An [Also Unfortunately Delayed] Summary Of My Museum Trip!

On the 11th of November, we went on another trip! This time to the Bristol Museum! Sadly, for the same technical reasons that caused my M-Shed post to be delayed, this post is later than I wanted. So, without further ado, let's get into the trip!

Sadly, compared to the M-Shed, there were a lot less things that caught my eye or inspired ideas. However, there were still a few things so I'll go into those now.

Giant Irish Moose

Okay, I apologise for the poor camera work, there were some rather energetic children around and I got bumped into a few times. Regardless, this creature amazed me purely for it's massive size! The sign was not kidding when it said Giant! Combine that with the fact that this massive creature used to roam freely through Ireland and you have the source of my amazement! If I saw this, I'd expect it to be somewhere like America, not somewhere so close to home! That started me thinking, what if these giant creatures roamed through modern day Britain? Even typing this now, I'm getting the mental image of one of these moose getting their antlers stuck in a Tesco's doorway! (Hm, I'll have to have a go at sketching that out!) Or even having their bulking muscle tearing a modern business suit to shreds! (A moose wearing a suit... Why not!) I think it has the potential to be both funny and serious depending on how you want to portray it!

Pokemon Cards (What!?)

Yup! I kid you not, there are Pokemon cards at a Museum! (Oh, I feel so old...) This was upstairs among and exhibit on Asian art and, for the area the cards were in, the focus on dragons (hence why they're all dragon types~!) Now while the rest of the art there was very impressive to me, it didn't quite stick with me the way seeing these did. These were things I grew up with, so they instantly made a connection. And THAT is a big reason for why they inspired me so. They're something a lot of the current generation either grew up with or grew up knowing. So, a mixture of Pokemon and the city could be a powerful message in a way. After all, no one would want to see their favourite Pikachu being used to power the entire city, or their favourite Pidgy with it's head caught in plastic from city litter. There was also the idea of creating Pokemon that have been affected by the city. A racoon like Pokemon who's mask is really sludge from toxic waste, a fox like Pokemon who's partially steel due to it having to adapt to the urban surroundings? Doesn't make sense in reality, but in the Pokemon world these kinds of things do happen.

Some Final Ideas and Thoughts

While I didn't get too much out of this experience, I did still come up with a few ideas.

 This piece was something I saw in the Museum and tried to draw within 5 minutes. (I cheated a little and took a bit longer than 5 minutes, but don't tell anyone) It was a piece of Roman architecture found in Bristol. This gave me the idea of taking the outline of Bristol, picking out possibly four key areas in time and having each of those area's combine to form Bristol? Almost like a puzzle! The outline would be there, but the actual picture would be incredibly diverse.

This idea, and the next few ones, weren't quite based on the Museum. This one here does come from something to do with Bristol though. Just after WWII ended, Bristol had it's very own Atomic Bomb Evacuation procedure that was introduced and tested. This was known as 'Project Medusa' or 'The Medusa Project' See, as I do have a soft spot for Greek Mythology and an incredibly big soft spot for Medusa, including this in an idea was something I loved. The initial idea was to have Bristol situated on top of Medusa's head and have the snakes dropping the bombs on the public. However, it ended up developing into a lot more. Soon, I had the idea of the snakes being created from recycled materials, dropping "propaganda bombs" with the faceless public suffering and panicking. By her neck was Parliament, staying completely unaffected by any of the mess they were creating, and within her mouth was a TV News Presenter, who was in slight danger but still not as much as the general public. This was to symbolise how, to me, Parliament can do whatever they want without any consequence. News Reporters are fine, so long as they show what Parliament want seen, otherwise they may suffer slightly. Then, there's the general public. The people Parliament claim to put so high up are the ones who suffer the most. This is just my personal opinion though, so feel free to disagree all you want.

These two images were based on society itself. The first was to represent how society removes the creative, curious, innocence we have as children and turns us into mindless drones who don't really care anymore. The second one had a bit more significance to me. While the rest of the city is painted brightly and happily, on top of the bridge a lone figure stands, burdened by his own demons and with death for his only companion. This came to me because I am personally sickened with how society treats suicide. While in a place where they could be seen as a good person, they'll say how much they cared for the victim and how special they were and such. But, I've been in far too many situations where people have treated it as an inconvenience. Two examples that really stick with me are both from last year. While on the bus home, traffic was extremely heavy. A new batch of people got on and it was finally learnt traffic was so heavy because a man had tried to kill himself by jumping from a building and police had turned up to stop him. The main reaction from everyone on the bus was that he was an inconvenience. They said things like "We have other stuff to do, can't he have jumped another day or picked another method!?" The second example was from an AS Theatre Studies class. A student who comes in by train was late due to the train being stopped because someone had thrown themselves in front of it and killed themselves. The student just sat there saying "I wish they'd picked a different day, I couldn't be bothered to deal with having to wait because of them." This student actually wishing this person killed themselves on a different day. While I know not all of society is like this and do understand that, these occurrences just disgusted me so much I had to make a statement on it.

Finally, my thoughts on the actual Museum trip. As I stated earlier, I didn't get as much out of it as I hoped. And that was partially my own fault, though it was unintentional. Because this was a place I visited so often as a child, instead of feeling inspired I only really got pure nostalgic joy from being there. However I am trying to plan some revisits to the museum and most likely revisit a few times, so hopefully I'll be able to do that and get something more from the experience.

An [Unfortunately Delayed] Summary Of My M-Shed Visit!

On Tuesday the 5th of November we had a trip out to the M-Shed in Bristol. I would've had my post about it up sooner, but ran into some technical difficulties that I've only recently been able to sort. So, here's a quick account of my visit and the things that really interested and inspired me.

During my trip to the M-Shed, which I believe was my very first trip there as well, I was honestly amazed and interested in a lot of things! And I took so many photo's I probably seemed like a tourist. However, out of the general pictures I took, I'll only have the ones that really had me interested in this blog.

The Book of Human Flesh

The first item I was really excited about, probably more excited than I should've been, was a book made of human flesh. It was created after a man's execution and, surprisingly, his crime was throwing a rock at a girl that had rejected him. She died later in an operation on her head and so he was charged with murder. These two pictures are what the book looked like. Doesn't really look like flesh, does it? Below was a little sketch I tried doing based on the book.

Beyond the sketch, the book also inspired an idea with me!

The fact that the criminal went from the gallows to being a book is what started off the idea of having him come out of a book, hanging from the gallows - possibly made 3D instead of just a painting. That then lead to the idea of having various items related to Bristol's history emerging from books and then modern day Bristol, or even a general "modern city" appearing around them.

Bomb Shelter

This sketch was based on a bomb shelter type thing in the M-Shed. When I was drawing it, I started thinking about the idea of "sheltered" Bristol, perhaps with fake, propaganda threat's as the bombs? I'm not too certain on the idea, but it could be something worth looking into.

Twisting Staircases

 The staircases were another thing that, surprisingly, really interested me. When I came to the M-Shed, I didn't really think the staircases would interest me that much. And looking at them head on, they didn't. But, looking down from the top of them definitely interested me! I couldn't help but attempt to draw the view from the top of the blue one! (Which you can see below)

This started me on another idea - What about a twisted city? Perhaps paint it with bright, happy, vibrant colours, but have the buildings, and maybe even the people, twisted and distorted. This would represent the way everyone makes the city out to be this amazing, happy, awesome place, but really it has it's own darkness and twists to it, that usually remain hidden.

The View and Some Closing Thoughts

The view from the area around the M-Shed was definitely breathtaking, despite the fact that it's one I see almost every day, due to my habit of hanging around the harbour area. I'd never seen it from on the water before and, although The Mathew wasn't going out and about, even being on the stationary boat made me see things in a new light. While it didn't really inspire any ideas with me, it definitely gave me a refreshing outlook on the city and helped me look at some positives too.
My Final thoughts about my trip was that it was a really enriching experience. When I got back to college, I started pumping out ideas I really, genuinely liked and even helped a few others with some ideas. While I only showed a few ideas here, I definitely got a lot more out of the trip than words can describe.

Creative Self Portrait - Extra Thumbnails!

Here I thought I'd put up a few extra thumbnail ideas I had during the process of making this.

Here was an idea for a landscape painting, one as "normal" me and one as the weird side to me. It also had a link to my love of Medusa's Mythology.

 This was an idea that came to mind during a random song. It was to represent the way I patch myself up instead of letting other's help me.

 This was based on a line from Don't Go by Bring Me The Horizon ft. Lights! The line went "if I spill my guts, it would make a mess we can't clean up." The line interested me a lot due to the double meaning it has.

Finally this design was to represent the way I try to keep my heart locked up, otherwise known as the way I keep my feeling's inside.

The First Four Weeks - A Preview

Hi! So, as the post title indicates, this is gonna full of work from the first four weeks of my Art and Design class! So why does it say preview? Well, I only have pictures from my phone so they're a not that high quality and there aren't that many either sorry. I'll have an updated post later on! So, without further ado, let's take a look!

First Piece - Manga Style Drawing

 This piece wasn't actually set work but was something I worked on over my spare time. It was also my way of starting to explore Watercolours. As I've never used them before now, beyond possibly using them when I was a child, I didn't want to risk ruining a piece of art for this class that I was fond of, so I decided to use this as a chance to experiment with them. All in all, I'm quite fond of it! It's got a bit more colour to it now plus some bolder lines, so I'll add a fresh picture of it when I do the updated post later!

Second Piece - Creating A Character From Our Objects

We were each given an object to use as inspiration over these 4 weeks and my object was a button. I got the idea for this guy, Zack the Zombie, from one particular part of the button's design. It looked a lot like a head with shoulders and something going through the head, thanks to my interesting imagination, and as a result of me thinking "how can I have a character that has something going through it's head?" I created a zombie from it.

 

He's quite scary looking but really he's a playful zombie who loves pranks and wants to make friends!

Third Piece - Lettering Work

 For this piece the letters were supposed to be more like ones seen in the Book of Celts and I do have one completed and coloured, object based piece on it. However, my first/second idea I liked a little too much to let go, and it just so happens this is the piece I had photos of. I was originally going to do a G with various Greek Mythological Creatures, Heroes and Monsters in it, mostly because I have a soft spot for Greek Mythology. However, I ended up choosing to focus on the myth I know best; Medusa. I decided to tell her story, or the variation of it I grew up with, within an M. See the pictures below for more detail (and for a quick lesson in mythology!)

 This part was Medusa and her sister's, Stheno and Euryale, birth as well as depicting Medusa growing taller and older due to her mortality.

 Then we have Medusa with Athena, who's allowing Medusa to serve in her temples, Poseidon attacking Medusa within Athena's temple, Medusa left to the wrath of the Gods and finally being cursed. [For those wondering, in this variation of the Myth, Medusa didn't willing lay with Poseidon. Instead, she ran from him trying to seek sanctuary in Athena's temple, thinking no other God would dare defile another God's temple. Poseidon dared, however, and took her within Athena's temple while Athena turned her back on Medua's pleas for help. Athena later punished Medusa for allowing herself to be seen by distorting her once beautiful appearance into the 'snakes for hair' one we know, and banishing Medusa and her sisters into exile. She also later sent her followers to the island they had been exiled to in an attempt to kill Medusa]

 Here we have the first of many foolish heroes attempting to slay Medusa, her getting angry and the starts of her stone garden.

 Medusa surrounded by victims, having finally given into becoming the Monster she was seen as.

 Medusa's death and Pegasus' birth.

 Medusa's head being placed into the sack of Kibisis.

 Perseus using Medusa's head to rescue Andromeda.

 Finally, Bellerophon, the Hero who tamed Pegasus. I decided to include this and the previous part with Perseus and Andromeda as Medusa, or in this case her child, did have relevance to their lives. The piece is all quite sketchy and I have made changes to it, so I'll show that in the update post.

Fourth Piece - Group Project

 For this piece, we worked in groups of fours, each of us adding our own parts to our own corner of the picture. The challenge was to try and make it blend together where the corners met. My part was the lower left.

Medusa again! Did I mention I like her myth?

That's all for now, there'll be a whole lot more in the update post!