GEMMA CORRELL

Gemma Corrells - Daily Diary

Gorgeous illustrations which are uploaded regularly. I cant seem to find any contact information to ask the Correll whether i can put her images up on here - so use the link about to look at her work. Each piece is like looking at a page in a diary, there is something endearing and naive about the illustrations. It could possibly be the way they the images have been drawn in a more child like simplistic technique and the sweet stylised writing font. She has a very limited colour pallet and sticks to black and red but all the same, its eye catching and visually interesting. They lay out look rather natural but i can imagine a lot of thought and time has gone into designing each page.

Other images of Gemma Corrells work you may recognise:

Life Drawing 3/12/12

Veselina Dashinova, a graduate from the Royal College of Art came and visited Farnham UCA  to do a life drawing class. Unlike most life drawing classes this was a full day which was really exciting. We started the class by doing some scribbles on a page just to get us warmed up and ready for different exercises. My page was just plain scribbles that seemed to follow a floral theme. Nothing particularly interesting. 

Our first task was to split our A3 page into 6 boxes and create quick 1 minute drawings of the model (whom we used in our previous life drawing classes). These were kind of carrying on with the warm up exercise, i used a HB pencil which doesn't particularly create dark markings, how ever i think the main aim of the task was to try and get the shape, angles and movement of the model. They are nothing particularly special, and i don't like how they are so light and vague with the line work. They need a bit more definition and also it would look better with more confident line work.

The next task was rather similar, we split two pieces paper into 6 sections and did some more quick drawings like before. However, i still thought that the first 6 drawings needed something else, they were very vague and were so rough and quick they could look good with another layer. So instead of using the other piece of paper i draw on top of the drawings, it worked really well. It created loads of interesting markings and you can also see all of the drawings, it creates depth of field and a sense of form. I prefer it much more to the first 6 drawings.

The next task was to fold a A3 piece of paper as much as you can, once we had done this we started drawing on the paper, and then we unfolded it once, drew again, and so on until we had the whole piece opened. The aim of this task was to get used to working on different formats, we need to be versatile as animators and be able to work quickly with what we are given. I did enjoy it, it made me realise that i do struggle to work on a smaller scale, the drawings aren't too bad, but its interesting to see a change in quality of drawing as the paper size gets bigger, would be good to practice this more when i am doing tasks for Animation principles, for instance, designing a character, this would let me see if i would be able to animate my characters in all different size formats.

After our break we came back to do a non looking line drawing of the model, we were given a time frame of 10 minutes to look at the model carefully and make delicate thought over lines on the paper. This is a task that i have been doing since i did it in my foundation year, its a really good as it forces you to draw what you eyes see's rather then what you brain thinks it sees and what would look right. My drawing is a little disturbing with character, the model is very hunched and frail looking. Im surprised by how much the drawing is I'm proportion - I'm actually really happy with it. When i was drawing it i tired to redraw over what i had drawn to try and draw as much information as i could to get a feel for the shape and movement of the models body. The over sized head, hands and feet create a feeling of weight and heaviness.

After the non-looking line drawing, Veselina wanted us to contrast the drawing by giving us a 15 minute observational task where we had to carefully draw everything we saw, we had to use a variation of different mediums, pencil, chalk, charcoal, and build up a almost textured drawing. I felt much ore confident doing this kind of drawing to the previous one as you have more control with what you come our with at the ending. However, i think i could have done a better job on the hands and feet but due to the time frame and the way i drew the model i ran out of room. If i could go back i would draw is at horizontal view rather then a landscape view.

These two drawings are similar to the previous pencil, and charcoal drawings however we had 10 minutes to draw the one on the left and then 5 minutes for the drawing to the right.

The next task was really interesting, we had 2 minutes to look at the model in detail so we could get a real feel for the curves and movement in the models body.  We we told to split the page into two and then did a 5 minute not looking line drawing to the right of the page which was good fun, it didn't turn out quite as good as the previous non-looking line drawing though. Too the left of the first drawing we did a 5minute looking drawing. I must say, i almost prefer the right one where i didnt look at the model, I really like the face, it actually looks like a person, i probably concentrated on the face and neglected the rest of the body too much, next time i will concentrate on the whole of the body as well as the face, as the head is so much bigger then the body.

Another comparison drawing, the left looking and the right, non-looking.

The last task, was to create two 10 minute drawings drawings charcoal and pencil, we were told to try and make the model look three-dimensional so i made line markings to show where the body curves and the contours of the body. I actually really enjoyed this because i used more charcoal then i have used on the previous drawings, creating more contrast and making it more eye catching! 



Overall i really enjoyed myself, i learnt a lot and i feel like after the lesson i was much more relaxed with my approach to drawing. I felt more fluid with the movement with my wrists and i felt there was an improvement with my proportions too. One thing i will bare in mind for next week is i will bring more mediums where i can get a stronger contrast like the charcoal. Maybe i could bring some acrylic paint as it dries quickly, or some oil pastels. 

Drama class No.3 19/11/12

By far the most enjoyable drama lesson yet. Initially we learnt about Cicely Berry an incredibly influential lady. Cicely Frances Berry CBE (born May 17, 1926) is the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company & is world-renowned in her work as a voice & text coach, having spent many years as an instructor at London's Central School of Speech & Drama. Cicely Berry’s exercises tend to be based on resistance & rougher, physical work. Cicely has written & contributed to many books, articles & publications over the years & her seminal works read by all voice coaches as well as a large percentage of actors are:

• Voice and the Actor (1973)
• Your Voice and How to Use It
• The Actor and the Text
• Text in Action
• Word Play: A Textual Handbook for Directors and Actors

We started off by doing some of Berry's warming up exercises for the vocal chords. 

OO      O      AW      AA      AY      EE

we had to make the noises above and then add each individual letter at the end of the sounds above:

T,   D,   N,   B,   P,   M,   G,   F,   V,   S,   Z,   TH.

We we told that doing this exercise warms up the vocal words, gets the brain into gear and gets you raring to go. Once we had done our warm up we had to show and tell our individual performances that we started the previous week. We had to sit in the 'hot seat' say our name, age, what we do for a living, and then answer questions from the class. Mine is based on someone that is from a more deprived area who has a interesting lurch when they walk, my character is around 22 and has a northern accent. On the seat, we had to improvise with the answers which opened out minds up to all the possibilities that could happen. Once we had gone around the whole class we then had to get into groups of four and make up a film company name. We came up with the 'Hungry Ostrich Productions Limited'. We had to make up a film that we have to pitch to the ret of the class as our interesting characters that we established earlier in the lesson. Our film is about a man called Tibias, who lived around 100BC, he was a courageous fighter and we would do a Historical documentary about his life, his battles, and his tragedy. 

We did a mini pitch to the class where we had to name our company, name the film and what it would be about and our individual roles in the production team. For next week we have to create a script which we are to loosely follow so it can still be spontaneous and random, we have to polish everything up and make it believable.

Drama Workshop Lesson 1 6/11/12 and Lesson 2 12/11/12

Lesson 1 : We were learning all about Diaphragms, how we breathe, the right way to breathe and miming characters, using signs to get your message and ideas across to an audience.
First of all we started the class with some breathing exercises where we all lied on the floor, closed our eyes and breathed in and out slowly. Once we were all relaxed we did some humming exercises, where we breathed in for 4 seconds using out diaphragms, hold for 4 seconds and then breathe out for 8 and hum. Once we had done that a couple of times we ended up seeing how long we could hum for. We did this to warm up our vocal cords which is what an actor would need to do before starting a job.

What happens when you breathe?

Well... When you breathe in, or inhale, your diaphragm contracts (tightens) and moves downward. This increases the space in your chest cavity, into which your lungs expand. The intercostal muscles between your ribs also help enlarge the chest cavity. They contract to pull your rib cage both upward and outward when you inhale. When you breathe out, or exhale, your diaphragm relaxes and moves upward into the chest cavity. The intercostal muscles between the ribs also relax to reduce the space in the chest cavity. As the space in the chest cavity gets smaller, air rich in carbon dioxide is forced out of your lungs and windpipe, and then out of your nose or mouth.

Once we had got the hang of breathing deeply and using our full capacity we then went onto miming, acting out scene with no sound of mouth movements. For me it was to demonstrate how simple movements and facial expressions, body language and posture can get across a lot of information to the audience. We should take this idea into our animation. Words are like the blood in your body, you need the expressions, mannerisms, body language - the heart, to pump the blood around and make everything work. The expressions and mannerisms make it visually interesting and challenges the audience to make their own story. It was interesting to see what time of the day, where, who, what, why, the audience thought the mimes were about. On the whole, the mimes were pretty self explanatory.

Our home work was to look out for interesting people who have a particular way of walking, which is different and we can bring to class.

Lesson 2:

We started the class with some quick breathing techniques that we learnt from last week to see how had been practising deep breathing, 95% of us were using out chest to breathe and only 5% of our class were using our diaphragms! It is shocking really that we as humans don't breathe properly, we are lazy. Todays lesson we were concentrating on the voice box, and warming up the larynx and other parts of your voice. We also looked at warming up our faces, Rudolf Von Laban and his theories.

We started the class by exploring humming noises and making parts of our face vibrate, starting with out lips - for me a deep 'Oh" hum worked best to make my lip vibrate. We then experimented with the top of our head, the temples, the nose and our cheeks.

A  E  I  O  U - proxies and Pricativies

P  T  K  B  D  G  - air flow from the lungs are interupted by a complete closure being made by the mouth.

F  S  V  Z  - Air passes through the narrow contriction that causes the air flow turbulently and thus create a noisy sound.

We then looked at Rudolf Von Laban a Hungarian central European dance artist and theorist, whose work laid the foundations for Laban Movement Analysis, and other developments in the art of dance.

One of the founders of European Modern Dance, Laban raised the status of dance as an art form and elevated the reputation of dance scholarship through his inquiry into the theory and practice of dance and movement.

We were looking at the stereotypes with in movement that Laban created for example, a low heavy character would do punch, slice, and wringing movements, all disjointed, and uncomfortable movements and a light happy person would use gliding, flicking, dabbing movements. Laban did this so when he wrote a script the actor would act his words and then know the action he had to do, but due to their being no confinements, interpret it in the way the actor felt their character to take it.

We then moved onto what you need to make a good scene with out any voice over. With out the five 'W' you cant create something ingaging for the audience.

WHO = status        Gender    Real or Fictional

WHEN =   am    pm    Time

WHERE =  geographical    interior    exterior

WHY = why is out character there? Incentives? Drive?

WHAT = What outcome do you want?

Exercise Two

On two seperate sheets of parer draw the following pictures:

1. A ball crashed through a window and rips through a newspaper that a person sitting in a room is reading. Show the persons reaction... (actually not i re-read it, i think i drew the sinario slightly too early..

2.   Someone slips and grabs at a table clothe to try and stop themselves falling whilst a second person tries to catch the vase that is on the table from falling.

Life Drawing 29/10/12

I cant believe how quickly the life drawing classes have gone, i have enjoyed them immensely and i am actually rather sad that they are stopping for now. However, i am looking forward to the acting classes! I do feel like i have improved, especially with my technique, i feel like i am watching the model more and i am starting to draw what i see, rather then what my brain thinks looks right. I am more confident with my line work and i actually feel more confident about my capabilities. Initially i was use sure whether i could capture a persons face free hand, but i now feel that i can draw what ever i like if i put time in and concentrate. I have picked up good habits like holding a pencil at arms length and measuring the model, the angles of the body and the limbs etc. I have also now realized that the human body had subtle curves, that unless you look properly, you can easily miss. For example, the arm, people may think its quite like a cylinder with a join. but if you study the arm, there are dips and curves in the outline, they maybe subtle but they are there.
Overal i really enjoyed the life drawing classes, i found them to be challenging and rewarding, and i can not wait to jump into the next bundle of life drawing classes.

On the second part of the life drawing class we were given a sheet of paper and we had to draw the following:

1. A person running
2. A speeding car
3. A newspaper being blown in the wind
4. A person slipping on ice
5. A feather falling.

Initially i was a little concerned, as i didnt think i would be able to portray these things, my falling feather is a bit naff but i am quite pleased with everything else, but after thinking about my drawings, if i was to draw them again i would change the wheels on the car to a slanted oval shape to make it look as if it was going faster, and i would have thought about the framing of the drawings. So for instance, i would put my running man towards the right hand side of the page to make it look like he was running further and faster.

Life Drawing 22/10/12

Life Drawing 15/10/12

WRITING TO BE COMPLETED TOMORROW

Life Drawing 8/10/12

This week was a lovely change as we got to draw a male model, we completed various tasks similar to the weeks before hand. Firstly starting with quick 5 minute drawings or quick poses, and then doing a half hour study and so on. It is actually really interesting to compare both of the models physique. It is interesting how both of the models are more rounder around their midriff and have longer legs. I must say though, i enjoy drawings the female model over the male model, i think women are more voluptuous and curvaceous then men, they have more 'lumps and bumps' and it makes them for me slightly more interesting to draw.

Study of dancing man. 8/10/12

 In our life drawing class we were split into two groups. Group one would go down stairs for the first part of the lesson and concentrate on drawing a famous man dancing, it is rather embarrassing that i cannot remember his name really. Ron put on the movie and he paused on a certain performance so we could see the way the gentleman's body moved, where it twisted, the angles of the feet, shoulders and arms. I started off by drawing some really quick vague lines across the page so i could try and get the same proportions. I actually think the top line of the drawings above is quite successful, from studying at Farnham i feel like i have picked up so much, and before i honestly would not have thought that when people walk they walk with arks like a ball bounces. I actually got the arch for the head on the top row which i'm really happy with. The actor was spinning around and ended up pointing his left hand the air. I actually found it really interesting, when you watch a film sequence, you don't realise all of the angles and constant changes, it really opened up my eyes. Personally i think that i would prefer to animate animals so maybe it would be a good idea to record some natural history television programmes and some wild life documentary's and do the same task we did today in detail. This is something i could do for research when starting any animation!

Pencil figurative drawing.

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The drawing about is my favourite drawing of the figurative drawings i did. I think its mainly down to the angle of the model, the way her leg bends around and her feet curves over the arm of the chair. For me it is quite a vulnerable pose, but you could argue that her legs look relaxed by the way they rest on the sofa, however they contrast with her hunched shoulders. So it is a interesting pose for me, and it was hard to get the perspective right and make it look like her shoulders and head were further away then her hip and feet. I wanted to do more life drawing as i was inspired by our life drawing classes. I used 2B, 5B and 6B to create all of the drawings on the page.