Some kind of progress

Slowly starting to build up layers on this piece. We got my particular spin on illuminated manuscript, with all the letter forms taken from this old doodle from last year. Originally spelling "In the beginning" the famous phrase that begins a certain controversial old book, this is part of my attempt to recreate a science-based story about the beginning of the universe using religious visual language.

Not sure if it needs more doing to it yet but I'm liking where it's heading. Softened some of the rigid felt-tip lines with water to create a more organic look, to compliment the glass forms. Torn up graph paper, netting and stitching are used similarly to move away from the rigid outline of the squared paper. A lot of religious-based art borrows heavily from nature, so it wouldn't make sense to create an excessively man-made industrial-feeling piece.

Began mounting the glass work for my portfolio, just needs silicon-ing in place. Squared paper gives it a nice scrap-book feel. Blue felt-tip pen geometric drawings to make the thin blue glass strips melt in seamlessly. It's strange because I preferred the top drawing the most when it was in front of me, but I think the bottom image looks better now it's on the computer screen.

Can't help thinking that it's missing something though. Stitching? Inks? collage? Not quite sure yet so it might be one of those leave-it-for-a-few-days-and-come-back-to-it jobs. It's gonna drive me mad trying to think of what it needs. Letters? Might try dabbing water onto the lines in the top drawing (I always use washable felt tips for that exact purpose). Or maybe it just needs re-drawing completely.

It's so irritating knowing that there's just something not quite right about it.

Comic update post

Been thinking and working on ideas for comic project, this is its most recent incarnation. part of me feels like I need to make it into several pages instead of just one canvas. Considering making a long wall-hanging. The blank triangles are where I've stared placing my glass pieces to work them into the composition. 

I kinda have visions of black netting and hand-stitched writing and squares and glass, hand-generated typography that becomes part of the story instead of just telling the story. 

Starting to wonder if I even need to create an angel narrator. I might use the research I've got so far into angels as motifs and collage instead.

I feel really inspired by the people I've met and the techniques I've learned during my year away from university, and I feel like I should bring these feelings and ideas together. I started out months and months ago reading up on cosmology and visiting observatories, drawing churches and researching the stories and language I was brought up with.

When I started experimenting with materials in the beginning of January this year I stepped away from the ideologies and started creating my own visual language. Now I know how this piece is going to feel. Gothic, arts and crafts, cute with serious undertones.

Recently went back to the Cultural Sisters to make some more flat glass pieces. When I saw the glass from before, they looked like test pieces and I just wanted to make more and experiment with shapes and colours. Because of how much glass can change in firing, I'm not totally sure what to expect yet but I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results. They look bigger than the last few things I've made and use more bluey purpley colours with a hint of green, moving away from red completely. 

Also this is the dog I've been looking after this week, because this post has far too much writing in it and needs more pictures!

Glass experiments

Here are the glass pieces I did under the kind supervision of The Cultural Sisters in Longport. Some of them didn't turn out exactly as I expected but I think they're all pretty great so far.

Above is one of my pre-firing photos for comparison.

I wanted to try creating the above comic grid layout I designed earlier in the year in different materials, such as my foray into textiles.

I guess its kinda funny that I took my original inspiration from windows in gothic architecture and now I've done a full circle and I'm trying to make drawings of windows out of glass. 

I made some smaller triangles which I thought could be incorporated into the final comic because there are a lot of triangular shapes and arches within gothic architecture. Glass was often used to tell biblical stories, so it would be my attempt to nod back to that.

The flower motif was created by cutting out paper and placing it between two layers of glass. I thought it would burn away and the silhouette of the flower would be seen in the glass frit around it. I suppose I didn't contend for the fact that the paper wasn't exposed to any air and even if it did burn, it wouldn't have anywhere to go.

A point of singularity

Hand-Stitched lettering done in my own fair handwriting, it may be illegible but I'm still fond of it

experimental typefaces using paintbrushes

Best thing about being back at my parent's place for Christmas is finding random old stuff like this. I must have been about 14 when I drew this comic. It was meant to be about two kids who live in an underground civilisation of inter-connected tunnels and fight with shovels against vicious tunnel bears that eat people. Because that was the sort of thing I thought about during French class for some reason. I was totally normal like that. Done with fineliner and touched up with MSpaint (we had no photoshop in the dark ages).

Finished colouring in my angels collage so I attempted to mashup the two halves. Eh, not my best stuff because I should have turned the sketchbook round when I took the second photo so that the lighting would match up but I guess its been a little bit fun playing around with it on photoshop, so I count that as the most fun I have ever had on photoshop. I hate working on photoshop :o(

Material-experimentin' time! I am pretty unashamedly chuffed with this first maquette, it's just like how I imagined it would be. Needs time to dry and then get fried to death in my grandad's old kiln. All the parts where I have cut through would be where the comic panels will be. I'm so excited ^_^

These are my test tiles waiting to be fired either tomorrow or the day after. Unfortunately at the moment I can only get my hands on pre-mixed glazes and grandad also left me a load that all unfortunately contain lead (meaning they would be totally redundant on bowls for example) Decided to test a few anyways and then the two on the far right are some spectrum glazes my dad bought me for christmas, and I've recorded them all in a handy little database on my laptop so I can keep all my test information in one place.

A bit concerned about trying to create a firing schedule for a kiln that has no temperature cutoff aside from the plug but I suppose all I can really do is try to mimic one to the best of my ability and just resign myself to the fact that no two firings will be exactly the same.

here's an update of my angels collage

it's hideously early o'clock, here's an update of my angels collage. Have worked on it approximately 4 hours now.

Started an angel collage, using print-outs, fine-liner, pencil and chalk pastels I decided on massively oversized wings that look like they're bursting out of the page like they're ready to fly.

Still needs a bit of work in the middle, blending the print-out with my freehand parts and finishing off with more mid-tones but I think it's a good sign of things to come.

madonna and child, (left half of the melun diptych)

Jean Fouquet c.1450

looking at a lot of different gothic art at the moment for ideas about how to draw angels. the colours in this are striking and separate the foreground and the background beautifully. The proportions are all a bit strange and a bit scary but I love it none the less.

virgin and child with eleven angels

master of the wilton diptych (doc. c. 1390-1395)

Embalming of the body of christ and the three marys at the empty tomb

workshop of the ingeborg psalter (active c. 1213)

This is my favourite one so far, I love blue! The white spaces are going to be comic panels

In the Beginning

I think I prefer the colours on this one, but I think that the paint created a nicer texture than the oil pastels.

I think this layout will be the one I finally work with. I did the drawing in my book and photocopied it so I can experiment with colours and techniques.

This image is one of the copies is where I was playing around with paints and sewing, but the page isn't completed yet. I need to think more about what kind of colours I'm using so I need to look back at my research and begin a fuckload of material experiments.

Something that started as a random cool idea I had seems to be turning into quite an epic quest of an art project. Nobody said pushing your boundaries is easy, but they did say it was worthwhile, and I hope they're fucking right.

Drew this quick doodle in Liverpool while job-shopping. It's not perfect but I think I'm getting closer to what kind of layout I want to draw for my comic, and once I have that pieced together, I can start to plan text placement, do more material experiments and character designs. Have started some brief experiments using oil pastels and acrylic paint, can't wait to move onto incorporating textiles into my designs.

Quick doodle of a local church. A lot of my recent drawings are very heavily line-based, but that's because my main reason behind drawing them is to record types of geometric shapes to give me a further idea of how I want my comic layout to look like.

so far:

• have looked at basic scientific theories of how the universe began
• have visited Keele Observatory for further research
• have copied the first chapter of Genesis (king James version) word for word to give me a better idea of biblical language
• have begun to sketch churches and church windows for grid layout

I need to:

• do more research into classical looking angels and statues because I want the main narrator to be an angel
• do first-hand research into material experimentation, combining textiles and paints
• use church sketches to create grid layouts
• write a script based on the research I have done so far
• create rough draft of what I want the comic to look like on paper combining grid, character, text