The Graduation

(Thanks so much to Florence for being my photographer!)

So, my birthday - 3rd March - coincided with my graduation ceremony this year. Three years of hard work, and I was presented with my degree. It was a wonderful day and I was bouncing off the walls (I loved wearing those robes, I wanted a ruler to smack tables with), but now looking back at the photographs, they're a little bittersweet. I loved university to bits, and now, it's really over. But, still, onwards and upwards, and as long as I keep learning I'll be happy.

Dark Autumn

The tip of my nose is getting cold, and my hands are hiding up my sleeves. The clocks went back one hour yesterday, and there's blustery weather forecast for tomorrow. Working on a great little commission that I should have done by next week, and I seem to be keeping on top of things at work. All in all, it's been a productive October, and a happy fifth birthday for Polyrillustration!

Treading a line between good and bad taste

... or "Polyrhythm learns a valuable lesson".

For my degree show, I took inspiration from McGill and Taylor - the two artists who were responsible for many of the traditional, Carry On-esque cheeky postcards that graced (or maybe disgraced?) our British beaches, alongside the political cartoonists I try and keep up to date with. Personally, I really like them, and if I saw them around today I'd most likely buy them. It's sort of a guilty pleasure. I am a sucker for exaggerated cartoon expressions, crap puns, and silly drawings depicting chubby ladies and kids having fun on holiday with no room for embarrassment. While a few of the gags (often at the expense of women) do make me cringe, on the whole I see the genre as innocent. Dated, but harmless.

When my project started, I brought some ideas to the table. It was pointed out to me (by a visiting illustrator who hadn't seen my work before) that although I'd had the visual style down great, two of my early ideas could very easily be interpreted as making light of sexual harassment and abuse of trust in the current political climate. It really shook me as firstly I'd had no idea they could even be seen that way, I'd not thought about what was going on in the news when drawing them. The way I'd seen it before, it was just a silly doctor-doctor joke, and a pun on the pronunciation of "quiche", but the new light was very obvious, and jarring.

I'm aware I was a complete idiot in not thinking, especially as communication is everything, but I'd been too lost in the style of decades ago to really think about how it could have been taken as a joke in this day and age. My fellow illustrators in the group, who had me with them when viewing my work, didn't see the drawings in that way and many of them even laughed - but most of them know me as a person and therefore knew my general sense of humour. People visiting the degree show would be approaching my work 'cold', just like the illustrator did that day - they wouldn't have me explaining everywhere what I meant by this and that.

Cartoonists toe the line between good and bad taste (fairly sure that's a Martin Rowson quote - either way, it's one I agree with). One of the first paragraphs on Bamforth Postcards' website is even "Always tottering on the brink of good taste – yet often falling over it – they are the visual equivalent of the pub joke". Where that line between good and bad taste lies differs for every person, and it's always going to divide opinion. The main problem was that my previous ideas had fallen firmly in my own "bad taste" camp post-critique. I'm very glad for that critique, as not only did it make me think, it paved a path to much better ideas.

I scrapped what I'd done (well, kept a record of it purely for RVJ purposes) and started afresh. I'd had the general style of the cartooning down fine, but I needed to give the meaning much more thought. It didn't always have to be humorous, if done right I could explore more serious subjects. I feel I managed to do this - for example, the images below.

This is on street harassment and the depersonalisation of victims - at the same time, bringing the "lecherous man" character in the older postcards to the forefront in a lot less humorous and more realistic fashion:

... an editorial piece on MPs having their allowances increased to "help cover extra costs":

(I hasten to add the horsemeat issue was not flogged to death at the time of illustration)

... and the fat cats always seeming to win.

Of course, I did sillier, less political stuff as well, such as our ridiculous weather, the obsession over the royal baby, and lazy-ass students like me (editorial piece on a study, in which it was discovered students actually do need all that dozing off). I had another critique with the same lady a few weeks later, and I'm glad to say that these images were much better received.

These are only a few images that'll be displayed at my degree show - alongside these for final-project marking will be some of the Lolita fashion illustration that I've done for Austen and the Abbey. I'm nervous - very nervous - but no matter what the grade is, I feel I've gained a lot from this project and certainly learned a few things along the way.

Money, Money, Money

Have some relevant illustration.

Aside from having a Facebook account with the odd status, I tend not to go into personal life happenings in public, especially on the internet ... but when I did this illustration a few weeks ago I had no idea how relevant it'd actually become to my own life.

University - especially if you go into an art-related course - is a very expensive deal. I've always known this, of course, but it particularly hit this year when my loan turned out to be a lot less than I'd hoped. Due to the workload from uni I'm currently unable to look for a new job 'til 2013 (when my dissertation is out of the way) and after a bad day in the studio or just a generally shitty mood hanging over my head, I'd come back to an empty room. Sometimes, some of my belongings or food would be missing from the kitchen, too. It doesn't do anything to help the atmosphere or my general temper.

When I get to a certain low point - which I've been at since the start of the month, at least - I shut myself away and it's hard for anybody to get much out of me. Florence was amazing but even then I rarely socialised. On the whole I really like my university coursemates and I'm very glad to know them, but I won't deny that sometimes I feel like a bit of an odd duck. Doing work and throwing myself into the course is great, but all the other parts of my mind are pre-occupied with brooding on my situation. Brooding drains a person of all their energy, especially when it's about money. I keep it all to myself. It's a mixture of pride (out of all the sins it's easily the one I am most guilty of), and not wanting to burden or worry anyone.

So, this weekend, I've made the decision to move out of my accommodation and back into the family home. It's where my parents and fiance are, my favourite people in the world. Chances are I will have to find a new tenant for the flat if there isn't a waiting list, and I won't have moved back in fully until December, but I already feel that a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It's not going to get rid of all the stress that university causes but this way, I can be with the people that I love most.

Trip to Florence

I've been awfully quiet the past week or so on all fronts - and it's because I've been exploring a new city! Yes, this week I went to Florence with a group of people from my university. For approximately £250 we got four nights in a hotel near the city centre as well as the return flight - an opportunity hard to get elsewhere and Florence is (or rather, was!) on my bucket list of places to visit. Below is an account of my first trip abroad for nearly four years.

I approached it with some nervousness. I have a pretty bad fear of closed spaces and not being able to escape, and although I'd flown once before as a very young child (after watching Turbulence, at that), the fear had developed since and I'd not gone near a plane in over a decade. One of the main reasons why I decided not to go along to the university trip to Berlin last year was because I hated the thought of flying.

However, see "bucket list" sentence - I really couldn't let this one go, especially while I had the money, and that outweighed the anxiety about flying. I was a wee bit tense at Heathrow especially as we had to wait three hours to board, but on the plus side I whipped out a Kinder-egg container, some water and my mini-paint palette to try and capture the beautiful sunrise from the window:

Sadly didn't do it justice but it was a great way to help me relax.

Eventually we got on the plane and although I was fearful and a bit shaky, we got to Bologna very smoothly with no disruptions, a beautiful blue sky and with little turbulence - I even fell asleep for the last half hour of the flight. The snack wasn't half bad either. When I flew to Spain as a 9-year-old, I distinctly remember the skin that had formed on my foil tray full of baked beans and curly fries (which I'm not entirely sure were meant to be curly). Eugh.

Nice view!

Again ... this is November we're in.

After getting to Bologna (where it was so warm - so much for winter weather!) we went on a two-hour long coach ride to Florence. I slept for most of this and was still a little weary from all the travel when I hopped out. A few moments later we were being sorted into our rooms for the hotel - I shared with a very nice lady from the Photography course called Saadia, and we had the room (made for about five people) to ourselves thanks to student numbers. How lucky were we?!

After a spot of unpacking and a chance to get settled, we then headed out to get our bearings around Florence.

Trying to figure out where to go ...

The first of many, many photos of the amazing Duomo. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip and I'm going to love doing some real paintings from the photographs I took (sadly, with all I did I didn't get much of a chance to dig out the watercolours again).

The sheer size and detail that has gone into the building is magnificent, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I could probably happily paint this for years on end as there's just so much to it.

After admiring the Duomo from the outside, we headed into a small side-street where we came across Zecchi, which is a tiny little art shop that has some amazing things for cheap prices. I was on a tight budget on this trip, but I managed to get a pocket-sized sketchbook (which I filled during the trip) for about 2 Euros, and a book of Fabriano watercolour postcards for 3 Euros. Happy days!

We then stopped off for pizza at a small local cafe. After trying pizza made from scratch, I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to the frozen ones we usually get in the UK - it just can't compare!

I crashed for the night at about 7PM, the earliest time I think I've ever gone to bed while healthy - but I slept well! The hotel was definitely the most basic of basics (and I daresay the youth hostel in my 2007 Belgium stay was more comfortable) but as I only used it to sleep and the staff were nice enough I didn't really pay much mind to it.

Next day was the Galleria dell'Accademia visit! Jack and I originally planned to get tickets for the same time but by the time I booked, his time had sold out and I had to get one for half an hour later. In the meantime, I sat on a bench in a street near the museum and did a little drawing while tourists and locals went about their daily business:

Sadly, photos in the Accademia museum were not allowed, but I stuck around for about 4 hours drawing and drawing (some scans shall be up soon). There was so much to get down onto paper! I got to see Michelangelo's David in person, too - a 17-foot tall statue with his own wing of the museum.

Afterwards we headed to the Piazza della Signora. I can't remember now what we were looking for - I think we'd seen a crazy spire in the distance and had wanted to find it to examine the building further, but ended up coming across here instead so we stuck around for more sketches and people-watching. It's right next to the Uffizi Gallery, which we were due to visit the following day, so finding this place was useful in more ways than one!

It was also on Tuesday that we took a proper look inside the Duomo. We were to save climbing it until Thursday (to spread our activities out a bit, and we were still pretty tired from travelling) but I was still enthralled by the interiors of such a magnificent cathedral:

Click the image to see it full-size. It is worth it.

It was then I joined Jack in the pub for a wind-down before I headed back to the hotel for the evening. I had my Embodiment journal with me to recount the day - already proved useful as when writing this post I've forgotten what I did on which day and when! I also painted a postcard for my dad (after working out how to buy stamps for the three I'd bought) and caught up with Saadia on what she did with her day.

Wednesday was the Uffizi Gallery! We'd all tried to book for the same time but I only really saw a handful of coursemates while I was there. I'm not surprised as the Uffizi is humongous, and again I spent a while there sketching and absorbing the atmosphere. No photos from here either, I'm afraid, but I'll have some scans to show you! It was here that I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus in person.

After this, Jack, Kieran and I headed to a lovely little local cafe that Jack had visited earlier (and told us of its 1-euro espressos). We stopped for a drink and a little something to eat.

Sadly I didn't get to try any gelato while I was away, but the food presentation was gorgeous. I never thought I'd photograph so much food in my life.

Thursday was the big one - climbing the Duomo, one of my favourite parts of the entire trip. I am proud of myself in that I only had to stop once to get my breath back during the 460-odd fairly steep steps up the tower, and that's because I was rushing.

You can see why here:

What a fantastic view! The weather was also glorious, there was a lovely breeze, and it felt like a summer's day as I sat there and just soaked it all up. People can also climb the tower above, but as that cost extra I chose to give it a miss and kept it to the Duomo (free to visit but 8 euros to climb to the top).

Jack and I then headed to the Bargello which was also a favourite of mine (I wish I could have stayed longer!) but unfortunately they had to close early that day, so we could only hang around for about two hours. We got some nice sketches done, though, and what we did see was definitely worth the 2 euro entry fee!

Friday was spent preparing for our flight to go back. The plane ride was a little bumpy but we were all just desperate to get home by that point, all illustrated out and totally tired - and this morning I really felt rotten as all the travelling caught up to me and then some - but this visit was worth it all.

Good stuff!