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.