A very BRIEF history of Murals

Murals are probably the oldest form of art dating back thousands of years, to the late stone ages and there are many surving murals from the Egyptian ear (around 3150BC) and is a piece of art painted directly onto a wall/ceiling.

Personal Project Day 3

I'm quite pleased with my progress so far on my painting of the 'Bruderkuss,' I feel I got a lot done today but I'm not sure if I should have got further? Still need to sort of Erich Honecker's skin tone - it isn't looking to fabby ... he looks a bit anemic!
However, that's me finished on my personal project until panto is over as tomorrow we get the Palace Window Flats - wooo! So I will update on my personal project after the panto.

Some History of Hand painted wallpaper

Wall Paper first began in China, no surprises here seeming they invented paper and it is believed they first began to glue rice paper to their walls in 200 B.C. However, painted walls/murals are dated back to the wall paintings of the Egyptians and the Romans.
By the 12th century wall paper had taken off in Europe as it was a cheaper alternative to fabric (however this was still the norm at the time) which covered walls and windows to keep drafts out, the upper classes also used elaborate fabrics/ tapestries on their walls.
It is believed that the first hand painted wall paper in Europe dates back to the early 1400s using a printing block method of religious scenes, this technique is known as 'helgen' but there is evidence to sugest that the Chinese began using this method since the 5th century.

Personal Project Day 2

I didn't really get as far as I would have like today, would have really have liked have got most definition in at least one of the leaders, but heyho thats how the cookie crumbles and I will have to pick up the pace tomorrow. I got told I wasn't using a big enough brush so will definitely use bigger then a 1inch tomorrow as I have to get used to working on a big scale. I don't think my colour mixing was that great today, so need to spend a little more time making sure I get the right tones! Aim for tomorrow: get a least Erich Honecker completely finished and get Leonid Brezhnev skin tone started!

Glasgow Graffiti

I've been walking home the past couple of days and when I turn the corner on argyle street it always makes me smile seeing this amazing piece of street art!

Berlin Wall Personal Project

Getting really into my personal project. I'm really happy i decided to work big as it allows me to be free and as Gary always says 'you're less likely to see a mistake on a much larger scale.'


The only problem I am facing so far is my technique, in my reference the black suits look really flat but I feel having more brush strokes in the black gives it more character ... so I am in a bit of pickle because I keep on doing both! Also I'm putting too much paint on my paint brush and this is causing dribbles all over my work - silly Saz!

So here is my progress so far:

initial charcoal sketch 

inking in and putting the background colour in

end of the day!

Sketchy!

A step backwards

Wahoo we finished the throne! I'm rather pleased with the overall finish, even though in the photo you can't really see the stone texture that Sophie and I created by rolling crushed up newsprint across it.

Oh dear just when we were just getting into the swing of things, picking up the pace and really getting into the panto we've had to take a step backwards instead of a step forward :( Why I hear you cry? Well there is just not enough stuff for us to paint, and now construction have to spend all there time making the largest flat (the palace scene) so we have nothing to do up until Thursday :( As a result we have been allowed to start some personal projects. I have decided to paint a section of the Berlin Wall, 'Bruderkiss' - the famous painting by Russian Artist, Dmitri Vrubel depicts the iconic image of East Germany's Leader Erich Honecker and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sharing a kiss. I choose this as I want to get better at drawing on a larger scale, I like how its rather controversial and I think I'll be able to execute some good scenic art skills in this piece.

Dragons, Glitter and a Take-Away Box

Well .... the flat I was working on yesterday (the Dragon Palace House) took me so much longer then I expected as I kept on finding ways to make it look better. For example with my timings I had totally forgot to compensate for a Trompe L'oiel effect shadow under the roof, I didn't realise how difficult it was going to be to draw the dragons' faces and I had to touch up a couple of my lines. Anyhoo, I got the flat done after lunch and all in all I was pretty pleased with my work, especially the purple roof.

Today, there hasn't been much work coming through from construction so in a sort of a backwards step I've been able to take my time on things. I worked on the Palace throne today in which I glued the glitter highlights on, in this task I learnt from my mistakes a) choose carefully where to add the glitter (in my first attempt the dragons looked like they were wearing wigs!) and b) that before you put the gold glitter on make sure you paint a gold outline before just incase the glitter falls off. I was pretty happy in the end with my 'glittering' but golly I did take too much time on it!

I got frustrated with myself today when doing the 'Chinese Take-away Box', I have no idea why I found it so difficult to draw the two oriental T's on front as they were rather simple! I'm guessing I was thinking so much about them that I got totally worked up and just couldn't function right, but thankfully they looked alright in the end.

Specialist Research Project

I have decided to do my Specialist Research Project on hand painted wallpaper/murals as I feel this is an area I could go into as a freelancer after I graduate if I can't find any jobs in theatre or film/tv! I keep on finding myself on Google images looking at chinoise wallpaper, or on Timorous Beasties website (the Glasgow based textile and wallpaper company) and I find myself in awe of their beauty and I am desperate to try replicate some designs for my walls in my flat - however I am beginning to run out of walls!

Touch Ups

For once I am beginning to be a bit more chuffed with my work! Today I went back to the paint frame after vector works for an hour and half to help out, as eeeep we only have 2weeks left of panto! Anyhoo I was back on toning down the vibrant colours on one of the flats which I used a white was wash to do so. Despite my lines looking a bit wobbly (will have to do something about them!) I'm confident I'll get this piece complete before lunch tomorrow :)

I'm not VW's biggest fan ...

Today went really quickly, can't actually believe it's week 5! Anyhoo had Vector Works today, a bit of a shame as only 7 of us turned up out 14 - not going to lie thought, I did wish at the beginning that I was painting instead. However, I'm glad I went as I know that being able to understand VW will be very useful for the future and I have made a reminder that I must download the free student version sometime this week as I just have to get grips with it ... I mean when I first started using Facebook I thought it was so confusing, but now using it everyday it's like second nature, so I guess if I keep on using vector works and getting familiar with it I'll be a pro in no time (golly maybe I am being a bit ambitious there!)

Big Draw Weekend - GoMA

I've been working as volunteer at the Gallery of Modern Art for the past couple of Saturdays, normally I help out with the Art club but this weekend was the 'Big Draw' so there was various activities dotted around the museum. I was in charge of drawing with tape, which was really cool to see what people created on the floor using a material which was hard to manipulate. I decided to draw cable coming out of the tv and going to one of the plug sockets to try convey that we rely on electricity for so much - even art! I really enjoy working at GoMA, sometimes I can't believe how creative the kids are - they even put me to shame! Also I'm still unsure what I am going to do with my life after my degree, going to Modern Art galleries always spur off ideas to me as they have huge installations of Art work and I think maybe I could use my scenic art skills to create something HUGE!

Creatures of the Night - Ashton Lane

I had a great time working with Moose Corporations being a prop assistant at the 'creatures of the night event' on ashton lane. It was a long 8 hours starting at midnight and at 6am I could start to feel myself doozing but I kept a happy, hard working determined face on as I knew this was a huge professional event. Nikki, Jill, Jude and I had the task along with Nigel's wife and a girl named India to turn G1 bars/clubs into scary venues. There were van loads of props (some of the skulls had even come from some of the indiana jones movies) and as there was not a lot of time we had to improvise using any tools we could to get the right finishes! We turned 'The Lane' into a scary Vodoo Temple, 'Jinty McGinty's' into a general scary place with a grave yard out back and skulls,rats, spiders etc. dotted around inside, 'Vodka Wodka' was turned into a scary labatory, 'Brel' became a creepy burlesque film house and 'Nude/Radio' got turned into a derelict ballroom. Working on this event was a great experience, and I was so happy/lucky to get picked. I got to strengthen my team working skills, learned to become quicker but still professional when working against the clock and was great insight to were I can use my skills from TPA in the future.

Rusty Stairs

As I hadn't worked on Medea yet, I was put on the task on doing the rust touch ups. However, once again I was rather slow and I feel I spent too much time up close instead of standing back and trying to quickly get the rusty effect. I do think that Jude, Rose and Soph did an amazing job on the stone work and it looks AMAZING! I am rather happy with my rust work, but I'm just annoyed i'm such a slow coach!