The Last Day-Long Projects

Indeed, that's right. After this week, I'll be starting my final project for Foundation - fun, fun, fun stressful times ahead. I have a general idea of what I want to do, but it requires thought over Easter and discussion with my tutor.

So, I'll show you the last two I've done. I have to say not only does this exercise help with quick thinking, it also helps with inspiration as well and seeing what works best.

The one below was my first day project with an image prompt.




I'm sure many of you in the UK will have heard of the British Airways strike - and in the Metro that I grab regularly on the bus, there were a few photos and articles about it. One of the photos was my first image prompt, and this led to some printmaking.



This is my favourite print. I'd photographed two of my friends holding a sign I made (full of animal noises - the image prompt I had depicted a protester wearing a pig's head, and his/her sign read 'Willy is a greedy piggy, oink oink oink') and then took the photos to the GIMP, where I added animal heads from stock photos to each of them. After turning both photos to solely black and white (not greyscale) I blew them up to A3-size and printed them out onto two A4 sheets of acetate. If you look closely, you can see that the dog's print wasn't quite matched up, but I don't mind. It turned out nicely anyhow.


I managed to get to the screenprinting room early yesterday morning - although I adore printmaking, sometimes I can be a bit put-off by how busy it gets in there. Yesterday I had the room mostly to myself, so all was good and I managed to get the printing done quickly and nicely!


My second project didn't turn out as well because I couldn't get hold of a projector, but I worked to my best with what I had - my prompt was another image, this time an advert:



... and from that I picked up on human selfishness - do what's most convenient for you, or take measures for the environment? I had a spare sheet of acetate lying around and using some masking tape and clear-drying PVA, I made an image of the Earth. The PVA had dripped down, giving the image a 'melting' effect - this was meant to be placed on a projector, but of course - one wasn't available. The chains, made out of paper and each paper ring with a relevant word written onto it, were originally meant to hang from the ceiling but were adapted to drape around the acetate. Again - not as effective as I would have liked, but I tried my best with what I had on me.




Anyway, the photos didn't turn out too badly.


I expect what with my final project I'll either be very, very quiet (we're not hunting wabbits, though) or very, very ranty (I'm a bit unpredictable when it comes to these things, I can be either of the extremes). This goes for online, offline and this blog - so you're warned.

Catching your Flight

Do you like this? It's a small day-long project I did to present at a university interview next week.

(EDIT: And it's also uploaded backwards, so you'll have to read it from the last one up.)

Okay, as I've now had two places I feel I can mention the universities that have offered them to me (I'm perfectly aware I could have mentioned every one of them before, but I'm weird and thought I might jinx myself or something). I have an unconditional offer for Norwich (NUCA), and a conditional offer for Birmingham (BCU). The university stress has gone down temporarily, but it'll probably shoot right back up in April when I have my last interview (which, in all honesty, sounds a lot of fun as I get to do a day-long project with them - but it's nerve-racking).

Secondly - as I know some CMers read this - if you don't have a character portrait for CMTV yet and you have either your own segment or a significant speaking role, it will be coming up shortly. Older members or those in the upcoming episode get priority over the newer members, I'm afraid, as they've been waiting longer and/or they need theirs sooner. Now you know that, and now it's on the CMTV thread, please be patient and please - even if you're just wondering out loud - don't do the whole 'Where's mine?' or 'Why doesn't [so and so] have one?'. I'm trying my best to get everything done (and offline life/college/university stuff comes first) so your portrait isn't going to reach you quicker if you do this. In fact, all it will do is annoy me. And then I'll talk about you behind your back and say you smell like peanut butter and steal ladies' underpants.


Alright, I'm not quite that malicious, but the point still stands. Be patient with me, guys. Thanks. ♥

Day Project, Number One - "Case no. 47"

A very good piece of news is that all of my university choices have asked me for interviews - my first-choice university letting me know last weekend after I'd sent them some work of mine on a CD. One of my friends on the same course has also been invited for interview.

One of the tasks we will have to do when we're there is to complete a day-long project. Themes, briefs and details will be told to us interviewees in the morning, and it's due in late afternoon.

So, after my tutor received this news on Tuesday, he's decided to assign us day-long projects for practise. I found Tuesday's work tiring, but I felt very accomplished by the end of it.

I was handed a small clipping of text that read the following: "If people have adjusted to a society that is hell-bent on destroying itself, what does that prove about them?"


Reference.

I did a little reading-up on this quote, and found it was paraphrased from a person known only as 'Case no. 47' in a psychological study - giving this day-long project a name. The quote itself brought to mind Darwin's theory of evolution (and the whole biological side of things, in some ways contrast to psychology yet the two are so tightly entwined) so I decided to research some more upon that train of thought. The piece above, I feel, is one of the more successful pieces - all three were done with monoprint and I feel this one turned out nicely.




And finally, I tinkered in Photoshop with stock images to make one image - a man with the head of a monkey, printed out and used in monoprint. I glued the original image behind the monoprint to give it some more depth (especially as I'd used too much ink in this one ... this ended up working in my favour).

My next one will be assigned on Friday. I've found something in this project that could be taken further, so Thursday will be spent working on that.