So I realized I didn't mention much of what I did yesterday, Or should I say  I left a bit unsaid. So basically we had an external examiner come in to have a look at the interim show and  ask us a few questions. He even put us into small groups, and gave us a task. We were asked to  go over to the show and see the other peoples  work within our groups. Read their statements and look at their work, we then had to write them questions that had to be answered by midnight last night. So just in case you've forgotten, this is  my work and my statement together:

I was then given 3 questions , so here is what I asked and what I replied:

• Would you say you have a “Style” of illustration or our you still trying to keep this diversified?
  
  

I wouldn't say I have a style, I have been told I do. But I don't really see it, perhaps because I am too close to it. I still feel like I need to discover mine, however I do like the idea of keeping myself diversified for future jobs.

• When you say “Working with others”- do you plan on taking a collaborative project?
  
• What kind?
  
  

When I say working with others, I more meant within photo shoots. Such as working with make-up artists, hair stylists, models. However I wouldn't say no to a collaborative project. I am currently not planning on taking any due to the amount of projects I already have. If I was to take a collaborative project I would like it to be a mix of photography and illustration. As long as it's fun, although I know that you can't always have that, but if I could choose.

• When you say illustration can be anything – so can photography. How do you plan to explore both – together/ separate? 
  
  

What I more meant with photography being different. It takes a bit more effort to create a really crazy scene, to simply just pen and paper. I understand even this statement could even be argued. 
I plan to use both photography and Illustration. I am unsure how this will look. But I am planning on exploring this path within my main project. I want to merge both illustration and photography together. This could even be as simple as drawing on a photograph. I will also be exploring these separately

  So yes, these were my incredibly long answers. Today!
I went to my meeting with my tutor, I got a lot of great advise, I have to admit it is rather nerve racking when speaking of my project and everyone around me is so interested in it and really love what I'm doing..... A little more than me. Maybe this is due to being too close to my project at the moment. 

But I am so pumped for my dissertation now, I got a great confidence boost today. My only worry is really getting everything together. 

 I also heard today which sort of brought me down, I understand it, I do just think it's B.S. I heard that even if you get over a C  grade for the dissertation work. this grade doesn't effect my studio work grade. If I get below a C grade for my dissertation, it actually drags my studio work grade down. Not happy about this. Feel like packing it in. 

Planning on working my wee butt off tomorrow on this dissertation.  Possibly going into uni to do this, I have to admit though I'm having my valentines day early and having a fatty night with my flat mate. So watching Walking Dead, eating pizza, chicken wings,  ice cream, a lorry load of chocolate, and  having a few bottles of wine.....  hoping I wont be hungover tomorrow .. eeeek!

So, I finally got into uni today. Running around like a headless chicken. I recently have been assessed and found to have  dyslexia and also dyscalculia.  So uni have given my lots of new toys to help me with my work. I also  went and got my dissertation   draft, so I can now  write all over it and everything to hopefully help me with my dissertation.  I also went in and seen the interim show.  I have to say my book covers looked very smart and I really think my little blurb about my work made everything very  professional   looking.

Here is a few people's work from my class, I really hope none of them mind me taking a little snap shot of their work and putting them up on my blog. I just wanted to show a variety of the work that was up for the interim show. 

So as you can see there is a huge variety, and some people's work looking more professional than others. Although this was a mock "exam" for the end of year show, I am already starting to think of what I can do differently, and what sort of work I want to have done and shown for that. I was honestly very surprised how much work does go into a show.  I think it was very much to do with the planning and about 60 art students running round and slightly freaking out about what they were doing and getting the space to have their work put up.

That's all really from me today. Tomorrow I will be getting stuck into dissertation work. Hopefully I wont hate myself.

So today,  I haven't gotten round to do any university work. I have been using the time I have at home with family and friends.  Starting to get myself organized for heading back to  Aberdeen early tomorrow morning.  Also a little excited for tomorrow, as tomorrow night i have an exhibition at uni. It's all the  design students  showing bits and pieces from their projects. I have to admit I have seen a few and mine seems pitiful compared to what others have put up. Although this is like a mini exam for me as we go through all this to prepare ourselves for the end of year show. I am really getting excited about that and what I want to put up.

However for the next few week I will be knuckling down to do my dissertation.  As well as finally getting back to do some ViewBug competitions . I am hoping to do some night time photography, So feeling rather lucky to be home as I forgot my flask to take with me on these night time adventures.... for wine.... I mean hot chocolate! 

So tomorrow I will hopefully have a lot more to say on how the interim show went and how everyone pieces looked. It'll be great to have a wee nosy at what everyone else is doing in their final year.

And as usual seeing as I don't have much to show for today... Here's a picture of a cat, that I hope  you find entertaining

So, today has been rather busy already as I was travelling most of yesterday I didn't get any work done. So  I have woken up to a bunch of emails and a whole bunch of work to do. 

The interim show was top of my to do list. As my statement that is to go with my work needed a bit more work to it. So i tried my hardest, but as I am doing so many different things. To get that into a well described 200 words.  Was incredibly stressful and annoying. I hope however that it is good enough for my tutors.  As I feel  I have really done my best. 

I have as been looking into Hedonism for my research into  my dissertation. Hedonism actually has a lot to do with my work. Hedonism is   the pursuit of pleasure, sensual self-indulgence. So this really does get my work into a better structure of  better understanding. I have also been looking into behavioral economics. As a brief description wiki has summarized this as  "     Behavioral economics and the related field, behavioral finance, study the effects of psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions and the consequences for market prices, returns, and the resource allocation"

Again this narrows down my train of thought from being all over the place and struggling  to say what I mean as well as having more facts. As I am beginning to freak out a little as I now have exactly a month till hand in for my dissertation. SO the chaos is starting to build.

 That's all from me today.  Here is an image by  Tom Bagshaw. I have been looking into his designs for my deck of cards brief.

So, today  I mainly  got my pieces placed for the interim show. 

I also looked up a for more things on the theory of happiness.  Confirming some of my  own thoughts. I also spoke to a few fellow students on different courses to get their opinions. I was surprised to discover that.  This graph by  Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

Depicts that over the past 50 years. Although pay has gone up. Levels on happiness and well being  have went down.  I was surprised to find out that actually, this hasn't been something that has gone on in the past 50 years. But very early on in the 10th century economy this was a similar thing. So yea an interesting thing I learnt today. Also just to warn, I may not be able to blog tomorrow as  I will be travelling home for the weekend.  Hopefully the only disruption will be tomorrow and blogs will go back to normal by Friday. 

Today I have been  doing more of my dissertation, mainly looking back over my draft and looking at notes. I am still slightly  struggling with a lot of the language. But I am getting there, I feel this is a very slow process though.  Not much really to report on today. Although, I have started to do a bit more research  into the theory of  happiness.  I feel like my  dissertation is already starting to come together more.

Tomorrow I will be hanging my pieces  for the interim show. I am actually rather excited to see how the will look for the show. So I will be able to show  it looking all pretty.

For my main project I have been looking at  possibly doing some  performance art. Similar to a flash mob. I have been toying with the idea of consumerism and how there are seven kinds of ways we shop. One of them being is we copy each other.  You see someone with a new phone that can do everything but it's primary use, of being a phone. We want it  as we see so many others with it. We  feel a need to  be kept in the loop. So! I thought it would be very entertaining if I managed to get everyday people to do their shopping in a sheep costume.

Even as I write this I then remember the term "Copy Cat". Again this would be the same thing, just different animals.  Not too sure if I would be able to   get enough people for this and I do realize timing should have been more towards Christmas. But  this doesn't mean  I can't do this  during the year. This again is just one of my crazy ideas. 

So yea, I will be able to  show how my place will look for the interim show.

I have been running round like a headless chicken all day today. But I am not totally ready for the interim show. I got my finals printed and mounted on foam board. They look so much more professional. So I am very happy with how today went. I even did a little bit more research with my dissertation work. I have also made a start on my dissertation, so today was incredibly productive. I am just so tired at the moment after all the running around. But I'm happy :)  

Not the best photo I know, but I did try my best.  I know it's hard to figure out but on Thursday I will be able to  show you how it will look mounted on the  wall.

With my dissertation I have not only started looking at photoshoot ideas, but also poster ideas. 

I think this image in it's self is very true and I think a lot of people can relate to it, whether it be themselves or people they know. Tomorrow I plan to look up the survey I gave out after the festive rush. If you haven't already I would really appreciate you take just one minute of your time to tick a few boxes. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFZ7G9T 

I started to look back into my main project. I  went back  a little bit and created another info graphic. I decided to make it a little more cartoon like and interesting to look at , as the others I feel lacked that. They are very boring images just hovering on a page.

I then went and looked back at my previous ideas. I decided to then make a mind map of some of the ideas I have that I want to maybe have as my finals for the end of  the year. 

Still not totally finished, but you get the point.  There is still more I want to add to this. As well as a lot more work I need to start looking into. I am in a way going right back to the start. With help from my tutors, we have made a sort of list  that will help me, with what way I can write my dissertation. As I am not the best writer in the world.

Tomorrow I will hopefully get my final book covers printed and mounted. Have to admit I am a  little worried as I have never spray mounted any of my work myself. I even worried myself so much I looked up a few You Tube video demonstration videos. There was one where a guy had a brick to keep everything in place. But he was making sure there was no dirt on it and I'm not going to lie, I had a little bit of Father Jack stuck in my head: 

Yep, my immaturity levels sometimes scare me too ;)

So I started looking at my dissertation today..... then I thought the dishes needed done, Have to get my finals ready for the interim show. So may as well add the blurb to the book covers.  Had to then  change some of my elements within the book covers around so the blurb would fit.... And about two hours spent arguing with myself on which fonts to use.... so yea..... em, didn't get much of anything to do with my dissertation  done today. Whoops!

I have to admit though, I really under estimated how much time it would take to not only tweak one of the covers to look semi finished,  as the others do. But to then get the elements to change about and try to make them identical to the other. Such a pain in the arse!
I did get it done though, in between cleaning my flat and any other distraction that I let take me away from my laptop. I got it done!

So this was the first font that I really liked. Also just to let you know, the colours are a little funny due to me being lazy about putting the images into RGB mode. I have uploaded too many so look through past blogs to get an idea of colour. I want you to look at the font anyways. So as I was saying. This was the first font I liked. I then tested a few others and finally landed on this one:

Now this is actually the font called "Chaparral Pro", this is it in bold. So I realized I  had to move all the elements on the back page. I was determined not to move my guide lines though. The gun, smoke, bullet holes. ALL had to be moved to have room for the blurb. Took me a good few hours for each of the book cover, to try and get the placement exact on each one.  So, eventually I got this working for me. I then decided to still have the font "Chaparral Pro" in regular.

So these are my finals ready for print and hopefully mounting on Monday. 

Ok, so I got my final done today and sent off.  Very proud wee moment. I actually put so much work into the  cover, as my previous book covers for the other project I was working on were just horrible. They we re far too dark and I did have a really had time with them. So with these book covers, I tried so hard to make them bright and easily seen when printed out. I learnt a lot more techniques than I had first anticipated. So now comes the  doom and gloom, from this day forth.... Interim show and dissertation work..... Yep, lots, and lots and lots of fun. Then 6th of March things should get a lot more interesting. If I haven't thrown my dissertation out the window by then. 

So for my interim show these are  the three book cover I have decided to show.  Not totally sure on the 3rd of the book covers as I really don't think it is to the standard as the others.  But I am still proud of the image, a lot of work still went into it.

This weekend I plan to go back to my dissertation and  see how things are going with it, and look at what I need to fix as well as what I want to take out and put in. I will try to make my blogs a little bit more interesting than...... So I was working on my dissertation today.... Like I did last semester.