Uptown, Downtown Competition

Last month I took part in a competition that was part of The Printed Village Company. The brief they gave was called Uptown, Downtown which is a simple enough brief to understand! I took this as a first step in trying to be more productive with my work and with a short deadline really motivated me.  I am probably not the only one who will get lost with long deadlines, due to losing interest very quickly. However when I found this competition through a close friend, with only 2 weeks left to go to create a scarf design, this was a great challenge for me to get the ball rolling. This got me very excited to go out and explore some of the places that are really iconic to me, including the British Museum, Carnaby street and St James Park. I wanted to look more at the patterns and the outlines of these places rather than their great details. My work is very abstract as it is, so anything too detailed isn't my forte. I really enjoyed this brief as it gave me plenty of ideas and confidence to carry on with my personal project. I really do recommend taking part in as many competitions as possible if you are doing anything arty at uni. If you feel uninspired and a bit demotivated this is definitely the way forward. It is also great experience to prepare yourself when you leave uni and want to join the arty industry. Already I feel more confident in myself by taking part in various competitions. It may be overwhelming at first but you won't regret it.

Anyway here are my final designs:

Inspired by Pigeons and Liberty London

Inspired by Liberty London

Inspired by Pigeons in St James Park

Inspired by the British Museum

Here is a design I never submitted, however still wanted to show, as I love the pattern (inspired by the Gurkin)

I hope you enjoyed this post, there will be more to come soon :)

Back In The Game

Right..well it is safe to say I haven't blogged in a while. I could blame this on my majorly busy lifestyle, or just my laziness. However, recently I have been spending most of my days in the print room because of my recent project. I absolutely adore screen-printing no matter how tedious it can get, being the main reason for the many days spent there. I have been working mainly from photographs taken with my Nikon as part of my project. I am going to be totally honest and say it has taken me a long time to get inspired this semester at uni, however after a long talk with my tutors, it was decided that it was best to stick to what I love instead of trying to come up with something that isn't me. I am a pattern enthusiast and a true lover of anything abstract and repetitive so surely this was the route to go down. To get inspiration I have mainly taken photos of abstract textures out and about to get an idea what my newest collection of prints will be. Finally after exploring endless textured surfaces and objects I came up with the idea to revolve my prints around urban decay. This includes photographs of tatty walls, moss, mould and anything rotten or overgrown. These are the sort of things people hate, often overlooking their beauty. When you appreciate these unseen textures it brings along endless possibilities of colours and patterns. From this I have gradually been screen-printing my way through my photographs, testing out different compositions and textures. 

Here are some examples:

Hope you like the prints! There will be more updates of my work soon :) 

Make Your Mark

Recently I have been very busy with deadlines, which may be why my blog posts are lacking a bit. However I shouldn't be such a lazy student and tell you about what I have been up to recently. 

University is what I have been up to recently...deadlines have been taking over my life and I can't see the finish line yet. Don't get me wrong though, this is what I thrive for, no matter how many shit and stressful days I may have. 

Anyway something that I have done recently that may be of interest is that I have recently entered a competition called 'Make Your Mark' by Tiger Print. Basically in a nutshell I had to create pattern designs of any type of mark making I desire that could be the future designs on M&S wrapping products. Exciting stuff right there, and I couldn't imagine what it would be like to see my own designs in a shop. We all live in hope that we succeed at something we want so badly. It has got to the point where I check the website everyday to see if my designs have been shortlisted…or even chosen. Nerves have started to kick in, but who am I kidding, there are hundreds of designs from many talented beings, making me feel so insignificant and small within this competitive art industry. I do live in hope though, that I soon win something as amazing as this prize. To me, the prize money of £200 hasn't even crossed my mind if I won. Instead,  seeing my design in a shop is something so much more special. I have decided I won't give up until something like this happens to me (might be a long time) but I really hope I finally get there. 

Wish me luck and I hope you like my designs: 

First ever commission

The other day I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do my first ever commission. I thought this day would never come, as quite often you don't feel good enough to suddenly be paid for something that is your own work. So many years have been taken over by my art practice, but only now I finally feel comfortable to say I have developed my own style of work, and it has never felt better.  

This amazing opportunity, all started when my teacher told me that my work was recognised by the university in a current exhibition. There was that one person who loved my work so much, that she wants to commission me to make a bigger and more impressive piece to display in a newly built area of the univeristy. My initial reaction to this was an utter state of shock. It is crazy to think how your own work is suddenly worthy enough to be shown to the public on a long term basis. I now have 1 month to sort this commission out and I have never felt so excited about this deadline. Lets hope there is more to come in the future :) 

Screen-printing kinda day

Over the past week, my current place of living has been in the print room. I am currently working on a series of patterned screen-prints based on diseases and the natural form. So far.. it is going great, I have not come across any major problems so far.

Screen-printing can get repetitive, especially doing it all day long. You can sometimes get to the point where you just want to give up, go home and comfort eat for the rest of the night. No matter how much I love seeing my screen-prints build up layer by layer,as passionate screen-printers may know, it is a physically exhausting process. 

Art isn't an easy subject, so many ideas and thoughts go into the process. Developing the images and exposing them onto the screen is one thing, but what really gets to you is the repetition of matching the layers and washing off the inks as it comes to the following one. However my love for it will never die. The pain is most definitely worth it when achieving good results.
Do what you love and don't settle down for anything less. Just believe in yourself and keep on going and you will soon see a difference.

Screen-printing troubles

A couple of days ago, I began to plan a 4 layer screen-print. I spent hours preparing it, getting them to line up perfectly, which all screen-printers will know can do your head in. As much as I love screen-printing, actually getting round to doing it is really scary. And why is this? because the man in the print room makes you feel very unwelcome and to make things worse, us students as of the other day have to pay to screen-print.

 It has always been free, which has always pushed me that extra mile to brave the man in the print room. Why would a 21 year old be so scared of approaching an older man? After a big long rant across my friends and teachers, one of my teachers became a hero and managed to make screen-printing free again!!! Amazing news, however still so scared to approach the grumpy man in the print room

 I have set myself a task to brave his presence on friday morning, wish me luck, I think I will need it. 

You may think this is very childish of me, but the presence of someone scary can put you right on edge. Anyway to cut things short, I would love to see comments of silly fears people have that they have recently overcome :) :)

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

Layer 4

Recent Exhibition

Recently I have been crazy busy trying to put an exhibition up at uni. It was a very frustrating experience, as we had no time at all to put it all together. However, recently I have discovered that I work better under pressure instead of having lots of time to get things done. We only had a week to get this exhibition done, and the pressure was really on. The exhibition space we were put in, the photography students were the last people to exhibit beforehand. They left the space in the most awful mess which was so annoying as we had to spend hours filling and painting the walls before we could put any work up.

The piece I decided to display were three wallpaper designs as seen below:

I was very pleased with the final outcome, and I have  realised that surface pattern design is a route I intend to stay down. All the people I have shown, the feedback has been very positive, which for me is unusual as there is always that one person that is very critical. If you are interested in my work, I would love to see your comments :) 

Starting something new!

Hi, I am Lauren and I am studying Illustration and Visual Communcation. I thought it was about time I started a blog, to show you what I get up to and to display my work. I don't really know how to go about this whole blogging thing but I will give it my best shot. I just want post what interests me mainly and to show my journey through university life. It can be hard being a student at times as I am constantly worrying about the end. However for the time being I would like to organise my life and start posting :) wish me luck!