Vee has a pencil

In my experience with this project I found that the team atmosphere was helpful in keeping us interested and pushing us to challenge each other and ourselves. Susan’s suggestion of individually defining our areas of research was a turning point for me, being able to focus my research and give that experience to the group through links in our blogs, emails and face-to-face discussion meant that our concept and process was under a constant state of refinement.

I found the collaborative environment was perfect for the nature of our project; each group discussion was a melting pot, our topics varied from aesthetics, art, technology, sociology and psychology, each of us taking away something new to think about. I found this environment to be far more productive in terms of constantly forming new and better ideas, such a project would not have evolved so far if it were undertaken by only one person.

If another person or group were to approach a similar project I would advise them to not limit themselves by consolidating possible outcomes before they really begin their design process. To research and see what has already been done, what it is possible to do, what niche could be filled what is achievable in the realms of imagination. We learned not to be afraid of being highly conceptual, to accept that any possible design will have its faults and shortcomings.

In future projects I believe I’ll take away several things I’ve learned while developing our project. Among them a focus on usability and the ability to visualize the end user of a design, and allowing that to influence the direction of a design process. Also, not to shy away from merging ideas of design and art, even though some may believe that these are exclusive concepts. But the most important thing I believe is the mindset that I don’t have to be limited by what has already been done and what is currently possible.

I was really regular with this blog for a while then I seemed to get... blog constipation... or something... I'm finding it hard to think of a metaphor here...
Anyway, the story is since I started uni ( I LOVE LOVE LOVE my course!) I've been so bogged down with assignments I haven't had time for any decent personal work, and I've been lacking in inspiration too.
Well, I thought that at least posting SOMETHING even if it's only sketches and school work might at least make me feel productive and would maybe be like...taking an art Nutralax ( I really have to get off the poo metaphors).

I logged in to MSN today and was freaked out by the amount of messages I had received in the last two days. for a moment I thought that maybe some ass had put my address on a spam list but I was pleasantly surprised if puzzled to see that I was wrong!
Thanks VOX for featuring me on the [this is good] blog and thanks to whoever suggested me! I've received so many lovely messages and comments that I'm going to be on a high all week!

Well I haven't been in for a while, it's been a hella busy week for me. on Tuesday I enrolled at RMIT and afterward swung by DFO on Spencer for some new threads. I've also been taking care of my friend, Luke's rats, Edmund and Baldric, (a black adder reference

On Wednesday I went with my dad to the Queen Vic night market. I go at least a few times a year. man it's great, the food, the atmosphere, the music.....the food

It wasn't really dark yet when we took this photo, we got there pretty early this time.

This stall was hilarious, there were tonnes of little witch things that were hanging around and whenever somebody clapped they would scream and cackle and swing their legs. the poor girl running the stall looked like she was getting weary of it but that didn't stop us assholes from clapping too!
After wandering around for a while we decided to get us some eats, there's like 20 food stalls to choose from but eventually we settled on Mexican.

I got these hella delicious chicken fajitas

and dad got some beef and rice thing. We couldn't find a table so we just sat on the curb and ate or food and drank our over priced beer there.

I picked up this totally tits mr-T shirt and a lumberjack hat, my rockstar glasses are there too, you can probably tell from my selection of stuff that I totally dress like a boy!

well thats me for the week! thanks again eveyone for the lovely comments!

I got bored today and thought I'd try my hand at some quickie 10-15 minute speed paints, but only using preset brushes.

I finally got around to voting for the Triple J Hottest 100 and after waffling around for an hour submitted my votes as follows
1. Annie -  chewing gum
2. Beck - nausea
3. Cold war kids - we used to vacation
4. Flaming lips - The yeah yeah yeah song
5. Jose gonzalez - Hand on your heart
6. Josh pyke - memories and dust
7. Presets - steam works
8. Tiga -  far from home
9. We are scientists - nobody move, nobody get hurt
10. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - turn into

I've just realized now that only two of my choices are Australian ... I feel a little guilty now.
anyway, if you haven't voted yet get to it! it closes soon.

Last week I got the awesome news that I got my first preference for uni, communication design at RMIT so I'm really chuffed but it seems to have brought up a whole lot of issues about money. Before I start by the end of feb I definitely am going to need an upgrade for my PC, this crap pile barely got me through year twelve (trying to make an A1 poster for my graphics class near killed me) and it definitely wont get me through uni!
 
Aside from that I'm renovating my room (I'll finally have room for my Godzilla and Optimus Prime posters!) and my good friend Helen wants to help me sort through the  many years worth of crap  that I've acquired one way or another.  I just gave a huge pile of clothes to St Vinnie's. I feel so liberated!

I also got some really awful news that a close friend was in a car accident, but thankfully she's going to be ok. hopefully I'll be able to go visit her before Tuesday when I have to go enroll at RMIT.
I love you kitty cat! get better soon <3

and to finish off my post here's a sneak peek of something I'm working on

 

After a short hiatus in which few but significant things have happened ( I got into communication design at RMIT WHOOO!) I decided to get off my lazy arse and actually get something done.

here we are, 2007! and what better way to start the new year than with a new blog and some new artwork :)

I did this illustration about a week ago and was going to leave it at that, but after a conversation with a friend I decided to create a sister piece in the same style.

Here's the refined sketch. It's now that I realize that this is going to be a lot harder than I thought, being the doofus that I am I didn't record anything about the way I worked or the tool presets that I used etc. Because the way I work is largely intuitive it's going to be hard to emulate my previous results. I'm going to have to work entirely from memory... my very unreliable memory...

WIP2=blocking in colours

blocking in the skin and finding my palette, I'm going for cooler blue/green tones with the hair and suit on this guy and a warmer orangey/brown background.

WIP3= working on the skin

working on the skin a little more, it's hard finding warm tones that sit well on brown skin. Also, my palette there is very messy :P I also worked on some textures for the background.

I'm not liking how the suit here is working out at all! just can't remember how I did it with the last picture because I didn't save my brushes in painter IX. Well, that's all I have for now, I'll post again when I do a little more work on it.