PRODUCTIVE. Finally.

This week has been rather productive as I have moved on a lot with my integrate project thanks to being able to speak to all three of my lecturers who offered three different twists on my original idea which in turn led me to a finalised theme! HOORAY!

I have decided I will look into the obsession society nowadays has with social media whether it be self obsession, reliability etc. 

I enlisted the help of my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram friends in a survey I prepared in order to determine just how much we use social media and just how many of these friends confess to why they posted the infamous 'selfie'.

As I would like my project to have a professional feel to it I have create my own photo-shoot plan template in which I will detail where, when, who and what I am taking a photography of. I added the little touch of having a photo of the model and the inspiration for the shoot in order to help those looking at my sketch book as well as myself to keep on track.

PROFESSIONAL, I know.

As another element of professionalism I have decided to request the permission of a local music artist to use one of their songs in a possible video I hope I have the time to make. 

Overall this week has been rather productive for my Integrated project and I am so pleased and have so many ideas for my photoshoots. Hopefully by next week I can say the same for the Protest brief as although I have plenty research the development side of the project is snail paced.

love and hugs

xo

Touch down in London Town.

So this week some of the BAD class went to London with other students and completely new (to us) lecturers. To sum up the experience it was amazing, but my mental and physical health has suffered from sleep deprivation. Oh well.

I began my adventure straight after work by heading to Edinburgh on Monday to meet up with the girls for dinner, drinks and a sleepover in a very classy hostel in order to make sure we would be up for 6am the next morning for our train to London.

Up early on Tuesday we caught the 4 hour train to London, we played cards, drew in our sketchbooks, ate food, drank tea, laughed, listened to music - the lot! So the journey wasn't too long! We touched down in London town at around lunch time so grabbed a bite to eat in a cute little cafe and then headed to the National Portrait Gallery. I really liked being able to see so many pieces of art and photographs in the flesh, especially because the Grayson Perry exhibition was on and FREE to admire. Much of his work requires a particular taste which although I don't have I really did enjoy some of his work. Much of the other portraits in the gallery were strange and at least gave me some encouragement, because if they can get into a gallery so can I! There was one particularly interesting piece of work was the frozen blood sculpture by Marc Quinn - although incredibly creepy to think that it was made from real blood I admired it as it was crystallised and sparkly and also well detailed.


 That night we had dinner at Five Guys after watching the premier for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel film which was bustling with dancers and music. We didn't get to see anyone famous as it was too cold but being able to at least see some of it was amazing! The rest of the night was spent in the bar until we were far too tired and retreated to our rooms.

FIVE GUYS <3

On Wednesday we were up early again for our trip to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford. Although I am not a fan of Harry Potter at all I found this trip very interesting as I loved being able to see what went on behind the scenes. So much time, effort and dedication goes into films and seeing this in the flesh make you appreciate the film as a whole. It was magical seeing how they carried out the special effects as well as the make-up artistry that has to be done over and over again. Each of the costumes (both the clean and dirty versions) are made by hand, each painting was individually created for the film as were the magical objects. I especially loved seeing the animatronics and the prosthetic make-up and I would love to be able to do such amazing creations. I also
loved seeing the sketches, models and blueprints for the sets.                ^ I TRIED BUTTERBEER
This tour made me very interested in the artistry in films and now I
 want to work on a film set so badly!!!





We then went on to visit the V&A which I loved, the building it self is a piece of art, its beautiful. We seen the fashion exhibitions, the large casts exhibition, the photography section as well as fine jewellery and much more!

     Dale Chihuly in the V&A Main Hall >

< Photography Exhibition at the V&A







Later that night the girls and I (from BAD2) decided to go to TGI's in Covent Gardens for cocktails and food!

On our last day, the Thursday we got up and checked out, leaving our bags in the hostel so we could explore the city one last time. This was time for SHOPPING, which began with Harrods, Victoria Secret and then Selfridge's. AMAZING. Completely exhausted we headed to the hostel for our bags and then made our way to Kings Cross Station to head home.

London Kings Cross Station.

As I mentioned before, overall this trip was amazing but I am glad to be home, with my own bed, FRESH water and a good cuppa tea!

Bye for now

 xoxoxoxo

Week Two

So this week of college began with integrated project on the 4th of February which consisted of further research into our chosen theme, at which point I didn't know what I wanted to do!..Sadly I never got spoken to about my project from last year but Dot assured me that I would be spoken to by Ewan the following day. I feel the feedback for our previous project was needed and in my case, before I got it I felt I was dragging behind, not knowing what I had done wrong etc.

In Catherine's class I had to pitch my theme idea to her with a simple statement for intent, I had two ideas though so decided to pitch both. This helped both Catherine and I to discuss the pros, cons and possibilities of both, Abortion and Lack of Respect for the police.
After our discussion I decided I would focus my project on the lack of respect for local authority such as police, nurses, teacher and the law. I will use case studies from the web and hopefully some books as well as scouring social media via hashtags and shares in order to see just what people have to say about those who will inevitably come to our aid should we ever need it despite the awful comments or slander some individuals make.

By simply typing in 'lack of respect for' into Google I strangely got the results I am looking at!

Thursday consisted of PLP help from Paul and then a little bit of homework that was something we had to do for the following day for another class anyway so it proved to be a kill two birds with one stone sort of day. I spent my directed study class filling out the PLP and the time plan for Paul as well as Ewan.

On Friday I finally got my feedback for my previous project and was so relieved but realised just how much more effort and professionalism I have to put into my next one which made me want to cry. We had to present a PLP to Ewan in which I attempted to decipher exactly what I wanted to do which was look into the impacts of social media. After a good discussion with Ewan I came away much more confident with what I had decided. So for my integrated project I will look into the negative as well as the positive impacts of social media as a means of What do we come from? What are we? and Where are we going? as I think it fits perfectly as our increasingly social media aware society becomes more and more dependent on this aspect of life.

The picture of the right is an illustration by Luis Quiles about social media 'trolls'

In Davids class we got our essays back, and although he was not impressed at my lack of page numbers and ability to spell he said it was very good! I just have a little bit of remediation to do as well as adding another couple hundred words but that shouldn't take too long.


Over all this week was productive in a sense that I have plans on what I need to focus on for each brief which was something I had had sleepless nights over.

This week we are on holiday from college so hopefully I can report back with many more findings and research!

Week ONE (after Christmas duh)

So after all this time off I found it extremely difficult to wake up and function for the first day back at college. I eventually did.

PS got my grades for my Multiples brief and I got a 2A - a very good. Well pleased.


Wednesday morning began with our first integrated project class, which was all about the brief we had (kinda) already been handed out - Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? - the title of a painting by Paul Gauguin. I had a few ideas to begin with but when Dot went round the class and we got to hear everyone else's ideas it gave me so many more. However this overflow of ideas made it so much harder to get to grips with just the one.

Next up we had a whole two hour 'directed study' class, in which I carried out some more research into my integrated project brief but also lacked any sort of motivation due to the creative block from all the ideas I now had. Finally after lunch we had a lecturer again, Catherine for Creative Practice, in which we got our SECOND (Did not think we would have two) brief and it was Protest. We began by working as three teams and creating mind maps of things we could passionately protest about but this confused me and made me even more angry (due to the subject being mentioned).

Thursday began with feedback on our PDP folders from Paul which was an easy class and then we had 'directed study' again that afternoon.

Friday consisted of more research into our integrated project and then the final presentations in Davids class as well as those who had already performed had their feedback. I was told my presentation was good, I stumbled a bit and he thinks that is I was to condense my facts down the it would be fab! So not much to re-mediate in that area at least.

Over the weekend and the days we weren't at college I spent more time researching all my ideas and trying to get them down to at least two or three if not THE ONE. I used newspapers as part of my research for a change, as I was bored of web articles and I found this very beneficial as I found relevant and up to date articles on topics I had discussed for both briefs.