New Baby.

Everyone, meet my new baby! (And yes, that is a dinosaur you can see).

Last night, I got home to find something very exciting waiting on my bed for me... My new camera!!! I felt like a little child at christmas. I dropped everything, sat on my bed and unpacked it all. Packaging was sprawled all over the place! It had to be charged straight away, of course, I was so happy!

It's my early birthday and christmas present and thankfully I got it in time before I go back to uni next week. I even got a tripod, which will be interesting, never used one before. I have it now, which means I must use it... Maybe it'll come in handy to take level pictures of work hanging in the studio. We shall see. I'm looking forward to having better quality photos because of the number of mega pixels (there's still doubt in my ability to take 'good' photos though), hopefully I'll get out more and capture the outside world. Admittedly, I mainly wanted it due to it being a lovely looking piece of equipment, but I was reassured that other aspects were good too haha!

Oooo, I'm unbelievably excited! Just looking at it makes me smile like a cheshire cat - you can tell not much happens in my life...

Ghost Fox Art.

'Ghost Fox' by rabbitportal (a.k.a Matt Saunders).

He can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I received this in the post the other day and it definitely made my day. I recommend that everyone should go and take a little peek, at least, at his work! I bought it for the new house I shall be moving into. I'll be gone in just over a week, ready to start my second year at university. I deserve a treat, right? I may not have achieved much art-related, but I got a job and earned some glorious wonga. I'll find a nice spot for it somewhere. Oh, it makes me smile!

Befriend A Whale.

“This is where I reblog things that inspire me and anything that puts a smile on my face.”

That sentence is literally what it is. I finally decided to create another Tumblr blog called 'Befriend A Whale' (I like whales), so I could put the things that I like, make me smile, are just plain awesome etc there. It will contain art, but there is a high chance that there will be cats, lots of cats too and just animals in general. I haven’t decided if I will post anything up myself as yet, could I count as my own inspiration? I suppose when I work, I tend to use what I have created to then learn from it and move on to make something else, for example, what did or didn't work well. I am now able to reblog things and show people what I like. Just thinking about it makes me grin. Before, in my art work Tumblr, I would occasionally put up things and talk about them a bit, but that has slowly died out. Anyway, it’s still early days and looking very bare, even so, I am quite excited about it!

Feel free to check it out: www.befriendingwhale.tumblr.com

All By Myself.

I had a good day yesterday, I went up to the studios to collect materials I would need for the day and had a lovely surprise from my fellow artist, Clive. He had bought me a portfolio to put my work in, to protect it, as well as a large piece of paper that I could do a drawing on, to say sorry. The day before he had accidently got paint on one of my paintings so I had to cut a part off of it. It was cute moment, I offered but he didn’t want any money for it. He didn’t have to get me it, bless him, it still makes me smile when I think about it.

After this, still enthusiastic about the sculpture workshop, I went downstairs to the area we worked in on Tuesday and began. I dug my holes, mixed together the sand, plaster and water (which turned out to be messy work on my own) and poured it into my sand moulds. Then the waiting began again. It was actually quite lonely and I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I paced around, cleared things away, swept up, and ate food. I also noticed a vast number of zimmer frames, which was a bit creepy, what happened to the old people?!… I think I had added too much water, which I had to wait even longer than I probably should, but I got to the point where I could bear it no longer.

I had to dig my sculptures out with my hands, because I couldn’t lift up the boxes to release them on my own.It was all going well until I had nearly finished and a massive spider appeared from the sand. It scared me greatly! You may think I’m exaggerating and that it was probably ownly a diddy one, but I am not! Small ones don’t bother me. Anyway, with my fragile sculptures set free and trying me best not to break them (possibly from not having enough plaster in them, or too much water, or a combination of the two) I went to wash them down and get rid of the excess sand. This was my favourite part, I enjoyed seeing the water reveal what was underneath. You can see the results below. I have decided to leave them to dry slightly over the weekend before attempting to do anything to them. Hopefully I’ll be able to work on them the beginning of next week, we’ll see (like always).

Green.

Acrylic paint on paper, A1.

'Green'. This is todays work of art, I'm not sure what to make of it, green has never really been a colour that I get on with (apart from the time when I was little when it used to be my favourite colour, but that doesn't count, I was naive haha). It always reminds me of the saying 'green with envy' and that is not a good thing. When I started it this morning, I was worried it was going to turn out looking like a giant bogie, but I do not see much of a resemblance, luckily! Although, you may think differently. The best thing about this, was when mixing the paints to get the different shades of green, I created a lovely mint colour, it actually made me smile. Oh happy days! During the process of creating these paintings, I take photos along the way and I get to a point where there are little white gaps within them and it was pointed out to me that these help to give the painting depth. This could be something that I possibly look in to later on in my project. Today I also had a revelation. Something that I kind of wish I could un-realise. Ready for it?... When I stand to do my painting, I stick my belly out... Yes, it's strange, but seriously, I do! What is with that?! Does anyone else do this? Please don't let me be the only one!... I know that has nothing to do with my project, but I needed to share it. I'll shh now...

Below are photos of stages to get to the final piece: