learning to drive!

passed my theory!!
after failing the first time by 1 mark, i am happy i have finally passed my theory test, this means i can book my driving test which i can hopefully get done before i go back uni, so i can leave that behind and concentrate on uni work!

learning to drive

As i mentioned in a previous post, my parents have recently moved out of town, and unfortunately for me, i am unable to get anywhere without driving... and i cant drive. this summer my aim is to pass my driving test as i feel it is vital for me to have a driving licence for when i finish uni, if i find myself back at home (working from home). This will hopefully make me more employable for jobs that require travel or even interviews/meeting that require me to get somewhere. I also want to pass to give me more independence in general, being back at easter and so far this summer, i have felt very reliant on other people, and haven't been able to do things i have wanted.

its all well and good wanting to learn to drive, but this comes at a price, and because i live out of town, my lessons are costing me £40 a lesson (as they are 2 hour lessons)  which will set me back £40-£80 a week depending on how many lessons i have....  this called for a job and a job fast!

i went back to work at the lighthouse, a cafe in windermere, as these hours were really flexible, giving me whatever time i wanted off and as many hours i could do- even though it did take me half an hour-hour to get there.
i did 12 hour shifts 3-4 days a week- this was horrible.

though this job wasn't to do with illustration, it gave me days off to think about level 6 and potentially what i wanted to do after uni. and as i wanted money fast, i couldn't reply on getting illustration work.

illustrating my surroundings

John always reminds me how important it is to be influenced by the work around you, and the most important thing is travel - experiences you have/see will stay in your memory - the colours, shapes etc, will inform my practice. 

as my parents have recently moved to be more rural (didn't think we could get more rural then the small town we used to live in) i decided to illustrate objects/things that are part of my everyday life (home-life) which perhaps were not there before. for instance,  logs. i am surrounded by logs. now we have a wood burner my dad has made several wood stores to keep the logs, one just outside the glass window which i look out to from the table. seeing this had inspired to to draw from what i observe - pattern, gains, lines. i have played around with making a repeat pattern from the drawing as this is how it is presented to me in real life, a repeat of logs all stacked up in the wood store. 

i played around with the colour saturates and hues on photoshop, though these colours are not exact to the colours in the logs, i like how it is exaggerated, adding to the feeling and mood you might feel when you see nature first hand. 

overlaying- i played around with repeating one of the logs, to see what patten i could create. though i think this is a good thing to experiment with, the patten i created is to complex for my liking, and reminds me of a floral 60's pattern.