Discovery and experimentation.

“Printmaking is about discovery, about experimentation; art itself is about discovery and experimentation.”

 Recently I've found myself drawn to printmaking, after the previously explained talk with lectures and experimentation I've realised that it's a path that I'd like to try out as to what media I'd like to use.


These are two of many prints that I feel inspired by, the one on the left is by a University student whose blog I stumbled upon, whilst the one below is by the incredible print-maker Daniel Danger (even his name is cool!) I find myself constantly finding prints online and in books that I absolutely LOVE the look of, which only furthers my determination to try any techniques that are available to me. I'm currently trying to experiment and see what combinations go best together. I want to be able to combine print techniques with other traditional methods to produce interesting images instead of just printmaking alone.

Although at the moment it's a bit stressful that I still haven't finished any brief purely because I have to finish it in print but hopefully it'll be worth it. We've also just been given a new editorial brief, something that should be interesting considering it has to be a week turnaround and has me thinking whether I'd be able to do that after uni, or whether it doesn't fit with print, so if you know of any professional print-makers who have successful careers with editorial work then drop me a message!



This is the result of my first ever screen print which is for the proverb brief. It's a two-tone print which turned out quite good, and is definitely a process  that I'll be trying again! Happy days!

First taste of competition.

For the past couple of weeks we've been working on a Proverbs brief, a joint project with art schools in Warsaw and Katowice, Poland. We have to take a polish proverb that translates into English and create an image preferably using both meanings. So I started with the usual mindmap process, wrote down all the quirky proverbs that would be fun and started sketching.

 P:The blacksmith was guilty but they hanged the gypsy.

E:The scapegoat suffers not for his faults.

P:The beggar spoke to picture but picture gave no answer.
E: Like talking to a brick wall.

Now, for a while the lecturers have been going on about getting a style, we all have one but maybe we don't see it or we just find it hard to keep it consistent. Ever since first year they've stressed the importance of having a recognisable style and how it will affect our future work. When they first mentioned this all I could think was PANIC! I couldn't for the life of me see my style and if I did, I didn't like it. I kept pushing, forcing some sort of style but nothing would come so typical over dramatic Natalie began to think that I was destined not to have one. Alas! You can imagine my delight when on one Tuesday afternoon I wandered into the print room and spoke to the lecturer there and found myself starting an etching, and I loved it!

 From little acorns great oaks grow
Dry-point etching - 1st attempt

I've dabbled in print before but nothing serious and it's always something that I've wanted to progress with. Then I spoke to my  lecturer with the print-maker and we all agreed that for this semester I should spend some time with print and furthering my understanding and skills.It sounds stupid but it feels like it fits, lord knows Photoshop and myself aren't going to become friends anytime soon and there's just something about printing that I find intriguing.
So for the past couple of days I've been scouring the internet to find artist research etc and it makes me want to experiment with it, a sort of mixed media printmaking piece. When I graduate I don't want to be a plain Jane and want to combine different techniques, even as a second year, it's clear to see that if I want to go into the creative industries then you have to stand up and be noticed and considering these proverbs will eventually be put into a published book, this may be the first step!

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. .

. . And so I will.
Myself and some friends went to check out the new Alice In Wonderland exhibit at Tate Liverpool. I found it quite fitting that whilst on the train up to Bidston I found myself sitting across from a woman with a goldfish in a jug of water, very Wonderland-esque, curiouser and curiouser!
So when we walked into the ground floor gallery, my heart sank as we were surrounded by modern artworks, and I feared that I had just spent £6 to see an exhibit I could hardly understand. After passing a bundle of sheets with two, god only knows what they were, sticking out of it, neon lit Wonderland related words, we bumped into one of my favourite lecturers who had told us about the exhibit. We spoke for a while about how as illustrators we should remain open minded when it came to work, that it's rare now to see a story that so many people feel inspired by and is ultimately timeless like the adventures of Alice have become. She never fails to inspire me when we've spoken, so with this new outlook we left the modern world and took the lift down the rabbit hole . .

The next floor immediately felt like it was going to be better, with deep red walls littered with mad quotes that seemingly made so much sense. It was the Wonderland exhibit that you'd hope for. There were oil paintings of little girls daydreaming whilst immersed in books, a chance to see the real Alice and incredible originals by Dodgson (Carroll) himself.
My favourite (albeit brief) part was two old looking armchairs pushed away into a corner of the gallery next to a small table that was filled with just a few of the different interpretations that Alice in Wonderland has inspired. I would have loved to have sat there all day looking at these books that ranged from original illustrations, graphic novel format and Suzy Lees bizarre photo-illustration picture book.

To be able to see how one story is able to inspire so many others to recreate it is extraordinary, the exhibit shows just a few of the books, illustrations, surrealist movements and many more forms of art. I think Alice In Wonderland is so insane that it makes sense to people. There's no right or wrong way in which you can interpret it, whether it's as a nightmare or an adventure, a coming of age story or a wake up call. At some point in life, everyone feels lost, whether it's for a brief moment or a lifetime and Alice stumbling through Wonderland speaks (to me atleast) of a journey. This may only be my interpretation of it, but isn't that great? That people can take different things from just one story, that some may relate to it whilst others can only see it as a fictitious childrens story.
So why has Charles "Lewis Carroll" Dodgson's tales of an alternative world of mystical creatures and crazy characters such a timeless classic? Well, because . . we're all mad here ;)

I've decided to create a blog to run along side with this one, it'll feature notes and thoughts about design lectures we have during the semester. So, anyone who wants to check it out, head over to http://design-pastpresentfuture.blogspot.com/

Year 2, let's go.

So two and a half weeks into the second year and here's what's happened so far. .
It looks like second year will be more specialism focused, i.e general illustration for me. So far i'm liking the approach to second year, we're being treated more maturely and have a lot more studio time instead of being told what to do. However they have this idea to put us with graphic designers which so far isn't working (mainly because we keep getting told we illustrate things to much, whattt?) but we'll see.
So, work wise this is where i'm at:

We've been set two week long projects that are setting us up for a longer project. Week 1 was to create a profile of someone you know without actually drawing them but objects of theirs and things you associate with them.
I chose my grandad, this is just a rough sketch of what it should look like. for the final piece I decided to make it 3-Dish using feathers* and card etc but left it in uni so here's a taster. For as long as I can remember my grandparents back garden has been home to racing pigeons and it was always a joke in the family that those birds were his life, so obviously pigeons had to be in the image.
*Future tip for using feathers, DON'T!

Anyway, second week long project was to find an image and create another image with a word that word anchor its meaning. After spending most of the week trying to make sense of the brief and getting different versions from different lecturers I decided to just go with what I had. Turned out pretty well I have to say, I think i'm realising that the less you try to impress the lecturers then the better it works out.
These are two examples of what I did, although they didn't do what the brief said specifically, Yadzia seemed to like the one on the left so I think that's probably the one i'll re-do into a final piece, It's titled "Unknown".
So, just to sum it all up, second year is going swimmingly and hopefully it continues :)
P.s. Apparently we have to start blogging notes from our contextual studies lectures that we have but i'll try not to make them to boring!
Until next time . .

Wow, I've not posted for a while. Here's what's been happening . .

• After being messed around a bit with the Uni results department (grrrr) I passed first year! Woo!

• We've been given a brief that seems impossible to research! However, I'm determined to up my game in second year so I started early and i'm in a good place I think.
• I'm trying to be more professionally inclined when it comes to my artwork so I've contacted a few people about future collaborations including web comics!
• I've also subitted a design into Threadless, which for those who aren't familiar with it, its a t-shirt site which sells designs that have been submitted and then chosen to be printed by people voting for them. I entered into the Threadless loves .. your city, and although it's not my city, I chose London. Why? well other than the fact that I do actually love the place! I'm not so sure people would wear a shirt that was designed around Wrexham.
• So what happens now? My designs currently being reviewed and hopefully gets excepted for scoring soooo I'd really appreciate it if you could take a look and give it a score when it goes through in a week or so. Plus! Its a really cool site with sweeet designs so you may even bag yourself a killer shirt while you're at it!
• http://www.threadless.com/submission/361101/Guard_of_London
• http://www.threadless.com?streetteam=Natalieeee_

If i've learnt anything during the second semester, it's how useful/stressful/the biggest pain in the arse photoshop can be :) Being told to do something to your image that you have absolutely NO idea how to do it is the most annoying thing! BUT i'm hoping it'll be approved by my lecturer soon so that I can actually finish this flippin' brief.
Here's a bit of progress:

Things have been pretty stressful the past few months, my grandads been pretty ill and then i've found a few things from Uni have been building up too, but i've got assessments in the not too distant future so i've got to try to get under control of everything pretty soon!
Anyway, we've been given a new brief, this time we had to choose a text to adapt into a set of images. I chose a poem by Spike Milligan called Jumbo Jet.
I'm still finding it difficult to develop an individual style, so my images have changed quite a bit over the past few days.
So these are a few sketchbook scans of my rough ideas, they're still very much a work in progress but I quite like the character i've been drawing more recently so as long as the lecturers feel the same i'm hoping he's the one!

So we were given a photoshop brief this week, for someone who's never really used photoshop before, the thought of having to do an entire project using it fills me with fear. But I had a go at it and this was the end result.

 After feedback from my tutor though I was told that i'd have to redraw it to add a few changes. So yes right now i'm at the point of waiting for the ok from my lecturer and then i'll be back into photoshop. Joy. Although I have to admit that it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.



So we had to take characters out of our alphabet mini stories and make them in 3D workshops. I decided to take the characters I liked the most (mole and mouse) and then make them using clay. They've turned out quite well and although I should probably make them a little bigger considering i've still got 2 weeks left until the deadline, i'm quite satisfied with how they've turned out. My only crucial mistake? I made them using an oil based modelling clay, which means it NEVER dries out. Nice one :/

Aboce is the original sketches of the characters, and below is how they've turned out in clay.

Bit of character development...

I've begun to improve (slowly) when it comes to drawing characters due to the amount of briefs we've had on them!

In these rough drawings I can kind of see a style in there somewhere, it's just trying to maintain that certain style throughout I guess.

Soooo, we've had two weeks off for assessments. I passed atleast :) but now I just need to try to improve in the second semester. One thing they said was that I need to find my style, the words i've been dreading! My "style" is something that scares me because it means i'm on my own with it, completely open to critism with no one else to blame other than myself. No more just drawing whatever comes into my head but i've now got to create work that can be recognised as mine everytime. I suppose it's exciting at the same time but at the moment it's frustrating because i'm only at the beginning of developing my style and my style often varies depending on what it is i'm drawing. Oh well, we'll see what I come up with I guess...

Started another character design brief today, decided to carry on characterising my Jack Russell. Although these initial sketches don't look like him much, but I sort of like them. Just have to think about a profile for him now.

First ever life drawing class today. I'm normally not too good at drawing people so I was pretty nervous that I was going to walk out with just a blob on the page. We didn't have long so had to quickly sketch guidelines first then go back and draw the body. Anyway, didn't turn out too bad, need to practise abit now that we're getting more briefs centred around drawing figures.