Beach Bird

What is below:

What follows in the posts below are some choice pics from my first year at Norwich University College of the Arts. First year has been a bit shit - the illustration third of the year being shockingly underwhelming in teaching and practice. I didn't really understand why they thought we didn't need to be taught anything. I came pretty close to dropping out but then fucked the system up a bit, and got back on track. We have a new head of Illustration, so second year should be amazing.

I have made some pieces I'm pretty proud of though, and I think I have learnt from a few of my peers, and through just trying to get better myself.

And to think I actually applied for a Graphics Degree.

I Just Have To Explode This Body Off Me

With this project, we were given pretty much free creative reign to design an A2 poster based on a quotation. I used "I just have to explode this body off me" from the Bjork song 'Pluto'.

I used acrylics, chalks, watercolours and pencils to create a piece that was actually quite effective, and i'll try and photograph and get on here soon.

Trophy

We had a narrative project where we had to create 3 images for the beginning middle and end of something. I was probably a bit over ambitious as i picked a song to try and break down. I think this was probably because pretty much everyone in my group did a nursery rhyme and i wanted to challenge myself.

I tried to create paintings for the Bat For Lashes song 'Trophy', and some of it was moderately successful, but i found it quite hard to make into a working narrative. I also found that I had worked the images way too much without pushing them forward, meaning I went a bit mental by the time it came to doing the finals, and I definitely don't like them too much.

I worked in actual watercolour paints though which was a first, and i enjoyed trying to new media out. 

The Final paintings:

A right bunch of characters

For this project, I had to create a set of 20 archetypal characters such as prostitute, witch, politician, dreamer, crook, hermit, diva blah blah. Started off with doing a lot of drawing of weird people in Norwich which was pretty fun.

Then I kinda developed drawings based on a big book of portrait photographs, trying to use different media and techniques to describe character. These weren't very successful, and ended up being a bit static, so i went back to the original observational drawings and developed them. I'll try and get a photo of the A2 final up.

Terminator and Hamlin

I had to make a Flat Pack Theatre based on a nursery rhyme or pantomime or something. Probably my most hated project this year, as I'm not a 10 year old girl and i do not enjoy making toy theaters. I had some fun designing the characters though.

dunno how to flip pictures yet haha.

Fish Porn

For an illusions project, i decided not to create an optical illusion, but instead create a bit of a head-fuck image. It's inspired by the Magritte painting 'The Reverse Mermaid'.

And the three finals:

A Children's Encyclopedia of American Birds

This was a project called 'The Invisible Library', where I had to Illustrate a book just going on the title alone. This was an A4 preliminary sketch, the Final being A3. In the words of one of my tutors, I 'ruined it (slightly)" with some shit photoshop text, so i think i'll just scan the drawing rather than the final.

The Cons of G.M. Food

These drawings were for a project on the pros and cons of G.M. Food, but i didn't really develop a pro...

The finals were a bit rushed and didn't look very good, I much prefer the sketchbook stuff.

Graphic design one word poster

For a graphics rotation i had to create a poster for the word 'Organic'.

Definitely pretty happy with this one.

Summer Profile Pack

Before going to Uni i had to create a profile pack about myself.

I chose instead to make some Top Trump Trading cards based on my friends. 

Because I'm modest.