As always, the holidays proved to be a rather busy time of year and with my first projects due mid January, there was just as much to get done after the new year as there was before Christmas. That said, I did thoroughly enjoy my holiday break (and I did take a proper break!). But before flying home I ventured out into some of the holiday markets in London.

The one along the Thames is fairly similar to those I've seen in other cities, tasty bites and hand made crafts for sale in tiny, pop-up stalls, but the one in Hyde Park was quite the adventure! If ever you've been to one of those church fairs you’re likely familiar with the usual attractions, such as oversized stuffed animals being rewarded to those who can shoot a water pistol straight, goldfish (which will live for either twenty minutes or twenty years) being won in a ring toss, and the only rides to choose from being either a rickety zipper (which should have been shutdown eight years ago) or a carousel which may or may not be haunted. You've probably noticed that the magic and allure of those fairs seem to dissolve as you get older and the only reason you return to them is for the zeppoli hot from the fryer. The Christmas Market at Hyde Park, however, is what you imagined those fairs to be as a kid only bigger! It includes a massive Ferris wheel, two-tiered carousel, fun houses with varying themes, several, yes several, roller coasters, bumper cars, a circus tent, and an entire Bavarian village complete with brats, beers, and a massive statue of a somewhat terrifying man holding a bird (I cannot explain).

Of course, in addition to this giant ornithologist, there are the usual little shops with handmade and not so handmade trinkets for sale, often more fun to look at than to purchase. This was definitely one of the most expansive markets I've had the pleasure to visit. I was quite glad to have seen it before I flew home as upon returning to London after Christmas I had plenty to keep me busy between my part time job and my full time schoolwork.

For this first term we had a number of short projects to complete, three 16-page books and one 8-page graphic novel. Since the topics/themes were more or less provided to us, our focus was to be on generating the images, forming a good composition across pages, and (though this may seem obvious) completing the task. Sometimes the most difficult part of a project is getting started. Sometime the second most difficult is finishing. These first books were not meant to be true brilliance or even finely detailed works, they were meant to get our creative juices flowing and allow us to see a project through from start to finish. We were able to work out our kinks, better understand how we work, see what's effective, understand what might prove a better process in the future... while my books are in no way perfect and in many ways wanting me to return to them for tweaking and polishing, they did teach me quite a lot about what's involved with crafting a finished book. I handed them all in on Wednesday with much relief to be rid of them, for the moment at least, and did feel the tiniest bit of accomplishment. So what if they're not read to hit the presses, they're my own and I made them, and that counts for quite a lot.

Our next term will be focused on one 32-page book (ahh 32 pages!! *insert internal panic) The page count, and in turn the illustration count, seems a bit daunting, but it will be nice to throw all my energy into one, single story. My books in this first term at times I revised or reworked after getting feedback from lecturers (for example one book I scrapped an entire two page spread after talking over the book with a guest lecturer and I believe the book was better for it). Having so many mini-books to be juggling, however, made many revisions a challenge as you had to divide your time between all four. Almost inevitably some received more tlc than others. I'm looking forward to this next term where I'll be able to, ideally, make this one book a bit more well rounded.

Term One: Done.