badly drawn people

Some progress shots of the visual diary I submitted for the mid year assessment.
Please excuse the bad lighting, as these were all taken at late at night, as they were being drawn.

All of these are about mental illness and the stigma attached to psychiatric conditions.

long time no blog, so here's a nice long post

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I have really been neglecting this blog lately, just because so much has been going on.
The Sappi project is over at last, but things have been still been pretty chaotic. But i mean that in a great way, good chaos!

i moved into a much smaller room, so had a big decluttering, dejunking, proper and much-needed clearout. Then it was time to submit our portfolios for midyear assessment at tech, then it was the start of a three week holiday, but it wasn't really a holiday because of all the assignments we were given.

I have also been spending time at one of the country's best advertising agencies, The Jupiter Drawing Room, for the past week and a half, as part of our industry placement project. I've really been enjoying it there and will be a little sad to leave. It's a very inspiring place, filled with great people. Everyone I've met so far has been nice to me and I''ve been able to work on some great projects. Their in-house illustrator is away on holiday, so I've been filling in for him. I'm really in my element there, because it means that all i have to do is draw all day! I've also been working with a copywriting intern on another project, which we will be showing to the client later this week, so I think I've really gained some very valuable experience.

We have to write a comparative report, comparing two different studios, agencies or designers, so next week I will be visiting a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, whose work i have admired for quite some time, so I'm very excited about that as well!

We also have to write an article and take some photographs for a design magazine of our choice, and then design the layout, write the copy and take the photos in the style of that magazine. This needs to be nearly done by the time we go back to tech in two Monday's time. I'm going to go with It's Nice That or Creative Review, but haven't fully decided yet.


Phew! With so much going on, I think I should take up smoking to curb the stress.
No no, only joking!

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ps. smoking lady image is from scotch & scones

lighting fires

Sunshine & happiness

Lucky person

It was my birthday on Wednesday and even though there wasn't much time to celebrate, (Sappi project is nearing an end) I still had a really nice day.

this is so cool, Renate gave this to me, inside a little box of sweet things. She knows how much i love Namibia, so she gave me a special seedpod from a camel thorn tree.

Steve sent me the most beautiful roses. He actually had them delivered to me at tech, while our whole class was sitting in a lecture!

very spoilt!

Step into our office....

I like our little studio space, we're not always in there, but when we are, things happen... usually these things involve brain activity, excessive caffeine consumption and good old fashioned hard work.

and Old Brown Sherry.

(But don't tell anyone about that!)

some inspiration on our walls

today was "wear your paper beard with pride" day

hard work makes us sleepy, but we don't mind...

mmm tasty! who doesn't love pink sausage on their chips?

and..... we're done! for today at least.

Almost there, Vivien

A rough colour test for the Vivien Leigh portrait

drop

rainy day

ink drawing

hot tea

good music

wooly jersey

happiness

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x

we so hot we burn your eye

This is Steve and next to him is me. We are not so cool, but maybe if we were, we would look something like this! haha...

Dickens in progress

Ok, so I didn't mange to finish Charles Dickens on Friday, but I have made some more progress... will definitely be done by tomorrow...

What the dickens?

Work in progress for Charles Dickens portrait... will hopefully be done by tomorrow!

Portraits

Charles Dickens

Vivien Leigh - ink

Vivien Leigh  - pencil

Some sketches for portraits of famous people who suffered from some kind of mental illness - will explain in more detail soon...

depression

Hot off the .... err... drawing board! Just finished this page, from the visual diary that we have to keep for the duration of the Sappi project. So all the drawings in here will be about mental illness. This one is about depression.

I tried to picture a really depressing background and eventually came up with old, mouldy, seventies style wallpaper with damp darkness creeping in towards the subject. Pretty melodramatic!