Second exhib piece

Here is a quick snap of the second drawing I put in the pier exhibition. The show starts this weekend I think.

More pics from summer.

A couple of pics I sold but never had photos of before.

Snippets of recent work...

Recent events

Quick update:

I took my Kilau exhibition down the other week...turns out it went really well! I sold 5 works, a whole heap of cards and I also got commissioned a piece too so I was over the moon and still kind of am :) I honestly wasn't expecting it to go so well. I got great feedback from the staff, apparently it was the best selling exhibition there so far and also sparked the most interest/good comments from people! Finding out all of this has made me feel so much more confident in the studio.

I had a great day in the studio today, I was in for about 9 hours which was good. I finally feel like I have 'clicked' and I think I'm starting to get somewhere with my drawings. Up 'til now everything has felt like a constant experiment but today I drew out a portrait and started layering tracing paper on it and working on the new layers and I feel like I've found the right route to where I'm trying to get at last. I'm hoping to get a lot done this week, I will have to take my camera to share the progress as I haven't put anything proper up for ages.

The pier got my drawings in time and so I think they are both going to be in the show. They are definitely in the store room there anyway so that's good.

My dissertation is going well, I have written 2/3 the word count and I just had a tutorial with Ewan which was very helpful indeed. I now know what I want to include in my last section of main writing and then once I have done that I just need to edit it.

Out of the studio, I have been busy applying to language courses and placements for next year. Waiting on reference from tutor and then will get them posted soon I hope. It looks like I should be able to take evening classes next semester which would be fantastic. I am not so great at French these days but hopefully it will all come back to memory quickly.

Starling

Blogger is being rubbish at uploading pictures tonight so here is one (of two) new art pieces I have come up with for the winter exhibition at the Pier Arts Centre.



The photos are not fantastic, I'll take proper ones later. I'm pretty happy with them, I think they look nice in their frames. Will post them home tomorrow morning and hope that they make it in time for the deadline...

Recent experimenty bits and pieces.

Just some A4 sheets of pattern experiments, trying out different pens and such.

Drew over that old pic of Kit to save time.

Zoom to give better idea of pattern and pen range.

The background was entirely made up of tiny circles.
7 hours worth of circles.....it's A1 size remember.

More A1 pattern stuffs.

Demetri

That's Demetri there. I'm not sure what he is exactly but he lives on my finger and helps me to write and draw. He has pretty much doubled in size over the summer with all the work I've been doing. He is generally a very happy little chap except sometimes he gets a bit irritable after a ridiculously long day's drawing. I like him.

Ho hum.

Well. What a productive day.
I got to the studio at about 7.10am and left at 7.00pm! And worked non-stop the entire time I was there. I'm getting pretty good at this 'on the ball' business. I done a heap of work on the pic of Justice and so might take my camera in sometime to show you the progress soon. I also stretched up a new board and then spent another heap of hours working into the surface pattern of another experimental piece which uses an old self-portrait of mine for the base. Poor Demetri is dying.

Since I don't have any pics of the current woke I am doing I will just stick up the images of some cards I created and got prints of over the summer for selling. I did 8 designs, all black ink on white card, all with their own ugly charm :)



I did an A1 piece for the exhibition based on this idea too, it was not for sale as I grew rather attached to him after Dad gave him a name :) The bear (Shamu) in that piece is a lot grizzlier though and takes up the whole paper.








This is my favourite card design I think. I also did an A1 piece based on this pic, it is the one that I know has been sold already.










Some people (ie.my wee granny :) ) do not like the layout of the text for this piece and would rather it was all bunched at the top. I however, like it this way. And I am the boss.









It worries me how many people don't get the joke.....come on.....pigs may fly.....gravity as in pulling down....down as in sad.....got there in the end eh?










The other thought for this imagery was 'good things come to those who wait' rather than 'good luck'. I like the cruel humour in that idea but I didn't think it would be as appropriate for a card.









This is based on my brother because he is tall and lanky. I like playing with words, letters and spacing.

Not a tall.
Not at all.

I did two more pieces of similar idea to this in the show.





This card was made because 'Thank you' is a good thing to say. It's a bit more cheesy pun but I can forgive myself that because I like the way the chimp turned out :)









I also made the turtle pic in the yesterday's entry a card too, but there is clearly no need to upload it all over again.
I have plenty of cards so am selling them whenever possible. Some are on sale at the show and the rest are here with me. I have had quite a few sets requested so that's good. If anyone want's them, they just need to ask.

Seriously, I have them coming out my ears pretty much.

....actually

The zoom is actually pretty fuzzy so here is better detail of the Turtle.
I'm off to eat triple chocolate and nut cookies that James and I made today.....mmmmm! :)

It's been a while

Well, I have my Kilau exhibition on at the moment. I'm pretty happy with it and I have already sold one piece which is more than I could have hoped for! I also have cards for sale so fingers crossed a few of those will sell too.

Here is one of my favourite pieces in the show:

It's black ink pen on A1 white card and it took about 30 hours to complete roughly.
An earlier post in this blog shows one of my rough drafts of the idea. I think if you click on the image it should show you the type of detail that makes up the image.

All the pieces in the show are text based, some idioms, some rhymes....it varies. I mounted each one on newspaper and put them in black frames, I really liked the way that turned out.

I've started back in the studio now too, working on developing the pattern-built portraits from last year but trying to focus on creating depth in them at the moment. I've been experimenting with lots of new inks, shapes and paper etc. Using a lot of Berol broad line black pen :) It's all very exciting!

A currant occurence.

Currants are harder to draw than one might expect. I feel the main mistake was giving him shoes instead of toes. Plus the little grumpy squiggle isn't grumpy enough. It just looks confused. Hurmph.

Not at all ridiculously Tall.

Sketchy ideas and stuff.

In amongst the silly little text drawings I've been doing I have still been giving thought to my more proper pieces. There have been a few ideas floating around, one I'm looking into at the moment is doing white on black. I think it looks better this way. I shall also be trying out the idea of drawing with thread in a similar style and I may also return to the paints at long last which I'm pretty excited about! :) For painting I'm going to try out more scoring techniques and look to draw in the paint by removing it rather than layering it on. I do want to do some full on painty paintings though too! :) I already have an outcome in my head for one piece that I'm pretty keen on doing.

Well would you look at that, the sunlight is appearing! I guess I better go to bed.

Charlie and Joe

Charlie And Joe

I Knew Two Crows Named Charlie and Joe
Beautiful, Black And Feathered
But
Strange Of All
They Answered Call
To A Little Old Lady,
Heather.

Pretty awful quality I know but you at least you get some idea of what it's like at least. It's a true story by the way. Granny feeds the birds a lot and a few years ago there was a time that if she went out to the garden and shouted on Charlie and Joe, these two massive crows would come and sit on the tree every time! :)

It's not a proper finished piece, just a sketch towards one. I spent about 10.5 hours on it though just doodling away while watching Spaced :) It was good. That sounds like a really long time but it includes all the drawing, searching for each individual letter, the cutting and sticking and the replacing of each letter everytime I breathed and sent the letters flying off the page! Most frustrating. The rhyme isn't amazing but it's satasfactory I think. I wanted to keep it very short and simple so that it will fit with all the other pieces I have in mind. When I do the 'real' version of this idea I shall probably keep the background white and the birds will probably be in different position completely.

I'm begining to think that I enjoy art the most when the process is tinged with obsession. I did the whole thing in two sittings and would have preffered to have done it in one, (I probably would have if I hadn't had to get up so early the next day). I find it hard to stop drawing when I start these, it's addictive and such a good feeling when hours later you really look at how much you've done. I'm very much enjoying drawing in the middle of the night again, it's been too long!

Definitely Art of a sort.

So when James pulled out his seven letters at the start of the game he managed to spell out his summer job! What are the chances of that? Maybe it's just destiny....

Muppet? Dog? A tiny tiny lion?

I NEED ONE.

Go away we don't like you!

I have actually taken quite a liking to the little scribbly bees.

Update

Half way there....almost. Need to spend a few more hours on the one of Kit as is blatently obvious but I'm quite happy with how it's going I think. Thought I'd stick up the completed version of Dad since I never bothered before and then decided it's good to see them all together anyway.


Here I am with my own portrait to give better idea of scale and also just thought it might be nice for you to see for yourself the bits I've changed/emphasised etc.

Two problems with this photo:
-I have my face pointed at the wrong angle so you don't actually get to see the right face shape down edge of cheekbone etc that I was focusing on in drawing.
-I misjudged my grumpy expression a bit but still, hopefully you get the idea.


I might put a photo up when I've got all six finished and hung in studio for assessments. At some point I hope to get a photo with each sitter and their piece. That won't be able to happen for a long time though.

Hope you like the jumper in the pic too, I like it because it's just quite ugly. I got a bunch of knitting needles recently and I'm hoping to pick it up again soon as I have the time....one day I will be able to knit jumpers this beautfully ugly all by myself! :)

I Can't Wait.

Confirmed dates!!!

First ever solo exhibition dates.... 12th September - 7th November! :)


Over. The. Moon.

Fox.

Moon

Sometimes I am a tyrant.

Warm.

And what a good friend indeed!

Ah yes...you know your French is bad when your best friend is a bird :)

A very sad realisation

So I guess being a turtle wouldn't be so great after all.
It's just one of those nights where I can't sleep for replaying my stupidity over and over in the little movie player in my head. Pulling the duvet over my head doesn't get rid of it, just like a turtle couldn't escape it by retreating into his shell. Shame.

The saddest fish.