Weekly Update #11 (April 20th-April 26th)

I don't have many new pieces to post this week as I've been focused on my sketchbook, research, and testing out different ways to exhibit my work in the show. I made a video after recording some audio with my sister (which I am unable to upload due to possible copyright music used in it). However, that video did not work the way I intended so I chose to look through my entire sketchbook and consider every piece I've made to find a selection of images that would work best. I chose my two gas mask digital paintings and two zombie digital paintings for a variety of reasons, but in short I think they work well together, show my skills and express my relationship with my sister very well.

Experimenting with sizing and arrangement.

Weekly Update #9 (April 5th-April 11th)

Unfortunately Easter break is over so it's back to uni again. On the bright side, I love the work I'm making and there's only about a month left until the end of my Foundation year. I'm hoping I'm doing enough for a distinction, but we'll see. I still don't really have an exact idea of what I'm doing for my final exhibition piece but I'm hoping it's discussed when I go back on Monday.

Thestral digital painting...really liked making this, found the colours fun.

Weekly Update #7 (March 22nd-28th)

So last week I had the change to see my sister as she came to visit for a few days. I was very lucky and had two extra days with her since I worked from home instead of in the studio in Canterbury. It's more important to me that I got to spend time with her, my FMP revolves around her anyway. I admit I went a while without doing much work as I was spending time with her, but she gave me very useful feedback, inspiration, and she helped me work through some other stuff that has been troubling me. We visited The Making of Harry Potter which has provided me with many interesting photos that will make for good digital paintings I feel like.

Sister and me at Warner Bros Studios

Sagazan Speedpainting...playing with Overlay Layers

Weekly Update #6 (March 15th-21st)

I'm writing this post a little bit early to ensure that I post it so that my crit group can have a look at it on Monday while I'm not in. Unfortunately, I was not in for my crit group this week either due to a stomach bug but they gave me feedback anyway which was useful. My sister is visiting from America so I'm expecting to be busy with that instead of doing work so this week I've done everything I could despite me being sick and busy with other things...I think I did a decent job. Most of my work has either been speedpaintings or really quick pen/marker drawings but I've produced a reasonable volume of work although it is not the highest of quality. I looked at a few artists such as John Howe (one of my absolute favourite artists, who did concept art for Lord of the Rings), Mike Azevedo, and I started to glance at Wylie Beckert. I also found this article which I thought was very inspiring and interesting, about 'how to create without thinking'.

Digital Speedpainting of Sagazan using a sketch I made earlier ~40mins

Weekly Update #5 (March 8th-14th)

This post will most likely be a bit shorter than my normal ones (maybe) since I tried to take it easier this week. I've been having a lot of bad luck recently and needed to sort some personal things out so I had less time to work. I still did a decent amount in my sketchbook and I did a lot of little A5 drawings, a speedpainting and a traditional painting but I did focus most of my energy on research and sorting out other things. I like what I've done despite not feeling as focused on what I'm doing. I'm going through a phase where I really like fineliner and marker, which is very different from what I normally do. I've done a lot of research into Sagazan's work, it disturbs me but I really enjoy it at the same time. I also found a digital artist on the 3DTotal's gallery page called Liam Peters who has some interesting work that I liked, although there is not much about him that I can find.

Monster Speedpainting ~30 mins (made later in the week, these images are not in chronological order this time) made in Photoshop CS5

Weekly Update #4 (Mar 1st-Mar 7th)

This week has had a lot of ups and downs. I've had the privilege to go to Rochester for an 'interview' with Phil Gomm, the course leader of the Computer Animation Arts course I'm going to be starting next year. It made me feel even more confident that I chose the right course after speaking with him, I felt like he understood what I was all about and it felt very welcoming and he gave me various suggestions for my FMP. He suggested some sort of stop motion animation and gave me some artists names including Jan Svankmajer (specifically his film Dimensions of Dialogue I've already seen clips from Little Otik), Jiri Barta, and Oliver de Sagazan (I've only looked in depth at Sagazan so far). He also recommended Power of Horror by Julia Kristeva, I'm very happy I felt so comfortable there and I really do think I'm going to love my undergraduate course...I hope so at least.

Digital Painting made in Photoshop CS5

Weekly Update #3 (Feb 16-28th)

So this week I've had a very difficult time getting rest and my momentum on drawings has slowed but I'm still loving what I'm doing. Or maybe the momentum hasn't slowed and it just seemed like it to me for some reason. Unfortunately the main blog still hasn't been introduced to many people but I really hope it does soon. We started doing crit groups which I really enjoyed, even though I didn't get much feedback on how to improve/what to do next. I think most people don't know what to suggest because of my use of digital media and not just traditional, but I did take on board one suggestion of actually making my own brushes which has helped me with the digital painting I made this week.

Those damn trees were such a pain. Made in Photoshop CS5

Weekly Update #2 (Feb 15th-22nd)

I don't feel as though I've done as much this week, although this could be due to me focusing on editing a video using After Effects. I've never used Adobe After Effects before so it took me a while to get the hang of it and fix things that went wrong the first time I exported my video. However, I'm very happy with the result, I had a chance to finish the video on Tuesday right before I had to go all the way to Brentwood again. I also did a whole lot in my sketchbook this week so that was good. I do believe that this video editing has a lot of potential to it.

Weekly Update #1 (Feb 7-14)

So this is my first real post on this blog...I've had a very busy week this week between sorting out my FMP proposal/timetable, making as many painting/drawings as I could (mostly based on my sister's sculpture and of other wolf photos), making both this blog and the UCA Pre-Degree Fine Art blog, having to sort out my visa renewal in London and having to go all the way back home to Brentwood for a doctor appointment which has left me in pain. However, I am very excited for this project...I have so many ideas going on in my head that it's making it difficult to sleep hence me making this post at 1 A.M (although I won't post this till later). Overall I'm happy with the amount of work I've done this week and I really hope people enjoy using this blog system. I might get somewhat personal on mine but on my weekly updates I'll try to keep it mostly uni related, but I find talking about other things sometimes helps.