Uni stuff & doodley cards

Hihi,

Been pretty busy with uni lately, hence the lack of updates. This term we're doing TV instead of radio, and I've discovered that this is a lot harder. I've been working with Nicole and Verity, and I think it's been really good to have three of us on a team as there are so many things to think about when recording footage for a television package. The last time I did video work was at school with a little consumer Sony Handycam, which was easy to use. The kit we have here is a professional Sony Handycam, with a gun mic. Heavier and more awkward to use! Each week we've completed a shooting assignment, which has progressed from a simple five-shot sequence to getting material for a 1-2 min package. This week, we covered the M Shed museum winning an award. It was half term, so there was plenty of fodder for vox pops.

Here's the package I edited together on Friday:


Yes, it is Verity reporting at the start with my voice on the voice-over at the end, but we were all practising using the editing software so I didn't want to drag her away from her work to record the VO!

I think the effort expended in creating a TV package is incredibly challenging, and I'm definitely more at home with the editing process (yay, computers).

Cards

Right, on a totally different note, I've been to a few birthday parties over the last month or so and I enjoy making cards for people, so here are a few doodles I did:

Bunny for Sara

Link for Jamie

Totoro for Rachel

I never really enjoyed colouring when I was younger, because I found colouring pencils didn't suit my scribbly style of drawing, which you can see in the picture of the bunny. I tried a different way of shading with the other two, which I think has worked a lot better, as the shading looks smoother.

Ok, now I have a small mountain of reading to do so I'm going to tackle that today!

Correct Country

Hi, Internet. I have been back in the correct country for a little while, having returned from Malaysia. I am excited to start my new course, MA Journalism, later this month, but until then I have very little to do so I've been trying to tackle my Steam backlog and get some reading done. Currently working my way through Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which is fairly enjoyable (save for the ludicrously difficult bosses). Made a trip to the library to help my younger sister find some books to read; we ended up with a large stack of books and she is getting through them far quicker than I am. Since I started university, I've not read as much as I used to and when I do read, I do so at a more leisurely pace.

I'm back in London for a few days as I went to see Franz Ferdinand play an album launch show, was good fun! It's pretty exciting to see someone live for the first time when you've listened to them for 10 years, plus their new album is rather good. I'm going to the BBC Proms tomorrow with my family and then it's back to Bristol for me, until the end of term, most likely.

Lastly, here is a drawing I did last week when my brain decided it needed a break from sneaking around corners sniping people in the head:

Various Drawings

Don't worry, I haven't given up on the 30-day challenge yet...just struggling to find a photo to work from. In the meantime, have some other drawings:

This is a zebra. I have some calligraphy pens that I use very rarely; turns out they are good for zebra stripes.

I was discussing opticians with some friends and someone came up with Optic Ian. Two things to note from the these photos: 1) I really must work on getting limbs in proportion 2) My figures would probably look better with shadows under their feet, rather than floating in mid-air.

Here is a rolly man. He is rolling off this page and telling you to come too, because it contains disaster dragons and a lame llama.

I met up with a friend in Boston Tea Party just now and I took my sketchbook along. After the aforementioned fail page of creatures, I decided to draw something I could actually see, so this is a little teapot that had Darjeeling tea in. Drawn only in 5B pencil, because changing pencils is too much effort, or something.

Finally, a creative-technical-type friend of mine discovered an interesting website that allows you to earn skill patches for real-life skills. While some of the challenges seem restrictive, I am tempted to try out a couple so I have a starting point to work from, but I really should finish the 30-day challenge first.

30-Day Art Challenge - Day #2: Draw a figure from a reference

Challenge details

After about an hour crowdsourcing ideas for who to draw (no thanks to you, BUNCS - Spongebob Squarepants is NOT a person), I settled on Gendry from Game of Thrones, but I couldn't find a suitable photo. I ended up with this but he was doing something funny with his eyes and I was sick of looking for pictures so I decided to draw Arya Stark instead.

The figure itself wasn't too difficult, aside from the heavy jacket, but it was a real challenge making the face look like Arya. First it looked like some kind of teenage version of her, so I scrapped that and redrew it. I still don't think it's quite right, but it'll have to do. I think it was just difficult to draw a face so small, since I am used to drawing portraits of people that only include the face. In addition, I usually draw men so transitioning to drawing a girl was a bit odd. Anyway, here she is:



Looking at it now, the shoulder is also a bit wonky, but her clothing pretty much covers her figure up so much that it is hard to distinguish what is going on.

30-Day Art Challenge - Day #1: Self-portrait

Challenge details
First day, and I did this at silly am because who needs to go to bed early when you haven't got anything to get up for? I drew this from a photograph. Max is a giant cat that belongs to my cousins. I went for this mainly because I like kitties, so an actual cat in my self-portrait is perfect :D I got a bit bored after drawing the face and went scribbly, which has led to an inconsistency in detail - not the intended effect.

I'm not entirely sure how to approach this challenge. I mainly draw with pencil or a fine felt-tip pen, but the styles I use for each method of working are quite different. If I want to improve, I feel that I should use the same medium for all the challenges, but but but I want to draw with a pen as well! I could do both, but I'm far too lazy for that, so I think I'll stick with pencil for now and perhaps find a different challenge to do with pen at a later date.

Drawing

I need more inspiration, so I've decided to do a 30-day art challenge.