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.

Creative Practice 2 Sketchbook Part 4

Creative Practice 2 Sketchbook Part 3

Creative Practice 2 Sketchbook Part 2

Creative Practice 2 Sketchbook Part 1

I thought I'd show some photos of my Creative Practice 2 sketchbook, as I am very proud of it, and it is a good example of my work and thought processes.

Orkney FAME Committee

Orkney FAME (Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS) is a group in Orkney that I am a general committee member of. We aim to support others suffering from Fibromyalgia and/or ME/CFS through this group. An awareness raising event will be held this Saturday, and the local Orcadian newspaper interviewed us last week about the group and the event. Below is the article that myself, and two fellow committee members Lorraine and Marian were interviewed for. I am the person in the middle of the photograph.

I helped to choose the group name, as well as to create the logo, a purple and blue star encompassing the words Orkney F.A.M.E. The purple is for Fibromyalgia, and the blue is for ME/CFS.

The star was an easy choice for the logo, as our FAME name reminded me of the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, and it's always good to have a simple and memorable logo for a group.

I have also helped in organising the raffle we're having at our awareness raising event, having had experience in raffles and fundraising previously, and I will be at the stall in the afternoon to meet people.

I have learned social, teamworking and organisational skills from working with this committee, and it helped give me the confidence I needed to co-found another group that I am Vice Chair of, NetworQ North, a new LGBT+ group in Orkney. I will be sure to post about NetworQ North in more detail, soon.

Art Assistance

I have been volunteering weekly at local children's art workshops/classes with local artist Kirsty Brown, with children aged 4 to 12. I assist with directing the activities (such as marbelling, monoprinting, collage, painting, and drawing), assisting with any issues, as well as setting up and clean up of materials.

I have always been interested in working with children and teaching, so being able to volunteer in these classes has helped confirm for me that this is a route I would like to pursue in the future.

A photo of me on my first day.

Monoprint results, using twine glued on polystyrene. 

Marbelling process and results.

 Paintings.

I help dry paintings with the heat gun.

The children cut up the paintings and marbelling works into shapes, and collaged them.

We have also done printing using shape stamps and cut potato. 

I showed the children how to use up paint left over on the palette by putting the paper into it and pressing down. A way to think about waste, and on how to make use of something normally seen as useless.

Collage.