Since I last posted, I applied to four fine art courses and 1 fine art photography course at universities from glasgow to london and everywhere in between. It took me ages to decide what I actually want to do in the future because since I was about 8 I always told people I wanted to be 'an artist' which is so non-descript. I don't want to me a freelancer who doesn't know where their next pay check is coming from, I don't want to be famous. Despite the fact that this in itself is a hard thing to achieve it's never really what I wanted to be- but maybe it was the only thing I knew when I was 8. Maybe it was my ambition at one stage but from at least GCSE level I wanted to do more than that.
I considered studying fine art, photography or illustration at degree level and I now realise that I will have more creative freedom and a broader range of skills and opportunities by the time I leave to do what I want. I still don't know exactly what I want. I know I love illustrative drawing (watercolour, painting etc) and also photography in any form.


At the moment I have two online portfolios to prepare for late January and as usual I'm starting to doubt my ability again. I'm sick of all that stuff getting the better of me so I started a drawing of my Grandma tonight and I'm going to try out new stuff with it... maybe even put it in my portfolio. I want my work to have more emotional resonance. I can talk about my work so much easier that way. I'm pushing my personal art so much recently and developing a new (and more unique) style which I'll bring into my coursework for art foundation. Everything has to reflect who I am and what I want to achieve, what I care about. This is why for my new project I'm looking at street/documentary photography, city life with an abstract and painterly quality much like Saul Leiter. I'm hoping to bring in some illustration and fine art techniques at a later stage to really reflect what I want out of my work.
All I can do is try my hardest and have the passion and enthusiasm that I know is really in me- to project that into my work.

Merry Christmas!

Three photos from Manchester and Liverpool for my pathway project (unedited at the moment, just wanted to show some examples of my ideas)

I have been watching a lot of films lately. In the past few months I've probably doubled the amount of films I've watched and trebled the quality. I'm always drawn in by a fantasticly tragic and interesting script. I'm not too thrilled with happy endings. I like cliffhangers, stories with ambiguous meanings and films that are quite thought provoking. Above all I love the cinematography. Here are a few films that I've seen this year which stood out to me (in terms of the cinematography and editing.)



House of Flying Daggers, 2004. Directed by Yimou Zhang.
All of Zhang's films are visually stunning but this was the first of his films that I saw. Each scene tends to be themed around a colour (in costume and settings) and reflect the mood of the scene... the traditional chinese clothing is probably the most impressive thing but every detail in all aspects of this film has had so much attention.

Manhattan, 1979. Directed by Woody Allen.
The second Woody Allen film I saw. It was shot in black and white with an amazing montage of the Manhattan skyline at the beginning. The rest of the film features Manhattan heavily and contains the iconic bridge shot (above) filmed at 5am.

 

Lost in Translation, 2003. Directed by Sofia Coppola.

Filmed in Tokyo, lots night life and narrow depth of field to show off the lights and bokeh. It's so beautiful.

 

Taxi Driver, 1976. Directed by Martin Scorsese.

I don't know why I like like Taxi Driver so much visually... there are wonderful shots of De Niro driving his taxi through NY at night, but I think more than anything it offers a very different view of the city. A much darker and dangerous side which is very contrasting to Manhattan, for example. 

   

Deconstructing Harry, 1997. Directed by Woody Allen.

I have to include another Woody Allen film because I watched this very recently and I really liked the editing. Allen plays a writer and the film really consists of flashbacks and scenes from his stories as they overlap with his life; his characters start interacting with him.  There is a surreal scene where he comes out of a lift (pictured) into hell. In the film when his life is going well the scene plays out, but when he has arguments or sees his analyst, the scene is full of jump cuts. At the beginning of the film, a scene is heavily edited with jump cuts and repeated numerous times. It's a really stand out film compared to some of Allen's other films.

 

Natural Born Killers, 1994. Directed by Oliver Stone.

Honestly the weirdest film I've ever seen. There is so much editing and so many methods used. I read that the film took 56 days to shoot while editing took 11 months. There are almost 3000 cuts in the film while the average film apparently has about 600-700. It's frenzied... it's filmed in black and white, colour (unusual colour schemes), animation is used, as well as a range of camera angles, special effects and filters. Despite it's controversies, there's no denying it is a very interesting and creative film.

The Beautiful: Illustrations for Fashion and Style

There are very few things that I see that I instantly fall in love with and become so jealous about but I found the beautiful lying around in college and it's just the most stunning book I have ever seen. I need to buy it: I have quite a few photography books because I am so much more inspired by photographers than painters or designers. This is the first non photography related book I have seen that I'm really enthusiastic about.

 

There are so many styles in this book but all absolutely stunning. I've tried to start drawing more illustrative over the last few months and I would be so happy if I could just draw like this for the rest of my life. It's just a style of drawing that really appeals to me and it can be applied to almost anything.

I had my third life drawing class today and I think I produced some of my best work (despite the fact that the poses were the hardest I've ever had to draw). I love drawing portraits but I never tried life drawing until I started art foundation. It's really challenging since you just get thrown into it but I have noticed an improvement every week, and my proportions and nowhere near as bad as I thought they'd be. It's such a rewarding experience

 

Soft pastels (30 minutes)

 

Oil pastels (15 minutes)

Well worth watching this video from start to finish. Watch how this painting comes to life, it's beautiful and a little bit mind blowing.