First of all, an early Merry Christmas to everyone! I know I said before about snow being inspiring, and as it nears Christmas, the festive atmosphere does start sparks of inspiration. It's often the music that begins it, especially with all the choral singing going on. And I guess the chilly weather means I'm more likely to cosy up with a pencil and paper indoors....
As the end of the term finishes, I'm finishing off parts of our college disguise project - quite a lot of experimentation and exploration. In my class, we're encouraged to photocopy our work so we can work into it, and experiment freely. So I've been exploring 'disguising' my work with paint dragging, and also writing/text. It's so interesting to see the huge variety of interpretations in class, none of them the same. Speaking of finishing things, I've posted an explanation of my Catch-22 project today, describing my development and thoughts behind my work. I'm thinking of taking a similar approach of character exploration with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, who is fascinating. Shelley's entire concept and characters have been something that've captivated me for a long time. There's so much that her work explores and brings up, and it's something I want to give a go to exploring. My Notebook is full of other ideas, so hopefully the Christmas break will give me more time to develop some of them..... Until the New Year: Merry Christmas! It's been snowing here this week, which I find very exciting - winter is my favourite season mainly because of snow.
I find snow so atmospheric and beautiful, and as a result I have a couple of ideas on the go. There's nothing better than staring up into the darkness to see swirling specks that stretch into oblivion..... Little things often inspire me in the day to day. I keep a notebook on me at all times, so I can jot down random ideas that come to me throughout the day. It can be strange things, like someone's hairstyle, or a streetlamp or even a normal train window. My mind starts experimenting and extrapolating, and spins a story and a scene, and down it goes in the notebook. Often songs can awaken my muse, and then I try to capture that inspired feeling in some frantic scribbles! Many of my ideas don't get used, but I do often look back through my notebook to work on some of my older thoughts, which does sometimes take a while - my handwriting can be hard to decipher! Just seeing the common themes can help if I'm feeling directionless, because it reminds me of the things I enjoy painting, like steampunk and space and portraits. I also have online folders of photos that give me that inspiration spark, which can also be a helpful starting point. I've come to the end of one of my projects this week - my Catch-22 covers. I've posted my more experimental/expressive version today, and I'll post the final one in the next couple of days. Look out for my explanation and analysis of them over the next week or so in my 'About my Work' tab, I'll let you know when it's up. I'd love to here thoughts on your favourite version too, so DM me on Instagram or drop me an email..... I've noticed how I've been leaning towards steampunk again recently - and definitely science fiction. I love the ability to create characters and worlds in futuristic settings, And steampunk lets you explore how the world literally operates, which I find so interesting.
These last couple of weeks I've tried out an idea based on the book Catch-22. I really recommend it, it's got an excellent mix of humour and satire that highlights the irony of war. I chose to sketch Yossarian (the main character) in ink using crosshatching to get a sense of roughness, and tried to get a combination of anger and determination combined with hopelessness and sadness in his expression, because I felt these were very important elements to his character. I've posted my initial sketch, and I'm currently working on two more variations, both painted - one more expressive and the other realistic. The amount of reference photos I used was probably the most I've ever used before for a single piece - I wanted to get historical accuracy where I needed it as much as possible, and then used several different face references to create Yossarian's. I've got some interesting more subtle ideas for context for my realistic version - I'll explain them when I get it finished and posted! C-M |
Claire-M BathI'm a mostly self-taught artist, currently studying A-Level art at college. Archives
March 2018
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