Norwich Trip

What We Did

We met at the train station in Cambridge and caught the train to Norwich. Once there, we had to walk over to the University. Whilst walking on campus I noticed some of the old buildings with lots of architectural detail, they reminded me of the Cambridge buildings I was familiar with. This helped me to visualise myself at Norwich University. The first part of the Degree Show we viewed was the: Games art, illustration and graphic design. I really liked all three of these exhibitions, however my favourite was the games art as the work was the most detailed and diverse. There was a mixture of: concept art, digital animation, playable 3D games, character designs, sketches, texture designs and scene and landscape designs. This course appealed to me the most as it opens a lot of doors for me and steers me into the right sort of career I would like to pursue, which is in the game and media art industry. On the other hand I also really liked the Illustration work, because there was so much variety between the pieces as there was a mix of digital and traditional work. There were pieces for: book illustrations, magazines, games and films.
After lunch we went into another building opposite and looked at: Fine art, film making, textiles and sculpture. Most of the work I saw was very expressive and very strange. These pieces varied from sound art, 3 TV's facing each other playing disturbing images and sounds and a broken stairway leading to a key on string. However I saw a few pieces which where very interesting, and some work which showed a lot of technical skill, which I really liked. The final part of the show was the fashion and animation. I really liked the animations as all the movies were all different and all technically good. My favourite was a 3D animation by a student. The animation showed the life of a man who was cursed and was trying to be good but always hurt everything he touched. I liked this short best because it had the best technical 3D animation and created the biggest impact when watching it. However some of the animations were very strange, and I didn't get what the message of the film was.

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NDAD Year 1 Exhibition Invitation Design

Recently I was asked by my previous teacher to design the invitation for the NDAD Year 1 Art Exhibition, which my work is being displayed in, alongside my classmates work. I had produced three outcomes and then left it up to her to choose which she preferred. In the end she chose the one below, which I entirely agreed with as it looked the sleekest and most professional. I am happy with this design and wouldn't change anything if I did it again.

When selecting the artwork which I would then incorporate into my design was quite challenging, as there was a vast amount of diversity amongst the pieces. I wanted to showcase all the different types of art styles and techniques in my invitation, therefore people who saw the invitation would want to go.

To arrange the images I chose to display them in an interesting artist way, so it would look sleek as well as well as arty. To do this I overlapped them all as if they were in a collage.

When creating the different variations and designs I wanted to keep the image arrangement because it took a long time to get right, and I was happy with the final result.

The design overall feels very professional and slightly arty as most galleries are very plain and white, this would therefore showcase the work better. I incorporated this idea into my invitation, which is why I used mainly black and white.

Drawing In Cambridge

This was done using pencil and I was stood on another bridge
over the river, so I could get a high up viewpoint and see
everything in clear view.

I produced this piece by drawing using felt tip and not taking
my pen off the page. I found this technique quite difficult
and it gave an interesting effect. I don't really like this
drawing as it looks a bit too surreal for me.

I found drawing in Cambridge very inspirational and informative towards my Urban and Rural unit. I produced several drawings of the surrounding area, mostly to do with rural. 

We visited the Punting River and Parkers Peace therefore, there was a lot more rural sites then urban. I am happy with my drawings as I used a wide  range of techniques and medias, such as: Fine liner, pencil, charcoal and felt tip.

I wasn't quite sure how this drawing was going to turn out as I
drew it without looking down at the page. I didn't see it until I
had finished scanning the building. I quite like the effect of
this drawing as it looks quite interesting and as if the building
is moving.

To draw this image I used a felt tip and was very expressive
and almost cartoon like when drawing it. For example when
I drew the water, I wanted to add every ripple and stream I
saw using lines. This technique did not go as I planned, but
I still like the effect it creates.

For the final image I drew the punting river from a bridge
overlooking the punts bay. I used a fine liner to draw it. Most
of the details in the image went to plan, however I wasn't sure
how to approach the water so I decided to shade in black the
areas which were not affected by the light. I also didn't get to
finish it as it was supposed to be a 3 minute drawing.

Anglia Ruskin University Degree Show

Anglia Ruskin University Degree Show

On Friday 20th June my art group and I attended the Anglia Ruskin Art and Design Degree Show. The show consisted of 8 separate exhibitions for the different art medias which were: Illustration, Graphic Design, Game Design, Fashion, Fine Art, Interior Design, Animation and Photography.

Out of the areas my favourite was Illustration and Game Design. 

I liked Illustration as the work was very professional and mixed both practical techniques with digital. My favourite piece of the collection, were the comic books, produced by Nicky Durham.

I also really liked the Game Design work, as the students had made actual working games which looked like something I would be interested in playing. My favourite work from this are was the concept artwork produced by Jonathon Shilling. His digital paintings were very detailed, and looked like the artwork you would see from a professional games company.

Overall it was a very good trip which I thoroughly enjoyed, I took a lot of inspiration from the work displayed and will definitely go back next year. From seeing the work and outcomes produced by the students at Anglia Ruskin, I am now a lot more interested in attending Anglia Ruskin University myself.

Nicky Durham: 
www.nickydurham.co.uk
nicky.durham@hotmail.com

Jonathon Shilling:
http://jonshills.daportfolio.com
jonathonshilling@hotmail.com

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