The Two Headed Hound of Hell is Howling.

So I marked the end of another project with my usual last minute panic. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong and I realised (a little too late unfortunately) that I hadn't explained links between preliminary research and resulting product to the full extent that I should. I started second year intending to spend more time on practice, peicing together quantities of work and experimenting more when editing artwork instead of doing my usual trick of spening fifty percent of the time researching, reading and discovering new artists for future reference.

The hypothesis determined in relation to this meant that (in theory) I should have built a larger, more varied and finalised quantity of work without the reams of paperwork alongside. I find it very easy to get lost in the narrative of a project and immerse myself in books, articles, even artists related to the topic. So by focusing on the work at hand and not spend the majority of the time 'over-researching' should have allowed me to relate my own style of working to the project with an appropriate amount of material at a controlled pace.

Success? 
I did find that all the processes used in this project flowed with ease, I connected style and background references to each section of work and worked much more comfortably when it came to screen-printing, even on a much larger sale.

Trial and Error.
Towards the end of the project it dawned on me that without me usual excessive research I was beginning to struggle with self evaluation because the designers i'd taken as inspiration when creating my wallpaper were seemingly unrelated to the rest of the project. I didn't have enough information to link together the foundations of William Morris, Japanes Book Binding, Greek Mythology and Bukowski. So, if nothing else i've learnt that being over-ambitious is useless without the amunition.
I need to find a happy medium in future.

When creating my character, the two headed hound of hell Cerberus, I originally drew him with three heads as he is most commonly pictured (see the variations in my photographs above, depicted in gold pain, grey crayon and black fineliner). However, when it came to transforming a 2D image into a 3D model, all hell broke loose...ironically. I wanted to make several, modest sized fimo models but balancing 3 heads on an already top heavy body isn't easy not to mention the fimo ceasing to co-operate due to being stored in the almost arctic temperature of my house.

In the head, me and Cerby struck a compromise with 2 heads, fake nails and a brown paper bag as bargaining tools. I have to admit that the final model wasn't as terrifying or immaculately made as i'd hoped for, i didn't utilise my time properly and the obstacles only hindered me further. I was on the right tracks with using the fake nails for claws and sharpening them up for teeth, and i'd like to think my handy work when it comes to manipulating large paper bags into looking like two headed dogs is pretty impressive.

All in all, I'd say that the book i created and bound 'Love Is A Two Headed Dog From Hell', based on Bukowski, Henry Rollins and wolves in general, was one of the most successful pieces of Applied Design 2. My finished wallpaper was my absolute favourite though, I'm happy with every aspect of it from the colour combinations, background repeat and detail in the characters not to mention how much i've progressed when it comes to pulling screens.

Apologies for the poor quality of some photographs.

Barbato Envy.

Whilst planning my educational and adventurous trip to London I stumbled across a few new monumental artists, of which, Italian freelance Illustrator Vania Barbato stood out like a beacon to me.

 

Unfortuantely, I do not have a great deal of information on this artist or her working methods as her blog is written in Italian and my languages are a little rusty. From what i could decipher she was born in Padova, currently resides in Bologna after studying Illustration and some form of comic book art, possibly comics/graphic novels? She sees herself as a medium, a teacher and even a vissionary.

 

 

Of course the fine detail and curiously morbid centerfold caught my eye from a single glance, but after studying several images included in Barbato's selective portfolio, I found myself mesmerised by the haunting expressions on her characters faces.

 

 

 

The majority of her work can be viewed on her blog here, where the above images are sourced from, and a ludicrously short interview with Vania, here.



Four-seeing the Future.

Foursight 'VS Launch' Evening: 10/10/12 @ Cord Bar, Manchester.

 

So this review is well- overdue but even just re-capping on the Foursight Launch re-kindles the excitement and inspiration I felt on the night.

 

After recently emerging from the nest (or should I say Stockport College), four fully-fledged and hugely talented Illustrators combined their talents to create the creatively driven transformer, Foursight. The most recent triumph from this exciting collective comes in the form of an extremely well thought out zine. Aptly named 'VS', the beautifully finished piece contains a head on collision of up and coming Illustrators/Designers (Including Foursight themselves) and a handful of locally established Artists.

 

Image taken from Creative Review.

 

Cleverly based around the idea of a boxing match, each artist was matched with another and given opposing word groups to illustrate and communicate appropriately, for example; 'Night and Day', 'Old and Young' etc. The launch night continued the theme by settling each guest as a 'participant' in the on-going battle, encouragng people to compete in a 'live draw-off' based on the same concept as the zine but with a double sided easel, marker pens and beer included...naturally. 

On arrival to the event we were whisked underground to a heavily crowded bar full of familiar faces and a mind-blowing amount of talented individuals. The white-brick walls were instantaneously brought to life with the impressive array of artwork freshly printed the day before, the atmosphere was positively electric and every detail was taken care of. I did the majority of my exploring within the first 10 minutes of setting foot in the place... after being lured over to the sales fort and happily purchasing my very own copy of 'VS' I must have spent a good half an hour studying the luxurious Illustrations captured between the hard-back, hand-printed exterior.

 

Stepping into the Ring

One of my favourite touches of the evening had to be the customised photographs taken of every guest wearing the infamous boxing gloves, posing comicly and then readily naming themselves something rather witty. What a way to capture the essence of the evening! Re-inventing crowd participation worked wonderfully and left the group with a fantastic reminder of how phenomenally successful their first endeavour into the terrifying and judgemental world of Design really was.

 

 

Images above taken from We Are Foursight.

 

 

If you want to take a look at Foursight's zine in further detail or any of their existing work, check out their blog here.

 

You won't be dissapointed.