The Early Bird gets the Worm

Woke up very early for a Saturday morning! Roisin, my housemate, left for work at 8.30am so I joined her and decided to get some work done out of the house. By 12pm I was back and had already done my work in the NUCA library, pored over the 'Waterproof' book, e-mailed some people I've been meaning to talk to for a couple of weeks and organised two critiques to keep on track during reading week. 

So far so good! 

Yesterday evening my friend Sophie and I went for a drink after uni and got talking about our plans for the near future, it feels very near indeed. It's exciting to think that our career in art and illustration begins now and I can't imagine being more passionate about anything else. There is so much to get stuck into with making your own work because if you want, you never have to stop. I really want to start out working with my friends on projects together and start up some collaborations. Rosie and I are already planning a project together combining photography with illustrations. Sophie and I produce quite similar work in traditional media so that will be something else to work on. Everybody has something different to offer which I think is fascinating and full of never ending possibilities. 

I realised I haven't posted any of my work recently, so here are some snippets from the current project: 

'Waterfront- Water in Photography since 1852' by Jorge Calado

A book definitely worth taking a look at. Stumbled across it in the library this morning and it is full of photographic gems. Images from 1800's to 1950's to 1990's all linked to water in some way. It completely goes with the work I am doing at the minute for The Swimmer and it shows the sheer variety of imagery that can be captured with water. 

These are my favourites:

Francis J. Mortimer
The Spirit of the storm, 1911

Frank Hurley
The Last Break, 1912

William Rittase
Diver, 1940

Leni Riefenstahl
Miss Gestring,
participant of the Olympic Games for Swimming,
competing for the USA, 1936

Javia Silva Meinel
Rostro com peces, Shipiba, Pucalpa, Peru, 1996

Jacques-Henri Lartigue
Zissou in his tire boat, Roussat, 1911

EXCITING TIMES!

So much is happening at the minute and so much has happened in the past 3 months! 

I'll start with now:

1. Hopefully meeting with a book publisher next week who is a relative of a friend, and has kindly offered to see my portfolio. Very excited because he is the director and he knows people!

2. Reading 'Brave New World' for the Folio Society illustration competition. Got some sneaky ideas floating around in my head for that...

3. The Storehouse magazine at NUCA are taking submissions for this terms copy. I got in last year, so same again this year? The theme is 'Go'. 

4. Could be working with a friend in 3rd year graphics at NUCA for his final year project. Really need to send him my work! it involves a Mexican wrestler...

5. The brief at the minute is for 4 illustrations and the front cover of 'The Swimmer' by John Cheever. It's a dark, sad story set in 1950's upper class America where Neddy, the main man, decides to swim across the county through his friends swimming pools to solve his problems. 
Interesting, and so far I've been producing work I would never normally make, its exciting and a bit scary that I don't really know what I'm doing! 

Finaalllllyyyy.....

I'M GOING TO FRANCE!!!!

Very soon in January I will be leaving for Rouen for 3 months! 
Exciting stuff. 
I have a feeling this will come round way too fast, but running away to France for a while might be exactly what I need at the minute.

In fact I can't wait! Just feel sorry for my poor housemates who have to put up with an exchange student in the house for a while....sorry, I hope they're a lovely person and don't smell.  

Home studio

Finished work extra early today! (Boo) So had all day to do lots of work (yay!). I got 8 more cards made in 2 new designs and I'm just starting on a painting for my parents' friend's pretty new house.
So I haven't done that much then....but the Olympics is very distracting!!

Here are my new designs (both of Norwich marketplace):

The New Job

I have a job!! The day has finally come and in two days I will have my first ever official pay cheque! About time really.
I have been working as a university accommodation cleaner for two weeks now. As the title suggests, it  isn't the most creative or challenging job around, leaving me with little inspiration.
Now the sun has finally turned up, it feels like summer is somehow slowly slipping away, leaving me in a mild creative panic.
With my new job; seeing Will most evenings and weekends; Rowing and running; I been feeling more exhausted and less enthusiastic about artwork recently.

Diagnosis: Pent up creativity and ideas. Warning: Will soon implode if no creative action is taken.

It isn't all doom and gloom though.
My artistic friends have helped to inspire me purely by me reading their blogs and of all the interesting and productive things they have been getting up to this summer.
At the beginning of July, I managed to produce the first samples of some cards I will be selling in Lincolnshire, and eventually nationwide! (Must remember to think bigger)

Here are some examples:

What do you think?

The Boootiful Welsh Vaalleeeys

I am in sunny Aberystwyth on this day. I LOVE WALES!
Visiting my brother for a couple of days to bring him home, back to the flat land that is Lincolnshire. If I was him I would be begging not to go home, it's well lush 'ere innit!
I've been passing my time 'researching' for the seaside project. To be honest it's been a slow burner recently, so a trip to the seaside was long overdue and very helpful. I've spent the whole day at the beach, drawing and painting the scenes and the characters out and about. (Note- Must be more discreet when drawing people; the point is not to scare the subject away.)

There is an array of vibrant characters in the town as I've discovered. One fully decked out punk played a beat on some bongos and 'sang' while his mate in a brown, flannel tracksuit danced crazily down the seafront. I couldn't stop laughing, which when you are a girl drawing on a bench on your bill, is definitely a good way of attracting strange men to sing at you! hahaha

  Here are some photos from today:

The curious mish mash of houses on the train to Aber

The train journey to Aber

Those crazy fools on the seaside

Lunching in style at thge end of the pier.

The Royal Pier

 

LINES

Lines, lines, lines. It is all I can think about at the moment! Just had my last rough crit before the holidays, which officially means summer has started!! It was for our summer brief, just to check if we had even started, and what we had in mind as a starting point. I thought I knew what I was doing and I've written my own brief, but now I'm just confused! Apparently my sculpture idea was verging on the (dreaded word alert) 'twee' side of things. Eurgh. 

Back to the drawing board, where I need to think about line. My tutor has just read 'Lines: A Brief History' by Tim Ingold. doesn't exactly sound thrilling but I'll have a read and see why she was so excited by it! I also need to look at Richard Long's work, and Saul Steinberg's 'The Line'. 

Somehow I need to combine using the beach to create an image (as was the original plan), with my successful, strong line drawings. 

Must think......

think....

......think....