A-Z Actor Portraits Challenge : A to C

There's a lot of these "30 Day ____" challenges floating about on Facebook and I had started one but the topics were pretty boring; favourite food, favourite animal, favourite place, yadda yadda yadda. I got two days in and lost all will to carry on. That and I kinda forgot, which says a lot for its appeal. So, I started one just for myself and based it solely on portraits since that's one of my favourite things to focus on. Heck, I even did the entire NCAD brief on the face.

This was the initial list I came up with. After some suggestions and rethinking I have rejigged it a bit. I couldn't find an interesting enough image of Brendan Fraser to draw (which saddened me to no end) so I swapped to Bette Davis and decided to tackle those darn eyes. Actually, I've just noticed that the first three people I've drawn have rather big, expressive eyes.

Since the majority ended up being actors, I've decided to make it strictly that and I'll remove Marc Bolan for someone else - Bowie still counts though. I'm thinking of doing an A-Z Musician Portrait Challenge now, and a Character one to capture some interesting emotions and moments. Yes, I do like to bury myself in work the minute I'm free of it. But I really want to make sure I keep up with doing something everyday. This is only one of my plans of art bombardment of my life!

A -- Anna Friel



B -- Bette Davis


C -- Christina Ricci

Edward Scissorhands

Prints are just too darn fun to do. They take some time, effort and work to make but once they're done you can reproduce the image over and over again and experiment with colour and design. So, yeah, they've become a bit of an addiction of late. After the Birdeatsbaby ones I did earlier this week, I got some other ideas.

Today I made the blocks for Edward Scissorhands, based on the iconic movie image. I tend to prefer the prints that I do in white, as opposed to the blocks that represent the darker shades. Especially in this one, poor Ed's nose is a bit off in the blue pictures.

This one was a bit more difficult. It was bigger than the BEB portraits but between the hair and the blades, oy! I got there though. And I do really love those envelopes! Prints seem to look good on them.

I explained my process in the last post, so I'll just post the photos.

Birdeatsbaby Prints

First off, Birdeatsbaby are just awesome. I won't get into any explanations here because I've got a fair few photos to post, so I'll direct you to a BEB review and interview I did on Pop Culture Monster, and there's linkies at the bottom.

Okay, so it all originated with this photo of the band-

- and from that came many, many prints. (I may have actually made more prints than I did for my whole Print module in college. In one day. Erm, oops?..) This little project seen me covered in paint and my bed lost beneath, well, this...

When possible, I tend to take lots of photos of projects while I'm working on them. Partly because it's interesting to see the process, partly in case something goes wrong after hours of work!!

I started off by sketching their faces for the block's template (you can click to enlarge photos).

Then I got to cutting and sticking!







Et viola!

The first ones I did were with the negative blocks since they were, for the most part, just one section so if it fell apart (like the ones I did in college) it was no biggie. I used some different coloured paper, envelopes and these pretty little cards I completely forgot I bought!











Then the more finicky blocks - which are still holding up!






Then all together!! Plus the third set of blocks I made to include some colour, just to be extra awkward. The registration's off but I still like them. I'll eventually get them to line up properly...ish.




I even printed onto a notebook and a waistcoat that's been on my 'customise or throw out' pile for months!

There will be many more prints to come. I have plans of doing some of Frank'N'Furter, Tank Girl and Noomi Rapace, to name a few.

Birdeatsbaby ~ website | facebook | twitter | youtube

The Magic of Editing

I had some photographs of me when I was testing out hair gel on my new haircut(or "playing around with it") and I liked some of them. The added effects helped make them a bit more interesting. I also took some this morning and wasn't pleased with them, but the magic of photo editing fixed that! :)

Golden

Alrighty, today was one of those less than shiny days. To tackle that, I decided some arty time was needed. Hence, make-up. It's not all that visible in each photo, but I did a golden eyeshadow with big eyeliner wing flicks.

I used;
MAC black liquid eyeliner
Urban Decay eyeshadow: Half Baked, Smog & Darkhorse


Before long, the camera clicking got away from me, as it often does...

Portfolio Results

Okay, now that I have heard back from every college I've applied to, I thought I'd share the results here. I have already put down my deposit for Ballyfermot to do Illustration for the next two years, so I'm already covered. But whatever I'm offered, I'll take and defer a year. After the college issues I've gone through before I want to make sure I keep my options open!

NCAD
500/1000
Most places are out of 600 but NCAD is awkward. Anyhow, I'm on the waiting list.

DIT
Fine Art - 500/600
Visual Communications - 500/600

IADT
Animation - 240/600
Photography - 120/600 -- didn't pass
Visual Communications - 270/600
Fine Art 300/600
Modelmaking, Design & Digital Effects - 330/600
Costume Design 600/600
Make-Up Design 600/600

I'm a little disappointed with IADT since I really love that college and I had expected more from Fine Art. But, I cannot say I'm at all saddened by the final two results. 100% of points?! What?

The CAO change of mind is open now so I can switch the order around. I'm thinking of putting Fine Art in DIT or Make-Up Design in IADT first. Make-Up was my dream course and is still near the top of my list! So, I'll see... *thinky*... but at least I'm sorted for now!