Tag Archives: Holiday

25/04/2011 · 9:34 pm

Hola Holiday!

It’s been a long while since I last blogged, the longest I think I have gone without posting since I started blogging actually! My excuse? I was mega busy with Uni work until the 14th, finishing off the last two units of first year and then preparing all of my work for digital submission – it took 15 hours to organise! Then next day I jetted off to Tenerife to catch the Island Escape cruise ship for some sun, sea and sangria(most of the canary islands’ first language is spanish)! I was quite happy to say Hello to a holiday!

I had been on a cruise in 2009 and despite the stereotype of cruises being for oldies, I really enjoyed myself! I didn’t enjoy myself as much this time, but I can’t complain – a holiday is a holiday! :)

There’s the Island Escape ship behind me! It’s tiny compared to the Cunard ship, Queen Elizabeth that was docked next to us in Madeira!

The weather was gorgeous most of the week, although I was quite disappointed to hear that it was actually really nice weather back home – just typical!

I walked past this shop in La Palma called Banana Computers, which ironically had Apple’s Ipad 2 in the window! Made me giggle a bit :)

Also in La Palma I found this beautiful, hand painted tile sign. There were quite a few of these around in a flower market in Madeira aswell, but a lot more detailed & illustrative.

Back on the ship I got my sketchbook out. I hadn’t sketched for a while so felt a bit rusty. I really need to pick this up a bit more over the summer…

As the ship docks in the port area, it wasn’t exactly the prettiest of views but still quite interesting.

When we docked in Madeira’s Funchal, the walk into the town was made a bit more interesting due to graffiti art lining the dock walls. I thought it was a great idea; quirky, colourful and a lasting record of the ships that have visited the port.

This was my favourite ‘Graphic Design’ of my trip. I’m not really a fan of the typography and branding(or lack of) in the Canaries. The culture is quite different to England, including the approach to Graphic Design. I would describe it  as Word Art-esque and cringeworthy! I understand that it’s purpose is to grab attention of tourists, not to please Graphic Designers so I tried my best to ignore it but I reckon my sister was probably fed up of me moaning about the use of Comic Sans and Mistral… nevermind! :)

After hunting for a postbox, I sent a postcard to Jack and photographed me posting it as proof – the post is proving to be a bit unreliable recently! He received it before he saw me Saturday afternoon – I’m impressed! That’s quicker than if I had sent it from England!

So that is a little insight into what I got upto on my travels. Oh did I mention that our flight back to England was delayed for 5 hours?!!!!! I always find myself saying this – there is no place like home. I love living in England and going abroad makes me appreciate how lucky we are – I’m glad to be back and eager to blog!

I still have a week left of the Easter Holidays so I have time to make up for the lack of posts this month, helped along by some Easter chocolate :)  Check back for the two final projects of my first year at University – Eeeek it went so fast!

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05/04/2010 · 5:44 pm

Multidisciplinary Project – Leisure. Thinking Part 1

As the second part of our Visual Art Award (follow up to Printmaking) we have been set a multidisciplinary project. This means that we can choose to use a range of disciplines from the ‘art’ family: Textiles, Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, 3D, Painting, Collage…. I can’t think of anymore? haha

The theme is Leisure which means, that like last time, it could be anything: Travelling, Cooking, Gardening, Collecting…. you name it, someone in the world enjoys doing it for leisure purposes!

So to try and narrow things down from everything, I made a list of everything I considered to be Leisure – like 70 things(and I am sure there are a lot more).

I left this project for a little while after that to work on other things because I was finding it hard to come up with ideas… and it was when I wasn’t working on this project I came up with some ideas (typical, right?)!

I went to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D with my darling boyfriend in Norwich, and I don’t need to explain the story do I, because everyone knows it… but I have mentioned before about my love for Playing Cards, and AIW has the playing card guards and everything… they are really cool, and I had listed Gambling on my ‘List of Leisure’ so thought that could be a possibility.

I tried to think about Gambling… why people like it (adrenaline), why people get addicted(greed), what is involved?, what type of people gamble? etc etc and I decided that it is actually quite an interesting subject and I could deffinitely produce some work based on Gambling!

Next came the hard part: thinking of actual things to do! In actual fact it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be… I happened to have a notebook handy when some ideas spurted into my mind:

So that is what my notebook looks like – pretty rough but good enough!

Left page – Top scribble – Photograph – A man in a really minging house filled with rubbish(beer cans, fag packets etc) and hasn’t seen a duster for years! This bloke lives on his own, and is addicted to gambling, alcohol and smoking – the only things that matter in his life. The room is hazy because it is filled with smoke and he is sitting on the edge of his seat, with a betting ticket in his hand, watching the TV. Everything is in black and white, apart from the TV picture, of which has a horse coming out of the TV and into his living room…. – not sure why the horse is coming out but it was an idea to make it interesting?

Left Page – Bottom scribble – ??? Animation maybe??? - A chart to show how someone’s heart races as they are filled with adrenaline from betting. There is a steady increase at first, but rapidly increases until there is a big drop to symbolise the heart stopping. This is because gambling is potentially lethal in ending someones life; either by shock, loss of money or loved ones.

Right Page – Top left scribble – Drawing/Printmaking – A large playing card. Playing cards are usually mirror images, but this one would have one side perfect and then I would put matching colour inks at the half way point and use a squeegie to spread them downwards, creating a smudge. This would symbolise the way that a gambler can’t recognise when they have gone too far…

Right Page – Top right scribble – 3D – An Alice In Wonderland style Mad Hatter’s Hat made from money, complete with the odds card/ betting ticket.

Right Page – Middle scribble – Painting – Pop Art style Playing Cards…. with maybe some kind of element of collage? I was thinking of using some modern celebrities as the basis of characters: King of Hearts – a male heart throb, Queen of Diamonds – diamonds are a girl’s best friend, Ace of spades – rocker??, Jack of clubs – Jack the lad… of night clubs.

Right Page – Bottom scribble – 3D – A hand of cards box… not sure what this was about!

As a developement of the Hat idea… I thought about horse racing and looking into Royal Ascot hats - you know, the crazy hats?

 

Ones like these… weird shapes and themes…

  

… they remind me of Lady Gaga (I know, I know, I compared the bottles to Lady Gaga’s dress in Feb Packaging Special but not everything ever reminds me of her- I do have other influences, I promise!) and her crazy hats….

  

… which lead me on to look at Philip Treacy, who is responsible for a lot of the crazy Ascot hats! So I’m thinking that this is a better option than the cliche mad hatter’s hat…. right?

So I think this is one of my 3 pieces – a Royal Ascot/Gaga/Treacy inspired Gambling themed hat!

Then, today whilst my Grandad came round to deliver Easter Eggs (Thorton’s this year btw!) an episode of the BBC Coast programme was on TV in the background. This particular episode featured some British Seaside resorts, with fairground rides, amusements and arcade machines – which got me thinking about gambling in a different way.

At first I had  thought of gambling to be poker games, casino chips and betting shops, but now I remembered the ‘innocent’ gambling fun of the seaside! I had thought about doing my theme as the seaside because it is literally Leisure, but gave some seaside ideas to a classmate so tried to avoid doing the same work as everyone else. BUT, I think I could include the seaside gambling in my project somehow?
I have spent the afternoon on Flickr searching for ‘Great British Seaside’, ‘Arcade Amusements’ and ‘Vintage Seaside Arcade’ images and have found a few good ones… but I’m not sure what to do with them yet!

I did think about looking at how the seaside’s have changed because of the modern amusement arcade takeovers…. Par example -

Blackpool 1895 (BBC image)

Blackpool 2008 (my image)

BUT I’m not too sure on this idea. I like the idea of showing the changing face of Seaside gambling, but not sure on how I could use it in my project…?


Whilst looking into seaside amusement arcades, I did some research into Piers, Souvenirs and Postcards so I might use these for ideas?

I have already come across Michael Hughes, who uses Souvenirs next to the real ‘attractions’ for some great Photography, and through seaside research today I found Paula MacArthur’s ‘The Death of the British Seaside’ work which includes Candy Floss and Fruit Machine prints. I am sure there are other artists out there whose work is inspired by the seaside gambling scene?

Any recommendations?

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04/04/2010 · 6:04 pm

And I will admit…

..that I am a disappointment of late!

You might have noticed… but I have been indenial – I thought I could catch up! My 365 has crashed. I made it to 45ish (we are now day 94 of 365) but I found it really hard to keep taking an interesting photo everyday! Especially when I started to get more swamped with college work! So yes. I admit I have failed with that.

ALSO, Thursday marked the first time of another failure – I missed a project deadline! I’m really disappointed with myself because up until now I have always completed everything on time (other than advertising but that wasn’t my fault!) but I made the decision that I wasn’t happy with it and there was no point handing it in incomplete… so Packaging hasn’t been handed in! :(

On a happier note, I did get a Distinction for my Printmaking module :) So I’m pleased with that… and I now have this Easter holiday to sort out my final pieces for the Multidisciplinary module

So this Easter holiday will consist of:

Advertising
Packaging
Multidisciplinary
and FMP ideas

Aswell of some blogging – a measly 5 posts in March! Pfft! April must be better!

And I am promising myself that this time will be different to all the other holidays! Usually I just laze about, and get out of practice with work and then try and cram everything I need to do into the weekend before I go back BUT you wait… I will be posting all of this week with project developments etc even though I have no Photoshop or Illustrator *sob*

I am excited about Multidisciplinary… though I have so many ideas and so little time! :( Watch this space!

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30/05/2009 · 3:44 pm

Ahoy Matey!

It has been a busy week; so busy that I haven’t had time to blog really :( AND also because I couldn’t get on here – computer problems. But it’s fixed now, and I have been told that I don’t write enough about myself on here (even though it is basically for my work) so I’m gonna tell you a bit about the week I spent on a Cruise ship!

I went away with my grandparents, Mum and sister aboard a cruise ship that visited some Greek Islands, Greece coast and Turkey – we had a great time! The weather was gorgeous :) Not too hot, but hotter than here (doesn’t take a lot though really does it? hah)

I’ve got a bit of a tan but not too much… I’m not a sun worshipper because I usually get burnt the first day and then spend the rest of the holiday out of the sun so I took it easy this time. But I must confess to having a bit of a sunbathing session the last couple of days because I didn’t want to come back white haha!

I’d never been on a cruise before; the closest thing to a ship I had been on is a Ferry from Dover to Calais and I HATED it haha But my Nan and Grandad had been on 3 cruises already and convinced me that it was going to be good. I know what you’re thinking… ‘Cruises are for oldies’. Well, yes the majority of passengers were over 50 BUT it had its advantages being the only young-uns on the ship ;)

Me and my sister caused QUITE a stir amongst the staff… we got royal treatment(you know when the Queen is walking into a room and everyone stands in lines at the sides? Yep, everynight at the restaurant!), made some of the waitors giggle like teenage girls, and also got a bit freaked out that all the staff knew our room number :S

Friday 15th May 2009 – Luton, England

We flew to Kerkyra airport, Corfu which is a Greek Island! The sky was b-e-a-utiful :)

I’ve always wanted to a decent picture of the view from in an aeroplane :)

Saturday 16th May 2009 – Day at sea

There was nothing for miles – it was a bit scary haha

In the morning we went to the lifeboat drill… and we attempted to make lifejackets look cool….

Hmn. What do you think? 2009′s Autumn/Winter trend? hah

There was plently of time for some posing… and getting lost on the ship. There were 9 decks and so plently to explore.

This is a mirror pic from the night of the Captain’s Cocktail Party. There was a bit of a joke about this with my Nan. She always gets lost (gets in the lift and ends up on a completely different floor to where she wants to be) and on a previous cruise she was lost and asked a lady where she was. The woman replied: ‘I haven’t got time to talk to you; I’m off to the Captain’s Ball.’ Haha :) My Nan was not impressed! She is such a laugh.

Sunday 17th May 2009 – Aghios Nickolaos, Crete

A bit of posing on some steps that looked pretty. Later on we found this exact place on a postcard! Maybe I have a future in location scouting?

I was having a bit of trouble with the hand sanitiser machines… they didn’t like me!

Monday 18th May 2009 – Kusadasi, Turkey

We went on an excursion to see The ‘Virgin Mary’s’ House and Ephesus.

I kept my Graphic Designer eye open and spotted this small remains of writing in the Library at Ephesus.

I love their honesty :)

However, I’m not such a fan of their annoying selling techniques. No one wants to be hounded about buying Turkish Delight! Why don’t you just leave people alone!? I got called rude because I half shouted no at one man (who asked me to buy his heart haha)

Tuesday 19th May 2009 – Thira, Santorini

Next stop was the small island of Santorini, famous for its picturesque views of white houses with a blue mosque roof. It’s also quite famous for its Donkey rides… but that’s cruel so we took the cable car…

… not on the way down though. We thought we would save our money (the cable car was 4 Euros each way!!! Rip off or what!?) and walk back to the port; bad move. You can see that zig-zag path on the photo? Well it was hell to walk down. The floor was made of marble slabs and they had been worn down so were slippery and very steep. There was donkey poo everywhere.. and donkeys coming up and down too, slightly chaotic. And it took actually FOREVER!

Back on ship we relaxed near the pool for a bit before they did an ice sculpture demonstration (can you spot me top left hand of the picture?)

I got to try some different cocktails in the evenings and am now addicted to Pina Coladas! They are tropical heaven :) Cosmopolitans are nice too…

On the ship they have a night where they prepare a ‘Magnifique Buffet’ (loving the use of French!) which is a buffet arranged in different shapes e.g. animals.

It was 11.30pm BUT we had to try the pineapple rings dipped in chocolate :) mmm and also have a few pictures with our fave waitors, Erickson and Jodel. Jodel even sang for us – Sean Kingston, Beautiful Girl!

Wednesday 20th May 2009 – Piraeus, Greece (Near to Athens) and Thursday 21st May 2009 – Katakolon, Greece


These two days we didn’t really do much apart from a bit of shopping and sunbathing. If I’m honest, I was absolutely knackered by this point. We had been getting up at 7am and going to bed at 1am everyday and even though I usually do this at home, we was always on the go!

Friday 22nd May 2009 – Corfu and Flight home

We lazed about on the ship until the evening when it was back to Kerkyra Airport and back to England!

One thing I must say is… I love England. Being abroad just reminded me of how lucky we are to live in a nice clean, modern society with technology at our finger tips… and good shopping centres. I never understand the organisation of foreign shops, and they have naff fashion too lol

But all in all… I had such a great time. I was even too busy to miss college (when I went to Portugal with the ex I just wanted to be at college the whole time)! I would deffinitely go on another cruise!

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