Home is where the heart is... or a coffee stain.

This was another task that I was given as part of my GCSE coursework. We were all given an A3 sheet of paper with some coffee stains on it and told to make a load characters out of the stains. This was the exercise that gave birth to Charles, the hedgehog on a rock. Sadly none of the characters have names. Any suggestions, leave then in the comments box. (Don't forget to preview your comment first or it won't let you publish it !)

Look it's Charles !!!!!

Zoomed in on a Plant

This was part of my art GCSE, it fell under the Growth and Decay mini project (Oh how I wish this was a main project). We were all given a load of really old school biology teaching diagrams that focused on small parts of plants and insects and showed and enlarged diagram of it. Once we had picked one we liked, we had to do a monochromatic painting of the diagram. Unfortunately I never quite finished mine for two reasons: first, I hate painting; second, they lost the card I was painting from. But oh well here it is anyway.    

Witch's Hat

Just a sketch I did for reasons I can not recall.

How much is that doggy in the window ?? ... And is there a discount on the fungi???

I got bored. I doodled. I coloured. Sort of. A little bit. 

Einstein

For my 10 hour GCSE art exam I was given the project title of Ordinary and/or Extraordinary. For this I decided that I was going to focus on Einstein. So pretty much my whole exam book consisted of Einstein related sketches, photo edits and paintings with a bit of string theory thrown in for good measure.

This was a pencil sketch focusing on just a small part of the picture.

This was a monochromatic pallet knife painting

This was my exam piece done a slim canvas ochre acrylic paint for the main background with dark brown rubbed splodged on with a sponge

The negative of Einstein's face was achieved by creating a stencil and spraying through with black spray paint.

On the back I wrote out a section of String Theory in a brown Sharpie pen (Yes I am a self confessed science Nerd and proud of it) 

 

With Water Comes Life

This was the first big piece (A1) of art work I did work My GCSE coursework. The project title was Water, and of course being a goth, I managed to link this to blood. 

I started by thinking why we needed water, which took me to drinking, which took me to living, for which we need blood. It was the idea of without water there is no life. However I still wanted to create a piece that focused on fluids if not water itself. 

Once I had come up with the design to have a big drop of blood dripping from the top of the page, my art teacher then suggested / told me to go away and make some fake blood, drip it from a spoon, photograph it, then Photoshop it to look like my final idea. Oh and did I mention my extreme hatred of Photoshop, if not, well I have now. On top of all that she then said to draw an accurate diagram of blood cells. All of which I did. Fun.    

My Lodger.

This is my lodger Mort. He's been living with us for a while now and seems to be enjoying himself. He's pretty good at the piano, but I'm not sure about his cooking skills.

Gothic Lighting

As part of my GCSE art exam I had to research artists whose work linked to my chosen topic, and then either do a recreation of their work, my take on a piece of their work, or my own piece in the style that they used. 

For one of my projects I looked at Melissa Byrd. She is a photographer, and had an interest in photography from a young age. She does studio work with still lifes and macro with insects. In 2007 she produced a variety of prints that she named Extinguished Essence. These incorporated death and related items to create a gothic and ethereal appearence. She used items such as skulls, old books and candles that had just been extinguished. Her work can be viewed at http://www.aleuranthropy.com/gallery.html .

From these prints I was inspired to produce my own series of pictures in her style. I had some old church candles at hand, which I used to create a similar effect with the smoke. I had a candelabra, some old leather bound books, cut glass jug, a rose and my little gargoyle friend. These items were arranged to give a dark feel that Melissa Byrd created in her work. I must have taken hundreds of photos this day, and after never quite achieving the look I was after I had to wait late evening for another go, where I could finally get the lighting right. Here are just a couple of the pictures I took. Some were taken with the flash, some with the flash covered by my hand and one was taken with just the light from the candle in the photo.

Cheeky Monkey

Another piece from my exam books. Okay so he's not really a monkey but a Gargoyle/ Grotesque. 

This was done with charcoal, and the swirls were a stamp. This took the best part of 10 minutes 15 tops.

Cartoon cat and... er...BERT!!!

Couple of random cartoon animals. Cool looking cat and, I think its a beaver. Either way we'll call him Bert. Why not?  Bert is a cool name. 

Grandma What Big Eyes You Have!

I occasionally enjoy a bit of cartooning. Here are just some practice sketches at eyes.

Taz and Wile E. Coyote

These are a few years old now. I still amaze my self at what I'll do when I bored.

Wile E. Coyote is a little wonky. There was a strong breeze ;)

This Is War

For Christmas just gone, I really didn't know what to get for my mum. So I came to the conclusion that I can't get her nothing (after all that would be mean : ( ) So I'll just have to 'create' some thing for her. 

Create soon became 'paint', which is funny considering I have a rather strong dislike for painting; but for the lack of any better ideas a little self torture seem unavoidable (oh the things you do for the ones you love...) Since this is a household of  30 Seconds to Mars 'fans', a mars inspired painting seen to be in order (If I could have acquired Jared Leto himself, I would have). 

I took inspiration from both the album and the song This Is War, mostly the song. Lots of reds and oranges felt fitting. I did this over 3 days while my mum was at work, so I only got 4  hours at a time with my sister on look out. 

This was the end result before it was mounted and framed.....

Day of the Dead

This was another design idea created for my exam work.I had been looking at the similarities and differences between different cultures views and ideas on Death. I had research the Mexican day of the dead Festival and loved how the chose to incorporate the bright colours into their ceremony. At the same time I wanted to include the idea of time, and how at some point it runs out for us all. This was what prompted me to include an hourglass.

Doodle Demon.

This was really just a quick doodle in one of my exam books to do nothing more than illustrate a divide between the side of the page representing hell and the side representing heaven.

Imaginary

For part of my art exam I chose to focus on the music I listen to. I love listening to Imaginary by Evanescence. I wanted to find a way to illustrate the lyrics to the chorus.

In my field of paper flowers,

And candy clouds of lullaby,

I lie inside myself for hours,

And watch my purple sky fly over me.

After a couple of hours of contemplation, I decided to grab an old shoe box cover the outside with lyrics fill the inside with paper flowers, and go back to that dreaded medium of clay to make a hand to place in the middle.

Creative Chaos.

The other day I decided to create a cover for a note pad. I used Serif Craft Artist Professional 2. This was the result of several hours of playing around.

Hedgehog on a Rock ( aka Charles)

This was one of my 3D pieces for my art exam. After spending two lessons staring at a coffee stain for inspiration (this wasn't optional by the way), Charles was born. Then I was told "The clay is over there, enjoy making your ... Hedgehog." To which my response was "Who said anything about CLAY ?!?!"

Anyway, Charles here, was the product of much complaining and a week or so worth of lessons. Isn't he cute? : ) 

Mort

As part of my art GCSE I had to do a project about Similarities and Differences. For this project I chose to focus on Death. I looked at death in different cultures, religions and points in history. 

This was the result of looking at what society stereotypically associates with death. I used white pencil on black paper to acheive this look.