The painting of our degree show and silly times.

The past 2 days we've been in uni painting all the boards for our Degree Show which starts end of next week. Manual labour is hard. Pratting about with white paint is fun.

Carina seems a bit too happy... paint fumes may be to blame!
I got splattered in silly tiny specks of paint. I was not amused.
It was also Jenny's birthday today! Which made it extra fun, I bought this amazing giant cupcake for her, which we ate with glee:
Yes, we used some kind of scraggy storage box for a table. We ain't got no furniturrrrr.



Me and Jenny. We like cake. Mmmm.
Yeah, I thought being an art student, I should get a bit arty with a photo. Er. I wouldn't call this award-winning.
Illustration girls! From left to right, Danielle, Kim, Jenny, Carina, Me. (I also want to point out, we are a much more stylish bunch usually, but we didn't want paint on our Dior, darling*, so we turned up in Primarni)
*None of us own any Dior. Gutter.I couldn't resist doing that.

I've linked where I can to websites.. some aren't functional yet. But we're all very talented so what those spaces....

I'm visiting the parents over the weekend so probably no posting. Have a sunny, great weekend! :D

A drawing a day: Day 4 - drawing in the park

Today I spent the latter part of the afternoon and evening chillaxing in West Park. Such an amazingly hot and sunny day, the lads were kicking a football around while I drew our array of technology in the grass. It was a super quick sketch as I only had my diary and pen with me, but I didn't care because I was in such a good mood, listening to 23 by Jimmy Eat World was my inspiration. Hence the scribbled lyrics. Lots of summer tunes :)

Check it out. Beautiful amazing sunshine. I was just lying in the grass finding strange animals in the clouds...
....and taking emo pictures of myself. Ha.

Tommy got sleepy :) awwww.

Pretty damn awesome day. Before all this chillaxing, I was in uni painting our degree show. I'm posting pictures of this in a sec :)

To see the rest of the drawings in the 'A drawing a day keeps the bad thoughts away' series, click here.

Update on Penguin Design Award 2009

I got a letter today from Penguin.... saying that I hadn't won any of the prizes (boo) but that I am invited to the awards night in June for all the winners and people who've been shortlisted! I'm so excited! :D My mum had to open the letter for me and read it out over the phone, I was walking down the road with some friends and I was doing little hops haha. I can't wait!

See my entry in a previous post here.

Also, found out that me and a couple of classmates have been chosen by our tutors to exhibit at this year's D&AD New Blood exhibition, From 29th June to 1st July 09, which i'm also crazily excited about! :D Once I know more info I'll definitely post it up.

We've started putting together our degree show now, I've been taking photos so I'll post them tomorrow once all the painting is done! Us girls on the course suddenly realised we now have a pressing question - "What the hell do I wear do the private view??" Some of us hadn't thought about it, some (like me) consider my outfit as pretty much an extension of my work and who I am... er no pressure then. Do I buy a new dress? Do I go super dressed up? Do I do effortless and arty? Or crazy but awesome? These are all very pressing questions. Especially when I can't afford to buy anything new (although I saw some amazing pink heels in new look and I neeeeed them).

Basically, good times are abound.

A drawing a day: Day 3

My drawing today is a type-based one. I'm a bit obsessed with Interpol at the moment, haven't been able to stop listening to them for months. Their lyrics are so beautifully written and they're just so damn melancholy, I love it. I think it's the ambiguity of the lyrics that I love, you have to make your own sense of it. I think that's what makes a good song, when you have your own personal meaning from it. This is from Pioneer to the falls, which is on Our Love to Admire. I hope they do a new album soon....

In other news, i've been updating rachelsayshello.com today, it's nearly finished! Just need to write my bio. Still. I've been really busy okaaaay. I was in uni today doing that and sorting out images that I'll be putting in the degree show, really excited about that! We'll be painting all the boards tomorrow and then mounting all the work on the walls on monday... I'll take photos as we do it. I so can't wait! It's going to be such an awesome feeling, when we see all our work up on the wall. Eeee ^.^

To see the rest of the drawings in the 'A drawing a day keeps the bad thoughts away' series, click here.

A drawing a day: Day 2

So, I haven't had time to do a drawing a day, which is a bit of a fail considering I only started a few days ago! But I've been so busy with fun in the sun, job interviews, degree show preparation, all sorts.

So today I decided to draw whatever fell out of my bag after getting back from my interview. And my phone, which is on charge constantly these days because it's old and rubbish. (well, it's a year old, but phones really don't last long at all, it's terrible). I'll draw again tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from my day at Barmouth, Wales yesterday with my friends:

And my cool neon pink flipflops! :)

To see the rest of the drawings in the 'A drawing a day keeps the bad thoughts away' series, click here.

The Future is the Way Forward

I'm quite excited to see that there is a new Futurism exhibition going on at the Tate Modern this summer, from the 12th June to 20th September 2009.

I think Futurism is one of my favourite art movements... they were an Italian bunch, founded in 1909, produced some great work but a lot of their ideas were pretty extreme. It didn't really survive long, but a lot of the work they produced was visually quite stunning, and has influenced me over the years since I discovered it in college.

Their general idea was that all previous art should be destroyed, they saw the museums of italy like mauseleums, tombs for irrelevant art that didn't have a place in their shiny, industrialised, future. They basically went so far as to say that all art, once created, should be destroyed as it was 'past' and not relevant anymore. They were concerned with speed, industry, things moving forward, and a lot of the work reflects this in it's harsh lines, dynamicity, and forward thinking. They embraced new technology rather than feared it... altogether it was quite a good art movement, aesthetically, except for the fact they were pretty much all fascists and they glorified war (check out number 9 on the manifesto). Which isn't great, really, considering what happened in Europe only a few years later. Oh and they hated women.

Read the manifesto here, it's quite interesting, gives you a good insight into what the Futurists were all about.

Here's what Wikipedia says about them:

The Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was its founder and most influential personality. He launched the movement in his Futurist Manifesto, which he published for the first time on 5th February 1909 in La gazzetta dell'Emilia, an article then reproduced in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909. In it Marinetti expressed a passionate loathing of everything old, especially political and artistic tradition. "We want no part of it, the past", he wrote, "we the young and strong Futurists!" The Futurists admired speed, technology, youth and violence, the car, the airplane and the industrial city, all that represented the technological triumph of humanity over nature, and they were passionate nationalists.

The Futurists practiced in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy.

Here's a few of my favourite Futurist images; like I said, I love it for the clean lines, the use of typography, the dynamics... the influence on graphic design is apparent - here's a great blog post discussing the link between modern graphic design and movements such as Futurism and Cubism, definitely go have a look at that.

Umberto Boccioni, Materia, 1912

An example of Futurist architecture by Antonio Sant'Elia

Filippo Marinetti, "Montage + Vallate + Strade x Joffre", 1915

Another text based image from Marinetti. He experimented with parole in libertà "words in freedom", poetry made from words thrown about the page, with visual additions like lines, drawings etc. Quite similar to today's Concrete Poetry, which has been quite a big influence on my work when I work with lyrics, text, manipulation of type... here's a previous post from a while back where I experimented with manipulation of type, and representing lyrics in visual form; you'll have to scroll down as what I'm talking about is at the bottom, I used to be very rambly back then.

So I'm definitely going to try and see this exhibition when it hits the Tate, tickets are £12.20 so not too bad. Head over to the Tate Modern website and have a look :)

I've been a bit lax with posting in the last few days; it's been such amazing weather and I've been to a few BBQ's and went to the beach yesterday so that's my excuse. I need to post more drawings I've done too! I have an interview today and one on saturday too so that's cool.

What do you think about Futurism? Greatest art movement of the 20th Century, or fascist, war-mongering, crazies? Leave a comment :)

Dawdlr

I completely forgot that I did this. Dawdlr is a great little site, a small pocket of rebellion against an online world that is 'updated' every single second with what people are doing, where, through status updates, twitter, you know all that jazz. Dawdlr asks the question "What are you doing, you know, more generally?" and you have to answer on a postcard. The site is updated not twice a minute, but twice a year. Simple, really, and charming and so interesting what people say, some are ambiguous, some are frank.

So I sent one in in february (according to the postmark, 2nd Feb), and it's just been posted up:

http://dawdlr.tumblr.com/post/110881262

http://dawdlr.tumblr.com/post/110880954

Completely forgot I wrote that. And the slightly saddening thing is it's all still true; and I didn't get into RCA. Or St. Martin's.

When my spangly promotional postcards turn up I'll send a new one in. I like seeing something from the past turn up; maybe what I write next won't be true when it finally turns up on the site.

On another note, I've entered May's Creative Flair Illustration Competition - you can see my entry here; it's one of my mobile phone posters. Fingers crossed for that!

A drawing a day keeps the bad thoughts away...

I decided that now I've finished my course I need to actively do something to keep drawing, because I know how easily life can get in the way of creating stuff. So, I've bought myself a pretty new sketchbook (I don't often allow myself to do that because inevitably I go crazy, buy about 6 and never use them... I have a stationary fetish I'm sure), and I'm going to fill it with drawings of stuff, one a day. Up there is the front cover that I decorated with letraset. Which I'm also obsessed with. This is to keep my mind from going idle and thinking about bad stuff that I so often fill my nights with :P


So this is my handbag... I really enjoyed drawing this, I think I might work into it a bit more though. I was debating colour but I didn't want to wreck it... it's usually purple and flowery you see. Maybe I'll give it a go.

That was yesterday's drawing, I'll do another one later and post it tonight.

To see the rest of the drawings in the 'A drawing a day keeps the bad thoughts away' series, click here.

Train Journeys

Considering I live really close to Birmingham, can easily get there, and it's full of amazing shops, galleries, clubs, bars, awesome stuff, I haven't been in over a year. I think it's got something to do with the fact that everytime I go I spend a huge amount of money. Well it turns out that this week I've been 3 times, strangely. On monday I went over to the Bull Ring to give out CV's everywhere (that was a mission, I must have been in about 80 shops)... that paid off because on wednesday I went back to have an interview at Republic. Then today, I was back, this time going over to Edgebaston for an interview at Birmingham city Uni, for an illustration placement working on imagery for software for medical students. That went really well today, I so hope I get it... if I do then I'll go into more detail about what it's all about. Really exciting though! So 2 job prospects there, just got to wait on the results of them. Eeeek *bites nails*

Anyway, the point of this was that it meant I was on lots of trains this week, and I like drawing people on trains. I don't often do it because I get too scared but I actively searched out interesting-looking people. So, I hope I do get one of those jobs because it means I'll be on a train every day, so I can draw loads more people. Here are the best ones/ones I managed to complete before they noticed and scowled:

This dude was on monday, he had an interesting moustache, intently reading his paper.


The behooded fellow was really jittery so I couldn't really get him. He looked mean. The other guy had a really hook-y nose, could just see it through the seats.


She was so wrinkly, I love drawing old people, way more interesting. Couldn't get the glasses though. And the guy on the right, well he's not really there, because as it says 'hot guy that i'm too scared to draw', which was true. He was basically the twin of someone I know, it was very strange, different hair though. Anyway, I didn't want him to see I was looking at him so after 3 attempts I gave up... too attractive to draw, how lame is that. Now I shall never see him again *tear* Lol.

All this drawing on trains is very much like this blog I follow, Ami Underground. It's amazing, definitely subscribe to it, he just draws people on the NY tube every day. Waaay better than I am. It's busy there though, bet he can do it way more covertly, on trains round the West Midlands you look kind of obvious. Maybe I should try this next time I'm down in London.

By the way, that moleskin I'm using, is tiny!! Like, the size of a business card, maybe slightly bigger. It's perfect, and pink. Haha.

Pencil Power

I want to post today about a few illustrators that really inspire me, who all work with pencil predominantly. I'm a huge fan of good ol' fashioned pencil drawing in illustration, and I'm constantly trying to improve my drawing because I think it's important in this crazy digital world to still have these skills.

I've just discovered an amazing illustrator through a recent post by the guys at It's Nice That, who only goes by the name Henri.






Pretty damn awesome. It's all about Playstation.

Next is my favourite, I think I came across her a while ago in Grafik magazine, her work has inspired me so much. Esra Roise:




This one I love; there's something so personal about it. Reminds me that I need to draw the contents of my handbag soon. Actually I might just draw my handbag, it's very pretty.
Tapes! I love tapes, drawing them is somehow really exciting. These are just beautifully drawn.

Some of these are drawn from photographs, snapshot-style, which was a source of inspiration for my Seven Sins project.

Next up is Denise Van Leeuwen (what a great name!) She works with text occasionally and her images have a super-surreal feeling to them; purposefully out of proportion and quite stunning:





The colours are great as well, love that blue hair!


Sophie Henson is also great, lots of hand drawn type (which of course everyone knows I love), she draws with pen rather than pencil but her work is equally tasty:



This is great, love this image so much.

Another 'contents of your handbag' type illustration. The blue tone of this makes it extra special, I guess it reminds me of biro doodling. And is that a cassette tape I spot? ;)


I hope people get as much inspiration/tickly sensations from these illustrators as I do. Their work blows me away. Also, do you know of any awesome pencil/pen illustrators out there that I don't? I'd love to feed my visual habit.


In other news, the kind people at Creative Wolverhampton have posted about my Seven deadly sins handmade book! Which was so exciting and unexpected ^.^ That's a really good blog actually, I've been following it recently, especially if you live/study in Wolves and the surrounding areas, with news, interesting bits, things like that. Check it owwwwwt.

I'll be posting again really soon, seems I have lots of things buzzing around in my head that I want to talk about. I had a job interview yesterday and I have an interview for an Illustrator placement tomorrow... that's very exciting.

Lastly, I saw Wolverine last night. Go see it. Effects are immense, Gambit is a legend (he's always been my favourite), and well... girls, it's Wolverine. Just go watch.