Catch-Up November

November was mainly dissertation month as the first draft was due in at the end of it. I managed to write about half of what needs to be done but I'd rather write half well than try and rush and write a load of rubbish!! With the project, I started to look at circus posters, particularly ones from Eastern Europe and started to consider narrative posters as an idea. I had a go at a few collages and paint mixes (see below) but I didn't really enjoy doing them so whilst looking at the posters, I got the idea of paper cut-outs/ silhouettes into my head and had a go at making some roughs that related to the story.

I really like doing this sort of thing, although I haven't done anything like this at uni, and looked at the work of Emma Van Leest and Rob Ryan for inspiration. However, I really need to work on my images being more gritty and dramatic to reflect the sinister side of the story. Obviously these are just rough ideas, same as sketching with a pencil only it takes longer, but it was a useful experiment to do to see what I could do with the medium.

I'm considering trying these out on a bigger scale as they are currently only A5 size. Also, I have started to look at Film Noir and some of Tim Burton's work for inspiration. I love how Burton exaggerates form and plays with light and dark to create atmospheres and characters so hopefully I can gain some valuable inspiration from him for my final pieces. I am still unsure as to what format my final images might be but I'm working on ideas!

Catch-Up October

October I spent mainly researching for my minor project on Water for Elephants and for my dissertation on the "changing role of women in vampire fiction". My project work was just doodling ideas from descriptions in the book and old photographs of 1930s circuses that I found during my research. I like to just doodle things down before getting an exact idea on what I'm doing as I feel the more I get into a project, the more of a journey I take with it and doodling seems to help. I'm still struggling to find a style that I feel comfortable working with but maybe my style will just be a bit of everything as that is what I seem to do!! As well as 1930s circus footage and photographs, I looked at Dorothea Lange's photography of the Great Depression which are so amazing- they depict such a strong sense of the lonliness and despair that was felt in the era and they really make you think. At this point, I was working towards an idea of the final pieces being some sort of narrative, albeit as a book or just a narrative sequence. These are some of my initial doodles playing with charaterisation and setting...

I'm officially the Worst Blogger-EVER!!!

I'm clearly really terrible at this! It's December now and I haven't written anything in months!!! My bad! I am ashamed and will endeavour to write more in the future... actually that can be a New Years Resolution for me (if I remember to do it!)!!!

I'll do a few catch-up posts now :)