Making my own Paper

Making my own paper with leaves. 

Firstly I started mixing the leaves with mountboard, and blended them up with extra water.

mixed with water

The smell of the earthy leaves made a lovely scent.

The paper dried lighter which I kinda knew it would, however it did only take over night to dry out.

Next I'm going to try moss and strong green colours to see if I can create a grassy feel of paper. 

street photography

When you are pursuing your own photography, don’t try to just make interesting images. Rather, try to pursue the “sense of place” of wherever you are photographing,

"William Klein "

So last weekend I had a wee trip away. While I only had my mobile for photographs I found myself trying out street photography in Edinburgh airport then more so at the Amsterdam airport.

I found that some people where happy to comply with me photographing them, however, not all.

The ones that did I take my hat off too. 

happy lady posing for me

Man waiting to welcome someone special

I love this image. Happy and natural 

I will remember these images forever as the interaction with the people was a pleasure in itself. I liked working with them and it was so easy and fun.While it was over in a matter of seconds and I'll never know they names it was for me a touching moment. Not everyone was happy to play along but I now cant even remember who they were or even looked like. The two men here however, I wont forget.

The repeat patterns I do like but at this angle I didn't think they gave me much

The black and white images do give a scene of long ago or the past. I like the street and people walking in black and white the best. 

I think this is something I'm happy to walk on more. Trouble is finding the time. I know my friends were sick of me stopping for pictures of random people and I did feel rushed and somewhat upset I missed so many good shots. 

To think I'm happy spending my days looking down a lens or in a gallery alone is in itself a sign of just how much my world has changed indeed. I have to make time for myself now.

Printmaking hand take -guesstimate 5+

well what can I say - day 5 of trying to figure out the contours of my hand.... Why did I choose this pose?

So here we have the printing and etching of another set of hands!! 

inking up

When do you know what is to far? Seriously tho when do you know? 

I decided to darken more and more so I had I gauge of when the hand didnt work and so I knew what I liked and didn't like with regards of taking it too far. I think I had to do this because shading with a pencil is very different than with an etching. Every angle and mark has a outcome. One false move and your done for...

To be fair I'm not sure the pictures do justice to the real etching but at the same time how long do you give yourself on one image?

The marks you make have to click together to create an overall sense of the final outcome. This isn't as simple as it looks... Again I struggle to see the angles as they are but do feel im improving week from week.

I had started with a very graphic mark process but this week seemed to make little softer marks that I feel added to the hand.

more graphic last week

while not right more lighter lines

It still lacking the distance side of marks bringing parts forward etc but I will give myself more time on this so hopefully next week I'll be closer to the finally print. 

College system when down so I went to local library to print my sketch onto a laminated paper. So I could flip my sketch and etch it like a tracing paper almost. However the women didn't get what I thought and actually laminated my image. So here we have a breakfast place mat to hold your cereal bowl :)

Ok maybe not but I can draw over it which is a great help to be fair. Happy days

This is giving me so much stress but I do want to push forward to really give myself my best effort. For the first time. Rome wasn't build in a day right.

Environment continue Back to wax (e)

So today I had to look back at my body wax piece. I decided to take it off the mannequin and hang it from the ceiling, as I had to get a sense of a dead skin hanging up like an old jacket.   

  

I found that I could actually wear the skin myself. Had I been a firmer and younger model I may of well done just that. Then again I dont wanna be a part of an insidepiece to the theme of a cancer story and how fragile we are. Or do I? 

Adding my spine and piecing together to get a feel for my work so far. It been months since I looked at it

Added extras just for fun.

Breasts to add to model/skin. I had seen a real slice of breast with cancer in it and it was actually not that different to the wax here. I was surprised how natural in colour and marble like the slice was.  Which is great for my own work i'm creating as its not a million miles away. The skin isnt like how I would like it to look ideally but it works for what I wanted. 

tacked on breast

Still missing an arm and leg. plus details and of course the tumors and lights etc.