Initially I was going to make enamel pins based on Mario but I wasn't happy with any of my designs and felt like I was overcomplicating them, so I decided to completely start over and base my pins on something I really like, that being Studio Ghibli. I thought it would be smooth sailing from there but turns out illustrator is very hard to use at first. I spent a week and a half of the two week project having no idea what I was doing no matter how many tutorials I watched, I also may have almost cried out of frustration at one point but that's a memory I'll repress. I somehow managed to figure out what I was doing after that and made some pins that I'm actually really happy with. Turns out when you know what you're doing, Illustrator can be very quick and easy to use. 

I based my pins off of 3 characters from the films Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and Howl's Moving Castle, and the logo is inspired by My Neighbour Totoro. I think they turned out a lot better than I was expecting, and if enamel pin making didn't seem so complicated and expensive I would love to have them made as actual pins. 

This is my favourite design out of the 3, I like everything from how the design of the pin works with the design of the backing card, and how the colours work together. I'm also just impressed I went from barely being able to create a circle in illustrator to creating a ramen bowl. 

Denton Cakestall and the Acoustic Knights are an alternative acoustic rock group from the Czech Republic. Or they would be if they actually existed. I like to think that the frontman of the band would go by the stage name 'Denton Cakestall' and the rest of the group would be his 'Acoustic Knights'. 

              Final poster

This week's task was a challenge as I have always struggled when it comes to painting. Paint just does not seem to cooperate with my hand the same way a pen does. I think watercolour is a bit more forgiving and I was a little happier with my watercolour piece, however acrylic paint is just straight up evil. Overall I think these tasks made it clear that I am a drawer and not a painter, not that I needed reminding.

   

Our first 1 hour mask task challenged us to use materials on hand to make a mask within the set time. For this mask I used cardboard, acrylic paint, newspaper and string. I don't think my mask turned out very interesting because I was too worried about finding conventional materials to use whereas i should have thought about using more unconventional and interesting materials that I had.

I made my final mask using a plastic tray, crisp packets, a pepsi can, string, water bottle caps and a sandwich box. Similarly to my 1 hour mask, I wanted to make this mask very colourful. I also feel like I definitely used a wider range of more interesting materials for this mask. The more I look at it the more it reminds me of a film I used to watch as a kid called 'Robots'. 

My chosen room in my flat to draw using ink was my bedroom. I think my room has a lot going on visually and I wanted to portray this through detail and texture. I felt that I was best able to do this by using fine liners. To make my drawing more interesting, I took a panoramic photograph of my room, and made the drawing on 2 pieces of landscape A5 paper. 

Name: Boo
​Materials used: jelly pot, polystyrene ball, newspaper, acrylic paint, matchsticks, posca marker

Name: Sparky
​Materials used: jelly pot, polystyrene ball, newspaper, acrylic paint, yellow card, posca marker, wire

Name: Mop
​Materials used: pepsi can, polystyrene ball, newspaper, masking tape, string, pink card

Name: Fred
Materials used: pepsi can, polystyrene ball, newspaper, primark bag, acrylic paint, pink card

*cursed because of how bad they turned out