New Project and brain storming!

So we`ve moved on to a new project straight away, this one is on the Flaws and Perfections or the Ideals and Compromises within a certain topic.

The teachers chose the project that the year 13 group have just finished off, so we`ve already got some initial ideas and starting points to work from right now. I`m going for a personal topic again, so i`ve been trying to avoid talking about the project to the teachers as much as the last few times as it turns out that the teachers didn`t even know about the matter. 

My project will be on the Flaws and Perfections in the mental health illness Psychosis. I`ve had the illness when i was seven and i still have it to this day; i had a breakdown when i was about 12 or 13 and that`s when my mum found out. I tried to keep it a secret as i thought that my own mum would think that i was crazy or insane.
But it got really bad so i had a little bit of a breakdown and that`s when my mum found out; we went to the doctors and got referred to CHAMS for a psychiatrist. I`ve been through so many psychiatrists and i`ve never stuck with one as they always give me someone else quite quickly. i`ve only ever stuck with one women called Lisa Kennedy, and she`s the only reason that i got even just a little bit of help; she gave me medication and helped e out in all sorts of ways. But it`s still been hard for me as the problem has always been there and hasn`t gone, yet. 

So this one is going to be the most personal one to me, I am looking forward to it but then again it`s hard to explain to the teachers and other students. I don`t want to make everyone feel awkward with me choosing such a personal project, but ehhh, i`m gonna do it anyways and i`m looking forward to it now. 

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Project 2, Final Piece and Extreme Disappointment...

So we`ve just finished out second project... But since the whole thing had to be done in an Exam, i`ve ended up being extremely disappointed with my final piece and i know that if it didn`t have to be done in a set time then i would of been able to make it look sooo much better than it did.

I`m not really looking forward to it going up in exhibition; if i could go back and make improvements to this, then i really would but obviously we only had two days to do the piece so i can no longer even touch it now. The only thing i`m aloud to do, and only when there`s a teacher around, is move it out of the way or move it so i can take pictures of it for my sketchbooks. 

 To start off with, i had the most basic background to work on top off. I just put some ink in a bottle and sprayed it all over the background, then i used stencils and sprayed bleach over the top off of it so it would turn yellowy. It`s sprayed all around the edges, under the shelves and randomly over the stencils, i didn`t plan this part out since it was just a very small first layer which i could then apply stuff over the top of.
So the first few layers i added where pretty simple; those square pieces of pale fabric are actually emulsion prints that i had done before hand and then just glued it on. I wasn`t too bothered about the way they looked because i knew that when everything was stuck on there and it was complete then it wouldn`t really matter as to what they looked like; they`re mainly just something to add a bit more extra bulk to the final thing.
Then the green/brown layer is simply crushed pastels and leaves mixed into a very thin paste with water and PVA glue... If it wasn`t thin enough then there would just be huge blobs of this disgusting looking paste all over the board. It all had to be the same consistency and it had to be thin enough so you could still see a bit of the colour coming through from the first layer that i had applied.

After that i used a thicker version of the paste to go around the small emulsion prints, but it didn`t look right to everyone else because the emulsion prints where so pale and the colours around them where too dark.
Then i added the pieces of fabric that went over the shelves; It was just plain white fabric when i first got hold of it. I didn`t use dyes on the fabric, i just bits of ink that then bled out into the fibres of the fabric which then saved me time. I also screen printed small feathers over the top first in grey, then over again with black so you could see them just a bit more since all of the ink and splashes had died out the colour a bit. The shelves where only small and couldn`t hole that much, but the fabric neatened up the finish on the wood as it was covered in scratches; i didn`t want to bother the DT technician that much so i just took some scraps for the shelves.
So i then added the small laser cut pieces i did underneath the shelf... Was very painful. I had to stick them on with hot glue and there was no room at all to lie my board down so i had to do it as it was leaning up against a cupboard. So i had to hot glue gun them on and hold them in place with my index finger which was then very sore afterwards.

In the end i added more cardboard cut out pieces then i was going too, two different canvas` with seals on them, flowers and small objects on the shelves. Everything on the piece that acts as a border to another object is done with natural materials and then the border to the actual final piece is done with glass and crushed wooden pieces.
Even the borders to the two small canvas` are done with small branches that where covered in blossom before i got my hands on them.

I actually hate this piece... Out of all of the work i`ve done out of my first two projects; i seriously just want to rip everything off of this specific piece. The design seemed better when i had drawn it out and when it was in my head, but when it was on the board something just didn`t seem right with it... I don`t know if it was the colour scheme or the layout in general that makes it look off, but something definitely isn`t right with the piece and i really don`t want this to go up in exhibition.



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Photography And A Bit Of Therapy

So if you keep up with my Live Diary blog then you would know that i`ve been ill recently and have came off of some mediation. I hardly ever leave the house nowadays, so since i was feeling down in the dumps, i went for a little walk with David down to a very isolated area that is pretty tucked away.
But it`s awesome, so i`m gonna show you!

 So where i live, there`s this huge industrial estate behind me; it`s mainly for recycling but there is a safe distance in-between the houses and the factories. Every now and then, there are explosions and loud disturbing noises; but since it`s a wonderful place to live we really don`t mind.

But if you walk down the main road that leads straight down between the factories. At the end of the road there is a row of bushes and there is a small dirt path that leads down to this little section of water.
You have to go down into a dip and there, there is a small stream then you go up the dip on the other side. The only thing is that when it rains, the path floods and when we went down the water had just settled back down.

 So when you get out of this little dip surrounded by tress, you end up on the nut-brook trail. These trails go all around england and i think they`re all supposed to be connected together (I think); but they go on for miles and miles so it`s hard to walk down them for a few hours. Everything looks the same so you never know how far down the Trail you are.

So the area that i go down is actually part of an old coal mining industry, the factories that run along the back of this place are quite old and used to belong to the miners as storage space. However, it`s completely mined out... There is another place in Ilkeston that has an abandoned coal mining section (We used to be famous for mining), but that was bombed by the Germans 7 times as the Viaduct ran across the edge of; luckily for Ilkeston, every bomb missed the Viaduct and hit the mining areas, meaning that there are still huge holes in the ground that are filled up with water as a place for local wildlife.
Luckily, this area of mining was never targeted so it`s flat and very stony and tracks ran through it. One side is completely fenced off but someone has obviously been down and torn a hole in another fence to get in. Then you can walk down the other side which leads you behind factories and then runs through a place called Stanton.

But it`s lovely to walk down there, it goes on for a long time and it`s quite and out of the way. Obviously it`s bumpy and stuff but it`s out of the way, it`s quite and it`s just nice to be by yourself and go for a walk every now and then. Since i was ill (at the time, late upload) It was nice to get out of the house, but the next morning i was sick so i had to have a day off of Sixth Form... :/


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Holiday To Wales! (No Updates)!

So i`m going on Holiday this Saturday, to Wales!

The island i`m going too has no electricity and no Wifi, so i can`t upload anything for the whole week. So hopefully if i go off of the island and into a public place, i could always update off of my phone? But i`ve never done it off of my phone, so i have no idea as to how that will turn out.

But just a quick heads up, there won`t be any uploads and then when i`m back there will probably just be a giant spam of wales pictures from my little holiday!
I am taking my HTC phone, LG phone and my Camera for pictures. I can charge things, but i have to go to the main building and they charge you a ridiculous amount per hour... 

I think i`m gonna die this week... 

Also, check out my other blogs if you want to keep yourself occupied whilst i`m gone!

Anime Reviews:    http://melonheadamy-animereviews.blogspot.co.uk
Art Blog:    http://melonheadamy-artblogging.blogspot.co.uk
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Lazer Cutting Work!

Okie, so i`ve never used this thing before and this is probably going to be the only time i`m going to use this technique because it can get quite expensive after a few times. 

So this may be a long story to some but this is the best way to explain it:
There where two schools in the area and both hated each other, so when it came to us merging and us wanting to use their equipment... They hated it so much and all of the students wanted us dead really, so i never got th chance to use this super awesome funtastic machine! But it`s also the kind of machine my dad got his hand stuck and got extreme burns and nerve damage (Check out my live Diary Blog for info on that matter). 

So The machine was a super awesome amazing Lazer cutting machine.
So the machine has to be hooked up to a computer, You create a document on a program called 2Design. Then you have to make designs out of black white and red lines. so the machine picks up different lines and colors and does different things with them. I got very, very confused when i was setting it all up to be honest with you XD . 

 So i put through a sheet of these Geotic demonic symbols. My work is all based of demons and Angels so it suits the theme perfectly. But i got these tiny little circles with cute, yet demonic, designs inside of them. These are going to be hung up on my final piece and scraps of wood are going to be used to be mixed in with other materials. So it should all be fun and games when it comes to that aspect of my exam, but this is practically all i have ready for the exam so i really do need to get a move on now.

There isn`t really to much to write about this, it`s all computer based and then the machine did all of the work. But if you have any designs or ideas as to what i can put through, then feel free to tell me!

If i ever do use the Lazer cutter again, then i will be doing some of my own small designs; but for now i`ve just used these. I realize that they aren`t as complex as they could be, but they are incredibly fragile! So just the other day I dipped the whole symbol in a fixative glue and then hung it up, so i`m really hoping that the don`t break or fall apart now.

So one of the main reasons i`ve been behind on updating is mainly due to the fact that i`ve been so busy lately with trying to catch up with work and sketchbook work. So i`ve kind of been all over the place at the moment. But if you really want to find out what`s been going on then go over to the Live Diary Blog. It`s kind of late and i have work tomorrow so i was just gonna go to bed instead of uploading this quick update; but then again i thought that it might be a while until i get around to doing this again, so here ya go! 

I`ll try to do a more detailed update soon, but it`ll probably be on creating those creepy and strange looking backgrounds again since i went around and got loads of pictures of the stuff i use/used. 

if you want to follow me on different platforms of social media, or are just interested in what i could possibly be getting up to. Then follow these links down below to find out some more about my not so interesting life! yayy, i guess! 

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3D Textured Backdrops.

Sine we`ve been back at sixth form, i think i have been rather lazy when it comes to producing work. So, to go towards Experimentations and Materials; i`ve been using all sorts of different things to create weird looking and rather sharp backgrounds for my work.
Here`s the end results and how to create weird and interesting backgrounds. 

I haven`t currently got pictures of every single backdrop that i`ve made, but here are a few pictures of how to build up materials and a few explanations as to how to get the best outcome for them.

This canvas is only quite small but it`s layered up to hell with different things. 

So i just threw everything into one bowl to do this.
First off i only used a small amount of plaster, then watered it down a ton. Then you just add anything you want, like literally anything! As long as you can create a consistency like a paste once everything is in there, then add whatever you want.

So for my textured backdrop paste i used; watered down plaster to keep it all together, then i added sand and a little bit of dirt, then crushed up small leaves, (don`t mix anything yet), then i added broken glass, little bits of crushed up tree bark and small parts of crushed dried seaweed.

Then to make it into more of a paste like substance, i added PVA glue on top of it all, (and if you have it, also add Binder on top), then i added some water and began to mix it all up.
But don`t just add loads and work from however that worked out, add small amounts of water at a time and make sure all of it has been mixed together each time.

Also, using chalks and pastels can be equally as interesting; as long as a large amount is used to equal out the lack of other materials. So to crush mine, i put old chalks and pastels in an envelope and sealed it; then i used a hammer and just smashed it up, quite fun actually.






Another good texture to use is wax.
So in sixth form we have a bunch of wax pots to use, but i chose the one that leaks out of the sides and ends up turning wax yellow. It just leaks slowly out of the sides and for some reason turns this yellowy color, and wax does come out clear when normally used.
So since this leaked everywhere, i broke up parts and got the hammer again to crush them into smaller bits to be added to different mixtures that i was using. It mainly added a lot of smooth bumps to the textures, but it`s hard to see if there are a lot of different materials added.

 if you don`t want to make the textures that thick, then come up with a bright background that will come through the textured paste you`re making for the main backdrop.
So to do this background; i soaked some thick A4 and A3 paper for a few hours. Then i laid it down whilst it was still soaking wet and dropped Batik ink over the top of it, and because it had been soaked in water for a few hours; the ink bleeds out and crates some really cool different patterns.
But to finish mine off, i also dropped Bleach over the top of it which bled out and created some cool looking shades. If you read any of my other art blog posts, then you should know by now that i love using bleach.



Here`s another quick bleach and ink backdrop that can shine through and make quite thin layers of texture look awesome. This one is a lot more basic aswell; Just some dark batik ink, then if you use a small paint brush and just add some small lines here and there it can look a lot more interesting.
If you also add th bleach whilst it`s still wet, it`ll bleed out quite a bit and become messier.

But when it comes to using materials, just use whatever you can find and see what it turns out like afterwards. I just chose materials that i had to hand at the time, but if you plan out what you`re doing and what should happen with the textures trying to create... Then stop. 

Be spontaneous and try whatever, don`t plan it out as planning can produce boring and bland work; try something that you`ve never done before and take as much time as you need to do it! 

also try using sand and paints. i`ve kept the original sandy color and then
added paint and ink over the top of it.
Don`t add thick layers of paint! Light applications only!

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Slower Updates.

So it`s the Easter holidays...

Now it`s the Easter holidays for two weeks, which means that there aren`t going to be many updates on this blog for probably the whole two weeks. 

I have bought the majority of my work that needs doing home though, so there might be a mini update during the week somewhere, but overall it should be pretty dead on here for a while.

If you do want some more regular updates, then you`ll have to go over to my Live Diary Blogging Blog to keep up with me. There should be updates every 3-4 days on there so just keep on checking back to see if anything has appeared. If you don`t want to keep on checking back then go and leave a Like on my facebook page so you`ll receive an update when something new is uploaded. 

This Is Also a Real Bird
Wing. I Love Taxidermy :3 

Thanks for keeping up with me so far, for sending me some really supportive messages and for the lovely feedback that some of you send me! 

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