Goodbye.. For now!!

Hello to all the lovely ladies and gents that read my blog. I have moved websites and blog to this new address:

http://bethmurray.wix.com/packyourpaintbrush

I hope you will follow my next steps as I embark on my journey into the real world after graduation. I have moved to London and am working as a Textile Design Intern. Go to the new website to see my new blog, online portfolio, my inspiration feed and much more.


Thank you so much for reading this blog.

Goodbye... but just for now,

Beth Murray

Follow my blog

Hello everyone!
You can now follow my blog! Just click the button on the right hand side that says 'follow me on bloglovin' or follow this link - bloglovin.

Thanks for reading.

Beth


<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12307365/?claim=svb2zepdbrv">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Fashion, Styling & Photography: Third Year Project

My photography project this year was for the module: Fashion, Styling and Photography.

When considering different themes for the Fashion Styling and Photography module I wanted to re create the intense imagery and emotion that I felt throughout the Disney movie Frozen. Frozen was impressive in many regards but I left the cinema absolutely enthralled with the producers ability to portray the two main characters, Elsa and Anna. In Frozen, two sisters are the main characters, both have their own distinguishing characteristics from the other. At the beginning of the film Elsa is very self-conscious and reclusive while Anna is much more excitable and outgoing. The relationship of these two sisters and their progressions as individual characters are a unifying theme throughout all of the final work presented. The following goes into greater detail about how I drew inspiration from other photographers, fashion trends, and brands to help bring these two wonderful Disney characters to life.

The following quote sums up why I love Sorapol, “The Sorapol woman is powerful, elegant, and opulent.” (Sorapol 2014). Based out of London, I believe my work best aligns with the philosophy and style of Sorapol. Sorapol has artisanal influences; their garments are very luxurious and glamorous, just like in Frozen. Another aspect of Sorapol that has similarities to Frozen is their photography settings. Many of their photographs are taken in a large house, much like the one that Elsa and Anna grow up in as children. Due to the common theme in both Sorapol fashion photography and Frozen, I also implemented background imagery of a big manor type house to bring the photographs closer together.

The main fashion influences upon this module come from garments displayed upon the catwalk for upcoming Autumn and Winter trends. The two main influences that carried over into my work were the use of fur garments and bold eye makeup. Within the film Frozen, we see many of these same trends. Both Elsa and Anna wear large winter coats with fur throughout the film. While the filmmakers apparently thought Anna’s character too young for makeup, Elsa sports bold makeup themes that are very similar to those currently trending in fashion today. The powerful connection be- tween Frozen and today’s current fashion trends is even further explored in my work. Both models are shown with bold eye makeup as well as examples of fur clothing.



I have chosen three different fashion photographers to draw inspiration from, each with their own unique styles. Julia Blank is a beauty, fashion, and advertising photographer. Her use of twin model children in her photo shoot for Milk magazine aligns well with the theme of sisterhood from Frozen. Her work also shows strength and unity between the two girls, which is another great similarity to the Disney film. The next photographer that I drew inspiration from was Sharif Hamza. The image of hers’ that influenced me the most was on the cover of Dazed and Confused magazine. Her model is shown as a fierce and confident young woman with a caption that reads, “Girls Rule the World.” (Dazed and confused, 2014). Hamza’s ability to capture the inner strength of her model is a powerful way to engage her viewers and make them look back with intrigue and wonder. Tomas Reid is the next photographer that had an influence on my work. Reid’s work is constantly populated with blue tones. We see blue tones throughout Frozen as well; due to the fact that much of the movie is based around winter weather. He has also experimented with motion and double exposure photography. Reid’s use of these techniques inspired me to try and do some of my own attempts at motion and double exposures. All three photographers were able to convey a woman/girl’s strength as well as beauty, a theme that is clearly evident in Frozen.

In order to achieve the desired look I wanted for my work, I utilised many different techniques in Photoshop CS6. Based on research by the photographers mentioned above, the key elements that need editing after a photo is taken are high contrasts, dark shadows, motion blur, blending modes including an overlay effect, and selective colour change. Photoshop can be used to enhance delicate features such as skin tone, makeup, and hair colour. All of these techniques used in conjunction with one another helped me to better make my work the way I had it originally envisioned. Frozen is a fantastic film for all ages, I am overjoyed that I was able to expand upon it for this module. The themes present in the film are so intertwined in the Fashion Photography world but to the untrained eye, it’s simply a stunning film.

Studying Fashion Photography has opened my eyes to the many possibilities of how to portray a model to help deliver a powerful and concise message. In conclusion, I can only hope that my work evokes the same emotions I felt when watching Frozen for the first time; sadness, power, love, and strength.

Here are my favourites -

Thank you to my beautiful models Emily and Cat. Here are some funny moments from the shoot;

Thanks for reading! 

Grandma's Flower Garden

This tuesday I turn 21 years old. This apparently gives my sister permission to call me an 'old child'! I am based in Leeds right now at university, but I got over to Scunthorpe to see family for the weekend. The sunshine was out to celebrate with me, and we got to relax outside. These are some photographs I took of the flowers in my grandma's garden. She knows the name for each flower, but unfortunately I don't remember them all! She will be turning 80 this year and her garden party will be surrounded by all of these beautiful flowers. 

Hope you like them! Tell me what you think.

SDC Competition Day March 2014

In March the Society of Dyers and Colourists in Bradford, UK, held the North of England part of the SDC International Design Competition 2014.

I was lucky enough to be a spectator at the event. The day was planned out well; the group of competitors was split in half, one group went to present their work to the judges, and the other did a dye workshop with Richard Ashworth, a member of staff at SDC Bradford.

The dye workshop was good fun and I talked to some of the competitors from surrounding universities. Most were nervous about their upcoming presentation and explained to me the full extent of the competition.

The winner from the North of England goes on to compete for the UK title, which I am informed Claire Hunsigner won on the 24th March, and so on until the finals held in China this November.

The groups swapped over and we waited in the colour experience gallery, which is worth going to if you are ever in Bradford! After lunch a talk was given about colour whilst the judges came to a decision. The work was laid out on the side so I went round and judged the work for myself. The winner chosen was definitely the right person!

The awards were given and another presentation was held in the afternoon by a retired member of the SDC. Overall a good day and an interesting perspective to watch a competition. Good luck to all involved for the final!


Thanks for reading.

The Triangle and the Square; print design

Big dipper; stitch and Swarovski crystals.

I liked an idea on Pinterest of stitching stars onto fabric with a white thread, I used a glue gun to attach the crystals to the fabric. 

I chose to connect the dots of the big dipper, which can be seen in North East America in the summer (I don't know about winter). My boyfriend, Thomas, and I spent an evening stargazing in the first few weeks we met. Thomas pointed out the big dipper and told me other facts about stars. I thought he was making them up but didn't want to ruin the moment... they turned out to be true. 

A memory of the stars in stitch and Swarovski crystals.

Elizabeth Gilbert - 'Your elusive creative genius' TED talk.

One of my favourite talks about creativity is by Elizabeth Gilbert. Author of Eat, Pray, Love. 

I only recently found this talk from 2009. At first I thought she was trying to suggest or preach a new way to think when in a creative flow.
However, as the talk went on, I found that she had changed her way of thinking after interviewing other writers. Adopting their ways of thinking and she wanted to share that with others.


This is a story that Elizabeth uses in her talk;

"I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone, who's now in her 90s, but she's been a poet her entire life. She told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. It would come barreling down at her over the landscape. And she felt it coming. Because it would shake the earth under her feet. She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, "run like hell."
She would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem, and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page.
And other times she wouldn't be fast enough, so she'd be running and running and running, and she wouldn't get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it "for another poet."
Then there were these times... this is the piece I never forgot; she said that there were moments where she would almost miss it, right? So, she's running to the house and she's looking for the paper and the poem passes through her, and she grabs a pencil just as it's going through her, and then she said, it was like she would reach out with her other hand and she would catch it. She would catch the poem by its tail, and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first."


Once you have had a good laugh at how crazy and insane this story sounds, it started to make some sense to me. When I write my creative journals for university, or essays for other modules, an idea comes into my head so fast I don't have a chance to write it down fast enough. And most of the time the sentence comes out on the page in the wrong order of which I meant it to be. So, I have to go back and re-phrase my work once the ideas are out of my head. There is the odd time that my work comes out perfect first time, I think that comes with practice though.

On my blog I have always held back when it comes to writing anything, I am much more confident in my art work and it is a creative blog after all. Showcase my best work right? Things that don't work so well are still as highly valued in my opinion. I work best with a trial and error method, but I don't need to pretend like all the work I produce is gold. I don't know if that is similar to other creative souls out there?


A lot of things that Elizabeth Gilbert made sense to me personally. I'm not sure why creativity comes with 'emotional risks' that we as humans fear. For me, the people that consider themselves to be less creative are the people that question my judgement and ask if I am scared about what comes next.
In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert; "Yes, I'm afraid of all those things. And I always have been.. But don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Don't be afraid of the work that you feel you were put on this Earth to do."


Click on the link to hear her TED talk; 'Your elusive creative genius'.
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius

Motivation

Motivation can be a hard thing to come by when you have been doing the same thing over and over.
Coming to the end of the third year in my degree, I am working hard but the end still seems so far away. I'm sure it will be July before I know it.

-

After watching the artsy movie Midnight in Paris last week, I picked out this quote that I particularly liked; "We all fear death and question our place in the universe. The artists job is not to succumb to dis-pair, but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence. You have a clear and lively voice. Don't be such a defeatist."

Discouraging and reassuring at the same time. But I don't think you have to take it so literally. The quote is telling artists, like me, that you that you need to follow your own path in life and do what you want to do. I'm not saying you don't have to work hard or put the effort in to get there. It's easy to start being a defeatist, once you doubt yourself it's a rocky climb back up to the top. Although, only you can motivate yourself.

One of my grandmas favourite quotes is 'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink'. And it's true. Everyone around can tell you to do something; it will only happen if you want it badly enough to try.

-

One of my friends has recently flown half way around the world to start her life of work travel and adventure. I envy her lack of fear to go and conquer the world, however, it reminds me that everyone needs to go outside their comfort zone if they ever wish to be successful.

Sarah can tell you her story better on her blog;  http://anydistance.blogspot.co.uk/

A new semester; a new project

This is the final project I do at the University of Leeds. Second semester of the third year. I can hardly pin point where the years have gone... I have enjoyed most modules and all three years have been a learning curve.

There has always been something to challenge me. This year has been stress upon stress trying to write a 12,000 word dissertation. I can tell you where most hours of procrastination went. Finding new series on Netflix is always a good option for boredom. Never the less, I am almost at the deadline now and that will NOT be a piece of work that I miss. Digitally printed textiles on the other hand, I love and want to carry on after University. Hopefully get a job and work in the Design world.

I started this blog in first year to document and keep an online log of drawings, sketchbook work, CAD/photoshop development, laser cut fabrics etc. I found that the modules taking up most of my time were the academic/written ones. Pattern & Culture through history for example. Whilst I found this interesting, I wanted to keep my blog mostly about the visuals. This worked in my favour. During exam period, or a heavy work schedule, I could almost re-inspire myself with my own work.

It's not all University work. In fact, the majority of posts are things I have done outside of class. When I got my beautiful DSLR Canon camera, I went even more photography crazy than I already am! My parents got me a big compact camera for college back in '10 and ever since I have been that annoying friend that snaps pictures wherever I go. Now I can use my camera to capture my textiles work in high quality, (need to go back through the best work and put onto blog), and I use photography to document primary research. Like the flowers for my next project!

I have a love/hate relationship with my development & final designs. I either become overly precious and feel lost without when its handed in for marking! Like having no handbag or purse on a night out. Or, it's a relief to be looking at something new! When the deadline comes, you know you could have carried on with the project, but all you want to do is to be finished and get rid of it. Thats usually around the time that I make a new blog post.

Florals for Summer fashion 2014

I can't help but feel florals has been overdone on the catwalk this year. However, they never really go out of style. I really like the idea of a 'secret garden' theme, but I know I have to make it my own and individual to make it stand out. No more 'Kaleidoscope mirroring' on photoshop this time. Which is sad because that is the quickest way I know how to make a repeat tile.
I have been inspired by designers recently using the garment as a blank canvas, using a painterly style to be expressive, and it really suits my style of working! My last two years at university, I have been figuring out how to draw aesthetically pleasing, graphic style, motifs and put them into repeat. So, I am looking forward to going back to a more free flowing, creative style.

Sketchbook development; Colour studies from florals.

Placement; textile design

Final Designs; Generate Collision