Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Updated work/change of direction
After coming back from Prague, Iv decided to just focus on that as my project subject as "travel"as a whole is just way too broad. Also, because iv just been there its all fresh in my head and theres so many things to draw from. Since I made a little video of my trip, it was suggested to maybe try incorporating some drawings into some of the clips. This was followed by some very complicated looking processes that Rick showed me. I didn't complete anything too amazing (to say the least) but it was just a play about to see how things worked.
There are lots of different processes I can do to get my drawings in the video. Printing paused clips out and drawing them frame by frame, then putting them back on the computer, the list goes on! I got to draw with a tablet which was pretty cool, never done that before, they take some getting used to though.
He showed me the end credits for the Sherlock Holmes film which you can see here . I really liked the way the paint moves and how the picture emerges, id love to do something like that! Unfortunately, theres no really any time to try anything like this now as it would take quite a long time but maybe in the future I can look at doing something like this.
Friday, 6 December 2013
Hopes, Fears and Opportunities
We had a group discussion in which we talked about "Hopes, Fears and Opportunities" that we will go through in 3rd year, these are mine...HOPES;
>> to get a good grade at the end of my degree
>> be happy and confident within my work
>> get a job somewhere within the art world
FEARS;
>> to fail the course/to get a rubbish grade when I know I could've done better
>> not getting anywhere/being unsuccessful in finding a job
>> work not being up to standard
OPPORTUNITIES;
>> get involved with more art related things outside college
I'll be coming back to this later in the year to look at my progress and thoughts for the next semester.
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
What is Illustration?
" As our visual language evolves, the playing field is leveling. Graphic designers, sculptors, painters, creative developers, and even
musicians amorphously meander across different parts of our creative industries. As a consequence, I often wonder what the term
'Illustration' now means. Maybe as a medium it might need to do more than vocationalise aesthetics and cultivate a border palate of
profundity for its own survival."
Michael Salu
Artistic Director of Granta Magazine
2012 Varoom
I think today, the term "illustrator" can mean so many different things. When I was younger, I would think of the term illustrator as someone who illustrates books and only books. Sometimes when I tell people I do an Illustration course, they almost always ask if its for books or comics. I think today, there are so many different types of illustration and many different ways of showing this and its ok to still be an illustrative drawer but I also think its important to keep updated with whats going on around you. I remember a discussion last year about how artists are starting to make they're images move, things are getting much more digital. I don't neseserily think every artist has to work this way but I do think it would be handy to know how to do it, especially in this heavily digitalised world that is constantly evolving and also if there was ever a case where you had to for a client. I think that about everything really, being an illustrator its good to have a knowledge (even if its only a little bit) of everything within the art world, it shows diversity.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Irina Kaygorodova workshop
After watching her, we all got fashion magazines to paint from and off we went! She said that she doesn't usually draw first, just paints straight on the page. I don't think iv ever really painted anything without drawing it first but I actually liked not doing that, and I don't think it turned out the worst thing iv ever done either which is good! It also made me realise how important it is to have good quality paper/paints/brushes, it really does make all the difference. So yeah, I really enjoyed this day and thank you ever so much Irina for having us :
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Prague 2013
So our trip to Prague was pretty amazing?! Iv never been to somewhere so beautiful, the architecture, the scenery, even the pavements were nice to look at! Even if you were just strolling down the street, there was always something interesting to look at and everything just looked (at risk of sounding like a complete girl) ...pretty! Truly an amazing place that I need to re-visit. It was a weird feeling when it all came to an end as it was our last residential trip ever (which is devastating, don't even get me started) so obviously it was a bit sad but at the same time I had so so much fun and it really was such a great trip!
During our 4 days in Prague, we went to the Sedlec Ossuary (after many trains and knocking on someones door for directions) which was really good, glad we got to see it. We got to do a workshop with Irina Kaygorodova which was amazing! I loved that (separate post to come for that). We went to the Mucha museum which again, amazing, the work in there was literally breathtaking. We had a lecture on posters from the Terry Posters collection which was really cool. In our free time we went to the castle, Charles Bridge, the John Lennon wall and consumed a hell of a lot of bread/pastries/beer- it was really good. And of course on the last night, we all went out for dinner (all the students that came and all the tutors) and then out to a bar after that, it was literally so fun I wish I could do it over and over again! I think Gary summed it up pretty well…
(Hahahaha, brilliant!)
All the trips we've been on during our time at uni have been amazing and iv experienced some amazing things and been to some incredible places. Im so happy and grateful iv been able to go on all the residentials, I think its so important to take advantage of these trips, to see some amazing places and to mix with other people in the course (I think thats one of the most important things, some of my best friends on the course I got to know because of this). Without sounding too cheesy, its more than just going to a different country and getting told to go to a few museums, we've had the chance to meet some amazing illustrators/art directors, even go into their houses?! We would never get the opportunity to do that on our own. So many cool things we wouldn't of been able to do if it wasn't for these trips. So for that, I am truly grateful! (Okay, getting cheesy now)
I'll finish this post with some photos and a short video of our time and Prague, I think it sums it up pretty well :)
{one of many beautiful buildings}
{Gary throwing some shapes}
{the view from the castle}
{standard tourist pic}
{some of the John Lennon wall}
{Irina Kaygorodova doing her thanggg}
{the "I don't know where we are" look}
{the cathedral}
{one of many "dance offs" on the last night}
{the main square, so beautiful ahhh}
{some traditional food at the group meal}
{Wenceslas square by night}
{the cutest, parisian looking pizzeria with amazingly cheap pizza and also 2 guys playing the violin/paino}
{upside down man/horse/thing?}
{Sedlec Ossuary}
{beers with our tutor!}
Friday, 8 November 2013
Work update
From all the research I did I decided to start with trips iv been on and places iv actually been to. I gravitated towards New York and Miami first as I have a lot of collected things I can use for it and so I have started collaging and using my own photographs.
I will definitely be doing some work on Prague as we will be going there for our residential soon. Im going to take my sketchbook everywhere and just get anything and everything in there. I want to use it as a travel journal of some sort, then see what I can do with it when I get back.
Iv also just come across this on (yes, I'm waffling on about him again) Roderick Mills blog which I felt I needed to put on here as I literally share the same view!
"I use sketchbooks when travelling to gain in impression of a place, whether these be drawings, or writing down thoughts for myself, a means of documenting my experience of a place."
This is exactly what I love doing, documenting everything even if its just the food we ate or how cold it was that day. Im looking forward to getting back from Prague and hopefully having lots to work with! Though at the moment I am focusing my project about a range of different places, things might change along the way, as Prague will be the most fresh in my head, I may choose to focus on that, but we shall see!
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
New brief - Self Directed 2
For the new brief we had a lot of different choices to pick from. I decided to go with the self directed route and I chose to focus mine around travel. I chose this because in my last project, even though it was about non places, a lot of my work was to do with places like airports/train stations and I liked focusing on that, so I thought I would expand and explore the places beyond the airports and train stations. Here are some of my first notes and research…
I looked mainly at places like Pinterest and Tumblr for map-relating art work. I love the maps Oliver Jeffers has created, "1 city 5 hours" in a number of different places. I really liked that idea, have a little collection of mini-maps that are not over complicated or over worked, just simple and lovely to look at. I perticularly liked the journals at the top, they look quite textural and messy but in a good way. I might look into working straight onto books instead of a plain sketchbook as part of the project, as sometimes it can be slightly intimidating just having all that white space to work with. Or staining a page with paint/collage or anything really so that I can work straight onto that.
