Kingston University: Brave New World.

Our last project was the longest one we've had so far, using the House of Illustration competition brief. Basically, we were challenged to illustrate 3 scenes and the cover for Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, with the hopeful intention of submitting it eventually. Check out the brief here.

After finishing the project though, I decided against submitting, so I'm going to just post it on here and see what you guys think... Maybe it's worth a try? I'm not sure though, it's definitely not my best work so far, but I feel like I really challenged myself, which is what all of this is all about right?

Ok, so here they are:

So if you've read Brave New World, you might have a good idea where these scenes occur... The first is the cover. I started with the religious connotations that the book includes, and a lot of the characters hold reference to Biblical characters too. That's when I got onto glass and frescos, but I really struggled with actually getting to these designs. Three weeks is not long at all in the grand scheme of things! The hardest part was actually photographing the pieces, and I'm only really happy with the cover. Funnily enough, it was the last image I made. 

The set didn't go down too well in the critique, but I think I quite liked how they turned out. I'm not sure how well they work as book images though, so I doubt I'll submit these in at all. It was an experience working with glass, and although I'd like to do some more in the future, I won't be doing so much soon... I need all my cuts to heal first! It does make me incredibly interested in trying out 3D mediums though, particularly ceramics... It must be in my blood, seeing as my auntie does a lot of ceramics too! Hopefully I'll be able to feature her work up here soon too.

Kingston University: Drawing Day 11, Life Drawing, Andrea

From my second session in the life room... Funnily enough, despite what I'd said about male and female life drawing in my last post, I found it a lot more difficult. I was only truly happy with the last drawing. We were told to bring in sketchbooks, and Noel seemed to like them enough... But I really am loving doing life drawing again. We're to bring a couple of portraits next week, either self or somebody else, which is totally my cup of tea! It's now just deciding who I want to draw...

FRIENDS: Katie, Will, Hannah

On the request of William. Sorry, I completely forgot to blog about these when I did them!

Kingston University: Drawing Day 10, Life Drawing, Henry

These are from my first life drawing session. I was really excited to do it again, I'd always loved life drawing at Foundation. As soon as I saw I was drawing a man though, I got a little nervous. I think that it's more difficult to draw men, because the subtlety in the muscles is what makes the bodies different to that of a woman. I think with women you can get away with being slightly out...? Is that just me? Anyhow, in the end, I was pretty happy with some of the piece I came out with, particularly the faster drawings, and the longest drawings at about an hour. The in between ones were perhaps my weaker ones, I think because there's an element of both speed and careful observation.

Vlogbrothers: We're all Scared.

This came up on my Youtube Newsfeed. I found this really very inspiring and thought-provoking. I can totally relate to this: it's all well and good to be afraid, but it's the reaction to that fear that makes you you. Everybody is scared, so why make it the prime reason to not do things? It drives me insane when I've seen people who don't try, who don't listen to critique, who don't do things that make them slightly uncomfortable... if you don't force yourself to do these things you'll never, EVER progress! Nobody ever gets lucky, especially in this business. Don't get complacent or let your fear run you.

Soho: The Breakfast Club and Berwick Street

Last Saturday, I went to meet Yusra for lunch in Soho at the famed Breakfast Club. We had a halloumi wrap and berry pancakes, before setting off to Berwick Street for some mega fabric sample collecting.

First stop was the famed Cloth House. There are two of these on each end of Berwick Street, and both are perhaps the most beautiful places I've ever witnessed. Choc full of beautiful fabrics and trimmings and buttons... what more could you ask for?? I will forever be a slave to surface pattern and textiles, even if I am an illustration student. I think it's pretty important to keep all of these things going, it's what makes you different. Hannah, Katie, we have to go back to get some more samples!

After spending a good long time rummaging and deciding on our final two samples from each place, we just simply moved on to the next one! I had a massive haul of fabric samples to go home with...what I'd give for some metres of fabric!

I'd just also like to add another apology for the lack of blogposts these last few weeks. It's less that I've become too busy, but more that the internet exasperates me here... It's currently 9am, so I reckon my future blogposts will be a morning affair. However, after chasing people up about it, the internet seems to be a little more improved...we'll see how it goes. Right now, I've also come to uploading on to Flickr to get the photos up on here. Much less of a faff than using Tumblr. Thankyou for all sticking around, and I promise, promise, PROMISE to keep you all posted.

Apologies.

I'm so sorry that this blog has been so neglected for a while, my internet is horrendous here most of the time, and then sorting out what works with the photos.... it's a bit of a 'mare. But it's up and running (I hope forever) now, so I will BOMBARD you with a gazillion blogs, I promise. I've also been thinking of starting a Tumblr with images from this blog, so keep a look out for that one! I'm trying really hard to get this blog really up and running and with consistent views, so if you think someone will enjoy it, please help me out! I've had some really lovely feedback, so thankyou all for taking the time out to read.

Kingston University: Drawing Day 9, Kew Gardens.

Kingston University: Drawing day 8, Huntarian Museum.