Hello again

Today I photoshopped (for the first time in 6 months)

Here are the results of said photoshopping...

What can I say? I just love cats a bit.

Ideas, ideas, ideas.

I like the idea of making a map of my day/experiences/things I do

I think this one is pretty cool.

The same illustrator made a book about their Dad's fishing career which is quite nice, as even if the project is not just about my life it could be about what I know/can find out about the life of someone close to me.

http://bennybrowns.blogspot.co.uk/

Officially starting my new project tomorrow!

I think my theme will be the mess I leave in places
e.g empty mugs ALL OVER the house.

I could make blueprints? Map of mugs?
We'll see!

Movember Sketchy @ The Forum

This evening I've been to Sketchy at The Forum in Sheffield, which is a live art event, during which a drawing competition is held for all attendees.

The theme was movember, so I came up with bees with facial hair...'Beeards.'

I tried to use techniques I've learnt at college recently, so I stuck with a very limited colour palette and thought about composition, leaving white space. I drew the bees in a continuous line with my left hand as well. I quite like the messy effect it created.

This is the last time I'm letting myself draw insects for a while though - I'm getting carried away!

New project!

Because my current project is about myself, I've chosen some of my favourite colours, (purple, yellow and orange) to mess around with.

I've ended up doing space/galaxy themed work, as I noticed that my colours were in a lot of images of planets and stars when I was on the look out for collage materials.

Nope, these aren't the best pieces I've produced but I'd say I've learnt a fair amount about composition and colour palettes whilst at college this week - very useful info for the future!

Tropical World!

At the weekend I visited my sister in Leeds, and decided to go to Tropical World because in my eyes, animals are way more interesting than shopping...

I still don't know how, but two meerkats managed to stay still for long enough for me to do some observational drawings of them, so here they are!

I can understand why people love meerkats so much, they're very entertaining.

Trip to Weston Park Museum

Last week I spent my day in Weston Park Museum, Sheffield drawing some of the beautiful insects that are on display.

I'm definitely up for doing things like this more often. It was really nice and relaxing to sit and draw things that I like for my own enjoyment!

Scruffy Bear

At the moment I'm doing a project about my own story, and things that are important in my life.
Here's a collage of my favourite teddy and best friend, Scruffy Bear.

I've used the inside of an envelope and brown paper, with a continuous line drawing in fine liner over the top.

I really like this effect, I like to think I captured his personality well.

Monoprinting

For the last few weeks at college we've been doing a little project called 'Body Parts'. The theme I chose was insects, and I've really got stuck into drawing them... usually with my left hand in a continuous line = achey hand.

Here are a few of the prints I've done today! I enjoyed doing this a lot, I think the rough lines of ink and colour palette suit the bees well. 

Absolutely thrilled that I'll get to do this every week!

Thorstern Brinkman

I find Thorstern Brinkman's photography really quite eerie. The images he creates are what I can only describe as portraits of the evil character from a horror film. I think that taking the face away from someone changes them completely, since there is no identity or expression on their face... just a sort of shell of a person.
Here are my versions of his work, it was absolutely hilarious to dress up like this.

New MoonKo Shop in Sheffield!

I actually squealed with excitement when I looked over the road and saw that MoonKo was open on Division Street, Sheffield. It is by far the most inspiring shop I've been in for a while, with lovely work from a couple of my favourite Sheffield artists Geo Law and Faunagraphic. I'd really love to have my own work somewhere like that one day, and when I go back I may have to buy everything and a Hantu jacket. 

http://moonko.co.uk/

Here's a bee I made in 3D design. I've always been interested in insects, and thought it'd be cool to make one into a sort of structure. I can imagine this as a huge bee building, I think it'd look incredible. I'd not done metalwork before, so this was quite a challenge... but I am pretty pleased with the outcome.

These crystallised animals by Pasquale D'Silva really caught my eye, I love the idea of using block colours to create tones without blending them, and taking something natural like a fox or bear, and making it into something unrealistic/using colours that are definitely not related to it.

This piece by Pavel Platonov is really quirky, I love using materials for things they weren't intended for, and the idea of using a build your own dinosaur (assembled incorrectly) as a mask is so intriguing. I think this puts an object/objects you wouldn't think twice about in a different context, and shows that any household object could be a piece of art depending on how it is used.

Today I've been commissioned to make business cards for Confection Fairy. I really love the idea of taking average items such as Jaffa Cakes, and making them in your very own way, or 10 times bigger!

As part of my college work I was asked to take a variety of 'selfies' to show movement and different viewpoints.

I'm not someone who likes to do things simply, so... I went all hip hop and decided to do some break dancing in the front room. No - I've never done break dancing before, and the most complicated move I busted was a forward roll, but I thought these snaps were pretty cool!

I took photos from different angles to show that my fabulous dancing was taking me all around the room. I particularly like the way that on some pictures, parts of my body are blurred, which helps you imagine me actually pulling off the move! I even wore a Will Smith T-shirt, some heavy bling and a sideways cap to fit with my whole 'hip hop' image. That is dedication.

I came across an artist called Joseph Griffith who created his own 'drawing machine' to rotate coloured pens against a wall. I really love this idea because it enables viewers to interact with the piece and add to the structure, and I love how perfect the circle looks even though there is such a huge build up of different lines.

Kazuo Shiraga suspended himself from his studio ceiling and used his feet so spread oil paint over a canvas. This sounds like an absolute nightmare, because it would be so much harder to control where any of the paint is going, but it would create something really dramatic and abstract.

Picasso's light drawing is absolutely genius. I am amazed that in 1949 he was able to find and use such an experimental technique for drawing. I love how abstract this piece is, and although it only vaguely looks like a person, it is still incredible that Picasso was able to create an image like this using only light and a camera.

Yinka Shonibare's work is spectacular. I love the use of bold African fabrics on such a traditional Victorian dress. I think that it shows the crossover between different cultures as well as different eras. This is really quite witty, as the fabric, the dress and the pugs are not things you'd expect to see together, creating a really fascinating and amusing piece.