Illustrations: Help I've Got Hair Monsters!

 A collaboration between myself and author Liesel Bernardo. 'Help! I've Got Hair Monsters' is a children's story explaining what head-lice are and how to deal with them, using fuzzy circus characters. Here are a few illustrations from the story.

These images are a mixture of my own pen drawings and found objects and textures collaged together in Photoshop. 

Illustrations: Little Things That Make Me Happy

In much of my work I like to use as much texture as possible. Whether it is animation or illustration, I love to use lots of crumpled paper, ribbons, buttons and anything that makes you want to touch the work!

Below are illustrations based on little things that make me happy, such as sitting with a cat on my lap or funny memories of my mother spilling pumpkins all over the floor of a supermarket.

To make these images, I cut out images from books and magazines and my own drawings and set them up in a dolls house along with doll furniture. I lit the scenes through the little windows of the house and photographed them.

I am now setting out on the adventure that is the Final Major Project, the last film I will make as a student! I have written up my idea in a story format as an exercise at uni which I found really helpful and a fun way to get the story out of my head and onto paper.

 

Beside the sea

A wide stretch of yellow sand, speckled with grey pebbles clustered like sprinkles on a cake. Empty but for the shrieking seagulls, crashing waves… and a small hut on giant wheels with its door locked shut.

The sea laps at the bottom of the neat steps that lead up to the locked door. Fresh sea breezes nudge the little shack, but it stays put, silent and still as if it grew on that very spot. Chalk white with handsome red stripes running down vertically, as if strawberry ice cream is dripping from the roof, the hut brings a splash of colour to the watery scene. 

(Image from: http://www.farringtonsforge.co.uk/signs_bathing/index.htm)

With a click that rings out like pebbles colliding under the force of the waves, the door is unlocked and snaps open. A figure emerges from the gloom of the hut, tentatively tackling the little steps one by one with her delicately slippered feet. A stout woman draped in swathes of voluminous fabric that billows in the breeze like sails on a boat. Atop her head is perched a large bonnet trimmed with a blue bow and strapped firmly around her chin to save it from blowing out to sea and to protect the expertly curled hair beneath. The face that peeks out from the brim is pale, almost blending in with the frilly lace collar round her neck. She sports a fine navy dress-coat that hugs her waist and flairs out in a full skirt. Intricate white anchors are embroidered on her lapels and the hem, so fine and dainty that mice could have stitched them. Her short legs are hidden beneath capacious bloomers that taper in to her little ankles and best show off her dainty blue slippers, now disappearing beneath the foamy water. 

As Victoria bravely submerges herself into the sea, her skirts balloon about her so that she momentarily resembles a buoy bobbing on the waves. Her skirts sink down due to the weights sewn into the hem. Her sight no longer obscured by her apparel, she can now see a gentleman reclining in a deckchair right beside her bathing machine. Victoria is startled by his sudden appearance for he certainly was nowhere to be seen but mere moments ago.  The gentleman is suitably dressed in a black and white striped bathing suit, although, Victoria thinks, rather too much chest is peeking out and perhaps less leg on display would be preferable. His face is mostly hidden behind a bushy black moustache and he possesses a healthy mop of black hair on his head. He smiles and waves and continues to soak up the rays of warm sunshine. Though surprised at this man’s appearance, Victoria resumes her bathing, enjoying the cool water.

Another quick glance in the gentleman’s direction and Victoria is shocked to see a small tent has been erected a short way away behind her bathing machine and the deckchair. Incredibly perplexed, she squints at the tent and sees that it is in fact a Punch and Judy theatre with a small gathering of children at its base, gazing up enraptured by the puppets. Still confused by the miraculous puppet theatre, Victoria cannot help but smile at the cheerful show and the sweet children sitting so nicely. Mr Punch is making the children laugh and the policeman puppet appears.

(Image from: http://virtualvictorian.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/virtual-punch-and-judy-show.html)

Victoria is suddenly thrown backwards in the water by something monstrous before her in the shallows. In an eruption of salty droplets a figure emerges, all shiny black material and flesh and water. It is a woman. Feeling faint with shock, Victoria regards this woman with growing disgust. This woman is practically naked. An obscene spectacle. Muscular and tall, this woman is wearing nothing but a tight little black bathing suit, her arms and legs on display for all to see! The gentleman on the deckchair has seen her too, but the expression upon his face is quite different to that on Victoria’s. He seems to be torn between dismay and wonder at the scantily clad figure before them. The puppet policeman is in a frenzy. Right on cue, a real policeman races into view and right up to the lady. Whipping out a measuring tape from his pocket he measures the distance from the lady’s knee to the edge of her suit then furiously shakes his head. She is dragged away and out of sight, much to Victoria’s relief.

Just as Victoria begins to overcome her horror at the flesh that was exposed, three women – or are they boys? – appear along the beach. Their hair is short and so are their swimsuits! They are long and lean and elegantly prance in the sand as if they had the beach to themselves. Victoria wades out of the sea so that she may better observe the scene, for yet another woman has appeared. This woman has had quite an effect on the gentleman in the deckchair: his mouth is hanging open and he is leaning so far forward in his seat that there is a good chance he will fall face-first into the sand. It is almost too much for Victoria to bear; the new woman appears to have been poured into her clingy polka-dot bathing suit with her voluptuous curves. Her hair at least is covered, but in a strange tight cap, brightly coloured with large flowers flopping about as she struts towards the sea.

(Image from: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/creative/retro-styled-stock-photos)

Victoria has to lean upon the wheel of her bathing machine to support herself as she tries to understand how her private beach has suddenly become filled with unwelcome, underdressed strangers. The lady in the flowery cap is paddling and chatting to one of the androgynous women not far away. One had wondered over to look at the puppet show, whilst the other was admiring the bathing machine. Victoria scowls under the brim of her bonnet.

Her thoughts are interrupted by sudden laughter along the beach where a young family are playing in the sand. A small boy and girl, dressed in noticeably brighter garments than those around them, are having fun burying their giggling mother in the sand, carving the golden grains into a beautiful mermaid’s tail. Only the mother’s head and shoulders are left uncovered and she tosses her long hair about her, pretending to swim for her children’s delight. Batting away the androgynous woman now by her side marvelling at her full skirt and bloomers, Victoria smiles at the family playing in the sand. The mother gets up out of her golden mermaid’s tail, brushes herself clean of sand and reveals –

Victoria gasps and falls backwards into the arms of the lady behind her. She had just seen… the mermaid woman… the shock of it! The sand had brushed away to expose brightly coloured, minute garments that only just covered the women’s essentials! Her legs and midriff were completely out in the open for the world to see! Woozy with shock and still being steadied by the boyish woman, Victoria watches as the practically naked woman walks towards her. The man in the deckchair is beside himself and does not know where to look as she approaches. One of her children is paddling in the sea, one playing in the remains of the mermaid’s tail. Everyone on the now rather busy beach is chatting and admiring each other’s attire, comparing hairstyles and materials. The sound of chatter mingles with the crashing of the sea and the squawking gulls and Victoria can hardly bear it any longer.

In all the din, another bathing machine has appeared on the beach. This hut seems to be without wheels however. Victoria wonders how on earth it has arrived there without the aid of wheels – it looks as though a giant hand has just popped it down from the sky. More and more people are noticing it now. Curiously circling it, trying to work out who might lurk inside, the people gather around the hut excitedly. Just as Victoria begins to tire of looking at the strange hut, the door swings open. The others on the beach lean in expectantly, trying to glimpse the newcomer. A gentleman’s head emerges from behind the door (the man in the deckchair looks disappointed) and he beams confidently at the assortment of faces staring at him. In one large stride, he crosses the threshold, out of the shadows into the bright sunlight. For a second there is stunned silence whilst every eye roams the man’s broad grin, strange dark glasses, muscular physique… and the alarmingly thin, bright green material stretched in a Y shape from his shoulders to his…

In unison the whole crowd gasps in horror. The beach swims in front of Victoria’s eyes. Women, men and children swoon all around her as everything goes dark. 

(Image from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-19755686)

  

I haven't been able to post anything for ages! Operation Dissertation has taken over my life. It is nearly over however, so to celebrate I have been tempted by this competition: Darling has teamed up with Diego Dalla Palma UK and are giving away prizes! I have entered and I suggest you do too at http://on.fb.me/VaPrad or at the mobile friendly page: http://bit.ly/WpacOO

I have always been a fan of Darling clothes so fingers crossed I win something fabulous!

Cath Kidston shoe box competition

Cath Kidston launched an amazing competition to design your dream room in a shoebox! I love Cath Kidston and it was such a cute idea for a competition, that I just had to enter.

I originally wanted to do something a bit whacky for a chance to win, but ended up making a pretty traditional room. None of the examples on the website had windows, so the first thing I wanted to do was make a huge window with a spectacular view. I chose to cut an intricate swirly design with a heart for a bit of a fairytale detail.

I have always dreamed of having a four-poster bed – there’s something magical about being able to draw curtains around yourself. Must have something to do with the princess and the pea. So I made the pinkest, most princess-worthy bed I could with pieces of cardboard and heart buttons.

The wardrobe was my favourite thing to make. I have a passion for dresses. Big, pretty vintage ones to be precise. So my dream room would have a big wardrobe bursting with wonderful dresses in it. I found perfect matching vintage buttons for the handle and cut little Cath Kidston flowers from some note paper for decoration.

A few finishing touches such as a little handmade vase, a dolls hat and a knitting bag add to my uber-girly room. (I have actually just bought this knitting bag from the store in the hopes that I may make my own Harry Potter jumper with a ‘K’ on. So far I just have the bag and three knitting needles. It’s a start at least.)

Finally I added a paper me, reading the latest Cath Kidston book with my cat. I figured its my dream room, I should be able to relax in it!

 

Puppet making workshop
 

One weekend over the summer, I travelled up to London for a puppet-making workshop with animator and puppet maker, Kevin Griffiths. You may recognise his name from animations such as Huxley Pig and Old Bear. These were two of my favourite programs to watch when I was growing up, so I was especially excited to have Kevin as my teacher!

The class was held in a little studio in the playground of a London primary school. It was a small class of about six people, so it meant we all had a lot of one-on-one teacher time.

First Kevin quickly demonstrated how to animate the puppets with a simple web cam set up with a laptop, then we began making our puppets’ hands.

We measured lengths of wire and used a drill to twist the strands together tightly, making them nice and strong. Kevin taught us lots of little tips throughout the weekend, such as how to use a lollipop stick to get the kinks out of your wire to prolong its life and prevent snapping. Getting the fingers was a bit fiddly, but we all ended up with nice arms and cartoon-like hands.

Then Kevin demonstrated how to coat the wire with hot glue from a glue gun. This was a little tricky, but we all managed it in the end. This technique helps to protect the wire and smooth the surface.

The next step was to wrap the arm wire between sheets of foam with strong glue. Once that was done we all sat down to carve into the foam with little sharp scissors. The whole class agreed that this was much more fun than you would expect of snipping foam – it was very therapeutic!

We completed the legs in the same way and carved feet out of a denser type of foam, making a groove in the base, tucking the wire under and gluing securely. The last step for the body was to get two squares of balsa wood and carve them into our desired body shape. Then we sandwiched the wire, including a piece for the neck, between the wood with plenty of glue.

Kevin told us to start thinking about how we wanted our puppet’s head to look. To inspire us, he pulled out boxes and revealed his collection of heads! Both old toy’s heads and some of his own designs filled the boxes and he held some up to our puppet bodies to show us how they make all the difference to a character.

So concluded the body and our first day!

Day two began with us carving a large square of polystyrene into the head shape of our choice. Kevin demonstrated the correct way to do this first. Again, many of us found the carving really enjoyable. Once everyone was there with the carving, Kevin showed us some of the many ways you can achieve eyes and mouths that can be animated, including using magnets and beads. So we all started the fiddly process of cutting and sticking miniscule pieces of magnet and stickers together for eyes and mouths.

Here is my almost complete puppet!

Next we learned how to mix paints with latex and coat our puppets with a few layers and dry them in our makeshift oven.

It was so nice to see how we had all started with exactly the same materials, yet every puppet was so different by the end. Some people had made people, others crazy monsters. They all looked lovely. The last hour was spent customising and adding to the characters of our puppets. I had made a little stripy swimsuit and some felt hair for my puppet. I also curled little strands of black wire for a hairy chest! I feel that the hands could be perfected, but overall I am pleased with my little Victorian swimmer.

We all arranged our creations to pose for a mini photo shoot.

My updated show reel!