People&Places!

So, it's time to present the final piece for the Jay Cover's magnificent project called People&Places!

Like you know, I've chosen a coffee shop called:
BROOKS
&
GAO
and as I was drawing space around me, I realised I am pathologically shy and it is VERY difficult for me to draw the staff or the customers - especially after the barista said kindly 'your drawings are good!' - making me automatically hide in my shell of embarrassment, mumbling a thousand thank yous while the I was withdrawing quickly to my table.

So, I focused on the objects. I am also a magpie.
Yes, I DO know, that project was called
PEOPLE
and
PLACES
but as an insecure piece of nervous flesh I decided to find my solution in showing the places through the objects I found,
well,
AMAZING.

But first, the layout and very rough idea of the final piece:

So, firstly, I decided to interpret my favourite utensils, separately, in case to give them attention! Here they are:

And then, as the layout shows, I tried to glue that all together in the flat looking, no-perspective depiction of the table. 

Am I happy about the outcome? 

Maybe. 

After all this time, I think I should have get rid of that font. Why did I do that? Another one of unsolved mysteries of my creative process. Unfortunately, it's one of those final outcomes which I did and I do not really want to think about anymore. I used to make my illustrations in Photoshop a LOT, and when I came back to this kind of a process with the B&G illustration, I finished it with a really unpleasant after taste. I like my separately drawn objects more that I like this sh... stuff. 

Oh well. At least I learned that maybe I am not as good with Photoshop as I though I am?

Brooks&Gao, visual and scribbly research!

Our next project was called:

PEOPLE
&
PLACES
a.k.a.
REPORTAGE

And therefore, our primer and I would also say, a base of this project in general, was to choose a place in London, sit there for as much as we can, immerse ourselves in the surrounding and draw/scribble about everything see, to get as much information about the place as possible!

I've chosen Brooks&Gao - my little piece of East London in SouthWest London. I used to live in the trendy East for 1,5 year and B&G looks a bit like one of those hipster cafés they have there.

So, thereupon I am sharing with you some of the pages from my sketchbook which I tried to fill with notes and scribblings.

and some real pictures: 

Dante's Inferno and my messy interpretation!

Don't look at the date, please.
Whoever's going to ever have a closer look at this blog, in order to assess it for, let's say, final assessment of this term - don't. look. at. the. date.
I simply do not have enough time (or time-management skills, fairly speaking) to be up to date. But I'll do my best to catch up from now on!


So, after this short and pitiful introduction, let's start. First project of this year (welcomed with big smile! I was probably the only one who missed the uni the whole summer) was called

F
I
C
T
I
O
N
!!!


The task was very simple - well, in the terms of speaking. We were supposed to choose a book from the lovely list the tutors prepared for us and make 5 illustrations referring to the content of the book of preference.
Right.
So, I've chosen Dante's Inferno, due to the previous interest in the book, couple of Polish lessons I had back in the high school dedicated to this topic and a nerd love for fantasy creatures.
And the last one became my final idea for the illustrations.

But let's start with inspiration first!

Obviously, since the Dante's Inferno was such a bestseller since, like, hm, forever, the content of the book was already interpreted more than a thousand times and so the illustrators more than thousand times tried to depict Dante's incredible vision. Therefore, I found more than a thousand amazing artworks throughout the centuries to inspire me - let me present you some of them.

Visual chunks I like: I am just superficially in love with the depiction of incubus. It sits audaciously on the woman, making itself look truly sassy. Inspiration I found here: contrast. 

This image probably had subconsciously the biggest impact on my work, as I a bit unintentionally made my illustrations horror-like, sometimes to the point I am not proud of - the whining part coming up soon! However, as I saw this image I knew I want my illustration to be boldly screaming the hellish message from the underground as this painting is. I love the way how strong it is at the first sight. 

At this point I realised, that I want to take approach on the fantasy creatures. I love this image - if you think about harpies, then you would never imagine it looking like that - however it is truthful to the description - face of a female, body of a bird. 

(I just happily love that picture, however I do know, that it does not have nooooothing to do with Dante - yet I found this picture inspiring)

So, as the Dante's Inferno is a quite rich in content, motives, stories, backgrounds and contexts, I decided to choose the CREATURES - harpy, suicide trees, medusa, Cerberus and Lucifer himself.

My aim was to avoid formulaic ideas, already well known concepts, styles and compositions, I wanted my illustrations to be strong, straightforward and grim.

I started with a harpy! As harpies, usually, were depicted with a beautiful female features, like ideal faces (plus some sharp teeth) or sensual body shape (especially in the fantasy illustrations or games - it seems like this industry has always been ruled by men who like good breasts) I wanted to completely discard all of the stereotypes. Thereupon, I looked for a female face to inspire me - and I found gorgeous Sissy Spacek to become the diva of my illustrations.

Dante's Inferno + Sissy Spacek = Carrie - if you ask me. So I re-watched the movie and made some amazing screenshots.

So, somehow, I ended up using Sissy as the greatest inspiration for three out of five illustrations - suicide tree and the Medusa was also based on Sissy's face or body. Can't see the resemblance? I am not sure how does it really works - I just know, that I admired Sissy's beauty, so she was my starting point for those three illustrations. Cerberus was based on some pictures of greyhound, not very inspiring, but I can say, that owning a dog for such a long time makes you able to draw dogs at any form - therefore I used only those pictures to guide myself through the anatomy of a dog. The last one, Lucifer, my least favourite and probably just a disgusting piece of shredded paper - was not based and influenced by anything in particular. It is probably the reason why this one is the weakest illustration out of the set of 5. 

And finally, thereby I present... 

My final pieces! 

It was a new technique for me - collage and drawing all combined together, working with textures and layers. However, I am not glad of last two illustrations - I lost the freshness, I didn't know where to stop, while it seems like I've been in control with the first three. Cerberus probably need some recomposition, it's not the best in the shape as well - but I enjoyed creating that piece, just manually. Harpy and suicide tree were the outcome of the firstly made mistakes - but in general, they were just snapshots, they happened before I even noticed I am done - a pure shot of creativity. 

I am aiming to repeat that in the further projects!

Malicious Old Knitters!

Alright, I know - it is quite late for this post - but I have never been a flawless lady. 

Nevertheless, I am proudly presenting our child, the animation we did as a group of Malicious Old Knitters, the part of project AUTHOR, representing how our society of dark creatures meet and spend time together.

The part from 00:12 to 00:24 was made exclusevily by me, in Adobe Photoshop, frame by frame drawn animation - HORRIBLY TIME CONSUMING.

The rest was made by Natalie, Grant, Christian and Jodie. Without them, it would never be possible to achieve this!

Aki's tribute almost finished!

As I am having a tutorial with Nicholas tomorrow (highly stressful event in my life) and I am supposed to make him fall on his knees with my mere artwork, I decided to share with you the watercolours which my book on the subject of Aki Kaurismaki is going to be fulfilled with.

Reflecting on my last attempt to make a book on the book-workshops we had with Katherina, this watercolours are better than the disgusting fairy blue and brothel (pardon my French, but this colour truly repels me) magenta I used back there, and they have a potential to make a good book! 

At least I hope so. 

I managed to create my own palette, full of colours but not naive or playful - definitely more 'Finnish'. I discovered the fantastic textures and patterns that spills of paint have. 

How powerful the coincidence could be - and I did not have to worry about the details. 

All I need now is a good advice and some critics - hopefully Nicholas will be able to help me with those. 

Hill of the deer.

I know, I have not updated the blog for over a month from now, not mentioning the gap between the last post and the post before this one - also over a month long - but as the Easter break just chimed into my life, I decided to waste some of the endless Internet space and introduce you to Aki Kaurismaki. 

Aki Kaurismaki is a 'celebrity' (this is probably the last word I would describe him with, but it fits the context) given to me in the project called Author Biography in which we are supposed to dig into someone's life, look thoroughly upon their character and streamline all the knowledge in one of the outcome methods. 

I am really happy to meet Aki - although he is not someone who you would like to get selfie with - the twisted atmosphere around his behaviour and work is most inspiriting. 

Let me show you my visual summary of Aki - the alcoholic, Finnish filmmaker, who loves tango.

I have decided to make at least 16-pages long book about Aki - and on the book workshops with Katharina I managed to spew out my first attempt. I will post it despite the fact I do not like it AT ALL. 

However, I have to admit I learned a lot - well, mostly about what I want to avoid during the process of creating the final piece:

- first of all - changing the colour palette! It is dreadful in the book above - I wish it could be more reserved, depressing, Finnish and melancholic - that means playing more with grey, dark faded blue, green, worn-out dark red or violet - definitely no more fuchsia and fairy blue! 

- more consistent folding - the book above was just chaotically kneaded like a piece of batter

- actually choosing the most interesting facts from Aki's life, not just mentioning whatever I could have thought at the moment - if possible without text, which always leads to understanding being too direct - or maybe should I challenge myself and find the perfect way to use the piece of writing but not obviously? 

- the only thing which I did quite interestingly was trying to hide some informations (secrets!) with flaps/extra spreads/triangular folding - and I find it considerable in the further actions 

Alright. 

The only thing to do is just start creating. Wish me good luck.