Crush Tastic!...Where it all began

This is probably just as weird as the crushed can animations, but this is how it all started off.

As I focus more on macro and abstract photography, I thought that these bottles were a good example to show what I was really 'in to', as one would say.

The cans however, were here just to add some colour into the post and also show that a crushed can CAN be just as interesting. The mundane IS beautiful :¬)

I was focusing on the textures and patterns on the surfaces of the bottles for my project, whilst the cans were an attempt to recreate a similar 'effect' to Edward Weston's Pepper. I wasn't trying to recreate the pepper exactly with a can, but concentrate on how light reflects off of parts of the surface and the contrast between light and dark tones...sadly...these cans will have to undergo a little bit of Photoshopping if they are to become like that. That's another project for another day.



Crushing Cans

Wow girls and boys, you can't get any more exciting than crushing cans!...no...really...you can't! Seeing as I did a whole project based on 'rubbish' I had to make it look more interesting, so I crushed them. Throughout the project we had to do a stop motion animation, but I decided to take it one step further and expleriement with Rotoscope animation, hats off to the people who do it for a living, I lost the will to live after about 5 seconds worth of footage. Enjoy!

Original Version

Rotoscope version



Little Bit 'Too' Photoshop Happy...

During one photography lesson we were all told to lay on the floor (YES! Lay on the floor!) and listen to a couple of pieces of music whilst writing down our thoughts and feelings about it. I can't remember the name of the piece of music which I chose, but it gave me a sense of journey and destination. If I can find the name of the music and possibly a clip or video of it, I will post/link it on here for you to listen to.

Here are some of the photographs which I'd taken. I had taken a lot more, but they were rubbish :¬) I also got a little bit photoshop happy as well, but I've posted the originals incase you were intersted to see how dramatic the change was (or just to have a laugh at my photography and Photoshopping skills).

(I wonder what this would look like if it was symmetrical...)

Taken on Goole's 'Monkey Bridge' near the middle of town.

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My shed....well...it's not really a shed, but y'know

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Same location as above

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Just outside of Doncaster College.

As I'm still experimeting with photography, I think that some of the photographs still a little amature, however, practice makes perfect!...(hopefully)

I also had a little photoshop (Well, I actually cheated and used MS Paint because I'm on my laptop) and made the first photograph symmetrical to see how it looked. I think if I had a little more patience, I'd be able to make it look a bit better.

These are the sections which I used to create the image, I thought that they looked nice better before I put them together, to be honest. The power of cropping!

Snappy Snaps for City Systems

For one of the briefs during my Foundation year we had to do a project based on 'City Systems'. These are some of the photographs I took of York and Doncaster.

York City Centre

 York

 Doncaster's Old College Building

 York Centre

York Centre

(Just to the right is where the photograph above was taken)

I was mostly focusing on angles and lines within architecture. For my final piece I created a wire cityscape based on the architectural features within a building, such as windows, beams, pipes ect.

Click below for more photographs :¬)

Art Fusion

At the start of my foundation year we were given the task of engaging in 'Art Fusion', which at the time I'd never heard of (Give it a Google!) and as a class we all had to do it together.

First off, we all had to choose an easle and 3 coloured pastels. We were given around 2 minutes to draw shapes, lay down colours ect. without creating anything distinctive or recognisable. When the two minutes were up, we all moved around to the easle on our left and did the same, again, sticking mostly to shapes and laying down colours. After a few swaps people begin to see 'things' appear within the drawings, these often develop into faces, eyes and mouths, which can still remain fairly surreal.

This is a video of all of the pieces which the class did together.

The week after, we were all split into groups of around 4 or 5 and had to create our own art fusion pieces, here are the pieces which our group did.

I'd thoroughly reccommend that everybody should give this a go, wether you're good at drawing or not, it doesn't matter.

Express yourself :¬)

Ceramic Tiles

These tiles were my first attempts at using clay (and also the ones which I mentioned in my Bottle Vase Post). We were given an installation piece to work with which included various tones of fabric, tubes and voil. I used certain tools to carve into the clay and create my own interpretation of the installation.

This was glazed with a red iron oxide.

This was glazed using a cobalt oxide.

This was glazed using copper oxide.

These tiles were also part of a display at The Point exhibition in Doncaster, along with my Bottle Vase.

I just thought I'd share some of the first things I did using clay :¬)

Bottle Vase

This beast took around 30 to 40 hours to make. I started by using a coiling technique (Google if you don't know what that is) and a lot of slip casted bottles in various sizes and shapes and then glazed white. The project was called 'Everyday Objects' and was from my Foundation Diploma year at Doncaster College.


It was displayed at The Point (in Doncaster) between April and May 2011 as part of the 'Opening the Studio Doors' Exhibiton. If you' d like to read more into it, then click here. I also had all three of my ceramic tiles in the exhibition as well, I might post some photographs of them sometime.


Here are some quick snaps of the vase from the exhibition, I apologise for the wonky photographs.

My work is based on highlighting the mundane and making it beautiful, which is what a lot of my work is about. I enjoy taking something simple and making it incredibly detailed or complex.


It's also based on recycling and using an object which is used everyday and discarded.


However, artwork is subjective...or is it? You decide what you want it to be about, use your imagination, challenge yourself... THINK!


Let it be whatever you want it to be :¬)

This is it!

So, as the title says...this is it! The end of another chapter of my life where I will probably never speak to a lot of people from my course again. People move on and people grow up, and if anybody were to tell me to 'grow up', then read this; I have a life plan... I have a plan for plans which fail... you could say that I have 'too many plans' for my life... all I know is that I want to become rich and famous.

I actually dream of becoming an artist and having my work exhibitied in galleries across the world. It gives me butterflies thinking about it. I'll remember all of the people who said 'Remember me when you reach the top', and I probably will but we'll be in seperate worlds by then.



So, Chapter University! Welcome!

I'll be posting up development work and also final pieces which I'll do in my spare time. I'll also keep you updated on any other news that crops up.

I'll still be posting up images from this past year to showcase some of the work I've been doing.
Enjoy it as much as I do.

Goodbye all :¬)