Selected Work From Second Year

In my second year of University, I decided to drop costume and continue with props and set.

Scenic Painting:

One of our projects for set was to paint an 8ft by 4ft scenic painting. I chose an image that I thought would look interesting on a larger scale and created a water colour version of it (on the left). I then proceeded to paint the final piece (on the right) which I thoroughly enjoyed and am quite happy with.

 

Amadeus Set:

We also got given a project to design a simplistic set for a full theatre production of a chosen script and were to create one scene from it. I chose to design for Amadeus and here I have created one of the end scenes where Salieri is in his apartment and Mozart is in his and we can see both of them at the same time. I was quite pleased with the end result, especially Mozarts apartment.

   

Children's TV Character:

For one props projects we were asked to create a children's TV character. I decided to create two ghosts both of which I decided to colour brightly and add a few accessories so as to hold the child's attention. At first, they didn't have anything to stand on but then I realised it might be more interesting if they could bounce so I added a spring which worked quite well because now they walk over a small surface when you push down on the spring.



Advertising For The Salvador Dali Museum:

This was my favourite project of second year. We had to come up with an idea for advertising and I decided I would like to make something using materials I wasn't completely used to which I really enjoyed. I ended up deciding to advertise for the Salvador Dali Museum; my idea was to pick out the most recognisable aspects of some of the more famous Dali paintings and mount them on a board as if at random but when looked at from the front can be read  as the logo for the museum. The bridge it stands on is taken from another Dali painting but perhaps one that is not as famous as the others (a quiet nod to the more dedicated Dali fans). The idea behind this was that a camera would glide up the stairs of the bridge and see the Dali objects from the back. It would then slowly rotate bringing the whole thing together so we see the objects from the front and zoom in on the writing at the bottom of the board which would look as if it was folding out and the screen would fade to an image of the entire logo. I wanted to have the base of the objects acting as the base of the bridge which didn't quite happen as I couldn't quite get the shape of the bridge entirely right in time, however I am very pleased with how it turned out in the end.



Pop Art:

In my visual studies lesson I decided to return to a Photoshop technique I had tried out in college and try to improve on it. I did a lot of these photos and here I have just picked out the three which I like the best. The first one on the left was the first one I tried where my own style of pop art really came through although I was still having troubles, especially with teeth. With the middle photograph, I stuggled more with the features but I think the teeth look a lot better in this one. The image on the right is  my favourite of the three and is the most recent one I have created. I enjoyed the challenge of creating a pop art guinea pig.



Sculpting Pat the Cat:

In another visual studies lesson I decided to try and sculpt out of Plasticine as I felt like I was always using Sculpey. So I chose a really easy shape which came in the form of Pat the Cat from Colin and Jacqui Hawkins children's book 'Pat the Cat'. It was really quite simple to do because he is made up from very basic shapes, most of which are variations of a circle. I sculpted him out of Plasticine and felt I couldn't leave him without a face so I covered him in tissue paper, painted him and stuck a ribbon on his hat. Although he looks grumpy and miserable, I kind of like it. Though I found out I don't like using Plasticine and will stick with Sculpey or clay in future as it is a lot easier to work with.



Selected Work From First Year

In my first year of University I studied props, set and costume. Here, I have selected a few pieces of work from my first year that I enjoyed designing and creating.

Rocky Horror Set:

I designed the set so the actor that was playing the main role would be introduced on stage behind an image of himself dressed in full costume. The image would then rotate to reveal the actor sitting on the sofa in the same position as on the photograph. I also decided to take a few well known paintings and distort them to fit in with their surreal surroundings and personalities.

Plague Doctor Mask:

For one of my costume projects I thought it might be quite interesting to create a mask rather than a skirt or a shirt. So, after a bit of research I found the mask that I wanted to re-create which was that of a Plague Doctor. I think it worked out quite well especially from working on a tight budget.

Jellyfish:

In props, one of our assignments was to create a surreal creature that was to play an instrument in an orchestra. I combined a jellyfish body with the back of a ladybird and the eyes of a tree frog. The piano it is playing has insect legs and owl feet. The design on the piano was inspired from the segmented patterns found on some insects and most reptiles. I tried to keep this quite simple in terms of its creation.



Hounds and Jackals:

Here, I replicated an ancient Egyptian game which is now known as Hounds and Jackals. It had to be safe and easy enough to understand as children were the target audience.