Yesterday, I didn’t do much work. The reason for this is because I just got back from Yarnton, due to a family matter. Once I got back, I went to my room and rested for about an hour or a half, before leaving for my lessons. Basically, everyone were still doing work on their recreations and transformations, as well as continuing to critique each others work. I decided to continue work on my nails, which proved to be very difficult and frustrating. Near the end of the lesson, I got help from Angus, another student on the degree course, and it became a lot easier to get the nails in and keep them in. Also, I did another pencil drawing of my helmet, but from the side and did another nail outline around it.
During the lesson, our teachers called us together and talk to us about the workshops I mention a couple of weeks back. For the rest of this month, we will be working in four different workshops, focusing on a specific type of media: video editing, plastering, screen printing and metal works. These workshops will further our own work from the previous brief, as well as give us a clearer idea on what kind of career path we want for ourselves in the future.
We started our workshops today, first with video editing. We had to bring in videos or stills and editing them into a feature video, around at-least a minute. Grant, out tutor for the workshop, took us through the editing process: first, we had to open video editor program, premiere and open a new document. Then, we had to upload our videos and save them into a new folder. Once that was done, we had to import the videos onto our premiere files and Grant talked us through how to edit them. I edited my first video fairly well, from extending the run time (though I saw no effect), adding audio and transitional effects and trying to cut scenes from the video (again, no effect). It was very frustrating to take it all in, but I have a fairly good grasp on what to do and wouldn’t mind doing it again.
Casting plaster studio
After that, it was plaster casting. I enjoyed this a lot more than the video editing. First, our tutor for the workshop, Steve, gave us a health and safety lecture before we began. It was really just Steve talking us through it, showing us how to mold the clay and make indentations/mounds for the plaster, mixing the casting plaster with water, mixing it further with our hands until it resembles soft ice cream and pouring it into the clay mounds and leaving it to dry. This was very enjoyable and has given me an idea for my next Etruscan helmet recreation (plaster cast of helmet). I was able to make an example of a plaster cast, though it is rather small:
Since we were finished today, I decided to continue my helmet work. AT first, I was stuck on what to do, but eventually, I decided to do another painting of my helmet. For this painting, I based it off my original drawing of the Etruscan helmet from the British Museum. First, I did a drawing of it on a sheet of A1, including a metal stand holding it up and painted over with 3 layers of paint (blue, green and brown). The paints mixed well with each other, giving the helmet a nice, aged appearance.
Overall, today was better than yesterday (horrid weather not withstanding). Tomorrow, it metal works.
