Yes, I am doing art. And here it is.

Okay so here it is. The monthly post where I show all of you that I have been doing things other than going out and going to galleries and drinking and seeing gigs etc.

This is gonna be a long one so go away if you don't like that.

Btdubs I'm periodically going to post some photos I've been taking around London as well...

First I thought I'd post a few scans from the Metro Remix project I had last month since all I really showed was a general overview of the whole project. Overall I'm happy with the idea and how some of the images came out, but I want to work with them on Photoshop and see what I can come up with.

Next up is a class project we did shortly after a posted the last art entry. 

Over lunch my tutor told us to write "IS WRONG" at the bottom of a page in our sketchbooks. Over the break we were to somehow finish this statement.

When we got back, sitting on the tables were poster board, x-acto knives (scalpels as they call them here) and printing ink. Within an hour we were to stencil out and print our phrase onto one of the boards.

Mine was...

After the hour was up we all marched along the streets of London with our signs held proudly in front of us until we got to the Imperial War Museum where we were greeted by people who wanted to take pictures with us. It "made their day."

Finally we were told to go in front of the museum and scream as loud as we could the phrase on our poster.

The entire thing was pretty empowering. The point was that no matter who you are, no matter what language you speak or what background you come from, people respond to images. And sometimes it takes something as simple as black ink on a white board to get people to think differently.

Next up was a trip to Southend on Sea, the nearest beach to London. We were assigned a typography project where we had to draw the entire alphabet, and numbers 0-9 as well as an exclamation point and a question mark from the signs and arcades that surrounded us.

The whole thing was a pretty interesting experience. So many typefaces...

And this was all to help us with the major project assignment of the month...

Random page out of my lecture notebook.

So I was talking to my mum the other night and told her how I was working on and editing my project. She seemed a bit confused. She told me she had heard of editing in writing but never in art. I told her that pretty much any form of art whether it be writing, painting, graphic design, music etc. involves editing. So she wanted me to explain how that works in my next post so I'm gonna try with some pictures out of my sketchbook.

Our brief was called "Medium Is The Message" and involved us creating an alphabet and a message with the alphabet. But the typeface that we created had to be made using a medium that reflected the message we were trying to get across.

As soon as we got the brief I looked down at my friend's hands and saw her chipped nail polish. Idea.

Started out by writing quotes I could use, figuring out what the meaning behind nail polish was. Why do people where it? What are they trying to hide? What makes them pick it off?

I began delving into the ideas of Vanity vs Anxiety. How anxiety causes one to be vain in certain ways and vice versa. Looked up symptoms, reasons for biting nails....

So this is where I began thinking of some way to translate this idea into my typeface. Ideas of nail polish, bitting nails, nail clippings and other things came to mind... So the first typeface I did consisted of my own nail clippings. Gross, but interesting.

The quote I began playing around with was "Now is the Age of Anxiety."

Although the nail clippings were interesting I decided they weren't as effective or interesting as I'd like. So the nail painting and chipping began...

I did all this and had a talk with my tutor. After some editing, figured out that I just really needed to hone in on what I was trying to say. I came across a quote about Vanity that intrigued me from the beginning. "Vanity is the quicksand of reason." So I got tons of fake nails, painted and stenciled them on, and photographed them in a flat copy room with my friend. And the final pieces were born!

(CLICK TO SEE IT BIG)

So there you have it! Hopefully that gives you a bit of insight in the process and stuffs. And it wasn't too tedious or something.

The other project we had to do was called "Cabinet of Curiosities." The whole project centered around what you're curious about and somehow translating that. Our tutor decided to take our group in a direction of making some sort of toy. We visited the Museum of Childhood and looked and sketched tons of toys, saw what made them work... I was fascinated by the Victorian toys so I decided to go that route.

The next image is for Megan, because she's been doing lots of lists on her blog (HERE!) and I did this one and thought it'd go well with what she's been up to!

Anyways I wanted to do something concerning silhouettes and pop outs, and through those show subtle hints of my curiosities.  

Below is a lino print I did of a couple silhouettes I was playing around with...

And below is the final piece! It's a bit difficult to see in photos because it's on really glossy black paper. But basically it's two men having some sort of connection, with trees surrounding them. Inside the window is a skyline, referencing that something that felt so far away to me is now so close. Outside the window lies a cloud, referencing freedom and all that cheesy stuff. I also wanted to juxtapose the old with the new, as that's something I love anyway. So there's an old fashioned chandelier, a modern skyline, timeless forest shapes... Stuff like that. Not too deep but I just thought it was a simple way of showing a bit of what makes me curious. 

And that's it!! Hope you enjoyed that. It was a ridiculously long post but I had to catch up. Please comment!!! 

Love you all,

Liam

P.S. Still waiting on post its from pretty much all of you. Let's get a move on.