Wolf ... Fox same thing (Not!)

God I don’t know what’s the matter with me today, two posts in one day. I mean what’s going on! But with all seriousness I thought I would scan on some of my drawings I have done this week to show the world! Now there is something you need to know about my art, you have some people that can make original pieces of art that amaze the world, you have some people that just throw stuff at paper and call it art, you even have some people get out of bed, not make it and sell it to a art gallery as art.

But unfortunately my art if often copied. I seem to have little problems copying a piece of art already drawn but original art is a little beyond me at the moment in time (well apart from my mask) so all these pictures are my version from ones already been drawn. Can I also just say that I have not got a lot of art materials so these might look a little boring, and also a big huge THANK YOU to the art department at University of Northampton for putting up with me last week.

As you can see I have a wolf mask thing going on at the moment, this is so I can fill my art book and get a good mark.

Calling all Readers

Calling the fiction fans

Calling the fantasy fans … those that like magic ... drama … evil and most of all CATS!

One of my all time favourite authors Diane Duane has consented in some respects to her unrelenting fans. One of her sub series from the Young Wizard lineage where the readers follow Cat Wizards and their duties to the workings of world gates etc never made it into the big time like ‘So you want to be a wizard?’.

Still, this fabulous mini series was never finished, only two of the three books were published leaving fans angry and wondering ‘will this series ever have an ending?’. Well this time could soon be at hand! DD is looking either for a rich person to finance the writing and publishing of the book (and trust me if me of any of the thousands of fans had that sort of spare cash I think we would help pay for it!! Well I would) OR she is considering self-publishing. Only problem is DD needs to gage the interest and she is doing this by email. So, if you go to this link you can find the relevant links and support this noble cause.

DD’s website http://outofambit.blogspot.com/

The bid Meow http://felinewizards3.blogspot.com/

What is the world coming to when a writer can no longer afford to write for the enjoyment and self-discovery but instead they have to be bent to titles and ideas that the publishers consider will sell and guarantee a profit!

Paper and glue, Paper and glue. We all love to play with Paper and glue.

Well it’s been a mammoth task in the making, nothing as long as Jurassic park took to make but on the old Darrel Scale it was a hell of a long time. Before Christmas, our Art lesson was about the use of paper and wall paper paste to make paper mashie and how children can use this versatile substance in Art lessons. So me and a friend with the art technician as a accomplice went to Hobby Craft the night before the lesson. There me and a great friend Katie bought some Masks, what’s the point in doing what everyone else is doing when we can try something different we thought. I planed to use my bought mask as a base to build my mask onto. But first like all good university students we stopped at the pub on the way back and had a few.

With the technician helping us in our wicked ways we began to plan our version of what we would be doing in the lesson. So I got some wire and that night sat up into the late hours twisting, bending and cutting this wire until I had a frame that fit nicely over the bought mask. The mask I had bought was an unpainted one with feline qualities. I did not want that, if the previous lesson we was looking at an artist that painted animal skulls and flowers so I thought why not build a animal skull and then paint it in flowers. So I set about designing my Fox’s skull, I researched on Google and found some photos and sat there until I was happy with it.

The next day I entered the class and found that the lesson was in no way linked to the previous so I just sat there trying to slightly change my mask into a normal fox. But when you looked at it the eyes made you think it looked evil. If any mask was born evil looking, it was this one. People wondered how and why Katie and me had other stuff instead of what they were using but we just told them that we went to hobby craft the night before and planed it all then. The mask began to take shape as a layer of brown paper and wallpaper paste enclosed and covered the mental frame, the hungry looking beast began to become reality instead of thoughts and ideas.

Lots of people walked over and commented on my mask, but I found that instead of looking like a fox people wanted to see and did see a wolf in the mask. So over the Christmas holidays the mask had a radical transformation from a hungry looking fox to a furious wolf. More research on Google showed me that this would look like a wolf but not in a traditional sense, it had the inner evil look of a nightmarish wolf from legend.

Next, as you all know I was pulled off placement and so I have a little spare time on my hands so I’ve popped down to the art department to bring a little more of my beastly creation to life. First I applied a base coat of paint, sort of a under coat.

Next, today I applied the final layer of paint, trying to get details in. But I have to say I’m not 100% happy with this mask BUT I have to take into account that its my very first mask and to be honest it not as bad as it could have been. So here I show to you … a mask 40 hours at least in the making … a animal spirit in a modern frame … MY WOLF MASK!

By the request of Amy.C

One of my friends and flatmate told me off today for not updating my blog, I told her

“But I updated it this week by adding my holiday photo’s”,

“ah” she said,

“but you’ve not written about being ill and being pulled off placement”.

So just for Amy I will now tell one and all about my last two weeks. Two weeks ago, tomorrow I contracted a virus. Nasty it was and I just thought it was man flu, I hurt all over and my skin was painful to the touch. At nights I would slip into a fever like state and have intense nightmares caused by the heat of the fever. Because of this, I would wake up every 20 mins and the night would stretch on for what seemed like forever. As the week progressed the worse, I got. I had to phone the placement school I was teaching at to tell them I was not coming in. by Wednesday I was no where near better and the lady in charge of student placement advised me that I should pull out of this placement. I saw the nurse and she told me to buy some pain relief but she neglected to look at my medical records and I found that what she told me to buy I could not take (She told me off for her mistake!) plus she said that I might need to see a shrink about the nightmares (and there’s me thinking it was due to the fever!!). anyway I had to go home, my mum was worried about my condition and begged me to try and get home, so off I went in my little rusty old banger and I managed to drive all the way home. By Thursday, I had reached the worse of it and I started to recover. Its now been two weeks and I’m still not 100% but feeling a ton better, but I also now have the knowledge that in September I will have to repeat this placement because I stopped half way through. It was the right decision but I still feel I was hard done by (I know that I’m not hard done by but it feels like it). The year head I hated at the beginning of this year I’m starting to like and admire. So what am I going to do with my extra week off? Well I’m going to start my essays that are due in and try and get better ready for my family holiday in a few weeks ;)