Contemporary Art Practice Degree Live Drawing

Ruby came in again and this time I was much bolder with my marks. We used ink (my favourite) but were only permitted to use sticks and wire and sponges and water. We wrecked the place.

Contemporary Art Practice Degree Live Drawing

Throwing us in at the deep end, we had the privilege of a real live model in the studio on Tuesday. I have never done live drawing before and had to struggle not to put stuff there that wasn't there. We of course had criteria. One sheet with 3 or 4 drawings on, then 2 felt tips, then 3, then we could choose a body part and use water with felt tip. Challenging but as always, enlightening 

Here's the best bits

The 12 Days Of Christmas

Without the motivation of college and assignments I find I have to task myself to challenges every so often, or I will be lost forever in a sea of typography and 'cut out' paper cuts. I set myself the task of illustrating and papercutting The 12 Days of Christmas. I've always loved, and been baffled by the song. I was taught the traditional version of 4 colly birds at prep school, but replaced it with the modern 4 calling birds for a wider audience. I love making little albums and books so am going to bind the finished cuts in a book, along with a story slightly less literal than the song suggests. Imagine a beautiful lady peasant fell in love with the moon, and the things he could show her at Christmas when the rich were feasting and she was skint..thus we have my concept. Steal it, and you're cursed.
I did each day separately and coloured then cut it. I used coloured pencils, the cheapest I could find (and afford) and very fine 0.1 Letraset pens and a scalpel. The finished book will be for sale on my new Folksy shop by the end of this month. It won't be cheap, but it will be worth it. I also realised that I quite liked using colour despite being very achromatic for the last few years and want to incorporate this style into my work more from now on..

Secret Garden

Lost my scalpel AND ran out of blades so I was forced to do a drawing I knew I couldn't cut.  It was a change from thinking in reverse and double lines, and not having to join everything up. Thankfully I have found the scalpel and took delivery of 100 blades so normal service is resumed. Shop is open, we're fryin tonight. Speaking of old bat sayings, last Friday I found myself in a suburban bank paying in a cheque! Retail man, its full of surprises

Schools Out For Summer

Wow, what a year that was. We had tears of joy and sadness, panic, despair, moments of beauty and terror and in the end a small handful of us remained. I got a distinction star and am going on to do the Contemporary Art Practice Degree in September. You got to have a degree innit. End of year sale went really well with lots of sales and positive comments and now its all over and what didn't sell is arranged in my living room, I can't help but feel a bit deflated. I'm still working out what is sellable and what isn't. Do I just keep making more of what did sell Is that how it works? No matter. Here's some pics

Dismal Art

The Undertakers Cabinet at  Madame Talbots Blog

I stumbled across this blog in pursuit of weirdness and was happy to find it. This is a very talented lady and her art is painstakingly morose. I thoroughly approve

Its very much to my liking. I drew these a while ago and am figuring out what to do with them I might spend tonight forming them in 3d with air dry clay

It's Almost Over

Arts and Crafts Workbook. 2013

Taste Workbook 2013

Trends Workbook 2014

Looking back on a year at college. Wish I could do it all again really, without some of the disruptions and dramas, but none of us knew what was ahead of us.

We lost 20 class members, one member of staff and 2 months proper teaching time.

I missed a train to London, fell in love with William Morris and canteen food and worked with some of the craziest, loveliest people you could ever hope to meet.

 All that's left to do is a presentation, end of year show and our goodbyes. I've applied for 3 jobs already but have a very real fear that I'll never pick up a pencil again. 

 Best of luck class of 2014 'Remade In Manchester'

Illustrating Ideas

I have always known I was more of an illustrator than an artist. I don't create fine art with a subtle narrative, or objects of beauty and historical significance. I get an idea, and I draw it out. Sometimes I use other peoples ideas and draw them. A few years ago I wanted to do a modern Alice from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. This apparently is the most illustrated literary piece worldwide, so with all the versions out there, and Disney's take, its hard to clear your mind and create new faces for these things..but still be recognizable as the characters.

So I read it again. Imagined I'd never seen or heard of it before. I was mad about manga at the time, so there is a heavy influence apparent. Fun.

Cometh The Hour

College is a whirlagig of activity. Students are frazzled and industrious and its very exciting. I'm just sitting drinking coffee and cutting paper. I feel as if I'm getting the hang of it all now, this paper cutting lark. I'm finding my style and that means I can work on refining my cutting. I've yet to find my Holy Grail paper. Copier paper, though a brave idea, is unreliable and prone to softening up on a rainy day. Watercolour paper is consistent but tough to cut and if the blade is the slightest bit dull won't give you the definition you need.

Business plans have been completed and my presentation is writing itself. I'm almost too calm. This generally means I've forgotten something absolutely vital.

My mannequin for a full length paper wedding gown has been acquired so all that is left to do for End Of Year Show is to actually frame and make stuff now. Wish me luck.

My red vintage style town bike sits in piece in the lounge ready to be assembled and used when we get a dry spell.

Sadly I'm cutting through tears at the news of Rik Mayalls death this week. It's too grim for words. I relished anything with him in it like a chocolate bar and cannot imagine how distraught and confused his family and friends must be. Since I was a teenager I've loved his out there comedy and physical humour and just cannot believe he is gone for good.

But cut I must and its onwards and upwards...away away

MLP My Latest Project

Following on from CAF and thinking of personalization and kits, I've been merrily drawing and cutting odd little 'tokens' along a theme this week. I had my Grandads photo in mind. I hate to see tomes of buried photos in dusty books, I think if its good enough to keep, its good enough to display. I am ruthless when it comes to pictures.

I love the aesthetic of the ready made or die cut layout embellishments, but the fact that they are so lovely and commercially attractive means their uniqueness is gone. One day I will convert these little guys to downloadable templates so customers can print out and cut them and colour them themselves. 

One day soon.

Chorlton Arts Festival

Our tutor arranged a stall for 5 of us to share on what promised to be a very good exercise in customer profiling and marketing last Saturday in Chorlton. I was glad of the chance to be getting rid of some older stock and judging the reaction to my new direction of papercutting. We set up quickly, soon finding that we were quite unprepared for the low lighting and the professionalism of our fellow traders. Not wishing us to look like country bumpkins I asked our tutor to run me home for some battery fairy lights and whatever else I could scoop up in a hurry.

Doors opened and 2 girls made their first sales, I was to wait a little longer for my sale but it came in the afternoon. Far more fun was going round spying on the competition. Handmade doesnt mean hand thrown any more and we were all impressed with the level of finish and quality of the goods on offer. I was particularly taken with a ceramicist making tiny bottles and keys all with an archaeological aesthetic. It was also great to put faces to names I've seen on Twitter, Artist on a Bike being the first 'craftworld-famous' person spotted. I love her use of maps and bikes. I spent a small sum on another bike related item, namely a 3d town bike that I can't wait to put together.

All in all we all sold something and I learnt a lot.

Namely, finish your product, especially for face to face sales.

Don't ask the customer to frame your work, do it yourself and charge accordingly.

Personalize a much as possible.

Think of kits as a very good impulse buy idea.

Be prepared to work as if your boss had given you a target. Nothing sells itself.

A very good day.

Coffee and Chocolate Brioche

Aldi is a soul destroying place to be. It is badly laid out, the special offers are depressingly irrelevant and the staff are disinterested. BUT it does a smashing line in chocolate brioche which I am going to chomp on with coffee soon.

My fingers are numb at the ends from turning and cutting paper and the floor is covered in a thousand shreds of soft grey cartridge paper. As college comes to a close, with Final Project and End Of Year Show to come, I can look back and say I came a long way, but my journey with Art further education is done. I was accepted on a 2 year degree of Contemporary Art Practice but can't really afford to do it. Materials and trip are expensive and the chaos that comes with finishing projects (morning til night making things and glued to canvases and clay and paper) is not conducive to a healthy me. But I have set my shop up and will make papercuts for the love of doing it and pushing the medium, and get a sensible day job while doing a barbers course at night.

I'm halfway through cutting this delightful little wedding piece, gone through 15 blades and far too much chocolate. Hoping to finish today. Its the biggest most deatiled piece yet and I love working out the architecture of it. The wrong cut can make the whole thing fall apart.

Its a dance between scalpel and negative space.