Day Thirtyseven, Thirtyeight and Thirtynine

Pre-Assessment week.

On Monday I took in all the work I had printed out so far and Rachael looked over it and told me that if I didn't screw up the scrapbook I was looking at a potential Distinction. Very happy about that and need to make sure that my scrapbook is spotless!!
Later that day we had an art history quiz, my team won. Our prize was chocolate, it was a great incentive.

Tuesday was an unfortunate day. I have been feeling very unwell and believe I got a bug, which is all good and well except I'm pregnant. Bugs and pregnancy do not mix, so I stayed home and focused on getting well. I also visited the doctors to get checked out and my baby is fine and has a healthy heartbeat, so I felt much better.

Wednesday, I felt well enough to go in to college and we talked about animation and what was needed to pass. I hope I can do enough over the Christmas period.

And now we are done for the year. When we come back in January I will be a part-time student, and with any luck I'll also have all the necessary work with me to get the grades I want. Fingers crossed.

Day Thirtysix

Animation day. I am enjoying animation even though my computer and current version of Photoshop doesn't. I'm only using Photoshop because that's what we are being taught to use in the class, probably because it's the only programme the college computers have that is capable of doing animation. Yay for horribly, and unnecessarily,  expensive computer programmes!
Gavin is a little worried about our lack of scrapbooks at this time and so insisted that we do some research and get some stills. He also told us to find an animation we liked and talk about it. I chose Linkin Park's Breaking the Habit. http://youtu.be/acgvRle07GI
My fellow student, Luke, noted that the video looked like it was done by the guy who did Kill Bill and whilst doing a little research I discovered that was actually the case. Good eye Luke, good eye! Luke chose to do his research on a cartoon called Ren and Stimpy. personally I really don't like that programme, but that's why I chose music videos!
"I don't know what's worth fighting for, or why I have to scream, but now I have some clarity to show you what I mean, I don't know how I got this way, I'll never be alright, so I'm breaking the habit, tonight." - Linkin Park, Breaking the Habit (great tune!)

Day Thirtyfive

3D project day. It is official, I am not someone who can do 3D. My brain just isn't wired up that way. So I'm aiming for a pass and nothing more. I have to finish as much as I can and take lots of really good photos, which I have started doing. Here is a taster.

I'm much better at photography than I am at 3D, which I'll admit surprised me a little. This is my murder victim, he was gutted and his internal organs strewn across the floor. I'm going to take a few pictures of the first responder, a lovely policeman currently without a catchy name, and with a stupid grin on his face which I will have to edit out. Then I'll take photos of the bloody knife, and eventually the suspects.
In the afternoon was life drawing but I skipped out to work some more on my History essay. Another subject I am, unfortunately, not very good at.

Day Thirtyfour

2D Pattern Design was the order for the day. Very happy right now. I got everything I have done over the last weeks printed (Thank you Liz for the aid of your printer!!) and we put the good stuff onto some worksheets, I will have two A1 worksheets and 4 A2 worksheets, and the rest is going into my scrapbook. I was told well done by Rachael so I think I've done a good job so far. All I need to do now is bring in my hand drawn patterns and the dyed cotton we did to add to the worksheets and finish off my scrapbook. Feeling good about this right now.

I left early so I could come home and finish off my Art History essay and have been staring at the words on the screen for quite some time before giving up. I have done about 500 words so far and most of those are not mine so need to be either re-written or quoted. Joy.

Day Thirtythree

This morning was filled with me desperately trying to get my car taxed...

Eventually I made it into college where I had a great time trying to get the college computers to save my animation as a playable file... A few hours later... It's now on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/ClaireMCarter?feature=mhee It's called Destruct and Back Again. We had to start with a white sheet, eventually turn it black, then make it white again. Now for the final piece of this project, I have to make a start on the design I'm going to use and then add the colours. Could be a lot of fun.

Day Thirtytwo

Today we sat around and chatted about what we had done over the last week for our 3D project, some advice was given by our peers and our tutor and now we have to advance on those. My idea has now changed from a murdered teddybear, to a serial teddy killer, to a Cludeo vs CSI style murder and is now heading towards famous suicides.
I have no idea what I'm doing anymore and am sticking by my decision to go down to part time. I now have one week to re-create a number of famous and iconic suicides, I'm not convinced it can be done. We shall see.

The afternoon was life drawing, and I am finally showing some improvement. I've been doing life drawing for over 10 years, but my original tutor was a fool and wanted nothing to do with me because I wouldn't let him teach me by drawing all over my work. Maybe that was wrong of me, but he took instant offence rather than trying to explain it to me. Anyway, Rachael is different and her look of disappointment when we don't get better is too much to bear, so I have improved. Unfortunately I have left them at college without taking photos... Sorry.

Day Thirtyone

Today consisted of going to the hospital for my 13 week baby scan and then getting my car MOTd. So no college for me.
Here's a baby picture to cheer you up.

Day Thirty

I spent the morning in the main workshop, painting and working on my 3D project. It was mundane stuff, just painting boxes and working out where things will go, etc, but necessary for the finished piece.

For the afternoon I was back in the computer room and we were doing more animation. I had originally had a flamboyant idea of filming burlesque/belly dancers and then rotoscoping them (which is the method used in A Scanner Darkly, another bloody film I now have to watch all the way through.) but I came to my senses and realised just how much work that would entail and have decided to go for something a little simpler. I'm going to fill an A4 page with random design and then colour it so the colours move and blend. This idea was better received than I thought it would be considering there is no narrative, unlike the others in the class. So, I have to make it bright and colourful and entertaining to compensate for the lack of narrative.

We were given a homework project called Destruction and Back Again, where we take a piece of paper and do random designs in it till it's black, then do random designs in it till it's white again taking photos, or scanning it in at every stage of the composition. This is when I discover that my copy of Photoshop CS2 will allow me to make an animation, but not save it as an animation. Annoyed? A little, yes. I'm going to have to bugger about trying to fix that problem.

Day Twentynine

More 3D. We sat around, like last week, and talked about our progress, or lack there of. Most of the class were apparently sick so it went a lot quicker and only took about an hour and a half. We then spent the rest of the morning working on some ides. Part of my homework was to watch at least one episode of Robot Chicken, which I did and will never do again, totally not my sort of thing, but I understand why I was to watch it. I got the point. I also have to watch The Imaginarium of Dr Parnasus, which I will do as soon as I can get hold of a copy.

For the afternoon there was life drawing which I ducked out of this week. I needed to get home and think about my installation and maybe even get some of it done! And as I'm writing this a few days late, I did get some of it done, there are a few things that will have to wait till Wednesday, which is when I get paid, but the rest is coming along... Pictures will follow at a later date.

Day Twentyeight

Today we talked about our Historical Movements in the Arts essay and that what we really needed to do, rather than talk about the whole bloody movement, was pick an artist from one movement along with one of their paintings, and then pick another artist from a different movement and one of their pieces, and review, evaluate, compare, etc. Simples!
Now to figure out which artists and which paintings...

I'm currently think about Michelangelo Buonarroti's Damned Soul Descending into Hell

Correggio's Leda and the Swan

Or Domenico Fetti's Melancholy

So many wonderful paintings to choose from and so many very talented artists!

Day Twentyseven

Today we were in the computer suite doing tessellations and I came up with some stunning designs! Very happy.

Then we began our animation class, which consisted of a lot of research on youtube watching really cool videos. Animations with post-it notes and rubix cubes and graffiti. Stunning stuff!

Day Twentysix

So tired... So very tired...
This morning we went round the group explaining our ideas for the 3D project and getting feedback from our peers. It was a long and arduous morning that seemed to go on forever. Rachael was trying to stay out of it but if she hadn't leapt in with ideas and thoughts I think we may have sat in silence and shrugged a lot. As it is my idea has had a slight change to it as I had focused so much on the scrapbook and hadn't realised I wasn't fulfilling the actual '3D Mixed Media' part of the project. So now I have a slightly different kind of whodunit, based loosely on Cludeo meets CSI.
At 12 o'clock a few of us departed the seminar and went to a quick lunch hour class about writing an essay where we were surrounded by idiot teenagers who didn't want to come to the next class as it was on a day they weren't in (Lisa was visibly fuming so I decided to comment on the fact that we weren't in on that day but were coming in nevertheless, which went down really well) and one of the tutors came up to us and said 'Ooh, I've never seen an Access student before.' Yeah, cos were freakshows that need to be pointed at, maybe you'd like to poke me to make sure I'm real.
Then back to class for life drawing. It was my belief that I was reasonably good at life drawing, and maybe once upon a time I was, but this is no longer that time and the crap I'm coming out with is making me wish I could end it all. However, I managed to produce some okish work today, if not as much as I would like.

Day Twentyfive

Today we were given a piece of brown paper, which we taped down. Then we were asked to choose a paint, choose a stamp, and fill the brown paper with rows and rows of prints. Then wash the brush and the stamp and start again with a different colour and a different stamp. It was long winded, and a little boring, like a production line, but in the end it was worth it. I wish we had a radio or stereo to listen to, but with the variety of people on the course we would never be able to choose what to listen to... Although a healthy conversation about Rob Zombie Vs White Zombie was sufficient to have me humming Dragula for the rest of the day.

We also scanned in our now unwrapped and dyed pieces of cloth into the computer as we are going to be making digital patterns from them in our own time, unfortunately they are currently too big and in a format Blogger is unable to support so I will have to upload those later.

Day Twentyfour

Photography and Animation today, excited, I've wanted to do some animation for a while but had no idea where to start, now is my chance.
The first half of today was actually a continuation of Mondays pattern design. I started doing tesselations, lots of them, and a few turned out alright. I'm already beginning to think about what they could be used for, carpets, furniture, wallpaper, material, etc. Unfortunately all my files are WAY too big to upload at the moment and I need to go make them smaller before I can showcase them... Sorry about that!

In the afternoon it was animation and we were asked to pair up and grab a few things from the box and then take lots of photos of them moving around.

We chose a squid and  a lobster and had them moving towards each other from opposite ends of the table until they met in the middle and all hell ensued, it was bloody good fun. The final video will be uploaded to youtube reasonably soon and I will add the link here.
After this we learnt how to make shapes move using photoshop, and I made my triangle have an argument with the circle and muscle in on it's territory... I think I even gave them voices in my head... All in all a good day, and a good week, now I'm shattered.

Day Twentythree

Another 3D project, after the last one I was kinda shitting a brick. What the hell was I going to do with this one? Well it turns out I didn't need to worry too much on this point. We were told the different types of sculpture we could do, from land art where you find some stones and pile them up on top of each other, to deconstruction/reconstruction where you tear something apart and remake it anew. Many, many options. We were told we could go to a charity shop and look around, find a few things we liked and use them, so I thought about what I had at home and what I could do with what I had. I eventually decided on the teddy bears we have sitting on a canvas chest of drawers. The canvas is black and our bedroom is deliberately kept dark, so I thought about emptying the clothes onto the bed and having the teddy's hide and poke their heads out.  Of course my mind did not stop there, the teddy's had an argument and one of them was found on the floor, bleeding, murdered! Who had done such a thing? So I imagined doing the whole project like a crime scene whodunit. My partner, however, refused to let me kill one of our own teddy's and insisted that if we were to kill one we had to go to a charity shop and buy him first. Well, we came across the cutest little murder victims and they were only 45p each, so it kinda turned into a serial killing.

 Then we found the police officer who will be the first responder to the crime scene when their bodies are found. The chap next to him was also very cute and my partner thins he would be a good killer, but I think that's a bit obvious. We shall find out soon enough who the 'real' killer is when the investigation is over.

I was planning on the final piece being their bodies buried in the ground, and the scrapbook could be the crime scene report. I'll let you know how it ends.

Day Twentytwo

New project. 2D Pattern Design.

At first I was thinking how the hell am I supposed to make a repeating pattern? They're all so complicated. Turn's out that's not necessarily true. After spending about an hour trying to come up with a few design ideas I could work on later we were given a fat black pen and told to just do a doodle.

Then we had to cut the page into four even pieces and rearrange them.

Then add another doodle in the middle, I chose to mirror the main image.

Then we had to duplicate the pattern.

And so on...this time adding an extra element, I chose to mirror the image again and make it lighter.

Finally we were to add colour. The first simply has a blue background, but the second I spent more time on and tried to give it the British Flag colours.

I am very proud of myself. We will be doing a number of different types of pattern design during this project. This is the hand drawn one, next week I will have photos of the tie-dye patterns we started making today, and homework tonight is to start on the tessellation pattern design, so best get cracking.

Please ask before using any of the images shown here, thank you.

Day Nineteen, Twenty and Twentyone

Assessment week.

Some were surprised they did better than they had hoped possible, some were happy they didn't fail, some understood and realised why they got the low score they did. It has been an eye-opener, this course is not a walk over, it's bloody hard!!

Well done to all who passed successfully, and good luck to all who are re-submitting.

Day Eighteen

I know what I need to do now. I've made a To Do List. I need to spend at least 20 hours on each project at home, at least! I need to compare my work with that of other artists and analyse what I've done right and wrong. Do not describe the work, if I have used charcoal they already know that, they have been doing this a long time, also it's kinda obvious, even I could tell if charcoal was used. Don't write like you're talking to your mates down the pub, simply make notes.

A part of me is worried that I'm not going to be able to cope, the rest of me is thinking this is going to be just fine. I suspect we will know for sure on Sunday 30th October. The day before we have to hand in our work for assessment.

Bring on the coffee!

Day Seventeen

My stomach was doing cartwheels. I have been dreading today as it's my 3D pre-assessment. She came over and sat with me and looked through my scrapbook, which didn't take long because I hadn't done any of it. We talked about the project a little and she gave me a suggestion which I am more than happy to be getting on with. My stomach has calmed down and I'm feeling reasonably confident again, still a little worried...

Again, it's my own fault. I have not been putting in the hours, and now I see how badly that can affect me. If I had done the work when I was supposed to most of this would be done and I wouldn't be lacking a half term off. I really hope I learn from this exercise.

In the afternoon we had life drawing again. I really wasn't looking forward to this after the cock up of last time. I just couldn't draw to save my life and I felt like a right prat, but today was different. Today I was permitted to use charcoal! I much prefer to do life drawing with charcoal. It's forgiving and makes every line better. So I came away with some really good work and our tutor even pointed out my work for the others to note. I do not feel like a prat anymore.

Day Sixteen

It's pre-assessment week. Pre-assessment is so that our tutors can look over our work and give us a grade, we can then decide if that's ok or if we would rather work over the half term holiday on making the grade better.

Monday is 2d day, where we are mark making and doing a self portrait and learning how to paint. I believe my overall work is reasonable, but my scrapbook was awful. I'm going to need to rip everything out and start again as there is no way I can salvage what I have done so far. To be honest with you, I knew this was coming. I have not been putting in the hours after college. I needed this slap in the face to wake me up, and now I need to listen to what I'm being told and fix the problem. This can not continue.

So, over the next week I'm going to finish my paintings and re-do my scrapbook. I'm still a little worried but reasonably confident.

Day Fifteen

Ah, today is much better. Car is, supposedly, fixed and it was a good session. Firstly we did photography, I forgot to bring in my laptop and so just did some research into lighting techniques. Then the afternoon session was basically a catch-up, some decided to get more of their acrylic painting done, but I opted to finish my pencil drawings, as I only had two unfinished ones and we need about five finished.

A fun day all round, in my honest opinion.

Day Fourteen

3D day... I was up for a portion of last night trying, desperately, to make sense of it all. I haven't even started my sketchbook yet... shit... Pre-assessment next week, must have it done by then...

To be honest with you, today was a non-starter for me as my car broke down, again, and I had to be towed to a garage where they fiddled, did a diagnostic to figure out what was wrong, told me it would cost over £200 to fix...
They lied, but charged me £48 for the diagnostic, bastards.

So this particular blog is just not going to happen. 3D happened, I went home, worked on it some more, then watched an episode of Jeckyl, then hung out with freinds.

Job done.

Day Thirteen

Today was all about painting. We had boards we painted white and then cut them to size, then out came the acrylics. We mixed our paints and made notes of what we did, then we began the painting. Some of the class found it hard to do but I thought it was brilliant. I still need to do a lot of work before they are finished but I am happy with the progress.

Here are three stages of the painting for one of my pieces. Like I said, it still needs some work, but I'm happy with what I've done so far.

And here is my second painting. We need to have two done for our final assessment so as one dried we got on with the other.

And here are some of the equipment used, The black lid was for mixing the paint, and then it gets put into the white tray, and a large tub of water to clean the brushes with, and finally, but most importantly, a full mug of coffee.

Day Twelve

This morning was all about photography. Gavin wanted to see our scrapbooks so far, and I think he was a little troubled by mine. I am proving I understand the lessons, and I seem to know what is expected of me, but I'm not really showing it very well. I have stuck a few things in my scrapbook, but not any writing, I'm not showing in a permanent format that all can look at and see that I understand what I'm doing. I need to work on that. It was also pointed out that I should use the photos I took at Arnos Vale for a later 'Location' project, so I need to get a load more photos done for this project.

I'm going to be doing a lot of work this weekend.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to leave early. The rest of the day was supposed to be a continuation of photography or going into the main room and doing some more work on one of our other projects, which I will have to do from home. Sorry guys.

Day Eleven

Had a chat with my tutor about my 3D project and we have agreed that it would probably be best to go a different route. So now I have a lot of catch-up work to do, but at least I'm a little happier about being able to finish it.

Then came life drawing. I had mentioned that I had taken life drawing classes before, and although I'm not the best at life drawing, I still know the basics. Gavin said I could just get on with it then while he taught the rest of the class who had never been to a life drawing class. So the lesson started and he was showing us how to measure the body using the end of a pencil, and how to map out the drawing, and I jumped straight in and started drawing, and got it very very wrong. I feel like an idiot. I haven't done any life drawing since the Burlesque class in August, but that is no excuse for the crap I produced today. Back to the drawing board and learning how to draw from scratch.

All in all, not the best day.

Day Ten

More Historical Arts, and a half hour video to boot. We had to make notes on what was being said and about what paintings, etc. Actually very interesting and I'd like to find the video so I can watch the whole thing, as it was about 3 hours long in total.
Then back to our self portraits. I left the fiery one alone and went a little crazy on the other, horrid, floating green head in the middle of icky brown, one. It looks much better now...

Not brilliant, in my opinion, but better.
I then had to do a few more as we need to have 4 or 5 of these done.

I let one dry while I started on the other, then when that was done went back to the first and working into it, etc, etc.

They still need a bit more work. I also discovered something today, if you should happen to use a wax based crayon to work into your picture, make sure you are completely done with the painting 'cos there is no way it's going on after... Luckily, this is the kind of course where mistakes can still be used in the scrapbooks as we can learn from them.
Now comes the hard part. The browny/red one with the green background, Rachel has recommended to put writing in the empty space and it was also pointed out that I'm looking down and a little sad, so I think I know what needs to be written and it's going to be hard to write. Vincent Van Gogh put his feelings onto canvas, as did Edvard Munch, I'm simply following in the footsteps of the great's, and the mentally deranged, let's face it Van Gogh cut his ear off and I'm not at that stage yet.

Oh crap, we have 3D tomorrow and I have no idea what I'm doing. Every time I sit down to think it out I get sidetracked. I think all I need to do is design a vehicle's function and not worry about what it looks like. Maybe focus on an integral part of the vehicle, like the engine, rather than the whole vehicle. Or scrap the whole idea and with just two weeks left come up with a whole new idea. I quite like Emma's idea of boxes.

I reasonable confident I can, at the very least, pass the 2D and photography modules, but the 3D one is going to be a thorn in my portfolio.

Day Nine

We were working in the IT room this morning, learning how to fiddle with photos in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 3. It was quite fun and a little confusing and a bit tedious, but ultimately very interesting.

Manipulated in Lightroom 3. Temp +3, exposure -2.16, clarity -100.

Manipulated in Photoshop CS4. Changed the Hue.

Manipulated with Lightroom 3. Temp -100, exposure -3.54, blacks 100, clarity +100.

Manipulated in Photoshop CS4. Changed the Gradient.

Manipulated in Photoshop CS4. Changed the Threshold.

Manipulated with Lightroom 3. Exposure -4.00, recovery 100, blacks 49, clarity +100.

Manipulated with Photoshop CS4. Changed the Saturation.

Manipulated with Lightroom 3. Temp +100, exposure -3.54, blacks 100, contrast +24, clarity +77.

Personally I'm quite pleased with them. I know what I did was simple, but I think it was effective. Need to take more photos so I can manipulate them with a little more refinement and finesse... That, I am sure, will come in time.

Day Eight

Today I got in early again and so thought I would ask for my tutor's opinion on my new concept car... Well, at least I asked her advice before getting it halfway done only for her to tell me it wasn't quite right. It seems my idea is still too Fine Art and not enough Design. Back to the drawing board.

We began talking about fantasy and sci-fi, so I'm going back to one of my original ideas of looking at Syd Meads work and doing a futuristic car. Have to keep reminding myself to just stick with the design and we can maybe work on the aesthetics later. What it looks like is not so important right now, the design of the product is.

I'm more than a little worried. I think I've missed the main point of it all, and also everyone else has an idea of where they are going and are working towards that goal. We have a future fashion designer making an outfit out of cardboard, a future architect attempting to make a structural component, animation students working on models for animation... What the hell am I doing? I really believe I should have figured that out a bit more by now. Yes, I wanted to go into concept art, but what's the point when people just don't get what you're trying to convey? I get more bemused looks than amused looks and I think that's a sign to explore other avenues.

Anyway, back to college and our 3D project. I'm going to be spending the weekend looking at Syd Mead and other sci-fi vehicles, past and present concept cars, the reason for the cars, how much is design and how much is aesthetics, and so on. Maybe I'll even give some deep thought to why I'm here doing this and where I want to be by the end of it.

Day Seven

Today I was a bit late and so missed most of the Art History lesson. There was a good reason for my lateness, but that's a whole different blog!

The second part of the day was filled with 2D art. We had taken a bunch of photos of ourselves last week and we had printed those out over the weekend. We were given a piece of tracing paper and had to quickly sketch a few of those pics out in the composition we would use later.

Then we were given a sheet of 150gms white cartridge paper and free reign over the pencil crayons.

And then we were given 170gms white cartridge paper and free reign over the inks.

Next week we will be working on these a little more, working into the, bleaching them, utterly destroying them and remaking them in a different image... The top inked picture is my favourite, the bottom one needs more work... I'll enjoy destroying that one.

Day Six

Today we had to be in a little early as we had an Introduction to the Library talk. This took about half an hour, and although completely unnecessary for intelligent people I understand there are some true idiots out there.

Then it was photography, and we were split into four groups, one group learnt how to use a cool programme called Lightroom (?) which you use to enhance your photos. One group did some photography research, one group took photos of each other in front of a white screen using filters and lights to get cool shadows, and one group got to use a cool little lighbox that Gavin made. After half an hour on each we swapped round so we got to do all the activities.
The lightbox was frickin awesome!! It's a square box with slits cut into the sides and top to shine your lights through, then black or white paper is placed in the box to give a smooth surface area, then you put a maquette or other object into the box and photograph it using different light effects. Here are some photos...

The afternoon was filled with designing my 3D project, I think I have my final design now, I just have to make it... The design is currently on paper and hasn't been scanned in, but I have no doubt I'll get it up before long.