (UTC)By the way, I will be in Glasgow on Friday, 14th of March, I was wondering if you'd like to grab a coffee with me in the afternoon? I'd love to see one of the cafes you've mentioned, if you have time, of course.
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Date: 2014-03-03 04:47 pm (UTC)I would love to! :D I will do my best to plan things so I can slope off early that day - would 3pm or after be okay for you?