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