Quick Black Oil Pastel Eyes

Some quick eyes, and a Billy (my human/monster with a bird head) quickly done in black oil pastel, created during my previous art assistant class. I couldn't resist joining in and trying the pastels, and now I'm excited to use black oil pastel in future projects, as I love the marks it makes, how easily it smudges, and have heard that adding white spirits to the pastels create a lovely effect.

Orkney FAME Awareness Raising Event

Here are photos of how the Orkney FAME awareness raising event was set up.

The event was a huge success! Many people stopped by to talk to us, either to learn about Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS, or to talk about their own experiences. We raised £80 in our raffle, and got £4 in the donation tub. We are all so pleased with how this went, as it was only our first event. I'm excited for future events!

I am glad for my previous raffle and sales table experiences, as I was able to help the committee make To Do lists (focusing on what it most important and how long things will take) and arrange the raffle, as well as advising them to take at least an hour for set up rather than the half an hour they'd originally planned (which they later thanked me for).

Admire Kamudzengerere

Admire Kamudzengerere is an amazing artist who is currently of huge inspiration to me.

The above works helped to inspire a potent thought for my artwork. "What if there was a hallway full of eyes??" The disposable nature of post-it notes, which hold importance and yet tend to be forgotten, plus eyes to represent perception and identity and the soul, is powerful to me. I hope to continue this theme next year, perhaps on other similar items. Paper plates? Napkins?

Below is a scan of a series of 12 post-it notes, created with black pen and black oil pastel.

Eye-Rene

My younger sister, Georgina, is an Optometrist student. For one of her assignments, she had to create a leaflet about eye strain. She asked me to create a character for her, and we went with Eye-Rene, which I designed and illustrated.

NetworQ North

NetworQ North is a new LGBTQ+ group in Orkney, of which I am a co-founder and the Vice Chair. We have been busy organising a social event happening this Saturday. Above is the poster I created for the group, which includes details for our Facebook and Twitter pages, and an email address to contact us.

One issue we are facing at the moment is the creation of a logo. I've quickly come up with a few ideas, focusing on a compasses (circle outline, arrow pointing "North"), as well as Prisms, which give off rainbow light, as the Rainbow is a well known LGBTQ+ symbol. The below designs are what I've done so far, though they have been scrapped due to being reminiscent of Pink Floyd. I will update when more has been done!

Workshop Ideas

I am very interested in potentially running workshops or creative classes one day. So I've been trying to think of perhaps unusual classes in order to encourage participation and creative thinking.

I was reminded of a creative workshop I attended at an anime convention, Alcon, back in 2015. In this workshop, people would shout out random words to the instructor, who would choose three of them, and we'd all have 5 minutes to draw something encompassing those three words.

One such activity had the words Potato, Flower, and Beard. My result was this Mr Potato Head inspired boy below.

I was very happy with the results of this class, had an amazing time, got to know the people I was sitting with, and learned a lot in thinking outside the box and combining unusual things together. And because of this, I feel like I would love to run a workshop like this one day.

There is also a game called Tee K.O., found in the Jackbox Party Pack 3, that I feel would also be a good inspiration for an usual workshop. In this game, you draw images and give phrases, which you then combine to make the best (usually funniest) tshirt possible. A game/class like this would be interesting. Would I choose a title (either from suggestions, pre-chosen, or from a hat of suggestions), and everyone does their best to make the best tshirt following that example? Would they do so with just a drawing, or would they use paint on an actual tshirt? This could be as co-operative or messy as I wish to make it. 

As simple as these ideas may sound, I very much love the thought of helping people connect to their inner child's sense of fun and creativity, be they a child currently, or an adult that has lost themselves as they've grown older.

Assessment Space

All set up for my class assessments! 

Above is a photo of my wall, with all my best works hung up.

I've kept this on the window for the assessment. I just love how it looks!

And below are some photos of the assessment pieces, 

All my mounted works! Monoprints on mounting board.