Days of hope

Saatchi & Saatchi launched a campaign called 'Days of hope' in 2013 to raise the profile of increasing homelessness in major cities across Europe. I have been looking at a lot of Saatchi related artists for my dissertation which is project based.

This video highlights the struggle that homeless people face in winter, with the homeless population rising I feel this kind of campaign would be effective here in Britain.   

Doki Doki Festival

Saturday last week I sold my artwork at my first anime convention. DokiDoki before this year was held in Manchester every two years, but is now running every year in November.

This year was more of a trial run for me so I could see how others set up and what sells, it defiantly helped seeing how others dress there stalls and how I can improve on presentation. But I did manage to make nearly £70 (£69.50) to be precise which was a nice bonus.

I have a lot of friends in this community I had actually interacted with some of the other artists who were trading prior to the event. It was great to interact with my target audience properly for the first time, I got some great feedback on prices and what I should focus on in the future. 

I will defiantly be doing it again next year, it was a really enjoyable experience.   

Artist of interest Isabella Bunny Bennet

Isabella Bunny Bennet is an children's book illustrator and is also part of a steam punk band called Steam Powered Giraffe. In Steam Powered Giraffe Isabella plays the character Rabbit, who is a Victorian Robot who is prone to malfunctions.

I love her style it's very quirky, she incorporates texture into her digital pieces. This piece is called Bathtub Skeleton and is from her book "Pudding Bat's Big Night Out."

She also publicly posts about her transition from male to female and has little comics she posts on her deviantart and tumblr called Trans-form detailing some of the struggles of transitioning.

  

Even if you aren't trans it is very enlightening to she her artwork and her transition vlogs.

My response to women's sanitary products being classed as "Luxury Items"

I was angered to find out women's sanitary products are classed as a luxury and that some men were comparing their preference for being clean shaven to women's sanitary products. It's not specifically the tax which angers me more the principle behind them being labeled as "Luxury Items". 

Women in 3rd world countries are not as educated because they have little to no access to sanitary products and have to stay off school for 5 days to a week each month. That 5 days to a week puts them behind in their studies making it harder for them to further their education.

So a school year is roughly 195 days, roughly 6 months of the year. Take 5 days average from each month so that's 23. So times that by 6 (months) and that's 138 days. So that's 57 days of missed schooling a year that's roughly 2 months each year.

It gets worse the average start of a girls period is 12 and lets say that girl finishes school at 16. so that's 5 years, so total days a child should be in school is 975 and if you total in the time that these girls have to take off that is a total of 690 days they spend in school total from the ages of 12-16 years of age.

Shocking isn't it?

And people are telling us being in a position to be in education for 195 days a year is supposedly a luxury? We aren't after this stuff for free, we want people to admit this is not a god damn luxury!

Stella Creasy hit the nail on the head when she said "Tampons and sanitary towels, even I'm struggling with the words tonight it seems, have always been considered a luxury. That isn't by accident, that's by design of an unequal society, in which the concerns of women are not treated as equally as the concerns of men,".

Jaffa cakes are zero-rated for crying out loud! Yes stuffing our face with Jaffa's every month is fantastic BUT it is far from essential.   

I would love to at some point create some work around this issue but it would be a stretch to incorporate it into my current project, even though I am sure access to sanitary products is an issue for homeless women. 

Dealing with a loss through art

On Saturday my cat got hit by a 4 by 4 and died later at the vets, my parents are on holiday so I had to deal with it head on. I have never taken the loss of a pet this hard before.

I woke up this morning and decided I really want to get a tattoo so I can remember him the way he was before the accident, I don't want the mental image of what he looked like when me and the neighbors son took him to the vets or what he looked like when I said goodbye for the final time.

The process of planning the tattoo has really helped, I had to look at pictures of him so I could draw up a good design. I had to think about my memories of him to come up with the elements I want to include in the tattoo. I'm picking out nicknames me and my parents had for him and hand lettering them. I want the tattoo to be lighthearted and put a smile on peoples faces because that is what Casper did on a daily basis. This design progress is stopping me from blocking it all out and trying to just push it to the back of my mind. And through the process I am learning it is perfectly okay for me to be upset about this. He was a family member and I am so glad so far no one has said "he was only a cat". "Just get another" or "losing a dog is worse". I know my heartbreak is very valid and very real and that art is 100% helping me through the loss.

I don't know when I will actually be able to get the tattoo done but I feel the designing alone is helping me through the process. I feel like I can take something away from this, whatever happens be it good or bad that energy can be put into something more constructive which still confronts the problem instead of running from it.

Hand Lettering

Something I want to improve on this year is my hand lettering, tutors and other people have told me I have a natural nack for it. I am not into the technical ins and outs of typography but I do like my work when it includes hand lettering. In my recreational sketchbooks I like to sort of journal element, the work I do for myself is very much about what is going on in my life and how I am feeling. Some pages feature dairy style entries some just a phrase that sums up my day or how I am feeling in the moment. Sometimes it's just balls to the walls craziness that just rolls off the top of my head.

I want my work to have a more ziney feel, I like the spontaneous nature of it. I can collect, experiment more like that. One thing I don't like to see in my work is blank space, I like my work to be lively and I feel hand lettering really helps me fill in those blank spaces.

Some YouTube tutorials

How To DIY Modern Calligraphy
Hand Lettering Step By Step
Modern Calligraphy: Marcelle Lettering
Brush Script Lettering Basics This one is really helpful

Overthinking worriers are natural artists?

New Research Says Overthinking Worriers Are Probably Creative Geniuses

 I was reading this article because I am a chronic over thinker and I suffer from anxiety so it caught my attention. Also I am always interested in research about mental health and creativity. I remember someone asked me once if I thought that my trade off for being creative was my health and I think in a way that is true. My mental health has been a problem for over half of my life, before my mental health started to decline I wouldn't say I was particularly talented creatively, yeah I drew a proper stick man before any of my classmates in nursery but noting spectacular.

I remember becoming engrossed with art around 11 years old, this was also around the same time I started experiencing anxiety and a little later on depression. Being creative was for me the most natural cause of action especially when I was younger because I didn't know exactly what I was experiencing yet so I found ways to represent it through art.

So in a way I didn't find this article enlightening but more reaffirming what I had believed to be true for many years. It was comforting in an odd kind of way.

I am homeless but I am a human being

Today I watched this buzzfeed video and I think it informs people about homelessness and the stereotypes homeless people face in the right way.

I am homeless

I was in Manchester on Wednesday and one of the homeless guys came up to me and my friend, I remembered him and how I had given money to him before. He gives people poetry in exchange for their charity. The last poem he gave me was on the back of a betting slip and sadly I misplaced it, that poem brought me to tears and I instantly thought I need to bring attention to this. From what I can recall the poem he gave to me the first time was about how he used to be addicted to drugs but now he was clean. This time I was glad to see he had gotten a note pad instead of writing on the back of betting slips, it's such a small change for most people but for someone on the streets paper is a luxury item. My friend gave him some money (I have a rule that I only give what I have in my pockets) and my friend told me to chose a poem, he just so happened to have a poem called stereotyped so I asked for that one and told him about my project. He seemed so happy when I told him I wanted to dispel stereotypes around homelessness he said "that's good, there is way to much of it believe me."  He was the one who inspired this project and I told him his poem will really help. He smiled and I am so glad I saw that.

Uni project and upcoming stall

My university project 'Outside The Penthouse' is about dispelling preconceptions of the homeless.
Going straight into doing work about homeless people didn't work out very well, I found myself really hitting brick walls, thinking that my super vivid style just wouldn't fit the message I was trying to convey.

I had the idea of depicting the homeless people as monsters because a lot of people seem to adopt the attitude that they shouldn't exist and to validate this I feel people connect negative connotations to homeless people. The most common being drunks, druggies, lazy and uneducated.
I wanted to pull the carpet out from peoples feet and show them how they have been thinking about homeless people compared to how they should be viewing them.

A big challenge with this project it to keep it out of the realm of being too condescending but also try and make it so it isn't a guilt trip. Talking to members of my class they told me that most charity ads are patronizing or tell the viewer though the use of black and white that this should make them feel sad. People don't like being told what they should feel on a subject, that's the reason why differing opinions can spark arguments. I have thought at length how I can stay clear of all of these things and realized it's probably not possible to do, my priority instead has to be keeping these factors to a minimum.

People told me they would rather see something that is uplifting and that will inspire people to help rather than something gloomy which would just depress the intended audience.

My tutor recommended I step away from the theme of homelessness for a bit and focus on creating characters (which is what I enjoy doing) and that has really unblocked me creatively. Since switching the focus I have been coming up with concepts I really enjoy. The project before had become a chore but now it has become something I do for enjoyment and if I have learned anything forcing creativity rarely gives good results. Also my tutor's lecture on metaphor really helped me come up with new ways of communicating my chosen message without blocking myself off creatively.



Switching topic, I have a stall coming up in November and I am focusing on making things that are reproducible in order to keep the balance between my stall and uni work. So far I have come up with the idea of doing lino prints, I had a little look on etsy to see if anyone does pop culture inspired lino prints and found one person by the name of Chase or TheBeardedGoldfish as the shop name is called.

If there is one thing in this world I love, it is Pokemon. And Chase does very unique Pokemon lino prints (if only he shipped to the UK). I have always loved the bold look of lino prints. 

He prints them on to rice paper of different colours depending on the character in the print.

I think the boldness of a lino print would look absolutely amazing paired with a vivid watercolour background that I have recently been creating with Dr Ph Martins concentrated watercolours.

This is also something I would love to experiment with for 'Outside The Penthouse'. Maybe I could even bind them into a zine format.

The etsy shop for TheBeardedGoldfish

Whitworth

I visited the Whitworth art gallery with university.

The blog keeps crashing I can't write more than a few lines.

To explain why I have resubmitted and edited this post, As you can see from my first line while I was writing this post blogger kept crashing I had plenty of time to write the post if it had been under normal circumstances but due to a technical error outside of my control I could not write this on the 6th of may. If you need a witness to my technical difficulties Connor from Motion design saw everything and saw my distress. Also I noticed on the due date on moodle it said the 8th at 4:05 I have screenshots to prove this.

The 3 exhibits are fantastic and all feature a dominate motif of destruction and how it brings about awareness. I think all of the touch up on important social issues Feminism, war, and loss. You may even say the work conveys a loss of innocence. It felt like I was really experiencing the destruction depicted in these pieces as I walked through the places they were displayed. They all made me think about the world around me and the fragility of it. The work itself did not inspire any of my practical work or inform my keywords essay even though Sarah Lucas had many ideas that I could have translated into my essay.

Out side these main three exhibits I saw a lot of work that I could few from a feminist perceptive and many had connotations linking to war. two piece which stood out to me were the dress made from camo and the room with the waste material from remembrance day poppies, Both have clear links with war and the camo dress felt like it was trying to push the boundaries of what is and isn't feminine or making a statement that femininity is perceived and is a social construct rather than rooted in nature. 

Personal project reflection

My personal project went through many changes throughout the project. It started as a zine turned into a comic turned back into a zine. It was suggested to me that I hand bound using coptic or stab stitch binding but instead I opted for heat binding it. If we are realistic if I was to sell these zines the hand binding wouldn't be cost effective or time effective driving the prices up. Also with how thick the zine ended up being it would be a risk to bind it that way because it could crinkle the paper that would effect the overall look of the zine. I also decided to no print the images back to back because I didn't want the pages bleeding into each other also I feel like I am unveiling each new piece as I turn the pages.

Discussion Forums

I am going to be talking about the forums which struck a cord with me.

Copyright and plagiarism

Because of me wanting to sell my work at conventions I have often wondered where fan art falls within copyright. At anime conventions the sale of fan art is common place in fact there is more fan art than original creations. And that's what the con goers expect. In the discussion forum we were told you have to make seven changes to a piece of intellectual property for it to be exempt from copyright. But how many changes does the artists style constitute as? If they are using the character in a previously unseen setting/composition is that enough changes? The seven changes is very vague.

Glitch

Glitch fascinated me because if my interest in gaming and I think glitch art is rather fascinating. Do I think it is a fad? Most probably, I think if too much glitch art is made it will turn into a trend.

Meaning

This was my discussion forum and it made me evaluate my own work. Does my work have a message? Sometimes and I think that is fine I don't think creating art you enjoy that doesn't particularly mean anything is a sign of "selling out". I don't really believe in the concept of selling out. I don't think all your work should be purely decorative unless you are a textile designer or something similar.

Moving illustration

Moving illustration really made me think about the future of illustration. I don't think still print based illustration will ever really die because there is something special about owing a tangible piece of artwork rather than a digital download. But I think moving illustration has it's place mostly on online publications, apps and weddesign. I do think we will be seeing a lot more moving illustration in the future.

Ethical Issues

I think that it is very important to consider ethical issues when creating artwork. It is very easy for people to read into a piece and interprete it in an offensive way. We have to remember we can't tell every single person who looks at our work what it is and isn't about.

Brighter city project reflection

In this post I am going to reflect on my tales of the city project I have dubbed the #Brightercityproject, for this project I made teru teru bozu's which translates to shine shine monk in Japanese which are traditionally made out of white paper or cloth and resemble ghosts. The cloth or paper dolls are considered amulets that bring good weather (or rain if hung upside down) and were/are commonly used by farmers trying to insure the correct weather conditions for their crops. They started becoming pouplar for urban dwellers in the edo period, Traditionally if the weather is indeed good the day after the teru teru bozu is displayed then eyes would be drawn on them, this is comparable to the Japanese tradition of the daruma in which you have a daruma statue you draw in one eye when you have made your wish and draw in the second eye when the wish has been completed. So I made the teru teru bozu as a metaphor for bringing happiness and I tried to achive this by leaving encouraging messages and words of wisdom on pieces of card hung from the teru teru bozu.

So was the project a success? Short answer not from what I can tell. I attached a hash tag #Brightercityproject to the teru teru bozu but nothing has come up when I search that tag.

Do you think there is something you could have done to make the project more successful?
I could have made more and hung them in more heavily occupied places but I got too nervous to hang them in densely populated places. I liked what I did though putting them in less traveled places quite a few in darker corners of alleyways and places like that because it seemed more apt and like it made more of a statement.

I also made a video of all of the places I put them and hoping people can see by the video why I decided to place each message in the place I had put them. I am not disappointed with the outcome of this project in a strange way part of me didn't want to gain from it more than I have done by taking pictures and drawing from my inspiration to do this. It was supposed to be a selfless act if I got too much back from it, it wouldn't feel selfless anymore.

If I was to do it again what would I do differently?
I would probably think more about the construction because the string even though it looked pretty was so hard to get to work and on one of the teru teru bozu it kept coming undone. Apart from that I am satisfied with how the project went.

Summer project idea + artist influence

I don't know if it has changed but I was told the summer project would be on collections, one of my collections is ball jointed dolls today I had an idea about trying to make my own in a way I have never seen done before. The idea is I would "sculpt" the doll by needle felting and I was thinking of a type of character that would fit the needled felted look and I was reminded of the idea of anthro characters.

An artist who does great monster/antro characters is slugbox most of his work isn't suitable. But I really admire how he does chunky characters and I think that Kind of form would be really interesting to experment with when needle felting.

I particularly like his Pokemon anthro's because of how much Pokemon has inspired my work over the years.

If you are brave enough to see more of slugbox's work (I would recommend making sure the mature content filter is on) you can find his work on deviantart.com.

I recently found an artist on Instagram going by the name of  Zoe Williams @x03

She makes needle felted sculptures, they are very minimalist and she makes such amazing eyes for them.

She make's taxidermy style busts they range from the more conventional to the more mutated like this rabbit with many eyes.

I would really like to explore this idea if the project permits it.

Book review: The art of Howl's Moving Castle

I am a huge fan of Studio Ghibli and my friends have helped me build up my collection of Studio Ghibli art books by buying me them for Christmases and Birthdays.

So The Book I will be talking about today is The Art Of Howl's Moving Castle. It is a collection of Sketches, illustrations, concepts, backgrounds and character design from the making of the film.  

Part one of the book shows Hayao Miyazaki's concept sketches, unlike western film directors Japanese film directors more specifically those dealing with animation are expected to draw concepts and the storyboards for the film before passing them onto other artists.

Hayao Miyazaki's concept sketches are normally pen and watercolour or pencil and water colour. Some are vague some are detailed.

"Howl's Moving Castle is set in a world conceived by late 19th century European neo-futurist painters where magic and science co-exist."

"On a research trip for Miyazaki's new film Howls moving castle. The staff visited Europe for 12 days and, although their research centered on the eastern province of Alsace in Francewhere the film was set, they also spent time in Heidelburg (Germany), and Paris, Visiting the Alsatian city Colmar for its colour and atmosphere proved to be a productive experience for the staff.  

A drawing of one of the scenes from the film.

In the film there is a parade going on which seems to be based around the military, People are waving flags and having a good time. 

The main protagonist Sophie is cursed by the witch of the wastes turning her into a 90 year old woman, she flees the hat shop where she was apprenticing under her step mother, and stumbles across howls moving castle.  

 Some storyboards drawn by Miyazaki as you can see they vary from detailed to rough sketch.

Part two of the book is all about character design finalizing concepts and what went into each part of the film.

Concept drawings of howl's castle.

Concepts for 18 year old Sophie (pre-curse)

Concept are for The Hatter's House at night (the hat shop).

This is how it looked in the film.

Grandma Sophie concepts, there was a lot of thought put into older Sophie's appearance.

"I was determined to make the aged Sophie look, cute, but I had to dismiss that approach almost imminently. She simply wouldn't look old without her skin being wrinkled and blemmished. She might appear plain, but I made sure she would have the appeal of a refined old lady."   

Michiyo Yasuda discusses the subtle changes in colour through out the film to convey emotions.  

Howl's room concept 

Howl's room in the film

 Howl's room (cave) concept 

 Howl's room (cave) in the film

Part three is a write up of the screenplay/script. It shows all of the characters lines and how they are supposed to be spoken any calls to action the voice actors might need to convey the lines correctly. It's really quite fascinating to look at.

The future

Recently I have been feeling the pressure to really find a definite route I want to take my art and I have decided after degree to purse a career in a tattooing, I considered this before I started this degree I was even offered an apprenticeship and I let the opportunity pass me by because I wasn't confident enough in my artwork.

Now I have had time to think about it I have something unique to offer when it comes to style and I want to try and practice specifically doing work which will computationally lend itself to tattoo's. As far as tattoo styles I like I am a fan of "new school tattoos".

Image from checkoutmyink

Image from oquevemporai.wordpress.com

Image from flickr

Tattoo by Autumn Tierney

Image from geeksaresexy

by Mina at Hawk and Sparrows in Malmö, Sweden.

Image from poundedink.com

by Kelly Dotty

I like new school tattoo's due the the vibrancy of the colours and how bold an beautiful they are. And I feel it really fits with the style I have established.

It maybe seen as a trend in tattooing but I am also really fond of the look of watercolour style tattoo's.

Image from huffingtonpost

Image from 1337tattoos.com

By Gene Coffey

Image from www.cuded.com

I love the fluidity of the linework (if applicable) in watercolour tattoo's, and again I love the vibrancy of the colours they use. The line's in watercolour tattoo's are varied some lines are think and bold, others look like brush and ink and some are swift and wispy.

Artist showcase Kidura

Kidura is a artist from the UK, whom I bought art from at Japan Day in 2014. She is strongly influenced by anime and manga and mostly draws fan art. I recently won a art giveaway she hosted and she is in the process of drawing me this piece.

The character is called Howl and he is from Howl's Moving Castle which is a book by Diana Wynne Jones which was later made into a movie by Studio Ghibli. I love both the book and the film even though the film follows a different path than the book.

I love how Kidura use's watercolour and her work most diffidently inspired me when I was doing my personal project. Her style is typical of someone inspired by anime and manga but it is the detail that she puts into her work that inspires me the most.

This was the piece I purchased from her in 2014.

This is a piece of Pokemon fan art, Pokemon is something which has always inspired me since I was a child and this scene is from a Pokemon game which was very influential in terms of me finding my threads of interest which lead to my art style today.

See more of Kidura's work here .facebook.com/kidura

Book cover research for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Personal Project

Since I would have to do book cover research for two projects I thought I would post it all in one chunk rather than two separate posts.

I am not sure who the artist of this cover is but this is the Japanese cover created in 2009, I was drawn to the cover because of the flat colour style which is something I have tried in my work before.

Hugh D’Andrade’s pink, leather-bound Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is very eye catching I love the black and pink together I think it really stands out. The limited amount of gold is also aesthetically pleasing. The cover is very bold and something I would definitely pick up out of interest.

Images from flavorwire.com

This cover by Sophie Douglas really helped inspire the more handcrafted feel I went with in my Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I really love the lino cut look of this cover it wasn't the look I wanted to go with but it was the rough and readiness about it that I was drawn to.

Image from cargocollective.com/sophiedouglasillustration

This is not an offical cover but this design by pannucabaguana on deviantart, I really liked the blues they used in this cover concept  and I also thought the font fit nicely with the aesthetic.

Image from deviantart.com

I found the cover for this book very creative I just had to mention it because it is simple but absolutely genius. 

Image from flavorwire.com 

These are some beautiful book covers for Ian Fleming's James Bond, I absolutely love these covers, the colours the women's expressions and how they fit together as a series.

Image's from littlegoldpixel.com

I also looked at some comics, indie comics and zine covers to get an idea for my personal project.

This cover from the indie comic Godkiller has a wonderful colour scheme it is limited but very eye catching the comic is post-apocalyptic and I definitely get that vibe from the cover alone.

Image from www.wired.com

Nurse Nurse by Kate Skelly has a very simplistic style that isn't seen much in indie comic's, the simplicity of this cover is what drew me to it. The cover has an even more limited colour pallet than Godkiller looking at how effective the two covers where made me want to experiment with limited colour.

Image from bitchmagazine

John showed me a Japanese manga called Uzamaki which was disturbing but had an interesting aesthetic.  

Images from popculturesocial.club and bloody-disgusting.com

I went to the Salford Zine library earlier in the year, The visit really helped inspire me for both my Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and my personal project. The organicness of the drawings and type is what I really liked most.

Image from viralart.vandalog.com