CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

Fun down rabbit holes

Dear friends,

The rabbit hole I am lately exploring is cool. Partly because we have air-conditioning here in Spain (it’s forbidden in private houses in Switzerland), and since outside it’s about 40 degrees and mega humid, hanging out in a rabbit hole is really nice. My burrow is super colourful too, and I do so love colourful places, people and clothes, although these days it’s almost too hot for clothes. I got very excited first thing this morning when I woke up to an overcast sky for the first time in what feels like years, and even more excited when it started to rain while I was swimming – might I actually be able to put on a pretty dress?! – but after seven raindrops the sun came roaring back and bullied away the grey trespassers, so we’re back to aircon and minimal clothing.

And rabbit holes.

You see, I’ve discovered AI animation. Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist because OMG AI, let me just say that I only just discovered it about a week ago, and I haven’t a clue what I’m doing, but I’m doing it anyway because it makes me happy. I get all excited when Kling finally understands what I meant in my prompt and delivers a visual close enough to the one I had in my head. Of course, my husband thinks I’m hilarious, that it’s yet another of my sudden fixations, and that it will definitely pass before someone from Pixar headhunts me after having seen the animated cover I made for Just Like A Movie. Even if Gemma does have three arms if you watch with pursed lips and a disapproving frown. My handle is For Fun and Then Some for good reason; I’m forever curious about how to create new things.

Yesterday’s rabbit hole shoved me deep, deep down and into all sorts of interconnecting burrows involving different platforms, because when you have an idea for something you can be sure that it can’t possibly be made with only one platform. I clicked and swore and copy-pasted and tried and tried over and over, and when I thought I’d finally twigged it many hours later, the voice sounded all wrong!

Oh well, I thought, and went for a swim. 😎

Practice makes perfect, right? And while I’m fiddling with technology, I’m not buying clothes, or pens, or notebooks… although some animations definitely get mega greedy on credit.

Speaking of new things, I’ve just signed up for a course in October by Valeria Pazosf, an Italian artist that a friend turned me onto on Instagram. Valeria animates her drawings and collages, and her work is filled with magic and whimsy and I’m besotted.

I suppose you can animate anything now; yesterday I got a kick out of having the birds and butterflies on the cover of my poetry book, Illicit Croissants at Dawn, flap their wings, and it felt like a mini sprinkle of magic. It made me happy, although I wish I could have made the tiny frog hop… Today’s goal?

(Illicit Croissants at Dawn)

Which reminds me that the other night I animated the cover of Beth Lisogorsky’s romcom! Beth Lisogorsky’s book is out in February, and you can – and please, please do! – preorder it here. Please preorder it even if romcoms are not your cup of tea, because there will definitely be someone around you who will love it, and preorders are so, so important. Here is Beth’s animated cover:

Back to my own looping the loop: over the last year I’ve dabbled with Canva templates and already thought that was mega cool, but now that I’ve discovered Kling, my imagination is off to lunch with George Lucas! My daughter, Olivia, thinks I’m doing exactly that (kind of like the plane on Beth’s cover!), but I just think I’m clever. She wasn’t altogether wrong though because it turns out I’m not clever enough to change some of the photos on my website, despite having made my little Empress logo – developed from my little Empress tea-stain painting – blink and smile. As it turned out, it took her forever to set my website right, so clearly I’m not the last of the nincompoops (love that word!).

We can do hard things at any age. We just need to stay curious, open-minded and creative. I doubt I’ll be coding (like I even know what that means…) but never say never.

Have a good weekend,

Lots of love,

Francesca

Buy me a coffee?! 🤩😎❤️