Also for this project as a collaboration experiment we attempted to set up our own drawing machine.  Tom was in charge of putting the equipment together which involved using a monitor and a large video camera. The camera pointed to the person we would be drawing and their image was transported to the monitor screen, we then placed a piece of acetate over the screen and drew round the image. It was a good experiment and we managed to draw most of the students in the studio. Once we had collected a fair few drawings we decided to paint some colour onto the back of them to see what different effects we could create. Below are some examples of the finished pictures

We overlapped several of the pictures and placed them on the window to give them a background, I think they looked quite effective.

Eve showed us some examples of an artist who arranged her images into the shape of letter or numbers, so we decided to try this with our own images.

The letter 'L'

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

I found our collaboration both difficult and hard work. The difficult part was getting everybody to work together and produce work as a group. It was very hard getting everybody to stay focused on what we were actually doing and what we were trying to achieve from the collaboration. Although we all seemed to work independantly, we did eventually all aim for the same finaly. I was pleased with our finished publication it showed all our independant work coming together as a final piece and it actually worked. So in my opinion we were successsfull as a collaboration group.

Painted using watercolour paints

This picture was influenced by an artist called Alice Moloney, who is a new artist and is still currentley studying for her Masters in Communication Art and Design at the RSA in London. She takes everyday people and paints them in her own distinctive style using watercolour paint. I really like her how she blends the colours and kind of distorts the faces, but in a nice way. I have tried to copy her style with the picture above, but I also over exaggerated the distorted look a little.  Though I have to say,I did find it hard trying to replica her technique with watercolour paint. These are some examples of her work.

This was painted from a magazine photo of Nicole Kidman, which I messed around with on photoshop and managed to age her to fit in with our project. It was also painted in the Alice Moloney style.

Nicole Kidman (Aged)

Painted with watercolour paints

SIR PATRICK MOORE

Drawn with graphite pencil and acrylic paint

Sir Patrick Moore our own famous astronomer and presenter of 'The Sky at Night', a job which put him proudly in the Guiness book of records as the longest serving presenter. He is greatly admired for his devotion to raising money for hundreds of charities, which he does from his own home in Selsey, by organising garden parties to raise money.

I am very lucky as a member of my family is actually friends with him and lives just round the corner from his house. I thought it would be fantastic if I could show Mr Moore my portrait of him and get him to sign it for me.  I asked sue (my relation) if she would mind taking it round to his house, she very kindly agreed and asked me to send the picture via e-mail to her, which I did. She dropped it round at his house and she received a phone call inviting her round to see him, as he really liked the picture and he wanted to discuss it with her. She went round the following day and he actually said that his advice to me would be to make myself a portfolio and take it to The Royal College of Art to begin with and any other major college as he thinks they would gladly accept me, with the talent I have. I was trully shocked and extremely flattered by his response, it was totally unexpected. I am hoping to hear from Sue in the next few days as she went to Mr Moores recent garden party on Sunday, where she was going to ask him to hold my signed picture and take a photograph, which she will then send to me.  So watch this space!!!

I wanted to draw Mr Moore because he is also a classic example of a man who has aged gracefully and even though he has been in the public eye for so many years, he has obviously not felt any pressure to roll back the years with the help of surgery and you have to admire him for that.

NELSON MANDELA

Painted with acrylic paints

Nelson Mandela is a classic example of a very distinguished older man who has definitely allowed the ageing process to take its natural toll. He is a man who stood up for his beliefs and is an inspiation through out the world to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

MICKEY ROURKE

Drawn using graphite pencil and acrylic paint

Mickey Rourke is a great example of a celebrity who has clearly tried to shave back the years with the help of a scalpel. Unfortunitely like many other pressurized celebrities, striving for perfection he didn't know when to stop resulting in a classic case of extreme surgery gone wrong.

MICK JAGGER

 Drawn using graphite pencil 

I chose to draw Mick Jagger because he is famous for his rugged and rather lived in appearance, even in his youth.  It is evident that he has not resorted to surgical proceedures unlike most celebrities of his age. I thought he was a good example of someone who is comfortable in their own skin, thus allowing himself to grow old gracefully.



                                                                                      

MICHAEL JACKSON

Michael Jackson was probably the most famous person on earth both for his music and also his surgical proceedures. He took surgery to the extreme, making himsef almost unrecognizable. He was the perfect celebrity to draw for this project as an example of bad surgery gone wrong. However, his perseverance to radically change his appearance was not just based around  preserving his youthful looks, I think it was more about making himself look like a different person altogether.