Our Stall on the Green

On Saturday, we had a stall on the village green selling my mum's hand made cakes stands and tea cup candles. She was also handing out leaflets about her Vintage China Hire company.
My Dad was selling some of the prints of my Grandad's train designs along with mugs with the drawings on.
I was also selling cupcakes.

The stall was a mixture of many things, however, it was a success. I sold nearly all of my 100 cupcakes, my mum sold a few cake stands and a candle and my dad sold quite a few mugs!
So all in all, considering it was the first time we had done something like this, it turned out really well. Also we were VERY lucky on the weather front, sunshine but with a slight breeze so it wasn't too hot.
Below are some pictures from the day.

Work Update

I have just completed the penultimate project on my foundation course.
It was a site specific project, that we had to base on The Luton Hoo Walled Garden.
I decided to produce some plant labels for the plants that are/were grown in the garden, however, they turned out being pieces on their own, but they could still be used as labels.

My labels hung in the gallery space...

Labels hung in one of the green houses in The Walled Garden
Some closeups of the labels...
Some photographs taken in The Walled Garden for inspiration..
I'm really pleased with the outcome of this project, however, I feel it is lacking illustration, this is something I will need to consider in my next project.

The End of Life Drawing...

Yesterday evening saw the end of the life drawing class course that I have currently been attending after college. I am really going to miss my Tuesday evenings, I have met some great people on the course and I feel I have really progressed in my drawing ability. I have found that in these classes, I was able to switch off and just relax and focus on what I was drawing or painting.

We have learnt how to use a number of different mediums and techniques and styles of drawing, we also looked at a number of different artists from many different periods of times for inspiration and direction in our work.

The course was separated into 2 sections, the first half focused mainly on our drawing ability and experimenting with different materials. The second half consisted of doing pieces of work in the style of a certain artist. In the last 2 weeks of the course, we were required to produce a final piece of work in the style of an artist that you liked the most. The final piece had to be produced either on canvas or board and had to consist of more than one piece.

I chose to use 2 MDF boards for my piece, in a size that was just a little bit bigger than A4 and I decided to do my piece in the style of Egon Schiele.
I have painted the figure using acrylic paints.

I am quite pleased with the way these have turned out, they aren't completely in the style of Schiele, as his figures tend to look more distorted and angular. However, I feel that I have added my own style into this piece and taken my inspiration from Schiele, rather than making a replica of his work.

There are a few bad points about my work, the worst part has to be the hand in the top figure as I did not have enough time to correct this.

I will definitely be looking to do another life drawing class or something similar, I really want to improve my drawing skills further and explore many different techniques and materials.

I have also produced many more sketches and paintings in my life drawing classes, I will upload these at a later date as they are currently being marked.

SNOW 2010

The snow has all gone now, but I thought I would share some of the pictures I took of it..


I love the way the snow has settled onto the branches of this tree.


Me, looking very cold... and for some reason I look like I have a rather large bum.


This picture looks very Christmassy..


My wellies :D.. they have surprisingly good grip in the snow, I didn't fall over once.


My doggy, Misty, walking along the footpath.


A stream.. I nearly landed in there whilst trying to take this photo.


Another one of little Misty. I think it is a bad idea taking a white dog out in the snow as I kept on loosing her.


I am starting to miss the snow, but only a little bit.
It looks nice, but it's far too cold for me.

Where have you been hiding my whole life?

I went shopping in Milton Keynes shopping center the other day to buy some clothes, as I have grown out of the ones I have at the moment (too many chocolates at Christmas I think). There's a new shop there called Hollister, on first look I thought it was a restaurant, but the models (and VERY good looking ones at that) standing outside told me otherwise. Inside the shop was very different to what I expected, it was dark with spotlights shining on the racks and shelves of clothing. Very effective I must say, however, quite disorientating when you're not expecting it.

Anyway, I found myself mesmerised with the clothes in there, so much to chose from. Where has this brand been hiding all my life? After much browsing and deliberating over what to get, I finally decided on a jumper. I am very pleased with my decision, it is amazingly soft and cosy. The jumper is Grey with long sleeves and has the word "Newport" written across the front, it is also very long in the body, which is very useful for keeping the cold out!

Below, is a page from my journal showing my jumper, excuse the very messy writing, I think I got a bit carried away with myself.




I also thought I would have a quick play around with the new Photoshop program I got, so I took a quick picture of me in my jumper and played around with some of the effects on there, you can see some of these below..


Colourful...

Black and White..

These were probably the best that turned out from my 'experimentation', but I hope to do a bit more when I get time.

Tonight I am hoping for lots more snow because I feel too ill to go to college :(

Something to make these winter days a little brighter..

This beautiful flower is called an Amarylis, I think it looks a bit like a Hibiscus flower.
It is currently sitting on our Kitchen windowsill, taking in the winter sun.
Here are a few pictures of it.






I love the colours in the petals, how it fades from green, to white and then into pink.
I have tried to capture the beauty of the flower by painting it, although I feel I have not done it true justice.


Oh, and you may be pleased to hear that with my Christmas money I bought myself a scanner/photocopier/printer, so now I can scan in my drawings etc. with out having to use rubbish photographs. :).
Happy times.

Xmas 2009

My journal page summing up Christmas.
Pen and Acrylic