Hungry bird

One on my pages in my sketch book, been having a lot of fun with my new bird project...loads more to come.  This is just a rough of something id like to maybe conjure up as a final piece yayy.

Give me back my Nikon :(

My Nikon is now at the camera doctors, somethings up with the lens, bad times....but its going to come back all fixed :)  But anyway, took some photos with it when I was back home....this is Polly my dog she's lovely and very photogenic.  She's getting a bit narky with me at the moment as every time I go home I'm pointing my big camera in her face!

And A couple of other shots :)

Unconditional.

I think its lovely how your dog will always love you unconditionally, although this is not my dog she is super nice and had allot of love to give :)  Drawn from a photo, with pencil, a white china-graph pencil, and tea stained background.  For a friend.

In the words of Bambi...."birDah"

Ok so I got totally de-motivated with my last project so I have put it to the side for the time being and started a new one. On birds! whoo, exiting I know.  Have been doing some oil paintings which I'm really happy with but can't put them on here as they're not dry yet.  But I did this drawing of a Blue Tit the other day just to see if I could actually draw birds, and hey presto!

Sketch book..

Just trying out some ideas, drew this today...not put much effort into as that what I keep doing and getting into trouble for not being sketchy enough! So obviously if I was doing a final piece I would have made it all nice and have no fingers left :D 

I lift my lids and all is born again

*****

For my new project this year I'm illustrating another Sylvia Plath....And as I like using my photography in the collage that I do I thought I best get onto actually doing some! So I managed to rope my sister into modelling for me...I'm really happy with what we got :) Here are some of my favourites...click them to make them bigger. Now the real work begins! 

Feeling a tad romantic...

OK so anyone who knows me well enough will know that I am a "secret" Hanson fan! And at the moment am "secretly" addicted to this song.....I can't even understand some of the lyrics, but in general it just makes me very happy and I think they have beautiful voices.  So I know its not art or mine or whatever but in a lot of ways its inspiring to me :) You should definitely listen to  it....if you don't like it..don't tell me, i WILL cry!!

A little somethin' somethin'.....

Journalness.... random I know, but hey "im an artist!!" Its a good excuse.

JoUrNal.

ClIcK Me tO mAkE BIG.

Just a simple journal entry, I used a photo of Zoe Cusker's to do the drawing, hope she likes it :) Asked he permission of course :D.

Look what I found....

Ok so look what I found the other day..... Basically Im doing my project on another one of Sylvia Plath's poems.  I really wanted to get a good feel for some different types of poetry and  decided to take a walk to see the book man on oxford road.  He's so cool and has the best old smelly books ever! I have an ever growing collection of old books that are just there to look at!  Any way so I found some realllly cool ones, which tie in perfectly with my new project.  Although none written by Sylvia Plath, I figured it didn't matter as I like old things to collage with so I can use these in the background of my work.  So I was flicking through them in the park and in the little book of sonnets I came across the cutest thing :) looooook.

Love is in the...... trees!

Ok so I've started my 3rd and last year of my degree....scary! But so exiting, and I was getting my breakfast this morning when I looked out the window and saw the cutest little heart shaped leaf! I thought to my self "ahh that would make a good photo" and then instead of being lazy I went and grabbed my camera and took a shot.

London....

So here I arrive in London.....ready to start my new job in St Johns wood.  I am the new physio assitant on the rehabilitation unit :)  I need the work experience so what better then to work in a well known prestidgious private hospital!?

So any way yea...this blog isn't to rave about my new carreer ha, but just so you know it going well! In fact it is obviously to show my artyness. Working full time is obviously going to get in the way of me doing anything practically creative.  But I have been doing some lovely things on the weekends, along with socialising with my friends we went to a carnival/fair.  I cant remember exactly how old it is but something along the lines of early 1960's.  It was super cool and we did try out ONE of the rides, it was a tad scary and none of us felt it was necesary to ride any of the others! But any way this is one of my snaps from my lovely day out......

I LOVE my Nikon. Yes I doooo.

Thanks to my friend Louise I was able to complete my project successfully, I had planned to do my own photographs for my final piece but as mentioned before was using other photographs to show the type of thing I was wanting to portray.  Luckily I am a very proud owner of a Nikon, and its my baby at the moment and kinda comes everywhere with me (kind of has to for the money it cost me!).  So prior to doing the final pieces I planned out a photo shoot and found my perfect model to do it with me, and luckily again I have Louise who seemed somewhat of a natural.  So a big thanks to her!  Hope you like them! I took hundreds and had to make some SERIOUS decisions in choosing which to use and of course put up here, as they were all so good!

OHHHH and DO click to make them BIG.

Model - Louise Aldred

Make-up and styling - Meeeeee.

Had to get a happy face in! Poor Lou wasn't allowed to smile through the whole shoot! I allowed this one! Beautiful.

Finito.

These are my final pieces, when I get my work back I'm going to take some photos of my mock-ups because I was especially happy with them.  

 

Front and back cover.

First double page spread.

Second double page spread.

Third double page spread.

End papers.

Title page and Copyright page.

Working progress.....

I haven't any photos of my sketch books that I have with this project as I have now handed them all in but these are my final working, just before I scanned them in for editing.  

Project brief was to Illustrate one of 6 stories/poems, so I chose Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath.  I worked really hard on getting the right mood through out the sketchbooks.  Being a very deep poem in which Sylvia Plath writes her persona to be a very unstable and emotion being, I had to really grab for what she may have being feeling, so that I could generate as such the fitting imagery.  We had to have a mock-up of the whole book which included front and back pages, end papers, copy right and title page. And then for the finals we had to fully finish all of these and 3 double page spreads.  EFFORT I know! But here are my finals as I said not edited or scanned in yet and laid out on my bed so not so clear....

Click to enlarge if you wish :)

I'm late...I'm late, for a very important date, with ones journal.

Well its been a long time since I've posted, excuses are.....final major project kind of got in the way and I got happily engrossed within it and of course my journal as well.  So much so that I finished my 2nd one of the year :)  A lot of people I know loathe their journal but I have learnt to love it.  And now I've handed in all my stuff (including new journal) I now feel a little empty.  Nothing special to write and draw in! so Keeping my self busy I've been drawing (nothing changes!) and I am going to make a surprise! 

Any way enough of that, I thought I'd post a few images to start off from my absence....

 

Top image is me working on the project I've been so engrossed in and bottom is my finished journal :)

I have been working in a different style to usual, building up my sketchbook work has been so much more fun working this way.  Instead of doing lots of drawings I have been colaging and painting and using dummy photos as my resources, to show what I will be doing in my final pieces.  As I figured out I simply didn't have time to be taking my own photos this early on in the project until I was sure on how it was going to work.