Grandma's House by Alice Melvin

A picture book I love so much.

The drawings are very detailed in this book. The shape and the lines of the furnitures and decorations depicted in this book are comparatively flat and graphic. To avoid boringness in terms of the visual effect, the author designed the patterns of the wallpaper and the textures of those green plants very carefully. And they matched the character my grandma's age and characteristic very well.

But what is amazingly designed in this book was the relationship between the depicted rooms and the spaces of the books. The author made the element door able to be opened to lead the readers into the next room. This is a stunning example of how to two-dimensionalize a series of consecutive 3d spaces !

Illustrator: 昔酒

Website: http://www.weibo.com/011lingyiyi

This is an illustrator from China who I am very fond of and have a large impact on my concepts about illustration. She is very good at using the mixture of materials like color pencil, gouache and watercolor to create a dream-like atmosphere.

The illustrator has a preference of depicting dream-like, melancholic, mysterious loneliness. Some of inspirations for her stories, illustrations and comics came from her dream.

Except for the compositions (only two figures standing with a small scale compared to the whole image without a detailed background scene), the illustrator is as well very good at using the comparisons between highlight and shadows as a tool to create atmosphere.

The protagonist can be very small in the middle or on a side of the whole composition. 

She is used to choosing a basic tone for the whole image and depict the details with vague outlines to avoid the effect of brightness and clearness

An example of her comics depicting loneliness. Compositions, storyboard, highlight and shadows, tones of colours are combined perfectly to create the atmosphere.

Ceramics Induction Note

Ceramics Induction

Remember to wear apron before enter the workshop.

Remember to reduce production of dust.

Plaster mode. Use cup to take it out after 5min stirring

The characteristics of these kinds of ceramics: thin, even and smooth. Dry for 20 min. After an hour mode and plaster can be separated.

 

different clays

When ceramics are already dried, further casting can cause production of dust. So this must be done in the specific area. Remember to wear mask. 

the open button EG FOR LOW AND SG FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE

Places for dry out

Pick me UP!

I was looking again at the possibilities and definitions of the disciplinary "illustration" in terms of the British market and the market culture. Illustrations can be drawings, picture books, storytelling, explorations of games, studies about layout, typography and graphic design, costume making, ceramics, and object of all the materials I can recall. 

Playful character designs using contemporary materials

I am very fond of the approaches, the marks, the colours and the textures this illustrator used to depict her feelings and reflections about the landscape surrounding her. The textures she experimented with on wood was another inspiration for me about recording landscape and my own feelings.

An approach to depict and explore the possibilities of storytelling and the space of scenes: several layers of wooden figures were combined together to discuss the relationships among different characters.

Costume making! THAT is a weakness in my learning. The models were built up on the cupboard.

Wooden and ceramics models can both be toys and tools for character design. To some extent the texture and the colours can show the characteristics of the character or the toys and feelings I wish to lend to the figure

Typography and Layout

Notes of Mr. Squirrel and the Moon

This picture book used its landscape format as a tool to twist scenes between medium shots, depictions of the squirrel's actions and his imaginations.

The highlight point of this book is some humorous actions of the squirrel pushing the moon to try to get rid of it and two wordless spreads about Mr. squirrel's imaginations about what would happen to him. These two spreads are drawn in only black and white with pencils, which distances them from the vivid humorous scenes of the rest of the book.



Children's picture book can be about a very simple idea or story with a lot of humorous and childish thoughts from an adult's perspective but meanwhile imaginations and hope for a sweet ending.


https://picturethisbook.com/2015/11/02/mr-squirrel-and-the-moon/

2016 Ceramics Art London

Some artists I am very fond of

Midori Takaki

http://www.midoritakaki.co.uk/p/gallery.html

Her works are full of spirits with weird faces.

"My world is full of spirits. I find them everywhere in nature; trees, woods, animals, winds, the moon and the oceans. Giving them shapes is what I do. Once I start creating pieces, they guide me through. They tell me who they are. Their stories are the key ingredients of my work. "

Fausto Salvi

http://www.faustosalvi.net/

The explorations of colours and textures lended a feeling of sci-fi novel to this piece.

Vistaerea

sQAURED headed

Dylan Bowen

http://www.dylanbowen.co.uk/gallery

"The clay can be thrown, hand built, carved or moulded depending on what is needed. Slips are poured, trailed or brushed on. "

"...The spontaneity of the making process. ..."

Craig Underhill

http://www.craigunderhill.co.uk/ceramics.html

"... I want an amalgamation of surface and form that creates a ceramic painting rather than a ceramic form that has a painted surface. My work evokes a feeling of places and landscapes I have visited without giving a direct literal reference to these places and landscapes..."

Ceramics can be a flexible material to explore textures, spaces, landscapes and relationships between ones who experience the environments and stuffs mentioned above.

Develop our brand workshop

The short introduction about the contemporary practices and how we arrived there

- Fordism

Assembly line

 Since 1960, people started to chase after the values like Authenticity, individuality, meaning, self expression, human condition, etc..

- Postfordism

In the companies staffs only produced the concepts and the way to promote their brands and products sitting in their offices. The real production is being fulfilled in China n Taiwan etc., which makes the products really cheap.

  Neo liberalism (Neoliberal capitalism)

Art practices today：Co-independent

E.G. Bernadette Corporation, Shanzhai Biennial

VIDEO: EXTREME CAPITALISM

MY PRODUCTS ARE THE INFORMATION I GENERATED

INCORPORATING MY IDENTITY

I BREAK DOWN EVERY ASPECT OF MYSELF AS A HUMAN AND COLLECT MY OWN INFORMATION AND MAKE MYSELF TRANSPARENT

Brainstorm Workshop

Every business needs a mission statement and u already have one.

Turn it into a work cloud

Mainstream

Everyone wants to become different, together.

Mass Indie

Isolation

Normcore: a unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious, average-looking clothing.

Seeming like a clone

Aestheticized uniqueness of the mainstream

Infinite flexibility, situational, adaptable, non-deterministic, post-aspirational, empathy over tolerance

Authenticity and liquidity: I can do whatever I want whenever wherever expressing my true desire.

5 things which I believe belong to mainstream, 5 things not.

For me what is cool is stay objective and rational and calm. Take our life as a long experience.

Something that is mainstream in one cultural contet may be not in another one.

Flawsome Workshop

http://trendwatching.com/cn/trends/flawsome/

HUMAN BRANDS

TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH

Learn the golden rules of self disclosure

BE A REAL PERSON with flaws and emotions instead of a PSed dollg

Identifying the flawsome pics on celebrities

Lena Headey

Ideal homes

Moodboard Workshop

A mood board is a type of collage consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition.

Learn how to stage your homes for maximum productivity

Design a mood board for a certain kind of person. Build inspiration from your workcloud, cool memes and make it flawsome.

To show the characteristics of the owner of the house

https://uk.pinterest.com/camberwell3091/home/

A cat/ Wunderzimmer with weird collections / Equipments for scientific researches / Plants / An copy of an artwork by Klimt

Quantified self

测量

self actualized, self measurement and analysis of personal metries

Productivity (value producing): “self-management”

Self = business

Everything has become a project

Self-surveillance

Distillation Workshop

Evaluate, focus and optimize

Identify the immaterial qualities which make up your personal brand fill in the brand identity prism supplied

One of my directions: 

cozy scenes about daily life

complicated narratives in telling stories and thoughts