I've become all self obsessed, like Tracey Emin.

Day Fifteen: Self - Portrait

As the title suggests, I was inspired by the works of Tracey Emin to do this piece. She put out intimate details about her life in her works and they have always made my consider my own life - particularly the more mundane aspects of it.

And so, I present: My Room; and me in it.

Oddly, the most revealing and embarrassing aspect of this piece is not the thought that people will get to see my 'wabs' at a terrifically unflattering angle but, rather, that people will get to see the extreme mess my room is in - quite genuine I promise.

I did not want this piece to be easy on the eye or ordered, as my room certainly isn't. I wanted the piece to be, in some way, equally as inaccessible as my room (and I mean that quite literally, the door has to be forced open).

I also see live chickens.

Day Fourteen: Pastels

Our chickens have a fantastic, oil -like sheen on their feathers so I decided to bother them this morning by taking loads of photos of them to then translate into a pastel picture. I thought pastels would be the best medium to capture their feathers because they can be smudged and worked over and over to achieve the desired affect.

Pretty chickens.

The Original Photo

When I grow up, I want to be Matisse.

Day 13: Matisse Style Paper Collage

Back in the days when painting mythical stories was all the rage, a particularly popular tale was that of Perseus and Andromeda. I love dramatic image of Andromeda chained to a rock as the tide creeps in and with it the ravenous sea serpent edges ever closer so I decided to do an interpretation of it but not in the style which it is normally presented.

Matisse's simple use of paper to create figures has always interested me so I decided to convert a quick sketch I did of the scene into a sort of Matisse style.

My Original Sketch

Paris, why you no call???

Day Twelve: Hair Art/Avant Garde Hair

A request! So, a friend requested hair art and I interpreted it as this. Pity the photos don't quite capture the enormity of the creation which is all my real hair. I took inspiration from my archive of Vogue magazines and studying the Avant Garde hair featured in the couture shows.

Thanks dad for taking photos of me.

Self - Portrait

Day Eleven: Photo Collage

Inspired by a portrait of Janet Street-Porter done by Damien Hirst I decided to do a self-portrait.

It may not be the 'prettiest' but I like it better and think it's more me than if i had, say, attempted a realistic painting or sketch.

A Five Minute Sketch.

Day Ten: Nude Study

Just did it while eating breakfast. I like how the arms look like they're being pulled. Not sure why I made it green and weird - I think I wanted to make it something more than every other nude study.

Can't Sleep.

More Day Nine: Pencil & Pen Drawing

Couldn't sleep. Wanted to draw a kiss. It is so difficult to capture the passion when having to contend with such difficult positions of the face.

It started as two neutral sex people - sort of morphed into two girls but I still like to think of them as just two people sharing a kiss.

Only Human.

Day Nine: Simple Abstract

So, very pushed for time, I sat trying to think of something poignant and relatable to put on the paper.

It's not poetic or clever but I think it works better than if I'd tried to over complicate it.

Simple. Human.

Today's Art, Yesterday . . What?

Day Eight: Foil Sculpture

Why do a sculpture out of foil I hear you say? I have absolutely no money for material I answer; so, behold my ghetto fabulous sculpture!!

I'm actually pretty pleased with my hare - he looks very pretty in the light although that element doesn't translate so well to the photos.

Yesterday's Art, Today!

Day Seven: Painting Over Wax Crayon

So, my first hiccup. I'm afraid I had to decide between art and a friend's birthday - and I chose birthday, but here is yesterday's art delivered a little late!

I think this would have been better if I had done a more detailed wax crayon drawing before hand as I think it is a little simple.

Also - my incredibly complex and time consuming test piece. Reminds me of 'Wilson' from Castaway.

I'm sticking to everything now.

Day Six: Sugar Sculpture

I was inspired to do this from completely screwing up caramel a while ago and ending up with tonnes of burnt, stringy sugar.

I like my sugar tree but I can't say I'll be keeping it around very long as it stinks of sugar and stuff keeps getting stuck to it!

I see dead chickens.

Day Five: Skeleton Drawing

Some days there just isn't as much time as others so, rather than do a sculpture (which is what I wanted to do) I decided to do a quick drawing of a chicken skeleton. It was inspired by a rather cool piece of taxidermy I saw and, in retrospect, the colours seem somewhat reminiscent of the Re-Animator opening sequence.

I don't think the detail came out too well in the photos but I actually rather like my weird, x-ray, re-animator style chicken thing.

Gaga be calling me anytime now yo.

Day Four: Newspaper Dress

Well, that was an unbelievable amount of hassle. Fitting newspaper takes a ridiculous amount of time I discovered - I mean, I didn't think it would be easy but WOW. Pretty fun but I can't say I like it as much as yesterdays; good to try though.

I think I should definitely wear this out.

Bonus Art!

More Day Three

I thought I'd upload a couple of the test pieces I did for Day Three as I think they actually turned out really nice.

Messy.

Day Three: Continuous Paint Painting?

Ok, I'm not entirely sure what the call this; basically, I mixed ready mix paint with PVA so that I was able to dribble paint fairly steadily onto a surface from about half a foot away.

My main praise for this method is this: is forces you to stop worrying about being perfect.

I often spend far too long faffing around trying to get the proportions, the shading, the everything perfect and, generally the result is something that looks that same as before I faffed around I simply added about an hour to completion time. This, on the other hand, made that impossible as it is so unpredictable you just have to go with it - plus, the whole piece took around half and hour to prepare and only twenty minutes to paint.

I really like how this turned out; I wasn't convinced about my use of white at first but without it it did look flat. Oh, well - see what you think.

I have no idea where this came from.

Day Two: Cartoon Collage

I originally wanted to build on the continuous line idea and do some painting but that turned out to take quite a while to set up (it will hopefully feature as day three) so in the mean time I decided to do something a little less complicated and regress to 'cut and stick' art - and it was fun!

Believe it or not this is the greatly censored version of my profane/cute creatures idea; you can request the original comments if you wish. I like the idea of juxtaposing such a childlike and happy setting with ugly, adult words but I'm not completely satisfied with my rendering of this cartoon style as I've never tried it before.

I like the swirly trees though - I'm sure that element will make a reappearance as the art project continues.

A start.

Day One: Continuous Line Drawing

So, this is my first effort: the best of a bunch of continuous line drawings.  I did it on regular sketch paper with pencil, then coloured in art pens as I discovered the drawings can be very hit and miss and found it best to produce many quickly.

I enjoyed how it forced me not to draw in the traditional way I normally do; this does not look like a 'Stella' drawing and I like that.

An idea.

Recently, my Facebook has been bombarded with various '30 day challenges' (songs, photos, games, films etc.) which I must admit have been fairly interesting to read.

I considered embarking on one but was instantly dissuaded by the distinct lack of challenge there is in, for example, naming 30 of my favourite film characters. I could probably complete the task in around ten minutes; stretching it over a longer period of time does not make it challenging.


I then considered what task I would *really* like to do over 30 days. Something I would find interesting and insightful. Owing to my recent creative FAMINE I have decided that - rather than waiting for inspiration to come - I am going to force the issue by completing one piece of art everyday, for 30 days. I will try as many mediums and styles as time and money allows and see what comes of it.

If you have a theme, idea or medium you would like to see me try feel free to message me. I hope for the 30 days to be consecutive however, due to the unknown quantity known as 'life' this may not be possible but I will, at the very least, complete 30 pieces.

Here. Goes. Something.