Simon Kernick.

Simon Kernick is my favorite author, i am not a very big book reader, but as soon as i pick up one of his books i cannot put it down, every single one of them is a real page turner.

Without a doubt, my favorite book by him, is 'Relentless' as it was infact the first book i read by him, and also, the first book i ever read! I was actually on holiday in Spain at the pool and my Dad was reading it at the time, and i had ran out of magazines etc, so i decided to read the first chapter, see what i though, i ended up reading the whole thing in two days! I litrally couldnt put the thing down! Now to this day i have read every book but one of him and im currently half way through at the minute of finishing them all.

Frida Kahlo.

Frdia Kahlo is one of my favourite artists. She is a little depressing, but she tells her story in her images and she relates herself to her work. I think she is very talented in her work, she was born in 1907, July 6th. She was very unlucky and was involved in a road accident in 1925, which left her having thirty-five operations and bed ridden for months at a time.

Her art work is very personal, she paints things that she loves most and also the things that she hates. She once said, 'I paint myself becuase i am often alone and i am the subject i know most.' Her self portraits are of herself, but some are not exactly as she was. She put things like a mono brow on her. She often looked dfferent in images, as though her features were different as she always did herself lying down, her mother had baught her a mirror which she put on her ceiling, purely for the fact that she could draw herself.



FINAL MAJOR PROJECT!

ARRRR THE TIMES HERE! Final Major Project, well, we have started it now, and my chosen theme, is Reflection. I now get to develop the ideas i had in the Me, Myself and I project! I am really really looking forward to what ideas and developments are going to take place. I be uploading every other week my developments through this project. Heres how i have started off, the research section.

These first few images are images i have collected off the internet and drawn in a media of my own, this was merely to build but my ideas and get me ready for the development stadge of my project. I have now moved on to creating my own primary source photos and creating my own piece.



Life drawing...

We have begun a lesson for two hours of life drawing on a Monday afternoon. I was shocked when the idea was mentioned but now i have been to a class, i found it really interesting, it is very hard, but i hope gradually it will become easier. It is a challenge and it really is something different, but i look forward to it!

These are my first life drawings, using my blog it will be easy to see if my work develops throughout the lessons. to start off the media i was using was water colors and charcoal, i like the result of them. More to come!

Book cover project.

This project, i chose to do Horror. I seem to struggle on up until the very last minute of chosing my ideas for my final piece. I began this project by searching my favourite book author. Simon Kernick. i then moved on to designing my own book covers and developing them until i figured out what i wanted my final piece to be.

This is the first book cover and development i made, i really liked this book cover and i thought the title was quite relevant.

This is my second book cover, however I did not like this idea and chose not to develop it any furthur.

This is the thrid development i made. I liked this idea, but it wasnt jumping out to me for a final piece.

The story behind my idea for a final piece, was simple. One day, my class mate, was messing around in lesson and tied my hands together, it got me thinking and the idea that came to my head was, whats the worst horror that could happen to anyone in the world. Not just a few people. As things like dark forests dont scare everyone. However, if i involved children, it is everyones biggest fear for a child to be in danger. So i thought of a book cover to show that there is a child involved, but i didnt want a full picture. I came up with this..

'Lost Hope' I named my book cover, 'Taking your final breathe, the last touch counts.' was the subtitle. my tied hands in the picture, relate to, maybe a kidnapped mother, maybe a kidnapped child as the mother tries to rescuse them. The cover reveals enough for people to be dragged in to read the story however doesnt give the story away. I was very pleased with the result of this book cover, i was also told my my teacher, that other people had seen the cover and said 'it disturbs them' which is exactly the reaction a horror book should give.

1960's project.

This project was a short term one. It was simply to create a mood board and an essay on a chosen decade of your choice. I chose the 1960's merely for the fact that England won the world cup. However when i looked furthur into it, i found out some information that i had absolutly no idea about.

This is my mood board.

1960’s

          The 1960’s decade, refers to 1960-1969. It is known as the Swinging Sixties which includes the birth of the British pop music and a whole new style of fashion. Music was so popular in this decade because apparently it helped take away the memories of the ‘cold war’. This is one of the reasons I chose the sixties because so much changed in the space of this decade, some interesting things, such as, the Walt Disney creator of Mikey Mouse died of cancer, the first man in space and first humans to walk on the moon. And also, my personal favourite, England won the football world cup.

            Fashion was very big in the 1960’s it’s when it was introduced. Things like mini skirts, love beads and Doc Martens boots were very big. The mini skirt was a very big hit, created by Mary Quant, within a year, anybody who had the body for it, was wearing it. On average it was worn about 4-5 inches above the knee. Mary Quant, was a British fashion designer, she took credit for the mini skirt, there were two other creators, André Courrèges and John Bates and there is a disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. However, Quant named the fashion, the miniskirt, she chose this name because her favourite car was the Mini. She loved this car so much, she had one designed for her. Aswell as the miniskirt, Mary Quant is also known and famours for creating the colourded and patterned tights which accompanied the skirt. Throughout the late 1960’s, Quant popularised the hot pants.

            In the late 60’s the hippie style had a strong influence. Things like belly-bottom jeans and tie-dye. The belly-buttom jeans were for both men and women. They were jeans that flared out from the knee downwares. They were seen as early as 1964 in the concert film The T.A.M.I. Show, from then till 1967, they went from high-fashion to the hippie movement. And became a very big style with love beads and granny glasses. Both men and women would wear sandles, headbands and workshirts. Some women even went out barefoot, and braless. Towards to end of the 1960’s mens hat became out of fashion and men started to grow their hair longer, and wear bandannas.

            The early 60’s, 1962, is a very memorable yeah for many, as it is the year Marilyn Monroe, 36, died. Many theories, including murdur were investigated shortly after her death. However, the reason I have involved this into this essay is because of the art based senario.

            Spercifically, I was interested and taken by Andy Warhol. An Aemrican painter, printmaker and filmaker. He was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After the tradic death of Marilyn Monroe, within the four months of the investigation, Andy Warhol created a piece in dedication to her. 50 small images of the actress, all exactly the same, this image he worked from was a copy from a film she had stared in, Niagara. He did 5 rows and 10 colums, 25 brightly coloured images on the left side and 25 faded black and white images on the right side. This was named, Marilyn Diptych. The aim was to high light the good and bad times of her life, and to remid us all, that like every one of us, we will all eventually fade away.

            Another very well-known artist during the 1960’s was Roy Lichtenstein. He was an American pop artist. He grew up with no influence what so ever of an artist. However, turned out to be, next to Andy Warhol, a fantastic figure of the pop art movement in the 1960’s. He had a very intense pop art skill in painting, favourited comic strips. His work was very abstract and at first, people were finding it hard to be posotive about his work. How ever, the idea grew. Arguably, his most famous piece, ‘Whaam!’ was shown in DC Comics' All-American Men of War. This shows a fighter aircraft firing a rocket into a plane full of enemys. Highlighting the piece is bright yellow and red explosions, with the onomatapia, Whaam! Although he used paint and stencils like the old master for his work. He wanted his work to look machine made, he did not want the brush stokes to be seen, and in my own opinion, he did that very well. Lichenstein was always characterized as witty, humourous and ironic. He was very open with comments in interviews with his work. He also showed a sesative side with the words he chose to use. Personally, I am very fond of Lichensteins work, as I like the colour and the abstract view of it. I find it very interesting to look at.

            The Beatles. A very well known group. They formed in Liverpool in the 1960s. By 1962, the band consisted of, John Lennon, Paul Mcartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They were played on radio stations all over the world, they performed concerts which were very quickly sold out, and that was only the beginning. From then on, they became more and more famous working in a range of genres of music, so everybody liked them. One of their first songs and albums was called ‘Please Please Me’ it was recorded on Mono frist, then around a month after was relesed on stero. The CD cover for this album was a picture of all the boys stood on a balcony the angle of the shot is looking up at them, the photographer was Angus McBean.

            In conclusion, I chose to concentrate on the 1960’s as I researched a little before on this and this decade was the one that struck out to me, there were so many new things that came around, I have found out so many facts that I had no idea about, and there were so many atchievements that went on, considering it was a crutial time straight after the war.

Laura Shepherd.

Me Myself and I project.

When i got the brief for this project, i gave a smile! Me Myself and I, i thought great, i dont know anyone better than myself, however, when i started to get into the project, i realised just how hard it really was! Funny enough, it was hard to put what you are, onto paper! So i tried many different things, many i shouldnt have done and wasted time, however, this project didnt need a final piece, so my outcome with what i would have done for a final piece, i was very happy with.

Like i said above, i did a lot of things through this project that honestly, wasted my time.. like this image for instance, the first thing i came up with was Homer Simpson, i got to this idea, becuase basically of the fact that i like doughnuts! And when i did a servay around the class to see what people thought about when they thought of doughnuts, they put down either Homer Simpson, or ME! So i did research etc, but used none of it what so ever.

The research page on Homer Simpson. Creator was Matt groaning.

I reminded myself that the project was based on myself, so i decided to create my own Simpson character, how i think i would look if i was in the Simpson family. This idea did not develop any furthur.

I then decided to use an idea for something more personal to me. Makeup. I did a few images on this but the idea, also did not develop any futhur.

These eyes are drawn with pencil for the shape and i aded colour with my actual makeup that i use daily. I certainly hope this isnt what i look like during the day, but thats a different story. I liked this idea, but not enough to develop it. I thought it was very tricky useing makeup as an art supply. It also depressed me a little, as makeup is not cheap!

So I thought and thought and I figured it out! REFELECTION! Perfect for this project, so I began with drawing half of my face, as I am not the best at drawing people. I was going to find this idea hard, but was determind it would be a good one.

So i used a little hand held mirror that I keep in my bag and decided to draw different parts of my face three times. I really did like this piece I was quite happy with the outcome.

I decided to develop the idea by using water colours.

These three images are all inages of my childhood and family. The first two were done together, I was extremely pleased with the outcome of the first one, the second one not so much. The thrid is a figure drawing of me and my cousins, I was happy with the result of all three.

I then went back to drawing myself in mirros, however to change this one i decided to draw my image and make it look as though it was in a broken mirror. I would like to have the chance to develop this piece more.

As strange as it sounds, considering it is just a small piece of work in the development stadge of my sketch book, this is one of my favourite pieces i think ive ever done. I couldnt tell you why. Just as soon as i had finished i loved it, it is simply my eyes in the mirror of a little lipstick holder.

I then decided to work with some reflective papr, and from this the ideas for a final piece just came to me, i decided i liked the idea of distorted figures, and decided to go ahead with the idea and produced some nice images on the reflective paper, however these are at my college on the wall, i have one that i was particuarly fond of.

To produce this image i merely stood infront of the reflective paper and drew exactly what i saw. My distorted figure. I was incredibly pleased with this outcome. And would like a chance to develop it more.