More set building - refining the junkyard cardboard look

[below] recap from where I left off last time, with a shiny new pub/shop front. Unfortunately this makes everything else look unacceptably shabby. also, the space still doesn't flow the way I want it too (*the set should look like a freeze frame in a storm- whipped up, tense, like the borough*)

[below] Shiny new Moot Hall door (needs a windowpane- maybe stain glass?). I also extended the platform halfway up the stairs so it can sit further back and free up space around the doors. I also took out the second pillar from stage left (?) creating an open space, I plan to create a curved backdrop which will partly fill this new space and cover the wings.

[below] The boat got a makeover, it felt too clumsy suspended on its side, it doesn't quite follow the right line in this position but I like the ghostly way it hangs back (*like a reminder of the disaster that killed the first apprentice*)

So still a lot to do for Thursday but, in my humble opinion, it's looking good. 

P.S. (* this means WARNING: contains arty poetics/concept/bull *)

Life drawing

This is a selection from three weeks of life drawing classes building from line based exercises like blind and wrong hand drawing, up to hour long colour studies (fist time using colour in life drawing, eek). I'm going to keep adding images to this post mostly so I can see my own progress so on the off chance anyone is interested, watch this space. 

The aim of the sessions is to work on observation and illustration style, hence the oddly/fully dressed models. It's great fun seeing what our tutor 'happens to have lying around'.

P.s. sorry about the quality, taken with my iPad camera and bad lighting

Peter Grimes -White (...ok grey) card model -part 1

Update

So... new semester, new class mates (10 direct entry 2nd years added to the group!), new flatmates, (a new ipad), and a pledge to keep this blog up to date with projects, reviews, ideas and ramblings. 

 

     At this moment I am writing this mostly out of a desire to not be starting blankly at my sketchbook any more. I am one month in to our first project of the semester and illustrations need a-doin'. We've kicked off the first semester (of my 2nd year at Edinburgh college of art) with the opera Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten; a tale of murder, small minded-ness and ambition set against the backdrop of a quaint fishing borough (sounds like home -_- ). For the first time we have been tasked with creating the set deign as well as costume. The brief allows for a lot of style elements I love - ganseys, deconstructed woodwork, rough textures, and dramatic lighting.

The main characters: the bipolar protagonist (tragic figure or antihero?) Peter Grimes and his love interest, the gentle hearted Ellen

I wanted to evoke the spirit of a shipwreck on the stage, and protruding from it, as the literal aftermath of the storm and as a metaphor for the violent destruction of the life Grimes tries to build.

 The design follows the crashing waves and besting storms evoked in the music and the libretto, with flowing lines and sharp angles.

Off the Top of your Head

Post-Modern Millinery 

Concept- Cliches based on the post modern tendency towards a short cultural memory and our lack of awareness for how things originated and what they really mean. We take cliches to heart and spew them out at every opportunity. 

I was interested in how unavoidable a hat is, both to the wearer and the observer. The extra weight or height or anything covering your face changes the way you stand, wearing something big and/or bold instantly draws attention to you.    

Iago's soliloquy in Othello, the first known use of the phrase to "wear my heart upon my sleeve". To wear your heart on your sleeve is to be wholly open with your feelings but Iago uses this trait to deceive and manipulate by feigning trustworthiness. I wanted to express these conflicting ideas with bright, in-you-face colors and some form of mask hiding true intent.    

Plastic - man made, transparent (mostly), water tight, air tight (chocking) 

Confetti - Showering others with love, fake, unintentional, celebration

Tracy Emin neon sign - brash, uncompromising

Final designs: 

                 Rose Tinted Glasses                                             Thorn in My Side                                                      

Project Brief

OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD: postmodern millinery.

Design THREE hats on a postmodern theme.

For inspiration, you should research THREE of the following: a postmodern architect, a postmodern artist, a postmodern poet (or writer), a postmodern music composer, a postmodern chef or a postmodern film director.

 

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Modernist Personae