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.

Wolfpaper.

I like wolves (especially the two-headed kind), i like William Morris, i like screen-printing...so why not combine them all and make a new breed of wolfpaper?! That's exactly what I'm in the process of doing. It took me a week to perfect my wolfy character, 6 hours to draw up the singular background pattern and repeated second layer onto tracing paper with my new opaque pens, and a frustrating 2 days to screenprint the whole thing onto a roll of wallpaper.

I'm very happy with the overall look of the initial test prints although the screens are pretty much the same size as me and the squeegee, as long as my forearm, which makes the actual process more difficult than I'd anticipated. I think the colours could do with adjusting, or a third colour adding to act as a bridge between the black and red as they're both strong, dominant colours. If I have time before the deadline I might try my hand at Flock and Foil to see whether that would enhance my wallpaper as an alternative to a totally new third layer.

For now I need to concentrate on the execution of my screen-print, loss of concentration or accidentally eliminating the registration marks usually means that the secong and third re-print on the roll don't match up or end up smudged whilst trying to re-align the screen. I'm sure that practice and a little more care will help to rectify this issue, it'd be a shame to have one weak section on the wallpaper length.

Below are a few images taken from the studio showing the mixing preparation of colours, drying rack for the screens (and an indication of how huge they are for such a small person!) and the begins of print.

The following image is used just as a reference of what can go wrong. The first print (far right section) is as close to perfect as possible, whereas the second print (3rd section, far left) wasn't properly aligned and ended up being smudged and patchy.

Love Is A Dog From Hell

Throughout this project i've been obsessing over Bukowski, in particular his book 'Love Is A Dog From Hell'. This morning it dawned on me that my creature is infact a two headed dog who's ultimate purpose in life is to guard the gates of hell...coincidental? Probably, but i've made the connection and decided to adapt one of Bukowski's poems and integrate it into my work. The sketchbook I handmade and bound for Applied Design 2 is now aptly named 'Love Is A Two Headed Dog From Hell', containing all the preliminary sketches for my two headed dog Cerberus, patterns and designs for the plush toy product and layouts for the wallpaper based on the topic of the character and its habitat. Running parrallel to my Bukowski addiction i've started looking through the miniature William Morris book I borrowed, religiously. So I can almost definitely assure you that my the finished article of wallpaper will reflect Morris in reguards to the background design and repeat pattern.

Nice Paper Toys.

After the first day back at 'The Shed' I realised that this year I'm going to have to put down the pen and paper at some point and branch out. It's not that I don't like stretching my branches, and as G/J. Spicer always say: 'we can't all fish from the same pond', it's just that my roots are very happy being wound around a 0.3 Sakura Micron Fineliner. I mentioned at the end of last year that I intended to continue practicing Screen Printing, which I will throw myself into whole heartedly, and after the briefing on Tuesday 4th I'm intrigued to dapple with Wallpaper and Papercraft in general.

Me and my friend Dan decided to take a trip to our favourite store in Manchester, Magma, to sniff out some helpful books on Papercraft... and i'm pleased to report that our trip was a success! Within a minute of entering the store we spotted 'Papertoy Monsters' by Castleforte, traditionally a motion graphics designer and animator. But for a very reasonable price, we purchased this exciting looking book.

Below are a couple of the little characters we brought to life with some frantic folding and a lot of pritt stick.