WEEK 1: PRACTICAL DESIGN PRACTICE

Today, was my first ever lecture and I was so nervous as I hate anything in an assembly like setting. We sat through three presentations where they talked about what some of our lecturers had done in  their careers in more detail and then they gave us the brief for all of module 104. I jotted a few notes down as it's good to get into the habit of knowing different designers and brands, and some of them I had heard of (Gaudi, Jeff Banks, WGSM website etc) and some of them I hadn't (Perstop, Chilewich, Linwood, Katherine Harriet ect).

Once they were done we talked about what different presentations skills we could have and take to our own presentations. Once we had done that we discussed what our task for the next session was and it was to create a presentation about what the purpose of an interior designer? At this point we had split of into our subject groups so we could brainstorm some ideas. We came up with:
- to create a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing space
- works with client to improve a space
- works to a brief. Asks the client about their likes and dislikes etc

WEEK 1: DRAWING FROM STILL LIFE

So today was my first proper day at the college and I was so nervous and scared, we had like a team brief kind of thing at the start with a presentation about what they expect from us and the equipment we should have and what we were going to be doing for the week ahead. Our task for the week was do 3 A1 sized drawings from the still life in mainly black and white but we could add colour to some of them.

We separated into our subject groups and started to draw from still life around the studio, there was a washing line area with balloons drooping down, an area on top of cabinets with small toys and another area with sign post and some plants. I was dreading this because I haven’t properly drawn in months! Our first task was to draw an object from the still life in 5-10 minutes (I can’t remember exactly) we then had to give our work to the person on the left and then draw an outline from another object, and do different mark making techniques in the item. Our next task was to pick one of the objects from the page and do a repeat pattern with it, I picked to repeat the box like shape from a piece of Lego, which was harder than it looked because I couldn’t get the proportion right, we were then allowed to add colour, shading and add layers to it, and in all honesty, it was the worst piece of work that I had ever done but I could see the potential in it becoming a pattern.

 

My last piece of work that I did this week was from the signpost with plants still life and I chose to do a banana shaped leaf and repeat it over my page. I chose to use only shades of green using different materials as I thought that would look quite cool. The materials I chose to use were pencil, biro, watercolour, acrylic, oil pastels, collage and I did some of the outlines with a thick marker. I like this piece of work because I think it looks really cool and would look effective if I did it in black and white and then had one of the leaves in an accent colour which would make it stand out.

ANDY GOLDSWORTHY

Whilst at Mount Edgecombe our lecturer name dropped Andy Goldsworthy and his work with nature, his name ringed a bell but I couldn’t think of where I had heard of him from, so a quick google search and I remembered that I knew about his work because of one of my modules from A level. So, I decided to do a bit of research on him.

He’s a sculptor and photographer whose site-specific artworks directly engage with the environment, incorporating natural specimens and found objects to semi-permanent structures, which are documented in photographs.

I think his work is really cool because of the different types of materials he gets to use and there’s a green fingered vibe about his work. One thing I didn’t know about him was that he has collected a team of craftsmen and labourers who follow him around the globe, lugging wood and carving stone. His work needs to be photographed because he can lose track of what he’s doing out in the cold, rain or wind or when he’s waist deep in water.

MOUNT EDGECOMBE

Today, we met at the Cremyll ferry port and then headed over to Mount Edgecombe, it was very pretty and I didn’t realise that it had a pebbled beach. Once we had all made it to the meeting point we had a ‘meeting’ about what our task was. The task was to get into groups of 4/5 and from our summer project pick a pattern that we could recreate with stones. I was in a group with Shelley, Kelly and Diana, we ended up picking one of Shelley’s Mandela patterns as we thought it would be easier to recreate with the pebbles. We started from the inside and went out, they didn’t specify a size so I think our pattern was roughly the size of an A1 piece of paper, we used a mix of different toned stones, as we were doing this our lecturer name dropped Andy Goldsworthy, his name rang a bell but I couldn’t think where from. I liked doing this because I like this kind of hands on piece of art and it was a good bonding experience with the other people. We then broke up for lunch and when we came back walked around the different groups piece of art whilst they gave a talk about what pattern it was anything they would have changed, once we had done that we went back to we started to draw our patterns, it was the worst drawing of my life, I hated it. We then released our stones back to the beach and headed back to the ferry whilst drawing a quick-fire drawing of how to draw different textures, for example, something soft, hard, rough, smooth etc. We then caught the ferry and went our separate ways.           

            

INDUCTION WEEK

So it's day one of the biggest stage of my life, I am petrified, scared that uni wasn't for me and scared that no one would like me etc. We all met in the college canteen and then headed up to our space and sat through a couple of presentations explaining who they were and what subjects they teach and what they've done with their career up until this point etc, and I remember thinking 'holy shit these are some seriously impressive people, how on earth am I going to survive with such bad asses leading' but luckily that wore off. We then enrolled and got our fancy cards with our mug shots on, I was quite happy with my picture. We then had a dyslexia screening and I remember leaving it thinking holy balls what on earth was that screening about. I then went home and prepared for the day ahead.

Day 2: When we went into our studio we were allocated a desk and we could hang up our summer project and get inspired by the work that we had done, it took me a while to do this as some of my images the colour had washed out and I was only feeling inspired by my patterns.

Day 3: We went on a field trip to Mount Edgecombe and I stupidly wore the wrong shoes as the ground was a bit soggy. Once we had made it over, we went into groups and we were given multiple tasks to do, which I'll explain fully in another post and attach pictures.

Day 4: The day was a bit of a blur for me as I wasn't in the right head space but all I remember is we were in at 10am and we were doing an activity to get us used to the building and why we might call upon different disciplines to help us out.