Vacant Plot

30 November 2012

The vacant plot seems to be in my head. 

I have been devoid of blogging desire lately - largely because of the Calverley Grounds survey report. It was a beast. Publisher is not the greatest software (that's just my opinion), as it doesn't seem to allow you to import stuff without changing the line spacings and therefore the page layouts. The forums seem to suggest it's a fault in the software rather than with me.

We had 11 bodies in our team and everybody submitted 'stuff' for the survey report. All 83 pages of it. Perhaps it was just as well that Publisher made me go through everything in fine detail as there was a lot of work to do on it. It would be rude of me to go into specific examples...I'm not particularly clever but I think I possess basic common sense. Perhaps a GCSE on this might be worked into the basic curriculum.

I didn't realise I had signed up for a publishing degree. But actually the finished report is OK. I'm quite pleased with it. 

I seem to lose my blogging blog every time I write it - but let's have a go at putting a pretty picture on this page. Meanwhile, I am delaying the task of doing the sketch concept thingey for Calverley Grounds. I've tackled the Connective and Intensive interpretation but Reflective seems to be eluding me.  Must get on...

The Render Agenda

5 November 2012

Rendering was this week's practice session and I found it quite useful. But I seem unable to make decisions. It was easy to spot the more-effective and least-effective colouring when they were pinned on the wall at Avery Hill but now I have done some at home I can't decide which is best. I asked two members of my family which they liked and they chose two different ones, and I had already sort of chosen the third. Here are two, but for some curious reason I am unable to upload the third as it tells me the 'server has rejected'. I guess this might be a message from some divine power, telling me it wasn't great. Oh, and I seem to have acquired a block of two-tone grey under my rendering pictures. 

The left is rendered in pastel pencils and the right using marker pens. I think perhaps I preferred the third, which has now graced the page with its presence. It is coloured using Super Ferby colouring pencils. I need more greens though as the two I have don't look great together. The pastel pencils were by far the quickest to use - but also the messiest and very easy to smudge and spread where they aren't required.

An interesting exercise anyway, and I feel I'm not quite so 'precious' about colouring neatly now.

Metis - International Garden Competition

Tuesday 30 October 2012

This is my fourth attempt at blogging tonight - I keep losing everything so will attempt to save this before the empty space strikes again.


Creating a design for the Metis International Garden Competition has been quite fun - I've enjoyed dreaming up a concept but have laboured for days and days over the drawings. I am not very good at rendering; drawing; AutoCAD; Photoshop - and blogging. There are more negatives but a long list will be boring.

My concept is linked to the 21st century digital age of consumerism and how we seem to have lost touch with the simple pleasures of nature. My garden is a journey 'beyond the veils of the modern age'. The ultimate destination is a treehouse-like structure which acts as a 'lookout hide' so visitors can enjoy the beauty and grandeur of the landscape. They will also be able to spot items of interest such as animal habitats, pictured in the hide. 

I would quite like to visit this garden and might even make a little cosy nest up in the treehouse - away from computers, telephones and any sort of work. 
Perhaps I will take a book - fiction as a special treat. 

I have struggled tonight to upload a copy of my plan or axo. Perhaps my brain is overloaded. This is the best I can do for now - it's a plan. The garden is arranged in three sections, as you can see. There is a ground-level digital display in the first section and three ground-level artworks of the local scenery in the second.

Dynamic Composition

Tonight, whilst I should be tucked up in bed, I'm experimenting with Google Blogger. My theory is that I will enjoy an untroubled sleep if I've ticked off a task or two from the Uni. of Greenwich gradually growing list of 'things to do'.

So... I have successfully (I think) opened my blogging account, uploaded my Dynamic Composition - which I had to make smaller in order to get it to upload (100dpi), positioned it on the page (by luck rather than judgement) and changed the font and type colour.

Finally, I will write my 'reflective statement' regarding my composition above:

"I'm actually quite pleased with my layout for this task. I think it's reasonably dynamic - it suggests action and movement - and the eye travels relatively well from top left to bottom right. I like the seemingly random 'upside-down-ness' of the middle picture. I like the fact that I feel could move the jigsaw pieces together to see if they fit - and I quite like the colours although they were not as vibrant as I had hoped. I think the title 'Puzzle' should be moved slightly so that the second 'z' and the 'l' don't encroach onto the middle photo. I would also lighten up my name as it printed slightly darker than the colour in the top photo that I tried to match."

Thereby ends my first blog and I'm feeling rather smug (should this be stupid?), wondering if anyone else has done this yet.