"It's all about colour" - (Freedom Writers)

Perhaps self explanatory due to the title of my blog, I don't usually tend to post about films. As much as I am a massive film enthusiast, and have a weakness for being sucked in to the more emotional films, my love for them is simply that - emotional. I prefer to post about things that get me excited creatively, that way I can analyse more as opposed to descriptively listing information to you.
Of course, there are some films that are visually creative enough for me to have a creative opinion on - but it doesn't happen too often. I have however found a loophole in my theory with this film (albeit a small one), in which the most powerful moment of the film in my opinion, has a very small connection to Makeup. Although irrelevant to any form of makeup artistry, the pure fact it's related at all was enough to allow me to justify a non-creative post.

Freedom Writers. 
Freedom Writers is one of my all time favourite films and I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen it. It's one of those films where you have to see it to truly understand it. Any attempts of me trying to sell the film to my friends results in a boring description of a generic high school gang film. It is so much more than that and my words wouldn't do it justice.





Based on a true story, Freedom Writers explores every possible emotion you could experience - it's powerful, hard hitting and painful. Laced between the harsh truths however, are heart wrenching glimpses of unity and compassion that you would never imagine feeling for the characters from the beginning.
"It's all about colour" is quoted near the very beginning of the film and sets up the entire scene in no more than 4 words. It also provides a perfect circular narrative as it is readdressed from a new perspective at a later point in the film.
This is the moment I was on about earlier and to me, is one of the most powerful moments of a film I have watched. I won't go in to any more detail as I don't want to ruin it for any of you who may happen to watch it. Just keep an eye out for the small makeup scene between Eva and Sindy.

Take the time to watch it, it's worth it!

x

Project ideas and paper samples

I never thought I would be uttering these words, but I am really missing having Uni work to do. I don't miss the stress and the deadlines, but I do really miss having projects. Something to research and develop, something that allows me to be as creative as I want to be. I miss getting excited when I come up with a new concept. Basically, I miss being creative.

It is surprisingly difficult to find something in everyday life that would provide enough interest and dedication to create a project of sorts. I have however decided on what I am going to do in my spare time over the coming weeks.

I've always been one to keep scrapbooks, photo albums, gig scrapbooks etc, but they're more of a documentation of events. I want to take my usual scrapbooking and turn it in to an inspiration based and inspiration forming project for both Photography and Makeup artistry. I want to display all that inspires me, build colour charts, form outline ideas and hopefully end up with a book of ideas and concepts that I would be ideally able to use as reference points in the future.

I have a vast collection of creative materials but one thing I always seem to be lacking is a selection of good quality paper, different colours, textures, thicknesses can really bring a visual project to life.

I ordered some paper samples from a company I used for my Final Major Project at Uni called GFSmith (http://www.gfsmith.com/), they can provide samples by specific request or a sample package which is what I ordered.

Paper, samples, colour, books

Paper, samples, colour chart, colour, texture

Paper, samples, colour, chart, book, texture

To any of you who don't love stationery as much as I do (probably quite a lot of you), this rather long post about paper will probably have gotten boring a few paragraphs ago.. But for those of you who are still with me I shall go on. The sample pack includes 2 booklets (both of which provide a fold out 3D colour chart) and 4 smaller books of paper samples. Every colour, thickness and texture of paper you could imagine.

The textures of the papers scream makeup designs at me, whilst the colours flood me with ideas for lighting and settings for photo shoots. To anyone looking at starting a creative project I would highly recommend having a look on their website :)

I'll be starting my self briefed project as soon as I have all the materials I need, I'll try and be a good blogger and follow the progress!

x

And it all turns to ice.

With temperatures not quite reaching above freezing, the soft light snow from yesterday is rapidly turning to ice. The silent footfall is now a very distinctive crunch; but the ice brings with it a different kind of beauty that you don't always get with snow.
Wrapped in blankets and armed with my DSLR and a stepladder (Some of the icicles were high!) I submerged myself in the frozen beauty for an hour or so.

Snow, White, Winter, Sparkle.

Icicle, Ice, Winter, Frozen

Frozen. Spider Web, Ice, Winter

Icicle, Ice, Winter, Frozen

Even though my fingers have yet to fully regain feeling, braving the cold was definitely worth the hour it allowed me to enjoy taking these!

Hope you like them (:
x

It's finally here.. (Snow)

After weeks of threats of snow from the weather forecast, the eagerly anticipated, perfectly formed, chaos causing white flakes have arrived. I am usually the first to complain when everyone jumps on the bandwagon posting endless streams of snow photos online, but I couldn't resist a session with my camera out in the snow!
As breathtakingly beautiful as it is, it is equally breathtakingly freezing - my fingers have just about thawed out enough now for me to be able to type this post.
I love landscape photos when it comes to snow, but without a wide angle lens and with poor lighting conditions any attempts at landscape were met with disappointment.
I changed to Macro and these are some of the resulting images.

Snow, Ice, White, Snowflake, Winter.

Snow, White, Ice, Snowflake, Winter.

Snow, Ice, White, Snowflake, Winter.

Snow, Ice, Winter, Clock.

:)
x

Heaven Sends Photo Box - Debenhams

One of my greatest simple pleasures in life is buying gifts for the people that I love. It is something I have always enjoyed and is one of the main reasons I look forward to being paid each month. Now that Christmas is done and dusted I turn my attention to birthdays. It's my nans birthday tomorrow and I wanted to get her something different, something that she can cherish but something that is also practical. Personally I don't think there is much use in presents that take a seat on a back shelf to be forgotten after the birthday excitement.
Like myself, my nan has always been one to make sure she has a camera at a family gathering or special occasion - she refuses to invest in a digital camera however, but that's another story.
As she has a film camera still and regularly has her photos developed I thought it would be nice to get her something in which she can store the more special photos, the ones she wants to see more often than when the dusty photo boxes get dragged out.

I was aimlessly wandering around Debenhams in Bath trying to think of the best place to go to find what I was looking for when I stumbled across this and instantly had to buy it.

Photos, photography, photo box, photo album, vintage, homeware, home decoration.

http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10001_10001_304029627899_-1?breadcrumb=Home~Home+%26amp%3B+furniture~Home+accessories~Decorative+accessories

The photo on the website doesn't do the product the full justice it deserves! It really is beautiful. In real life it looks a lot more vintage and aged and the finish is perfect.
For such a simple product it has a lot of character.
I struggled to stop myself from buying everything in the section in which I found this! The vintage section in the homeware department at the moment is desirable to say the least and I recommend to anyone who has upcoming birthdays to buy for to take a look!

:)
x

Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands

I am posting this video for two reasons.
1. I LOVE Benjamin Francis Leftwich <3 His voice is so hauntingly beautiful. This song makes me feel so positive about things, it's almost warming.
2. I am a little bit in love with the video. It's so simple and everything about it makes me want to do a photoshoot! The lighting, the beach setting, the reflections on the water, the silhouettes of the boat. It makes me yearn for summer and itch to take my camera to the beach.
There is a lot about the video that I love that I'm not sure how to transcribe in a way that would get you all equally excited..

Give it a watch and maybe you'll see what I'm badly trying to explain.
Enjoy.

x

Bastille - Flaws (Recorded at Abbey Road)

It's no secret that January isn't typically high time for new exciting music. To fill my January music gap I've been delving through my iTunes library and getting excited about certain songs all over again.
I use the word 'delving' loosely in this post as I haven't had to go back too far to find what I want to share with you.. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of Bastille, their song Flaws was played often on Radio 1 in the months approaching Christmas.
As good as the song is, I much prefer this acoustic version.

Excuse the pun here, but in contrast to the title his voice is flawless. It's easy to listen to and every note brings stronger meaning to the lyrics.

Enjoy!

x

Trend Package SS13

During the mundane task of removing items from my external hard drive to create more space, I came across some of my old uni projects. In September 2011 we had to devise a sketchbook resulting in a Trend package that depicted our visions of fashion trends in Spring/Summer of 2013.

This is something I had never done before but I loved building the visual representation of a trend, pulling apart aspects of current environments and fashions and evolving them.

I hold out no hope for my trend predictions being even remotely right but from a purely visual viewpoint they come together relatively well. There are 10 sketchbook research pages that support the final outcome but I won't bore you all with them. My main inspiration came from the poor economic climate, the London Riots and the Olympics. A strange combination but things that feed off of one another. 

I named my trend package 'Colour Injection' and it represents the move away from the negativity of the aforementioned economic climate and riots and towards something hugely positive like the 2012 Olympics. In terms of colour pallets this translates to a move from neutral colours - colours that mask personality, to vibrant colors that come part and parcel with the Olympics and the inevitable excitement. Like the injection of pride, hope and positivity, I predicted that the Olympics would bring with it an injection of colour in to how we present ourselves as individuals in 2013.

Sketchbook. Trend Package. Fashion. Colour.

Title Page. Trend Package. Fashion. Colour.

Trend Package. Fashion. Colour.

Trend Package. Fashion. Colour.

I'm not sure if you will be able to read the text on some of the pages as the font is relatively small. I apologise if that is the case!

x

New year 2012, London.

It's safe to say that I'm not usually one for big celebrations when it comes to New Year. It's never been something I've been fussed about. However, this year my best friend moved to London so naturally a road trip to London and a very long weekend spanning New Year was inevitable. 

I outdid myself with the sheer amount of photos that were taken in the space of 4 days, camera happy would be an understatement.

I won't bore you with endless streams of photos that frankly would only be entertaining for me and my equally abnormal friends, but I will share one or two which dare I say, teeter on the more creative side.

London. New Years Eve. 2012. Leicester Square. Lights.

London. New Years Eve. 2012. Leicester Square. Lights. Reflection.

London. New Years Eve. 2012. Leicester Square. Lights. Reflection.

I love reflection photography. It's rare for me to like my own photos but I am fairly pleased with the outcome of these!

Whilst everyone else around me was snapping away at the towering lights and billboards, I was getting overly excited at puddles on the ground.

I like the contrast and the sharpness of detail in something that is completely fluid. In comparison to the 'normal' photo at the top, the two reflections offer a much more dynamic - and in my opinion - exciting composition.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!

x