#it’ll be done entirely in gouache

[saturnvs]

early peek of the art book/story i’ll hopefully be working on^^

it’s about two horses in the space between life and death and their meeting with the guiding light, whose mission is to lead them to their destination. for one of them it’s life, for the other one it’s death.

it’ll (most likely) be available to purchase on ko-fi as a digital book/e-book as i can’t print and distribute myself. i’ve only barely started the project and have no time frame for when it’ll be done, but i wanted to share the news^^

[ceetaylorcreate]

Star Wars EU (Legends) Last Hope Painting

I thought the best way to comment on what I think about Star Wars: Episode 8 “The Last Jedi” is to create this gouache painting of Luke praying for the Star Wars Extended Universe to become canon again. Even if it’ll never be, I will consider it my canon from now on. What Rian Johnson, J J Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy have done to my favorite character, Luke Skywalker, is so wrong. I will never believe Luke would ever think about killing his twin sister’s and best friend’s son in his sleep. Some would say, “He just thought about it for a second.” If I allow myself to believe this, I’d have to ignore Luke creeping into a child’s bedroom, probing into Ben Solo’s mind (committing mind rape) and not only thinking, but IGNITING his lightsaber before catching himself IN THE ACT of committing premeditated murder. “Oh, but everyone changes when they grow older” some argue. However, I’m not sure Luke would evolve into becoming Charles Manson in 30 years. 

I’m not only disturbed by that, Luke’s entire character is off. How does discovering dark side tendencies in his nephew turn Luke into a bitter, cowardly hermit? No way would he run off to a remote island and hide for the rest of his life. I think Disney/Lucasfilm want to do everything they can to destroy the importance of the original characters, especially Luke Skywalker. They want to replace the George Lucas era, reshape and mold Star Wars into their own shallow, homogonized creation. If they really want to go beyond the Skywalker saga, Disney should create a different theme since the main Star Wars theme IS LUKE’S THEME, but I know they won’t have the guts to do it.

Before anyone thinks I’m a sexist, racist, etc., I’m a woman of color and I HATED what "The Last Jedi”, hell this entire sequel trilogy, has done to Luke Skywalker. I’m also not one of these Star Wars fans who hates the prequels. I like and enjoy the prequels, always have. I never thought I’d be on this side the fence. I really wanted to immerse myself into Rey, Finn and Poe’s stories, but the massive plotholes and character assassinations (not only the original characters) have gotten me to the point of not caring about current Star Wars anymore. The ineveitable showdown between Rey and Kylo for Episode 9 is extremely underwhelming to me. Again, I just don’t care. Instead, I’m going back to the many stories that explore Luke’s struggles in creating a New Jedi Order. Reading or listening to post-ROTJ stories where he not only befriends, but marries a beautiful, yet lethal ex-Emperor’s Hand who has a sharp, sardonic wit and is the complete opposite of a Mary Sue. I want to reacquaint myself in the tales that focus on the Rogue Squadron X-Wing pilots, Han and Leia’s SUCCESSFUL marriage while raising their twins, Jaina and Jacen (little Anakin too), and where Lando Calrissian is not forgotten.

Yes, I’ll take back the Extended Universe as my Star Wars canon after “Return of the Jedi”. Disney can keep their “canon”. 

I’m done.

[being-english]

We’re now officially four weeks into lockdown and staying home, and there’s at least three more to come. I still can’t believe how many people are completely oblivious to it all while the rest of us are trying to keep from getting ourselves and others sick. I can’t count the amount of times that I’ve convinced myself that I was coming down with “it”, only to talk myself out of it and remember we can still get sniffles, and coughs, and headaches without it being the virus, after all the pollen count is rising, spring is here and so is hayfever. 

It was my turn to go out to the grocery store this week, I had been trying to hold off as long as possible but it is incredible what a bit of family guilt can do to a person. I hadn’t been to a public place where other people were, since my last shift at work, so to say I was anxious was an understatement. I was shaking the entire time I was in there, I didn’t know how to get past people, people were all over the place and I forgot so much of what I went in there for. People didn’t care, they didn’t care who was around them and only thought of themselves, which is why this whole pandemic spread so quickly in the first place. If we were even just a little bit more considerate about others, we wouldn’t be in this mess. 

But here we are, staying in our homes trying not to murder the people we are stuck with. For me at least it is going well, sort of. We’ve had a few spats and tantrums and sulked a hell of a lot, but we keep going. We go to bed and wake up in the same place every single day, so there’s no point getting in trouble with the people you share space with. Of course it’s hard, we wouldn’t be complaining about the entire situation if it was easy.

We have to keep busy, or at least tell ourselves to keep busy, so we get to “normal” quicker. I have reviews to write, stories to finish, videos and photos to edit, so really I should be fine and out of people’s hair, yet I keep watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and other shows and movies. This whole isolation business hasn’t played out as I thought it would (although I should have known that I would just end up watching shows and movies), but I have managed to do some things. I’m painting again, I broke out the gouache and put paint on paper, and other than the tendon twitches, it felt really good. I’ve done a little bit of research for multiple things, and I’ve helped people. I helped mum with her quilt and I’ve cooked and baked for the family, and I’m good with that. I finished one embroidery and started another and I’ve learnt things, sure I miss going outside and having a look around and seeing people, but let’s be real I don’t go out for people anyway so there’s not much difference in the short of it.

I should be making the most of the time I’ve got, but if I don’t, it isn’t the end of the world.

Trips are cancelled, and the outside looms. 

But there’s time. And plenty of it.

Stay home. 

Stay safe.

It’ll be over before we know it.

Love,

Jess.

Stay Home. We’re now officially four weeks into lockdown and staying home, and there’s at least three more to come.

[laijournal]

8th - 10th of May

The main priority of the week was to finish setting up the exhibition before assessment on Thursday. Alongside this, there were other parts that needed finishing - such as the catalogue.

Monday

I found out in the morning that I was allocated quite a nice position next to the door in the studio. Majority of the day was spent filling noticeable holes in the wall and applying extra coats of white paint. I had originally anticipated getting two plinths for my exhibition, but Jane gave me one longer plinth instead. This was because having the pots on two thinner plinths would not be as secure, leaving it in danger of being knocked over. As a result, I had to change my original vision for the space and work with the longer plinth I had.

Additionally, Esther proof read my catalogue during the day. Aside from a few minor changes, she said it was fine. With the catalogue checked, I can design the catalogue in tomorrow but I think it’ll be one of the last things I’ll do.

During the afternoon and night, I finished the other two paintings as part of the series that accompanies the family tree. I was initially a bit unsure what colour scheme to pick as a contrast since the two I did previously had pinks and greens. I decided to use blue as the main colour as the subject matter for the other two paintings consisted of the sky and the ocean. The colour schemes did work well together, whilst providing a contrast. However, I feel like I overdid the detail for the painting of the sea in comparison to the others. This would be probably due to the fact that I returned to painting after weeks apart, perhaps the vision for this became a bit faded after so long. Whilst I was painting, I thought it would have been better to add more marks to show the reflections in the water. The fourth painting had the same level of detail as the first two, but generally the paintings go well together and reflect a calm mood. 

As suggested by Tilly, I added bits to the mountain painting I had previously done in order to balance out the composition. Testing it out on photoshop helped me figure out the best places to add things, however because this was an additional layer onto existing gouache paint, it did not layer very well. Unlike acrylic or oil, the paint does not really pile on top of each other. In contrast, the water activates the layer below, mixing some of the colours together. Hence, it was a bit difficult to get a true white for the additional clouds I added. I had to accept this and work with the colours below. It blended in a way that may look like shading, but I would have preferred a cleaner look. This may be a good lesson to remember the next time I paint with gouache - plan the composition more carefully before jumping too quickly into it.

Tuesday:

The morning consisted of finishing off the last painting that tied all the names together in one landscape. In order to make sure the whole series was cohesive, I took colours from both colour schemes together. I looked for reference photos online of light sunsets with a mix of light pinks and blues. Lighter shades of colour are a running theme in the works, hence the light mix of blue and pink works quite well with the rest of the pieces. This painting was in a longer format as I thought that it would sit well with the more rectangular shape paintings. Although I thought there could have been more detail, this painting was not planned out extensively, rather more of a quicker intuitive piece. Before heading to the studios, I arranged the paintings on photoshop to see what kind of layouts would be more suitable. I personally feel that the first trial with the alternating colours works better as there is more contrast.

When I went back to Wellington Terrace, I used blue tak to lay out the paintings. Placing all four in a row suited the space more as placing it two by two create too much of a gap. A copy of my comic from the zine was placed alongside. As it is the highlight of the zine, having a copy would perhaps reflect the detail better and fill the space more. Underneath the comic, John created a small shelf to sit underneath to hold two copies of the zines. Having two copies would allow more people to flick through it as opposed to only having one. The shelf is drilled slight towards the left as makes the exhibition pieces seem more connected rather than three separate parts. This decision was made based on the helpful feedback from the tutors and peers.

At night, I designed the layout for the catalogue. Since the intention was to make an accordion book, I designed the pages on one page so that the parts could be folded together. Each page was A6, a good size for a small booklet. It was difficult to find out the best ways to lay out the text in a way that made the catalogue seem more digestible. To stick to the theme of my exhibition, I kept with a earth colour scheme of three colours. This allowed me to switch around with the colours to give each section some uniqueness. In total there were 12 pages, making the entire book stretched out quite long. But I think this format suits the project as if it’s telling the whole journey and process to the reader. I’m not sure if the booklet will be very thick, since I may decided to use 200gsm for a sturdy but light outcome. To test if the format of an accordion book worked well, I printed a small trial in grayscale to look for any errors. There were some pages that were not aligned very well, hence I was able to make alterations after this. 

Wednesday:

I spent the first few hours of the morning finishing off the design for the catalogue. Afterwards, I went to woodlane to print all the pages, as well as better copies of the zine. Printing in A2 turned out to be 9 pounds, so as a cheaper alternative, I moved the pages in A3 pages. Aside from saving money, it gave me the opportunity to check if the pages and backgrounds were aligned (since I did this originally on photoshop as I do not have indesign). The pages were cut with a guillotine afterwards to ensure sharp edges. In between this time, I continued setting up my exhibition space, pinning works up and checking with rulers and a spirit level to make sure things were straight. My exhibition space seems done, just missing my catalogue hanging on the wall. Although the layout was not what I was anticipated, with the helpful advice of others, I was able to find a layout that worked well with all the work.