V&A Power of Making exhibition

The Power of Making exhibition at the V&A showed me what we can achieve if we just put our minds to it and apply a little bit of patience. Pieces such as the gorilla made of coat hangers was a perfect example of this. The sculpture is simple in structure, the most astonishing thing is the amount of concentration and commitment that it must have taken to produce it.

The following piece is a japanese-style "wheelchair" designed with Stephen Hawkin in mind.

 I had never really seen the produce of a 3D printer before so this urn really impressed me:

 

Crochetdermy bear, Shauna Richardson:

 Fantastic glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly:

Gay Icons - National Portrait Gallery

On Thursday I visited the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. 10 gay celebrities were asked to pick some of their personal icons, gay or straight. Among the 10 celebrities were Elton John, Ian McKellen and Sandi Toksvig (the main coordinator). Each of the iconic figures had been photographed and a few paragraphs written about them.

Iconic figures included: Lady Diana, Martin Luther King and Will Young.

I personally found the exhibition a bit dull, I'm not really sure what I was expecting. It was interesting however to find out a bit more about a way of life I didn't really know anything about.

Can I Have A Job Please?

On thursday I attended the invite-only exhibition of the Creative Review Graduates at Downstairs at Mother near Old Street in London. James & Joe's work was being exhibited there so it was not to be missed!

I was a little bit disappointed that the graduates had not show cased a bit more of their work but never mind!
I also must say that although I really like Eilin Bergum's interactive artwork, the higher up pieces became un-interactive due to their height above the floor which I think let down her display.Of course I couldn't resist the chance to photocopy my derriere using the i-Bum...

Well Kept Secret

Sat in a waiting room, reading the Telegraph Magazine (an activity only ever done in a waiting room) I was really intrigued by an article revealing a secret plan to bring a giant mechanical animal to the streets of Liverpool! So when I got home I looked it up online to find that the magazine was clearly well over a year out of date. Nevermind!



La Machine is a french company run by Artistic Director François Delarozière. His team of artists, designers, fabricators and technicians have created many mechanical animals to have walked the streets of London, Liverpool, Paris, Madrid and St. Petersburg amongst others.


Visit La Machine.

Digital Art Masterclass

Although I can't say I'm an Iron Man fan myself, I still found this masterclass by digital artist, Adi Granov really interesting. For the first half of the talk he told us about his work for Marvel and his collaborations with other artists. Then for the second half he gave a tutorial in producing digital illustrations using Photoshop.

I was suprised at how simple his techniques where, although it was clear that he was a very talented artist which allowed him to produce fantastic images. I managed to pick up a few Photoshop tips and have seen the pen pad in action!

"For illustration I usually start with a very rough digital sketch to work out the composition and the proportions. After I am happy with the layout I print it out and trace it onto watercolour paper. I do a fully rendered tonal drawing/painting on paper, which I then scan and colour digitally. My process is a marriage of the traditional and digital utilising my favourite bits of both. When I do concept design I often do it entirely digitally, but I follow the same principles where I do a fully realised greyscale painting before adding colour." Ali Granov

Digital Artist 2009 Masterclass #3 - Adi Granov from Intel Digital Artist 2009 on Vimeo.

Graphic and Communication Design Degree Show

On Thursday I went with one of my coursemates to the degree show for our course to see what the Third Years have been up to. It was really good to see everyone's portfolio and certainly gave me some ideas for my portfolio when the time comes!

How do you make yourself stand out?

Well one or two did stand out to me - I think the free packet of "WellbeLoveHearts" did it for me (but then again I am a student and anything free appeals) by a Mr. Simon Wellbelove.

Another stood out due to it's conciseness. It was well thought through, put together and professionally presented. I definately found the shorter the better, long books were a bit offputting and often showed off some of the "less-good" work to fill up space.

Fine Art Degree Show 2009

Yesterday I went with two of my friends to the Uni of Leeds Fine Art degree show, however, having a logical brain, I couldn't work out many of the projects! Some where really interesting/cool though!

Unused to a lack of rationales mounted on the wall I made of it what I could. One student had photographed water balloons in mid-flight/mid-burst being thrown at their lecturers. It was amazing to see the shapes that the balloon made just before they burst and the shape of the water spraying just after they hit the tutors.

www.lds09.co.uk