Cityscape Illustrations

Using a fine liner pen and square white paper I drew the views over Swansea from the top floor windows at Uni.

I tried to pick out sections of the view and create compositions around interesting points, such as buildings iconic to the area.

50 Drawings Project

One of the mini projects on foundation was called "50 Drawings" we were given fifty phrases all about colour such as;

• Blue movie
• Black as night
• Green with envy
• Yellow belly
• Seeing red
• Purple Prose
• White hot
• Silver screen

There were more inspiring phrases and proverbs but these were what I could remember. The idea of the project was to explore colour, use an imaginative variety of techniques/mediums. (pencils were banned!) and come up with creative subjects.

Fifty large drawings seemed quite daunting, looking back I wish I'd been less worried and more free with my approach to the task. In the end I was pleased with a number of the drawings, I learnt new things about mark making and enjoyed experimenting with a huge variety of drawing materials.

Snowdrop White

Blood Red

Blue Monday

Blue Bottle

Thinking Outside the Box

This was the outcome from a week long illustration project. The brief was to create a book, but not a traditional cover and pages type creation, something unusual. With the theme Opposites.

I decided to illustrate the story of Pandora's box. 

Experimental life drawing

We didn't always just struggle on with charcoal trying to do detailed accurate representations of the life models; sometimes we mixed it up a little with exercises such as;

• Draw without using lines.
• Draw with a giant paintbrush.
• Draw without taking you hand off the paper.
• 30 second drawings.
• Draw moving models.
• Draw without taking your eyes off the model.
• Don't draw anything you can name.

Some of them were quite difficult, but you get a lot out of struggling through the exercises. They make you look at things in new ways and push your drawing ability further and in new directions.

Life Drawing

We spent every other other Friday life drawing on foundation. Day long life drawing sessions can be really draining, but are amazing for developing your drawing abilities. Here are some of my simple drawings, I used pastel crayons for the first too and drawing ink for the others. 

An afternoon spent playing at being fashion illustrators!

On foundation we often had "workshop days" where we'd have a small brief, or process to experiment with and we'd spend the day exploring. We were given a big pile of old fashion and textiles magazines; Vogue, Elle, Selvedge etc. And with a morning spent researching the Bauhaus and various fashion illustrators in mind, we began making collages.

I used geometric shapes, and photocopied pages full of pattern and texture. I had accessories in mind and tried to create abstract ideas for hats, jewellery or fashion garments.

I feel the blocks of colour and the colours I choose to work with really set the images off. I used a piece of card folded over with a scrap of fabric around it as a paintbrush. I'd seen a street artist in Tunisia using a similar method and liked the "scrape-y" blended effect. 

Notes on being an exhibition Rookie

Foundation final show was the first time I had exhibited work. Here's what I learnt;

• Plan Plan Plan, start thinking about it and researching layout ideas asap.
• It takes longer than it should.
• Take photo's while your putting it up, and trying different layouts- sketchbook fillers.
• Have your own equipment; scissors, pins, tape, paintbrush, hammer etc. Label with your name and hide 'em if ya gotta!!
• Be Brave! nag those technicians and lectures if you need them.
• Plinth building is fun! 
• Painting everything white is tedious.
• Student cards work well as polyfiller-ing applicators.
• Communicate to your lecturers your plans early on and ask for advice (avoid them coming over last minute and changing everything.)
• Using fishing wire to hang things + sweaty hands 'cos your too hot and stressed = feeling of hopelessness + panic attack.
• Have sweets, the radio, and headache tablets!
• Remember; It all seems impossible until its done!

Also don't forget to take photo's of the final thing like I did! duh.