The new sketchbook...

So, the sketchbook hunt continues but in the meantime I found an A6 notebook that belonged to my Grandpa that I'm using to document my life. I have to say it is very pleasing to work in and I love the fact that it's had an alternative life previously. I hope I'm doing it justice!

I also desperately wanted to draw some cameras during the holiday, as my collection has continued to increase but sadly I have one day left before work starts! Somehow I don't think it'll be spent drawing cameras but I'll do my best as I think it is an integral part to my work and hopefully my final exhibition.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park...

Last week I went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I haven't been for a while so I was looking forward to it but wasn't particularly excited about the Juame Plensa exhbition that was on. How wrong I was. It was great and I particularly enjoyed the way he used text.

This was a metal curtain of text that you were able to walk through and touch. The metal letters clanged together. It also cast shadows of letters on the wall and floor of the gallery so you were surrounded by text. To me this was a joy!

In some pieces the text was used to create objects, which in much of the work was the human form.

I particularly like this piece. The text was punched in to metal and twisted throughout the figures. Although it is a very different technique to any I use it actually reminded me of my own sketchbook pages and the way I like to incorporate text so it is integral to the whole page, often winding through the imagery.

I'm so glad I went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This was definitely an exhibition worth seeing and gave me so many ideas about the future of text within my work.

Crafty Bakie...

I've been very busy this summer, not just writing assignments and working obsessively in my sketchbook but producing pieces of work for friends. My latest craft making exercise involved making a knitted Morrissey for a friend's birthday.

I really enjoyed making and packaging him and I wondered whether I could somehow incorporate this way of working in to my MA work. I like the idea of a knitted Terry Baker with salt and pepper hair (more salt than pepper.) I'm not sure he would! Perhaps I could make people and objects in my life and put them away in neat, little packages. These could be displayed as another one of my groups. This is definitely something I need to think about.

Return from Berlin...

I have neglected my reflections of late as it's the summer holidays and I've actually been in Berlin and am super inspired since my return. I've been to all the major galleries and just being in another city and seeing all the street art has got my creative juices flowing. There was one bad point to my holiday...I searched high and low for the perfect A6 sketchbook...and came home empty handed. Since completing my life changing, delicious sketchbook I'm now worried I'll never find another one that will live up to my high expectations.

Another sketchbook completed...

So, today is a good day as I have completed my fabulous life changing sketchbook.

However, it's also a bad day as now I have completed this sketchbook (which I might add is the best yet) I must start another but I'm worried no other sketchbook will live up to this one! This scale really works for me and the next sketchbook must be a similar size. I feel like my sketchbooks have evolved and now I must continue in a similar manner. That is quite a lot of pressure! I hope I can live up to it!

Didsbury exhibition of third year MA work 23/06/11

The third year MA students moved the Drumcroon exhibition over to the Birley Gallery in Didsbury so I went along to the preview. To be honest I wasn't sure how it would look at Didsbury after being in a white space at Drumcroon but all was well. The exhibition had been curated differently and so had a different feel than at Drumcroon, with many artists having more space to display more examples of their work. Again it made me think about my own exhibition and what my work would look like. It made me want to go home immediately and get my sketchbooks out. However, my tiredness prevented this and instead I have set myself a task this weekend to spend some much needed time indulging in my art. Watch this space!...

Digital illustrations...part three

So...following on from my illustrator diagrammatical drawings I have started to add colour. I haven't managed to add any texture yet (you know how life takes over sometimes!) but thought I'd give you a little sneaky peek at the beginnings of the work.