Fresh Hair + Exams!

Soooo, I've been gone about a week or two due to my laptop's lack of cooperation. I've finally got it in okay working condition, enough to get out of it what I need for school, blogging and photography/art. Speaking of school and art, I've just finished up 2/4 of my exams. My final mark for Graphic Design in 96% earning me the grade 11 award for that. I think I did pretty well on my English exam today, and if I did fantastically, I may have gotten the English award as well. These would be my first high school  awards, actually. Grade 9 and 10 I didn't do so well (I actually got a 50 for my final mark in grade 10 art). This year I'm totally stepping up and game and getting my ass in gear. It's paid off greatly, I can say. All I have left for exams is my maths exam next Monday and my grade 11 art exam on Tuesday. <3

But in other fabulous new, I finally fixed my hair! Bye-bye nasty roots: hello brown perfection! I've been stuck on dying my hair a darker shade for a while now, and I've been extremely indecisive on whether or not to just dye it all black or spare my hair with a near-black shade of brown. Needless-to-say, I went with the latter. I'm obviously heavily basing it on Bettie's hair since hers was so dark, many said she simply had thick, black curls, when it was really just deep, dark brown. And so I went with a shade actually closer to my mum's natural hair colour. Thankfully, my brow pencil is just dark enough to fit the part! C:

So I've been keeping busy working on two art pieces for my ISU (final assignment that's usually orth 5-15% of the final mark). I chose to do a portrait of Bettie and one of Poison Ivy (Ivy Rorschach). See below for more!

More Under the Cut

Click Any Image to Enlarge

I'm so glad to have one solid colour of hair now instead of those long, long roots :o

Before & After

Okay, now about the art pieces.

So recently I've been extremely busy with blogging, visiting my mom, seeing the Hobbit!, and, of course, the real killer: school. I just finished all my ISUs (final projects worth 15-20% of our final mark) and I'm onto my second exam tomorrow. So I won't be so busy after exams, but this week has been stressful as fuck. Despite that, this semester has been seriously rewarding personally. I may have put photography aside a little bit but I've picked it up again recently and have lots of photos to work on.

 But anyway, here's Bettie. For a long time I've wanted to complete a portrait of Bettie for myself. I wanted to choose a photo that compelled me the most, and this one is definitely it. This is half of my 200 mark ISU for year 11 art. We had to choose a theme and create two large pieces in any media, at least one being graphite, and provide a paragraph for each piece and one for the topic (an Artists Statement).

 I can sum mine up really quickly - Subculture. Subculture is, and always has been, a huge part of my life. In the recent 3-4 years, rockabilly, Bettie, the 30s-60s, the list is endless, have inspired me intensely on absolutely everything I do. My hair, clothes, vocabulary, attitude, ambitions and goals, my entire lifestyle. So I decided to complete three things while doing this topic; 1 - create my large piece of Bettie, 2 - create my large piece of Poison Ivy and 3 - Reflect how important subculture is to my artwork and lifestyle. Just the aesthetics of it all is greatly compelling.

 Okay, so this is the first time in a very long, long time I've had this much to say about a piece I've posted online, so I think I'll stop it here and just provide technical information while I sit back and quietly enjoy. xo

Details

30.5 x 45.7 cm / 12 x 17 

in Pure graphite - 8b, 4b, 2b, F, graphite pencil and graphite powder.

approx. 6.5 Hrs 

Poison Ivy from The Cramps

30.5 x 45.7 cm / 12 x 17

in Pure graphite - 8b, 4b, 2b, F, 6h, graphite pencil and graphite powder.

approx. 5 Hrs 

Guitar Detail

I've also got a charcoal piece or two, a pen and ink piece, two marker pieces, and various graphite pieces to post. This semester has been supremely busy for me and art haha. It's been quite rewarding, if I do say so myself.



Okay, I've gone talking long enough, and I really need to get working on some late photos! Stay sick!

xo Courtney