New paintings and regular art updates.
Why can’t a dragon be a bit like a cat? Add some wings and a longer tail for balance. I’m going to write a story for college and the main character is some style of dragon. I want it to be friendly and beautiful. I think I would add scales. Maybe this will be the final idea. I will have to think about it.
My final major project for college will probably be a story about a dragon and an adventure with it. I wrote a story about twenty years ago but when I asked friends what they thought I decided it was too wordy, more like a novel. Not funny enough. So it’s sat on my computer and each time I have upgraded my system I’ve copied the file so I’ve never lost it.
I won’t tell the story, but I thought of it as a tale to tell my friends baby daughter. I was going to get a book published that I could give to her when she was older. Sadly she is an adult now and I’ve lost track of her mum. Maybe that book will finally be finished. Anyway I’m experimenting with illustrations for it.
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Draw a repeating pattern (top left) of blue flowers (four petals joined into squares).
Add colours, use an app to mirror the pattern, use another one to distort the pattern of lines, or change hues. Erase some of the changes to get a variation in the pattern.
That’s what I do, start with something basic but slightly complex then change it either by hand or digitally. I’m hoping to use some of these patterns for my Final Major project at college.
I’m writing an essay about illustration but I keep going off at a tangent. I have to talk about how signs and signifiers, icons and symbols affect the images. But I’m very interested in the causes of homelessness and that keeps creeping into the essay. I even quoted a poem by a poet called Seamus Fox, called ‘No Homeless here’. I had to take it out. I’ve also trawled through numerous books to try and explain semiotics and I’m really struggling. What do I do? I just keep pushing and trying. Sometimes digressing… Hard work.
I like using post it notes and I saw these arrow shaped ones in the supermarket. I am going to use them in a project for my illustration course. It’s based on homelessness and I’m trying to show time going backwards to when people were safe and happy. I did see them as beach huts, but that doesn’t fit with what I’m using them for.
Every year thousands of people lose their homes for various reasons. They coukd be causing trouble. Or they might not be able to afford their rent, or have lost their jobs, been bereaved, had benefits cut or have mental health problems.
There are so many reasons for homelessness and I think it needs explanation. To many times homeless people are seen as causing their own problems instead of not always being responsible for them.
It’s rare for me to read a book from cover to cover these days, and apart from reading Asterix the Gail books as a child, I have never read a graphic novel before.
This book was a revelation. It taught me things about life in Iran that I could never have got from the media. I guessed at some of the political issues around Iran but didn’t know much. This graphic novel tackles the early life of Marjane Satrapi and how she was affected by the Iranian revolution. It is honest talking about how people and particularly women have been repressed by the regime. It made me think.
The illustration is clear and understandable, the text clear. It is well written and engaging. Difficult themes are tackled with some graphic images of war, but they are not excessive. The support, and sometimes lack of it, from family and friends is explored.
I was engrossed. I read it from cover to cover. Now I have passed it on to my hubby.
Rating five stars. (Even though I don’t do reviews).
At the moment I’m stuck with my college work. I have ideas, I seem to know what I want to do. But I have a fear of failing. The heat doesn’t help. I’m ending up doing things at 3am, but it’s not enough. Words circle in my mind, like vultures, ready to sink down on the ruin of my ideas. Prevarication prevents failure. I don’t feel I can do a good enough job.
I must start. By writing this down I’m trying to give me a kick start to things. I need to order a couple of books, but I’ve even held back from doing that. I know I can do the course, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t get higher marks. I have passed each semester though. Why would this one be different? Easier to think than write…
A torch shines. It’s light illuminates a running figure. A trail of blood shows its steps.
This was a transformation we had to do in our illustration workshop this afternoon.
How to show up the image? I used post-it notes to show the shape of the surface as the figure is running across the floor. If I hadn’t had just 20 minutes I would have added a chequerboard pattern. As it was it was fun to do.
Transformed a drawing of a torch into a boat by covering over a lot of it with pink and green paper, bits of black monoprint and some black ink and green spray ink. Playing with obscuring the image to create something new.
In about 15 minutes we had to draw a set of panels based on some prompts. The one I chose was someone at a campfire then something sinister happens…. I hope this is understandable. The final two panels are meant to increase tension. Finally she ends up facing a snake!
Mallaband-Brown