Oh Dear...

Well, it seems that this year has been a little bit of a fail when it comes to blogging. It's been a busy busy busy one and I guess I just kind of forgot. I promise I will be better next year, and that as soon as I can find photos of all that I've made this year I will do a quick update before the workload starts again. Sorry to anyone who does actually read this... (so no-one eh? :P )

Really really sorry,
Sal xx

'A Doll's House'

Well, first update on the Ibsen play A Doll's House, seems a bit late to be a first update when we had a preliminary deadline last thursday, but Oh well.

It's currently going well, trying to get the hang of drawing and designing for men and, to a lesser extent, children. Neither of which I have ever done before. So it's been a bit of a learning curve and some of my earlier drawings look a little childish and out of proportion... But I am trying.

I'm using a lot of colour and stature to link the characters to each other in different ways. Height and weight can represent one relationship, while colour can represent another. I think it's fairly clear. Ish. On the plus side, my housemate looked at the designs and, without asking or having read the play, proceeded to give me a little breakdown of what she thought the characters would be like. She thought that Dr. Rank seemed like a gentleman, if a little sad, and that she'd marry him in a heartbeat. Helmer, she decided, looked a bit imposing, and possible like he'd be a boss, or involved in some dodgy dealings. Mrs. Linde was identified and sweet and motherly, and Nora was called flamboyant and carefree. This kinda shows me that I'm doing an alright job, in one respect, and that my drawings are displaying character :-)

The Whole Gang: (L-R) Dr. Rank, Torvald Helmer, Nora Helmer, Mrs. Linde & Nils Krogstad

Watercolour, watercolour pencils & Normal Pencil

As you can see, I'm still having some trouble with the proportions of the... portly... Krogstad.

And unfortunately, Helmer is a bit to modern and looks a little like a 20's gangster! But I'm working on it.

Thanks for looking :)

Sal XX

Onwards and Upwards... I hope!

 I realise I've only just finished blogging about something that I finished last term, but I am very behind, so I am going to have to hurry hurry hurry to catch up on here and let y'all know what's going on. So, sorry about the quick turn around.

In CDM at the moment we are currently working on a complete mish-mash of different projects in different areas, some of which are beginning to overlap and confuse me. We have 3 very defined areas of study; Visual Communication, Critical Practices and Design & Making. But right now we have at least 5 projects going! Anyone who thinks this subject is a doss (ahem, Alex Lewis) is severely mistaken.
So, rundown of the projects at the moment:

• Design & Making - Cagebirds making project - Technically we've finished this but we still need to be working on the background research and build-up work. This involved taking aspects from birds (because we weren't allowed to use them in the design work) as well as aspects from our designs and making a structural garment, not intended to be worn. It was more of a sculptural project than anything else. 
• Design & Making - Historical Pattern Cutting - This is a 5 week project with Tim, our *Cornish* lecturer and professional designer and maker. That involves looking at Janet Arnold's pattern cutting books. Janet Arnold looked at original garments from notable historical periods and worked out exactly how they were made and wrote a book full of handy square by square diagrams for us newbie costumers. Each week we make a pattern and a calico toilé from a historical period. 
• Design & Making - Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House - This is the newest project and it ties in with the Historical Patterns project because we are using a play with a very set time frame. It is set in 1879 and is all about the start of Women's Independence and their growing confidence. The main character, Nora, is treated like a Doll by her husband Torvald, and eventually ends up realising he's the not the man she thought he was and leaving him. It's a play that would've been intensely shocking at the time and helps highlight the differences between the culture back then and now. We are looking at it in terms of the historical costume, and also the differences in fashion at that time between Britain and the rest of Europe as the play is set in Norway. I'll go into more depth about it later on. 
• Visual Communication - Hansel and Gretal - This is essentially a Photoshop tutorial project and as well as using physical media to  create designs for some of the characters, our final outcome is a presentation which involves all the characters designed and enhanced by using Photoshop.
• Visual Communication - Cagebirds - This is where things get confusing. We were told by our VisCom tutor that when we split from TD (they went to work on a programme called Sketchup, which isn't useful to us) we were to continue working with Photoshop with our Hansel and Gretal characters. But once we got there we were informed by another tutor that she wanted something else from the sessions, she wanted 2 'posters' which involved all out Cagebirds designs, on a background and labelled. I think these can also go into out Photoshop presentation as experimentation, but I'm not really sure. 
• Critical Practice - Research Project - This project is to get us to try and focus our personal interests and build our research base and skills. We've chosen subjects we are interested in over the last few weeks, they could have been anything, and we're trying to link them together. We have to use an already established body of knowledge and clearly and rationally make a presentation which shows the knowledge we have gained on our chosen subject.

So there, that's what is going on at the moment in CDM Year 1. There's very little writing, but a lot of physical work going on, and it's getting a bit tough! I'm going to focus blogging on the main project, which is A Doll's House and will sometimes throw in a little about the others, particularly Hansel and Gretal and Historical Patterns. We'll see how it goes.

I've realised though, this blog is severely lacking in anything visual and is very dull, so I'll leave you with a little look into what I have created in the Cagebirds Making project...

         

Beginning to think it looks like an evil supervillain...

It was based on the quiff design for The Gossip. The gloves at the back are now sprayed black with red highlights to match.

Sorry I've rambled on so much, TA for looking anyway :)

Sal XX

The Mistress

The Mistress is the most intriguing character of the bunch and so I thought I'd leave her until last. (I have also missed out on The Wild One, but that is because most of my work on that is in the studio still, up on a wall) The Mistress has a very scary air to her, she is what is binding them all together and what is keeping them in the "cage". Because of my concept, that they are all in a psychiatric ward under some trail or test, I have designed The Mistress to be a ward nurse or a doctor of some kind. The uniform gives her an instant authority over the other characters as we all recognise a doctors uniform and instantly make the link to power in our heads. I used a raven as my inspiration, because I think they carry connotations of cunning and darkness. I also elongated the legs in my design as I want to further enhance the feeling of superiority by having the Mistress on stilts.

Raven  - The inspiration

 Initial body pose sketch

 Final Design  - Watercolour, pencil, pen and Chalk pastel

Final Design - Back and Side view

And that concludes the breakdown of my Cagebirds designs. I hope that I've been clear and it's fairly easy to understand!

Thanks again, 'til next time

Sal XX

The Great Guzzler

The Great Guzzler is a character driven by her base need for food, like most people, but she seems to have taken it a lot further than others. From a psychological point of view I'd say that she eats as a comfort, to block out the gravity of her situation. She is also fed by the Mistress, who keeps her as a pet and likes to spoil her. It is for these reasons I decided to base my designs for her on a Hen. All you ever seem to see a chicken do is peck at the ground, trying to find food. They are very easily pleased and usually, if they are personified, are plump and jolly creatures, which is what I want my Guzzler to be.

A normal Hen - which is what I used for my inspiration

 Basic body shape - Pose by Lizzie (with lots of extra padding!)

 Final Design - done using pen, watercolour pencils, pencils and chalk pastel

Final Design - Back and Side view

I think the designs have turned out well, I particularly like the colouring in her face and hair, I think the little details help a lot with these drawings.

Thanks for looking, 

Sal XX

The Regular Thump

The Thump is the character that initiates the murder at the end of the play, and the one who actually carries it out whilst the other watch. This, along with her speech, made me think of her as an angry, slightly aggressive character who feels the need to shout to get herself heard. She seems to like being in control of the situation and sees herself as the leader of some revolution, as it were, though what she is revolting against seems to be entirely in her head. It is for this reason that I chose a Woodpecker as her bird counterpart. They make a lot of noise to make themselves heard though many don't really understand why they are doing it.

Pileated Woodpecker

 Body Pose done in 4B pencil

 Final Design - Watercolour pencil, chalk & pen

Final Design - Side & Back View

Unfortunately, the proportions of this design make the character look almost childlike, which was not my intention and something I definitely need to watch in future. I gave her a military twist as it seems to me she would be very regimented and organised, with a very protective nature and I think this look suited the character.

Thanks again for taking a look,

Sal XX

The Constant Twitting

As a character in this play, I find The Twitting very interesting, as she is the only one who actually evolves and changes throughout the course of the play, and takes on another opinion. She is a shy and reserved little girl, who  doesn't seem to say much except to claim that she doesn't know, or is unsure. But when The Wild One is introduced, she is the only one to stop and listen, and to realise that her claims may be true, and that she may have a point. She begins to agree that they may be better off if they try to escape, and because of that she is the one that the others turn against after the murder of The Wild One. I decided to base her character on a chick, because she seems younger and more fragile than the other women, and I like the idea that texture would play a big part in her costume, giving the audience a reaction to her because they remember what those kinds of fabrics feel.

The Chick I used for Inspiration

One of the very first basic sketches I made for The Twitting

 Final Design - Front View, Watercolour pencils, chalk, pencil 

I can't put up a view of my body pose drawing this time as it is being used as an informal display piece in the wardrobe at the moment because Interviewees are being shown around the Uni. But I hope you can get an idea of the stance and her personality from my Final Design. 

Ta for looking

Sal XX

The Medicated Gloom

Onto the next one...

The Medicated Gloom is the character who is constantly complaining, she is a hypochondriac and has/had every illness or injury under the sun. It is written into the play that at that point she has a bandage on her knee. It is because of this trait that I decided to portray her with the qualities of a Pigeon. Pigeons are everywhere and everyone can relate to them. They are predominantly dull colours and are constantly cooing, sounding like a constant stream of muttered complaints. I also find that no matter where you go, where ever there are pigeons there will always be one with a bad leg and I thought that added a little humourous twist to this comparison. 

My Inspiration for The Gloom

Body Pose - Lizzie again, and 4B pencil

 Final Design - Front. Done in Watercolour pencils, chalk and pen

 Final Design - Back and Side view

For the side view I used the same template as I used for my Miss H. design because I wanted The Gloom to have the same feeling of being ravaged by age and bent over, which is also why I gave her the stick. I also made the bandage the same colour as her tights to give it the look of the bad legs seen on pigeons. 

Hope you like, thanks again for looking,

Sal XX

The Mirror-Eyed Gazer

Well, I know that I haven't been posting with any regularity at all, but I promise that will all change. I have just re-claimed my work after having it assessed and I wanted to get all the Cagebirds posts out the way so I can move onto the most recent projects. That is what I aim to do now, so this may seem a little rushed and blocky. I apologise!

Right, The Mirror-Eyed Gazer...
As with the other characters in the play her name pretty much sums up her characteristics. She is vain and self-obsessed, often talking about her beauty regime and how she keeps looking young and beautiful. It is for this reason that I decided to base her character on a Peacock. This is an obvious choice I know, but I feel that with this character the more obvious and garish the better. There is a sort of sweeping majesty to a peacock, with it's bright coloured plumage to attract as much attention as possible, and I wanted to include that when I was designing. So I included a lot of the colours found in a peacocks tail feathers but in a highly saturated version, as well as trying to imitate a folded peacock tail in the silhouette.

Peacock used for inspiration

Thanks again to Lizzie for her Body Pose

 Chalk pastel quick drawing of a Peacock to begin to get a sense of colour

 Abstracted drawing of a Peacock Dress, to try and get a feel of character attitude in the most basic form

 Final Design - Side and Back View

Final Design - Full Colour

I like the sweep of colour, and think the eyelashes add a bit of glamour. She is also the only character with a prop specified by the writer, so I added the hand-mirror into the drawing.

Thanks for looking,

Sall XX

The Long Tongued Gossip

Now that the Miss H project is finally finished I can focus all my attention to blogging the Cagebirds project, our 2nd major design project, which I spoke about in my first post. There are 8 characters to design for, each with very specific characteristics. The one I'm looking at here is called The Long-Tongued Gossip and, as the name suggests, she is a gossip. As the play is called Cagebirds it made sense to me to use birds as an inspiration.

For this character I chose to use a Black Palm Cockatoo as a base for a design because it is a bird that is capable of speech or mimicry, which is all gossip is. It also lent itself to a very strong punky or gothic approach to make her stand out and to give her the appearance of being slightly sinister and prickly.

After reading through the text and creating a sort of character profile for each of the 8 ladies or 'birds' I started looking at body poses, getting my friend Lizzie to pose for a series of quick drawings.

 The quick drawing that best embodies The Gossip.

 First design - Acrylic painting of The Gossip and a Black Palm Cockatoo

Final Design - Watercolour pencil, pencil and chalk drawing

Side and Back View Drawing - Marker pen and watercolour pencil drawing.

I liked the idea of her having Killer heels and the Cockatoos plumage has become a huge feature of the design , being more of a representation of the plumage rather than a complete copy of it. The black and red lends itself really well to this secretive, slightly vindictive character and makes her seem sinister and scary in a way. 

I'll keep posting up the character developments as they come,

 TA for looking

Sal XX

If you'd decided not to marry, you'd have saved yourself a lot of heartache...

... And you would've saved me a lot of trouble too!

My dress for Miss Havisham is finally done, apart from a little beading which I plan to do sat watching a film later on today. As my first ever period piece I am rather proud of it, but after all the problems it's given me, I am so very glad to be done with it. Hand in is next week and I'm pretty confident it'll get me a good mark. Well, I hope it will anyway.

It has taken me over 50 hours to create - if you count the many hours pattern cutting, fitting and altering toiles and the few hours it took me to stop crying when I sewed my sleeve on upside down and has cost about £40-50 altogether. But I think it was all well worth it eventually, as it looks pretty much just as I'd hoped in my design

 Final Dress - Full length with train.

 Final Dress - Detail of appliquéd waistband.

Final Design - Aged Character in Watercolours

Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that it passes :-) and on to the next project...

Ta for looking,

Sal XX