Quite a lot of people use their blogs as a showcase for their art. At the moment, I don't really feel as if I have enough of the sort that I am interested in currently for me to show and tell.
But, for the purpose of blogging, I think it would be a good idea to have a ramble about my degree. I like rambling. I do.
Currently, I am in my second year of three at Wimbledon College of Art, and I am working towards a BA (Hons) in Technical Arts and Special Effects. To you and me, that's anything behind the scenes for film, stage, or television. I can choose to specialise in any number of pathways, the likes of prosthetics, prop building, puppetry, CGI, and sculpture building all being exciting prospects for me to explore. The course is very industry based, and we are very lucky to have professionals coming in constantly to prepare us for the real world.
The three year course covers a number of the specialisms I listed above, and for the first two years we are given a number of briefs to work towards, each with a considerable amount of work involved. This has taught me how to work towards a deadline, the importance of handing work in on time and to a good standard constantly being reiterated to us. The industry works around strict, tight deadlines, and being able to get into the habit of getting things done on time is good practise. Not having something ready on time could mean me not getting a job, and so not only is it good for organisational skills, it also benefits my career prospects.
My First Year
My first year saw me gradually grow into my work, after some hitches in my personal life that sadly influenced the end result of some of my projects. Our first project saw us taking an everyday object and making the decision to either scale it up or down, depending on the size of the original object, as well as choosing to be sensible in our scale choice. I (stupidly) chose to upscale a traditional Russian trinket box, which left me getting into a bit of a pickle. The lid of the box was had a ridiculously intricate design engraved into it, and so eventually, I found myself being given permission to simplify the design. Despite this making my life easier, it annoyed me in the sense that my replica would not be 100% accurate. But, even saying this, my work was still cut out for me. In the end, I spent an entire night carving out card into what eventually appeared to be a paper doily, and sticking in on top of other 'doilies'. Granted, I was nowhere near as happy with the end result as I could have been, but I had an end result at least.
I was very lucky for my first project to have the guidance of guest lecturer John Lee, a model maker who visited us twice a week to give us tips and help with our pieces. His website was a great inspiration to me, seeing as he has worked on several of my favourite films, for example- Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Harry Potter (2001- Present) and Fantastic Mr Fox (2009). I would really recommend having a look at John's website- his showreel wowed the whole class when he showed it to us! He also showcased some of his work to the class on the children's TV programme 'Potamus Park', to inspire us for the next project (see below).
John Lee- Showreel
I happily moved onto my second project, wanting to explore more. My hopes were confirmed when we were given the brief of completely fabricating an entire puppet show. This would be the only time in the three years of the degree that we would be expected to work in groups, and this really tested my team working skills. I knew that in working in a group, I would have to prove my worth, as well as creating a stand-out piece that would work well in a group performance.
After a lot of debating, we finally decided that the five of us would form an animal band, and we would close the puppet show with a big set. This gave us a chance to form different characters for the bandmates. I called the part of the bassist, and formed my idea around a skinny, obnoxious stork character.
Our guest lecturer for this project was none other than Niki Lyons, a puppet fabricator straight from the industry who is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Through her tutelage, she guided us down the long, rickety road to the puppet show. The back catalogue of work that she showed us really was incredible, ranging from years of work at the Jim Henson studios in Hollywood, to work on carnivals around the world. Some of Niki's work that stuck with me the most was on 2009's 'Where The Wild Things Are', this being another one of my favourite films.
What I liked so much about Niki was the fact that she was not afraid to tell us exactly what she thought about our work. And even though some people in the class were shocked at her straightforward attitude, it was important for us to realise that this is what the industry is like: if we create something that a production company does not like, they will not use the work. Generally, work is created to specifications set from producers and directors.
Thankfully, Niki seemed pleased with my idea, and so I started to design a stork character. At some point, I will have to scan in some more conceptual ideas, but for now, the fabrication process in a few photos and not a lot of detail:
I then had to go through the process of creating a pattern from my maquette. This involved me sticking tiny pieces of masking tape completely over a layer of clingfilm, and repeating the process twice more to create a layer thick enough to be able to cut into sturdy shapes. And then, using my judgement, I segregated the head shape into appropriate sections, and cut them out.
I then photocopied the small shapes from the maquette into the appropriate size for my puppet, and transferred the shapes onto a foamy material called 'zote'. This is used widely in the industry for puppetry and creature costumes, and it was introduced to the class by Niki and John. It is sturdy enough to make the body of a puppet, but yet it is light flexible at the same time. We were then to stick together the pieces with an adhesive called 'evo-stik', an strong but extremely pungent glue. Needless to say that I managed to stink out the entire corridor of my halls of residence when I was using it!
An example of some of the pieces of the body of the puppet, enlarged and ready to be assembled.
After much deliberation and worrying about costs, I knew that I had to purchase the feathers to cover my piece. And even though I attempted to stick to a budget, this proved impossible to keep to a low price. Eventually, I decided to buy in bulk from a feather factory in Devon,
Jaffe Feathers. They supplied me with some very beautiful feathers that I was proud to cover my puppet in.
Covering the stork was probably one of the hardest tasks I've ever done, time-wise. I had to use a hot glue gun to stick each feather on individually, and this took a good week or so to attach thousands. The end result, however, was excellent, and I'm pleased that I decided to do this.
Notice also in this photograph some of the other details: I purchased hemispheres from the 4D Model Shop for the eyes. The acrylic that these hemispheres are made from is very thick and of a high gloss finish, and so I painted the insides of them to form pupils and the colour of the eyes.
The beak and the area around the eyes are painted layers of latex. I used liquid latex and painted on several layers on each detail to emphasise and to give a lifelike finish: just painting straight onto zote would give an unsightly effect that I did not think would look particularly attractive.
The finished stork! I was so pleased to have finally finished this character. And still, after this, we had a performance to do. Our group had decided on rocking out to the sounds of 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns n Roses, and we had a blast.
Dress rehearsals were tough, but fun. Notice Kayleigh's Warthog, Sophie's Orangutan, Dave's 'Iggy Iguana', and Joe's crazy green Rat! Best band on earth.
