Hapi Hapi

Hapi hapi krismas evriwan!

and a very happy year ahead!

Hungry Like the Wolf - the finalé

These are the six panels I submitted for my final critique.  I chose to do them in collage in the end.  Lots of picking up tiny triangles, flowers, stitches, eyelashes etc with tweezers and lots and lots of glue everywhere.

 

Nice to post it today - I just opened google to see that today is the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Grimm's Fairytales.

 

They were a bit of a dark and twisted pair, if you re-read some of their original stories. 

 

Little Red Riding Hood certainly has some creepy undertones.

 

This is my version.

 



 

 

On a windy day a little girl wearing a red riding hood set out from her house to visit her grandma. Her grandma lived in the forest and she was sick.

 

As she was walking through the forest a wolf appeared unexpectedly. The girl was frightened because the wolf looked hungry. But the wolf spoke flowers and soft things to her.  

 

When he asked her where she was going, she told him she was going to visit her grandma. 

The wolf left and the girl continued on her way. But she became distracted by all the beautiful wild flowers that grew beside the path. She stopped to pick a bunch for her grandma.

 

Meanwhile the wolf arrived at her grandma’s house.

He let himself in and he ate her.

 

 

When the little girl arrived at the door to her grandma’s house she felt strange, like she had prickles in her stomach. But she convinced herself it was nothing and went inside.

The wolf was pretending to be her grandma and lured her into bed with him.

Then he ate her too.

Someone passing by the house heard the commotion and stepped inside to investigate. He found the wolf passed out on the floor with two human shaped lumps in his stomach.

He took out a very sharp pair of scissors and cut the wolf’s stomach open and freed the girl and her grandma who were ok. A little bit messy, but still ok.

The end.

Violin

This project was truly hideous.  We had to describe the rhythm of an instrument in 16 panels, each measuring 16 x 16 cm. 

We could only use the name of the instrument and one type face.  We had a choice of five instruments and 3 fonts. 

I chose violin and didot. 

We weren't allowed to use computers or any graphic software.  It all had to be done by hand - collage and photocopier.  So each shape in my final piece is part of a letter - v i o l or n.  I'm now very familiar with didot.  It's a really great font!

The panels were folded like an accordian so it was important that they could be read as a book as well as a frieze.

These are the panels that made up my final.

 

This is the final.  But it looks a little wonky here. 

I'm so so glad it's over!

Body & Soul

One of the final projects from class.  We worked on developing quick posters throughout the semester.  In one class we were given 1.5 hours to develop a poster using only the words 'body' and 'soul'.  No computers allowed - just black and white paper.

This was mine.

 

Lined up on display with all the others.

Loic then wanted us to go away and develop it further. But I really didn't have the time! So I invested another hour or so of mucking around on photoshop and this is what I ended up with. I scanned the original and mixed it up a bit.

...

I think I preferred the first one...  The final critique panel reckoned the second one was better though!  And I guess that's what matters.

And that's the end of my story.

Let's Dance

see the sights!

 

Sketching Kwiktaem

More quick sketches from the past week - the first is done from a painting by Marlene Dumas at the Georges Pompidou centre, but the next two are from live models in class. Our teacher gave us about 20 seconds for each sketch.  I've coloured them using photoshop.

 

60 second sketch

A sketch done in class this week - task was to capture the moving model and our teacher insisted on turning the page every 60 seconds.  So done very speedily!  Originally in pencil, then scanned and colours inverted in photoshop.

Howdy Neighbour!

 

 

 

 

fun with fotokopi

The Beckett project is starting to take form.  We added text today! 

Here are some pages that I'm still working on.  The images are all created by moving stuff about on the photocopier while it is in action (try it some time!) and the text was added with photoshop.

An.E.ter-nal.Flame

When I started my typography course I thought it would be more about creating typefaces, and less about representing avant-garde poetry with shapes.  And while I did really enjoy last Friday's class, a part of me wants to create letters!

And so I will.

And this is tonight's offering - inspired by the flickering candle that was keeping me company while I listened to some 'This American Life' podcasts.  I used blu-tak on the side of the glass candle jars (empty creme caramel pots) to create letters in reverse and then took photos.  I stitched the words together in photoshop.  The stitching is a bit sloppy, but I did it quickly just to get an idea.

 

 

Thanks to The Bangles for providing the soundtrack to this project, that played on loop in my head.

Mustard Trees

  

 

Something There

This was a task from class today - render the words from Samuel Beckett's poem 'Something There' using only forms, shapes, positive and negative space. We had to create 14 pages and the idea is that eventually this will be developed into our own type face. Not sure how - and the whole task was a bit obscure. But interesting! These are some of the panels I have created - using paper cutting, collage and finally colouring in photoshop.











This is the poem by Samuel Beckett - to give you an idea what I was working with:



"Something There"

something there

where

out there

out where

outside

what

the head what else
 

something there somewhere outside
 

the head

at the faint sound so brief

it is gone and the whole globe

not yet bare

the eye

opens wide

wide

nothing more

shutters it again

so the odd time

out there

somewhere out there

like as if

as if

something

not life

necessarily

 

Monsters in Love

Lots of shiny bits in this collage - his body, her lips.  Doesn't sparkle the same way in a photograph.

Japan

This time Red Riding Hood is in Japan - she visited Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine in Kyoto and Kamicochi National Park in the Japanese alps.  All collage, but on Emmanuel's recommendation, I am using my own drawings as part of the collage - rather than just taking images from newspapers, magazines etc.  So mountains were painted in watercoulour, trees drawn in charcoal, path pebbled in pencil and faces drawn in lead pencil with watercolour, then each element cut-out and assembled.

 

 

 

 

 

Friends afterall!

This is one I did a while back but didn't get around to uploading.  They seem to get along ok.  He's not going to hold her chubby jowls against her, nor is she going to comment on the fact that he has - again! - stolen her outfit idea.  Or the fact that he is actually a wolf, dressed up as a boy.

They're Watching You

So another day with Little Red Riding Hood (or Red Ridding Hood, as my teachers seem to want to write it).  Today's task was to create a path for her to walk along.  This is one of the collage/sketches I managed.  Not particularly thrilled with the overall outcome but I do quite like the detail of the trees in the foreground and I will adapt this idea in the final project, me thinks.

I imagine a forest of red velvety trees.  In fact, as I was riding home on the metro ruminating on this idea, I noticed the girl opposite me had a great red velvet bag, exactly the texture I'd like to cover my trees with.  I contemplated for 5 stops whether to look like a total twit and ask if I could take a photograph, while she and her two friends planned their evening together in Paris.  In the end, I decided I didn't mind being a twit (lucky for me, really) and I asked for the photo, explaining it was for an art project.  She was very obliging, and happy that her bag served to inspire someone.





Forest of Eyes

Forest of Eyes - detail

 



Forest of Eyes - super detail!