first coat finito

Sir Alex Ferguson, oil paint on canvas textured paper
Just the tiny details to add once it's dry.

complete :)

My first book, the Baresterds, Project X, and A blast from the past.

The second term is over! I'm back from the wilderness and surrounded by the red brick walls and cobble stone floors of Manchester yet again! The last few weeks were pretty tough and I hardly saw daylight thanks to my illustrated book project, but somehow I got it all finished, bound and handed in! Here's a couple of my favourite pages.



I originally wanted to use oil paints to colour them but unfortunately run out of time and had to use Photoshop, I think they turned out better for it though.

some pags are almost photorealistic and quite literal, and some pages are more conceptual and symbolic. Thanks again to my lovely friend Nathan who lives in Washington and has travelled all over America and beyond taking snaps everywhere he goes. His photographs are absoloutely magnifique and really influenced the content of my book.

Check out Nathan's Flickr page

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ndm007/

The journey from Falmouth to Manchester takes a delicious 8 hours so to pass some time I did a few sketches for Bare in the Woods. They have been writing, practicing, and recording non-stop recently preparing for their first gig of many in Leeds next month. I tinkered with a few of them on Photoshop and sent them to the Bare's. Luckily they quite like them so some of these designs might be scattered around Leeds on flyers next month.. Excitingg!

We had our first 'Project X' this term. These are basically mini projects which are sprung on us with extremley short deadlines. We were given a choice of articles to create an illustration for, I chose a fascinating article from New Scientist magazine about Hypnotism! Everybody's work was then put on display and staff and students were invited to vote for thier favourite. My illustration won second place and I was over the moon!


This is a not so great poster I designed for the Poster Project.

I have a written a really long and fun-filled to-do list to get through whilst i'm back home. One of the things on my list was to rummage though the attick and the garage and the old chest and cupboards in search of old photographs and family history. I started this mammoth task today and found some absoloute treasure..

This handsome chappy is Grandad Bill, who I think looks alot like Elvis

This is my mummy looking very cute and squishy :)

This is my mummy looking less cute and squishy and more eighty's and glamourous.

This is dad having a cheeky dip.

This is one of my first ever journals, full of erm 'abstract' drawings, however I found three prayers that i'd written on the back pages,

JESUS

DEAR JESUS PRICE FHANQ FOR MACKEING THE WOLD BEACOSE NODOBY WUD OV LIVED FHANQ FOR MAKEING ME AND MY FREINDS

ARMEN

MARY

DEAR MARY I WANT TO SAY FANQ FOR MAKEING JESUS

ARMEN

GOD

DEAR GOD FANQ FOR MACKING THE WOLD SO NEET AND TIDEY

ARMEN

By far the coolest discoveries I made were about my dad's daddy who I unfortunately never got to meet. I found lots of photographs and precious things he had kept. He travelled all over the world on boats, bikes, and horses and kept journals everywhere he went. He loved taking his mum out on his motorbike and sidecar. I also found his collection of postcards and foriegn currency some places I have never heard of. He seems like such an fascinating man I think I might stick ' Do project about Grandad Neville the original Wilderness Explorer ' on my ever growing to-do list!

And here's some photos from Jessminda's suprise birthday! a really special night for a really special friend.

And FINALLY my last thing to report is WE HAVE FOUND A HOUSE! We have christened it the Yellow Submarine and I can't waiiiit to move in!

did it tick the boxes I wonder..

Seaview- CHECK

Pink Exterior- A very yellow shade of pink CHECK

A Balcony- No, however there is a two story garage which will compensate

Swimming pool ( settle for paddleing pool )- There's definitely space for one CHECK

A skylight - OK no BUT look at those fantastic arch windows!

its boooootifull :)

Art > Science

I HAVE A MR. PINK LOMOGRAPHIC CAMERA!



My hot pink Camera caused abit of a stir when it arrived at the flat, resulting in my flatmate Geology student Tom challenging me to a photography duel! I am going to win because firstly Tom is equipped with a Voigtländer Bessa Mk. I. which was manufactured in 1931 - 49 and has almost definitely gone kaput.
And secondly Tom is a philistine who doesn't even believe in aliens or the possibility of dreams. We are acting quite frivolous at the moment however this is a serious battle between Art and Science.
The competition is to be judged by Claire our resident photography student.. Let the games begin

I'll update you with my winning set photographs

I think I was born in the wrong era, I should have been a 50's pin up girl

I've been on abit of an emotional rollercoaster these last couple of weeks and i've been taking it out on my sketchbook.. Sorry Moleskine. We're going house hunting this weekend EEK!

I am starting a collaborative project with my best friend Soph who studies Illustration and Animation at Manchester MET. We both get overly excited about posting things and so we have decided to take it in turns to send each other a quote which the other one will illustrate and send back, we hope to fill a sketchbook with them eventually.

I popped the first quote in the post-box today so that should be on its way up North to be turned into a delicious drawing.

! HOW EXCITING !

The second term has been pretty intense so far. We don't have much time left now to produce our Illustrated dummy books, I've been working solidly on it this week and i'm finally happy with my idea! i'll post some sketches as soon as I have the scans.

I have a couple of New Years resolutions to;

Continuez apprendre la Francais pour le voyage de Paris l'annee prochaine et devenez plus proches à mon rêve de toute une vie pour continuer à travailler dans de Place de Tetre

( Continue to learn French for my trip to Paris next year and get one step closer to my lifelong dream of working on the Place de Tetre )

Bed before midnight on college daze

Space Travel - a recurring resolution but I am ever optimistic this year.

Keep trying my bestsest with my Art, ( commissions and my course )

Try to get some work in shops or galleries.

I would also like to loose a bit of weight but if I manage to go into Space this year i'll be killing two birds with one stone... FANTASTIC.

Man United Commision

Its coming along slowly but surely, just Rooney and the background to paint now.