James and Ollie's 20th Birthday Presents

One of my close friends, James, Turned 20 the other week. He's a mountain boarder and as this is a large part of his life i wanted to create something for him which would mean something, so i created an image for him from a photograph of him Mountain boarding, this was an image designed for a T-shirt.

Another T-shirt i made was for my friend Ollie, he's a long boarder and it is rare for us to see him off his board or without it slung under his arm almost as an extension of himself, as a result i drew an image and printed it onto a T-shirt for him. Ollie's wheels are bright orange, this is also his favorite colour, so it made sense to only highlight this section of the image.

final pieces for 'Journey'

Josh:

I used the drawing of Josh in the bin as i felt it was the most appropriate image to use. 

"It was a match made in heaven... Like you can use that if you want, i won't copyright it."

"I met Josh and we went bowling and I thought he was too cool and that he didn't like me because he was too cool"

"Okay, Josh... didn't like him at first because he had a stupid hat."

"Turns out he's actually really nice though... there have been times I've thought he's a complete idiot but you know, on the whole he's alright... as humans go, he's alright." 

Scott and Sophie:

i wanted to use an image which showed Scott and Sophie as a couple, the image i used in my sketchbook seemed too distant so i chose an image which showed them being closer, I also used both of their hand prints, one on top of the other in slightly different colors. Scott and Sophie are really close as a couple which meant that when i was producing my final pieces it felt wrong to separate them especially using the quote 'I think I count those two as one person now'. I also chose to use the quotes from them about each other rather than other peoples views of them apart from the Quote above which came from Josh. 

"Sophie... thought she was a hottie at first, um yeah... kept spending time with her, got to know each other quite well... She's got a boyfriend, you know... I won and now we're in a relationship obviously."

"When i first saw Scott I thought he was cute, now, he's still cute... not in a manly way."

"I think I count those two as one person now."

  

John:

When deciding on a final image for my final piece on John I tried to choose an image which showed John how i see him, mostly quiet and reflective as well as sometimes a bit crazy, John has recently come out as gay and has made a lot of changes to his live and himself such as dying his hair, getting a tongue piercing and being more honest with himself. One of the things which as a group we have noticed which 'gives him away' is that when he is smoking a cigarette he tends to hold his hand in a rather camp and almost effeminate way. So this image seems to be the best one that i could use. 

When choosing quotes there was only one from one transcript which seemed to sum up how we all see John perfectly:

"John's crazy, like I completely re-evaluate the way I look at him every week like... he suprises me every time. I think it's the best thing he finally came out gay because like i mean he seems so much more open. He's going off doing his things... he's dying his hair, he's getting his piercings and stuff like that, he's a good person to talk to, he's really good at giving level unbiasd advice as well."

Lala:

This is Lala who i would definately say i am closest to out of the group. She drinks a lot of orange juice especially if she's ill, tired or grumpy, or has a hangover. This was a drawing done from a photograph taken by Scott Eyre which showed Laura the day after a night out in the Tea Garden of Papaya with her head on the table and a bottle of orange juice in front of her, to me this image perfectly sums her up. 

"It's always good to know someone who's a bit nuts like... they're always good fun."

"I remember when you walked out of the shower with your hair wrapped in a towel and just went 'I'm still drunk!!' I knew from that day forward that it was going to be beautiful."

"Lala was the quietest person i met on the first day." 

My contribution:

When i put together my personal view of the group i didn't really want to draw myself in the same was as i had the others. I noticed that if you counted Scott and Sophie as 'one person' that it left one finger on my hand for each person in the group.
Anna
Lala
John
Scott and Sophie
Josh
I also noticed that when i did my own hand print that there was a large empty space in the center which hadn't printed so i used Scott's group photo and printed it into the center using 'quick-off'.

This was a project which i really enjoyed as it allowed me to become a lot closer to members of the group, now i feel less like I'm on the outside looking in and more like I'm on the inside looking out.

Journey

My most recent college brief was to illustrate a journey using silhouettes and cut outs  along with other image making techniques such as drawing and printing.

I decided to use the journey through my first year of uni, focusing on my friends. I wanted to show how we have all changed and how the friendship has been formed, along with all the arguments, the break-ups and banter. 

First an introduction...

John, Lala, Anna, Josh, Holly (me), Scott and Sophie

Photograph taken by Scott Eyre.

I started off just observing 'us' as a group of people and compiled observational drawings from our art jams and nights in.

I drew my friend josh looking down while he was crouching over an enormous piece of paper and a bottle of masking fluid, i drew Anna cradling her cup of tea watching the apprentice and Sophie and Scott curled up watching films because I wanted to capture real images of real life.

I also did voice recordings of each person within the group, asking how they feel about everyone, what their first impressions were and how they have changed over the first year. (they are in the envelopes on the left hand page)

Close up biro drawing of sophie, lala and scott.

When considering how i was going to incorporate the idea of silhouette and cut out i experimented with creating profile silhouettes of all of us. I cut the silhouettes from tea stained paper, we drink alot of tea!

then I pulled quotes from each of the transcripts which related to that person and wrote them within the silhouettes. 

 These are drawings of Scott and Sophie (left) and Josh (right). I felt that the image of Scott and Sophie using watercolours and fine liners was really successful as it almost sums them up as people perfectly alongside the quotes, as Scott has alot to say and Sophie is quiet and keeps most of her feelings to herself. 

I felt that the hand prints were also very successful as they are almost more personal than a signature, especially in this case as the people in this image are in a relationship and the prints are from the hands they would use when they hold hands. 

Josh loves rubbish and uses alot of it in his work, he enjoys skip diving and finding things on the pavement so this drawing seemed completely appropriate. It is taken from a photograph which Lala took at one of the Art Jams.

This is work which is ongoing...

Art Jam

Photograph taken by Scott Eyre

keep your vodka!

To us a good night consists of piles of sketchbooks, lots of mess and endless cups of tea.