Don't think I've ever seen ANYTHING as creative as this

Ceramics = < / 3 ... Therefore, I am brought to logical solution

Ceramics is first block today, and I hate getting my hands dirty just before I have to go to biology, because I always end up having to wash my hands on the way which makes me late, and the fact that Wednesday biology lessons are in a totally different building from where all the other science lessons are doesn't help much at all, because I always end up going to the normal biology laboratory and realising once I get to the door that I'm not even supposed to be there. So, basically, ceramics sucks.

I know that I'm probably going to lose my EMA for this week as a result of coming into the study centre and going on Facebook instead of going to the lesson, but to be honest, I hate ceramics so much that I don't think I care.

Anyway, on to more important things maybe?

I'm writing a couple of little story-type things, and I'd say to start off with that they're both pretty sad hobbies that I have. One is a vampire story (as if the world didn't have enough of those already) but approached from a more scientific sense than a magical one, and there's another one which is a sci-fi. I will go into no further detail about that one because I'm no doubt going to get negative feedback from it (or, at least, a neverending tease). But I thought it might be a good idea to PURHAPS post them chapter-by-chapter on here to see what people think?

P.S. The mailing list limit sucks. Only 10 people!? This is outrageous.

Grey Canvas Series - playing around with celebrities

Here's some more examples of experimentation for the Grey Canvas Series.

Karl Urban, actor, and Gerard Way, singer, respectively.

I think both of these would fit well into the 'Watch Me' category.

(Yes, I'm aware that the Karl Urban edit is slightly blurry, but I figure this won't matter when I paint it onto canvas because I can paint out the blurry lines.)

...And this is Zachary Quinto, actor (but everyone knows that). Quite clearly a good example for the 'Restrain Me' category.

Of course, none of these will make it into the first set of the Grey Canvas, because the first set in the series will consist of pictures of people that I know or have found for modelling - my own work. If I put celebrities (or even slightly well-known people) into the mix, things could get complicated if I wanted to get my own copyright. But like I said, I might create another set featuring these celebrities.

Grey Canvas Series

I might have told some of you, but I'm starting a series of pieces called the Grey Canvas Series. The Series is split into several sections - I think there will be around 4 or 5, but I'm not sure yet - it all depends on how many good photos I manage to get. I've already decided on the titles for 3 of the sections: 'Watch Me', 'See Me' and 'Restrain Me'. I'm creating them by taking or finding photos that are aesthetically pleasing and/or interesting and/or imaginative, and editing them in Photoshop to create a line/block image consisting of only 3 hues: black, white and grey. Finally, I'm going to paint them onto canvas (hence the 'canvas' part of the series title), with the image placed in the middle and a plain grey border surrounding it.

If I get round to it, I might create a second set in the Series, consisting of only celebrities that I find attractive, because really, I'm still a teenager and I still have my fantasies.

I've experimented with a few of the methods of creating the line/block image in Photoshop and so far it's been successful, but I do notice that it's difficult to tell from the original photo how easy the hues of the photo will be to section out into white, black and grey. I've already pretty much finished with the 'See Me' section, which features my wonderful model Krissy. I didn't take the photos myself, I stumbled upon them while browsing Facebook. I didn't get round to asking the photographer for permission, I might do that at some point, but for now all I can do is hope that they don't start caring. I already have permission from Krissy, of course, otherwise she just wouldn't be notified!

Here are the original photographs:

 

Luckily, Krissy is photogenic enough for the photo to be more decent than anything I could even hope to pose for, and the lighting was just right for editing. Here are the simple black and white edits:

I experimented a little with one of the edits and turned it negative. It looks okay onscreen, but I have a feeling it won't look right on the final canvas:

I don't know what everything thinks about these (please do tell me if you have anything to say about them), but out of everything I've done I think these edits are my favourite, however simple they were to create.

Please comment!

Media collection - cover art

We've recently been given an overview of the first section of our media AS level (the first year of A-level for those of you who don't know) and it's to invent a music artist, preferably in either R&B or indie genre (I'm clearly going to pick indie, or something heavier), and create a CD cover, including the front cover art, the back cover and the inlay if we wish to. I can imagine the inlay would get us more marks than leaving it out, so I'll do that if I can, but I'm obviously going to leave it last.

I'm in a media lesson at the moment so I'm going to store the research I do into cover art. It will basically be a massive list of covers.

Coldplay - X&Y

Fall Out Boy - Folie á Deux

Fall Out Boy - Folie á Deux (LP)

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

Snow Patrol - Final Straw

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (Alternative cover)

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Fountain

Calvin Harris - I Created Disco

Calvin Harris - Ready For The Weekend

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose

The Killers - Day & Age

Jet - Shaka Rock

The Prodigy - Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

The Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

Hard-Fi - Once Upon a Time in the West

More later, lesson's over. :)

New scanner

Sooooooo, a while back I was on a walk taking photographs with Sam and Emily and we went into Staples, where I found a fantastic cute little white scanner/printer with wireless for £50, which is great for value. The nice man printed me out an example of the scanning and printing quality, and it seems fantastic.

Too long have I resorted to taking pictures of my art in order to get them onto the computer. And for photography, using digital cameras would be fine, except the first year of my course is black and white darkroom photography, and I'd very much like to get them onto here, and onto DeviantART. I'm quite proud of my photography skills. Media studies would also be difficult without a scanner, as I keep all the little bits of paper that I have in a folder, but I'd like to keep the important stuff on my computer.

Also, editing photos that are really photos of photos (taken on a crappy 2mpx camera on my phone) isn't easy, and editing is what I do best.

Two weeks of EMA payments will easily be enough for me to buy the scanner/printer, so money shouldn't be a problem provided I can save the money and don't have to spend it on anything urgently, but the most difficult part will be convincing my aunt and uncle to let me have it. Si doesn't like needless waste of money, but I keep telling him, I really need to buy a scanner and I'd rather do that sooner rather than later. Him and his stupid morals.

I rulez @ Star Wars

Having the most awesome night right now! Whooped Sam's ass at Star Wars Battlefront 2 (we felt hyper and wanted something more realistic after playing the lego version) while snacking on fizzy peaches. We've moved onto the chocolate fingers now. Fruit becomes boring after some time. :P

SHE'S GOING TO EAT THEM ALL. O_O

Just saw the funniest My Chem comic about Mikey's swimming trunks getting stolen... WUZ SO FUNNEH. xD Obviously all credits go to the original author, but here it is:

HALLOWEEN SOON!!!! I can't wait, even though I'm not allowed to go trick or treating because my stupid aunt and uncle don't believe in adopting American culture -_-........ But I'm going to have the most awesome party! I'm going to be a bumblebee!!! :) I might make some kind of scary scary edit thing for the spirit of it. Just to make the season just that bit scarier :P as if it needs to be scarier! I almost made Sam watch Arachnophobia with me tonight (she is TERRIFIED) but instead we settled on Saw (which took a lot of persuading) and Donnie Darko to calm her down after the gory film...... O_o

NOW WE'RE WATCHING STAR TREK!!! This is how long it takes for me to post on my blog, especially when I'm being distracted by funny MCR comics, Star Trek and chocolate fingers. And Sam, of course. She's the most distracting of them all.

Note to self: Should I post my fic on here as I write it? Maybe it would give me more of a reason to keep going (because I'm the best at losing interest in one thing before I've even finished it and suffer from writer's block regularly)?

Catch-up 2

'Kay, so, more photos and art.

"They That Live Among Us"

A basic photo of Sam, and the tiny men are my own drawings. I didn't use a scanner to put them in, because I don't have one (yet), I took a picture on my phone and did some minor clipping on photoshop before pasting them onto the photo and placing them around a bit. Originally, there was going to be a little UFO whizzing across the screen at the top left, but I must have forgotten about it. I might edit it later to add the UFO.

Everytime Sam sees this, she quizzes me as to why she's being attacked by small men with spears. xD

"Friendship"

I'm a huge fan of spontaneity, and this was totally spontaneous, no posing involved. The best photos are spontaneous. I had my phone out, but I don't think anyone knew I was using it. The composition of this photo is fantastic; I wish I had such luck every time I took a photo.

"Natural Sunblock is the Best Sunblock"

Nothing much to say about this photo, because I'm aware that photos of the sun through trees are all too common, but it seemed nice at the time.

Taken in Spain on a basic camera. I may be a photographer, but I've not yet even got a digital camera (but I have got a couple of film SLRs for my AS course).

"Young But Not Youthful"

Sam again! No offense to her by the title at all; I'm going on the assumption that nobody knows who the hell she is (because none of my friends except a few seem to care about my artistic interests anyway).

Updating later. :)

Catch-up 1

I'll start by posting a load of art that I haven't had the chance to post before now. Mostly digital art, some is plain photography, but most of the photos have been digitally enhanced a little anyway. I have an unhealthy obsession with photoshop... :P

"My Shoes Are Nothing Special"

Me and my old converse shoes. Oh, how I miss those shoes. I bought them in America years ago - they are long since worn and ruined. :(

Still, I don't wear anything but Converse.

"The House That Cried"

Found this house on holiday in Spain and really did think it was a work of art from the way it looked like tears were running down it's face. I love Spanish architecture too; I can imagine how cosy it would have been inside. Edited the photo in a rubbish version of photoshop (the one I still currently own because I can't be arsed to get a new version - and I've fallen in love with this one).

"Christianity"

I'm not strictly religious myself (I don't believe in creation but I do believe there's some kind of higher being and I believe in Heaven, and I never went to church) but I love this picture. Again, taken in Spain. What's amazing about this one is that it was an accident. I was trying to take a picture of the cathedral you can see to the right of it, when my cousin pushed me, the eejit.

Currently unnamed!

A lovely edit of the sky. The houses are desaturated and I did my best to preserve the telephone lines. Original photo was taken in my lovely city Leicester. Love this city, but I'm going to move to London one day, I swear.

"Purple Legwarmers"

Simple enough. The original photo was almost so bad (in terms of quality) that I almost deleted it right there and then, before I said to myself, 'no, I can fix it!' They are the legs of my fantastic friend Krissy (who happens to have the nicest legs ever... hate her -_-) and it was taken in Leicester, in one of the high street clothes shops inside the Highcross. I think it might have been Topshop?? And no, we did not steal the legwarmers!

"This Is How The World Will End"

Cheesy title, I know. I felt cheesy at the time. Yay for cheese! :]

I used this for my art GCSE at school to create a really nice piece of abstract art. I have a tendency to take photos, edit them and then paint them. I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, it's still art, right?

I'm a photographer at heart. :) <3

"Moss Flows Like Water"

A pair, obviously. These weren't edited very much at all; I only really played around with them to improve the quality and I saturated them a little bit, but other than that, I didn't really do anything to them.

Out of all the pieces I've ever done, I'd say this is the one I'm most proud of. I've got some good memories of these photographs (taken on a very basic 2mpx camera phone); I was with my BFFs Sam and Emily walking down Great Central Way, when I came across a bridge that had high-rising walls that I couldn't for the life of me reach over. So they lifted me! It was hard work, it took us a long time and my ribs suffered for it, but it was worth it in the end.

For anyone who can't see what the picture is from just looking at it, it's the stream that was running underneath the bridge, and if the title doesn't say enough, the green streaks are strands of plant material (most likely stringed moss) being dragged along by the water.

Doesn't matter if you couldn't figure it out straight away - I like making things that you really have to concentrate on to understand. xP

More later!