A Rake's Progress theatre poster

Within our graphics lessons we have now got to create a poster to advertise a performance of A Rake's Progress. I did some initial research into different poster designs, I came across the image below whilst having a general look through them all.  

I like the fact that this is just a really simple poster, it has the relevant information on it and is not to crowded with imagery. For my first attempt at creating a poster I used this simple layout to help me. 

This is where I am up to at the moment with creating a design. The images are not entirely relevant, they are just place holders until I create images that would work better. Overall though I like the layout of this poster I think it just needs slightly more information on it, such as where to buy tickets from or the main actors/ actresses in it. 

Design Improvement

I am working at my designing skill because I think the way I was designing at the end of last year wasn't brilliant. This is where i'm at up to yet with it. They are a definite improvement on what I was doing at the beginning of the year. 

 I just need to look more into a character now to base my designs on. I'm defiantly going in the right direction with it all though.

British Ballgown- V&A

This was one of two exhibitions that we went to see at the V&A in London. The first thing that we got told when arriving was that there were no photos or sketching allowed while in that particular exhibition  Meaning that we couldn't really record what we were seeing, apart from to note down artists and the collection the dress belonged to, and would just have to look at photos after in books or on the internet, which ins't really the same.

I did really like sections of the exhibition  where the dresses where a little bit more eccentric and out there, but others were more like your traditional ball-gown which didn't interest me as much .
The two dresses i thought were the most interesting in the exhibition were these two.

The one on the above is Alexander Mcqueen and the one on the below is Vivienne Westwood. I likes these two out of all the dresses because they are different to the typical silhouette that is used for traditional  ballgowns. 

These few images show the majority of the dresses that were in the upstairs section of the exhibition. 

Image manipulation

I have struggled with these sessions, firstly with which image/ advert to choose and then what to actually change or write on the image to change it. Graphics has never really been my strong point but I have given it a good go.
This is the first image that I have done:

This is what the image originally look like:

The idea was to subtly change the image so I tried something that people may not think was not right when they first looked at it but would realise a bit after. I played about with apple and android as apple were the first to start with the developments in technology but no android have started to catch them up and rival their products.

This is the second image that I have done:

This is how the original one looked:

When looking at these the differences probably aren't even noticeable until you look at the images for a while. The two things that I have changed on the image are the price of the fuel and the number plate of the car. These now show what petrol prices will be in the year of 2042 if prices keep going up as they are. 

These are the best pieces of work that I have done in graphics but I gave what we had to do a good go and don't think that the outcomes were to bad.

Life drawing, Session 2



In this life drawing session we initially focused more on the angels of the figure rather than the muscle structure and the curves of the figure. This was so that we could work on the shaping of the figure, the length and placing of the limbs and the correct proportions.


These were my first attept with using the graph paper. These ones arent brilliant but i started to get the general idea and technique through doing these.

These were my second and third drawings  i think that the one on the left is better than the one on the right. Neither of these drawings are perfect though but I don't think that they are a bad attempt to say its my first try at using this sort of technique to help me with foreshortening.

This was my final piece of the session, done using chalks and charcoal, with this we were still looking at foreshortening. Overall I think that this piece works well and the proportions are pretty accurate.

Hollywood Costume- V&A

Defiantly worth a visit!
I was really looking forward to going down to London to visit this exhibition and it defiantly wasn't a disappointment. I think that it would have been better if there wasn't so many people as you sort of got pushed along by the crowd. Which meant that I didn't get chance to read all of the plaques with the information on, which I would have wanted to. I really loved seeing the costumes in person and was quite surprised about the sheer size of some of them. We were not allowed to take photos in the exhibition which I would have wanted to. I bought the book that was based on the exhibition because it has a lot of information  in it and has some nice photos of the exhibition as well.

These two pictures show some of the costumes that were featured in the exhibition. 

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Some fashion from 1750 onwards

These show photos from a part of the V&A that has fashions from 1750 until the present day showing in it.

Show the earliest clothing and undergarments in the exhibition, 1750-1775. It was good to look at these as this is closest to the era that we are looking at in a Rake's Progress.

1830-1840 at home, these show how silhouettes of dresses started to change from the previous photo of the mid 1700's.

these three photos show two of the undergarments from the 1800's, the one on the left shows a corset and the right showing a crinoline.

1937- 1939 Bathing Costumes

There were lots of other different fashions from through the years in the exhibition, for both men and women, but these were the best of all the photos that I have taken.

Body Casting take two

I was the one being cast in this session. I wanted to have the experience of being cast and casting someone. Due to us as a group having the idea of actually placing the casts round the corridors I wanted to create a pose rather than just standing straight.
Due to the pose that I did all of the weight rested on my wrists while the cast was drying which i can safely say wasnt the most pleasent of experiences! I think that having a body cast done is definatly an odd feeling of youve never had it done before.

Photo of me with the cling film round me before the plaster and skrim went on.

me drying in the cast

This is what the cast looked like once it had been taken off my and been left to dry.

We also fixed Jess during this session so she had both arms and legs. rather than her having a stump and a odd flipper thing for legs and a wing for an arm.

The cast of Jess with its new arms and legs laid out to dry.

Irene Sharaff

American born five time Academy award winning costume designer, 1910-1993

These are just a few of Sharaff's designs for different performances. I really like the way that she designs as even the designs with no colour have so much life to them. 

ArtistADay

http://artistaday.com/?page_id=734

On this website an a artist has been posted every day since the 22nd February 2007. I have looked through a few bits on it and their is defiantly some weird and wonderful artwork on it. Defiantly worth a look through as there is such a variety of things on it. 

Derek Gores

A follow up to are first designing session that we have done I did some research into artists that use collage to create their art pieces and designs.

These are just two of Derek Gores' work. In these he has used parts of magazines to create the figures and the clothing that they are wearing. I think that it look really effective but would take a while to complete each piece. I think its something that I could defiantly use in the future to help improve my designs.

University Options

http://www.theatredesign.org.uk/training/undergraduate-courses/
This is the website for the Sociecty of Bristish Theatre Design, within their website there is a list of undergraduate courses from bot colleges and universities.

Ive also looked on UCAS and this is a list of universities and courses that I have found that I think look interesting.

University/ College	Course
Cleveland college of Art and Design	Costume Design and Interpretation
The University of Edinburgh	Performance Costume
The University of Huddersfield	Costume with Textiles
Nottingham Trent University	Costume Design and Making
Nottingham Trent University	Theatre Design
Yorkshire Coast College	Costume
Queen Margret University Edinburgh	Costume design and Construction
University of Leeds	Performance Design
Edinburgh College of Art	Performance Costume

 

Erik Sanko



 

I happened across this artist. He is not entirely relevant to what I am doing right now but I could defiantly use him in the future as the marionette's, puppets controlled from above using wires to move the limbs, are used in performances.
Erink Sanko works part of the Phantom Limb Company alongside other artists.

  

This video and the images show parts from the companys first theatre performance, The Fortune Teller (2006). I really like the style of the pupets in the performances and the idea of using them rather than people in a performance.



Sandrine Pelletier- Wild Boys

For are next textile seesion we are doing designs but using stitch rather than pen and pencil on paper. I wanted to look at artist that use this technique to give me an idea of what you can do with the stitch to create designs.

These are part of Sandrine Pelletier work titled 'Wild Boys', 2002-2004

Brad the Rat

Untitled



I prefer the bottom picture for the visual of it but I dont know whether the top on or maybe a mixture of the two. I think that this would work beter as with having the designs like the bottom of the two images some of the design might get lost in the loose threads.



Body Casting

We did full body casting today using fine casting plaster and skrim. I think that the outcome of this tehnique is really effective, we had to move fast with the plaster though as it gets thick and sets quite quickly. Im really enjoy actually learning all of the different techniques in 3D, I can then use these techniques in future projects and moving into my pathway.

This shows the beginning of the casting process I had to cling film Beth all the way around, even though i was only casting the front of her, otherwise the cling film would just have fell off the front.

These photos show Beth, in the top one, when she had been cast and the bottom one shows James Jess and Beth stood drying.

These are two of the three final casts after they had been taken off the body. I do think that they look good they just need a bit of neatening up.

Colleen Atwood

Colleen Atwood is the costume designer for Sweeney Todd (2007), Alice In Wonderland (2010), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and Chicago (2002) among many others.

Shows the design process for two of the characters in Alice In Wonderland.  From the left it shows Tim Burton's visualisation of the characters the middle are Colleen Atwood's refined designs and the right shows the final product featured in the film.



This again shows a design process but for a different film. She has done a different style of drawing here for a different feel of film. With this as well she has drawn the character as they would be in the film or performance, which I need to start doing. 

This shows the designs for the different stages of Alice in Alice in Wonderland. I think its good to see them all next to each other and how each of the costumes relates to each other.

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012- Artists

These videos show the three artists that created the ideas behind the three ballets. They give you an insight into theit thought processes and the different ways that the artists went to create an end product for this project.

This is a slightly terrible news report but I couldnt find any other videos of Mark Wallinger's work in this exhibition.

 I have also looked through the videos on the National Gallery webistes but for some reason they will not embed into my blog.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/content/ConMediaFile/19474?showTranscript=1

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/artist-biographies-metamorphosis-titian-2012





3D- Mod Roc casting

This is the second kind of casting that we hae tried. For this Beth casted my face, processes like this would be used in theatre as the base to create masks and head pieces from.

This Shows the first stage of the casting process where Beth covered my face in cling film to provide a layer between the mod roc and my skin. Leaving a hole around my nose of course so I could till breath.

These show the putting on of the modroc strips part way through and at the end. The cast can only done to a certain part on the head in order for me to be able to remove it. The mod roc does dry quite quickly so I was able to remove it quite soon after all the strips had been put on. It was then left to dry fully on the table.

These show both the inside and the outside of the final cast that we did. I think that it looks good and everything went pretty smoothly to say we hadnt done this before. You can see where the features are on it but where the cling film wasnt close enough to the shape of my face some of the definition and shaping of the features has been lost.

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I then gave the actual putting on of the mod roc myself. I had a go at casting my hand as it was an easy thing to do on myslef. The same as with this one I ouldnt cast all the way around my hand because otherwise I wouldnt be able to actually get the cast of my hand.

These show the final cast that I did of my hand. I had to do this casting around a glove rather than using cling film because the cling film just would stop and shape around my hand. Due to this I did loose a bit of the definition of my hand but overall I think that this one worked quite well to.