These are the plates and to be honest, I like them as they are and the would look nice on stands. I did have a little go with printing on to plaster with them but wasn’t happy with the results –
The ink bled on one and too light on the other. I guess that’s the fun of printmaking!
Other ones that I did before Christmas took a while to get right as well, but I did get there in the end.
Wanted to do something quick, so I thought doing a monoprint. this is now led on to some ring etchings that will be posted soon.
I’ve also finished my crystal drawings but I just bought some more (oops!) and not sure if I should carry on and do some more as i’m really happy with how they all turned out and enjoyed drawing them.
New ones from a local Vintage shop:
I’ve been looking at Joseph Cornell’s work before Christmas as I love his boxes and the fact that he collected stuff. I recently bought Wanderlust, it’s a lovely book on his life and beautiful illustrations of his box constructions and assemblages.
I haven’t read much of it yet but it sounds interesting. His assemblage boxes – Each box is different and is like looking at a mini museum, each with a different theme. I looked at Cornell’s work while I was in college and at the time I was making boxes on constellations and was recommended by a tutor to look at his work. looking more into his work I found out about all the stuff he collected and stored into categorized boxes and thought it was a good idea to revisit his work for the work I am making now. His assemblage boxes are a big influence and gets me thinking on different ways of displaying items in boxes, and decorating. Something about Cornell’s work makes me want to touch them and take things out and look closely at the little vials of stuff he used so many ways of displaying objects.
I went on a walk a few months ago and found some items on the way. I’ve had them sitting on my shelf not knowing what to do with them. I’ve been wanting to get back into practicing digital drawing with a graphics tablet again so I thought I would use the objects for practicing.
I haven’t used my graphics tablet in a while but I think I’m better than I was. I saved a file coloured and without colour as I wasn’t sure which version I liked and think I need to work on my colouring skills as I feel like i’m not very good. The uncoloured version looks a lot better than the coloured, I’m not sure why I like the uncoloured version more, I think it maybe because the colours look a bit flat on the coloured version. I might do some more digital drawing and see if I can work on my colouring.
I found out about an artist called Jane Edden. I looked her up and found out she had an exhibition titled Ornithomorph on at the Flowers gallery in London during 7th Dec – 26th Jan. It was about how animals are collected and catalogued. I would of quite like to go but didn’t know it was on!
Over Christmas, I have been thinking of how I will display my work for the degree show. I don’t have much work at the moment as everything I’m doing seems to be work in progress but I thought it would be good to start some ideas.
I also bought a cabinet that I thought I could use to display some pieces of work. It’s not too big or small.
I’ve started collecting Crystals and minerals lately (oh dear another collection…) I’ve started some drawings as some of them are so beautiful and pleasant to draw. Each one has different colours and shapes. it’s also quite a challenge as I’m drawing them to scale (mostly). I’ll probably end up drawing all of the ones that I have, maybe even display the drawings for degree show? they would look quite nice on a wall along with the original crystals and would be a shame not to show them. Looking at crystals takes me back to looking at fossils at the museum, I might look back at the photos that I took of fossils in the geology department and look at how they are displayed and get some ideas.
Before Christmas I thought about starting sketchbooks of different things I collect, One of my collections is figures and merchandise from a game called Monster Hunter.
Some people might find it ‘childish’ that I collect figures from a game but it’s something that I love. It’s not a very known game in the UK like it is in Japan but is getting increasingly popular. it’s one of my favorite franchises and have had great times playing with friends. I wanted to create a sketchbook of the stuff I have as a sort of record, but through drawing. I am going to do a few more sketchbooks of other stuff that I collect and then display them on a shelf for my degree show maybe. Its also a contrast to the Egyptian stuff I collect as that’s what I used to collect more of when I was younger and is ‘ancient’ and more about history while my figure collection is what I collect now and is ‘modern’.
Over Christmas I was looking through my bags and coats and found loads of bus tickets and receipts. I sorted through them and made two piles.
things like bus tickets and receipts are things we don’t realise we collect. not sure if I’m going to do anything with them yet but I might make them in into little scrolls and put them in boxes.
