Nearing the end of my time in scenic..

So I haven't blogged very much in the last month but im not going to lie, we've been working on 19 black brick walls, there's not really too much I can say when were doing the same thing week in, week out. But now, finally, we have managed to conquer the bricks and actually finished them all early and we only had to do one lat night, and it wasn't even that late!! It's been challenging as it has been pretty monotonous and repetitive so we've been having to keep our focus and not slack or give it less effort.

Sarah, Rosé and I worked on wallpapering one of the house flats which was pretty tricky as none of us had ever wallpapered before and we were trying to do it with PVA which gave us no give or movement once it touched the wood, which obviously didnt help as it was a patterned design which needed to match up. We eventually persuaded Gary to let us buy some wallpaper paste which made it a lot easier.

I requested to stay in Scenic for an extra week so im now back working on the Tron show and painting the bridge which is pretty interesting and very messy.

Then it's back to costume for 3 weeks which im kind of looking forward to, i'll love it when im back in it but i'd quite like to stay in scenic for a little longer. Only a few more weeks of term left though.

I managed to get myself a work placement at Scottish opera in summer for 2 weeks which will hopefully be a very beneficial thing for me to have. Im really looking forward to it.

Magic Flute: Part II

So the gold bricks are finished and now its time for the 19 flats of black bricks. Not quite as large as the gold walls but a lot more of them to do. We started off painting the flats with a mix of greys, warm browns and greens so that when we removed the tape the grout would be interesting and varied in places. Next, as before, we masked out the bricks, we managed to persuade Cordelia to let us make them a little bigger so it didnt take as long. Then we had to idendine them then peel off the tape. We had a few little bits of bother with the masking tape not coming off well and we spent a lot of time picking at it and fixing the grout in places. Then we dry brushed them green and grey to make them look old and worn. They looked great, they took time but we all got used to it pretty quickly.

After a couple of weeks of this we got in some new first years so the techniques changed and there were a few mistakes and Sarah, Rose and I were on fixing up detail duty. After a few days with some guidance we managed to steer them in the right track and a few less mistakes were made.

We realised about halfway through that the brick walls would have to match up and that we would have to add some time into our schedule to lie them together so that we could fix the joins and make sure that they matched up colourwise and the brick layout matched up. We had a few little problems with this, one of which meant that i had to crawl down the middle of two and scrape off with a scalpol some of the hard idendine and re-tape it so that the lines matched up. This was a little frustrating but would have looked stupid and obvious if it hadnt been fixed!

I cant wait until its all finished and up on stage, it will look amazing and all our hard work will definately have paid off!!

The magic flute....lets get bricking!

Finally it was on to the dreaded opera, The magic flute, with all its bricks (roughly calculated that's around 16, 401 bricks....) Seeing the pile of flats sitting in workshop did make me feel a little bit sick. And when Gary told us there had been some drawings missing during our samples and that each brick wasn't just a random size but actually the designer wanted each brick to be an exact height and width, we had to get our calculators out and spent quite a bit of time trying to work out what size to make each brick.

After an hour or so of calculations and mistakes we finally managed to figure out how we were to tackle this situation and, armed with a roll of masking tape, we all got sticking!
The first flat took a whole afternoon, actually it took from 10.30 until 5 to mark up, tape and idendine! But we did learn a lot from it.

When the second flat arrived I think there was a drop in motivation as we all realised that we had to do it all again. When the 3rd flat arrived...well...lets just say the i-pod was cranked up!

They are looking great though now we've got them all idendined and painted and up on the paint frame (luckily with only one accident and that was just Simon not concentrating on where he was hammering and hammered his hand....silly man!)

We started applying the size and managed to gold leaf a small section before Gary found some more plans which showed areas that would be hidden so didnt need to be made gold....

So the rest will be tomorrows task....before we head to the Lyceum for our mock interview!

Sons of Ulster

Last week was a funny old week. There wasn't much motivation going about and the days seemed to drag. It was pretty quite whilst we were waiting for the magic flute walls to be made.


Saz, Rosé and I were put in charge of the floor for the Tron show which we were pretty much left to our own devices as Emma's model left a lot to the imagination. It was to look like muddy WWII trenches. It was a good experience though, having to figure out what textures to use and how to give it depth and a muddy feel. After we got the hang of it and found out what worked I think it looked great.

After Emma okay'd it we packed it up and piled it in the corner ready for our next challenge.

Back to scenic.

So im now back in scenic after about 13 weeks off. I did feel a bit out of practise and it took me a couple of days to get back on my feet and the ways of scenic. but now im back I love it again. We've worked on the floor for the magic flute which looked pretty fabby. It was supposed to look like a 1950s linoleum and honestly i think we did a great job. Painting in the black squares got a bit tedious after a while but we stuck at it and made the time pass....somehow.
I think we were all pretty glad to get it up and piled in the corner. Just hope the designer likes it when she comes to see it!

The last week of Design

Although I started off not enjoying design, im pretty sure it wasn't the design process that I didnt enjoy but more the lack of organisation of the elective itself. It was a bit scattered and disorganised and I feel a lot was thrown at us with very little help or explanation.
After the white card model and hearing what the lecturers had to say about my design and the positive feedback that I got I felt a lot more at ease and a weight was definitely lifted off my shoulders. This week iv really enjoyed working in my own time at home where I have no distractions and making my model come to life and adding textures and making chairs and tables and organising my folder of costume designs and props and technical drawings. Im really happy with what i'v produced and when I popped into uni yesterday and saw how little everyone else had done on their model I felt a lot more at ease again because I was clearly much further ahead than the rest of them.
I have enjoyed my time in design in the last 2 weeks, the first 2 I didn't enjoy quite so much but once i'd got my heard around it and time managed all the other work that was to be done for other modules, I started to relax a bit and made lists and priorotised what was the most important and have managed to get to today and only have a couple of things left to do which are easy and im not stressing about.
I think I have learnt a lot in my time in design. I've learnt how much work it involves and how important it is to research a play so you get a feel for the characters, the set and you are able to create the atmosphere and produce a set that tells the story itself.
I've learnt that it is a very stressful thing to do and there are a lot of areas to take into consideration. I know that the 4 weeks we had was not a long time and that designers usually get longer but I think it was good to be rushed and have to create your own timetable and be able to manage your time well, as well as trying to juggle all the other modules and workloads. I think its really important to be able to manage your time, especially as a designer.
Although I worked without distractions at home I did make sure I came into uni at some point every day even if it was just for an hour, so that I could see how the others were getting along and talk to the lecturers if I needed anything.
I know i'v been a bit of a moan, but its just because when I get stressed I get run down really easily and when im run down I tend to get ill which makes me a bit deflated and irritable. Which has happened. But I suppose it also made me sit down and make lists and priorotise what was needed, and in doing so like I said above, i'v got a ahead of myself and im beginning to enjoy myself and what im doing.
At the end of the day though...Im still glad to be an applied artist and cant wait to get back into scenic after Easter!

So much to do, so little time.

I made a "To Do" list today. It was pretty long....its still pretty long. I feel like my head is going to explode the amount of work iv got to do by Friday. Its horrible.

I think i'm possibly not hating design as much as I was when I wrote my last blog. I enjoyed making my model, although I did find it a little tricky as I wasn't sure where to start (as a model making class was scheduled the day before our white card model was due in. Sorry but that's just bad planning!) so I kind of just started making things using the little knowledge I have of model making from college. 

The white card presentation went well though and although I think my design was the simplest, it seemed to have the least said about it, as it was a model that was able to work, so im glad I managed to think about all the relevant areas whilst making my design and therefore not having any design or structure faults. It did ease my mind a little once the white card was over. 

Still got a shed load of stuff to do for the final presentation on Friday as well as all our PP5/6 stuff and our CCS 5/6 stuff, whatever the hell that is. Don't even know where to start with that!

So im a little bit stressed out which has resulted in me being run down, which has in turn resulted in me getting ill, so along with all of what is due in I feel like crap, have no motivation and my concentration is limited. So im finding the last few weeks of term pretty tough and I cannot wait to have a holiday.

On a more positive note I am loving Corel painter. I thing its a great program to have and it has helped me so much with my costume designs as I cannot draw people to save myself (yes Jamie I know I need to practice more drawings!). It also makes it not seem like work which is quite good and I enjoy using it. Some of my drawings are probably a little bit funny and may have dodgy arms or wonky feet but hey, it gets the message across!

I need to start painting again, I've been away from it for too long. I got some inspiration the other day after watching 'Memoires of a Geisha' and have chosen a picture I'd like to attempt.

I've also been thinking of trying to get some work experience in a theater over summer. Just so I cant get a little more experience and hands on and keep up my skills.