Assignments 2 & 3 - Designing exhibition promotional material

I volunteered to create the postcard for the exhibition we are having. I thought it would be a good excuse to make me create a finished drawing. I decided to choose an image of a cat sat on its bum with a ball of messy yarn. I drew it in pencil first, then went over it with a 0.5mm pen, I then added details like the fur with 0.3mm and 0.1mm pens. This definitely helped my drawing to flourish. I wanted to keep it in the 'kawaii' style that I like but to add my own twist and my own style to it. I wanted it to be an image that is appealing and interesting. I want people to wonder why there's a cat, and to come along. 

I drew out a pen version, and then scanned it in to the computer. I used Photoshop cs5 to edit the image to make it bolder and I changed and straightened the text, and added other text. Having a degree in Photography came in useful when using Photoshop to change my drawings and I will remember this for the future. 

Assignments 2 & 3 - Cat Study.

I've decided to look into the phenomenology of cats on the internet, it's something I've had an interest in. I'm a huge fan of the Cheez Burger peeps, who created 'lolcats'. Its inspired me to draw cats probably instinctively because I really like cats, and the popularity of them at the moment. In pop culture, there are internet memes, such as Nyan cat, and the Songify Thisversion of 'Cant Hug Every Cat' that has been ever so popular on the internet. It's really got people talking about how much they love their cats, and has made it almost 'cool' to like cats, in a nerdy around about way. 

So taking this in mind, I have chosen to experiment with some ways of drawing cats, I just used a pad of paper and a pencil, and just drew as many cats faces as I could fit on the page. I tried to make each one different, it was an exercise in creativity and adding personality, as well as trying to find out new styles to draw in.

 

Nyan Cat

Classic Example of 'lolcat'

Assignments 2 & 3 - Ink Experiments

I haven't drawn in ink since 2007, I took life drawing lessons and we were encouraged to work in Indian ink, I remember it being very messy, and a very unforgiving media. Since what I'm doing has no time limit, no one is modelling for me, I'm using my imagination and at most a Google images page for reference, I have as much time as I like. My experimentation is to try out ink, and if it can give me the aesthetic quality I'm looking for. It gives an old fashioned handmade quality to an image, which is something no matter how expensive the pen, cannot achieve. I decided to use fountain pen ink, the 'Quink' refill as it was available from the stationery shop, and meant I didn't need to make a trip to an art shop for actual Indian ink (which is a lot more permanent if spilt).

I practiced with what marks I could make first, and then started with some little simple owls. I then moved onto cats and rabbits. I found it quite easy to sketch in the ink, to go over my images to correct them, and then do a final version with little or no mistakes. Smooth clean lines is what I'm looking for with the tattoo design, and there's also a part of me that wants to experiment with my own style and work out how to draw in my own way. I feel it's important to know how to draw in different styles as it allows you to change the way you draw for different reasoning, and to have diverse outcomes.

Assignments 2 & 3 - Pen testing

Not the most exciting blog post, but this is important, so far I've been drawing with a standard pencil, and a black biro. I feel like I should take some steps towards some more professional media, and see if I will get any  better results.

I wrote the name of the pen, and drew a simple daisy flower, I then rated them out of ten, they range in price from 10p to £7 per pen, and I think it shows that it doesn't really matter what you use, it's still the image that makes it a good picture. I will probably experiment with using these different pens over my next few illustrations. I intend to use a mix of line sizes as I feel it will give me a more professional and artistic edge. I will still however continue to doodle in biro, but as an experiment I will no longer make illustrations with the humble biro. I intend to try out with black ink as my next experiment, this could get messy.

Assignments 2 & 3 - Progressing with my drawings

Now that I have remembered how to draw, my life is becoming easier, it was literally a moment, (while drawing the biro squirrel) that something just clicked, and it came back to me. I did most of these drawings in pencil first, then after I decided on what I was drawing, and how it was sitting, I drew over it in biro, and then coloured in with pencil crayon. I thought this simple task of drawing cartoon like animals would help me to break the cycle of not being able to draw, and it has. By cutting it back to childlike stages I have managed to rediscover a hidden talent. Some are a bit off and nothing I ever create will ever be perfect. (I believe in beauty through imperfection) but they aren't as bad as when I started. 

Also as a warm up exercise, I played chalk board with my 18-Month old niece, we sat on the floor, and I tried to show her how to draw simple shapes and objects.  She wasn't quite old enough, but my feelings were spared when I drew a cat, and she screamed 'catttttt' at me. Getting her in training to be on my Pictionary team already. We also sat another day and played with her crayons, I drew some owls, cats, and a girl, and allowed her to colour them in. She enjoyed it so much she broke the paper. Even though I have no images to keep, I feel like it was a good exercise she learnt from it and it helped me to draw fast and simple images.

Assignments 2 & 3 - For a Purpose

I want to explore and learn more about illustration for a purpose, I am starting to think my initial plan to make a brand of images with someone as a bit impossible in the short time period of this project, I would rather do the task as a personal project when I have the time. First I need to learn how to draw, and I need to find a purpose. I've always been interested in tattoo design, the black lines and simple forms should help me remember how to draw, I'm going to try my hand at a bit of tattoo design, now rather than going for something typical, like a rose, or a butterfly, I'm going to try an owl. 

I took these images with me to my tattooist, A small shop in Chard, Somerset, owned by artist Steve Champion. He explained a few facts to me about tattoo design, like to make lines definite, make sure everything's straight, things are symmetrical (that are supposed to be) and that my lines all join up, no little holes in the outline. These tips are something I wouldn't have considered before.

I'm one for a naturally messy style, with lots of under drawings. My key weapon in art has always been scribble biro, with lines coming off here there and everywhere. It's going to prove difficult to draw in swift and concise lines. Steve also expressed that it's important to have detail, and nice line shapes but not to make things too complicated and busy. Complicated small parts get lost when transferred onto the skin. And I suppose that makes sense, the skin is always changing and getting older, the small details are not important, but the overall image. 

He allowed me to use the carbon transfer machine to copy one of my images, the one he thought was best, (the simpler owl) and taught me how it picked up on carbon, such as pencil lead, or photocopy. So it was best for me to draw tattoos either as pencil line drawings, or in black ink that could be resized and photocopied. I was booked into have a small tattoo touched up, and made the most of my trip.

I have a few tattoos myself and understand the basic principles to designing them, I drew my own lotus flower, that's on the back of my neck, it started as a basic sketch and was transferred using the carbon transfer method, and had the artist shade it in to his own liking. This was the first tattoo I had ever designed, It looks okay, it's not like I can see it every day. Other tattoos that I have, are from design sheets or from the internet. I'd rather not have something that someone else has, but I was young and just picked things out of sheer fancy. 

The cherry blossom I have on my wrist is my biggest regret, I see it all the time and there's no hiding it, or the fact the tattoo artist at Living Art in Plymouth, properly screwed up my arm. It's been covered over three times now by Steve in Champion tattoos and looks one hundred percent better than it did, but it proved to me that you always need to trust who's tattooing you, and to be happy with your choice of design.  You might also notice I have a very little tattoo on my other arm that looks like it says Pi, it doesn't say Pi, its Arabic for mother. People ask me about my love of maths, as they assume it's a math tattoo, then when I explain, they seem a little relieved. But I'd like to keep all ambiguities away from my designs.

I feel tattoos are personal, they say something about you. I like them, in moderation but I think there is an element of taste and judgement involved.  Not everyone would look suited to a tattoo, and sometimes I question peoples judgements over what they have chosen to emblazon  on themselves permanently. I won't be designing any 'scary' tattoos, like skulls, snakes, swords etc they don't appeal to me.  

Steve and myself have started a collaborative project, he's looking for new designs to put up in his studio. He wants to be more original but doesn't have the time himself to sit and work out new designs. He's offered me some wall space to display my work, and a cut of the profits. It will more than likely something that takes me longer than this short project to actually achieve a confident and professional set of tattoo designs but I will make a start, and I will continue to keep drawing.

Assignments 2 & 3 - First Paper Drawings

My First Drawings,

I suppose everyone has to start somewhere. These are my first drawings on the sketch pad, I did these just before the digital drawings of owls that I posted up as my first post on this blog. I can confidently say, these drawings aren't very good, but they express my ideas in trying to express an illustrated 'cute' animal. They are a mix of pencil and biro, and I drew whatever came to mind. I'm trying to get a grip of my own style, and after three years of doing a Photography degree, its been hard to remember how to draw again.

I seeing how bad these drawings are, makes me feel a bit sad, that I definitely lost the talent that I had when I was younger, the ability to draw, is not like riding a bike (not that I can ride a bike) but you can actually forget it. Having not drawn anything seriously for at least three years, is proof of that. This is a starting point, I can only progress from here.

Taking a Risk - Kind of.

Well, after being introduced to the idea of taking more risks, I've been living my life a little bit more on the edge. I've thought about things slightly differently, and realised that 'Dr Pepper' moment, of 'What's the Worst that can Happen'. Realising that it's not the end of the world if I fail at something, I decided to take something on, that's a little bit out of my comfort zone.

I admit, I am very set in my ways when it comes to food, I like to keep to the same things. I'm a vegetarian, so that limits what I will eat. I have always been baking cakes, flapjacks and such desert items. It's something I'm known for in my group of friends, and family. My mum taught me to bake when I was younger, and It's something that I've always done. However I pretty much always stick to the same old tried and tested recipes. Maybe I'll add a different flavour, but nothing extreme. I'm really bad at following other peoples recipes. Its mainly the fact that they are normally wrong that annoys me. 

So as a risk, I decided to take something, pancakes, that I'm happy to make by my own recipe, and always turn out well, but to make it by someone else's recipe. I want a bit of a twist. So, I decided to make Cake Batter Pancakes.

Cake Batter Pancakes, I can tell you right now, are sickening. I don't know if I over did it with the sugar, or brought the wrong cake mix, but it was a sticky sickening mess. But I'll still talk you through it in case you want to find out for yourself.

I got the recipe from these two places:

How Sweet It Is

Tablespoon

So you pretty much follow the recipe from there, but I tasted the batter, and it was bitter, so I added 3 More tablespoons of sugar (I think this was my downfall).  I made the pancakes on a gas hob, with the heat down as low as it would go, I tried a small heart shaped pan, but the consistency of the batter just burnt.  So I grabbed a medium sized frying pan, and set to making. I made six of these pancakes, as it was intended to be pudding for 5 adults, and a toddler.  

 I stacked it as a cake, with a sticky layer of sauce in-between each pancake. Then poured some more of the sauce (which was pretty much butter and icing sugar melted together) over the top, with some added sprinkles and chocolate balls, It was complete.

The tasting was interesting, The toddler absolutely loved it, and then ran around in a circle for the next hour and a half. I ate mine for the sheer sake that I made the effort of making it, I would finish my piece. My boyfriend struggled to eat his, as he had eaten the 'Test' pancake to see if they were edible (before serving to his family).  Everyone else ate theirs, but I'm not too sure if they were being polite.

In conclusion, I am writing this the following day, everyone is alive, no stomach problems, so overall I did Not fail. Apart from it looks nothing like what the other websites made. 

How they were supposed to look.

Gaining attention - Must smell good.

Me, Cooking pancakes.

The sauce, thats supposed to be white, too much butter used.

Final Result.

Side View

100 Things I am Good at.

I decided to do this task to find out some more things about myself, to see it typed out and be able to examine what I believe, to be things that I am good at. Rather than doing the task that was picking three good things you have done each day, I have chosen to just list 100 things, and will add to it when I think of more! I just don't have the attention span to remember to think of three good things from each day, I have a personality that appeals itself more to lists of 100.

I've found some inspiration from these places:

Make a List: Things I am Happy about

Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100

and I invite you to make your lists, maybe 50 if 100 seems too much.

I am Good at:

1. Having patience
2. Filling Out Forms
3. Baking Cakes
4. Knowing What I Want
5. Fixing the computer
6. Being sociable
7. Procrastinating
8. Giving
9. Remembering things
10. Loving
11. Living in the moment
12. Stimulating the economy (shopping)
13. Smiling
14. Positive thinking
15. Luck
16. Trivia
17. Teasing my friends
18. Cheering up people with small gifts
19. Encourage people
20. Making new friends
21. Complaining
22. Nagging
23. Keeping things
24. Keeping secrets
25. Decorating the place around me with cute stuffs
26. Talking to myself
27. See things from different perspective
28. See things from other’s point of views
29. Laughing
30. Collecting junk
31. Learning ideas from others
32. Getting lost
33. Forgetting things
34. Sleep for long hours
35. Tracing
36. Telling the truth
37. Finding excuses to buy chips
38. Entertaining myself
39. Using Microsoft word
40. Installing all sorts of software on my computer
41. Surfing for cute pictures
42. Coming up with lists of things I’m bad at
43. Copy and Pasting others lists from the internet
44. Making jokes with a completely straight face so people think I’m serious at first
45. Typing
46. Making pasta
47. Steadily improving myself
48. Making complex things easy to understand
49. Appreciating the meaning in small moments
50. Making lists for everything
51. Being late
52. Sticking with bad habits
53. Thinking too much
54. Acting like a Princess
55. Origami
56. Brushing my teeth
57. Trying to do too many things at one time
58. Eating junk for lunch
59. Sharing chocolates
60. Remembering birthdays
61. Starting projects
62. Abandoning projects
63. Finding strange inspiration online
64. Bookmarking websites
65. Hugging
66. Talking to strangers
67. Saving room for dessert
68. Asking questions
69. Being a vegetarian
70. Being friends with cats
71. Looking after people
72. Playing 'The Sims' for hours on end
73. Falling asleep
74. Decorating
75. Making Brio/Lego houses
76. Reading for pleasure
77. Keeping up to date with the news
78. Swimming underwater
79. Getting my own way
80. Drinking too much
81. Eating too much chocolate
82. Being Organised
83. Looking after pets
84. Putting my face on
85. Showering
86. Making other people smile
87. Looking at cats on the internet
88. Updating my facebook status
89. Dailyboothing
90. Keeping in contact with friends
91. Pairing up my socks
92. Brushing my hair
93. Drawing
94. Photography
95. Eating Mushrooms with almost every meal
96. Eating an entire box/bag/packet of something
97. Being safe
98. Laughing at things that arent funny
99. Not laughing at things that are meant to be funny
100. Being Myself.

Bucket List

Well for this project we've been encouraged to take more risks, both personally and creatively. This has inspired me to make a list of things to do before I die, before I kick the Bucket, My bucket list.
 

1. Learn to ride a bike efficiently and safely.
2. Go water skiing.
3. Learn to ski.
4. Learn how to ice skate
5. Swim in the ocean.
6. Learn four European languages.
7. Go to a jazz club in New Orleans' French Quarter.
8. Learn to scuba dive.
9. Go on a cruise
10. Learn how to fire a rifle.
11. Ride in a hot air balloon.
12. Go base jumping
13. Ride a Mechanical Bull
14. Go Rock Climbing
15. Sleep in An Overnight Train
16. Ride on the Orient Express
17. Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway
18. Break a Guinness World Record
19. Walk Through a Corn Maze
20. Go kart racing
21. Learn to Drive
22. Go Zorbing
23. Travel to the Moon With Virgin Galactic
24. Go on a Zero Gravity flight
25. Swim with dolphins
26. Go whale-watching
27. See a koala bear
28. Save a species from extinction.
29. Become a Vegetarian
30. Introduce others to being vegetarian
31. Adopt a pet from the animal shelter.
32. Join "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA).
33. Ride a camel.
34. Watch an animal being born.
35. Visit The Northern Lights
36. Visit Death Valley, California
37. Visit Mount Fuji, Japan
38. Witness a meteor shower.
39. See The Statues of Easter Island, Chile
40. See The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
41. Visit Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
42. See Christ Redeemer, Brazil
43. Visit The Taj Mahal, India
44. Go to The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
45. Go to Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, France
46. Go to Centre Pompidou in Paris
47. Visit Museum Of Modern Art (MoMa), Manhattan, New York
48. Visit The Guggenheim Museum, New York
49. Visit The British Museum in London, England
50. Visit The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
51. Visit The Smithsonian Museums in Washington, DC
52. Visit The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
53. Visit Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo
54. See "The Mona Lisa", Leonardo da Vinci, The Louvre.
55. See "The Kiss", Gustav Klimt, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.
56. See "The Madonna with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist", Raphael, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
57. See "The Scream", Edvard Munch, National Gallery, Oslo
58. Visit The Louvre
59. Live in a foreign country for six months.
60. Visit the Blarney Stone, Ireland
61. Visit Japan
62. Attend a Japanese tea ceremony.
63. Visit the Chauvet Cave located in the Ardèche département, southern France.
64. Go to The Las Vegas Strip
65. Attend The Day of the Dead In Mexico
66. Go to Glastonbury
67. Attend Mardi Gras, New Orleans
68. Participate in La Tomatina: Food Fight
69. Learn to play chess.
70. Learn to play poker.
71. Grow orchids.
72. Learn to make pottery.
73. Learn glassblowing.
74. Learn to make candles.
75. Make models of cars, ships or airplanes.
76. Paint - watercolors, oil, acrylics.
77. Grow a Bonsai Tree
78. Learn How to Knit
79. Learn How to Fold Origami
80. Make my own Jewellery
81. Learn how to Sew
82. Make Amigurumi
83. Become a Wine Connoisseur
84. Become a Cheese Connoisseur
85. Discover what makes you truly happy.
86. Allow yourself to make mistakes.
87. Learn not to take what others do or say personally.
88. Take up Running on the Running Machine
89. Paint a house.
90. Get a Masters
91. Get out of debt.
92. Become a millionaire.
93. Open a Swiss bank account.
94. Sponsor someone who makes a big breakthrough in science or art.
95. Decide that you have enough money to be satisfied
96. Shop at Harrods, London.
97. Spend a week at a 5-star spa
98. Have "High Tea" at the Plaza Hotel in New York and at Fortnum & Mason in London
99. Become an art collector
100. Own a Chanel suit.
101. Hire a personal shopper.
102. Buy jewellery at Tiffany & Co.
103. Find the love of your life.
104. Get married.
105. Have a pet
106. Create a coat of arms for your family.
107. Celebrate your 50th Wedding Anniversary in Paris, France.
108. Take up yoga
109. Drink or bathe in Lourdes water
110. Spend three months in a Buddhist monastery
111. Make a difference in at least one person's life.
112. Donate blood
113. Donate clothes
114. Volunteer time at an animal shelter
115. Be a world-renowned expert in your field.
116. Have your paintings exhibited in a gallery.
117. Become an interior designer
118. Become a college professor.
119. Breed Scottish Fold Cats
120. Get an article published in The Huffington Post.
121. Audition for a role in a movie
122. Be on the cover of "Rolling Stone" Magazine
123. Win a Nobel Prize
124. Receive a damehood from the Queen
125. Win the Turner Prize
126. Go to The Cannes Film Festival.
127. Try all the Cocktails
128. Get your palms read.
129. Have a specialist read your aura.
130. Quit a job you hate.
131. Jump into a pool fully clothed.
132. Have your portrait painted.
133. Be a member in the audience of a TV show.
134. Get backstage at a concert/event.
135. Throw someone a surprise party.
136. Attend a Murder Mystery Dinner.
137.