The Cursed Tattoo

(All images are copyright to me)

This was something I did for a competition over the summer. I've never done anything like a comic strip before, didn't really have a clue what I was doing, don't even read the things. Anyway I gave it a shot and this is the result!

Some people understand it when they read it and others can't work out what's going on! Let me know if you get it! As I say, I've never attempted anything like this before.

I think I'd quite like to have a tattoo that moved round my body, would be like a little friend haha, as long as it was nice to me and didn't scratch! What do you reckon? Moving tattoo, yay? nay?

Melusina

These are a few pages from a book I wrote for a project last term. (click for full view) I realised I haven't done anything like this for a while now. It's because I've been sketching instead.

Anyway this has given me an idea for a comic strip I am doing.
(never done a comic strip before!)
Also reminds me to get on with designing my friends tattoo.

Jeffree Star and Hyperreality

Who's heard of Jeffree Star?I'm having to do a presentation on hyperreality and I am linking it to plastic surgery and body modification. I think it's sad when people go under the knife to try and look like a celebrity who has been photo-shopped and made up to within an inch of their life. They are basing their image on beauty that was never there in the first place and which is an illusion, fake and hyperreal.

I can't really talk because I wont go out of the house without make up on but seriously after watching the programme 'Drastic Plastic' on Thursday it has completely put me off plastic surgery for life! It was the most graphic amd squirm-making programme I have ever seen on that subject!

Anyway I don't know if Jeffree Star has ever had plastic surgery but he is a prime example of a hyperreal person. It's all about the show but to be honest I think he's quite cool. He looks so PLASTIC all the time!'The vanity sanctuary will keep me safe'

Here are some other crazy and maybe more extreme people I have come across whilst researching this subject:

LIZARD MAN! He has his tongue split in half and everything! He has gone as far to have sharpened teeth and a full body tattoo of green scales!

CAT MAN!He has all those piercings in his lip so that he can attach whiskers to them! He also has silicone implants in his cheeks and forehead along with many other modifications. This picture freaks me out a bit!

LEOPARD MAN!
However the MOST tattoed man in the world is this guy (below) Lucky Diamond Rich who has even had the inside of his ears and his gums tattooed with black ink!It's crazy the lengths some people will go to!I think this woman looks quite beautiful with all the gold hoops around her neck but they must be incredibly restrictive!

And eyeball piercing/tattooing. Need I say more?!

The Fairy Melusina

I can finally upload some of my double page spreads for 'The Fairy Melusina' book!
These are just prototypes of how it's going to look. I know there's still some spelling mistakes in there! lol.

I'm hoping to have finished all the pages by the end of the weekend so that then I can put the book together. I want to try and bind it like we were shown last week. I can't wait to finish it now though. It's taken so long!

The Fairy Melusina

Its been ages but i've been ill for two weeks and now I am drowning in the amount of work i have to do.

Sue told me to fill a whole book of just people and faces for one of my final pieces for the recession project. It's because I really need to work on drawing faces and giving them actual character instead of just identical blank expressions which is what I usually do!

This is one of my favourite ones I did:
it's drawn from a random photograph that I found on deviant art.

Anyway we are doing different projects now. We have three to do in 6 weeks!!! I have written a book and am illustrating it for one of the projects which is quite scary because I literally have SO much work to do. I am painting the second picture for it now. (only the second! eek) It has taken me all day so far and I feel really nervous about how it is going to turn out.

My book involves a tattoo studio and so for research I went to Shades of Grey which is a tattoo studio in Hitchin and asked if I could draw while the guy worked. The lady in there had pink hair! It made me miss having pink hair :(
I think being a tattooist would be quite cool but I would never have the confidence to put a needle in someones skin without being worried about making a mistake.

Theses are designs for the three characters in the story:
This is Mrs Needleskin. She runs the Tattoo parlour with her husband Mr Needleskin (below). They are quite old as you can see but this means that they are very good at their job and people come from far and wide to get tattoos from Mr and Mrs Needleskin.
And THIS is the Fairy called Melusina who lives in a cardboard castle in Mr and Mrs Needlekins attic at the top of their tall creepy house and causes CHAOS.
It's only a kind of rough drawing of her. I want to improve her and obviously make her wings look better and things. Also she will be wearing clothes. I just haven't decided what yet so I didnt draw them.

Recession

FINALLY!!! We have the internet back in our house!!! :)
means I can update at last! woop
Ok well at the moment we are doing a really scintillating project on the RECESSION. yay! Lots of drawing economy food and boring stuff so I decided to show what the recession is like from students point of view.

To be honest I don't think we are really that affected as students. Maybe the price of bread and milk has gone up and the alcohol in the SU bar (by 40 p!!!) but other than that I havn't felt much change...Anyways I have been doing a visual diary of my day to day life over the past week or so. I want to make it into an a5 book.
Kayley showed us her tatoo kit- all the needles and the machines and stuffon Tuesday. scary scary.^
Then I was happily having a shower on Wednesday morning when there was a POWERCUT!

It didn't come at the best of times cos my hair was still full of conditioner and the water went freezing cold. sigh.
It was weird walking along the road with no street lights though, kind of spooky.
Then the next morning I got my hair coloured for 10 quid! bargain!
We went out that night as well. Student night so it was FREE:)
Antics in the club (not me to clarify lol)^
Sleep costs nothing.
Imagination is free.
Oh yes and I can't believe it was SNOWING yesterday!

Cupcakes and ice cream cones dripping down my collarbones^ (a song I REALLY like)


As you can probably tell all the drawings are pretty doodly. This is because I did not use a pencil at all I just went straight in with the pen. Also why a lot of the bodies are not in proportion and things because I couldn't correct them.