Protests, exhibitions, bladder of lard...

HEY.

So following the Macbeth project a few of my pieces were exhibited at my college in an exhibition featuring a few students from my course, so that was quite exciting...

My Elephant and Castle post it project, second one down...

My sketchbook was in the exhibition as well, this one was for the Cabinet of Curiosities project.

A wall of our Christmas posters...hehehe.

 Between projects I did a bit of walking...

The blue sky decided to show it's face.

Never get sick of that...

Great piece in the Whitechapel Gallery.

College by one of my new favourites, John Steaker. Incredible collages.

A cockney cash machine!!!!!!! Translated: "Take your card and cash will follow"

Another project I had to work on was titled "Environment". The point of the project was to somehow create a piece that informed the public of some issue, and put that piece out into the world. Initially I was going to do the project on light pollution, but then my tutor decided that as a group we should focus on something that is relevant to all of us, the student cuts. So, we decided to create signs and join a protest against the removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance, which gives money to poor students.

Mine's the one on the right.

Along with creating a sign for the protest, we had to make a film documenting the whole thing. The experience is one I will never forget, it's extremely empowering being surrounded by that many people being so passionate about a single issue. Walking through the streets of London to Big Ben was amazing. 

I even got into one of the newspapers round here!

And you can watch my short little film HERE!

That's all for now!

-Liam x

Macbeth

This post will be about the first project when I got back, the Shakespeare project. First a nice roast dinner though...

Lovely roast dinner we had the night I got back.  It was nice to be welcomed back with such warmth. :)

The project was to design a marketing campaign based around a new version of a Shakespeare play of your choice that was being put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the theatre closest to where you live. Seeing as I live down the street from Theatre Peckham, that's where my play was to take place. I chose Macbeth because I find the idea interesting, and I thought a modern take on it would be fun.

I took a walk around the area and decided that having the play take place in the area that it was being put on in would be interesting. I live in quite a poor area, filled with estates. I thought it would be interesting to have Macbeth take place in one of these, and have the king be the landlord etc. So I began to play around with this idea...

One of the scenes that interested me the most in Macbeth is when Lady Macbeth is trying to wash her hands of the blood that she has on her hands. I did a photo shoot to try and spark some ideas.

Set up in my kitchen...

Fake blood...

A product I thought that might be interesting to promote the production would be some soap to reflect the washing of hands, so I made a few of these...

For the posters I decided to do something different than what I had been doing. I hadn't drawn something in a while, something big scale, so I did four massive watercolour and ink posters inspired by lifestyle illustrations of the sixties and seventies...

I made some boxes for the soap to go along with it...

However I went in and talked to my tutor and we decided that although they are aesthetically pleasing to me, they wouldn't reach a wide audience. I wanted to stay in a similar line but create something more colourful and bold. So, back to the drawing board... I did some swatches to try and capture the emotions I wanted to get across...

And below is what I finally came up with. :)

The "x"'s in the posters above were a complete fluke. I had that mark in my sketchbook and it caught my tutor's eye, and he said it almost represented the top of a crown while also saying something about the state of the estates in my area. So I went with it and it became a primary feature in the project.

Just goes to show you the journey a project can take and how one thing can lead to another and so on... It was definitely a learning experience but I was really happy with the outcome. 

That's all for now folks!

-Liam xx

London to Paris to California and back to London

SO. Where were we?

The last post I did here (save the small one before this) was me being completely excited about going home for Christmas. Little did I know that I would have a lonnnggg journey ahead of me.

The massive snowstorm that came across Europe trapped me in London for an extra four days. Four days of waiting and waiting, cancellations, delays, re routes, trains, planes, and automobiles.

I ended up having to take the train to Paris to have any chance of getting out of Europe by Christmas.

The good thing was that I got to explore Paris during Christmastime, which was absolutely stunning.

So below is just a little photo diary of my journey home, to get an idea of what that was like. It was stressful and tiring, but beautiful.

Had to get at the train station at 3 in the morning in the freezing cold to attempt to get on a train. Thankfully I was on the first train out at 6 in the morning.

Joyeaux Noel

The rat shop that can be seen in Ratatouille.

One of my all time favourite book stores, Shakespeare and Company. Took a little nap here as I was completely and utterly exhausted, and inside it was warm and quiet. It was wonderful.

So FINALLY, after a taxi, a train, two planes, and four days, I got home safely. Just in time to have my Ugly Christmas Sweater party and see all these beautiful faces for the first time in four months.

To my delight my best friend's band played for everyone at my party. More on them and my collaboration with them in another post.

This is Christmas.

Christmas dinner. Prime Rib, garlic mushrooms, roasted vegetables and potatoes. Absolutely amazing.

Back to BLUE SKY. 

The rain had left the area around where I live greener than usual, a wonderful surprise. 

Had time to return to my home away from home, Disneyland. :)

That's happiness right there. Val, Natalie, me and Davy.

New Years, which involved watching silent films and throwing glitter in the streets at midnight. And following a Spanish tradition of eating a grape every second for the last 12 seconds of the year.

And then... a miracle happened. SNOW. IN VALENCIA.

It had followed me from London. I hadn't seen snowfall in 12 years before London, and here it was following me everywhere I went.

It was wonderful though, a really nice moment that I was so happy I could be a part of while I was home.

My street in a light dusting of snow.

A Roscoe's feast with all my friends, of course.

And that was my trip home! It was extremely busy, but wonderful. And strange to think that it was four months ago now, and I'm now planning on my return in a month's time. Although going back did bring back some memories of why I left in the first place, it was still incredible to see everyone and to have that feeling of home for Christmas. But when it was time for me to return to London, I was more than ready and excited to see what the term ahead brought me.

-Liam x