SORRY! BAD BLOGGER ALERT! - Warning - rant in process

I am apparently very bad at keeping track of things I have to do, especially when it isn't jumping out at me every day. Well last week was the week just after the holiday so I guess I have to account for 2 weeks worth of lessons...

Drawing - For Ewan, (the lecturer) we had to hand in our work to date, so that was the sketchbooks and 5 drawings of the college using positive and negative space with charcoals. To be perfectly honest, I never want to think of doing architecture-like drawings ever again, or negative/positive space! Was not interesting and just generally not my forte.. I like pretty pictures with proper detail, not, whatever that was. Anyhow, we started life drawing that day, which meant... NAKEDNESS! I was hyperventilating when I realised that is what we were doing that day, but it wasn't that bad. The man for the first week was lovely, smiled when he made eye contact, but generally it is awkward to have to stare at them areas to draw them. Last Monday however we had an older woman, and most of her time was spent prancing about the room with us all trying to draw her as she moved... I had a mini panic attack about having to draw over other pictures, such a messy look... but Ewan liked it so I guess it's ok. Was difficult but I think I am best when drawing people, its SOOOOOO much better than the space topic, enough so that I don't really care about staring at old people genitalia.

Conceptual studies - Well we had the first week back to have another 4 hours class time on our fruit projects so most of us worked at creating the 3D models to which I made 2 clay models and a wire structural form of one of the concepts. I liked them but the wire was fiddly and I didn't have pliers so I nearly broke my teeth. It was because of these clay models that I learned you can't use the kiln for weeks after construction... So yeah.. I handed in models that had only dried out a week and were only painted the day before hand in, which was the Tuesday after. The hand in went well really, the first 2 hours we were given as extra preparation and then the second period was all of us gathered to discuss our fruits as a group with our lecturer Catherine who seemed to like most of the ideas and to be in a better mood that day. Glad that assignment ended it was just too out there, too design-y as well, I'm definitely more into the fine art/expressive stuff.

PDP - We got to have group talks with Paul about how we were finding his class and in general, the course and basically most of us thought of all of the same things that are wrong... We work better when we can talk to one another, prompting one another on and giving each other ideas, I don't care if us chatting gets in the way of your staring at the computer... We don't know what we are doing half the time, and when we ask you, your explanations are confusing and pointless so yes, we will turn to one another for a decryption of your psycho babble. We are quiet if you are talking to all of us as a group, if you are not, I do not see the point in silence, it stifles creativity. Me, personally, I travel far, so it takes up a fair amount of my free time, so when I tell you I am pressured with lack of time, equipment and funds, just believe me and tell me cheaper alternatives or give me counselling or something, don't sit there as if I'm shoving excuses at you for my sparse sketchbook! Also, I am not a child, creative criticisms can be made to me, do not look upon me and my work as if I'm a 5 year old who made you a mud cake... Talk straight with me and I will try and do the same to you. To be honest, the entire course is overwhelming, I'm forever tired and stressed and the lecturers do not help in the slightest and as far as I can see, there isn't even a way in which they could...

(this rant was made as a generality for the entire course, not just for PDP, its just that is what we talked about in that class so I decided to rant there..) PS. I might have latent anger issues... or so this post suggests...

3D & 2D - When we returned we did plaster work such as the clay wall, using the vacu-former to create plastic molds and then poring plaster into them. I love the plaster work, its messy but fun, gloopy messy. I can see me using that a lot. My idea to create a nokia out of the plaster is gonna be difficult but I can't wait just because if it works I will be so chuffed. The vacu-former itself is really fun and interesting and I guess goes hand in hand with the plaster so I can't wait to see just how I can use it even more over the next few years. We had our hand in for the sketchbooks for that project as well, just a mid-module, check up thing and well on my days of, Wednesdays and Thurdays, I came in and did extra work, which caused my account for the printer to fuck up majorly and not let me print anything, also finding out in the process I only had enough money for 5 pages when I genuinely thought I had like a tenner still to be used! So after that made me fall behind and be proper ragin, I worked on annotation, used another students account to print off some of the necessary pictures having to leave the artists due to lack of funds and the printers temper tantrum... THEN, I stayed over night at said students house where we had no sleep whatsoever and just worked on our sketchbooks all night, sticking things in and writing everything we thought we could... arriving at college the next day DEAD AS ANYTHING! due to illness and sleep deprivation, thinking I had done everything I could, that maybe it would be enough, we still got told off for it looking like we had only done it all for the sake of the assessment.. Technically true but we worked our asses off trying to do what we thought we needed, getting in what we could under the circumstances and it just... blew up in our faces... This is why it is so stressful... the lecturers basically hate us, and yet there we are trying so hard behind the scenes...

Contextual Studies - Now that is a fun class, we sit and listen to David or Rob go on and make us really think about how the world really functions... I literally sit there and just marvel at most of what they say and truly start to think about the human condition for the rest of the day. I really like their class, they are fun, light hearted and talk to us and get us debating and truly thinking. I guess its kind of set up like school but a more mature-ish way and we don't feel so belittled. I look forward to that class every Friday.

I'm sorry that this post was mostly a bitch, and I know that lectures will probably see this since it is for our course but some of us feel very pressured and stressed, I am literally falling ill under stress.. Backing up a bit might help? I don't know, even if I were to be asked, I'd have no real answers or suggestions... I'm truly not used to this...

Anyway, thanks for baring through all that. I know its boring, my life = forever uninteresting.

7th - 13th Oct

For PDP we talked about CREAM as a way to be a dedicated student and went over some things they want and look for in our work to get us the better grades. After we were given a hand out on which we were to write about our short, medium and long term goals to do with art and the course mostly. All I could really come up with was passing the modules and passing the course in the long term and eventually ending up with a fabulous degree which would help me get a job that would interest me. To be honest, I did find it quite difficult to do but that is mainly because with this course I never doubted my only real long term goal as achieving the degree, it was the medium goals that were hardest. Even with those I just commented on how I want to get good grades on my sketchbooks for my modules. However, I did work out with my short term goals I wanted to try and "broaden my horizons" to create even better sketchbooks and even to blog more often, cause, well... I know how riveted you are reading of my college antics... But, yeah, that was it really, trying to get us to think more about were we want to end up and how we can get there, I think it was good for us.

Drawing seemed like a better class that week cause I left the class to go and draw out of a window in negative and positive space, which still confuses me as I don't fully know how to draw without drawing what is there in detail rather than in blocks and no real variation of colour... I guess it is a new way to draw and a different technique we should all be trying, but I don't really like it, and doubt I will use of my own free will. Also, it's making me hate the use of charcoal and chalk... It might become a long 3 years if I am always made to use charcoal.

3D was exciting, we got to use a Vacuum machine that melts plastic sheeting and you put a combination of objects underneath it, you then flick a switch, the vacuum comes on and the plastic almost magically contours around the objects to create a shape that can then be used as a plaster cast mold. I had a little too much fun with it... Even the lecturer commented on my reaction that I seemed so amused by how this worked but I swear it seemed like literal magic... I can tell that and the band-saw will become my new favourite machines in that Studio. Also, the work turned out pretty good, I can't wait till me make plaster casts using them. This paragraph isn't fully conveying the excitement I feel for those machines, scary at first, but they will become my best friends.

Creative concepts was definitely more productive on Tuesday. I mean, I don't know if it was because Dot (the lecturer) wasn't there and I didn't need to worry about how productive I seemed or how much I talked, it was much more laidback and it went well. After we had Catherine and I got some more done, even techniques I had never tried before like, my classmate Zoe, used my paints, and left a lot of water in them, when I went to wash them out and when I saw all the colours fall I decided I could shake the actual paint tray over the page and have multi-colour droplets all over it. I know it doesn't seem like a major astonishing thing, but I have a very... sleek style so to create mess and seemingly chaos with colour, it was interesting for me. I also attempted more research to possibly name my imaginary fruits. Researching the dead sea, leading me to the dead sea scrolls and how they were written in Greek, so I then looked up the Greek name for fruit which it said was Karpos, leading me to the combination of Dead Sea and Karpos which, rather unimaginatively became Karposea. So, that is my Dead Sea inspired fruit concept. I definitely felt better using other mediums in that class and feeling MUCH more productive

Oh, on a side note for that class, I have been creating a "Fruit Diary" of my adoptive fruit who was Pippa the Pineapple. That will definitely be a blog in future days and will hopefully have some of the pictures that I took and drew with it... Yes, I took selfies with a pineapple, I'm an art student, I'm crazy like that!

Unfortunately, I missed Friday's classes due to illness but I have been told that in Contextual Studies we went over taste, and things we view in society that are worn but a certain type of people that put you right off them, like Paul's Boutique and Burberry caps and so on.. Also for Fridays 2D lesson they apparently continued on with research for the transformation brief.

Finally, I would like to say that EVENTUALLY on this blog there will be pictures of my work and research and stuff but I am very technologically challenged so, bear with me. I also hope to get more professional names for the equipment I use so as I can comment on it properly and maybe recommend it.

This blog is going to be fun creating, I hope yous like it..

So Far...

Everything up until I started this blog...

In the course so far we have talked about confidence and how we should always feel confident and not let others get us down. I guess it got us talking to one another on the first day and we now have loads of confidence when we are together so I believe it is worth while for the time being but I think it will get boring fast.

In 3D & 2D we have a brief which is to be based on transformation. With such a wide topic I had trouble picking at first but eventually I decided on technology, as in the evolution of technology through the last 50/60 years. So far we have created paper foldings which was more difficult than I originally believed, slotting sculptures, first with thin card as a practice then moving onto the thicker card so as we could attempt using the Bandsaw, finally we created silk paper & felt which was difficult and kinda sore, so I had to get Dee to do that for me.

Creative Concepts started with adopting a fruit which seemed strange as it was made to seem like they meant literally try and "adopt" a fruit. However, that is what made it seem even more fun to us. I bought a pineapple and named it Pippa and commenced taking selfies and telling everyone that I had a fruit baby... They worried for my mental health. Eventually we were told where that cooky idea was headed with our new breif, to design our own fruit. My concepts have gone a bit haywire but its generally a fun idea, and lets us be completely creative in a design-y way which I have never had before.

For Drawing we were given a very vague brief to "draw this box", were he brought in 2 boxes and then said we could leave the room... Which confused most of us but it made us come up with strange drawings whereas I just stuck to the literal meaning and drew the boxes, then went and found more boxes and then a skull as in it is like a box for your brain... Even I don't know where my mind was going. Now we are doing negative and positive space which is difficult for me because I am so used to drawing real pictures to grasp the idea of just the space thats there rather than the details of what is actually there. And EVERYTHING is in charcoal! I amn't the biggest fan of charcoal, it doesnt let you do that much detail and its so messy... I would much rather move topic to be honest...

Contextual Studies is generally covering the aspects of the 90s that might connect to us such as the fashions, the music & the art. On the first day we covered comicbooks, their artists, artists taking their work from comics and since then we have had a few guest lecturers from GSA talking to us about branding and such from the 90's and slightly earlier to show their meanings and the differences between then and the 90's.