Book Cover Exhibition!

On the 13th of January 2016, Portsmouth level 4 illustration students held their first exhibition at 'The Fat Fox'. The one night event showcased book jacket cover designs for a range of classic novels such as Dracula, The Raven and Of Mice & Men. These were the final outcomes to the students' second project entitled 'line & colour'. Check out some clips and photos in this Youtube video: 

 The evening was a huge success completed with a raffle and live music! Here are some photos of the bands I took!

There are a few more on my facebook page where I photograph live music music events :D  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.662010693941307.1073741847.531747256967652&type=3 

A post about the line & colour project will be up on here shortly!

[female] Ryan Ross Cosplay! (Halloween 2015)

First of all sorry about the bad quality pictures, I forgot to take my camera to the party I wore my cosplay to XD But anyway, My friend Serena suggested that I dressed up as Ryan Ross (ex Panic! at the Disco guitarist) this Halloween as she was going as Brendon Urie (singer of Panic!) and I was extremely excited about the idea! This post is about my process of making the costume!

 

I decided to go as 2005 Ryan from the live in Denver show which was recorded for a DVD. This is my favourite of his make-up looks and the fever you can't sweat out period was my favourite Panic! at the Disco era! I spent some time gathering reference photos and browsing charity shops for things I could use since I didn't want to spend a lot of money as I was only wearing the costume for a few hours at a Halloween party.

I ended up finding this shirt in British Heart Foundation for £3 which was such a great find because the material and pattern is very similar to that of Ryan's waistcoat! It was 3/4 sizes too big so I took in the sides to make it more fitted, then cut off the sleeves to begin turning it into a jacket.

To do this, I measured how wide I wanted the shoulder to be and used berry pins to mark out the arm holes. On the inside of the fabric I used a white pencil to draw a line where pins are, took the pins out and then sewed a new seem. I was sewing by since I didn't take my sewing machine with me to uni. I also removed the lapels using the same method.

For the 3D roses I bought some cheap hair accessories from an independent clothing store and some paper craft roses from Wilko's. I removed the clips and hair ties off the larger roses, and then painted them all with crimson red acrylic paint to match them to the jacket better and make them all the same colour. When dry, I pinned the bottom leaves to the jacket and sewed them down. Then I just took a long chain off of an old necklace with that I never wear and used safety pins to attach it to the jacket (the roses hide the metal) and then it was finished!  

I used the same acrylic mixed into a pot of water to dye a white [100% viscose] scarf that I purchased from Poundland a matching colour since I couldn't find one close enough in the shops. I just left the material in the watered down paint overnight then left it do dry and finished it off with a hair dryer to speed of the process and soften the fabric. 

Since my hair is half blonde, half purple, I bought a really cheap brown wig from ebay for £3/£4. The picture to the left shows what it was like when I bought it. I created a side parting and cut in layers, using hairspray to fix it in place. Although this was a synthetic wig, it seemed to work pretty well. For anyone wondering I used Treseme ultra fine hairspray in the strength number 4. I took away most of the shine of the wig using dry shampoo. This makes it look more realistic. When I wore it on the day of the party I just styled it with a brush/comb and more hairspray :)

For the make-up I applied my usual foundation & powder. Since I pluck out the ends of my eyebrows I was able to fill them into a shape more like Ryan's but this isn't a necessary step! I used a red lipstick as a base for the eye shadow although I wouldn't recommend this as it took a few washes to completely remove XD I went over it with a deep pink eye shadow and created a gradient with a dark purple. I lined my water line with a white khol pencil to make my eyes look bigger, and then outlined them with a black eye pencil. I applied a black eye shadow over this and blended it out to create a smokey eye, and then to darken it even more I outlined my eyes with a liquid eyeliner. I drew on the birds with liquid eyeliner too, and finally put on a rose red lipstick to complete the look!

In some photos Ryan isn't wearing gloves, and others he had black fingerless ones, but I really liked the ones he wears when he plays the banjo at the Denver concert. I looked in the costume store for some white butler-style gloves but they only had black ones. Instead I just got some woolen ones from Primark - the silver rhinestones reminded me of Panic's 2005 aesthetic. I had white versions of the paper roses I used for the jacket from The Range (although Wilko sell them too) and I just poked the stem through the gloves and then coiled it inside. This way I can remove the roses without damaging the gloves and wear them as everyday fashion when it's cold.  

And that was it! The shirt I already had (from New Look a few years ago) and I just wore black skinny jeans and boots with everything I had made! I hope this was useful to you if you are planning to make something similar and/or enjoyed reading this post ^.^ 

Printmaking: Etching

Etching is a print process where a design is scratched into the surface of a metal plate which is then inked up and printed in a press.

Before this is done you de-grease the metal using detol and chalk, making sure to rinse this off and dry it after. The metal is placed on a hot place to heat the metal and then coated with a type of wax called ground. You can then scratch in your image [in reverse] using an etching needle/scriber. For mine, I did a zombie Barbie as it was relevant to the ideas I was having for our current uni project [which I will post about in the future]. When you're finished you put your plate in an acid bath for about 10 minutes.

After this then wash the plate in water. Whilst you're doing this you could soak the paper you wish to print on in water too since it needs to be damp to absorb the ink, so make sure you use a paper with a decent gsm! Ink up the plate using oil based ink and cut card, making sure to press the ink into the groves that you scratched in, then use scrim and tissue paper to remove excess ink.

The type of press used is a roller press. Take your soaked paper out the water and squeeze out the excess by using a rolling pin over the paper in between several other layers of paper. Then place your plate face up on a sheet of tissue paper on the press, then your prepared paper, another sheet of tissue paper and finally etching press blankets. Turn the wheel or handle to operate the press and then your print is done! Leave it to dry and repeat as many times as you like! Here are some photos of the prints I made during our induction session:

Printmaking: Letterpress

Before modern printing methods were invented, text was printed using a machine called a letterpress. Metal letter alphabets are kept in cases in a chest of draws, and you select which letters you need and arrange them in a frame.

Since this was an induction lesson we were working in partners. We were given the task of selecting our initials from the cases and arrange them into a design. This proved rather difficult since you have to use 'furniture' and wedges / locks to keep the letters in place and we spent a rather long time trying to figure a way of making an interesting arrangement that would stay in the frame! 

Eventually I found a way of keeping the letters in place (which wasn't very effective but it did the job XD). I had the idea of using a gradient when applying the ink so I went ahead with this. For letterpress you use oil based ink since they are on a wooden base and using water to clean them can cause damage over time which is bad since the letters are no longer produced and one tray costs around £500+! Anyway, we clamped paper into the machine then used the handle to roll the drum over our frame and press the ink onto the paper. and that's it! Quite a simple process the there's lots you can play around with such as layering, various fonts and scale. 

Printmaking: Fabric Printing

Following our screen printing induction, we were taught how to print onto fabric using the screen technique. Again, a two layer image was given to us, and our teacher had exposed our screens for us just to save time, but I have a post about screen printing that explains how! --> http://amberatlantis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/printmaking-screen-printing.html The only difference is the screen mesh is 43tw to let more ink through and the image is exposed for longer since fabric absorbs more ink. 

Pigments are mixed with one of 3 binders:

• Transparent for keeping the colour the same saturation - great for printing onto light coloured or light weight fabrics
• Opaque T binder which can be used as white or to create pastel colours - ideal for printing onto dark and/or heavy weight fabrics
• Opaque KP binder - Used for printing luminous shades onto dark fabric

We pinned our fabric down to keep it flat and in place when printing, making sure any creases are ironed out before hand. Just like screen printing, you apply a generous amount of ink at the top of the image and then use a squeegee at a 45 degree angle to pull the ink towards you and covering the stencil. Make sure each layer is dry before you apply the next one - you can use a hair dryer to speed this up if you are pushed for time!

When all layers are applied and dry we seal our design using a heat press (although you can also use an iron) and remove the emulsion from the screen using cleaning solution and a jet wash.

  

Printmaking: Screen Printing

I had done screen printing before at college, but it was so great to have an induction at university because they have a lot more equipment to make the process easier and produce more accurate prints. The screens were even ready to coat and use yourself - at college I had to stretch the mesh over the frame myself!

Fist we coated our screens in light sensitive paint then we were given two layers of the same image on A4 paper since it was just an induction lesson. We placed these images in a huge ultraviolet light box and then the screen face down on top. We closed the lid and then a vacuum removes the air to keep everything in place during the exposure. The light exposes the paint in the light areas of the screen and this forms a stencil.

Using a jet wash we washed the screen to remove any paint in areas we don't need so our prints came out nice and crisp. When it the screen had dried from this step we masked off the edges with parcel tape and if there were any accidental holes in he paint then this can be covered with the tape too.

To mix ink you mix acrylic paint with acrylic printing medium. At uni we have a shelf of pre-mixed inks too so we just picked colours from here to save time.

We clamped our screens into the frames and created a registration print on masking tape so we could align the print into the centre of the paper and line up the two layers perfectly. To create the print you put a line of ink at the top and then use a squeegee at a 45 degree angle to pull the ink towards you over the stencil. 

When everything's finished and you're happy with your prints you use a cleaning solution and a jet wash to remove the emulsion and leave the screen to dry ready for the next person to use.

I really love screen printing - it's a great way of creating multiple versions of the same print in the same colour and position and you can vary aesthetic style a lot. I was happy with my prints. My piece accidentally got slightly mis-aligned when doing the second layer but I think it looks cool because with the colours me and my partner picked out it looks like red and blue 3D imagery.