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 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 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 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 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.

Sketchbook Update 8

A quick sketch of Patrick Stewart done at the pub after a silly conversation about him naked.

I wanted the faces to look like they were coming out of the page, you can't see it as clearly here, need to re-scan methinks.

Modified from an old life drawing. I'm going to add fish and other underwater elements to the empty spaces.

Sketchbook Update 7

The latest offerings...

Um, so, little known fact about me... I like Pride and Prejudice. I was watching the 1995 TV version yesterday and Mr Darcy's Shirt ruffles grabbed my attention. I paused it and quickly sketched it down, then later on Elizabeth's hat caught my attention. 

The bottom picture is my friend Rose again, it is another of the poses she did for me the other week, I have just cleaned it up and worked on it a little more. She had a great expression on her face.

The x-ray I found via google (AJ Photo/Science Photo Library) and thought it was just fantastic! If anyone has any other x-rays they want to share I would love to see them!

The baby hands belong to the children of a friend of mine. The centre hand belongs to a 2yr old and the rest belong to a 4yr old. Thank you Oscar and Dexter for being great models!

Sketchbook Update 6

I think I've pretty much done adult's now, so I'm starting on children. The references for both pictures are from Facial Expressions Babies to Teens by Mark Simon. Oh, Mark Simon, where would I be without you?!

The top picture is of a 3 week old, a 7 month old and a 17 month old. The bottom picture is a newborn skull. Not an alien...

Sketchbook Update 5

What happens why you find out your an alien?

An idea I have been developing for a while now, 'Ghetto Fairies' Copyright Claire Carter 2011. I have spent ages trying to find a way to do this and I think I've done it. The reference image came from a google images search. I hope to develope this idea a bit more so keep watching!

Sitting in my car, waiting, I got bored and drew myself through the mirror. Yes, that is a spider, I have one dangling from my mirror...

Met with Rose and Dan on Sunday (as previously mentioned) and Rose sat for me. 

Sketchbook Update 4

An updated version of My Feet. In my sketchbook I printed out the page and cut out my feet then added the words on top and slightly raised. It looks really good, I keep smiling at myself whenever I see it. The text is from the Wikipedia page titled Foot. 

I have a few more pages done and I will upload those tomorrow. As for tonight, I have just got back from meeting with the Bristol Fantasy and Sci-Fi group. Really tired!

Sketchbook Update 3

Only one picture today although I have been working on a few others. I'm learning to paint with watercolours which has been a lot of fun. Need to do some more work on those and I will update when they are finished.

These are my feet, with my fat dumpy little toes. Never thought I would allow them to be in the public eye so you should feel all warm and fuzzy that you get to see this.

On another note, I had an idea for some fantasy work I want to do for the upcoming BristolCon, Oct 22. http://www.bristolcon.org/ I have got some wall space to put up some work which I can also sell, very excited. I will post the results after the show. Now I just need to do them. 

Sketchbook Update 2

I am warning you that there is one slightly graphic picture only because it is a fetus and some people may be upset by that. It will be the last picture posted so hopefully you wont see it unless you scroll down.

So, update 2 has arrived, I have done a few more pictures, mostly skeletal. I'm still on the human body parts stage and I am learning a lot from these skeletons. So here they are.

Skeletal foot taken from Anatomy for Artists by Barrington Barber.

Skulls taken from Facial Expressions by Mark Simon.

The last picture was originally going to be a page of skulls with a bone border, and I honestly believe I should have stuck with it, but this is a learning process and next time I will know not to give up on an idea just because it's going to take a few days to finish. We live and learn.

Sketchbook Update 1

I have begun. I did 4 pages last night, and today I put together some title pages using Photoshop. I am noting down a few ideas of things to draw and I pretty much have the whole thing set out. Very excited.

The skull and the skeletal hand were both taken from Anatomy For Artists by Barrington Barber.

Holiday Homework

Ohshitohshitohshit - Terry Pratchett

Today I received an email from college giving me my holiday homework. So now I'm thinking really hard about what to do with it. Comic based? Steampunk? Pure Fantasy?

I have at this moment decided on Life Drawing. It's a subject I really love and enjoy. I'm going to another Burlesque Life Drawing class in August so I can add to it then, and I could just sketch random people in the street or in cafe's. My only worry now is how to make it individual and interesting? How to tie all the pages together? I thought about giving the pages borders to link them.

So many thoughts! So little sleep! I shall go and lie awake in my bed all night until I come up with the answers. Until then here is the homework assignment.

Access to H.E. Creative Arts Homework for Summer 2011.

Drawing Project. It is important that you arrive at your university interview with evidence of considered and developmental drawing. I am asking you to produce a body of work on a selected subject. You decide what that subject is, although making a connection with the degree programme you wish to study is a good idea.

Go to Google images. Type in the word, Sketchbook. Collect copies of all the work you admire. You can print a few of these up and include them in your sketchbook project. Annotate alongside stating why/what you admire about the work.

Suggested topics. Fashion illustration. Character development. Typography. Still life. Landscapes. Interior space. Human condition/interaction. Abstract composition. Self. Narrative. Fantasy. Organic/mechanical/architectural form.

Rules.

• Select a sketchbook of an appropriate size to the type of work you plan to do. Somewhere between A6 and A4. You must fill the book. No empty pages at the back. I will expect you to draw on both sides of the paper. It may be a good idea to buy a sketchbook that has between 35 – 75 pages.
• Any medium is acceptable just remember this is a drawing project not a painting project.
• Additional items can be included with the drawing project, e.g. photographs, annotations, materials, colour swatches and magazine cuttings, but the rule is 75% drawing and consequently, no more than 25% additional imagery.
• The layout of the drawings, going across the middle seam, working vertically/horizontally or putting things in varying size boxes etc is up to you. I suggest you vary the scale constantly.
• Drawings must be developmental i.e. they must show that you are trying to learn/understand something, complete a narrative, improve a skill, analyse design elements, devise the construction of something or alter the composition of self selected ideas.
• The work should be completed by the first week of term and will contribute to a designated credit.