University Campus Suffolk

#14

After my tablet was fixed I was finally able to finish working on my candles picture.

At last I can forget about drawing that many candles! My suffering is over!

#13

The last few months have seen a series of technical errors for me. Not exactly ideal seeing as my work depends heavily on technology working in order to actually make my work. But, as is the way with life, my graphics tablet broke and I was unable to produce any digital work for a while, which, as you can imagine, led to a downward spiral of panic on my part. Then, just as I managed to get a new tablet and start working properly again, my printer/scanner broke, leading to (you guessed it) more panic!

Problems have now been resolved, thanks to some begging to the parents, thank goodness, but it has meant that I have fallen behind on things again (ARGH!)

Right! Onto my work:

I have finished my few pieces of work centring on the nixie faeries, though admittedly the painting I did out of my sketchbook isn’t how I would have like it to turn out – the composition isn’t ideal and I haven’t gotten the foreshortening quite right, but we’re too close to the deadline now for me to have time to fix it unless I get the rest of my work done first.

This piece has caused me particular agro as I was advised not to draw figures for this project anymore, however, I like drawing figures and don’t really want to stop – especially since a large amount of what I am looking at within folklore and fairy tales centres heavily on people and creatures that very much look human. Granted ‘pretty’ isn’t ideal for nightmare images, but the whole point of nixie beauty is deception.

What I also got from this talk with my tutor was to experiment with how my work is going to be displayed more – whether digital screens or projection would be better. I’ve since looked into it and using screens would be impossible without incurring massive costs – I really can’t afford it – and I have tried projecting some of my work and while I think that the impact is good, because they have been stretched so big, some of the finer details are lost. Personally I still think that printouts work better but mounting them on white instead of black might prove to be a better option (but I haven’t tried it yet because of the aforementioned printer problems).

I’m starting to have problems trusting technology.

Something I have decided on, though, is to display my sketchbook paintings in a book alongside my digital work, along with the text from the stories that accompany them.

#12

Did a little research into the creatures known in German folklore as ‘Nixies’ after reading the Grimm tale “The Water Nixie” (also need to read “The Nixie in the Pond” – have it, just need to go through it).

They are varied creatures – sometimes depicted as good, but mostly sinister, who drown their prey in the waters they lurk in.

The most similar, British version of the creature seems to be the water spirit known as ‘Jenny (or Ginny) Greenteeth’, who is said to haunt the rivers and ponds of Ellesmere, Shropshire, luring humans to her and then drowning them.

I suppose they could be described as river mermaids, though they often appear as hags (like Jenny Greenteeth), not just as beautiful women.

Definitely pictures to come of this!

Also!! It’s the UCS Fine Art Auction this evening! We’re raising money for our degree show, so any support would be fantastic (even if this is going out a tad late).

#11

Having a bit of a tizzy over drawing things over and over again – feels like I’m not going anywhere and just repeating myself (especially when having to draw 300 candles repeatedly!)

I think I’ve reached that point where I really am questioning what my work is all about (talking about it with everyone may have helped a bit).

Am I looking at classic imagery and literature that traditionally accompanies folklore? Or am I looking at the goods and evils of childhood? Or both? Are these little storybook characters just metaphors for a greater evil that I am starting to depict in my work? The skeletal hand of Death is getting seemingly more important as the lives are lost in the stories I am reading.

To shamelessly admit being a fan of the DreamWorks film, ‘Rise of the Guardians’, is it really true that without wonder, hopes and dreams, there really is only darkness and nightmares left? Is the character that is the ‘Bogeyman’ really just opening the gateway to a more ‘adult’ life, when the dreams of childhood give way to more seemingly harsh realities? – Putting it that way, it really does sound like a nightmare.

I am attempting to hide the horrors of the fairy tales in pretty pictures of glowing lights and little flames, when actually these are just metaphors for the looming figure of Death that is watching over all of us.

It makes me wonder how these stories can be called ‘fairy’ tales. They look more and more like horror stories to me the more of them I read. They are dank, dark, and depict loneliness. It is only when a character can overcome these trials that they can find happiness – and, oftentimes, they don’t.

In amongst all of this, I’m wondering about the physical qualities of my work. Mostly, do I need it to be as big as I’ve been intending it to be?

I’m comfortable working on A5 – my sketchbook is A5 and my graphics tablet is A5, so why shouldn’t I present work at this size? Granted, it may not create this enveloping world I’ve been talking about, but I’ve been talking about fairy tales all this time and not really thought about how they are presented. They are pieces of literature – books. It’s this that is pushing me more towards presenting the drawings in my sketchbook as final pieces of work, as well as the notes I have written to accompany them. It’s all my work, why shouldn’t it be included alongside the large digital pieces?

Maybe all this reading is going to my head and I just need to see how things pan out for now. Next job is the auction next week!

#10

Originally I had the full intention to print my digital work full-size, mount and display it on the wall (I’m ruling out the custom wallpaper option completely now), but after a quick chat with a tutor earlier I think I need to experiment more with other options on a smaller scale before making a final decision.

-mount, display on wall

-hanging

-back-lit in some way

-how big do they really need to be?