Wednesday, 29 August 2012

*le sigh*

Well its that time of year again when students head back to college! and a huge good luck to you all guys!

For those, like myself, who have graduated now comes that sullen lul of silence...

*PFFFFT!*

I wish...

Ive been extreamly fortunate to have a constant flow of commission based work being requested, especially since the exhibition based in Falkirk, came to a close. A huge thank you still goes to everyone who helped make it happen. Love you guys!

Theres another exhibition on in the space folks so please head on down to see it! You wont be dissapointed!

Ive managed to drift my backside into painting again... which is wierd... Meanwhilst experimenting with embroidery again haha. Two of my paintings have had offers on them as well as my embroidery piece. *dancing much... aye*

But with all this spare time, what else have I been up to????

BAKING! Ive become midly addicted to baking cake pops, vodka jello and all the other fun stuff;
HOLIDAYS!!!! Yes, myself and Garry shall be heading to Alcudia at the end of September;
Job huntering... determined to get out of McDonalds like a bat out of hell! **Insert Meatloaf tune here please**

But aye

On another note Im also doing tutoring for students. Ive already been booked to help students with Mathematics *sorry campers* And I have a few slots left for Art students. The way I tutor is a bit different from several other art tutors. I prefer to keep in contact throughout the year showing processes, artists and giving assistance to all projects. *keeps me sane* You can never really crash study art for an exam but extra learning throughout the year can be a major bonus to your academic year. Tutoring for art also covers Graphic Communication and Product Design courses. And I basically let the student decide what they need help with.

~Rant Beginning~ 

The job of an external tutor is to assist the student in areas they want help with. You cant make lesson plans for them, least thats what I believe. Any fannybandit that says they make plans on how to "teach" the student needs a slap in the baws. Thats not your job, thats their teachers job to make plans. Your just an aid to the student

~Rant over~


Anyways if your in the Falkirk Area and are interested in having a tutor for your year of high school in art, graphics or product design, please get in touch. If not, go check out the latest exhibit in Falkirk.

Till next time XD

Keep Calm

and Chive On...

Saturday, 11 August 2012

Exhibition is up!

Woo hoo jazzy people. Our exhibition is up and running. It's at the old index/littlewoods store on Falkirk high street and I'm so excited, exhibiting with me is carol Meikelham, Ann Walker, Kirsten Mains and a piece by Sally. It's being run through the Falkirk delivers initiative for the next 10 days open 10am to 5pm. So if your in the Falkirk high street looking to kill a few minutes drop by and have a swatch.

I'm exhibiting a fraction of my drawings. Some old and new and some never seen before Barcelona studies. Also my dead goldfish are up aswell as my bus journey studies.

I've also been looking into getting my goldfish printed on tshirts as suggested by some interested visitors, so hey ho you never know?




Monday, 6 August 2012

Bus blogging again

Holy smokey and all that jazz what a busy few weeks likes!

Some exciting news, ill be exhibiting my work yet again for the next few days in Falkirk, along with some awesome friends, fellow students and the likes.

I can't express how vital it is that Falkirk needs to regenerate itself. And by doing the art exhibition in the town is just the start. It's a fantastic space and I'm really excited to get involved and get the stuff on show. I've managed to rope in a couple awesome friends and arty folk and I even have an awesome idea of doing a performance drawing to pull the public through the doors.

Ooooft so excited! I'm going home right now to finish mounting some work. I've even been productive in making my business cards, okay im a cheapskate and totally DIY'ed them but they're done haha

Photos and details will follow soon enough. But I'm also feeling rather arty fatty right now and may be doing some craft or sew-drawing once I get home?, so many ideas its actually getting torturous.

Anyways I'm starting to get travel sick typing on the bus home so aye

Signing out.

P.s. enjoy the random drawings I'm adding to the post. Haha




Monday, 16 July 2012

Another alien

Yes I'm still buzzing away doing my alien drawings. I'm back in my comfort zone using my 01 American crafts precision pen. A favourite well worth the expense it was to order it from the states, its ideal with its stiff fibre nib which refuses to blunt and change the dot size and makes consistent marks which are so tiny I love it!, another ideal element to the pen is that its waterproof and non bleed, meaning no smudges or smears from having my hand rest on the paper.

Just for scale reasons I'm using an A4 pink pig branded sketchbook, spiralbound for an easier drawing surface. The paper is pretty standard, nice texture and tone of white but best of all its great to work on with pen. In my experience when picking paper to draw on, pink pig is my second favourite by far.

Anyways, I've spent maybe, 4 hours on this and the amount of detail and nib size kinda explains the length of time...


Friday, 13 July 2012

Alien

I'm still drifting about, still reading, job applying and doodling away.
Lately my boyfriend Garry suggested I do a painting of the alien from the movies. I adore H.R. Giger, gutted that I can't find my tashen book of his stuff to share with Garry as I'm sure he'd love it.

Anyways I have been doing a small 5x7 inch canvas doodle using acrylic, thick watercolor and gouache of the alien and frequently been updating the progress. I'm extremely happy to say a few people have made offers for the small canvas and I'm more than happy to let it go as I'm only experimenting with it. I have full intentions of making a larger, more detailed piece.

It's quite enjoyable reverting to painting again the only frustration I'm feeling is over where the smeg my paintbrushes have vanished!
I'm positive they've went walkies at the time of the exhibition construction... Gutted! Means I have to spend more money on things haha!

Anyways let me know what you guys think I'm currently working on a more high detailed piece using just dots on some A4 paper, slowly going up in scale haha! Awesomeness!


Monday, 9 July 2012

*blooooooooooooop*

Yes, So. I have done sweet smegging all lately haha! Aside from regaining a social life *hurrah!*

Past wee while the weather has been muggy, sweaty and jus bleh... to go along with all the rain. Only things which enjoy this weather is the ducks.

Regardless. I have officially made contact to Hobbycraft!!! Yes, we have a Hobbycraft in Falkirk now and its officially a case of not what you know, but who you know which gets you into a job. Well thats never been more true than what im experiencing right this second. I am officially sick of working for McDonalds. I hate the food, hate making the dam stuff and im slowly becoming physically unable to get the simplest of tasks such as carrying certain stock. The staff I work with are officially half and half with hate and love. Some I hate, others I love. And by Hate... I genuinly mean detest with a pure passion the only thing stopping me from walking out is that I am in dire need for what petty wages I make in that building... But hopefully that may all change.

Fingers majorly crossed with regards to Hobbycraft and atleast getting my foot in the door of escaping Ronald McFreakingDonald... How awesome would it be to work in Hobbycraft? Its like an ideal job for me, If I were religious Id be praying to god right now.

But anyways, Moving on from all job talk related.

My drawing drive has hit a curveball with my regaining of a social life I havent really spared much time to draw. However, lately my boyfriend Garry has been playing the alien vs predator games. Now I am a major coward to playing these games and I much prefer to sit and watch him play away. Besides, Im a Nintendo Girl XD The most I have to worry about is if my Pokemon will make it to the next battle or not. But aside from the whole gameplay and watching the movies its easy to forget that the design for the Alien was H.R.Giger. The man is a genious and the style of the Alien is just epic. His style carries him into the areas of interior design, product design and graphic pieces. This is the man who designed the microphone to one of my childhood fascinations in music being Korn.

A few nights ago, I couldnt sleep and so decided to start doodling away to try and replicate the predator from the game Garry was playing. I came up with this eventually before forgetting completly how his hair/head/tenticles sorta went...

Now Im not completly satisfied with this. Its head spines are wrong, the horned teeth or mouth spines, whatever they're called are irregular in size but the detail of the head with its patterned skin is appealing.
Im contemplating watching more movies, games and such and trying to expand the design further. However, at this current time the predator design here, is too close to the alien. By all respects the "Alien" is a wild hunter creature designed to increase its species count. The Predator, is just a hunter. And is closer in stature and design to humans. I suppose thats where the design of the mask the predator wears keeps the connection between human and predator together. It takes away the main visual difference between the two species.

As it were said in the movie "Aliens vs Predator" -- "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" as said by the character of Sebastian.

Anyways. I have things to do, chaos to deal with and now Im off to deal with all of that

Linz

Thursday, 28 June 2012

*Splodge*

Yes I have been spending some time messing about with cross stitch... and yes I finished the daft little projects... But Im back to boredom now...

Ive been trying hard today to find something out there in the big bad world to get involved with, But it really is a case of not what you know, but who you know.

My brains already feeling stunted from lack of creative practice. And I want so desperatly to find something to do with my summer other than reading all the books in my wishlist... But the hunt wont stop and eventually I will find something I can jump into.

On the other note. I recently recieved an e-mail which has put a smile on my face to no ends. :) My piece "Man Walking his Dog" or "man and his dug" as most people have called it... Has officially been Sold ^^,

The new Stirling Campus are now the official owners of my drawing and Im extreamly happy! Not just because a part of me will now be in the new campus, But also its a new method of drawing hopefully students will be interested to experiment and try out. And better still, couple hundred notes in my holiday fund to majorca in september! (and get me out of debt quicker)


All in all Im dancing for joy at this fact...

Now all I have to do is finish off my freaking website and get the shop up and running. Even more so now Im plotting a charity drawing collection. More info on that coming up in the next few months....

Till then If theres anything going on in the central scotland area... LET ME KNOW! my brains starting to go in circles from lack of artyness... Oh! and if anyone wants to give me a job, you know, get me out of McDonalds... Please feel free XD

Anyways...

Bye for now

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Stunted

For the past while, I have applied to multiple commission based works, several work experience placements, a couple jobs and probably twenty or so petty jobs, so as to escape McDonald's (the one year plan to get me through degree)... So far, nothings turned up lol.

Soon as the schools go back ill be phoning constantly to get work experience and applying for secondary school teaching courses... Till then I'm doing my self motivated "big read"
Having dyslexia is a pain in the ass and my reading skills have suffered with it. The last book I read was the da Vinci code, by Dan Brown. Probably um... 8 years ago...
Safe to say the only time I've read novels have been for research purposes, and its been skim reading, don't get me wrong, when I was younger I read all the time. But with focus having went to college I only really purchased books relative to my studies... Well no more! I'm challenging myself to read as many books during this summer as I can fit in, starting with Sherlock Holmes, a childhood hero from when I were a book worm. May aswell start with something I can recognize I suppose.

But today has been a doodle, fiddly dum dum day. Found in a purse today, some thread, cross stitch fabric and a needle, a craft keyring. So hey, I put that project on hold, probably 4 years ago. May aswell finish it... Or start as the case may be... Picture is of the nearly completed cross-stitchery.


Saturday, 16 June 2012

Crazy a.m.

Yes its ten to one in the morning... But since coming home from work Ive been busy photoshopping/editing images to fit on my website and basically did a complete overhaul... Id have love to have done this whilst my tutor Paul was marking PDP... But its taken me 3 or so days of planning, shopping, photographing and tweeking to get to this happy stage.

But now its officially finished... apart from my 3 sorta in development projectos going on XD

Im not going to make a major officiall "Check out my website" attention seeking randomness till im 100% happy and finished with my website but hey ho. Heres what I have atm...


Obviously drop me a message to say what you think. Im not fantastic with this and since im restricting myself to weebly's templates any comments are welcomed. I have been looking at Wix website templated which I do really like... But im not for paying extra to connect it to my domain name haha!

I still want to figure out how to edit the "Identity Information" But thats a job for another night where I cant quite get to sleep... 

Anyways thats enough for now Im off to catch some well deserved ZZZZZ's

Linz

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

A blog post of chaos

The term busy as smeg doesnt come close to how its been over the past month! But hey my poor wee blog has been forgotten about *cries*

Time to fix that issue!!!

Yes *cough*

since the last blog its all been rather busy in the land of chaos...

Ive finished all the large scale drawing pieces I wanted to do...
Ive actually been to London and back...
Ive also been part of the construction of the exhibition...
We as a class exhibited our work on the opening night...
We took down the exhibition... and I sold quite a lot of drawings which im really chuffed about :)
We then reinstalled a smaller exhibition based in Alloa...
All the whilst this chaos has carried on and Ive totally neglected to update my poor blog...

And now this is the remedy!!!

Lets begin with Chapter 1...

The week before myself and Lisa headed to london I managed to complete the larger scaled and more contemporary based drawing pieces.





Getting these done was a major priority as technically Myself and Lisa would be missing a week of college with us heading to London. We were going by our previous years deadline which would make us finish up a week before the exhibition... Little did we realise that we had right up to the exhibition to finalise some pieces. (technically we could still be doing some work during the construction of the exhibition)

Chapter 2

LONDON BABY!

Yes me and lisa left to go to london on the Tuesday Evening of the following week and we didnt get back home till about... erm... Friday morning... HAHA!

I fell inlove with the Saatchi Gallery all over again and we even paid a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum to check out some Lolita fashion... im all too aware at Lisas protest over one such piece of work which is NOT lolita at all and even the artist who owns the work is in dismay over the issue... To say the least if someone ever says the term "Japanese Lolita" shoot them... there is no such thing. But hey im not the expert. Lisa is. Its my understanding that Lolita origionated in Japan but there isnt actually a fashion route which is entitled Japanese Lolita... Thats where the V&A fucked up...

I also managed to do some drawing pieces whilst there. All in all it was another fantastic experience with roasting hot weather to boot. We also went to a concert to see LMC. I have to say they were amazing and really interacted with the crowd. You can see tonnes of videos other people uploaded to youtube if you search for LMC in London. 



Chapter 3, 4 and 5...

Exhibition Chaos!

All i can say first and formost... Thank fuck for Trev. He has been an absolute superstar helping with the construction of the exhibition. If it wasnt for him and Alex, fuck all would have been done.

and This....






Would have just been a pipedream if it wasnt for the tutors, Dot, Enzo, Paul, Dee and Isabella helping me out by figuring out how to exhibit over 200 drawing pieces... thats right... I ended up doing 200 of the beggering things!!!

Thank smeg i switched walls from 6 metres to near enough 11 metres... But seriously. If it wasnt for the tutors and a couple classmates, and the students who helped me put this whole thing up. I think id still be attaching chaos to the walls. So a huge thank you has to go to Laura Sharp who basically kicked my arse to do the large drawn piece which took roughly 4 hours... If she hadnt pushed me it wouldnt be there. Another thankyou has to go to Sam and Maggie Laidlaw who helped me pin up all of the paper based drawings... By the time it got to the canvas based pieces I had had enough and Trevor helped me in just throwing them on the wall...







Taking everything down was a whole load easier... (Especially when i couldnt be bothered taking down "Swing girl") Lets face it... Buildings getting knocked down anyways why bother. Besides It was one of my personal highlights doing that wall with the tree and girl. Loads of people were taking their photographs infront of it. The one thing i would redo is the arm on the right. But overall I was hyper as smeg about it all just being up.

Opening night was a huge buzz! First time my parents have both seen my work and finally realised why i gave up a social life and why i was late for dinner the whole week. They finally understood what i was up to and why i was so motivated over my practice.


Taking down the Exhibition was ofcourse... a whole load easier than putting the dam thing up. And Id just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who purchased one of my drawings. It was a huge compliment that you wanted them. I also gave some drawings away to tutors and friends as a thank you for their time. Mainly the massive drawing of Enzo... He got to take its near to scale drawing of himself home... because theres no way i could take it on a bus... lets face facts haha! I also gave some buggy drawings to Trevor, some thank you drawings to Jane and did an Artists Swap with Fiona Jenkins (fellow classmate) Im so chuffed with it its sitting on my small shelf of arty adoration XD

Chapter 6

The next exhibition!

Yes the class had been planning this for quite some time... The main curator being Sharon Lay... Yes a quick (and terrifying) trip to Alloa to install a few drawings in a week long exhibition... Annoyingly because of work commitments I cant go help man the dam thing! *rage face*
That and its a couple trains/couple bus rides to the place its rather bleeding awkward!

Glasshouse Loan Exhibition


Still need to figure out what day to go and collect the drawings though... some of them i really want back haha!

And thats pretty much it. Everythings sorta bloggery based caught up on... oh... except one small fact... I am now officially Linday Forsyth BA... Thats right folks I passed my Degree WOO HOO!!

But the hard work doesnt stop here. Oh hell no. It was lack of experience which prevented me getting into my teaching course for next year and im gonna fight as hell to make up for it! Ive already started contacting secondry schools about getting some work experience as an artist in residence position and already started job hunting to something more art or craft related. Id love to work in Hobbycraft... there... i said it! McDonalds was only a year term thing to get me through degree. Now the fun part is finding something work based which isnt A. going to kill me, B. going to break me or C. Make me so depressed I consider suicide...

Im also reworking my website... yes scary stuff but now its not being marked for PDP anymore I can finally get back to tweeking the flaming thing. First and formost. Shifting from Weebly to Wix and getting a better layout and design for my website. Weebly was fine to tick the box for PDP but im just never going to be happy with it... Ill update soon enough with more arty gossip as soon as I can.... But till then heres a question someone emailed me


Q : " Now that your degree is over, do you still do certain habits like carrying a sketchbook or camera about or has that all just dropped dead? "

A : "Hell no, im a recovering Art Student... I still carry my sketchbook, camera and pencil case wherever I go. I still do my bus doodles, I still take requests to complete works and yes... I'll admit it... I still buy art and craft materials whenever I see something I fancy... especially pens... why... I have no idea... Im a pen junky, and official inker.... Addicted to the ink"

Thanks to the Anon for the question. If you fancy dropping me a question send me an e-mail or message me through blogger...

Linz.



Thursday, 10 May 2012

Problematic

Ive had nothing but problems today *gutting*

With the crappy weather Ive been unable to do to large pieces for drawing mainly a burn drawing piece and one with using the power wash. The constaint rain meant I couldnt do either task outdoors.

In an attempt to begin my burn drawing in the tool room with the extraction fan directly ontop of the canvas (which wasnt exactly strong enough) I quickly discovered that spending ages priming the canvas with gesso was all to a huge waste of time... Turns out that gesso doesnt burn very well... if at all. It doesnt even bubble just goes a slight beige colour... The heat goes straight to the canvas and burns it leaving the gesso to disintigrate into a thin crisp with powdery pigment.

Lesson learned if attempting a burn drawing dont bother preparing a canvas...


All I managed was to scorch the gesso and burn through the canvas leaving a ragged tear. This wasnt the idea at all but to instead build up detail and tone through levels of burning. It was an interesting idea and end result. But as the burning passed through the gesso the canvas was more attractive on the back with the blackened idea actually working out the way I planned. Overall I wasnt happy, however all is not lost. Ive stripped the canvas off the frame and purchased some cotton and heavy fabric to attach and ive already got a good size of canvas pinned to a wooden frame to try the burn imagery again. Hopefully the weather will clear up so as to get the job done.

Looking back Im glad I decided to scrap the idea as my proportions on the canvas of the imagery are wierd and better planning will prove to be more effective. Im also now less convinced about the subject matter in  connection to the practice of doing the burning.

Ive still got a few things left to draw but I just cant wait to get everything done and dusted ready for the exhibition time

oh and in a sinful sorta way... Ive got a new idea for a drawing I really want to do. But I only will do it if I have finished every request left...

Anyway Im sharing a new penwork drawing finished today :)

One dotty doodled zebra


Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Cock-a-doodle dodo doughnut doodles

Yes Im aware its been donkeys since Ive written in the blog but its been slight chaos with my updated brief and trying to acomplish every drawing request (but I am getting there)

Many requests Ive had to discard as they are to either draw fictional characters or make stuff up... Im sorry but I cant find a t-rex in a swimsuit which means sorry, I cant draw it. (However I have drawn a t-rex and a swim suit seperatly)

I have however been drawing as much as I can (not as much as Id love to since Im normally trapped in my McDonalds job kitchen) that and problems with my guffed up wrist meaning shakes, spazams and wierdness which annoys me very greatly...

Regardless! I've been ticking off my massive list of drawing requests (thanks very much guys for the ideas!) Some of them have been fantastic to go hunting and draw (others have been a nightmare, thank you google for atleast giving me an idea what im looking for) Ive had great fun trekking to The National Museum of Scotland, based in Edinburgh. With a fabby first year Kirsten Mains (I cant find her blog to share with you guys... sorry) It was a day of many laughs, interesting discoveries and useful insight into both our projects. Sadly if I spent all day drawing in there they may have locked me inside for the night (I wouldnt have complained but the mummy exhibit freaks me out) So I am still slightly playing catch up with my sketchy images and blurry photographs I took... blurry I have no idea why, but hey it happens. A further trip to Armstrongs in the Grassmarket tied up a couple more hunting efforts. But all in all the entire adventure to Edinburgh was fantastic, my only regret is that I wish I could afford to head through more often but sadly Im still saving up for a trip to London...

Most of the time spent at home has been spent drawing in penwork whilst classtime has been used to do more experimental drawing techniques. Some of the things Ive done have been learned from experiences in the past (several accidental disasters) But all in all with a bit more modification and tweeks those past disaster discoveries are paying off quite well.
I love challenging the entire concept that the practice of drawing is confined to just pencil and paper, drawing to me is one of the most exciting practice of art I enjoy. In this practice Ive been drawing with threads and plaster casting. Most recently I have been preparing some canvas' with gesso for large scale drawing works.

Actually the entire result of even cleaning the dammed things has proven to be insightful into a process I never thought about trying out. The two canvas' I managed to get had older student work over it and since I had already pre-decided to scorch the canvas with a heat gun and soldering iron to create a burn drawing. I first had to remove the previous painting. I could have used a chemical paint stripping type product. But I was concerned with the chemicals (which are flammable) seeping into the wooden canvas frame and basically becoming a major smelly fire hazzard. So I took the pressure washer to them... and very quickly learned about the difference a cheap £10 canvas in comparison to a slightly larger £15 canvas... Quite a freaking lot. The cheaper one nearly disintigrated leaving a plastic based rigid weave where as the other one was a lot more durable heavy based canvas which stood up to the battering from the pressure washer....

Regardless... in doing the cleaning it was rather fun blasting the paint away and making swirls and wiggles with the exposed bare canvas being on show... New idea. One scorch and burn based drawing piece in which I use the heat gun and soldering iron... And another in using the power jet wash. Im already planning my sketches to the scale needed and what imagery id prefer to use.

With all the chaos set and done and stuff my revised timeplan is working well for me (basically drink loads of monster, rockstar, relentless etc and stay awake drawing) Because I am determined to have as much work finished as possible for the dreaded "E" word. My "sketchbook" has been reduced to a folder in which I have been collecting visuals of research spanning from drawing magazines, arty books, arty internets and lots of site visits/object hunting...

I have however been having chaos with the construction of my website basically... Ive grown to hate the entire design of it and really want to scrap and redo the entire thing... Do I have the time or patience... not really...

Anyway no doubt your getting bored reading everything here so heres some pictures of my drawing project "Tell me what to draw"

Enjoy






For some reason the new blogger set up wont let me upload some images (they're not rude) But in saying that I dont really want to upload every single image I have made... (Got to keep some mystery eh?)

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Boom



The PLP

Statement of Intent: 
My intention of this brief is to focus on the relationship between myself and the practice of drawing. Using all the techniques I have learned throughout my years of doing this practice and knowledge gained in my specialist options and research practice into drawing I hope to construct a portfolio of drawing practice. I hope that through this brief to expand my drawing abilities and document my progression.
The main concept towards this project is to ask the college community to tell me what to draw that day and push myself to expand my practice. For many of the drawings I hope to be challenged and have to source my imagery by travelling to other locations, for other requests I hope to have to use my imagination and force myself to create imagery that I would normally struggle with. E.g. I do struggle with drawing people without a life drawing model of some sorts.
This concept will require a box and requests being added to it with challenges/assignments for me to do. The public who submit the challenges or requests will be limited to 5 – 6 words describing what they want me to draw.
Each drawing would be a new brief, something to give me focus and an on going theme as I am prone to putting off drawing or just doodling for projects without a consistent focus. As I collect requests I will decide that within the 24 hour period of a day I will complete a set number of drawings. Each drawing may vary in time from quick sketches, to hour long studies. I also hope that dependant on what I am drawing I will experiment with different drawing styles ranging from burn drawings, pin and thread drawings or even expanding my penwork.

Methods, Materials and Processes:
My process would be to ask people their requests on what to draw that day and assign myself to draw several images within a 24 hour period. Their request would be anonymous and be randomly selected each day. Each drawing may differ in a time limit to complete the image and may differ in the drawing style or practice I want. For example, If someone was to request. “I want you to draw a duck” I would have to go to a pond or local park where there are ducks and draw them. I may use my pens which I carry all the time, or I may resort to using a feather found at the site dipped in ink, a piece of wood or twig that I may burn at the end and draw with. I could come away with one drawing or a range of studies.


Proposed Research: 
My main focus of research would be to go and source my imagery to draw from the requests collected. The requests would be a form of research as well. A main source of constant inspiration is the artist Michael Nobbs who has written a book called “Sustainable Creativity” and is an avid blogger. Every fortnight he sends e-mail drawing challenges to his subscribers with instructions as to what to draw that day to continue keeping your drawing practice sustainable and constant. Some of his challenges can be as simple as drawing every item in a kitchen cupboard to getting a mode of transport to any location which takes 10 minutes to get to and then draw exactly what you see. His site http://www.sustainablycreative.com/ has an ongoing blog in which he annotates his posts with his own drawings and is something I should keep in mind.
I also hope to refer to previously researched drawing practices and practising artists such as Michael Janis, Emma Cowlam, Thomas Houseago, Roderick Mills, Susan Stockwell and Daniel Zeller. Hopefully I will expand my knowledge of artists as I go since I constantly research artists on other websites that are continually updated such as dailyartmuse.com and publications such as “Garage”, “D-Magazine”, “Art Review” and “Juxtapoz”.



Expected Outcomes:
I intend to produce a portfolio of requested drawings showcasing my abilities to draw with any given instruction as to what to create/study. My main milestones are to collect many requests and complete a set amount per 24 hour period. My first priority is to construct a box and install it with a set of instructions asking the college community to post a request of what I should draw today.  

The Buzz

Sustainably Creative with Michael Nobbs

Daily Drawings by Ester Wilson

Daily Drawing Diary with Rob Pepper

Matt Lyon and his drawings

Vancouver Draw Down

Chris Piascik

And the Drawings so far







Monday, 19 March 2012

Finally lifting my head from the desk

*groan*

Ive officially spent way too long on this fecking essay. Handed in a brand new essay and got some feedback back... eh... a few rants I would love to be posting here but fuck it. Im struggling really badly with this essay and as far as I'm concerned I'm now so scunnered with the entire thing I'm aiming for a simple pass. Thats what I'm aiming for and I dont give a flying crap being told "I could have done better" type pish. This entire contextual studies I was really interested in and every single tutorial I genuinly start to dread and detest the entire project. I'm no longer interested into the studies I am and quite frankly to be told to read this, check this out, try and put some of this information which I've never even heard of into my essay, with 2 weeks to the final hand in... Is not fucking on and not bloody fair! Whats the point in adding in a whole new resource of information I do not understand. It would be like lying in my essay. Guy may have a phd but is ability to explain something to me is fucking bollocks. Oh and another thing slagging off my pc's ability to do something which you've never seen before... Bravo mate its called "cross referencing" and oh shit... Im right and your wrong.

And since because my essay has stolen my soul, My drawing practice has hit the shitter. Which is not the greatest thing seeing as we had the external examiners in on Friday. Their opinions were great and their own knowledge was greatly appreciated as far as my own chance to speak to them was but it was still bloody frustrating that day.
Right back to this essay of fucking torment before I start another 11pm to 7am shift

Friday, 2 March 2012

Feeling more aware in the world

Ever since beginning the research into multiple personality disorders (more known as dissociative identity disorder) I've become so aware of my self and people around me.
Even more so today, getting negative feedback from anything will knock you for six, and that's how I'm feeling after hearing about my contextual studies first draft. I know full well I can do it, its just having the positive attitude to go with the actions I'm struggling with. Even with momentary times of self satisfaction such as buying myself new jeans and discovering I need the size down is just a small time of happiness before the sadness. I hate and detest failure only for the fact my mood is down for days afterwards, and even though I can be surrounded by friends it doesn't matter. Even now surrounded by people in a bus I've never felt more lonely, the same feeling experienced in classes, frustration, anxiety hidden behind a wall of laughter. Even moreso today from my mood that I feel this way.
I know we learn to feel certain ways to situations, were biologically constructed this way by our brains hippocampus and amygdala that our emotions and memories are linked that to fail equals my emotive response.
I'm forever questioning who am I today? Who am I here? What performance is it I'm portraying right now? With there being no consistent straight answer I'm left questioning. I question everything I make or do lately and that too is getting to be extremely annoying. Trying to keep the balance between essaywork and studio practice is nuts as everything else is pushed aside. There's just not enough hours in my day to focus 100% on one task at hand.

I'm worrying how ill continue to manage this term, right now I'm not doing the greatest, and people lying to me, giving me a false sence of security is the most annoying thing ever to me right now. More irritating than the bratty child singing on this bus right now god dammit.

Right my stops coming up so time for this blog post to end. More emo rants later.

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Dear Blog

Im sorry I have been neglecting you... and my website too...

I hope were still friends... K...

Friday, 17 February 2012

Do Not Disturb

Busy writing my first draft for my Contextual Studies essay... Hooooooleeeeee feckers! My folders filling up all crazy and the major projecto is left to simmer on the hob whilst this gets battered and smacked about a wok... yes Im using kitchen words because food networks on in the background... Anways back to the headache of essay writing.

Friday, 27 January 2012

Some videos of awesome inspiration

Shown from Enzo


Stuff I found in the past and was rediscovered by classmates


Stuff I love


 



 

So much for a day off

Yup had a day off from going into college today, not that its really much of a day off. I've spent most of it doing house chores and researching my contextual studies.
Speaking of which last Friday we had our presentations and submissions for the proposal. I was really pleased with the response my classmates gave me and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's studies take shape. There's quite a few projects that can mingle and work together which is really great, whilst still remaining individual.

On the Tuesday we had our personal graduation plan presentations although they went well the real climax was afterwards with the results of our studio practice one. So happy to say I've passed but I know I can progress and do better.

Right that's enough for now. I'm hoping to post later about my current contextual studies and the findings so far. I've been watching loads of videos mainly sourced on YouTube of interviews with Kim Noble, Truddi Chase and other people with DID more commonly known as multiple personality disorder. I'll link these videos in the next post for the few people who have taken a slight interest in this area of my studies.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Back to the game

Well were officially back at college today and most of the fun and games are going to have to stop which is quite sad to be honest.

Myself and Lisa decided since the room would be locked from us to venture to Glasgow to see if there were any information on live briefs or free arty mags. I officially think we were looking in an alien place seeing as we couldn't find a single thing. Sadly my trip to Glasgow had to work around the strange delayed train times but within the 2 hours spent there it seemed a bit of a waste of time.
Nothing at the galleries were of any interest to me its more historic Glasgow and architecture, but not even cool architecture just rather mundane works. Poor show Glasgow.

Well I've got an hour to kill on this train so what else can I blog about.

Right well the new brief, there isn't one. 15 weeks of our own individual study and practice in which we have to research, resolve and submit a suitable plp and brief. I'm thinking mainly of incorporating my contextual studies into this new brief.
One thing I have to do is finalise my proposal for contextual studies, I think that by tweeking it a touch more both projects can be more efficient to work on because quite frankly atm its like my gran's pea soup which I'm sure churches used as cement and mortar back in the day...

Regardless I have my mental to do list for the rest of my day. Mainly being to head back to college, hopefully have a chat to Paul about my application form for Stirling, another driving lesson then a cramming session of research and finalising my presentation and contextual studies proposal.

Maybe I should stock up on pain killers for the numerous headaches I'm going to have...

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Something awesome this way comes

Every so often I come across a cool video that has nothing to do with my specialism or focus of study. I couldnt even relate it towards my Contextual Studies. However Im adoring my latest find to the point Ive ordered the book for my collection. Its called Word as Image (and yes that link will take you to its facebook site)

Its a fantastic piece of graphic work based on typography created by Ji Lee. Animation of the video below was by Bran Dougherty-Johnson. Sound by Joel Pickard.

The basis of the entire project

Challenge
: Create an image out of a word, using only the letters in the word itself.

Rule: Use only the graphic elements of the letters without adding outside parts.



Why is it I think many graphics students may find this interesting, even video students for the youtube piece... I should really send this to Enzo perhaps :p Or even my fellow classmate Sharon :p

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

The Alloa Campus Final Piece

Well I guess its time I got my finger out and actually blogged about the final piece I created as a response to the new Alloa Campus.

So here it is :p

 I feel with regards to this project I have designed a piece which brings some of Alloas history into the clean and modern campus. The work is visually textured which is what I felt the new building lacked through its clean lines and design. However it does not deter nor distract from the architecture, as the piece, even though large in scale will be situated in a very open area therefore in my view will break up the constant white walls throughout the building.
The work created will be a large vinyl transfer onto the wall located in the “Flexible Learning Space” Between the doors for the Tower Suite rooms A203 and A202. Located in the Second Floor in the balcony overlooking the Learner Centre.

Artist Statement


This is a design proposal for the new Alloa Campus. In my own opinion the new building lacked age and seemed almost out of place amongst Alloa.
The town has a rich history in its industry of glass making and weaving along with its docks, coal and silver mines, the town is dotted with historical buildings. The town was built on hard work and has a historic and rich texture. The design I am presenting. Is that of the Ochil Hills, a view which is boasted strongly but sometimes hard to view directly at the campus. Constructed of Alloa’s rich history and textures.

The new campus can sometimes be too new. Its expanse of bare white walls needs to be broken up and the whole building needs some form of texture and roughing up. This design gives the building the visual texture I feel it requires, whilst still being quite minimalist in terms of it just being black and white.

In a larger scale of work and indeed the proposed area for its placement I feel that the open space can handle something like a full wall illustration it wouldn’t take over the area but it would give some form of finish to the flexible learning spaces environment I propose the work to be placed in.