Shaken, not stirred

I'm not really getting the hang of this blogging everyday thing... I've just blogged 3 times on the same day :S Haha

Anyway... Wednesday is Adobe Illustrator day... and so this is the entry for Wednesday, but on Saturday lol

Our project, the first proper project for Illustrator so far, is to create an instructional illustration; We have to make an A3 sheet of instructions using vectors and mainly the bezier tool... I've chosen to do How to make a James Bond Cocktail; shaken, not stirred of course!

I borrowed a cocktail shaker (Martini merchandise too!) from my boss, Ernie, and Sophie from college posed with it so I could take source pictures to place into Illustrator and trace over.

Considering the deadline is a week and a half away... I haven't got very far, oops!

I've done 3 stages of shaking and a vector of pouring the drink (which Bond calls a Vesper - Casino Royale's Bond girl).

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Once again... the vector picture is PANTS... taken on my phone in a rush lol But gives you the general idea of how i'm getting on! Need to sort that right arm out... and also I want to change the glass so that you can see it's transparent and shows the sleeve through it slightly.

So it's deffinitely W.I.P (Work in progess)... but the rest of the class have had 2 more lessons than me (1. I was in Portugal, 2. I had an A-Level re-sit for Tech, results 19th March!!!!! *Bites nails*) so I don't think I'm doing too badly in comparisson :)

Update 02.02.09: I did some more work on this project today and once again, a bad quality picture to show (printed off and then scanned in haha) but just a general idea of progress :)



Update 03.02.09 - A bit more progress.... I'm starting to think up a more interesting layout, any ideas? I want this to turn out proper swish like James Bond.... so he would be proud lol Oh and need to find a font perfect for the title yet!! :O Its looking better though, would you agree? :) I'm now working on doing my own cocktail glass 'cos I used live trace at first but have decided I wanna do my own :)


Update - 09.02.09 - I spent 5 HOURS working on it today... and its coming along but still need to sort out the arms... and I added a tuxedo affect, but my tutor (quite rightly) said it looks like a propellor (haha) so hoepfully will be able to sort that out too so it looks swish :)





Update 11.02.09 - Layout change again... but a bit more to do yet... still lol Have changed to portrait now and added some James Bond theme bits (007 logo)




Update 27.02.09 - FINAL! I handed in the whole project today... including a poster with new and improved tuxedo complete with bow tie :) ... Oh, but actually there is one thing I did want to change... the sparkle on the glass!



Click pictures to see bigger :)

Revenge is sweet ;)

.... before you say anything - no, I'm not getting revenge on anyone! lol It's not my style, I'm too nice :)

I'm sposed to be working on my ideas for Emma's new project (3D design award) for which we have to choose a phrase or quote and represent it on a plaque type thing. We've been given a limited space of 10x25cm... but no width so it can have parts coming off it.

I've chosen 'Revenge is sweet' as my phrase (stupidly?) because I think there is a lot of strong imagery that I can create through plays on words, associations and stories (such as Snow white... you will see what I mean when I upload pics of my ideas later).

Here's a list of stuff I've been thinking... just initial ideas:
- Blood red and Black
- Gothic and dark
- Spikey/ Barbed wire fence (to stop people falling into it - easily happens!)
- Graffiti with lipstick
- Cake (burnt in revenge)
- Posion apple with an arrow through it (Snow whiiiiite)

We can basically use anything (ice, chocolate, glitter and pva to form a solid block of glitter... NOT sellotape though hah - class joke about Kirsty) to make it... so its very creative - which in a way is quite a lot of pressure to come up with something amazingly clever to be different and interest people. I can see this project turning into QUITE a competition.... not that there isn't enough competition in our class already haha

We was arm wrestling yesterday... I am feeling the pain now :( But can say that I am stronger than half the boys in my class, which is 2 out of 4 haha Good times :)



This is me arm wrestling Tom - He lost.... lots of times :)
Photo credit to Bobbins... and pose credit to Aurimas... haha nice thinking pose :)


I hope everyone's training themselves up for the Graphics Arm Wrestling Championships on Monday? I think I might have to forefit though... I've got table elbow or something? hah

UPDATE 02.03.09 - After last weeks disaster (me and Sophie managed to melt a tub of gel flex in the microwave... HAHA!) we had another go:

Gel Flex + Plastic bucket + Microwave = Holes and stuff everywhere

The Gel-flex accident! ^^^



Sophie with her saw to the rescue!!





I have a very bad feeling that my apple has decomposed or something.... in the picture above you can see one side is a funny pattern - it was bubbling for AGES :S The gel-flex was so hot that it must have been cooking my apple and the air was escaping??

UPDATE 09.03.09 - Week 4(??) of this project... and today the unravelling of the apple mold :)



^ Like christmas - opening the presents! :)

^ Inside of the mold - nice and clean :) woo


^ look at the lovely pink cooked apple! It smelt really sweet... I couldn't decide wether it smelt more like sugar or flowers



^ Plaster casting.....



^ about 40 mins later....



^ A plaster apple :) Lovely job!

This week I was also thinking about the arrow that is going to go through the apple.... I did a model with a paper straw and cut some hearts out - I'm really going for the heart theme :)

I'm thinking the arrow will be made from either thick metal wire or some thinner wire which I can curl into a spiral/spring-like piece.... what do you think? I have already been using wire to re-create barbed wire and have also tried to make my own heart version of barbed wire! :) I think its cute lol

Next week I'm hoping to do a wax casting by melting some red and green candles - shiny fruit :)

I'm also gonna start to 'age' my backboard this weekend - the plan being that I've got quite a nice bit of wood (I think its pine?) and I'm gonna completely mess it up by drilling holes in it, making it mucky by.... rubbing dirt into it? hah and also I'm going to hammer some old, rusty, bent nails into it.... but hopefully not so they are dangerous!

Update 15.03.09 -

What is so special about this damp and dingy alleyway? - It's got distinction (hopefully) :)

I've hammered some nails and screws and bent them into the wood! I've also dented it with a hammer, drilled holes and chiselled some edges off! :)

ALSO... I've put some yoghurt on it and left it outside to grow into moss.... hopefully anyway!

I think I will rub the dirt into it last... cos otherwise it will all dry off? I might throw some teabags at it too? haha

What a colourful week...

... it has been indeed! :(

Last week in Paul's lesson (Visual recording on Friday afternoons) we started drawing some still life colourful objects arranged on a trolley in the middle of the room... bottles, vases etc

(Picture credit to Miss Neve) I'm doing the left hand end, from the end... I know what I mean haha

Yesterday we carried on with it... the aim is to end up with quite a good representation of the shadows on the items using no black to tint the colours. We have to use the colour on the opposite side of the colour wheel (e.g. Blue = orange) to mix the right colour.

I haven't quite got there yet... I started painting last week, but yesterday I finished the main base coat of the painting:

It's a rough picture, but you can see the general idea of things... and deffinitely the different colours!

I will take a picture of the view which I'm painting from next week so you can compare likeness... but I must confess now... I have improvised on the rope, A LOT. Haha. It's just one big ropey mess... interesting though!?

I needed a bit of colour this week... it's been tough for me recently (splitting with the bf) so its nice to see something developing well... ESPECIALLY in this lesson - if you have read earlier posts you will know that this is my least favourite lesson because I'm rubbish at it basically lol

UPDATE 06.02.09 - Another week on and I've got a bit further! I've started putting in the shadows now, and we've been given an extra week so should hopefully get it finished soon!

Next to the trolley, but you can't see the shadows and stuff cos it's not the right angle... but a comparisson anyway :)

Obama in da house!

Barrack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America... and to celebrate, there is a website allowing you to create your own Obama-like posters which are said to have won him the election, designed by a bloke(?) called Shepard Fairey.

My tutor posted the website http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/ on his blog and asked us to make our own Obama style poster.... so I did:


What do you think? The next President, maybe? haha

(At college my tutor calls me Nutty.... my last name is Nuttall lol)

I admit, I did edit it a little bit in Paint Shop Pro (no photoshop or illustrator at home :( ) - but it was only the odd speck of colour!


I think its a really cool style, I really like vectors :)

Permanent Markings

This is part of my drawing work - Friday afternoons, I DREAD!

Drawing isn't really one of my strong points, but this is a piece of work that I actually like! (out of 8 drawings btw hah)
I used 2 different thickness fine liners and different stroke directions and weights to determine different objects.


Update 05.02.09 - We got our grades back for this series of drawings today... I got Pass/Merit.... which I'm fine with, 'cos like I said 'drawing isn't really one of my strong points'. I can't be good at everything... but I will try harder next time!! Paul said my drawing is getting a lot strong/better now anyway...

WoodPrime

As a Photoshop project I had to design an Annual Report front cover for a company that sells everyday products (to make a point that Graphic Design is not always glamourous!)

I was given the company 'WoodPrime' - a company that sells Creosote, wood protection.

One of my ideas was to create a graffiti effect by using stencil art graffiti to create a wooden fence effect on a wall. After some research in Banksy and other stencil artists I made my own stencil and used spray paint (apparently for use on cars, oops hah) to paint over the stencil.





After a bit of tweaking in Photoshop......




It's not really what I had envisioned to begin with, but I quite like its roughness. It's not supposed to be perfect, that's not what stencil graffiti is about! It's about the grime! Well, more about the statement being made really.... but still, I like the imperfections of stencil graffiti :)

29.01.09 - Got our marks back today.... I got a distinction :) woop

The Merchant Of Venice

This is the poster that I created for a Modern Shakespeare Play Poster Brief.

I made the meat font myself (inspired by Robert Bolesta, yes) and it has quite a funny story attached..... I made the letters on Friday at college and when I had taken all the pictures etc I put the meat in a bag and then in the bin in the corridor as it gets a bit hot in our classroom and I didn't want it to start smelling.

I came in Monday morning to hear everyone talking about how there was a nasty smell in the corridor and I remembered.... I went downstairs to a stench just SO bad!..... The cleaners hadn't emptied the bin over the weekend and the corridor stank of rotting meat! Haha!
Oh, and I also made the blood-ified tag (with food colouring!) too.

Another Distinction project :) Wooop

P.s. I had to change it to a JPEG to upload it so quality is not very good... but I have to say, it looks AMAZING printed out on photographic paper :)

Materials, Techniques and Processes

The first section of work that was assessed just before Christmas was Materials, Techniques and Processes. This unit mainly focused on drawing with different materials e.g. marker pens, fine liners, gouache. Below I have photographed and uploaded some of my favourite pieces from my folder of work (some are quite bad quality, sorry!).

These cubes were mainly created using black permenant marker pens and fine liners. I think that the black/white contrast helps to make them really stand out. I tried out using damask on one of the sides of the cube because it is a strong pattern, and I love it! :)





These fruit and veg drawings were created with again marker pens and fineliners. I also did a gouache painting of a pepper in greyscale and colour.

I'm really proud of these gouache paintings of a face I found in a magazine. We had to do one with just black for the darkest areas, one with black and light grey areas, one with black and dark grey areas and one incorporating black, light grey and dark grey.... AND also a colour.
I got a Distinction for this unit of work, woo! :)

First Blog

Hello blogging world!
I have recently been reading blogs by some really interesting people, and thought that it would be a good way of recording my thoughts and also of keeping a record of my progress throughout the course that I have just begun. I plan to post pictures of my work and hopefully get some comments with opinions etc.

But first, a bit of an insight into who I am and where I am in life right now...

I am a student on a BTEC National Diploma Graphic Design course, with high hopes of finishing and going to study Graphic Design at the best University I can get into!

I am 19 (I have the worst birthday EVER - 26th December, Boxing day), and most of my friends (and boyfriend) are already at Uni, but I am still at home doing this course. I finished my A-levels in English Language, History and Product Design last July and decided not to go to University because I didn't get into where I wanted to go and didn't want to go somewhere else just for the sake of it.

I really LOVE graphic design, and I quite like French (mainly because I liked it as a subject at school, but also because I think it is beautiful in sound and in writing!) so that is the reasoning behind the blog's name! I also quite like the following: Photography, Music, Typography, Fashion, and Damask patterns.

I hate when I'm asked what hobbies I have because in all honesty, I don't have any. I know, I know... I sound a really boring person now but it is true! I don't belong to any clubs, and other than work part time as a waitress, I spend pretty much all of my time on my college work. I like listening to music, going out to clubs and drinking, dancing, socialising with my friends/new people etc, shopping, surfing the internet - particularly facebook and ebay, eating and sleeping. But I am quite ready to try new things... so who knows?

I did have a blog before but didn't keep up the habit of writing in it, but hopefully this time it will be different!

O.k. So enough chat... time to get to work! I'll get posting... and to start with I will upload the work I have been doing since the start of my course, September 2008.