Beauties

I bought this set of 25 Beauties a short while ago, and they live on my desk so that I can shuffle them about and look at them all he time. I love them dearly and I'm a little bit obsessed with them so I thought I ought to share some with you!

They're a card set featuring famous women through history (I love this kind of stuff!) so not only is it educational and inspiring (there are little blurbs about them on the back), but also they are gorgously illustrated.

Here are a few of my favourites <3

Merry Christmas everybody!

Have a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year!


xLouisax

New years resolutions and Interning

Happy new year!!

This time of year is always great for reflecting on all the things you have or haven't achieved since last new year, which can be either very depressing or very encouraging. I definately didn't achieve the yearly 'lose a few pounds' order, but I'm glad to say that I did achieve all the less menial goals I set for myself - to get a good grade for my degree and get myself an internship. Well, I got a great mark for my degree and now I'm on my second internship!

Right now I'm interning at Sharkius Games which is really cool and right at the heart of the so called Silicon roundabout in London. I'm having an awesome time making artwork, mostly for their Facebook game Me to You: My Place (you can play it here also!) Better still, everybody is super cool and very talented and I've been learning a lot from the whole experience.

Here's everybody doing the Fonz!



Eyyyyy!

By this time next year I think I'd like to have a job that I'm happy with and generally have much improved palette of art skills. But that's only 365 days away so let's just see how it goes!

xLouisax

[EDIT]

Recently we had 30 seconds of fame in this TV report!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16387725

The Three Muskateers - all for one and 10/10!!

Last night my boyfriend had the pleasure of being dragged to the cinema, by me to watch the film I've been raving about since first I saw its trailer.

This movie is really cool! I am someone who is easily impressed, but sugar coat this with a great story, great characters, great music, great background scenery, great comedic moments, and not to mention TONS of beautiful period costume, and you're onto a winner. The Three Muskateers is a GREAT film in both style and substance, and in fact I'd probably go as far as to say that it's the most visually stunning film I have ever seen - possibly better than the film Avatar, and that's saying something because I love that film!

The amount of visual detail put into this film takes my breath away. Their costumes were awesome, especially the girls in the film, I couldn't stop looking at their hair!!








All these photos are from IMBD.com

Please see this film, if for nothing else atleast for for hard-work and art's sake!

xLouisax

Gilbert & Sullivan characters = Period Costume!

I recently went to a car boot sale selling an almost complete set of Player's Cigarette cards, featuring Gilbert & Sullivan characters!

Coming from a very musical family, I've grown up to seeing my parents performing in the majority of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, which is actually how they both first met. Although I didn't really understand or appreciate the shows as a child, now that I am older I have grown to appreciate them for their light-hearted and ageless comedy, as well as the beautiful range of costume eras they offer to period costume geeks like me!

My favourite shows are probably The Pirates of Penzance, Gondoliers and The Mikado, the latter perhaps being one of the most famous. Here is a few of my collection of the exquisitely drawn characters.

And aren't there here two very significant characters for me! Below is the sweet Rose Maybud from Ruddigore, whom I was named after! (Louisa Rose Brooks)

And here is the character Robin Oakapple, the first role my Dad ever played on stage, and one he has played again countless times since. He actually looks a little like this drawing too, wooOOOOOoooo!

These cards have been added to my ever growing collection of objects related period costume, and remain upright on my desk for at least a full working year! :)

Hope your all good,

xLouisax

Graduating & Interning!

Earlier this month I finally graduated! You may now refer to me as Louisa Rose Brooks BA, with a first honours degree! It was a beautiful ceremony and we all looked awesome in our robes! I'm so proud of myself and all of my classmates who did so well, I wish the best of luck to everybody!

Me with one of my favourite tutors Mike Nicholson and my best friend Michelle Siddall.

I've also spend the last month interning at a company called Naked Penguin Boy doing my absolute dream project. I can't say much about it (that would give it away now wouldn't it! :p) but I'm pretty much being a mini-games artist, concept artist, level & puzzle designer and I'm even doing a little animation! It's made me realise that this is what I want to do for my career and I'm really looking forward to my future. Best of all I've been challenging myself everyday, and have faced some of my biggest (drawing) fears, such as rock faces and foliage!! AAAAAH! :D

I've been enjoying myself tremendously at Naked Penguin Boy; it's a wonderful place to work in one of the nicest areas in London, and I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone there! :(

Also they've just recently released a new game for the Blackberry Playbook. It's called Dunky Dough Ball and it's a pretty cool and addictive little game so If you have a Playbook check it out!

xLouisax

Glastonbury Festival 2011 - Robyn

Moments after the finishing my final degree show, me and my chums took off to spend a long weekend at the world famous, Glastonbury Festival!

None of us had been to Glastonbury before, and after spending a very wet weekend at Reading festival last year, I felt confident that I'd be able to handle any weather Glastonbury could dish out - but oh how wrong could I be?

The weather was TERRIBLE, it took 8 hours to get into the campsite in the pissing rain, and to make things worse the last two days were SCORCHING hot.

Aside from the heat and rain however, the festival was actually pretty good, cos there's SO much to do, besides listen to music. Avalon was a hippy area resembling much of the towns in the Fable games; Shangri-la and the other after hours areas lived up to their reputation as being FREAKIN WIERD; not to mention the large array of the shops boasting collections of friendship bracelets for you and your friends to get excited over.

Robyn


Image Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/2011/artists/robyn/

The artists I particularly enjoyed were Tinie Tempah, Beardyman, Chemical Brothers, Hurts & Robyn. Robyn was probably one of the most memorable because I hadn't realised how much I liked her before I saw her live, and also, she freaked out on stage and threw her microphone over because her earphones weren't working. It was quite exciting. Nonetheless, she still sang spot on when her ears weren't working, it was a great energetic performance and nobody was in the slightest bit bothered about the technological problems. Good on you Robyn <3

xLouisax

UCA Final Degree show 2011, Graphic Design - Long Live the Art School.

Me with my newly professional bras, on the way to our successful futures!



My final degree show went quite well, I enjoyed the private views! Here's the image I exhibited in a tiny A3 frame, next to a billion other A3 pieces. It's promotional artwork for my game Maidens, Pirates, Steampunks & Zombies.



Que the embarrassing photo by my Dad- I can't even reach my picture! lol



The hustle and bustle of the private view (me talking to Rian Hughes in the bottom right corner!).



To be perfectly honest, the only thing that I was disappointed with about the show was that I felt like one of the few students that were ushered into a corner and hidden, like I was something to be ashamed of. But you know, so what?! I LOVE the work I do, and without sounding like too much of a pompous arse, there are plenty of other people in the world who like my work too! So there, I will have an awesomely successful career dang nabbit! XD

xLouisax

Old 'Beauties' Photos

Check out these old photos I picked up at a car boot sale recently.





These two beautiful photos really stood out for me and I just had to buy them! Anyone who knows me well knows that I am potty about period features, so turn of the century photographs are probably something to be expected within my weird collections, but another reason why they really jumped out at me was because they all look so happy, which is very comforting to me :).

Look at their awesome clothes!

xLouisax

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides!

Exciting times!! I watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean film last night, or The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

I'm pleased to announce that it is an EXCELLENT film and I'm really excited to see the next one!

I love these films, not just because they're about Pirates, but also because they're produced SO well - everything from the film sets, the actors, and the costumes, to the script and the dialogue.

It's certainly very different to the first three - for a start it has an almost completely new cast of characters, characters nonetheless that are refreshing and interesting. It also taps into the previous three films' wonderful imaginative concepts, such as a moment between Jack and Barbosa inside a wrecked ship stuffed full of enchanted treasure, balancing precariously on a cliff edge! We also see for the first time some Mermaids, Voodoo Zombies and also get to meet the absolute Pirate legend, Blackbeard!

This is also probably the darkest film of the quartet, but still doesn't lack in it's frequent comedy moments from the much loved Captain Jack, around whom the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is mostly famous for.

Here is a trailer to whet your appetite!!



Watch it, get a big bag of popcorn and watch it now!!

xLouisax

Dissertation - Lara proves popular

I recently found out that I got an A for my Dissertation! Pleased as punch!

The title of my essay was:

"To what extent does Lara Croft reflect a negative portrayal of women, and how closely does this relate to other Female Video Game characters?"

It was actually a really interesting subject to research and write about and I'm so glad that I chose Lara Croft as my case study. Here are a couple of quotes so you can get the gist of it:

"Not only does Lara Croft provide the perfect balance between beauty and strength, she also provides the gamer with a perfect representational fantasy. Video games should be discussed involving theories about visual representations, however, the nature of the video game is also so much more than just something to watch. The gamer does not simply watch the characters; they control them entirely. "

"The idea of living out a fantasy is completely encapsulated within the world of Lara Croft and is entirely the point of playing video games. In the same way that we can take on the role as an invincible criminal, gamers playing as Lara Croft can take on the body of a beautiful, fit, brave adventurer, fulfilling their fantasies of power. Using Lara as an extension of ourselves within a believable virtual world we can do impossible leaps across bottomless voids, and take risk after risk in order to complete the dangerous level. If we fall and perish, we can simply try again and again until we reach our goal; through Lara we become invincible, and through the world of gaming, we can fulfil ultimate fantasies."

xLouisax

Eat Me Magazine - Issue #5 April - Charles Darwin

Fancy reading a bit about food culture? Why not try Eat Me magazine, volume 5!

Haha, I'm sorry, I'm not actually being sponsored by Eat Me, I just really want you all to buy this magazine, flick to this page and be like:

"OMG that's amazing! It's definitely the best drawing I've ever see on Charles Darwin EVER!! I'm so proud of Louisa for drawing for this article, she's so talented!... Wait a sec, he's that bloke on the tenners, my life suddenly makes sense!"

It is quite a good mag actually, and it's got a nice picture of Ainsley Harriott on the cover.

Oh Charles, you were fun to draw. You have one of those cute old man faces. Plus you went on a five year voyage which technically makes you a pirate - pirates are COOL!

xLouisax

Geek Game for Girls - when History met Zombies

Maidens, Pirates, Steampunks & Zombies
Dress up Game!



Maidens, Pirates, Steampunks & Zombies is a quirky new Dress up Game, featuring the option to ‘Mashup’ some of the more boyish and overlooked genres.

I challenged myself to make this game as the Final Major Project of my Graphic Design degree at The University of the Creative Arts, Epsom. A true labour of love, it gave me the excuse to study not only the gorgeous aesthetics of 18th and 19th century fashions, but also the culture and ideas behind some of the coolest fantasy genres on the planet.

The majority of Dress up Games at the moment only tend to feature modern fashion, Justin Bieber, or Unicorn-riding Princesses, vomiting rainbows. Though we can all enjoy such frivolities at times, for just one moment, come over to the dark side. Bring out the geek within and make your own Pirate-Steampunk-Zombie-Lady!

Click HERE to play the game!

Let me know what you all think!

xLouisax

Zombies Zombies Zombies!

Recently I've been making the zombie graphics for my Dress-Up game, which have been fun! I read a book about zombies and drew and analysed a few zombie features.

The zombies glorified by Hollywood films are called 'Romero' zombies which are the ones that are viscious and hungry for human flesh. Because 'Romero' Zombies are essentially a fairly modern idea based on the Zombies created in George Romero films, I wanted to create modern zombified clothes (because they are the true zombies) but also have zombified versions of the other costumes, because it mashes everything up which is the theme of the game.



I learnt that zombies look best with sunken in eyes, torn off lips and pale faces and they don't usually wear shoes? Oh yeah, and their clothes are ripped or in the least covered with blood (from their own wounds or from their victims).

So here are my zombies, complete with complimentary Zombie head (which you can select in the game. :) Also a couple more accessories:









I am just about to put the zombie stuff into the game but here is my game so far, you can now select different backgrounds and turn the music off if it shivers your timbers.

xLouisax

Skeleton Game!

Hey how's it going?

I've began setting everything up in Flash for my game. The buttons make noises and stuff!

Please click here to play the skeleton version so you know what I mean ;p.

However....

I've hit a massive wall in terms of programming my interface. It was to be that the user selected a glossy button to select a section of clothing. This section of clothing would then appear to the right on the Dresser Mirror, and provide the option to flick through the inventory. On choosing an item, the user could click on it and it would appear on the doll, tada!



I think I figured out how to do this, however, it's not working the way I need it to. There's a way to use buttons to load external files, but they all load in different places because each file image is slightly different! Basically it doesn't work, short of individually programming 100 different sources, it's certainly not on a timescale I have.

Therefore, I need to alter my interface a little. I feel a little disappointed that the interface won't be exactly the way I wanted it to be, but trying to program it that way has completely baffled me and my peers.

Also, here is crying shame reject number one:



It was such a nice clock!

xLouisax

Dress-up game so far!

Please click on the links below:

- The Layout -

- 18th Century Dresses -

- Steampunks -

- Pirates -

- GENERAL PORTFOLIO -

xLouisax

Louisa Rose Brooks Portfolio

Hi guys, here is my current mini-portfolio.

Open publication - Free publishing - More brooks

xLouisax

Pirate Dress-up!

Been researching the internet, books and films to create my Pirate costumes for my Dress up game. The 'Golden Age' of Piracy was between the mid 17th and 18th centuries, so most traditional pirates are portrayed as 18th Century characters.



I was reading up about famous female pirates such as Anne Bonney and Mary Reade. They had amazing adventurous lives as Pirates and it's no wonder why it's such an exciting and popular genre.

If you search female pirate in google, you'll mostly get sexy adult pirate costumes, which is something I could go for with my dress up game. However, like the other genres, I want the pirates to have substance and some kind of historical standing aswell.

Anne Bonney and Mary Reade were known for dressing as men to disguise their sex, and they were so fierce and good at fighting that usually no-one usually questioned them - that is until they got preggers.

So, I basically need some 18th Century male fashion mixed into my pirate costumes, in order for my doll to be a 'realistic' female pirate. :)





And here are my current Pirate outfits!









xLouisax

Steampunk Dress Up

Here are my Steampunk costumes for my Dress-up Game!















Pirates next! :D

xLouisax

Cycling Pick Me Up!

I went to the Pick Me Up exhibition the other day, during a wonderful day-visit to London! It was all pretty good work but there was one illustrator who really caught my imagination, Takeru Toyokura. He featured a set of wonderful images, lovingly cut out in felt and paper to make amazingly detailed and surreal imagery.







I love, love love! Look at the buildings! They look so real!

To see more of his beautiful work, check this out:

<3

I also liked Kate Moross's Alphabet of Games Titles, hehe.

The day was rounded off with an amazing bicycle ride around Hyde Park. If you've never used a Barclays bike around London, get one and have a cycle around, it's awesome! Not too expensive either.







xLouisax