Eveything's alright

 This is the final piece in my drawing book (before submission. As I've enjoyed doing it so much that I'm going to carry it on once i get it back)

This piece has a different kind of feel to it, I wanted to end this submission with something uplifting and hopeful. I thought that all my other pieces  have been quite dark and sorrowful, because life works out that way quite often, and although i won't stop making melancholy art, I felt that this drawing book has been a lot like a visual diary, it has helped me over the past few months and that is something I am very grateful for, so I felt that in the end, I'd like a happily ever after for once, even if there are none in reality. I felt it would be nice if , through all my sorrow and love that i have poured into my work that there was a happy ending , a reward and success, because I know that as long as i keep going and working hard, there just has to be an 'over the rainbow'

Over all i am extremely proud of my work throughout the drawing book, I'm fond of all my characters and their development and also enjoy just looking back through my work and been able to see how my line quality has improved along side the development of settings. I know that my work is still not perfect but I can see it is becoming more and more detailed, so know that if i carry on I may find the kind of perfection i seek.

(Tim Walker)

The more I see of Walkers work the more I am verging on a new obsession. To me his work can only be described as a macabre, beautiful faerie tale, and find inspiration within it for my own work.

(Tim walker Italian Vogue)

I was recently shown these pictures by one of my friends who stumbled across them accidentally whilst looking for early Courtney Love pictures. I must say i am so glad she did. When i look at them I feel he has created a sickly sweet world, the use of colour is reminiscent of a typically 'girly' childhood, but the dolls faces seem macabre and leave you feeling ill at ease ( in the best possible way of course) I'm not sure if the artist intended this but when i look at these images I have a sense of stereo types, perhaps this wasn't intentional, but I feel when you look at the model she doesn't look all that happy, perhaps it is a comment on the typical 'You must be 'girlie', play with dolls and be pretty' type of stereo type, almost doll like.( not that i personally feel there is anything wrong with that) Maybe that's just my interpretation of it, but even if that isn't the case i still love these images.

Love rats

This was a last minute idea i had for my drawing book. I love the sentiment behind it but must admit my heart wasn't fully in this one. I think perhaps because I'm not too comfortable drawing 'ugly' things, but i suppose lie rs are never pretty creatures so it had to be done. I still like it but i don't think the line quality and background are quite as good as my previous work. In hind sight I think i could have worked on the background a little more. Considering the meaning behind this image I wish i had have put more into the background such as having discarded underwear, bits of jewellery , perhaps heeled shoes etc,, as the meaning behind the image was about 'lovers lies' affairs and deceit, The moments when you realise another has helped themselves to what is yours. The only incling of this is the ragged hair pieces in the rats hands and coming out of the bins. So if i were to do this again I would pay more attention to the little details to make the image more meaningful.

I will survive

 Singing and playing my instruments has always been a form of art to me, I covered this song today and though it would be nice to put it up on my influence and reflection blog. Again i have played around with conventions making this inspirational disco classic sound rather cathartic. I think it reflects the way I'm feeling and the way my work has always been, melancholy but quite hopeful in places.

(the exhibition)

I attended the second year exhibition at Dewsbury park yesterday evening. I immediately saw that the set out this time seemed more conventional and ordered than the previous future exhibition had been. I felt that this worked a lot better as the 'hidden gems' i spoke of in the last exhibition were no longer hidden and had their own place, which was a good thing. I felt that certain pieces in this exhibition really shone out from the rest, for example Sam Atkinson's 'Deus' piece was beautiful and i feel you could see within it the love, and sheer time effort and research that had gone into it. I think that perhaps this was without a doubt my favourite piece. I also loved the mourning jewelry by Hannah Tiffany it was delicate yet macabre and again I liked the connections that were made between the Bronte prescience in this area and the visual cultures of their time. I also loved the tall delicate sculptures (although i can't remember who did these) they were very beautiful.

  Reluctant to criticise anyone, some of the pieces i wasn't all too sure about, manly due to the fact i didn't really understand the connection with this area or the museum, but the pieces i mentioned i feel really shone out.

Have you heard?

This piece was inspired by one of my favourite Shakespearean characters, the Lady Ophelia. I love the woe and exuberance she expresses for the loss of her father and for her lover Hamlet. I find something extremely poetic in the way Ophelia is on the verges of madness yet seems at one with nature, and find it all the more beautiful that she seems to drown by accident rather than taking her own life which one might expect from her behaviour. It is tragically beautiful.

I believe that in life when people don't understand or just tend not to like something for one reason or another, they often take the low road and declare that thing or person mad. I personally think the world would be full of absolute dullards if there weren't any 'mad' people. So as well as an homage to one of my favourite characters I have also created this piece as a statement on 'madness' I'm sure many people have had this word thrown at them , but the more i hear it , the more I laugh and feel quite blessed, because after all some of the greatest people in history have had that 'insult' thrown at them , and it never stopped one of them it just made the world a much more beautiful and interesting place. So , if anyone ever calls any of you mad , just smile and know that you are actually quite an amazing person,( people just don't understand that yet)

This piece is my second attempt as drawing water, i feel it has improved a little from the picture i did of the sad bear in the woods,, there is much more detail in there and i feel it does look a little more like water than my last attempt. again i feel i have caught the cats character quite nicely within her facial features and have also tried to make the background setting much more elaborate, although i still think this needs to be developed further. over all , very happy with my progress