Making of the candyland shoot. Part 1...

I've always been in love with all things sweet, so when I saw Katy Perry's California Gurls music video, I was totally inspired! I've had the idea for a while to create scene's that I can photoshop people into and the candyland would be perfect for children's shoots!

Scene shot from the video.

The music video was directed by one of my favorite artists, Will Cotton, who paints most portraits with confectionary themes. Below are some pieces from him that I adore!

After I collected inspiration, I made a moodboard on photoshop:

So with this in mind, I went sweet shopping, armed with a long list of classics. Its fair to say that with a successful and run trip, although it was tempting to nibble on them!

I varnished the lollipops, then I drew on the red stripes with a sharpie. To make the lollies stand up, I stuck them in gummy drops.

In the background I knew I wanted mountains of ice cream, so I practiced my painting skills to create a backdrop, which was inspired by these photos I found on pinterest:

Theres still a long way for me to go before the final image, but I'm so excited about it, and hope to take some more scenes in the future, but here is what I've done so far:

Keep your eyes peeled for part 2. 

5 reasons why we need art.

Art is a HUGE part of our lives, whether we like it or not. Art has always been within history, starting from the earliest cave and rock paintings to today's sometimes weird and wonderful modern art. But why have humans always felt a connection to getting creative in this way? Here are some theories:

1. It makes us feel good. The famous philosopher, Plato, believes that we like beautiful things, because it shows us the things that we subsciously need in our lives. Take a beautiful landscape painting for example, some may like it because it shows a peaceful place, the thing that the viewer may be lacking, peace. Plato also believed that art was hugely therapeutic that the artists of our time were doing a duty to society. 

   

   Artist: Kim Casebeer. 

2.  Its therapeutic. Many artists themselves say that the process of creating art is therapeutic and helps them deal with emotions that are too difficult to put into words. Painful thoughts can come to us visually and getting them down on paper can help us deal with them. Some of the most famous artists have turned their pain into beautiful pieces of art. 
3. It helps us appreciate things. Artists can make even the simplest of things look beautiful, from sweet wrappers to a bit of grass, art helps us to see the beauty in the everyday things. Van gogh reminds us that oranges are also beautiful, John Constable makes us look closer at the wonder of the sky, and Tracey Emin makes us marvel at the a unmade bed. 

   

   Tracey Emin - My bed.

   
   

   

   John Constable. 
   
   
   

   4. It makes us feel less alone in our emotions. Some art really connect with our emotions, we look at it and we just KNOW how that feeling the artist was going through. Art helps us to communicate difficult emotions as well as understand others emotions. We feel less alone when we see art that resembles something we've felt. It validates that what we were feeling is a normal human emotion and we're not allow in them! 

   

   Moussin Irjan 

   
   

   5. Its a form of escapism that we need from our everyday lives. Just like reading, watching TV and playing video games, art is a form of escapism. We can create just about anything our imagination comes up with, giving us that much needed freedom from the troubles of day-to-day lives. Within art you can be whoever and wherever you want. There are simply no limits within art. 

   

   Ani Roschier 

   
   

   Check out the awesome video below for more information and theories on why we need art: 

   
   

Warrior

Artists that turned pain into art.

Art, for many people is a form of therapy, an outlet of emotions to difficult to form into words. If you've seen any of my personal work, I'm sure your aware that I use my own difficult emotions, and struggles with my mental illness in my work. I've recently become fascinated with other artists work that they may have created in difficult stages of their lives. Its crazy how much you can relate to a piece of work, without any words, you just get how the artist was feeling! 

3 Famous artists who suffered mental illness:

1. Pablo Picasso. 

Picasso's 'blue' period was between 1901-1904 where it is thought that he suffered great depression. He reflected this in his paintings through the blue period in which is used a lack of colour, sticking to blues, greys and monochrome. 

2. Vincent Van gogh 

Van Gogh reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder and was in and out of psychiatric hospitals frequently. This is personally one of my favorite pieces of his work, reflecting himself being 'imprisoned' by his thoughts.   

3. Bobby Baker. 

Bobby Baker's visual diary through her struggles with her borderline personality disorder are honest, imaginative and very surreal. I was lucky enough to attend a workshop based on her style as part of her exhibition 'Diary drawings: mental illness and me:1997-2008'. 

Below are my personal favorite pieces of art work that (to me) depict emotional pain that I can relate to:

Anxiety by BeethyPhotography

Unknown artist. 

Artist: Shin Kwang Ho.

Ceramic sculptures by Nakita Naik.

Hope you guys find these inspiring and decide to do something creative whenever your down, believe me, it really can help! 

Next weeks blog post: 'Philosophical theories on art' 

Becky x  

2014 photo journal

Midway through last year I was going through a pretty tricky time. I needed to keep myself distracted and I also wanted to improve my photography and art skills. So putting the two together I decided to make a photo journal for the rest of the year. I thought it would be a great way to see how far I've come when I look back in future years.

At first I was determined to take a photo-a-day, even if it meant using my Iphone camera! But some days I was so busy I forgot and others well, my imagination was lacking and nothing exciting was happening. I still kept it up though, through 7 months I documented (when I could) the things that I was getting up to, places I went, and things that generally inspired me. When 2014 came to an end, although the journal was looking full, there was still empty pages, but I wanted to say goodbye to the year completely but starting a new 2015 journal.

Below are some scanned images of the pages in my 2014 journal. (Many of the photos were taken using my instax mini 8 camera)

Things you can use for your own journal:

Tickets from the cinema, plays, comedy shows

Decorative tape

Scrapbooking extras 

Ink stamps

Old wrapping papers

Pressed flowers

Maps 

Food packages 

Stickers 

Magazine cut outs 

Watercolours

Quotes from the best in the business.

Quotes on photography:

• 'Photography is the story I fail to put into words' - Destin Sparks. 
• 'You need to get people to relax around you and they need to trust you.' - Jonas Peterson (My favorite Wedding photographer) 
• 'You have to raise the bar. Give yourself a challenge. ask yourself "How can one make the impossible materialize?"' - Tim Walker. (Fashion photographer)
• 'A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.' - Ansel Adams (Landscape photographer)
  

On Business/Freelancing:

• 'Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.' - Thomas Edison. 
• 'You are good enough, as long as you are willing to learn' - Rosie Hardy
• 'Everything you want is on the other side of fear' - Jack Canfield 

On creativity: 

• 'The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.' - Pablo Picasso 
• 'No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.' - Oscar Wilde.
• 'Creativity takes courage' - Henri Mattisse