Jemima Lee - Artist's Journal

Exaggerated Series

2011-08-06T18:37:00.008+01:00

Filler post, by nature. Just thought I'd post some of my most recent work: a small series of caricatures of myself, my boyfriend and my sister...

Hoping to add my brothers and maybe my parents/friends to this series. I've finally finished uni and am free to do as I please until I can get a job, haha! Moving into a Bungalow soon too, so it's busy times for Jemmy. Still, I'll be doing some work for a friend of mine and his business, so that'll hopefully bring some money in. Until them I'm free for commissions, but am working on starting up a professional business: calling cards, stickers, postcards, felties etc... also hoping to show up to some conventions with my work within the next year.

Blogs on the way:

+ Kapow! Comic Con
+ Highgate Cemetery (and other photos)
+ Liverpool Tattoo Convention
+ Manchester MCM Expo

In the meantime, here's my latest avatar(d):

Finally (I promise), I've given my FanFiction.net account a serious make-over and joined FictionPress.com, so if you're interested in reading some of my written work, both fan and original, just click on the links! :)

More Character Designage!: Bluey and Dom

2011-04-12T15:38:00.005+01:00

Not much explaination needed for this post, assuming you've read my earlier one.

Here's some more examples of my character design process. I basically draw, and draw, and draw the characters until they start to gradually look on-model in each drawing. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but having all the images nearby helps to keep my characters looking fairly similar in most pictures.

As an added bonus, some Blue and Dom trivia for you:

Bluey's real name is unknown, as is her entire background. As her friend, Dom accepts that she's insanely secretive and he doesn't pry. Maybe I'll give her a name and a back story eventually. Or maybe I already have. Who knows?

Dom's second name is James and, as mentioned before, he was born in America, more specifically in California. He spent his childhood surfing and playing on the beach in summer, until his parents moved him and his three older siblings to the UK, for a life of rain, rain and... more rain. Dom is really homesick, and particularly proud of his West Coast heritage, which he doesn't shut up about.

Until next time, check out this comic preview featuring my little muses.

Bluey and Dom comic preview

2011-04-12T15:30:00.003+01:00

Here's a preview of a short Bluey and Dom comic I've done today. Still umming and ahhing over whether to colour it, or just add shading. Also, the speech bubbles here are only temporary. Any constructive critique would be greatly appreciated!

Character Designage!: Blue and Dom

2011-04-01T19:23:00.003+01:00

Wow, it appears I may have something relevant to talk about for once: my artwork!

I don't usually post my pictures for fear of theives, bandits and ruffians making off with my goods, but then again, I need to get my work out there somehow.

Bluey and Dominic are two characters I came up with when I was about fourteen, as a way to vent my teen-angst. Since then, I haven't really been able to put them down, because I love them so.

Dominic is shy, sweet, adorable, and always looks ill. He's a bit of a pervert too, as his hormones generally run his life. Girls love him, women want to mother him, guys want to kick his pathetic arse. Oh, and he's a yanky-doodle, because I love Californian surfer dudes :)

Bluey on the other hand is his polar opposite; loud, obnoxious, promiscuous as hell (kind of a lovable slut), and a bit of a tough cookie. But underneath she can be nice sometimes, and she's ferociously loyal, unlike Dom who's cheated once or twice.

The pair are best mates and get up to all sorts of shenanigans, though I can't think of any off the top of my head... except an old Legend of Zelda Cosplay comic that I'm going to re-boot at some point.

Anyway, there's a brief description of them both. Enjoy the doodles:

You'll have noticed there's only one page for Dom, and that's because this is basically everything I've done today. More Dom to follow, and also I'll be designing tattoos for them both.

The idea behind these character sheets is to give me a solid (or thereabouts) basis for them when I'm drawing them in comics and illustrations. It also helps me get to know them a bit better, since they've been on the shelf for a while. Anyhoo, as you can see I like to play around with shapes: Blue is mostly soft shapes and curves, because she's so laid-back and fancy free. Meanwhile, Dom is made up of straight lines and angles, because he's rigid as hell and always stressed... aha! See what I did there? Always gotta think about these things in character design.

The whole shapes idea also helps to emphasize the opposites between the pair, and also the size difference (Dom is a good head taller than Bluey-the-shortarse).

*sigh* How I love character design! :) I'll post some more soon, and hopefully I'll soon have some of my other comic characters Morgue, Gor and Demon Bob. Imagine that...

Shouldn't really be playing games, buuuut...

2011-03-20T15:29:00.007Z

Having a blog is handy for bragging about things, sharing your dirtiest laundry with the world and spreading juicy rumors like “I think my brother is gay because he’s currently dancing around in my sister’s silky green underwear…”

But having a blog is also a great way to tell people how awesome things are: like my boyfriend, for example.

My wonderful, selfless Dan has gone and spent a whoppingly unnecessary amount on me for our two-year anniversary. Whilst most women will mope over jewellery, clothes and other boring things, Dan has gone a bought me a 3DS!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love him to bits anyway, and I’d still be with him without an anniversary present. The reason I feel the need to sing about this is because of the sweet way he was going to surprise me, and because considering we’re both trying to save up for a trip to New Zealand, this is a pretty big commitment. And for me, it’s also the first time I’ve ever had a brand new console bought for me (my dad used to nick second-hand consoles from his squaddie mates. I’m seriously not kidding).

So it may sound materialistic and shit, but I couldn’t really care less. It’s no different from some ditzy bitch drooling over a diamond ring. We’re both really looking forward to Thursday now, for the midnight launch of the 3DS, and the Friday, when we’ll spend all day playing on them.

Now I have to come up with something extra special for Dan, with very little money. And if I can’t return the favour this year, then I will someday, when I’m loaded…

And so dear friends, this week I leave you with this image:

Ignoring the obvious spelling errors there, you read right, fellow nerds. A Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright crossover... I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a game, including Phantom Hourglass. I literally started shaking.

I mean the only thing that could beat this would be Legend of Zelda meets Another Code, with Kyle Hyde thrown in for good measure, vs. Layton PHD and Ace Attorney! It’d be some kind of badass mystery/puzzle-solving, action, adventure, save the Princess, “j’accuse!” hybrid…

I’m getting ahead of myself though (assuming you understood anything of what I just said). For the moment, Layton vs. Wright is set for a Japanese release only. However, I hold faith that America and the UK will get their hands on the game eventually, seeing as how popular the two franchises are here in the West. If not, I’ll learn Japanese just to play it.

Personally, I’m a much bigger fan of Phoenix Wright; it’s witty dialogue, absurd mysteries (ghosts as murderers?!) and insanely likeable characters are what I keep returning for. The banter between Nick and Maya always makes me laugh. However, I’ve recently warmed up to Layton too, having completed Curious Village after about four years. I love the endless puzzles and I adore the animation, and whilst I often want to kick Luke-cockney-brat-Triton in the teeth, the Professor himself is pretty damn cool.

This crossover also means that, for the first time ever, Phoenix Wright is going to be fully animated and talking! Having spent the last decade or so in Link-like silence, I’m really excited about this.

So yeah, that’s my geek-out-of-the-week.

Until next time!

Feltie Goodness!

2011-03-16T17:38:00.005Z

After a busy week at Creative Futures (more on that in my next post), I was pretty much done with lectures, and looking forward to the practical side of the Felt Mistress workshop.

I got the feeling that it would be a very simplified workshop, seeing as how detailed the work of Louise Evans (The Felt Mistress) is; I knew we’d never get anything so extravagant done in a few hours!

However, I was really impressed with the results, and how well a lot of the felties turned out, despite the time limit. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we all skipped lunch and worked straight on into the afternoon. But we were enjoying ourselves – even those who had never sewn before seemed to be having loads of fun discovering a new craft.

As for me, I’ve sewn before, on and off, but the majority of what I’ve made in the past has turned out well. At the moment I’m currently working through a book I received as a Christmas Present: the awesomely cute Zombie Felties. Ironically, Louise mentioned that the same people who created this book are working on bringing one out for her. So I’ll be keeping my bug-eyes open for that.

Here are my first two creations, Ramone the mummy, who unfortunately lost one of his beady eyes. I managed to reattach it by nailing the poor bugger to my pinboard. Somehow I don’t think he minds, being dead anyway:

And Cujo, the zombie puppy, who now sits proudly on my boyfriend’s shelf:

These teeny tiny felties are no bigger than the palm of my hand, so working on a larger feltie in Louise’s workshop (and without glue!) was a little daunting. But once I got into it, I remembered how relaxing sewing is, and how adept I am at it… perhaps there’s something I can utilize there…

Here’s my finished monster:

I call her Kimi, as I wanted her to look as though she’d belong in Japan. Her hair was made from a beard template, and her tummy is a nose piece. Her buns were meant to be horns, and I added the ribbons, butterflies and flower-bellybutton for funsies. I also gave her some fingernails and rosy cheeks for added girlieness. I’m pretty chuffed with how she came out, and surprised, considering I wasn’t able to cheat with glue. I also learned a new stitch, the Blanket Stitch, which I used to sew her body up.

As for the Felt Mistress herself, she was really cool. Friendly and chatty, I found her to be very encouraging. Her work is really unique and, above all, adorable! Perhaps it comes from her working with her partner, illustrator Jonathan Edwards. I’d come across Edwards before and love his bold, funky characters.

Can’t help feeling that perhaps PIXAR should hire these two to work on Monsters Inc. 2, as their combined style would make for some really interesting character designs and plushies. Plus, imagine how badass a Felt Mistress-style Sully toy would be!

Anyway, I’m hoping to carry on with making felties and, given enough time, I’d like to make two plushies of my Morgue & Gor characters for my final year show.

In the meantime, check out my little flower pin cushion that I made:

I have some gorgeous Chinese fabric lying around and needed a pin cushion for my humble sewing box (I call in humble because it’s half empty). Using a book I’d bought a while ago, the S.E.W. Workshop, I was able to churn this out in about an hour. Although it went all kinds of wrong, I’m pretty chuffed with it. I think sewn things are much better when they’re obviously handmade. And luckily I had a little Lady Bug bead hanging around to emphasise that it is in fact a flower, and not a deformed blob!

Hopefully, with some practice, I’ll be able to use the rest of this Chinese fabric to make a dress or skirt, as it’s too beautiful to be stuffed in a bag at the bottom of my wardrobe.

Anyway, I’d recommend both the Zombie Felties and the S.E.W. Workshop books to anyone wanting to learn the basics of sewing, as they’re both incredibly easy to use, colourful and fun. Also, you might want to check out a book called Alternacrafts, which also features sewn projects, but also has a lot of other creative and simple crafts for you to try. Plus, it’s recycling, so win-win!

And obviously, check out the websites and work of both Felt Mistress and Jonathan Edwards. Really inspiring stuff!

Manchester Tattoo Show

2011-03-13T14:56:00.019Z

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to our second tattoo show (the first being Brighton for my birthday). This time, however, it was a lot closer to home, in Manchester. Initially I was planning to go via train, on my own, and only for the Saturday, as Dan and I are saving up for a working holiday and are trying to reduce our spending.

But by some miracle of the Gods, we won a pair of two-day passes from Tattoo Revolution magazine – thank you, you marvellous, marvellous people!

Odd, but wonderful side note: this is the third competition we’ve won in the last four months. Just goes to show that if you enter things, you do actually have a bloody good chance of winning!

So, happily, I was able to take my boyfriend along with me, we were able to drive and park in Manchester for free, and we went for both days. We saved even more money by taking packed lunches (like primary-school-style.)

Here is Dan looking pleased with himself…

Anyway, this show was by far a lot more fun than Brighton. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Brighton – the seaside, the atmosphere, the endless body mods, cupcakes and candies – but for some reason I felt more relaxed in Manchester.

For it’s 10th Anniversary, the show took place in the Central Exhibition Centre, a place I’d visited before when I went to the Manchester Stitch and Creative Crafts show. Whilst the crafts show utilized the entirety of the exhibition centre, the tattoo show only used about half of it, making it a much smaller event than Brighton.

However, it was far more spacious, with better lighting and a larger stage area for the competitions. There was also music playing over the venue from Rock radio, which was pretty awesome. I later learned from some tattooists that they kept repeating the same songs over and over, and it was annoying those who had to sit there for hours on end.

There were a few things missing from Manchester, that weren’t at Brighton: live bands, seminars, scarification, an art gallery… On the other hand, they made up for it with a hoard of Harley Davidson Motorbikes on display, several more international and traditional tattooists, a piercer from Affleck’s Palace and tonnes more free sweets from most of the stalls (I’m a sucker for free stuff).

Here's me planning to steal a bike...

So after taking hoards of pictures, which you can check out below, I really enjoyed myself. And so did Dan. We stopped by the Tattoo Revolution stand to thank Alex Guest for our tickets, checked out some of the competitions, and I came home with two new piercings from Quincey the Piercer, taking my body shrapnel count up to fourteen – twenty by the end of the year I hope!

And whilst there were no cupcakes for sale, there was something called The Cupcake Club. Now, I loved this, and had I not wanted to have my first tattoo be a design of my own I would have gotten one there and then. The idea behind The Cupcake Club is that you have a tattoo of a cupcake, and the money goes to the Help For Heroes Charity. Whilst some people were having large, customized cupcakes, I couldn’t help but admire the tiny £30 cupcake designs on display. I was eyeing up a lemon cupcake, a cupcake with spider legs, and a “bleeding” cupcake with a dagger protruding from it. These tattoos were no bigger than a 50p piece and were really cute. I’m hoping for The Cupcake Club to show up at the Liverpool Tattoo Convention in May, as I’d love to get one!

I stopped by the Vivid Tattoo Arts stall to watch my friend Sam getting scrawled on by Jonny Handsome.

I couldn’t help but coo over Cathy Sue’s artwork either. Her sketchbook was full of colourful punky chicks, and her style along the lines of what I would like to do. I managed to sneak a photo of her working too:

Sam showed me some of his work, two by Miss Sue:

And work by Jonny:

Whilst there were a huge number of fantastic artists working that day, I only managed to photograph a few of them. However, take a look at this awesome selection of artwork:

Dan Gold:

Hayley from AAA Tattoo Studio:

Golden Dragon Tattoo Studio:

Body Garden Tattoo:

Check out Richie the Barber, who didn’t mind posing for plenty of photos. Only wish I’d stuck around to see his stage show…

What I love about these conventions is that it’s not just tattoos and piercings; there are also jewellery and clothes stalls, plus places to buy bizarre ornaments and decorative items for your home. I came across these fantastic customized skateboards:

I absolutely love this sexy cartoon pin-up style, and I’d really love to know who the artist is. If you know, please tell me!

I also fell in love with a little store called Vampire Bunnies. The girl who owns it specializes in making what I can only describe as the nerdiest clothing line ever, and it was awesome! I found dresses and handbags made with prints of The Little Mermaid, Pokemon, Fairly Odd Parents, among others. And the gal can customize too! I really wish I’d bought one of them now, but I do know that the shop resides in Affleck’s Palace.

Typically of tat-cons, there was the usual collection of artist’s sketchbooks, which was handy, as they give me a good idea for what I’m aiming for in my final year project (more on that in the near future).

And finally, I can’t go without mentioning the Cha Cha Chilli company. This was an odd discovery, but a really cool one, as I absolutely love chilli! I had several free hot-as-hell tasters, and finally decided on a gorgeous fiery coconut sauce, so I can pimp up some chicken. Nice!

So there you have it: a great weekend out, and one that really inspired me. Really wish I could go on and mention everyone and everything I saw, but I’d be here forever. I cannot wait for Liverpool now!

Until next time (probably this week…)

"We'll give 'em to Rango!"

2011-03-11T21:59:00.003Z

I try to avoid writing film reviews anymore, only because it takes up quite a lot of my time (something that takes you five minutes to read could take me two hours to write and edit, only because I’m so anal about spelling, grammar, etc.)

But I really couldn’t miss the chance to write a quick review (or urgent recommendation) about “Rango”. As always, watch out for possible spoilers…

You may or may not have heard about this unusual movie, and that’s why I’m here to tell you “for the love of GOD watch this movie!”

The sad fact is that it isn’t Disney, it isn’t Pixar, it isn’t Dreamworks, and that means that not many people are apt to give it a shot. This is a film all of it’s own, something you’ve never seen before, a mental mindfuck, but a gloriously-rendered one that rips of your head off and glues it back on upside down.

It tells the story of a Chameleon with an identity crisis, who finds himself in the remote desert town of Dirt, where he adapts the persona Rango: a gun-toting hero. He is quickly made Sheriff of Dirt and given the responsibility of looking for their water supply, which has been vanishing mysteriously.

In the meantime - through high-speed bat chases featuring a hilarious rendition of “The Ride of the Valkyries”, insane dream sequences featuring a CGI Clint Eastwood (I think), and madcap theatrical performances - Rango falls for the deadpan, no-nonsense Beans, and comes face to face with Rattlesnake Jake… seriously, this is the most badass friggin’ snake villain ever! Suck it, Jafar. He has a Gatling Gun for a tail.

I think the reason this film works so well is that, by usual standards, it doesn’t work at all. The characters are ugly, the setting murky and miserable, the story unheard of… but from a storyteller/character designer’s perspective, this movie is perfect.

The characters, those weird, wonderful freaky looking animals are so beautifully crafted! Every one of them looks and acts completely different. It features some of the most amazing character designs I’ve ever seen, and this is coming from someone who isn’t exactly fond of drawing animals.

The cinematography is astounding, and often so realistic I had to remind myself it was animated. But what can you expect from the people that worked on Pirates of the Caribbean? Director Gor Verbinski really knows how to make thrilling movies, that’s for true.

The voice acting in this movie really brought out something special in each character: Johnny Depp as Rango was his usual charming, quirky self. Isla Fisher struck a chord with me, as Beans was unexpectedly funny, while still being a pretty tough female. But by far the best voice award has to go to Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake. He gave me “slithers” down my spine.

Apologies for the above pun.

And finally, the music… what can I say really? Hans Zimmer is a leg-end. Just listen to this example. I love it. Gives you a good idea of the rest of the soundtrack. Fast and fun!

Saying that however, I feel very strongly that this film should not be aimed and marketed at kids, because it is so much more than just a typical kid’s cartoon. It’s made by people who love and appreciate great animation, great characters, great music and classic storytelling with a twist. And if it doesn’t win Oscar for best animated film next year, I will literally scream, because I really don’t think it can be topped in 2011 (Christ, what have we got to look forward to with “Rio” and “Hop”?)

Anyway go see Rango, enjoy it, agree with me, and come back and tell me I was right!

COMPASS Charity Art Exhibit and Auction

2011-03-11T20:46:00.007Z

Anyone who knows me knows I love doing things for charity, whether it’s to help children, babies, animals, baby animals, soldiers, or poor goth girls murdered by chavs. I guess I just think that if someone can live comfortably on £100 a month, they can probably afford to give about 5% to a good cause. Every little helps…

So when I spotted an advert in a Liverpool Gallery asking artists to donate work for a charity auction, I jumped at the chance. Not only would I be helping out a good cause, but I could also get my name around a bit, whilst doing something I enjoy. I decided to make it into part of my first Negotiated Study project for University too, with additional paintings to follow later this semester.

I produced two pieces:

“Violet”, featuring my character Bluey enjoying a bubble-blowing session…

…and “Lil Night Music 2.0”, my homage to one of my favourite paintings, Dorothea Tanning’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”.

It felt quite good to have my name up there...

The pieces were based around the central theme of human form and emotion. It fitted perfectly with the aim of the charity, COMPASS, which arranges counselling for adults in Merseyside. As a regular sufferer of depression, I found this to be a cause rather close to my heart.

The exhibition took place in a little community centre in Liverpool; the walls were decorated with large animal creations by some of the local children, which was adorable. But the artwork to come was immensely good, and I’m only sorry I can’t feature the pieces here (don’t wanna get sued).

But I was chuffed to see such a variety of work; my cartoony-stuff next to large-scale tattoo-style paintings, alternative-model photographs, surreal paintings, masks, portraits, life drawing… there was a lot of great work, the only downside being that a lot of them were priced as though they were up in the Tate. I figured with it being an auction in the middle of a small community, and for charity, that a lot of the artists should have lowered their prices, and I was right, as not many of the pricier pieces were sold, which was an awful shame.

I, being of modest talent (and little of it), put my pieces up for auction starting at £20 each. So I was terrifically pleased that “Violet” sold to a little family and their daughter for £28, which means at least two people must have been bidding for it! I’d really love to know how they’re getting on with my artwork, so if you bought “Violet” please drop me a message.

Unfortunately, “Lil Night Music 2.0” didn’t sell, but I’m not disheartened. I feel the concept was too personal to me, and wouldn’t make sense to anyone who didn’t know the significant details of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (the sunflower, the flowing hair, the murky colours…)

However, it is still up for sale at £20 (not including p&p). So if you’re interested, please email for enquiries.

I can’t finish the blog without mentioning two people. First of all, Kim Jones, who organised the event and managed to raise money for a great cause. Congrads to her!

And also, Graham Jones, the photographer behind the exhibition (who I really hope doesn’t mind me posting his pictures here!). He was super friendly, and called me “very photogenic” which was flattering… you can see some of his work on his website here.

So all in all, a great day for me, I really enjoyed it, and I’m happy that I sold my first piece to what seemed like a loving little family, and for a cause that will hopefully make a difference to somebody’s life someday.

Here’s to my next exhibit!

FOOTNOTE: Should’ve mentioned this a while ago, but I was lucky to win a drawing competition for Bizarre Magazine. The theme was fantasy body-mod, so I went a bit mad and created this:

The mad Tank Girl-esque chick sports a stretched tongue, triple-pupils, webbed fingers and a cosmetically removed nose. Anyway, it won me a bunch of Bizarre stuff, including bacon-flavoured soda, several weird books about gruesome things, an inflatable baby bottle, a “Gay for Pay” t-shirt and “30 Days of Night” hat that I gave to my boyfriend, couple of magnets and stickers, and a DVD called “Twin Cheeks”. I’ll leave you to figure that one out…

Brighton Tattoo Convention

2011-02-24T00:42:00.007Z

Well it’s been a long time since I last wrote anything, and I have much to talk about, so let’s think of a logical (and quick) way to do this…

I’m going to divide these next few posts up in order to get a good overview of them all, because I’ve been up to quite a bunch of things these last few months.

So I’m starting off with the Brighton Tattoo Convention…

Deciding to go to this was kind of a last minute thing for me, but I was bombarded with advertisements by Tattoo Revolution magazine and figured “What the heck?” It was around my 22nd birthday and I’d get to spend a few days alone with my boyfriend, ogling tattooed strangers. Hit and a win!

First of all, how fantastic is Brighton?! We stayed at the Premier Inn, right smack bang in the middle of everything, and three minutes from a Yo! Sushi, where I inevitably had my birthday meal. We were also less than ten minutes walk from the Odeon too, and went to watch Tangled in the evening, with a bunch of other geeky adults.

Anyway, the convention… I’m trying not to jabber too much, because I have so much to talk about, and so little space and time.

This was my first tat-con (yes I’m lazy and thus forth will refer to it as that) so it was extremely overwhelming, both in good terms and bad terms. The good being that I got to see so many shit-hot tattoos, and everyone seemed really friendly. There were cupcakes, and a corset shop and hundreds of free stickers (the cheap-man’s way of covering my sketchbooks). And best of all I got to meet Alex Guest of Tattoo Revolution Magazine, who turned out to be cooler than I could have imagined, and gave me his business card and a fortune cookie which said I was going to get a pay rise very soon. Cheers Alex!

Dan and I also pondered over him getting a tattoo, after we spotted the Bad Bunny Tattoo Studio sketchbook, and fell in love with their quirky new-school drawings. If it hadn’t been for the hefty price tag and my lack of funds, I would have bought the book, but luckily you can still see some of their artwork on their website.

Of course, there were plenty of juicy pieces of artwork hanging around, as you can see from my eager snaps…

We even spotted some traditional tattooing!

The downside to the Saturday was that, for once, instead of sticking out, I basically just disappeared into the crowd. And I felt really insignificant for not having my first tattoo. So I spent much of my birthday feeling sorry for myself, and not paying attention to the fact that I should have been enjoying myself!

So after some initial scolding by my boyfriend, we decided to enjoy the Sunday, which we really did! We watched a couple of the Tattoo competitions, oohing and ahhing at some awesome artwork, my favourite of which was a Doc Brown (Back to the Future) tattoo, it made my day.

Then, as if by some miracle, Art Historian Matt Lodder presented a seminar about tattoos as art objects, which was not only fascinating in itself, but was also completely relevant to my final year Dissertation! So I listened with rapture, while Dan made a recording, and for the first time that weekend I had the gumption to approach Dr Lodder and talk to him. Far from looking like your usual old-fart art historian, Matt Lodder was a tattooed and pierced young dude who dressed like he’d just jumped out of the ’40’s. He was so incredibly friendly, and offered to help me with my Dissertation (which he did, evidently, but that’s another story).

Dan and I spent the rest of the afternoon looking in on the Sugar Project (and I wish to God I could bid on one of those!!!), eating chips, and finally landing ourselves in the “cinema” watching Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry. I’d been meaning to watch this for a while, and I wasn’t disappointed; it’s a hilarious, and often poignant film, about the original old tattoo dude, Norman Keith Collins and his bizarre life. Apparently, the version we saw was the short version (about an hour and a half) so I still have more to see. But if you watch it, keep an eye out for “Crazy” Philadelphia Eddie, he had me giggling every time he was on screen, funny git!

Some stills from the Sailor Jerry Cinema...

We ended the day on a high note, wandering up to the piercing/branding room where we watched a huge guy have the number 13 burned into his neck (electro-cautery tattooing) by the very talented Quentin from Kalima body piercing studio. We got to talking when he noticed me drooling over pictures of tongue-splitting (seriously, Google that if you don’t know what it is). He told me that he was one of the first people to have the tongue-splitting procedure over here in the UK, and told me about his way of doing it, and how he encourages his clients to really think about the painful body mod. Something which I am doing, after taking his card.

Quentin and his victim...

Finally, I can’t talk about the convention without mentioning the few celebrities that we saw. Dan Gold and Phil Kyle of London Ink fame were there, working hard. I have to admit, I’ve always thought Phil Kyle was pretty awesome, so it was cool to see him there. But I had to giggle when my boyfriend asked, “How long to you reckon Dan Gold will take to do that tattoo?” as he’s known for being a tad slow. He might be a bit of a cheeky bastard I suppose, but I still get goosebumps when I see someone off of the telly… I just wish it had been Jodie Marsh so I could fix her freaky nose with my fist.

Phil Kyle and Dan Gold getting it on!

So, despite a rough start, all down to my own insecure feelings, I really did enjoy the con, and I’m hoping to go the Manchester Tattoo Show next month, and the Liverpool con in May. I’d recommend those wondering if they should go to one, to just do it, and don’t let fear of intimidation ruin it for you. You don’t need a tattoo to have fun at these conventions, and nobody will judge you.

Luckily I learned from my experience, and next time I’ll be getting more out of those fantastic tattooists, than just their business cards (of which I got like sixty of them…)

Until tomorrow then!

Please Vote!

2010-11-30T11:18:00.003Z

Wow, I'm so chuffed to make it to the finals of the Gorillaz Design the Evangelist competition :) But it would be great to get to the semi-finals!

If you think I deserve the chance, then you can vote for my entry here. You also get to see my entry being drawn in super high-speed, so it gives you a good idea of how I work.

My love to you all! x

Too much thinking for this ol' fuddy-duddy

2010-11-21T23:00:00.006Z

Well, it's been a while and I am now in my final year at Glyndwr University, still plodding onwards. I wont bore you with the details of the last two months, suffice to say that Orlando was riotous fun! I'll dive straight back in with my November blog...

About a fortnight a go I scurried off to Liverpool for a good dosage of culture, as the 2010 Biennial was being held. With various galleries and museums participating in the festival, it seemed like a great time to have a nose and see what was new in the arty-farty world. I headed over to the Walker Art Gallery to check out a painting competition.

For a student of the arts, I find it very discouraging that the majority of these competitions still focus on pompous nonsense when it comes to works of "art".

I was, for the most part, disappointed with this year's John Moores Painting Prize. Whatever happened to painters actually being able to paint? It seems that any so-so can chuck a blob of acrylic onto a canvas nowadays if there's an "idea" behind it. "Oh, it represents the randomness of life." Get over yourself.

Honestly, there were only two or three paintings even deserving of the £25,000 prize, and you can bet your bare arse none of them won because the meaning is too obvious.

"Protest, 1st April 2009" by Nicholas Middleton is a beautiful painting, done in monochrome, of a crowd of people at a rally. The expressions and details are so mesmerising it's almost like looking at a photograph, but the tiny brushstrokes hint at the human talent behind it. I could practically hear the noise of the crowd whilst gazing into it.

Christian Ward's "Frontier Monument" spoke less of obvious talent, and more of imagination. The lack of perspective is overshadowed by the painting's mad colour scheme and landscape. It's a Nirvana that I would have pictured as a child, but that's not to say I wouldn't want to dive into it now. I think my fascination with this one is it's resemblance to something out of "Yellow Submarine". Whilst I was looking at it a group of children ran over to it, exclaiming that it was their favourite. "There's lots of purple", "look at the lovely trees" and "I like the squiggly-armed guy" were some of the phrases they used. I think when a child "gets" your work, then that's something to be proud of.

"An Alpine Biodome" by Geraint Evans was an interesting piece. Not something I would have on my wall at home, but well executed and an obvious example of work by someone who I imagine would do well in design and architecture.

"Near the Site" by David Fulford is, I think, worthy of a mention because it comes across as as storyboard. I couldn't quite make out the story, but I loved the colour scheme of a Sunday afternoon in the summer; all dull yellows and browns. Even without a story the pieces stand individually as photographs, as though someone has hurriedly painted them to capture a moment in time. There were 60 small canvas paintings in total, and another reason it bodes well with me is because the idea relates to one of my Negotiated Study projects.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that there are five extras this year, as the JMPP celebrates a new venture by opening the competition in Shanghai. My favourite of the five shortlisted was Li Weizhou's "Where are we from? Where will we go?" From a distance it looks like a large blank canvas with a tiny queue of people running across it, but close up, you realise that these tiny people all look completely different, and all appear to have personalities about them. I also loved this painting because of the medium used: ink on rice paper. That's new to me, but the effect is beautiful and works for the enigmatic piece.

So there were some really great pieces, including ones that I haven't mentioned, but the majority I will not dignify with a mention, because then they get free advertising. I honestly believe that if, as artists, we allow our craft to be exploited and tarnished this way, then our livelihood is going to fade very fast.

To finish off, I will put in a mention for this wonderful little blog post that kept me smiling, even when I felt done-over by the artwork thinking I don't have a chance. If you're worried that you may not pan-out as a full time artist, whatever your creative pursuit, have a gander at this list of ways to know if you truly are an artist. Hopefully it'll put some minds at ease.

Leonardo Da Flake

2010-09-15T23:59:00.004+01:00

If I could go back in time, or bring the past forwards, Leonardo Da Vinci is the person who I (and most likely many others) would have sought out to be my Mentor. How I long for a Mentor! His eccentricities and endless drawings and notes, to me, made him seem like some sort of unreachable God or Alien.

So I was quite surprised to read, in this article, that he was an unstoppable procrastinator, not unlike myself. And while I spend all my time procrastinating and wishing I were dead, he managed to do it with some style. And he still sounds awesome.

Have a read of the article and see how you feel afterwards. Do you conform like the rest of the World? Hitting deadlines on time, rushing things that are supposedly "important", but in the long run do not matter? (Like a degree in comics, when you want to be a Tattooist... *cough*)

This quote from the article suggests imperfection is the right way to go about it:

"Productive mediocrity requires discipline of an ordinary kind. It is safe and threatens no one. Nothing will be changed by mediocrity; mediocrity is completely predictable. It doesn't make the powerful and self-satisfied feel insecure. It doesn't require freedom, because it doesn't do anything unexpected. Mediocrity is the opposite of what we call "genius." Mediocrity gets perfectly mundane things done on time. But genius is uncontrolled and uncontrollable. You cannot produce a work of genius according to a schedule or an outline. As Leonardo knew, it happens through random insights resulting from unforeseen combinations. Genius is inherently outside the realm of known disciplines and linear career paths. Mediocrity does exactly what it's told, like the docile factory workers envisioned by Frederick Winslow Taylor."

After all, why rush to finish something you hate on time, when you can spend years doing something you love...

Personally, I hope I grow up to be like that mad Italian Geezer!

Tattoo Survey

2010-09-10T15:02:00.003+01:00

For my third year dissertation I am investigating Tattoo Art as it appears in/with other forms of modern art. My aims are:

• to discover how and why Tattoo-art is inspiring other art-forms, focusing on graphics, fine art, photography, illustration
• to investigate why Tattoos have experienced a rise in popularity, and what benefits and problems may (or already have) come from it
• to look at how Tattooing has been influenced by other art-forms (e.g.: photo-realism, comics, graffiti, surrealism, graphics…)
• to look into the future of this juxtaposition between Tattoos and Modern Art

I’d be really grateful if you’d take just five minutes to fill in my survey, in order to help me complete my dissertation with some interesting results.
If there are any questions you are uncomfortable answering, or if they do not apply to you, just leave it blank.

Name:
Gender:
Age range: Under 18/18-24/25-34/35-44/45-54/55+
Occupation:

1. First of all, do you have a tattoo, and if so why? If you don’t, why not?

2. If you have a tattoo, what concerned you the most during the process: your own health and safety, the tattooist, the tattoo design, it’s meaning or it’s location on your body? Why?

3. When you think of “Tattoo” what kind of words spring to mind?

4. Now think of “Art”, and what words pop up?

5. Take a look at these two pictures:

Do you prefer the a) tattooed artwork, or b) the artwork of tattoos? Explain your decision.

6. Have you ever bought any merchandise decorated with tattoo art (e.g.: clothes, iPod covers, jewellery, perfumes etc). What attracted you to its design?

7. Take a look at these two people:

Who do you find more appealing: a) the celebrity with a tattoo, or b) the stranger with a tattoo? Explain your decision.

8. Tattoos have experienced a major increase in popularity over the last few years. Why do you think that is?

9. Do you see your current opinion of tattoos, whether good or bad, changing in the future? Why?

Thanks for taking the time to do this, I am very grateful! You can either post your answers directly to this page, or email me at BulletprufZombie@hotmail.co.uk. Please put "Tattoo Survey" in the subject box.

*Please note: All images here are taken off Google Images. I do not own them.

Jamie Hewlett in a Tux?!

2010-09-08T17:08:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd just chuck in another mention here: Gorillaz have been voted band of the year by GQ magazine. I am led to believe this is some kind of man-magazine ("mangazine??") about fashion and stylishness, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not surprised they won, they're a fantastic group. They're like a brick of cheese that just gets better with age. And from that photo of singer/musician Damon, artist Jamie, and hell-raising 'toon Murdoc I get the sense that their interview is going to be particularly fun and goofy, as they usually are. So if anyone happens to buy GQ, please lend it to me so I can have a look!

Jamie Hewlett is my greatest hero. He's an art school drop-out who went on to have his Kangeroo-shagging, bald, pin-up chick "Tank Girl" made into a movie when he was 23. Then he went on to create one of us Brits' best bands, and helped bring Monkey: Journey to the West to the stage. Go fig.

Blue skies and sunshine... almost guaranteed

2010-09-08T16:09:00.004+01:00

Thought I'd share this humble iPhone snap:

At night I sleep with my curtains open. This started out as laziness but has just become a habit now, once I realised how lucky I am to have such a great view. There are no streetlights of any kind at the back of my house, just a vast view of our land, the fields and motorway below, and a great view of the Gresford Church.

On a good night I get the moonlight shining in my room like some Holy beacon. Obviously there are days when I wake up to grey clouds and rain, but every now and again I get a view like this, where the sky looks like a watercolour painting of washed-down blues, and the dawn is made up of neon-pinks and oranges...

You'd think with such inspiration I could conjure up some artwork. I guess sometimes views are wasted on the wrong people and I'll only wise-up when I am faced with a brick wall.

Ich bin (noch) ein Student

2010-09-07T16:57:00.005+01:00

It’s that time of the year again: a month before I start back at University and I start to panic because nary a thing has been done. Not only that, but a week after I go back I’m off to America for a fortnight + seven days. So you can understand my grousing.

But all is not lost. I still have a month. And when I really think about it, they haven’t actually asked us to do much over the summer. Mainly gather research and formulate ideas.

As I’ve come to understand it, our third year is made up of four areas:

1. a 5000 word Dissertation
2. negotiated study projects
3. our own professional practice
4. research, research, research!

It doesn’t sound like much, but I’m not convinced. However, I’m going to try and make this year fun at least. I have more control over my projects and therefore more interest in them.

My dissertation has an introduction and a basic outline, with the (working) title “Tattoos: The Ostracized Art-Form” or “How has Tattooing influenced, or been influenced by, modern art, and in turn how has it developed into an art-form of its own?”

Wordy, no?

My negotiated study projects I have narrowed down to several project ideas:

1. a book of Tattoo flash, also known as Tattoo-a-day-for-100-days (or more)
2. a documentary, mainly to keep my boyfriend busy, but also to examine the insanity of what it is to be an art student
3. a collection of mini-comics, a web-comic, an iPhone app/comic, OR a full graphic novel
4. a full topical book in comic format, inspired by the works of Scott McCloud
5. screen-printed works to sell on Etsy
6. a series of paintings in story sequence, inspired partly by Max Ernst’s “Collage Novel", and also by a collection of paintings I spotted in Liverpool a few months ago...

They are by an artist called Bone Daddy. Although they don’t necessarily share a storyline, they do hint at the story behind each of the tattooees, and serve to make you wonder what kind of people they might be. I thought that was a great idea. And the series of paintings project would allow me to combine three of the things I love: storytelling, painting and tattoos.

So once I’ve selected which of the negotiated study projects I am going to pursue, I will more or less chuck the rest of the ideas in with my professional practice. Currently I only have two goals for my PDP: sell myself (not literally) and enter competitions, the first of which is this year’s Manga Jiman competition (cheers to Sarah from my class for the heads up!).

Every year or so, the Japanese Embassy in the UK hold this competition open to residents over 14, hand them a theme and a limit of 6 to 8 pages, and ask them to draw a manga. I attempted to enter it in 2008, but my procrastination got the better of me.

This year I’m more determined. Not only because it would look good in my PDP, but also because the theme is “nami” or “wave”, in english. It’s given me some good ideas, but obviously I won’t mention them here for fear of someone stealing them…

However I will post invisible updates.

So there’s my third year planned. Thought I’d also bring this up: Tattoosday UK recently posted a piece about artist Min Jeong Seo, and her porcelain casts of Ballerina arms, painted to resemble fully tattooed sleeves. This is essentially what I was trying to do last year with my (God awful) “Bookjacket” brief, and I only wish this post had arrived sooner!

Book Review: Tattoo Mystique – Angelique Houtkamp

2010-09-07T15:31:00.000+01:00

As another small review, I thought I’d put in a mention for this colourful little book, a collection of works by Dutch tattooist Angelique Houtkamp. I first read about this in Skin Deep but (once again) have only just gotten around to checking it out.

Tattoo Mystique is second in a line of books by this incredibly recognizable artist. The first, Tattoo Darling, is still on my to-buy list, as is her newest collection, a book of black and white linedrawings for the creative enthusiast to use as he/she pleases. This I love, as it’s similar to a project I am working on.

Angelique is a master in her interpretation of vintage tattoo designs and pin-up girls, and her fashionably freaky little ladies are plastered all over this book. They are her specialty, and one of the many reasons people go to her is that (for a fee) she will design you a unique tattoo all of your own.

The book is jam-packed with her drawings, and they are stunning. She paints in watercolours, sticking to the theme of old-school sailor designs and often a limited colour palette, yet her work is fresh and inspiring.

The only downside to this book is its shortness. Whilst it opens, like Kat Von D’s "High Voltage Tattoo", with an introduction by a friend, and includes an interview with the artist herself, there is very little written about her. I would have loved to have read a piece from her point of view, although she does tell us a lot in her interview. Her love for Holland, where she lives, and how she describes waking up and starting her day around noon, riding her bicycle by the river and hanging out with her friends… it was a beautiful vision that left me longing for the kind of freedom that comes with being a well-established artist.

But until then, I’ll stick with longing to be tattooed by the Madame herself. This book is well worth the pennies.

You can see some of Angelique’s work on her official website, Salon Serpent, where you can also sign up to her monthly newsletter! Also, take a glimpse at her "Projects" page and see what you think of the "Babyskulls". Then take a look at these painted Ballerina arms (thanks to Tattoosday UK)... they are basically what I was trying to achieve with my "Bookjacket" brief last year, only a thousand times better. Perhaps I will try again one day, as I think these tattooed plaster body parts make gorgeous ornaments for lovers of the macabre and bizarre.

Until next time, keep your hands dirty!

DVD Review: Tattoos – A Scarred History

2010-09-06T21:48:00.000+01:00

My last post appears to have been in May… I’d best get off my hiney and keep this up-to-date if I want to make out like I’m working hard!

First of all I want to put in a mention for Tattoosday UK, and urge you to check it out. Without Mel Noir and her wonderful blog, the gap between myself and the Tattoo World would be that much bigger. It’s helped keep me up-to-date, even if my drawing skills aren’t!

Now to business: this is fairly old news, but I have only just gotten round to watching a documentary called Tattoos: A Scarred History, even though I’ve had the DVD since April. I thought I’d share my observations with you (but it’s mainly to prove to my tutors that I AM researching!)

With Tattoos: A Scarred History, I think one needs to keep in mind that if you’re already thrust quite deeply into the Body-Mod puddle, then you’re perhaps not going to learn anything new. I’m relatively new to Tattooing, and yet I understood most of the terms and practices.

HOWEVER, that is not necessarily a bad thing, as the film isn’t made in such a way as to tell you all the ins and outs of Tattooing. It instead follows the journey of a young woman called Sousila, who is trying to discover why Tattoos are so popular at the moment.

It’s a UK-based film which pops over to the US of A for one segment, and surprisingly is filmed in my own hometown of Wrexham, and surrounding areas such as Llandudno, which surprised me and left me feeling a bit proud.

At 97 minutes, the film is a fascinating romp through the mad world of Tattoos that kept me hooked, made me giggle and even had me cringing at some scenes. We meet an awesome (and very sweet) dude named Spikey Bob, get a good close-up look at some controversial “Tattooees”, including one really dodgy bum Tattoo. Keep an eye out for it and let me know if it really offended you… or if you laughed like I did! Also, watch out for “Puff the Magic Dragon”. Sousila has some gumption, that’s for sure!

One of my favourite segments included a visit to the Llandudno Tattoo Convention, of which I had never heard of before, but will now be looking at going to.

There is also a small section dedicated to the murder of Sophie Lancaster (check out the S.O.P.H.I.E. foundation), with a shocking tape recording of the night when she and her boyfriend were taken to Hospital. It was very respectfully edited into the film, and a poignant message considering the amount of stick Tattooed/Pierced people have to put up with.

But I did learn a thing or two. Firstly, the process of tongue-splitting, a practice which I am very attracted to. There’s a gory close-up, so be warned, but those of you who are pure of heart and of nerve will survive I’m sure. I also found out what scarificiation is… but I want to leave that to those of you who don’t know to find out for yourself. I would call it next-generation tattooing, but apparently it is derived from original forms of tattooing!

Finally, I can’t talk about the film without mentioning the Celebrity Survey. I assume it was made at a sci-fi convention of some sort, as Sousila manages to rope in some pretty impressive interviews, my favourites of which are the late David Carradine (Kill Bill), Warwick Davis (Willow), Billy Boyd (Lord of the Rings), and Ana Matronic or Scissor Sisters fame. There’s also a split-second interview with Gordon Ramsey that gave me a laugh, but you need to sit through the credits to watch it.

So there’s my two pence on the film itself, but what of its host Sousila?

Personally, I found her endearing and thoughtful. She’s just your average Josephine, not trying to be the next best presenter, and yet she was very insightful and knew how to get the interviews she wanted. By the end of the film I felt like we’d become friends. Perhaps because we’re both searching for the same answers regarding this huge subject… so kudos to her for keeping me entertained.

I think the only con that goes with these many pros is the camera work and the sound. As the cameraman is Sousila’s boyfriend, it’s pretty clear he’s not entirely sure what he’s doing sometimes, and there are occasional bouts of blurring which distracted me a bit. Also, the sound sometimes catches you off guard, jumping between echoing, loud and quiet. But these are small problems that are easily ignored.

So my summary is: if you love body modification, even if you think you know everything about it, watch this film. It’s funny, shocking, educational (I hear children scream) but most of all fascinating, and the culmination of a lot of hard work from it’s producers. And the cost of the DVD is a pittance. You can get it for £4.99 on Amazon. It was £7.99 when I bought it, and a portion of the profits go to children’s charity Angelwish, which you can find out more about in the bonus features, including deleted scenes, a trailer, music video by Leather Zoo (seriously, check out their song "Stranger", it’s awesome!), among other extras.

Overall, for the production values, I’d give the film a 7 out of 10. But for pure balls and value for money, I’ll give it a perfect 10.

Until next time, keep your hands dirty!

Johnny Learns the Hard Way

2010-08-11T16:40:00.003+01:00

The upcoming Comica Comiket Festival, in London, got my tutor raring to go and he suggested ways we could put forward some work for our stall. We concluded that a new copy of our student comic anthology (DAWNS) would be a good idea.

Having missed out on contributing to the first two issues, I was eager to submit something. I was soon inspired by this article about children and teenagers playing on railway lines.

It struck a chord with me; don’t ask me how but I have seen the results of trains hitting people and it’s very disturbing. I recalled a rhyme I was taught as a child to keep me off the tracks. There are variations to the rhyme, but I decided to use this one, and put it into comic form.

The comic-style was largely inspired by Russian Communist Propaganda posters; bold with high contrast, minimal colour. But I was also influenced by Charles Burns’ Black Hole comic, which I've mentioned in a previous post, but have only just gotten round to reading.

The most astounding thing about this comic is that I managed to finish it at all, and first in the group wouldn’t you know. Sadly, a lack of extra contributors means that DAWNS 3 probably wont be at Comica.

No matter, the comic has given me further ideas for future work…

Lost In Liverpool Tweets

2010-07-16T12:02:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but now it's officially the British Summer Holidays, it's time for me to get off my anatomy and work hard.

Last week I ran away to Liverpool. I'm quite fortunate that my Dad works and has a house there, so I can pretty much escape whenever I want. Saying that though, a single from Liverpool Central to Chester Station only cost me £4.35.

Anyway, on the Wednesday morning I visited the Tate Liverpool, which I've never been to before. I was expecting the usual pompous "art", and there was some, but I did find quite a lot of work that I really liked. I also tried something new to me and "Tweeted" my discoveries via my iPhone, which kept my friends and family up-to-date with what I was getting up to, and helped me keep track for my blogs.

Here you can see what I "Tweeted!"

Wednesday 7th July 2010

9am
"A warm breeze blows over the stank of the river Mersey. The Albert Dock is silent and still, but for a few early morning stragglers on their way to work. I am on my way to inspiration, a foreboding sense of failure filling me nonetheless. But first, I need a cup of tea."

9.37am
"The Tate Liverpool offers an exhibit on Pablo Picasso. I wouldn't say I'm his biggest fan, but I am in the mindset for looking at things from a "different perspective" today. And so I will give him the chance to teach me something. Everything is closed until 10, so I will spend a good half hour in Costa, listening to jazz. Already I'm feeling sleepy..."

10.25am
"So the Picasso "peace and freedom" exhibit is off limits. I cannot afford the £8 ticket. It's a shame that one must pay to SEE art, but I suppose one has to make money some way. I was tempted by the young lad on the door to take a job here myself. Imagine: working in a museum or gallery; constant change and diversity. I would be inspired 24/7. Either the tedious artwork would make me want to show off my own, or the fantastic pieces would encourage me to prove myself..."

10.35am
"I'm sat in an exhibit by one Rineke Dijkstra, called "I see a woman crying". The videos record several school children's reaction to Picasso's "weeping woman" piece. I'm sitting alone in this big dark room watching an 8ft screen on which a young girl - slightly overweight, brunette bundles in a ponytail, not quite unlike myself at her age - scribbles away at a sketchbook with a look of earnest concentration on her face. I'm reminded of how I used to be: determined to produce a good drawing, but ultimately not caring what anybody else thought of it. Sadly I do not get to see her finished work."

10.47am
"In the next room, a video is filmed from three angles, featuring a group of children commenting on the "weeping woman". I'm surprised by how attentive and genuine the little Scousers are, coming out with comments such as she's "lonely", "abandoned", "upset that she's the only one that looks that way" or a "ghost". Others make interesting note of the colour scheme, saying "there's lots of blue and purple" and "maybe Picasso just wanted to paint something colourful". But my personal favourite was that she "owes money". Gives you a good idea perhaps of how these city children were brought up. Incidentally, I have never seen this painting, but I will be seeking it out to see how their comments compare to mine."

10.54am
"As much as I've enjoyed the "I can see a woman crying" exhibit, to call it ART is a bit of an overstatement. It is more along the lines of an intriguing documentary. I think what singed me the most is how much this filmmaker has probably been paid to do something that the average film student could do in college. It seems almost effortless, and for that reason I am evermore irked by the Tate Museums. By all means display works like this, but don't put them up on a pedestal against work that has been painstakingly created through real talent."

The Mabinogi: BBC Wales Project

2010-06-05T14:13:00.007+01:00

Well this blog has been a long time in the making; for those of you who don’t know, about this time last year I was approached by Gareth (wont mention any last names) from BBC Wales. Apparently an old college tutor had recommended me to him for something in the pipeline called “The Manga Mabinogi.”

The Mabinogi (or Mabinogion depending on who you’re hearing it from) are a collection of Welsh Legends and Fantasy stories written hundreds of years ago in the style of The Legend of King Arthur (he actually features in the tales). There is much written about them online, and many translations, and the BBC had decided to do their own version to post onto the BBC Wales website.

Gareth was looking for an artist to do some illustrations to accompany the tales. They wanted them to be in a very bold, almost Manga-style, to appeal to young people. After a few “audition” pieces, where I used watercolours, and then moved onto Photoshop and Manga Studio, Gareth miraculously loved my work (you will notice that I put myself down a lot in this post).

In August last year he presented me with the brief, and asked me to deliver by January.

I toyed with some designs for a few months but I ultimately ended up leaving everything till last minute. In the last few weeks I attempted to learn how to use Photoshop to the best of my abilities, having to use the pen tool to draw entirely because I did not have access to a working scanner. In the end I wound up with RSI: repetitive strain injury, in which my back and neck were severely crippled, my eyes ached from gazing at the computer screen and I developed a habit of shaking whenever I had to draw.

Interesting titbit: During the making of Toy Story 2, which was done from scratch in nine months, a number of Pixar employees developed RSI, one of which was never able to work at a computer again. Thus Pixar now have an employee protection system where they allow their workers to relax regularly with Yoga, Basketball and other activities. How’s that for employee benefits?!

Anyway, my RSI stunted me greatly and I felt like I had really let Gareth down. But, and I must point this out as important, Gareth was so, so incredibly kind about the situation, so generous and unlike anything I had thought a client was supposed to be like! He offered me an extension and asked me to take my time, even going so far as to offer to send me a printer/scanner or software to help me!

However, I declined and just took the new deadline. The second time around I was not going to mess up. I organised myself and worked my butt off. And by March this year I delivered to the BBC eleven illustrations and a title page, via Dropbox (seriously, this is the best file-transferring site around, I highly recommend it!). The guys at the BBC were very pleased and praised me highly, which really gave me a confidence boost. They asked me to draw two more images over Easter to go with some games that Cube Interactive had produced to go with the website.

It was the most nerve-wracking, exhausting project I’ve ever undertaken, but also the most rewarding. I learned so much about working in Photoshop, about my own style and how I can develop my skills. I learned so much about colour theory and combinations, and composition, which this time last year I had no clue about. I also learned how textures could be used as overlays in Photoshop to give warmth and a dreamy wash to images, and I used a lot of different textures in this project, such as parchment and stone, to give each illustration an otherworldly, book-like feel.

The style I went for is inspired by Manga, but I didn’t want it to be completely Japanese, as they are Welsh tales, so I added a pinch of realism to the character’s figures, as well as my own personal style (which frankly needs re-working so that it is more recognisable). My colour palette consisted of clichéd pastel colours, as I didn’t want anything to be too bright or colourful. The illustrations needed to retain the ancient book look, and I found that this worked well with darker colours.

As you’ll probably notice I also went very minimal on the backgrounds. I did this for two reasons: Firstly, the background, unless stated in the story, presented no extreme importance, as the stories centred mainly on the characters and their emotions/reactions. So I focused on them for more impact, and I feel that it works well, as I was able to give each illustration a “mood” by using certain colours/textures/lighting.

Secondly, I am not at all adept at drawing backgrounds. That’s rather an understatement really, as I have very little grasp of perspective and am still learning (doesn’t help that my depth perception in everyday life is slightly off). While I would have loved to do some amazing scenery, I felt it was in the best interests of my client that I not attempt something that I am extremely bad at, to save ruining the whole image.

Overall I’m pleased with the outcome, and the subsequent popularity it has afforded me among fellow artists, as it was a huge learning curve for me. Sure, it may be the only commission I ever get, but it’s still something to add to my CV!

Here are a few of my favourites from the bunch, and you can find the rest, as well as the fascinating stories, here. It is all in
Welsh, but if you don’t speak it you can still play the games and look through the gallery.

These are the two duelling dragons from Lludd and Llefelys. I based the red and the green on the Welsh flag, but also used those colours because they contrast so brilliantly. I think I’m most proud of this illustration because of its impact, and also the fact that it was the first time I’d ever designed dragons from scratch.

Not a very interesting image, but I love this one for the idea behind it. Gareth wanted a title page of sorts for the website, and I juggled between the idea of having the title look like it had been carved into stone, or having the title look like an old wax seal. Ultimately the seal looked far more cool. I went through various tutorials online about how to make one in Photoshop, but in the end I wound up making it on my own by playing about with Photoshop (it’s amazing what you learn when you’re not trying to!), and I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.

Finally, this image is the first one I completed, and what a feeling it was! Blodeuwedd is the character I “auditioned” in the beginning when I was trying to get the job, and I bonded with her so well that I had to use her in the final image. This is where she is born into the world by broom, meadowsweet and oak. One of the main reasons I like this image so much is that I got to explore the brush tool by making my own. Each flower, leaf or blade of grass is a brush mark that I was able to create in Photoshop. I also used this “make your own” brush tool in a couple of other pictures. See if you can guess which ones.

The Mabinogi are truly fascinating tales and it would be interesting to see this develop into a comic series, or books, or even a television show. They’re full of fantasy, magic, darkness – everything you want in a good story!

I hope you’ll check out the Mabinogi website, not just for my benefit, but also for those others that have put so much effort into making it a reality.

Bookjacket Brief Part Two – Final Blog

2010-05-25T23:06:00.006+01:00

Finally, I have completed an entire brief from start to finish. As I said in Part One, this has probably been my most successful brief, I hope. It was relatively straightforward and full of experimenting and workshops, which I found enjoyable.

After the 3D workshop I was in the hub with Dave Kelly, getting ready to do the digital workshop, only to find out I already knew everything I needed to do to get on with it.

Using the very basics of Photoshop we were to create a 2-colour and black-line overlay print of the book cover.

I can’t stress how easy this part of the project was, I literally finished it in a matter of hours. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know.

I’d learned a lot about drawing in Photoshop from my Mabinogi project, and so I drew up a very bold black-line image of the front cover of my Bookjacket, using the pen tool. Then it was simply a matter of filling it in with different colours to see what worked.

The great thing about Photoshop is the hue/saturation option, which allows me to change any colour at will, allowing me to see what colours look nice where. This is the tool that made my job so easy, as I was able to mock up some designs in about an hour. Here are some, but not all, of the designs and colour combinations I came up with.

I was very partial to the neon pink/orange/yellow/black combination I came up with, and decided that those were the final colours I would use in the finished piece.

The fortnight afterwards I was doing on the Traditional Media workshop with Sue Thornton. After looking through some of the watercolour and acrylics work I’d brought in she gave me some tips and advised me that working in acrylics would be rewarding, but challenging. I heeded this advice, but decided I wanted to try and work with that medium nevertheless (see Tie Die post).

Finally, the Printmaking workshop with John Archer. I have been doing printmaking for over a year now, and although I enjoy doing it, I’m nowhere near perfect. After a disastrous start and a few mishaps I was sorry to only come out with three prints of any real tidiness. However, I managed to stick to my colour combination as you can see. It appears to work in most mediums!

And a few experiments and painful hours later, here is the finished piece in acrylics (and a watercolour pink).

Bookjacket Brief Part One – 3D Model

2010-05-25T22:23:00.013+01:00

Beware if you don’t like spiders – this blog is completely centered around them.

Well, I have to say, this has possibly been the most enjoyable brief I've attempted this year, and (hopefully) the one that will save my hide during the assessments, as I feel I've produced my best work here.

As mentioned in previous posts, the Bookjacket brief required us to create a book cover for a nature-themed book. From all the subjects I decided to go for The World of Spiders, because Spiders are brilliant, intricate and so beautiful (a million women are screaming right now).

I started with the basic research, drawing diagrams such as the spider anatomy, facial close-ups, different species and the various types of spider’s webs, but when it came to the thumbnail designs it only took me about three or four drafts until I was happy with one design. See my Tie Dye post to spot the design.

I set my heart of the close-up of the spider face with their big pearly black eyes, making a few changes here and there throughout each draft. It was then that we were given our workshops.

For the first fortnight I had a blast working in the 3D buildings, which, annoyingly, I was not aware that I have been allowed access to for the last year and a half. At first I was clueless about what I wanted to do with the project, but after some inspiring demonstrations from Dave Jones, which included showing us how to carve into polystyrene and vacuum-form objects, I asked to have my arm cast in mod-rok; my idea was to adapt my ambition as a tattooist and “perform” the tattooing onto the cast arm, using only spider-themed images.

Here's me looking ecstatic:

Dave handed me a book to flick through called 500 Figures in Clay, an absolutely gorgeous collection of inspiring 3D art. I picked out a few of my favourites and photographed them to give myself an idea of what I wanted.

Once the arm cast had dried out I painted it a pale skin colour similar to my own, then set about designing some “tattoos” for it.

I’ll be the first to admit they are not precisely what I had in mind. This 3D work was to be my piece de resistance, but I rushed the tattoos and did not put much thought into them, and so I ended up with these.

When it came to transferring the designs to the arm-cast, I had visions of doing it the way tattooists do, using carbon paper. Alas, I could not get hold of any, so I transferred them by hand. It was probably the easiest part of the project, as painting them turned out extremely difficult. As the cast had been made quite rough and thick I had a hard time sanding it down and there were a lot of cracks and grooves that would disturb the paint. Watered-down acrylics would not take to it very well, and so I had to take my time, painting it with undiluted acrylics very slowly. Suffice to say my neck is still aching from the concentration.

And yet I am not particularly happy with the final outcome. I know this is because I rushed it near the end. In an attempt to polish up the rest of my projects I left this one until last minute and jeopardized it’s success. However, as my boyfriend stated, I sure did learn to plan ahead and take care next time around.

My plan was to do a series of arm casts painted to look interesting, for example: a tattooed arm, a zombie arm, a bionic arm, etc. It’s something I would perhaps like to look into doing next year.

As well as the arm cast I had a go at vacuum-forming a rubber spider, making a cast of it and creating my own little red latex spider. It was for no particular reason other than experimentation. However, in the end I decided to use it in the final 3D model as an arm adornment. Since glue didn’t hold it on, I actually had to sit there and stitch it to the cast!

I guess what they say must be true: “Prior planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance”. And don’t I know it!

Finally, in a very sad and ironic twist of fate, my tarantula Mandy died during the project. I brought her in after being told I could preserve her in resin to use as an ornament, paperweight, fancy decoration, whatever.

Here she is, lovely as ever!

Bookjacket Brief Part Two – Final Blog

The Pearl of Lulworth Cove

2010-05-19T22:58:00.004+01:00

I feel compelled to share this with you all.

When I was in Dorset during Easter, I made it a mission of mine to seek out The Shell Painter, an artist I remember from my youth.

He would sit on the steps near Lulworth Cove beach and dazzle me with his beautiful paintings on shells, stones and bits of glass, some of them very tiny.

I was happy to find him still sitting there, painting his lovely little souvenirs, so I had to buy one.

I even spoke to him, told him I remembered him from my childhood. He told me he’s been doing it for twenty-odd years now, and that occasionally people would come up with their children, and insult him with comments like “you could do better than that.”

What they don’t see is the love and care that goes into his tiny works of art, and his steady hand. I purchased a small stone off him with a painting of a mermaid on it along with a poem:

"How often and often I wish
I lived in green depths like a fish!
No noise, not a thing,
But the mermaids who sing
Whilst their tales give a silvery swish.

Frances Cornford"

Take a look for yourself, it’s beautiful.

So I must insist that if you’re ever down in Dorset, head to Lulworth Cove beach and you’ll spot him a mile off. I took a photo of him myself, but you can find a much clearer one here.

Purchase one of his little treasures and encourage more artists to live the dream!

Blog 3: In which I am at peace with my ambitions

2010-05-17T23:58:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since my last post, but my exploration of the tattoo world is increasing each day!

I’m so excited. Soon I will be free for the summer to pursue an ambition that is fast becoming real to me. Of course, I’ve read enough to know that getting into the tattoo world takes time, patience, dedication and unbelievable talent (for those who actually appreciate fantastic art) but for the first time in my life I feel positive that I have found a place that I may belong in the art world.

However, everywhere I look I end up selling myself short; because I feel I am nowhere near up to scratch. I haven’t had the benefit of tattooing since I was 14 like some artists, but I have had the benefit of learning to draw throughout my entire life. I feel that the precious stone of my artwork is there, but that it really needs polishing and refining, which could take a while.

I have been reading up non-stop on tattooing, watching documentaries, investigating for over a year now, but I am still missing hands-on experience. In the tattooing world, it seems, there are literally millions of people gunning to be tattooists nowadays, and apprenticeships are harder to come by, because artists are reluctant to hire just anybody.

Which is why I need to create art that is worth its weight in gold.

I get that people don’t want shoddy artwork besmirching their skin, and many’s the time I have drawn something, only to hate it minutes later. I would feel awful if I were not a really good artist by the time I approached a tattoo studio, if not a great one.

And so, to prove to myself and to prove to others that I am not just in this for the so-called fame and glory of tattooing, that shows like LA and Miami Ink glamorise (although I love those shows, they are unrealistic), I asked myself why I want to become a tattoo artist:

1. To create artwork that fascinates people.

2. To gain further insight into a historic practice that intrigues me.

3. To become a better artist and a role model for my brothers.

4. To see the World.

5. To help people, most notably a close friend who suffers from Vitiligo (a skin condition that causes the pigments in the skin to fade).

6. It will allow me to learn a vast array of art styles: no limits.

7. It embodies a lot of styles that I am already familiar with.

8. It requires no phony degree, only raw talent.

9. I want to be an approachable woman in a predominantly male profession, and one other women and girls can look up to.

10. I wish to find my own “Mr Miyagi”: my sensei who will guide me on my path to artistic enlightenment!

11. I want my dad to want me to tattoo him.

12. At the end of the day, it feels right.

So I hope you can see that any passion I have for art is exclusively injected into this ultimate form right now!

On a final note, I can now be found on the forums of Big Tattoo Planet, under the name JemimaLee. This promises to be a very insightful website and a great way to communicate with fellow artists and skin-art fans, so if you happen to be on there don’t be afraid to add me as a friend!

Dying to Tie it

2010-05-06T18:37:00.018+01:00

I’ve been taking care of my younger brothers this week whilst my parents were away for their wedding anniversary. And so I have taken the perfect opportunity to mess up the kitchen and turn it into my mini-studio to work at home from whilst I’m in dire need of a decent desk.

It may look cluttered, but this is tidy to me and I’ve never felt so humbled. I’m sad to have to tidy it all away tonight now that the parents are home.

However, it has allowed me to do a lot of work, particularly on my Bookjacket project. This week I missed the traditional media workshop, in which my tutor promised to take a look at my use of watercolours and acrylics. So I had to take it upon myself to practice and experiment. Which I did. And I loved it!

Acrylics are so pliable! Once they’ve dried you can layer them on top of one another without losing or changing the colour. I find my favourite effects come with using a dry brush, which gives me a real grungy, rough stroke.

As well as acrylics I have also tried many other media to try and evoke the right feeling for my World of Spiders Bookjacket. Try and guess which media I used where…

My personal favourite though has to be this one.

I love the bold neon colours, they’re eccentric and really punk rock! And much more colourful and imaginative than anything else I’ve come up with.

Just one more week of printmaking and I should have at least one final Bookjacket design if not three different ones (digital, traditional, screen/lino printed). As for the 3D model that refers to the Bookjacket brief, I am doing something a little different, stay tuned for a blog on that later.

As well as working on my uni work I also took some time out for three cans of Monster Energy and some good old-fashioned hippie tie-dying.

I haven’t tie-dyed since my girlhood days of Brownies and Guides, where I made a blue hankie. It was awesome.

But my latest project is much cooler.

I started by buying myself some Dylon hand-dying powder from an art shop. It was less that £6 for two packets, so I grabbed yellow and violet, the colour my hair used to be, and one of my favourite colour combinations. Then I bought a cotton vest from Tesco for £3. Sweet!

I washed my vest to get rid of any impurities, then I followed the pack instructions… almost. I decided I wouldn’t need two full packs of dye for one tiny vest, so I halved everything. Where the pack told me to dissolve the powder in 500ml of water, I dissolved only half the pack in 250ml of water, and so on. So when I tell you how I did it, keep in mind the measurements have all been reduced by 50%.

After dissolving my dye in warm water I got a fresh bucket and filled it with three litres of warm water. Warm meaning it was hot but I could easily put my hand in it. Then I added 2 ½ - 3 tablespoons of regular table salt. The salt helps to open up the pores in the clothes, enabling it to take on the dye more easily.

Once the salt had dissolved I pored my ready made dye into the bucket of warm water and mixed it well.

Now for the creative part. I decided to go for a swirl pattern on my vest. There are many patterns and you can find them online, or on youtube videos, particularly this one. Basically I just pinched the (damp) fabric and twisted it. Then I used some string to tie it up really tight into a little bundle.

When I was happy with the bundle I dropped it into the diluted-dye mixture. The pack asked me to stir continuously for 15 minutes, then occasionally for a further 45 minutes, so that the fabric is steeped for a full hour. But obviously you don’t have to be so anal, they’re just guidelines.

After about an hour I poured the water away and rinsed the bundle under cold water until it ran clear. Then I rinsed it further in warm water. When I was happy that the dye was fixed I squeezed out any excess water and left it damp, ready to go again.

I repeated the entire process, this time with the yellow dye. All the advice reads that you dye using your darkest colour first, finishing with the lightest.

The only thing I changed this time besides the colour was the pattern. I twisted and contorted the fabric a different way, aiming the get any white fabric dyed yellow for a nice mix. Then I dropped the bundle into the dye again and gave it an hour.

After cleaning and rinsing the fabric, and feeling chuffed with my work, I left the vest to dry. I’d been advised not to use direct heat or sunlight for this.

Finally, I ironed my vest to fix the dye and… well you can see the results for yourself!

It was an easy, hassle-free process, cheap and the results are fantastic! I’ll be doing a towel for my holidays, a shirt for my sister and some bed sheets to brighten up my bedroom. For these I would like to further my understanding of the process in order to create other patterns, effects and even images with the dye.

In the words of Neil Buchanan, “Try it yerself!”

Music + Art = Love

2010-04-30T16:16:00.010+01:00

This Music as Product brief is gonna kick so much tooshie (I’m trying to be more professional by not swearing in my blogs… let’s see how long it’ll last…)!

Seriously, I’m very excited; I’ve already unconsciously been preparing for it, as I’ve been aiming to design an album cover for Taste the Blood for a while now. But also because I have so much free reign to be myself, discover new art and get really creative in the process.

The project is simple: create a vinyl cover for a band album, whether real or fake. Make the album cover as interesting as possible, with added gifts and collectables, whilst also making sure the product can be batch produced five times or more. That works out great for me, as I’ll then have one copy for myself, and one each for the members of Taste the Blood.

I love a good album, but I love an album even more when there’s something super special about it. These are the ones I usually go out and buy. For example, every Gorillaz album and, my most recent purchase, Paramore’s Brand New Eyes Deluxe Edition, which I picked up for a cool £34.99. These are both great examples of well packaged music for the major fans. The Gorillaz D-sides album included pin badges, stickers, a sew-on fabric badge, and sketches by Jamie Hewlett, whilst Brand New Eyes had a DVD, a 7” vinyl with acoustic versions of two songs, Hayley Williams' journal, a double-sided poster and photo-cards, not to mention a certificate of authenticity.

It’s amazing what more they can do with music, and there’s nothing better than opening a brand new album, especially if it includes loads of freebies.

So I will be working with Taste the Blood, a Wrexham-based Metal Band in which my boyfriend plays bass, to produce something they can be proud of. They very kindly gave me a list of things that influence and inspire their music and their look, which threw up some very interesting concepts: German expressionist cinema, Bauhaus, cubism, Hammer Horror, 1950’s pop art and B-Movies were but a few of them.

When I mentioned their influences to Dan Berry, he pointed me in the direction of Charles Burns and told me to have a look at Black Hole, a comic about mutated teenagers. I've seen some of the pages online, but what really intrigued me about the story was that a photographer called Max Oppenheim has taken stills of some of the comic's mutated characters and used prosthetics to turn them into realistic, horrific year book photos. It's really disturbing, but ultimately brilliant, and works for an idea my boyfriend had of doing each of the band members as famous monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc). Will have to look into this more, but you can check out the rest of those creepy photos here.

I love the idea of exploring old-school horror cinema and advertising. It gives me the chance to steer away from the typical Metal album cover ideas, which usually feature big hairy guys who look like they’re going to murder you. I’ve been looking into album cover design for a while now and I’ve come across some great, and sometimes controversial, pieces of work.

The Scorpions – Virgin Killer: Do I even need to mention why this is one of the most controversial album covers of all time? And yet it does what the title says. I think the glass effect is fantastic, but I’d be much more careful working with kids like this.

Iron Maiden – Killers: Iron Maiden are known for their awesome album covers, featuring their mascot, Eddie. This album cover is my personal favourite, drawn by Derek Riggs. I love the grungy cityscape, the bright, morbid colouring and Eddie’s cheerfully psychotic smile. Classic.

The Used – In Love and Death: The album artwork here is done by Alex Pardee. I love how simplistic his use of line and colour is. It’s creepy and yet still whimsical. Very Tim Burton.

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach: I couldn’t go on about album covers without throwing them in somewhere. The album cover for their latest album is the most extensive in terms of artwork, and also the most colourful.

I have, of course, more influences than this but I’m trying to save space!

So, not only do I have to do an amazing album cover, I also have to create some collectables to go with it. My initial ideas were your typical album collectables: stickers, badges, posters, etc. But I’ve also come up with the humorous idea of creating some comic trump cards of each of the band members. I think they’d find it quite funny, they all have a good sense of humour.

Also, I will be aiming to make a small single cover for a CD as well as a DVD cover for them to use when they eventually distribute them.

But for now, I’m going to experiment and play about a bit!

And if that wasn’t enough, I have managed to manipulate the Negotiated brief to suit me as well! It’s a self-written brief that interprets Liverpool in some way. I am going to create an audio-plus-map tour of Liverpool, using only the music of The Beatles. Dan suggested I call it The Musical Mystery Tour, which I really liked.

So the full title is: The Beatles' Musical Mystery Tour of Liverpool!

I’m off to the great city tonight for my usual helping of Liverpool One (to see Iron Man 2), Worlds Apart, Quiggins and the Tea House Cafe for my Udon Noodle soup with pork dumplings. But more importantly, for research, to snuff out the most notable, inspiring and fun locations for my musical map idea. I’ll be taking my dictaphone to record any thoughts I have along the way, and a camera to snap some photos.

My plan is to create a quirky mini-map of Liverpool that corresponds to a compilation of Beatles tracks that I will put together on a CD and my iPod. Obviously because of copyright issues I may not be able to stream the track listing online, but I will post it in a blog, along with my downloadable map in case anyone wants to give the tour a go.

Dan Berry showed me a funky piece of work by a student last year who created a pocket book of band names, which folded out like a map and was screen printed onto newsprint. I thought it looked great and it was really simply put together, so I’m going to use it as my main inspiration for the finished piece, but with major changes. I like the idea of screen printing the map, it’s a quick and re-usable process. However, I wouldn’t do it on newsprint as it could tear easily. What I’m thinking is perhaps doing an A3/A2 map that will either be laminated for protection, or can be packaged with the CD in something fancy.

But first, it’s super-research-weekend-fun-time!

Comic Review: The P.L.A.I.N Janes

2010-04-30T14:25:00.000+01:00

I picked this up off the classroom shelf the other day, annoyed for two reasons; firstly, because my tutors hadn’t shown up; and secondly, because I was planning to write a comic in my third year called “Plain Jayne”, about my life. Just goes to show how original I am.

As always, watch out for spoilers.

Written by Cecil Castellucci, with artwork by Jim Rugg, The P.L.A.I.N Janes follows, you guessed it, Jane, a girl who has just survived a terrorist attack in her home city. The attack disrupts her life, turning her from a fashionable blonde city girl, into an emotional art-freak with a bob of black hair. Her paranoid parents move from the city to the cosy, but ultimately boring, suburbs.

On her first day of school Jane is invited to join the popular girl’s table, but rejects them in favour of a bunch of misfits who ironically are called Jane, Jayne and Polly Jane. This was the first thing to irk me. I know this can happen in real life (I once knew four Emmas in the same class) but I found it so predictable. The term Plain Jane can refer to any girl of limited presence. I found it a bit lazy to name them all Jane.

“Main Jane”, the protagonist, is your typical I-feel-everything art student, almost emo-like. She has a few redeemable qualities, but as a whole character I found that I couldn’t connect with her constant moping. Perhaps because I’ve never been in a terrorist attack.

Then we have the other three Janes. Theatre Jane is an overly dramatic, over-weight Shakespeare-spewing stereotype in a scarf. Brain Jane is a big nerd. And Sporty Jane is an athletic chick with a monobrow. What we have here is the Disney Channel show, Recess. Main Jane is a combination of TJ and Spinelli, whilst her comrades resemble Mikey, Gretchen and Vince.

Now I’m all for minor clichés and stereotypes, but I like to see something original in a character. For this reason, I could not connect with any of the main characters, because they were all very hollow. I found that by the end of the story, I couldn’t care less about them.

Now the story, it had some promise. Main Jane, trying to rebuild herself as an artist, tries to inspire her neighbourhood to be creative by performing art attacks with her friends under the guise P.L.A.I.N: People Loving Art In Neighbourhoods.

The idea is cute, and a good way to inspire the town. However, it doesn’t appear to work. Apart from inspiring some of her fellow high school students to sing randomly in class, she never comes close to helping her overprotective mother to relax her rules, or the town’s adults ease up and see her projects as art and not graffiti. There seems to be no resolve to the story, and no sense to the random acts of creativity that P.L.A.I.N produce, which is a shame because they had some great ideas, such as filling the town fountain with washing up liquid, and planting hundreds of garden knomes outside of the police station in protest.

Their final act ends in disaster, and leaves the book’s love interest facing expulsion, and yet none of the Janes do the honourable thing, which would be to come clean and confess. Instead they all carry on with their increasingly dull lives, and this left me both wishing for more, and yet not wanting to read it.

The artwork however is remarkable. It’s a style reminiscent of Daniel Clowes (see below). However, where The P.L.A.I.N Janes fails is that it pretty much tries to be Ghost World, with the loser characters and anti-climatic ending, but it never reaches the same brilliance because it is aimed at a totally different audience. Ghost World is aimed at those who’ve seen all, done all, lived through it and accept that life does, quite eventually, suck. The P.L.A.I.N Janes tries the same route, but aims it at younger teenagers, still in high school, who don’t want to know that life is hard yet.

This is why I believe the book failed to grasp me. It tries to be too smart and too original before it’s time. I understand there is a sequel called Janes in Love, but I don’t feel compelled to go out and read it.

I’d recommend this to you for the interesting creativity ideas put forward. I particularly like Main Jane’s motto: “Art Saves”. But story-wise it’s completely forgettable. Unless perhaps you’re a fourteen-year-old emo girl.

Dan’s Reel Reviews (no, it’s not a spelling error)

2010-04-29T15:44:00.004+01:00

I love my boyfriend enough to encourage him on his sometimes strange ideas, and not to bullshit him if I think he’s full of hot air. But when he came to me spouting notions of his own radio show (in due time) I did think it was a brilliant idea.

In advance Daniel, I know you won’t mind me telling your life story, but I’ll warn you about it anyway.

Dan left Glyndwr University a few years ago with a well-earned degree in Film Making. However, there were no films to be made, and no job for him. So since then he has been puttering around, waiting for something to happen, and apart from a few undeveloped film ideas (Queers of War being my favourite) he has done nothing to further his dream of becoming a film maker.

Until now.

I approached his radio show with the same enthusiasm as his other ideas, but I really think this one has a lot of potential. Dan has a natural performing spirit about him, always the centre of attention. If he’d tried it, he probably could have gotten into acting.

His podcast, named Dan’s Reel Reviews, allows him to do what he loves, which is watch loads of films, then pick them apart like any good critic. Although there are times when we do not always agree on what makes a good film, I do admire his reasoning, and he has a great radio voice.

This week marks the second week of his podcast, which you can listen to here. He reviews a recent cinema release (which is great because I get to go see more films), a recent DVD release and a “Hidden Gem”, which is a genre movie suggested by his listeners every week.

The upcoming show will feature a review of Date Night, Avatar and As Good As It Gets.

I am very proud of him, and will be standing by, making sure he does it each week and doesn’t let it fall into disrepair. However, I am also his biggest critic and am constantly giving him tips on how to improve. So no, I’m not biased.

Well… except he did let me do the logo for his group on facebook…

You may call this blog shoddy advertising, but I’m not being paid. However, he’ll probably treat me to the cinema this weekend!

Hell I may as well throw in a last bit of self-advertisement! Here is the link to my own facebook group about my freelance work, on which you can contact me about commissions:

Jemima Lee – Freelance Artist

Shameless, I know!!

I love getting nice Emails

2010-04-29T15:38:00.003+01:00

Some of you may have caught my latest review on With a Face Like Mine. I went to see The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde some time ago, and was so impressed I felt compelled to write to the company and tell them of my enjoyment. I also popped a link to my review into the email, not expecting them to read it, but giving them the chance.

So imagine my surprise when I received an email back from the company, thanking me for my review and faith in their production team.

“Dear Jemima

Thank you so much for your lovely message, kind comments and brilliant review! I will pass these on to the actors and director who will all be very pleased. Wish we could have performed more than one night too but the theatre is new and they are still trying to build up a regular audience. Thanks for trying to spread the word and listing the tour dates. Jekyll & Hyde is a show we’ve worked very hard on and as we have a limited budget and necessity is the mother of invention. Fortunately, we have a team of great actors (3 of whom were also in Dorian Gray) who have embraced our pub concept and run with it. We hope to come back to Glyndwr Uni soon and look forward to seeing you there!

All the best

John O’Connor
European Arts Company Ltd."

It’s great when people write back to you, even just to acknowledge one fan. Which is why I always try to leave a response when a fan of my work leaves me a message. It’s just plain polite.

Wrexham in Bloom - Week Twelve

2010-04-23T14:46:00.003+01:00

“Today we were given yet another project. I believe this culmination of projects and commissions is going to destroy me.” Me, three months ago.

Everyone has completed the Wrexham in Bloom brief. EVERYONE!

And I’m stuck on my own, a loser, like last year’s Critical Studies group project, for which I had no stinking group.

I thought I was doing so well this year. I have many of the projects started, unfinished, but started… but this Wrexham in Bloom brief? It’s just unnecessary hassle.

I’m on a comics course for crying out loud. We did two comics at the beginning of the year, and I really got into them, and now we’re stuck doing posters and packaging. If I wanted to do stuff like this I would’ve gone on the graphics course. But I’ve already done a graphics course in college and I didn’t enjoy it.

So anyway, where am I?

The deadline is passed and I have nothing. My theory is to just submit something, anything, for the assessments. Plus I have this blog I suppose. But seriously, this is the one brief that is really bringing me down because despite stacks of research I have no interest in it. It’s leaflets, posters, packaging about bees and batteries. It’s boring.

I mean I could make it fun, but all the fun has gone out of me this year. I’m fed up of doing posters about toys and cycling. It’s tedious.

I knew in the first year that Graphic Novels is not the right direction for me. I mean I’d like to publish one someday, but it’s a long hard process and I’m impatient. Instead I am now dedicating myself to working with Tattoos, designing them for people, as a Tattooist must work with their client in much the same way a graphic designer must work with his/hers. And with Tattoo designs, and all other client-related work I have never had a problem, because they trust me to deliver.

I didn’t come on this course to learn how to work for people. I KNOW how to work for people. BBC Wales just paid me an impressive wage for some illustrations for their Mabinogi website, and I’ve been working with them successfully for months, I KNOW how to work for a client. And when I asked if that commission could replace this darn thing I was told no. I still need to know how to work for the council.

So now, I have nothing. I will do the poster, but I am leaving this module to the Gods, because it is my lowest priority. I’ve already missed the deadline, I don’t see the point in missing the deadline for my other more interesting projects, ie: Music as Product, which I am working myself silly for because it means I can get some snazzy album artwork done for my boyfriend’s Metal band, Taste the Blood.

Now that’s more like it.

Theatre Review: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

2010-04-22T18:01:00.000+01:00

I came across this in the “What’s on at Glyndwr” leaflet. You see, from time to time I do like to see a live show, whether it’s a play or a local band. I find it much more intimate to watch something live rather than on film, or hearing music in its purest form rather than listening to iTunes.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the theatre. I last saw a production of The Golden Pathway Annual performed by Theatre Train’s talented youngsters, in which my friend played a lead role. Similar to The Golden Pathway Annual, Jekyll and Hyde utilizes the idea of limited props for the actors. Although the production was small and minimal, I nevertheless had confidence in the show. When there are fewer props and actors, and more scenes and roles to fill, the actor’s abilities and the audience’s imagination are called into play more, and therefore a great performance is far more apparent.

Well, I have to say I really wasn’t disappointed. If anything, I was overwhelmed. The show was fantastic, excellently executed and thoroughly thrilling, as well as surprisingly hilarious! I wasn’t aware that it was a comedy, as well as a drama, but I really haven’t laughed that hard at a film or television show in a long time!

I’m sure many of you know the story of Jekyll and Hyde; a doctor in 1800’s London creates a potion that changes him from a whimpering cowardly man into a confidence, albeit misanthropic monster, who maims and murders. The story was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, and published in 1886. Ironically, the Jack the Ripper murders happened not long after and Stevenson was accused of inspiring the serial killer.

The European Arts Company - who previously portrayed The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I am so upset I didn’t get to see - performed this production in a series of shows around the country. You can find the tour dates here.

With only four actors filling multiple roles, and using only props that would be found in your local pub (barrels, a bar, curtains, a piano…) the director, Jonathan Kemp, really had his work cut out for him. Thankfully the whole team delivered.

Set in a pub in the late 1800’s, just after the first stage production of Jekyll and Hyde, actor Richard Mansfield weaves a tale of drama and intrigue to the locals. Well, rather than weave, the whole bar ensemble act it out, changing each scene as they go along, moving the set about and working it into the script as part of the show. Surprisingly, this is not off-putting in the least, as all the actors manage to stay in character and converse as they are doing so. And the transformations are excellent; with barely anything to work with they create a laboratory, a casino, a train, a Scottish highland mansion. Even a shady street corner for the “ladies of the night.”

I cannot ruin the story for you but rest assured it is both new and exciting, no matter how many times you have heard the original. With added humor and women (apparently there were no females in the book), it will keep you on the edge of your seat for its 1 hour and 50 minutes running time.

The four actors were terrific, in particular William Hartley as both Jekyll and Hyde. Your eyes never leave him when he is on stage, and his portrayal of Jekyll as a meek, Scottish heir was so convincing I thought that was actually the way he talked. So when he transformed into the suave, charismatic, but ultimately psychotic Hyde, I was shocked!

Jennifer Bryden was very impressive as the only actress on stage, able to fill any role, from Jekyll’s sweet, Scottish sister, to a cockney prostitute. I find that not many actresses have the ability to be funny, but she had as much, if not more, comedic talent as the male cast, and I felt she shone greatly as Catriona, a strong female in Victorian London.

Richard Latham played multiple roles, and was hilarious in every one of them. As the bumbling, stuttering Utterson, to Jekyll’s brash, kilted father, to my personal favourite, a young boy standing on a train platform yelling about newspapers. He is clearly incredibly gifted.

And finally, Arthur James as Catriona’s pompous, upper-class fiancé Lanyon, as well as the giggle-inducing butler Poole, and his Scottish counterpart, MacPoole. The programme states that he is a late bloomer as an actor, formerly a Captain in the British Army. You really wouldn’t know it, as he flows brilliantly from one role into the next.

I really cannot say a bad thing about The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Even when the scenery was moved and an extra step “appeared”, causing one of the actors to trip, the improvisation that followed had the audience in stitches and allowed the actors to successfully continue the show.

One thing I will say was my occasional annoyance at the woman sitting behind me who seemed to think she was watching Jerry Springer, and would “ooh!” and gasp loudly at every new event. I later found it quite funny.

My only disappointment is in the fact that it was only playing for one night, as I would like many of my friends and family to have seen it. Simply a brilliant show. I’ll certainly be trying my best in future to get out to the theatre more often, and I will be looking out for the European Arts Company’s next production.

Assessment Harassment should be a Criminal Offence

2010-04-20T17:07:00.003+01:00

So I’ve just gotten back to Uni after the Easter holidays (ours are three weeks long, however we spend much of it drunk off our student faces) and lo and behold, I’ve hurt myself again.

Apparently we were given three new briefs before Easter to work on. Now, I’m not gonna defend myself but when I’m off ill and I ask two people if we’ve had any new briefs, and they say no, I’m entitled to believe them and not worry about it. Which is what I did, hence why I never knew about the stupid briefs!

Shame though because they sound pretty interesting. Unfortunately, I’m still catching up on the work from last semester! My finger is lodged firmly up my pooper and it just won’t come out (sorry about the image…)

But honestly, I think prioritizing the BBC project before my Uni work was the worst thing I could possibly do. I mean sure I made a lot of money, but I’m risking another referral, or worse: getting kicked out! Daddy would love that.

When will I learn? Seriously, I’m asking you!

Anyway I took some advice and started making an assessment checklist. We usually get it about a fortnight before the assessments but I needed one now. Here’s how I’ve got it all figured out:

Jem’s Assessment Checklist

Semester 1 Briefs

1. Narrative
2. Stranger than Fiction
3. Journal Article
4. Documentary

Semester 2 Briefs

5. Bookjacket
• 3D
• Digital
• Traditional
• Printmaking
6. Toys
7. Cycling in London
8. Wrexham in Bloom

Semester 3 Briefs

9. Music as Product
10. Negotiated
11. Dissertation Proposal

PDP

12. Blogs (Artist’s Journal, With A Face Like Mine, Pins and Needles)
13. Mabinogi
14. Research Folder
15. Personal Sketchbooks
16. Tattoos

To be perfectly honest it doesn’t look as bad if I ignore the PDP section, for which there are no rules. I think my PDP is ok. The Mabinogi will certainly snazz it up a bit (note to self: print off Mabinogi pics on posh paper).

The Narrative brief is practically done, I just need to experiment with it a bit, change some panels, have some fun. The Stranger than Fiction comic needs redoing, but that’ll take me less than a day, plus some experiments for that. As for the Journal Article and Documentary, those are both in the bag already (got a B and an A+ for those, go fig).

Eh… onto semester 2. The Bookjacket brief is barely off the ground. I have the basic final idea, but not enough development. Also, I gotta finish my 3D pieces – an entire cast of my arm painted with Spider tattoos, a latex spider and my resin-dipped Tarantula Mandy, God rest her tiny soul. That should be fun. Also gotta mock-up something for the digital workshop, but that will literally take a me a few hours, since I’m now a whizz at Photoshop (Hey, my eyes are bleeding). Haven’t had the trad. or print workshops yet, so I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Toys brief is pretty much done once I paint and photograph the final piece (note to self: speak to that photography tutor guy).

Wrexham in Bloom and Cycling in London = Death. Here I am stuck because I’m drawing blanks for both. Not literally, because then at least I would be doing something! The Wrexham in Bloom brief is (hopefully) gonna wind up being a ‘60’s Flower Power style poster, and the Cycling in London one will include some kind of pin-up girl (SEX SELLS)! I’m pretty sure I’ve missed the deadline for both of them but I suppose as long as I present the work at the assessments I’ll get some kind of mark.

As for the latest briefs, I have to do the Negotiated brief for this Friday. Thank God it’s only research and writing; the dissertation one wont take me long, as I’ve been writing down my dissertation ideas for months; and finally, the Music as Product one I am looking forward to, as it fits perfectly with my self-made Taste the Blood album cover, which I’ve been planning for ages. Plus I can get some kick-ass merchandise made for them to hand out at their gigs, hence helping me on my way to become the next great album cover designer (and tattooist, and comic artist, and graphic designer, and writer, and biker…) after Alex Pardee and that guy who draws Eddie for Iron Maiden. Derek Riggs. Who, by the way, is the topic of this week’s Quote of the Week:

“Riggs admitted to Metal Hammer magazine that he was self-taught in his art. He also stated that he had attended art school, but that he was expelled, as they "didn't know much about illustration anyway". Describing art schools in general, Riggs told Metal Hammer that they are "geared towards churning out people to fit into artistic pigeonholes".” Cheers Wikipedia.

Brilliant.

So all in all… I can hopefully pass. How is everyone else doing with their work?

The lesson here kids is: Don’t wish to be like me when you grow up.

Summer Reading List

2010-04-19T14:43:00.009+01:00

My goal this summer is to catch up on my reading and get through ALL of these books I've bought but either haven't finished reading, or have never read at all. I've started reading Understanding Comics three times now, but I never make it to the end. Not because it's boring, but because I have no spare time to read.

But all that's gonna change. Behold the infinite list! (To be continued...)

Goes on forever, doesn't it? And I have more to add! :S

How To Train Your Art Student...

2010-04-14T18:02:00.002+01:00

... let them have fun once in a while.

This is, I suppose, the first piece of proper fun art I've done in a loooooong time (proper = spending hours doing so).

And it shows.

Countless mistakes make it not the ideal debut piece, but I'm just so bored doing Uni work and BBC stuff all the time.

I painted Toothless from the movie How To Train Your Dragon for my boyfriend Dan, who loves Chris Sanders (the director) and thought Toothless was adorable. Cute movie, go see it.

Overwhelmingly Universal Fear

2010-04-12T14:08:00.002+01:00

I can’t be the only person in Glyndwr struggling, but God I feel like it. I have no choice but to just try and get on with it.

I don’t want to fail this year like I did last year, and heck, I know I’ve done way more work than last year and my Crit. Studies work was really good. I mean if I just scrape a Pass at least I’ll get to finish my degree. But I don’t WANT to scrape by, I want my 2.2 or 2.1.

I suppose the reasons I’m struggling this year is down to two things: firstly, the BBC project. That drained me completely and took all of my motivation and focus from my coursework. However, I’ll forever be grateful to the BBC for that amazing opportunity, and for helping me towards my trip to America. Incidentally, I’m still working on two more pieces for them.

Secondly, and this is a stupid one, but I guess being in a relationship has stunted me a little. Being my first serious relationship, I find that I just wanted to spend all my free time with my Dan, and when I procrastinate I have someone to run and whine to, whereas last year I was very lonely and would just get depressed.

Well we’ve been together a year now and, although we’re still very happy, we both feel it’s necessary to spend some time apart, so I can get my finger out and do some work at last. If I estimate it right I’d say I’ve seen Dan about 350 days out of this last year.

The worst part is I no longer have a mobile phone, so I feel cut off from the world if my laptop isn’t on. And now the weather’s perfect I should be outside, but I’m stuck in doors.

In half an hour I have a driving lesson, then afterwards it’s (metaphorical) Clobberin’ time.

To Do List:

The Mabinogi – two final illustrations to go with the Cube Interactive online games.
Bookjacket Brief – Finalish designs, and all extended workshop pieces.
Toys Brief – Final piece on canvas and photographed.
Wrexham in Bloom – concepts and final poster design.
Cycling in London brief – concepts and final poster design.
Narrative – experiments.
Stranger than Fiction – finished comic, then experiments.

COMMISSIONS COME LATER!

Quote of the Week:

“You’re both Human. Give yourselves a break.” Carla, from Scrubs. So I’m gonna take her advice, stop beating myself up and just work my arse off.

Filler post: QnA session :)

2010-03-23T11:15:00.000Z

Well it looks like it could be a while before I actually have time to explore anything truly meaningful in this blog, but I thought a short Q and A filler post might be useful. It'll make me feel like a rock star and could help you decide whether or not piercings/tattoos are for you too, so here goes:

Why do you get piercings?

Because I'm too ugly to look normal.

Nah, that's pretty harsh, plus there are plenty of pretty people out there who have a faceful of piercings, and plenty of ugly people who dont.

The way I see it is I love piercings as a personal thing, because I feel good about myself when I get one; I feel like I can take the pain and see it through the healing process, like a scar. I usually treat myself to piercings after I've accomplished something great.

And secondly, because I don't think much of my face/body I feel like I have nothing to lose really. But piercings aren't for everyone. If you don't want a big hole in your lip when you're forty, then you shouldn't get a labret. And so on and so forth...

Do piercings hurt?

The more fleshy the area is, the less it hurts. For example, my lobes, lip and eyebrow didn't hurt at all. They were sore whilst they were healing, but it was totally bearable.

However, piercing cartilage or an erect nipple fucking hurts. For me they used this freezing liquid to numb the area a little. Most piercers will use this nowadays.

But then pain is different for everyone. I have a very high pain threshold and no fear of needles. If you're scared of getting pierced, then take a friend with you. Or otherwise don't get one because they can be awkward when they're healing.

How can you like tattoos if you haven't got any?

Well, hold on a second: I'm only twenty one.

Money has always been an issue. For a good piece of artwork you're going to spend a lot. Sometimes it's the same for a crap piece of art.

But for me it's mostly finding the right tattoo and the right artist. My tattoos have to mean something. Some people like meaningful tattoos, some people just get any old thing. If you get any old thing there's more chance that you'll hate it in twenty years.

I see my body as a canvas waiting to be turned into a work of art. And I hate art without purpose or a story. I don't want to wind up looking like some back-alley wall that a bunch of kids grafittied when they were bored. Everything I do in life has a purpose and I live by the rule that everything happens for a reason, so it seems only right that my body should be decorated accordingly.

I'm looking into turning each of my limbs into an element (earth, water, fire, air) while my torso represents the spirit, because I love nature, harmony and balance.

What do you think of people without tattoos/piercings?

Honestly, I think it's boring. Even one gorgeous tattoo is a great conversation starter for someone like me who has trouble talking to people. But then I guess if everyone was the same then the world would be incredibly dull.

I just wish people weren't so hateful towards tattooed people, especially when it comes to job opportunities. But I really think the western world is starting to handle tattoos with a more relaxed attitude now, especially regarding tattooed women.

As for piercings, I think they only suit certain people. It takes a certain kind of attitude to pierce your face or sensitive areas. You've gotta be gutsy and hard-faced. I hate seeing these little emo girls with doll-faces and then huge bits of metal in their lips. You can tell they're gonna get fed up with the whole emo-farce and take them out in a few years.

What if you regret getting tattoos/piercings when you're older?

The way I see it, by the time I'm old enough to possibly regret getting pierced or tattooed, one of three things will have happened:

1. Most people from my generation, my friends or whatever, will be in the same boat as me, because tattoos and piercings are more acceptable now.

2. They'll have developed better ways to laser-off bad tats. And piercing scars/holes dont bother me anyway.

3. Assuming I tattooed my entire body, why would I be out showing it off when I'm ninety? I'll be covered in cardigans and wooly jumpers for God's sake.

What's the worst tattoo you've ever seen?

When I worked in the Odeon this guy came in to see a film. He must have been about forty-fifty, and had a really crap Christmas "Taz" tattoo on his forearm. It looked like some kid had stencilled it on with a bloody biro. There was no interesting compostition or shading, it was just dumped on his forearm like a club stamp.

Dude, if you're reading this, get rid of it.

What's the best tattoo you've ever seen?

That's asking something.

There are so many fabtastic artists out there churning out awesome artwork. I really love photo-realistic stuff and large oriental tattoos of dragons and tigers.

There are plenty of great tats out there but I think the coolest one I've ever seen was this guy who has his entire arm tattooed to look like some steampunk-cyborg-clockwork arm. Kinda like Ed Elric's automail arm from Fullmetal Alchemist. It's pretty damn awesome. And I love sleeves.

Photo from Free Style of Tattoos.

So there you go, hope you found that interesting.

Until next time!

Wrexham in Bloom – Week… Seven?

2010-03-18T12:05:00.010Z

I think it’s safe to say I buggered this project from the beginning. Ok, so there was reading week, which doesn’t count, and two weeks of “mitigating circumstances”, but to be honest the main reason I fell behind on this one was my BBC project, which is now complete. So ahead with the focus, shall we!

Next week sees the return of Claire from the council, coming to see how we’ve gotten on with our Wrexham in Bloom/Bee Battery ideas. I know for a fact I’m not the only one struggling, but I don’t want to be one of those people.

Ideas-wise, I’ve had a few mundane ones pop into my head; poster designs, crappy little comics for kids. I’ve completely dropped the character re-design idea, because too many people are doing it, and I don’t think the council are that bothered about re-designing all their leaflets.

So I’ve come to a couple of conclusions for myself:

1. Do an illustration/poster: I have the experience, and the time to do something straightforward and simple, and I loved graphics and typography in collage.

2. Try out different media: I am really into trying out all kinds of media at the moment, from Photoshop to printmaking, to acrylic paints and 3D models (then again, thinking about it, if I could design a character I could produce it as a 3D armature…)

So far I have only come up with two very unimaginative ideas. The first one is inspired by ’60’s-era poster design. I love the hippie generation, all about free love, music and flower power. To me it speaks of celebrations, festivals, colours… and let’s face it, hippies are all about the environment.

So my friend Mark suggested a couple of catchy slogans I could use:

“It’s a bloomin’ good idea to recycle batteries!” – I love that one, very cute.

“Don’t plant a battery, plant a flower!” – This one was in reference to showing a landfill with a bright flower growing from the rubbish.

I could quite easily come up with some funky-fresh poster ideas for that. I’ve also recently been influenced by the Gorillaz “Plastic Beach” album, which refers to an island made up from the debris of mankind’s wasteful nature. Maybe there’s something there?

The second idea I had was in conjunction with the Natur Cymru competition. As an enthusiastic nature-lover and health freak I go walking almost every weekend with my partner. We’ve discovered Loggerheads, Betws-y-coed, Ty Mawr and our very own Alyn Waters where we live. I found out about the competition from a leaflet. For a £500 prize and a printed article in the magazine I have to write a thousand-words about a wildlife venture or environmental issue. I was thinking of tying this in with the Wrexham in Bloom campaign. The only problem is there is no guarantee I would win.

However, the competition states that I can include illustrations, so I had the idea to include some imaginative watercolour paintings of the different areas where Wrexham in Bloom takes place to accompany my entry. If I won the competition, then my article would be a great way to advertise Wrexham in Bloom. If not, I could use the illustrations as posters for the project.

After speaking to Adam I feel somewhat calmer, as he has insisted we don’t panic, there are many in my situation, and the final deadline is in fact NOT next Tuesday, as I thought. But it would be awesome if I could get an A3 concept done, because I hate falling behind (don’t want a repeat of last year’s fiasco!)

Photoshoot with Tess Beatty

2010-03-17T16:17:00.010Z

I'm a funny looking thing, I think. At least I was in high school, one of the reasons I wasn't very popular. It sounds shallow but I'm always trying to make myself look better, whether it's by buying the latest Max Factor foundation, wearing a corset that takes my waist down to 22 inches, or dieting like a maniac in time for summer.

So I jumped at the chance to model for a photographer whose pictures seemed flawless and dreamy. I came across Tess's Photography on Facebook, as you do, and I was impressed by what I saw. She works in colour, but converts to black and white and mixes in small elements of colour for some striking portrait photos. I love the smokey edging effect she uses, and the way she is able to express so much about her models through the poses, outfits and environments they are in. So I got in touch with her about working with me on a mini-project for my parent's wedding anniversary (shh! It's a secret!)

When she advertised for models to help with her university work I was only too happy to help her out, secretly hoping for a confidence boost too.

Well, for obvious copyright reasons I can't reproduce the photos, but you can see the results for yourself here.

For the shoot I was told to just be myself and bring a few items of clothing I would feel comfortable it. Of course, I had to wear my Iron Fist hoodie and mermaid vest because they just scream "I'm a struggling, dopey art student dammit!"

But I also decided I wanted to try out a more elegant, sexy look, so I took along a silver top I'd just bought from USC. It's very tight-fitting and pirate-esque, but with a pair of heels it made me look sophisticated as well as saucy.

We did the shoot at St. Giles' Church in Wrexham at my suggestion.

I love that place. Beautiful, gothic and most of all, peaceful. It was my sanctuary during college (I know, sounds emo doesn't it?)

When I saw the photos I was so pleased, found them very flattering and felt my self-esteem jump up a few notches. She's made me look, dare I say, very pretty. Whether that's a filter on the camera, airbrushing or just the way we worked together, it doesn't matter to me. I bought £42-worth and will be working with her again.

Seriously, check out her stuff. Very friendly, funny and open to suggestions. She brought along her partner, Matt, to help, also a photographer and fellow Glyndwr student. Both of them were just so nice and they made me feel very calm and good about myself during the shoot.

So thanks guys!

Music review: Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

2010-03-16T00:06:00.000Z

Time for a new post me thinks. A breath of fresh air, as the smog hanging over this blog is in need of a good clearing.

How fortunate, then, that Gorillaz released their new album, Plastic Beach, last week.

I came across Gorillaz in 2005 when AOL advertised their new single Feel Good Inc. I'd be lying if I said it was not the artwork that got me hooked at that moment. This was the first picture I saw of them:

I was instantly hooked. Then I watched the video for Feel Good Inc. and fell in love with the smooth animation and Damon Albarn's luscious voice. I was suddenly reminded that I had seen/heard them before, back in 2000. Clint Eastwood was cool back then, but I was only 10 and had no interest in music. Now I re-watched everything they had ever done, and listened to their debut album with squeaky clean ears.

Anyway, the point is, I absolutely fell for this band. Their music is like nothing I've heard, and is echoed similarly by Jamie Hewlett's graphite-encrusted artwork. I'd never seen anything like it. I was a young, rebellious art-head with delusions of Manga-inspired success. Jamie Hewlett polished his shoes and gave me a well-earned boot up the arse, telling me there was more out there than just Japanese art. And Albarn shoved a pair of Skullcandys on my head and blasted me with electrip-hopping-punk-pop music. This is where I really started to understand music, not just enjoy it.

I can see now I'm getting ahead of myself, but I've never written a music review before, let alone a Gorillaz one, and I guess it's been building up.

So forgive me for being biased, but Plastic Beach is by far their best album yet. Gorillaz was a teenage-house party, Demon Days was the College years. Plastic Beach is full blown University life; freedom and youthful abandon, but with a well-earned maturity and sense of direction.

It follows the narrative that the World has all gone to pot, absorbed in self-centeredness and commercialism. The proverbial faeces of this way of living has drifted off into the middle of the Ocean and combined to create the Plastic Beach, on which the album was recorded by cartoon band-dictator, Murdoc Niccals. God I've missed him and his funny ways.

For those of you who don't know, Gorillaz is "made up" (in more ways than one) of four animated members. Satanic bass-shredder, Murdoc; Japanese guitar prodigy and martial artist Noodle; vacant but lovable 2D, the singer; and man-mountain New York drum-factory, Russel Hobbs.

In the last album, Noodle "died" and the band separated. Long story short, Murdoc went to rescue Noodle to reform his band, found her to be no more, scraped up her DNA and had her made into an Android version of her former self. He then kidnapped 2D and took him to his Plastic Beach studio. He sent out an invite to Russel who, having swum through miles of sea and eaten everything in his path, is now more man-planet than mountain, having mutated to enormous size. It's all very straight-forward.

So onto the music. This album, I would say, calls for thee to be open-minded and totally relaxed. If not, it will relax you anyway, but you really need to just chill out with this one. It works wonders. I'd say if you love Bjork, Enya, Kate Bush, any of those, then you're on the right track. Mix in a bit of the Sugar Hill gang and Stevie Wonder and you're pretty much ready for Plastic Beach.

The Orchestral Introduction sets the tone of the album. It sees you drifting through misty ocean airwaves, heading for something unknown, but ultimately warm and beautiful. And there you see it, in the distance. The pink floating paradise, like used bubblegum stretched over Tracey Island, but more exciting.

And as you land, Snoop Dogg welcomes you with trumpets blaring, and his dark-chocolate voice (no black-guy jokes intended) soothes you and invites you in, "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach". I personally have never ran out and bought anything with his name on it, but this track is a snappy opener.

Then White Flag kicks in with an opening that screams of Albarn and Hewlett's previous project Monkey: Journey to the West, an Opera. Panpipe playing satyrs spring to mind in a Fantasia-esque intro that is quickly brought into the new-noughties by a cracking hip-hop track with an Arabian overlay.

By far my favourite track on the album, Rhinestone Eyes appears out of nowhere like Atari's Pong game did back in the '70's, blip-blopping until Albarn's sleepy voice sings the engmatic lyrics "I'm a scary gargoyle on a tower/that you made with plastic power/your rhinestone eyes are like/factories far away". This track left me feeling a bizarre mixture of twisted-tin romance, the urge to play on a SNES and wanting to campaign about environmental issues. Can't put it any better.

It's here where I'll point out the fact that the word "Plastic" features in almost every song as the theme for the album.

Stylo is up next. One of the most electronic songs on the album. Just check out the video, that's all I'm gonna say.

Suddenly, you hear a breakfast cereal jingle and are taken back to the 1960's: "This morning, you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast. Delicious and piping-hot in only three microwave minutes!" Yes it's a song. De La Soul barge their way into this one in a welcome return, last heard on Feel Good Inc. Rapping about a breakfast cereal called Superfast Jellyfish, it's more like breakfast sureal. But this one is surely the catchiest, bounciest track on the album. "All hail King Neptune and his water-feeders" this wouldn't be out of place on a episode of Spongebob Squarepants!

Empire Ants takes place on clouds floating above the Plastic Beach, as Little Dragon seduces you with her sweet, other-worldy voice. You fall asleep on the ether, woken suddenly by what sounds like Paul McCartney asking "Where's North from 'ere?"

Glitter Freeze is a banging nineties tune, complete with a virtual drum kit, swirling electric beats and echoing laughter on empty motorway landscapes. This is a kick-ass driving tune. Plastic Beach's M1A1 track (see Gorillaz).

Lou Reed jumps in to chat with us in Some Kind of Nature with a voice so cool it could freeze fire. This song is funky-fresh, almost Bowie-era stuff. The chorus is a carousel of swerving soft vocals from Damon and Mr Cool (that's what I'm officially calling Lou Reed now).

On Melancholy Hill is the album's ballad of sorts, reminiscent of El Manana from the last album (see Demon Days) without the unhappy ending. On Melancholy Hill, despite it's name, is optimistic, dreamy, wistful. Even cute. The next track, Broken, doesn't steer far from the same theme. With crackling beats and an organ buzzing in the background, Damon creates a sombre lyrical piece that lacks the typical emo-isms of a song with such a title.

Sweepstakes, unfortunatley, is my least favourite track. Not exactly a bad track, and certainly catchy, but the rappers sound so bored and unenthusiastic. Perhaps that's just how they work. Music-wise, the satellite beeps and bongos make for an interesting record that eventually improves as the music drowns out the rappers.

In the album's signature track, Plastic Beach, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, of The Clash fame, are reunited to collaberate with Damon on this guitar-stained, swimmingly smooth song. Slow and sensual like a tide, with a thumbing bass-line during the chorus, this is a cracking number.

Another of my close favourites is To Binge. Almost as if you've just arrived on Hawaii, it sails in peacefully against a sunset background. This is an ice-cream-melting-on-the-beach song and super to chill out to. Little Dragon, that tiny minx, is back to seranade you with her lovely vocals, joined in a duet by Damon. It's beautiful and inspires visions of long summers by the seaside. Love it.

Bobby Womack, from Stylo, returns on Cloud of Unknowing with his killer soul voice, helping you sink into this one, and later followed by a symphony of strings that make this the second most orchestral track after the intro. It ends on an echo that reverberates into a digital voice singing "Pirate Jet", as the clanging of a ship coming into port opens the song. Pirate Jet has a massive, catchy beat to it that you can't help but tap along to. Damon raps on the last track of the album in the spirit of Clint Eastwood and Blur's On Your Own. It's a great way to end a number one album.

But I can't end there without mentioning the artwork. Jamie's style has improved a lot since the debut album. He still works in photoshop, but has played about with watercolours and model-making; for the album "teaser trailers" a huge model of the Plastic Beach was built. It can be seen on the album cover. Hewlett's gritty, smoking work is dotted with humour, drama, and is often just plain sexy. My favourite piece so far being this one of Android Noodle:

I mean how awesomely sick is that? Very juicy.

So I look forward to the next project from these two nutters, which there have been hints at. But so long as Damon Albarn continues making music, and Jamie Hewlett carries on churning out shit-hot artwork, I can live happily ever after.

Inspirational Quote of the Week

2010-03-09T21:19:00.005Z

I am going to make this a regular feature now, to inspire myself, and also make myself knowledgeable on people who spout great lyrics, phrases and anecdotes. Don't be surprised if you see a quote from my Dad on here at some point. His favourite being "Life is hard, get used to it".

This week's quote comes courtesy of Mark Twain, who authored the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:

"In 20 years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I found it in Sunday's You magazine in an article written by journalist Sandra Paterson, who says it's one of her favourite quotes to reflect upon. Paterson moved from her busy urban life to the Island of Rarotonga in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to escape the onslaught of a midlife crisis. What she discovered there was peace, inspiration, health, friendly neighbours and paradise. Her story really inspired me.

For some time now I've seen myself as suffering from depression and lack of motivation due to my boring, grey, rain-soaked surroundings. I am, at heart, a Nature Child, and on the off sunny day that my boyfriend Dan and I rediscover the Welsh countryside I feel my problems settle and for a few hours I am relaxed by the watercolour-like scenery. But it is scarce in this country I'm afraid.

I take after my Dad in my aspirations to see the World and, with some luck, move away from Britain. The list of places I want to explore is endless: Austria, Rome, Greece, Paris, Japan (the majority of it), Hawaii, North America, Canada, Finland, Australia and New Zealand, South of France and any secret paradise's hidden in the Pacific. There's a whole world out there that I'm missing out on. It is my goal to see as much of it as I can before I drop off the planet.

So I hope this quote inspires somebody else as much as it has done for me.

I have one honourable mention this week - the ever hilarious Murdoc Niccals of Gorillaz:

"I'm ready to launch my new moronic TV talent show, Britain's Got Talons, any day now. It's a pointless search to find Britain's strongest bird. Each week we'll be pitting kestrels against ravens, eagles against magpies, and watching them fight it out to the death on live television! "

If that doesn't inspire a laugh then I don't know what will.

Grand Entrance

2010-03-08T12:15:00.000Z

This is the unofficial opening of my Tattoo blog, the aptly named "Pins and Needles". Here I will be posting my musings about the body-mod world, some of my own designs, and I will also be taking on commissions by request, in order to polish my portfolio in my long-term attempt to gain an apprenticeship at a real Tattoo and Piercing studio.

I will also be collaborating with friends and networking in order to get myself out and about in the world more, starting with this years Liverpool Tattoo Convention on the 19th and 20th of June. I'm really looking forward to it and it should be a great eye-opener.

My interest in tattoos and piercings goes back as far as I can remember. I had my ears pierced when I was seven, and I thought I was the bees knees. I would bug my Dad and Granddad about their many tattoos, and my Dad would tell me I was never having one.

Then in high school I got into Rock music and Goth culture. I found that getting pierced was a safer alternative to self-harm (cliche, I know) and it also looked friggin cool. I also started designing my own tats when I was fourteen. I currently have eleven piercings including my lip, nipple, tragus and anti-tragus. I have many more planned for this year.

Then I hit eighteen and it was time to get a tattoo... but being an artist myself I became very fussy about what I wanted where, and who I wanted to do it. Money was also an issue. Now I'm a bit older, and I have two designs ready for the gun, and another in the making.

I guess it's not a surprise, but it was definitely Kat Von D and LA Ink that got me back into Tattoos. About a year ago I was at my boyfriend's house, sitting with his mum and watching Discovery Real Time. I thought the show was great, really gave you an insight into this fascinating world of body-mod. I love the passion that each of the artists have for their work and the way they heal people with their fantastic tattoos, and I remember when I used to feel that way, but I lost it. Now I have something to work hard for again.

I've been researching and reading up about tattoos and piercings, the processes, artists, downfalls, pros and cons for a good solid few months now. I penned three essays about the subject in University, one that got a B+, and a documentary that recieved the highest mark, an A+.

But of course, research doesn't stop at watching LA and Miami Ink, and reading Skindeep and High Voltage. There are plenty of websites and tattoo blogs out there that give great insight into this weird world, but the best "education" I had was watching Sean of Independent Tattoos doing my boyfriend's mum's tattoo. That was the moment I thought "I could do this". And I'm not the kind of person who has a lot of faith in myself, so this surprised me.

I know more than anyone that I have a lot of work and improving to do. Unlike most tattooists, I haven't been doing it since my teens. I have been drawing, but mostly cartoons, and I need to improve my life-drawing, animal and colour skills. I also need to build up a shit-hot portfolio.

So this is the blog I will be keeping in order to help me do that. Here are some of the great sources I've come across so far:

+Tattoosday UK - Fantastic blog/website that gives details of UK tattoo events, advice on getting tats and general news and links from around the world. Really cool stuff.
+London Tattoo Convention (24th-26th Sept) - Another convention that sounds bigger and nastier. I would love to go to this, but Liverpool is closer and cheaper. However, keeping it in mind. Check it out.
+Aces High Tattoo Studio - Unfortunately it looks like their official website is down, but I've been oggling the work at this place for some time. The artists are amazing, and I've seen some of their work on my mates. So I'm hoping they will be able to do my first tattoo for me.
+How to become a Successful Tattoo Artist - Not the best place on the web to go look for advice, but the tips they give are pretty handy. This is the first website I came across when I was pondering the idea of being a tattooist.
+The Tattoo Sourcebook - I got this for my birthday last year. Great value for money, it's a fantastic collection of tattoo designs for practicing artists, or just someone who wants a design. It also includes a brief history of tattoos and teaches you how to combine some of your favourite designs into something original for yourself.
+Tattoo Jam - Yet another huge convention in Doncaster. Sounds sweet, might give it a whirl this year, if I can afford it!

There are many other sources I've come across, so keep an eye on my links and reading list sections. And please, wish me luck!

A Matter of Art and Arachnophobia

2010-03-04T11:52:00.015Z

Before I begin, please don't read this or click on the links if you are afraid of our eight-legged-friends. You could get a fright. However, if you are strong and pure of heart, please read on.

I love spiders. I think I always have. At my house, I'm the official Spider-Removal-and-Rescue Agent, because nobody else will touch one of those little buggers, and I don't approve of squishing them.

More to the point I have a fluffy Tarantula living in my room called Mandy. She is my baby. Also, I love Spider ornaments, jewellery, art, etc.

So the point is, I love Spiders. They're gorgeously intricate creatures and tiny artists. A bit like myself!

Hence why for my Bookjacket brief, in which we had to choose a subject to do a book cover for, I chose The World of Spiders.

Some interesting research I have come across!:

Spiders, as leggy and complicated as they look, are really only made up of three different pieces. The eight legs, obviously. The the Cephalothorax (seh-falo-thor-axe), which is the head and "chest". Then the Abdomen, which, like our own, contains all the guts and reproductive organs. Nice!

Spiders also have terrific vision and their eight big shiny eyes are just beautiful. Check them out, if you dare!

There are many different types of spider webs. The Orb Web being the one people associate with most. There is also the Lace-Sheet web, very pretty. The Triangle web is simple but effectively deadly. Then there's the Hammock web and the Scaffold web, both very similar.

Spiders are very popular in ancient culture as well as modern ("Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a Spider can!"). In Greek Mythology there is a tale that tells of the Goddess Athena in a battle to prove heself as the greatest weaver against a girl called Arachne. The latter produces an elaborate tapestry which Athena destroys in a jealous rage. Poor little Arachne then hangs herself in her sorrow. Athena, feeling guilty, brings her back to life as a Spider, giving her all of Arachne's great weaving talent.

The Spider, in some cultures, represents patience and cunning, for the way it waits for it's prey and slowly kills them. It's venom is seen as being cursed. Read more here.

This giant Spider was discovered in Liverpool. Check her out, she's amazing! Wish I had one. Could be a new form of travel.

This 1965 documentary by Dr. Peter Witt records the results of Spiders on different drugs. Very interesting. (Actually, the documentary is a hilarious spoof. However it is true that web-building Spiders can be affected by caffiene and create the most bizzare looking webs. Seriously, google it!)

But in all seriousness I'm hoping to make my book cover very unique. I've been researching tattooed depictions of Spiders and their webs in order to come up with something original and something that could in fact help me on my way to designing tattoos for a living. Spiders have appeared in tattoos for many, many centuries and with growing Goth and Emo culture will probably develop a lot more. I mean let's face it; I want my own Spider Tattoo.

Listening to Plastic Beach and wanting to hang from the nearest curtain rail

2010-03-01T16:11:00.005Z

I know writing a blog is the last thing I should be doing at the moment, but I feel like this controlled/productive procrastination will serve to help me organize my thoughts at the moment.

Ok, so I'm pretty much certain now that stress is something I suffer from quite regularly. I mean there's your general screaming-at-the-kids, throwing-stuff kind of stress. And then there's severe stress that affects your well-being. I have the latter. When I'm stressed I come out in a nasty rash, develop acne (gross I know), I panic more; for example my driving is always worse when I'm stressed, because my mind wanders. I also lose a lot of sleep and my appetite turns very bizarre. But most noticeable is the hot flushes I get. I've been getting them regularly for years but they seem to be getting worse.

Luckily (or unluckily depending how you look at it) I am going for a blood test this week to determine if there's anything I can take to "chill me out" a bit. Forgive me but I think the best cure is probably pot.

Anyway the source of my stress as usual is myself. I am the worst kind of procrastinator: the one who knows it but can't do anything about it. Believe me, I've printed off enough help sheets and read enough books :/

At the moment my turmoil lies in the idea that for the first time ever I WANT to do my uni work, but I can't because I also WANT to finish my commission first. Why can't I finish my commission? Well apart from that feeling of nausea I get when I even look at one of my drawings, I guess another reason may be that I'm scared of the final result. I'm never happy with my artwork and I wish from the start that I'd done it all on paper and not in Photoshop. I now hate Photoshop and sincerely hope I never have to work with it again :( I wanna go back to traditional. Soooooo bad.

My other devil-on-the-shoulder is Tattoos (incidentally that has just given me an idea for a tattoo. But oh wait, I can't do anything about it because I HAVE OTHER WORK TO DO FIRST!) I can't stop thinking about tattoos; how much I want to draw them, read about them, design them for me and other people, get one (or two or three) done now...

Dan (the ever supporting boyfriend) suggests that I should use my lust for tattoos as the driving force to get me to finish my commission and catch up on my uni work. But it's so much harder than that. Procrastination isn't laziness. Trust me, I go hiking every Saturday. Procrastination, I'm starting to think, is pretty much a serious mental illness. I mean I've been doing it for years without realizing. I only bloody learnt what the word mean last October. I can put jobs off for years on end. It's lost me a load of art and writing opportunities. It even lost me one of my friends. It's ruining my life!

Even if I tell myself to look ahead, see how worse off I'll be when I haven't done my work, it doesn't shift my left arm to start drawing. Ever. I can only draw when I enjoy it. And I'm really not enjoying it.

God I want to draw tattoos so much! I want to do my uni work: my bookjacket, my canvas poster, my ideas for the bloody cycling competition thing, and that Bee-Battery thing... I'm so behind I feel like giving up altogether!

So there's my blog update for these last two weeks. To my tutors: I haven't done any work. But I guess I'm developing my writing/critical skills (insert dry hollow laugh).

References:

Stop Procrastinating, Don't be a Perfectionist
Beating Procrastination
How to stop Procrastinating: 7 Timeless Tips

Self-Motivation

2010-02-18T11:56:00.002Z

I can do this
I can do this
I can be a good, competent, payable artist
I can do this

I am worthy
I am worthy
I am so much more than I think of myself
I am worthy

I can be great
I can be great
I will be successful and happy
I can be great

I can be BE-AWESOME!

(Sorry, I needed to chant)

The Paper-Maker Workout!

2010-02-10T17:25:00.012Z

Despite being swamped with work since September, I still have time for the odd bit of fun. And for me, fun is in the form of crafts (I’m like an old woman).

Last week I finally managed to get hold of an affordable paper making kit, after months of searching. I remember making paper with my Aunty when I was younger and I found it so fascinating. Not only is it fun but there are tons of things you can add to the paper (among them seeds and onion skins!) and it’s also a great way to recycle used paper. Handmade paper also looks fab for gifts and artwork! So having been given two briefs in the last fortnight that involve recycling, I thought what better time to start honing the craft.

The kit I bought off eBay was a beginner’s starter kit from House of Crafts and did a great job of introducing me to paper making so that I can adapt it my own way. The frame I was given was circular and very small but it did the trick for me, and now that I can see how it all works I can build my own A4 or A3 frame.

The kit included the frame and some mesh, a few sheets of pulp paper, colouring dye in primary colours, and some extras (box template, ribbons, card, PVA glue and a glue spreader) to create some cards and gift boxes. It’s all very quaint and pretty.

I thought I’d try something simple to start with. I cut a sheet of pulp in two (half a sheet makes two fine pieces of paper) and then chopped it into little pieces.

I left it to soak in half a litre of boiling water for about 2-3 hours. The longer you leave it the finer the paper will be.

But when I started to work with the paper it hadn’t broken down very well. I think this was due to the fact that I cut the pulp into little squares with scissors rather than tearing it up, which would have softened the fibres.

I took a couple of spoonfuls of pulp and put them into some cold water in a large bowl. Now for the fun part!

I decided to experiment with textures so I added some lavendar to the pulp, and used some blue and red colourent to dye the paper purple.

I fixed the mesh into the frame and dipped in into the water, moving it around under the water until I was happy with the layer of pulp.

Then I separated the mesh from the frame and laid the paper/mesh onto a teatowel, before going over it with a rolling pin to squeeze out a good majority of the water.

I managed to get two pieces of paper made from my pulp mixture. I noticed that the first piece had not been dyed very well, so I sprinkled some red food colouring onto it whilst it was still damp, letting it fade to pink.

They took a while to dry, but here they are - my pink and purple lavender paper!

They’re not perfect; because of the way I cut the pulp paper it did not break down very well, so once the paper dried it was very fragile. Also, the dye didn’t take as strongly as I would’ve hoped.

However I learned a lot and I think I’m well on the way to creating fantastic pieces of paper to use in my artwork. And hopefully this little tutorial/picture book will inspire some of you to recycle your old paper and make something new and creative!

Colour Anarchy? Not so much

2010-02-05T16:04:00.004Z

Anyone who knows me knows how bad I am with colour, especially on the computer. My sketchbooks generally like to stay monochromatic, but I’m really trying to use colour more, because I want to be able to paint in both Photoshop and on canvas in acrylics and watercolours.

I bought myself a little colour wheel from the art shop and I read last month’s Imagine FX tutorial on Colour and Lighting by Jeremy Vickery. Must have gone over it at least three times.

I feel like I’m digging in the dirt but I’m really trying. Here are some of the fascinating little websites/blogs that I’ve come across today with hints and tips on how to help me improve the way I think about colour:

Choosing Colour Combinations – Veerle Pieters
This is an interesting little blog I came across. Her easily-readable description on how the brain works with colour is very helpful, even if she does seem to be focused primarily on website design. She also provided this link to Colour in Motion, a cute and really well made animation which conveys how colour is perceived by the human eye and what it signals.

Colour Scheme Designer - Petr Stanicek
Next I discovered this online interactive colour wheel. This is absolutely brilliant and easy to use, even going so far as to tell you the exact code for the colour you create so that you can find it in Photoshop. I’m having a hard time believing it’s a free website. Just hope he makes enough from donations.

Colour Theory Simplified - Philip Straub
Finally, it’s back to Imagine FX for a PDF tutorial by Mr S, who gives us a handy recap on the basics of colour theory, in case I’ve missed anything.

Now for the scary part: actually trying to use all this advice to create something.

Next time: Line art.

Wrexham in Bloom - Week One

2010-02-04T15:05:00.006Z

Today we were given yet another project. I believe this culmination of projects and commissions is going to destroy me.

The first thing I noticed was that half the group already had the brief, and half of the group didn't. I was in the half that didn't, which means I have missed a meeting somewhere that I didn't know about. Lack of communication strikes again.

A woman called Claire came to visit us from the local council to ask us to come up with a promotional concept to aid this year's Wrexham in Bloom campaign, an annual competition that encourages the community to look after our environment. So far Wrexham has won the Silver gilt, but this year they hope that with our help we can win the Gold gilt.

It's all very exciting, even if it is unpaid and added pressure. But I'm going to endeavor to give it a go, starting with this blog (ta da! In order to pass we have to keep an up-to-date journal).

Claire explained to us that the two themes for this year's campaign are centered "around the Pontcysyllte (no I don't know how it's pronounced either) World Heritage site and the industrial archaeology of the Dee Valley". Along the route are going to be battery collection points, as the Government is now trying to organise the recycling process more by giving us seperate crates for batteries. Also, the campaign hopes to encourage the communities to start planting Bee-friendly plants, in order to attract our fat, fuzzy friends back. So we have been asked to link these two themes and create something along the lines of Battery Bees, or Bee Battery (sounds like bug abuse).

The idea, to me, sounds very cute, and I love recycling (see previous post) so I'm all for it. The first point I want to make about the council is their need for a new "Michael" character. I like the whole "Recycle with Michael" slogan, it's catchy. But as Claire pointed out, kids love the character, teenagers hate him. I think he needs a makeover to make him more accessable to a wider range of people. Teenagers and young adults are a tough audience, and I'm afraid "Michael", to me, looks too 90's with his baseball cap, baggy pants and freckles (ironically I think he was invented in the 00's).

Funnily enough, there's another recycler called Michael. I think his style is much more age-friendly. Still kind of aimed at children, but the art-style is far more interesting, and the fact that he is a superhero who uses recycled items as his armour is an intriguing little quirk.

The colour scheme of the WCBC recycling posters/leaflets etc. also needs retouching in my opinion. Green is very typical of environmental posters and, unless it's combined with an equally or more catchy colour, it can be very droll and unattractive. I think the advertising pieces need redesigning.

As well as those two issues I am also going to aim to come up with something original of my own! So it's research time.

Before I go I need to make a point though. I think the reason (especially in my area) that people aren't so thrilled about recycling is the fact that the bin-men are so careless and useless. Countless times they have not turned up, left rubbish behind or broken our boxes by just chucking them back onto the pavement. When you live in a house as full of people and packaging as mine, we need regularly de-binning! Or better yet, a local recycling point. Having to drive all the way to Tesco in Wrexham is such an inconvenience. Thanks to our rubbish bin-men (see what I did there?) we often end up burning most of our paper, card, fabrics, etc, which otherwise could be recycled!

Do you recycle? How do you feel about the facilities in your area? And if you don't recycle, why not?

Think about it.

Until next time, peace and love!

Recycle the Love!

2010-02-02T12:19:00.012Z

Well, my assessment went better than I had expected! It was estimated that I could earn either a high 2.2 or a 2.1 for my work so far. Personally, I don’t think my work has been that good, but then I’m not the one marking it.

The Narrative brief received the most praise. Whilst “finished” for the assessments, there is actually more I would like to do with it, such as changing a few panels and adding a page or two to the story, as well as experimenting with media and using the “Rainbow Gradient” technique I had planned to use in the beginning.

The Stranger Than Fiction brief was less than perfect but it still earned me that high 2.2. It was unfinished and the artwork needs to be redone and drawn more freely (“the characters seem too wooden”) and I have been told to work on my body language, thus I have gotten myself a copy of Scott McCloud’s Making Comics.

But otherwise, Sue and Dan said they were pleased with my work, and they want me to come and chat with them more, to see how I’m getting on, give me hints, tips, etc: “If you’re doing this well on your own, imagine how much better you could be with our help” or something along those lines.

We’ve been given two new briefs as of this week. This morning we were given one called “Bookjacket”, which pretty much does what it says. We are to research aspects of British Wildlife through first and second-hand research (so drawings and photographs), my favourites from the list being Wild Flowers, Mushrooms and Toadstools, The Seashore, Life in Lakes and Rivers, The World of the Honey Bee and The World of Spiders. Then we are going to create a Bookjacket for a non-fiction book. Interestingly, we are limited to only four colours (three colours plus black) and three forms of printing: digital, lino and silkscreen.

So far we’re in the very, very early stages of this brief. This morning I have basically been doing online research to find places for my boyfriend and I to visit on the weekends, and myself on days off.

My top five places to scout are:

- The World Museum, Liverpool
- Ty Mawr Country Park
- Chester Zoo
- Llandudno and the Happy Valley Gardens
- Loggerheads Country Park

Other places I'd like to visit are Blue Planet, BugWorld, Snowdonia and any coastal town. For me, money and travel is an issue, so I’m limited, plus I've already visited Blue Planet and BugWorld in the last year. But it’s important to remember that Wildlife is all around us! I need only to go into my back garden to see a Harris Hawk.

The other brief, called “Toys”, asked us to choose a toy, ornament or decoration and research an aspect of Climate Change.

The object I chose is a “Nemesis Now” dark angel candleholder that has been sitting next to my bed for the last few years. And the environmental issue I chose was recycling, a subject that is dear to my heart.

Through my research I discovered this page, which sparked my idea to link the angel, recycling and the deadline (February). Valentine’s Day seems a perfect subject to try and tackle waste, as it consumes our money and churns out discarded cards, packaging and flowers every year. I have never been a fan of this day, even now when I have a boyfriend, but the idea of recycling/making your own V-Day products may just get me a little excited.

I want my image (the final piece is an A3 poster) to be made from completely recycled and environmentally-friendly media, and I want it to be interactive, with 3D origami flowers and cards that you can open to read, etc.

Some tips and links pour vous to help you have a healthy, happy Valentine’s, whether you have a partner or not!:

+ Make your own cards!
+ Instead of driving to the cinema to watch a film, thus polluting the environment, why not go for a romantic walk in the countryside?
+ Don’t buy packaged products – make your own!
+ Cook a meal for your loved one instead of going out to dinner.
+ Don’t pluck our flowers so they can die in a vase. Make your own Origami flowers. They look pretty and last for ages!
+ If you really have to buy something, why not try Lush? They specialise in making enviro-friendly products, and girls (and boys) just love 'em!

I hope you fellow (veggie and non-veggie) hippies can get on board with this. Let's make V-Day a little more fun, creative and personal.

Happy trails!

DoodlePlanet and I almost shared the same Birthday

2010-01-29T01:33:00.008Z

My assessments have finally arrived, in nine hours precisely, and also on my 21st birthday. Last week I managed to hand in my Documentary on time (more on that soon) and I think I may get a good grade for it. On Wednesday I handed in my two comics: “The World Inside the Toy Box”, complete, except for a few other experiments I would like to try out with it, and “How to Make an Origami Triangle”, my comic based on the lives of The Collyer brothers and my own OCD, three-quarters finished.

I’m hoping I earn a good grade, because I have been doing much better in University this year. As well as improving my attendance and general enthusiasm to work, I have also got a lot of outside work that I have also been doing and am doing (Mabinogi, Taste the Blood, Tattoos…)

So fingers crossed, and on to a good new year.

Tonight was DoodlePlanet’s 2nd birthday, and also the first time my sister Becky decided to come, along with her friend Aimee. Check out their drawings (Becky’s on the left):

I was not so successful, drawing an irritatingly bad Lady Gaga wannabe, which I left there.

And as a final last minute doodle (they ran out of canvases pretty fast tonight!) I drew Dan and myself in a bubbly cartoon style. This one I brought home to work on.

But the best piece of the night HAD to be Dan’s. The sweetheart drew me this awesome Scott Pilgrim/Wallace Wells piece for my birthday. It’s now proudly sitting in my bedroom waiting to go on the wall :)

So all in all a good night.

Finally, as I mentioned before, today is my 21st birthday and to celebrate, I’m itching to get a tattoo done this weekend during my trip to Liverpool with Dan. I’ve wanted tattoos since I was about eight, but when I turned eighteen, money and my dad were both an issue. Now that I’ve discovered the “Ink” series’ and delved deeper into the world of tattoo art I feel that it’s time for me to finally get a tattoo that is both meaningful and a rite of passage.

After wracking my brains for weeks (well, months and years if we’re really counting) I think I may have found the perfect idea to pop my proverbial tattoo cherry. I wanted something feminine, but not your typical flowers and butterflies. I also wanted something that represented me.

Growing up I was often put down by my peers for being overweight, unattractive and unpopular (the Welsh Meg Griffin), however, I eventually grew out of that whole phase into a confident, somewhat attractive and talented young woman. Comes across as a very Ugly Duckling kind of story. And therein lies my idea for my first tattoo: A Swan.

But I don’t want a boring swan. I want one that’s stylish, simplistic and beautiful. I found some reference images online and I will be using them to inspire me to draw my own tattoo, so stay tuned for any more developments.

On another note regarding tattoos, the 3rd Annual Liverpool Tattoo Convention dates have been announced for this 2010. I was unfortunate enough to miss it last year, so I am determined to attend, because it sounds just brilliant. Check it out.

Peace and Love and Happy Birthday to me!

DoodlePlanet Christmas Special

2009-12-18T01:21:00.007Z

DoodlePlanet has become a regular haunt for me now, and I certainly didn’t want to miss the Christmas Special. Nine local artists contributed some fantastic works of art and raised over £200 for charity. The idea of using art to raise awareness and money for worthy causes is so inspiring and I hope to be asked to contribute someday.

For the first time I was lucky enough to arrive at DoodlePlanet with my lovely boyfriend, Dan, who had already planned his drawing for the evening.

I myself had decided on either “a sexy Christmas pin-up girl” or “some Christmas chibis”. My first DoodlePlanet event saw me bombing as I tried to draw a Halloween themed scene, and ended up cramming as many stupid little drawings onto the canvas as possible. My second outing, and I came home with a relatively satisfying Little Mermaid watercolour.

This time I drew four pictures and came home with two.

At first I made an attempt to create my chibi Christmas scene, but lack of interest and a nasty ink spill caused me to abandon it. However, it turned out to be popular with a lot of female students.

My second drawing was worse than the first, a charcoal scribble that I later used as a palette for my marker pens. I deliberately avoided taking a photograph of it.

For the third drawing I took inspiration from my twin sketchbook and tried to replicate/improve on a design for Taste the Blood’s EP cover. However, I became frustrated and angry when things didn’t go to plan; I lowered the girl’s arms too much and so ended up having to draw her breasts, which I had been intent on covering up. Also her face looked ridiculous. I grabbed a pile of charcoal and smeared the drawing with it, added some handprints and wrote the word “SEX” as the title.

At the time this had all been a big joke, and Dan and I had a laugh about it. But as it turns out it was quite a popular drawing that night. During the auction a group of men stated that they wanted to bid for it. Whether they were intoxicated or not didn’t matter to me, I was pleased as punch. Unfortunately, my work wasn’t in the auction.

So perhaps I had drawn this out of annoyance, or perhaps I had drawn it in order to provoke or offend. Either way people seemed interested by it. What irritates me the most about it though is how out-of-proportion the girl looks. Oh well, there’s always next time.

Finally, I found a seat on the floor, a small blank canvas and just relaxed, and came up with my best piece. Both an excuse to practice drawing girls and an excuse to practice tattoo placement, I wound up with this image of one of my original characters, who I like to refer to as Bluey, due to her blue dreadlocks. She’s sitting, being her usual cheeky self, showing off her body art, piercings, funky hair and tie-dyed t-shirt, and telling the world to flaunt it if you’ve got it, whatever “it” may be.

I’m pretty proud of this drawing (not the colouring however), and I’m confident that I will improve with each DoodlePlanet. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As for Dan he produced this amazing replica of the Afro Samurai. He really put every effort into it and it came out great considering the image was tiny on his iPhone! I’m so proud of him, and we both know he will get better and better the more he draws!

Until next time, Happy Holidays!

Formative Assessment Feedback

2009-12-11T21:04:00.007Z

My formative assessment didn't go as bad as I thought/hoped it would. Well it was bad, but not awful. They pretty much told me everything I already knew; I work too slow, need to speed up. My problem is I waste too much time thinking about what I want to do and trying to organise how to get there in a particular order, but my assessors told me I need to loosen up and just go with it really. Stop thinking, start doing. I've been telling myself that for months, it's harder than it sounds.

Now I have until tuesday to get the layout pages for my Narrative comic drawn up. It's not impossible, but it's going to take a lot of time and effort. Unfortunately this weekend I had planned to work myself ill on the Mabinogion project, because that, to me, seems the most essential (it's a paid commission after all, and God knows I need the money and recognition).

So I've decided to dodge between both projects for the next three days, going from one to the other whenever I get bored of them, taking suitable time out for the necessities: food, sleep and video games.

At least they agreed with me when I told them I'm coping better than last year, when I was a mental wreck, but I still get panic attacks and an all-over-body rash just thinking about deadlines.

Still I got a B+ for my Journal Article on The Body, which is good, considering I lost interest in writing it near the end (which is perhaps why one of the comments about it was "the conclusion felt a bit lacking". Fair enough). I will need to find an exceptionally intriguing subject for my dissertation next year in order to keep myself interested.

I have two ideas already:

1. The comparison between traditional animation, compared to the era of CGI. This would be a re-writing and lengthening of an essay I wrote in college (that didn't do very well), because I am still so passionate about this subject and really want to do it justice. Also, since college we have had 3D films coming out, a lot more stop-motion animated films (Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox) and also Disney's The Princess and the Frog is set to be released soon, in a gorgeous return to traditional hand-drawn animation.

2. My second idea is a cliched one that has probably been done over and over, but one that I could definitely get my claws into: the idea of Contemporary Art (also known as really bad, skill-less tripe) as a selling point. I'm not a huge fan of the post-modern idea of art, where people can take a rotting animal carcass and sell it as "an expression of life". It's intolerable. But I will also explore the idea that artists like myself, and many people working in comics, illustration, games design (etc.) today could also be considered post-modern artists. After all, we're all living in the same age. Some of us just have better ideas and more talent than some.

Those are my two current ideas anyway. We've been advised to start thinking about our dissertation in advance, so it plagues my mind daily, as do ideas for my final major project.

Next week I will be conducting "research" at Manchester's Odeon cinema, in the form of movie-going. Wednesday is Where The Wild Things Are day, and friday is reserved solely for the intense ride that is going to be Avatar in mind-imploding IMAX 3D. If I survive you will be able to catch some reviews on my other blog in the weeks to come.

Until next time!

“Dad” Comics, DoodlePlanet and Christmas Cards

2009-12-05T14:30:00.016Z

I thought it would be fitting at this time to upload some of the personal things I am currently working on, as so far I’ve just been talking about work that I am doing for other people.

First of all, something I started over a month ago were plans for a mini-series, or online comic, simply called “Dad”. The strips have no real storyline, but instead represent moments or conversations that I have had with my dad over the last (nearly) twenty-one years. My father and I have always had a very strange relationship, in that we are alike in so many ways, and can sometimes have these great bonding sessions, whilst at the same time criticising and resenting each other; myself for the lack of attention he showed me as a child, my dad because of the lack of interest I show in having a normal life.

In many ways I admire and look up to him, but at the same time I often wish he were a different person. As I said, it’s a very odd relationship. The aim of these comics is not to show either of us in a bad light, but just to express the odd and infrequent moments we share together. And these are real moments the way I remember them.

The first comic I drew is a total mess, but only for the sake of it being the thumbnails for a much more detailed comic. Hopefully, if I see my dad enough, I will have enough material to turn this idea into a daily or weekly online comic.

"Dad - 20 years of Outfits" can be read here:

Page 1

Page 2

Twice in the last two months I have attended a local event known as DoodlePlanet, set up by Compulsive Scribbler. The premise of the event is just to let people come in, have some drinks and doodle on large boards of canvas left lying around the place. It happens maybe once or twice a month at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester, and once at the Glyndwr Student’s Guild.

It’s such great fun and a good way to get non-artists drawing, as I found when I took my boyfriend, Dan, along and he really enjoyed it.

Poor Dan didn’t have time to finish his psychedelic illustration because he arrived late…

... whilst I spent the night trying to paint something decent with watercolours. I came up with my own version of Ariel and Flounder from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

The next DoodlePlanet in on December 17th, again at Telford’s Warehouse, and everyone is welcome to come along. After all, it’s a Christmas party too!

And speaking of Christmas, I have been working on a design for a Christmas card that I would like to produce this year for my friends and family. At the moment the line-art still needs a clean up, then I need to shrink it down and apply several copies to a sheet of A3 or A2 acetate so that I can screen-print more than one card at a time. Only trouble is I’m not sure how to do that. I’m not so good with photocopiers.

The design features two characters from a holiday card series I am inventing called Minky Pinky (don’t even ask where the name came from, as I’m not too sure myself). I’ll hopefully have more cards designed for birthdays, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and so on.

So there’s a chance now I wont have much to say until after the holidays. If that be the case, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year from me!

A very busy Christmas, and a hectic New Year!

2009-12-04T14:45:00.009Z

Perhaps you can tell from my long absence that I have been hard at work, struggling through piles of sketchbooks and notepads. Well, the latter is accurate, but I certainly don’t think I’ve been hard at it. No more so than the rest of my brethren.

Yesterday we presented what (little) work we had to the rest of the group, and I was relieved to see that I was not as behind on my projects as I initially thought. In fact, I was even further ahead than some people. And yet I’m still panicking because the deadline for four of my projects is fast approaching, and I’m not making a vast amount of headway.

I guess I should really stop taking on so many things at once. That or I should learn to be more organised. But when you’re a lethargic young woman, trying to juggle a boyfriend, an education, a social life, afterhours clubs, commissions and personal time, it can get extremely overwhelming, and I find that trying to plan things out is much harder than just diving into things and getting on with it. I’m no different from anyone else my age (well, a little different).

So here’s a brief update of where I am at the moment:

1. My first paid commission, aka: The Mabinogion. Well the deadline is just over a month away (ironically the same day as most of my other projects – nightmare) and I haven’t gotten as much done as I’d hoped by this point. But I’m not too worried, as I always do my best, fastest work when I’m under pressure. I was hoping my first real piece of outside-work would be handled a lot more professionally, but I’m still getting used to the idea of doing this stuff for a living.

I’ve pretty much gone through each and every story in The Mabinogion, and applied one or two ideas to each one. There’s a total of about thirty for me to mess around with, and I only need twenty. I’ve also drawn up some thumbnails to represent what my final illustrations may look like. All that needs doing now is the full-sized images, which I think is the part that will take the longest. Then after that, a quick clean-up and I’ll send them off to the client, who should hopefully approve of them pretty quickly. What I like about this brief is that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. What I don’t like about this brief is that that I’ve been pretty much left to my own devices and imagination. It’s a double-edged sword.

Finally, the colouring should be done over Christmas, which shouldn’t take too long, as I’ve been asked to keep it simple.

2. Work is underway on two short comics I mentioned before: a Horror-story, which isn’t horrific at all, and also an autobiographical piece that references the plight of the Collyer brothers. The basic stories for both comics is pretty much sorted, I’m just now working on character and location designs, along with some thumbnails, then the final comics will be finished over Christmas.

The horror story is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz of sorts, except it’s aimed at very young children. Dorothy is replaced by a baby girl, whilst the scarecrow, tin-man and lion have been changed to a spider, a broken tin-soldier toy and a one-piece baby suit. I am avoiding the use of greys and blacks in the story to appeal to a young child’s sense of wonderment for colour and brightness, and there is absolutely no dialogue in the work, because I wanted to represent how a baby cannot speak and will have to communicate with body language and expressions.

The second comic on the Collyer Brothers has developed into an autobiography, whereby I refer back to the famous pair as a means of getting over my own struggles with OCD and paranoia. So far I have some character designs for my boyfriend Dan as he will look in the comic:

Dan Designs

I was inspired by not only my own experiences, but by two books that I was lent by Dan Berry; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Unlikely by Jeffrey Brown. Both books depict a semi-life story told by the authors in a very honest and touching way. The art styles differ, as do the storylines, but both have enormous heart and left me experiencing a weird emotion that I’ve never quite been able to put in to words; like happy and sad at the same time.

Watch out for my reviews of Fun Home and Unlikely, as well as my finished comics.

3. Also in the works now, and this I’m very excited about, is my documentary on body modification. It’s called “Pins and Needles,” and is being filmed, as I write this, in high definition. It involves the participation of many of my friends, colleagues and some strangers, who I have asked very graciously to give me their views and opinions on body modification or, to be more specific, tattoos and piercings. I am looking forward to posting it online when it’s finished, as I’m hoping it will spark some good discussion, so keep your eyes peeled. For this I also have to write a 1200 word journal, so hopefully that should be up soon too.

4. One of my more abstract projects is an album cover design for my partner’s local Metal band, Taste the Blood. They’ve recently started recording their material after only a year of gigging and playing some great venues.

They’ve pretty much let me take over the cover, so I’m free to do what I please with it. So far I’ve come up with three basic ideas, the first being very basic: a beautiful, gothic woman, sitting drinking from a glass of blood.

The two other ideas I have are based on their main song on the EP, “Medusa’s Serpent”. One image is split in two and shows Medusa looking like an innocent young woman on one side, whilst her evil side takes over most of the album cover. The other idea is slightly more raunchy and features a topless woman holding a snake whilst blood pours from her eyes, nose and mouth. All very Metal.

All the ideas are based around the bands love of B-Movie’s and Hammer Horror films, hence the band name Taste the Blood (of Dracula). So as well as, I hope, giving the band a brilliant cover for their first EP, I will also be getting my work out to the general masses in the music industry, which suits me fine.

And so, that’s basically all of my professional work put into context. As always, comments and input are very welcome.

Film review: Antichrist - Not for the faint of heart

2009-12-04T14:24:00.000Z

Without a doubt, Antichrist is as controversial as it claims to be, and is certainly not a film to watch when you are feeling let down by life, lest it cause mass-suicide.

As a fan of Lars Von Trier I am familiar with his other works of a similar nature; Dancer in the Dark, although displaying a message of hope and childlike imagination throughout, ends with an unhappy conclusion, whilst Dogville dedicates itself to showing how rotten human beings can become when threatened by beauty, innocence and youth. Both films deal with the vulnerability of women against men.

Antichrist deals with quite the opposite and has even been accused of being misogynistic, due to the theme of Witchcraft. I myself study Witchcraft and feminism, and found this to be just a paranoid comment by politically correct moron, whether male or female. Just because a film has a female villain, does not mean it is sexist.

I wont go into great detail, because trying to describe this movie in a few paragraphs is remarkably difficult, and I want to leave some surprises for you to find yourself. But if you do decide to watch it, be warned that it requires something of a strong will and gut. It also requires one to be open-minded, as the film is very “art-school”, with outdoor shots of nothingness to convey a sense of loneliness, and close-ups body parts to emphasize the effects of stress on the person.

It is filmed in four parts, or chapters, “Grief”, “Pain”, “Despair” and “The Three Beggars”, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. Although it isn’t that long (about an hour and forty) it feels much longer because of the airiness of the beginning and middle, and the action doesn’t really happen until the last twenty minutes or so. Unfortunately, this makes for a film that can only be watched every now and again.

The first five minutes or so is filmed in lustrous HD and scored beautifully, using the aria “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” (click here for Sarah Brightman’s version). The tragedy of the whole scene mixed with the operatic tones makes for a hear-wrenching opening scene.

It tells the story of a couple (known only as He and She) who lose their child in a freak accident. The mother blames herself and is unable to cope with his loss. She only finds comfort in quick bursts of passionate sex with her husband (which, would you believe, he is dead against!) and this serves to explain the amount of sex and nudity in the film.

In order to cure her, the psychiatrist husband takes her on a remote healing vacation to a cabin in the middle of some vast woods, ironically known as Eden, where she once stayed alone with her young son, and where the rest of the film is set. It is the place she fears most.

The trailer and the name of the film seem to hint at some supernatural tale, but that is far from the case. Everything is very real, and deals with the impact of grief, sexuality and insanity rather than ghosts or back-from-the-dead murderers. There is also an eerie twist, where you discover why their child died.

It’s a shocking movie, in more ways than one. Whether it’s the death of a child in the first few minutes, the graphic masturbation or constant scenes of sex, or the twisted abuse that She inflicts upon He in the final half hour, there is something that will disturb you when you watch Antichrist. And I do recommend it to the over-18s and the film-people out there. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are excellent as the tortured couple, and it is fair to say that you really pity them for what they go through…

You can watch the Trailer here.

Film Review: Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

2009-11-17T20:58:00.000Z

I’m one of those people who often end up eating their own words, but am usually happy to be proved wrong. When I first saw the trailer for Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, I was indifferent. First of all, the title was ridiculously long (which is why I shall henceforth refer to it as ‘”Cloudy”), and secondly the art style was very unusual, compared to the detailed, expression-ridden faces I see in Pixar films. First mistake: taking something at face-value.

I remember feeling similarly uninterested in another of Sony Pictures Imageworks films – Surf’s up – and yet found that I enjoyed myself, and laughed, quite a lot throughout that film. Second mistake: taking something at trailer-value.

Trailers, in my opinion, are often completely rubbish. Blood the Last Vampire (the live-action version) made the film look worth its salt, and we all know how bad that was.

The point is, I really enjoyed Cloudy. So this is an extensive review of a good animated film, complete with spoilers.

Flint Lockwood is a misfit inventor with severe social difficulties. The local kids think he’s weird, the local policeman thinks he’s a troublemaker, and his dad thinks he’s wasting his time, and should come and work at the family store for a living. They all live on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean called Swallow Falls, where their main source of food is sardines, of which the town was once famous for.

Flint has grown up watching the town decay in poverty, and his unusual inventions go to waste, until one day he invents a machine that can turn water into any kind of food one can dream up. He just needs the power of the town generator.

Enter Sam Sparks, the “cute and super-perky” news reporter and Flint’s love interest, on the day the Mayor decides to turn Swallow Falls into Sardine Land, and also the day Flint decides to hack into the main power-source on the island. Chaos ensues, as it should, and his food machine explodes, destroys Sardine Land and escapes into the atmosphere.

So Flint ends up in big trouble. Until, by some miracle, cheeseburgers start falling from pink clouds. The only explanation: Flint’s machine has somehow lodged itself into the nearest raincloud and continued to work.

Now food is raining down onto the town of Swallow Falls - renamed Chew and Swallow- on a daily basis and the people are happy, despite the huge amount of edible waste soiling the streets (but that can all be solved by another of Flint’s inventions). Lockwood becomes a hero and the town becomes a major tourist attraction, solving poverty and making everyone happy again.
Or so it seems... well it wouldn’t be a good movie without some kind of problem, would it? Flint’s dad still has issues with his invention, the Mayor is getting fatter and greedier, and the falling food is growing to insane proportions. And I’ll leave the summary at that.

Now there’s no mistaking the unusual art style of this film. The super-cartoony characters and their insanely large eyes would look much more at home in 2D than trying to balance their proportions in 3D. And yet as the film goes on, you become more comfortable with the style, and you realise how smooth and detailed the animation actually is. It’s hard to tell in the first half-hour or so, where everything is horrendously fast-paced, to the point sometimes where you cannot understand what a character is saying. But it’s the later slow moments where you really get to see what a good effort this is. The most memorable scene, I think, is where Flint and Sam are bonding in a giant jelly (or jell-o if you’re American) castle. The scene is funny, but also moving, because of the art direction and character development we witness. I won’t go into too much detail, but this is a great movie for bigging-up nerds and girls with glasses.

Another way that this movie is different, and almost refreshing in a way, is the fact that it is actually aimed at children, and thus there is no logic involved in the film whatsoever. Whilst Pixar always aim to add a touch of realism and beauty to their films, and DreamWorks tend to throw at least fifty dirty jokes at the adults, Cloudy is pretty much just for kids, in that it’s daft, illogical and very speedy in its story-telling.

Don’t get me wrong, there are the underlying messages that may affect adults. Believe in yourself, Be true to who you are, Your dad really does love you, and so on. But I felt as though if I hadn’t watched and enjoyed this film, Sony wouldn’t have cared, because it is for the children.
Saying that, the references to Yellow Submarine in the end credits, and the awesome addition of Mr. T to the voice-cast, are not to be missed by any self-respecting adult. And it is a funny film, whether you laugh at the antics of Flint’s talking Monkey, Steve, or his geeky ringtone or the various references to different countries dealing with the food crisis. Incidentally, in London, it rains tea and everyone wears bowler hats. I thought that was pretty accurate.

So there you have it, I recommend you give the film a chance, and don’t go by what you’ve seen in the trailer, because you may miss out. If you’re craving the days where films for children were innocent, smut-free and just impossible but fun, then you should enjoy this little nugget (HA! I made a food joke, about a film, about food...)

Welcome to October 2009

2009-10-14T10:26:00.007+01:00

So... this is my "Artist's Journal".

It's basically a diary of what's going on in my professional life, as I adapt to working freelance. I've been advised by pretty much everyone to keep a working blog, in order to help me reflect back on my own experiences as an artist, and to perhaps allow anyone, who's interested, the chance to see how I go about my professional work.

Currently, I am working on four big pieces:

1. My first paid commission, for a well-known company. I'm keeping it under wraps for the sake of it being a private matter, but I will let you know how I'm getting on with the project. At the moment it's still in the planning stages, but I'm doing a lot of research in my own time in order to give my client more than what he initially asked. I believe giving more than your best is always a good thing. Who's going to say to you "That work is too good and you've done too much of it"? It's better to do too much than too little.

2. I'm working on a project (a Graphic Novel basically) that defies all the basic rules of a horror movie, but is still able to be classed under the title of "Horror". So that means no blood, death, scares, monsters, etc. Sounds hard, doesn't it? Well it certainly is. Still in the planning stages of this one.

3. My third piece of work is based around the story of the Collyer Brothers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers). At the moment I'm experimenting with ideas because, although initially it's going to be a Graphic Novel short, I would also like to fiddle with the idea of an interactive piece that will get people thinking about the subject in different ways. For example, if they're empathetic towards the Collyer Brothers, perhaps a set designed after one of their cluttered bedrooms will have the viewer reeling back in disgust. Maybe that sounds too ambitious, but as I said earlier, it's always best to do too much rather than too little.

4. I am also working on a article that explores this quote from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a 20th century philosopher:

"The body is much more than an instrument or a means... it is our expression in the world."

As an artist I feature mainly human characters in my work, as I have a great interest in our physical body and it's language. The quote gives me an excellent opportunity to explore my theory of the human body as art, whilst also dispelling myths about beauty and pornography. I will post my article when it is complete, and am open to any feedback.

As well as these larger projects I am also working on improving my portfolio with some side-projects, including a tattoo porfolio, which I am hoping will land me a job as a tattooist's apprentice in a year or two; a series of greeting card designs, featuring 'cute' Manga-style characters. I hope to personalise these for different clients to make some extra money and get my work out there; I have a few short films in the planning stages with my partner, including a documentary on body modification in November; I am also hoping to work with my partner on some album artwork for his band, and will be entering this years Welsh Libraries Arts Competition (http://library.wales.org/express-yourself/), as well as participating in Liverpool's Big Draw (http://culture.org.uk/News.aspx?newsId=98).

So I'm frantically busy!

Until next time,

Jem

And the Oscar for Best Animated Film goes to...

2009-10-12T14:56:00.000+01:00

(Images from wikipedia.org)

Well it's going to be a tough call come 2010. I have just seen the two best animated films from 2009, and cannot fathom which is better than the other. But does that really matter? Do Oscar's really matter at the end of the day? The way I see it just having people appreciate your movie should be thanks enough.

The two films I am talking about are, of course, (Disney) Pixar's Up and Studio Ghibli's Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea. Two beautiful films from the two best (in my opinion) animation studios on the planet. Both of them keep to the same rule: that storytelling is key. And let's face it, it's paid off for both of them. They should be proud, and I bet they are.

I'll start with Ponyo, which I saw in it's original Japanese, as it's not currently available on DVD over here. And to be honest, Ghibli films always sound much better in their original language.

Ponyo, it has been confirmed, is based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, another of my favourite classics. Ponyo is a little fish who lives with her sisters and human/sorceror father in a submarine under the sea. But Ponyo, who is developing much quicker than her sisters, dreams of a life outside her home. One day she sneaks off and travels to the surface world on a jellyfish. There, she is rescued from a bottle by a little boy called Sosuke (who gives her her name), who befriends her and promises to keep her safe forever.

But Ponyo's father is furious and takes her home where Ponyo rebels and uses her powers to become human. She escapes her home for good, accidently releasing a dark power that threatens the planet. The only way this disaster can be reversed is if Sosuke can truly learn to love Ponyo for who she is, thus removing her powers and making her a fully-fledged human girl.

The film's premise is simple, innocent and beautifully rendered in traditional 2D animation, as is the style of this fantastic company. There are plenty of laughs and a few tears but it's a great films for kids and adults alike, maybe even more so for the adults. After the bore that was Tales of Earth Sea, it's good to see that Ghibli is back to it's inspiring self. This is possibly their greatest film yet.

And then there's Up. As a huge Pixar fan I make a point of seeing every one of their films as soon as they're released into cinemas, and they have never left me disappointed. Up is no exception. It's gorgeous, it's funny, but most of all, it's heart-breakingly lovable. Seriously, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house during the first ten minutes, even my boyfriend was tearful (sorry Dan, the world needs to know!) And if you're not crying during the sentimental scenes, you will be when you meet the mean dogs who're after our heroes. I wont mention anymore, but that it was just such a funny scene, and so unexpected.

The story starts in the childhood days of Carl Frederickson, a pioneer of his favourite TV Show, "The Wilderness must be explored!" He imagines a life full of adventure and travelling. But in modern day America he is old, grey and lonely, and his beloved house is about to be bulldozed. Carl decides that the only way to finally stick-it to the corporate giants, trying to re-house him, is to escape the city and finally fullfil his lifelong dream of journeying to South America. He does this by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, and floating away in it.

Along the way he accidently picks up an eight-year-old Wilderness explorer who is out to earn his final badge for Assisting the Elderly; a talking Dog, Pixar-style; and a mysterious rare bird called Kevin.

Adventures arise in all sorts of situations, and hilarity is inevitable when you have talking dogs and bizarre birds in the cast, but the films most powerful moments are always the most emotional scenes. There's a strong message of following your dreams, keeping promises and an underlying theme of father-and-son bonding, but this in no way means it's a film just for the male-half of film-goers. I really enjoyed it, and as far as I've heard so has everyone else who has seen it. I always say to people that Pixar never let me down, and I stand by that remark.

So who will win the Oscar this year? Do I really care? No, I would rather people just watch both movies and enjoy them as I did. Oscars are not the most important thing in the world.

Anime Update

2009-10-07T11:22:00.000+01:00

(All images are from Google, I don't own them)

Currently I am struggling my way through a pile of anime. Why do I feel I have to do this? Well honestly, I hate feeling like a "n00b" (is what they call me) because everything I'm watching is pretty old.

My whole life I've been behind on TV shows, gadgets, the latest fads, either because I had no money, or (let's face it people) I had a life to live. I didn't discover anime until Pokemon (although I watched Princess Knight as a toddler and own an anime version of The Wizard of Oz), and even then I had to ask my mum to tape it off CBBC for me, because I was too busy playing outside.

Sadly, I no longer play outside. Although I'm not constantly sitting indoors watching anime or the latest american sitcom, I still feel an obligation to catch up with those who are. So you may have already watched these animes, but I'm going to review them anyway:

Elfen Lied: I got about halfway through episode ten last night, before I realised how late it was. How twisted is this show? Answer: very dark, almost shocking to watch. I'd never thought I'd say that about a cartoon (yes, it is a cartoon, it's just Japanese). I think it was episode nine with the puppy, but I spent about ten minutes with my mouth hanging open. And then there was Mayu's back story. First time I've ever seen that in an anime. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the series, despite the fact that Nana, Mayu and "Nyu" all have the same generic, squeaky anime-girl voice. Thank you America, your dubbing skills haven't failed to make Moe characters annoy me yet (notable exception: Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh). Edit: Also, how beautiful is the song "Lilium"?

Umi Monogatari (aka Sea Story): Well, this is an odd one for me, because the insane cuteness of it and bright colours would normally put me off. But it's about Mermaids (kinda) and anybody who knows me, knows I love Mermaids, and stories about the sea. I'd compare it to Card Captor Sakura, without some of the humor; Fruits Basket, without the romance; but there's no doubt it's beautiful, and keeps me watching. The simple premise is that Marin and Urin, two girls from the Ocean, come to the surface to return a ring to Kanon-chan, a dark and moody girl who has been jilted by love. Add a talking sea-turtle and an evil force known as Sedna, and you've got a strange fantasy/sisterly-bonding story. Well, I'm enjoying it anyway.

Gurren Lagann: I still can't pronounce this one right, but I think it's Guh-rahn Log-on. Anyway, this is surprisingly good. I say surprisingly, because I tend to find Mecha incredibly boring (with the exception of Tranformers). I wont go into detail, because most people will know this anime by now, it's pretty huge in Japan and America. But I enjoy the brotherly bond between Kamina and little brother Simon. Kamina is probably my favourite character with his brash, determined attitude, but for once the half-naked female, Yoko, doesn't irk me, despite numerous pantie-shots and boob-jokes. I am only on episode four, but I have high-hopes for this one. It feels like a mash between Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist and (funnily enough) Power Rangers. And it was made by the guys who did Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. So what could possibly go wrong?

Ranma 1/2: So I'm about twenty years behind on this one, so what? I've seen two episodes and I love it. But it's clearly written by a women, by how nonchalantly the female characters wander around displaying their breasts (see also: Chobits by CLAMP). The characters are adorably drawn, the humor is spot on, and the animation is old-fashioned, jerky and well, eighties, but it only serves to make me love it all the more. For those who don't know (and there will be a few, mainly those emo girls who watch Naruto and Death Note thinking they're the only animes worth watching. Idiots) Ranma 1/2 tells the story of Ranma and his father, two men with a problem. When they are doused in cold water Ranma becomes a girl and his father becomes a giant Panda. To make matters worse, Ranma is engaged to a fiesty girl called Akane, and they don't get on. Cue hilarious and awkward shoujo moments and a lot of billowing Sakura blossoms.

Yakitate! Japan: Thanks to Mark Wilkins for mentioning this on my Facebook status. As you do, I looked up the character he referenced and discovered Yakitate! Japan. And then Kairi explained to me that Yakitate! Japan is a pun, because the series is basically about a boy trying to bake a national bread for Japan. Pan means bread, so the title pretty much means Baking Japanese Bread. Anyway, I watched the first minute of it before the opening titles and I laughed a lot. It just looks daft and a lot of fun. I mean it's about a bakery for crying out loud. It's one of the more simple premises I've come across anyway. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

Filler Post: "Patriotism"

2009-10-07T11:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was watching the evening news when an article came on about Scottish Pride. The reporter was going about the streets in Scotland, asking the residents if they felt more Scottish than British. Pretty much every one of them said yes.

I felt an abundance of sadness at this; not that the Scottish feel pride, but more because I don't. I feel I am British only because I live here, and I don't feel Welsh at all. I don't hate Wales, but I wasn't brought up here. I didn't even know there was a Welsh language until 2000.

I claim to be British when people ask, but I honestly feel no patriotism for this country. I have no pride in our chav-filled streets, no pride in our education system, no pride in our government. I enjoy our traditional pubs and our Cornish pasties, but I feel no pride in them. I love our London museums and art galleries and architecture, but they belong to England, and the people of England; not to me.

In all honesty, the only country I've ever really considered myself a part of is the one I was born in, and that's Germany. I spent only about six years of my life there, but it was where I was the happiest (cue Nazi accusations). No, I am technically not German, my parents are Welsh, but none of us can speak any language other than English, and even then, we don't have accents (correction: my father can speak German, having learned in the Army).

So my question is how do you feel about your country, or perhaps not your country? I know a few people who feel a bigger link to Japan or Finland, even though they were born and raised here. Is nationality a technical thing, or a state of mind? Because I feel German, even though I am not.

Welcome and Toy Story 3D (2009)

2009-10-03T20:39:00.000+01:00

(Image from: moviecarpet.com)

Welcome, curious one. This is the blog of Jemima Lee. I am currently a nobody, I'm afraid. This blog is mainly for University purposes, but it is also a means for me to express myself and develop professionally, as well as (hopefully) make friends.

For my first blog, I have prepared a review.

Yesterday (my 6-month anniversary with my boyfriend :D) I went to see 'Toy Story 3D' at my local Odeon, and I discovered two things.

1. After nearly fifteen years, this is still one of the best animated films ever to have emerged. The script is perfect, and the animation, though noticably glitchy at times, is still smoother and more pleasing to the eye than some of the garbage seen on screens today; those ten-a-penny CGI movies.

2. After nearly fifteen years, Pixar is still one of the best animation companies out there, if not the greatest. Each one of their films is so full of heart and the endurance of intelligence, imagination and hard work never fails to amaze me. It will be a long time before they let me down with one of their films, and to be honest I don't think they will.

'Up' is released in the UK next week, and rest-assured I will be first in line to see it. I've only been waiting a year and a half (darn Americans, keeping it to themselves)!