New Site

Just thought I'd let everyone know, all three of you! That I am making an actual website soon that will make my work more accessible and hopefully easier to sell and advertise and all those things. Once its all done and sorted I will post a link on here and on the Facebook so everyone can check it out. Thank you :)

Hardboiled Film Noir "Stills"

Here's the photos I promised. I really like some of them, I think they definitely flatter my project.

A Meeting in Shadows

Overbearing Lamp Posts

My personal favourite, I love the in focus car with everything else ever so slightly blurred out.

 A 'Secret' Meeting

Hardboiled Street

You Never Know Whose Watching!

 Push the Button

The Penultimate Pinnacle

So now everythings all done and sorted and I am finished! At last! Yay!

"Hardboiled" Model: Beginning to End

So now you know the back ground I will show you how I made the model from beginning to end with some pics.

So this first photo is of the model after I'd assembled it together into the basic structure I wanted. You will notice as well that the left building has windows and these will be the windows for the office room.

This is a little bit further on. I made the second road and glued some bath salt down to make the gravel for the car park. I also painted in the bricks and window frames. Also I have set up the cafe to how I want it.

From the same angle again, I've printed the bricks on, this time. I made the counter in the cafe out of foam and sponges, painted a wood grain effect on to it and glued it down to a floor which I painted to look like an old wooden floor. What you cant see, as well, is that I've painted the cafes' one wall to look like the wallpaper would have in the 50's. I've also made a pavement out of foam and painted to bath salts to make it look more like gravel.

This is a photo of the inside of the office. I made the desk and filing cabinet out of sponge and foam again. I placed papers into the drawers and on the desk, also worth noting, the papers on the desk are portraits of the two figures in the car park, to make it more like the story. Oh and I put plastic over the windows so they would light in off the street. The floor again is painted to look like a wooden floor and I also cut up bits of wood to make a skirting board for the office.

This is model all finished really. I added in lights into the office and cafe and made working lamp posts to go on the street. I also made the couple in the carpark, out of clay and their clothes out of felt. I made the car out of a mixture of clay, Plasticine and card, it was based on a car my boyfriend made for me in google sketch up, he based it on cars at the time with out it actually being any one car. I made some posters to show the advertising style at the time, cut out a skyline to be used as the background for the model, made a moon to go behind the skyline and added skirting board and some supports into the cafe (my niece accidently fell on it and smushed it a bit).

A view from the front now. The woman in the poster points to the switch which turns the cafe light on. In the office you can see the lights I added in and the Detective looking out the window. As you will notice the buildings are tilting in different directions. Originally I came up with the idea of titling the buildings inwards to make it look a little unnerving and claustrophobic, but no matter what I did the buildings kept tilting outwards. 

 

My mood boards; a collection of photos that inspired, influenced and helped me with my project.

I decided to take some photos of my project, in the style of film noir, I thought these could look like the stills of a film, furthering the film noir aspect to the project.

I will post these in my next blog post. 

But first there's this last photo of my completely finished project; model and moodboards, all sorted and finished! (Sigh of relief)

"Hardboiled" Model

All the way back in November, I received a project where the objective was to create a piece that reflected a pop culture that was not our own, based around the styles of the Machine Age and Film Noir etc, all very 40/50's era.

My original idea was to be loosely base upon T.S.Elliot's poem "The Wasteland: A Game of Chess", which I really liked and I thought I could fit it in with the project. I was going to focus on this part of the poem;

When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said,
I didn’t mince my words, I said to her myself,
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart.
He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you.
And no more can’t I, I said, and think of poor Albert,
He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time,
And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will, I said.
Oh is there, she said. Something o’ that, I said.
Then I’ll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don’t like it you can get on with it, I said,
Others can pick and choose if you can’t.
But if Albert makes off, it won’t be for lack of telling.
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.
(And her only thirty-one.)
I can’t help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It’s them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
(She’s had five already, and nearly died of young George.)
The chemist said it would be alright, but I’ve never been the same.
You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What you get married for if you don’t want children?
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot—
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

 I thought it would suit really well as it could easily be turned into the story-line for a film noir. I did out  a few sketch for it and showed them to my lecturer, but I could tell he wasn't overly enthused about it. So I came up with a new idea for the model.

I got a lot of inspiration from Edward Hoppers "Nighthawks"

This became the sole image I based my project around really. For ages, I was completely lost as to what to do with it, but then after talking through it with my boyfriend I had my concept for the finished piece.

I decided to make a street. You would look down the street and there'd be two buildings on the left side; one very tall 40's style red brick building and attached to it would be the building based on "The Nighthawks". On the other side of the street would be a building similar to the tall building and it would have a car park the other side of it. The building on the left side would have part the wall cut out so you could look into an office of a private detective who is stood looking out through Venetian blinds (very film noir!). In the car park would be a car and two figures, one male and one female.

I came up with a whole story to set the scene for the model;

Private Detective Louis stands quietly by the window. He has been investigating Emily Rose and Rick Renault for some time now. He received an anonymous call that morning tipping him off that they would meet tonight. Straight away he had scoped out the place and had found himself a little office where he had a good view of the car park and the cafe across the road. He was sure this was the place. There was no doubt in his mind. He watched patiently out his window, through the blinds. Night fell and all was still. Rick was the first to arrive, in his new car. Louis's palms began to sweat from a mix of nerves and anticipation. All his work, everything he'd done, hangs on this one night. It wouldn't be long now. . . 

Hidden in the shadows, she watches Rick furtively. She knows what she must do now but the thought still makes her feel sick in the pit of her stomach. She loves him. But he cannot live. It's too much of a risk. He could jeopardise everything for her.

She steps out of the shadows and Rick turns to greet her, a nervous smile on his face. She reaches into her coat, nervously grasps the gun concealed in her jacket. But then, her mind made up, she takes a tight hold on it. . . .

So now the scene is all set I'll start with some pics of the makings of my "Hardboiled" model.

Older Paintings

Last summer I did a few paintings to go up for an artists walk and completely forgot to blog about them. The first I did was based on the Thumbelina fairy tale. I did it in acrylics, which I love working in, but it didn't really turn out as good as I'd hoped, unfortunately.

Along with that one, there were two watercolours, kind of based along the fairy tale type theme as well. I quite liked these but again they didn't turn out as I hoped.

                       

Anyway I thought I'd just post up about them and hopefully my pieces for next summer will be better!

Card Designing

As I've recently posted I have some work up for sale in the MadeInCoventry shop in Coventry (duh!). I also have some cards I designed for sale there.

There are cards with birds on them:

And also some Ballet ones (of course!) :

Along with a huge range of other subjects, like whales, kids cards, butterflies, fairies and loads of other types! So I just thought I'd let yous know about them.

Personally the Whale cards are definitely my favourite but I forgot to get any pics of them which is really annoying!

It's been awhile. . .

So it has been ages. Over 6 months, I think, which is terrible but I'm writing now so its all good. I have started Uni and have been kept pretty busy. The course is a bit boring but its nothing to overly complain about and its basically finished for the year now so I have more time to do stuff like this:

And this. . . 

And this. . . 

And this. . . 

And a few more like it. These are all for sale in the "MadeinCoventry" in Coventry, which is pretty cool. I also have a load of cards for sale there as well, so if you live round Cov have a look and buy something! :)

If you don't live in Coventry, but like my work and would like to commission a piece e-mail me on: amx-art@hotmail.com