Getting over my fear of colour in Life Drawing

Smile

Spent a lovely morning in the V and A Musuem of Childhood drawing this puppet, pretty pleased with it, chose it because liked idea of orange hair on grey background...i seem to be enjoying orange at the moment.

Waiting on the photos from the armour shoot with Gabs, keep posted.

designing for northern lights

What a great book first of all? Plenty of fantasy and a huge range of characters to choose from. The characters have animal daemons. The character I chose to make, had been the golden monkey who is Mrs Coutler's daemon, she is the evil mother. I chose the golden monkey really because of the thought of blue and gold together.

I am making a latex mask, well no 'prosthetic' now because it will be stuck to the face with eye lash glue, and makeup applied to it. To make the mask I am going through 3 stages; sculpting with chevant, making a silicone rubber mould and casting in latex, hope I've got thoughs technical terms right, this is my first mask/prosthetic so some lee-way should be allowed.

Then I have been knitting a hood/scarf to act as the fur/head/neck of the monkey, I want to build up the texture here by weaving in fabrics to get a dreadlock appearance.

Above shows; my drawing of the monkey, my chevant mask, and the basis of the knitted hood.

Cannot wait to do the shoot for this.

Collaborating with THE Gabriel Mokake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkp_BMk6sQU

Just done a gorgeous shoot with THE Gabriel Mokake. A little bit of a colabortation here, he photographed my Joan of Arc plastic armour. We had a brilliant model on the shoot: Rina Semenova and make-up artist: Elaine Fitz-Gerald. We were going for a warrior, strong woman vibe and had male model: James Whelan at Rina's side. Rina looked fierce in a skimpy american apperrel leotard and thigh high boots. Shot inbetween liverpool street station and the other side of the road, traffic streamed past us on both sides, customers in pizza express were definatly entertained. Cant wait to see the results.

Also thanks to Sammantha Igbokwe who modelled the wool coat I made last year. She looked stunning in it. Hoping to work with all of these guys again, absolute pleasure.

Check out the youtube vid of 'behind the scenes' of the shoot.

The new year...

Ok Ok so xmas is over now. Im back in London town. Well was back for new years, new years took me to the southbank for fireworks--fantastic, the atmosphere, the crowd, radio one next to you, dancing in the street after the count down. lovely.

Onto my new project now. Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. 6 characters to design costumes for. so we are diving into that.

Current playlist:
the kinks-you really got me
two door cinema club-costume party
Of Montreal-Gallery Piece
katy perry-electric feel (live lounge)--meant for each other
Paloma faith-sexy chick (live lounge)--very different tone to the origional
Maximo Park-Just dance (live lounge)
Lenka- Jump in the pool (live liunge)

New things:ear pierced-the daith
Hopes for 2010: Get onto degree!, have fun, get onto something cool and costume related in summer like ymt, cook raw meat, be a yes man, well woman.

-Yes Man the film-thought it would be cheesy, its really not its total sense apart from the bit where he has to bed the old woman, that just wasnt necessary. But people say yes MORE.

Xmas decs

Just had to blog about these gorgeous xmas decs to hang from your tree. I found them on Spitalfields market. They are made by adults with brain injuries. I think they are beautiful and was delighted to buy 3, two as presents and one gold xmas tree one to hang in my little room in halls.

1984

After seeing Aladdin, even though it was fab, I felt I ought to see something a little more intelectual, so I was reccomended a play adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 at the Battersea Arts Centre. It was the idea of puppets that attracted me. And I have to say it was mind-blowingly good. AMAZING. I think its still on till the 9th of January. SEE IT.

The big brother theory is explained in the most creative way. Minimal props/set used. The actors use themselves for everything-at one point they freeze holding wooden chairs above their heads and are a forest. It really gets your imagination going. Below my sketch shows the actors forming an upstanding bed whilest one plays out a nightmare.

There are a few puppet characters who, I quote from the BAC site 'equal elements' to the human actors in the play. Nick Barnes is the puppet maker. The heads are cardboard and are beautiful and the bodies like stuffed dolls. The actors move the puppets feet and heads and really give them life, its amazing the level of sophistication they achieve with these puppets. Check out their blog for more info and pictures! -Blind Summit Theatre and BAC.

Aladdin in Panto

Review of the Festive season...

Well, having now specialised in costume I was told to 'immerse' myself in the subject. With it being Christmas my 'immersing' had to begin with a panto. Obviously. So I headed to see my childhood favourite 'Aladdin' at the Hackney Empire.

Granted I was alone and the only person of my age group there (the audeince was either under the age of ten or over the age of 40) but this was fine. I had the best seat in the place as I booked an hour before the performance and for my luck some press had cancelled! So centre seat I was set to enjoy. Clive Rowe-the Dame, Aladdins mother was fantastic, cracking out jokes for the adult aduience constantly. His costumes were true to a panto dame, elaborate and humerous. One hat featured a model washing line over head (Aladdins mother owned a laundrette in this version). I really liked the fire work lighting where stars dispersed around the room replicating the movement of fireworks. Instead of the classic 'a whole new world' they played Take Thats 'Greatest Day' which was cheesly hilarious. The best set in my opinion was of the cave where Aladdin is searching for the lamp, loved the depth here, Jaffa was at the top of the stage high up (see crappy drawing), really got the feeling Aladdin was at the bottom of a cave.

And of course a mince pie at half time (I couldnt get ice cream with the kids) really got me feeling xmassy. Pantos definatly still serve their light-hearted entertaining post how whatever age you are. A must at xmas.