Don't 'Complan', it's just water.

Here is the latest update for you all!

This is the Aussie-themed apple pie we had! Yum yum!

The funniest Indian graphic I have yet seen. One of the guys we had dinner with last night was born and raised in Kolkata, and he said that Complan was like a nutritional weight management for growing kids etc. So what you see is a boy growing too big for his shirt. But without knowing this, you could come up with some pretty hilarious captions. 

On the way home in the taxi last night. Took just under an hour to get there, and a little less on the way back. Only cost us each 50 Rupees = approx $1.50 in NZ. It was on the ride back when it starting pouring down, with thunder and lightening, and huge gusts of winds!

This is the sight I came home to last night - the rain had spread across the spare bed, onto the table next to it, which unfortunately had all of the items that you see on the bed..

The lovely (dying) flowers on my bedside table. So much pollen everywhere!

Good morning/evening to you!

I have no idea where to start updating, because a lot happens in just a couple of days. Yesterday morning Nate, Judy and I went to meet a guy who teaches english in Kolkata, and have arranged to learn Bangla from him on Mondays and Wednesdays, which I am so excited about! It will be good to slowly learn the basics, so I can at least have a brief conversation with the ladies at FS, and to be able to get into a taxi and know what to do etc.

Last night we went to dinner at some friends of Nate and Gabs, in South Kolkata - the richer part. It was so nice to be in a big group of people laughing and chatting in the same language, and eating a 'western' Mexican meal. So yum! I can only remember a couple of names of the people there, but they were all so welcoming and took me in. It's nice, because we are all here for similar reasons, and we have varying periods of time for how long we have been here, so we could share stories and advice etc.

I got to start doing basic design processing yesterday which was nice. It is a bit different to what I am used to, but I do like it.

Hmmm there is so many more things to tell, but I really cannot think of them all right now!

Well I am going to get out of my pyjamas now, get ready for work, and thank the Lord that the rain has stopped haha. Tonight there is a farewell party for one of the girls who is moving to NZ to study, but I am not entirely sure whether I will stay for long, as last night the jet-lag kicked in... I began to feel quite dizzy at dinner - I think a few of them thought I was just really shy, until they found out that I had arrived only two days earlier.

All in all, the days are getting warmer (it is noticeable even just after a few!), my feet are getting dirtier, but I am learning to love the city that I first thought was a mass of people just trying to live. But I am beginning to see it as so much more, as a functioning city that is just going with the flow of everyday life. It is just easier to get swept along than fight the current... I haven't quite understood the fact that I am in India yet, it is all still very surreal, and the sights I see haven't really sunk in.

I miss you all, but not too much!

Much love.

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Creative block = conquered.

I have finally managed to get through my creative block, and here are my resulting designs that I will be putting forward in the hopes that Charles Parsons will choose them to try sell!!Fingers crossed...

Visualisations:

My main theme through these prints is the inspiration from the patterns that feature on the wings of moths etc, like these:

Bring on the presentations!!

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Who needs drugs when you have these to look at?!

These designs by Ulyana Sergeenko are just to die for. My heart just melts at the beauty and amazing colour palate.

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Mary Katrantzou + Peter Pilotto

Adding two more designers to my inspiration for digital print:

Mary Katrantzou

Peter Pilotto

I really love the abstract elements to each designers textiles, as well as a hint of geometry. These are super inspiring, and I have managed to come up with a design of my own, inspired by these two:

This is the original photograph...

...and the end product:

This design is probably more similar in composition to Mary Katrantzou.

It feels good to actually feel confident about something I am creating for once.

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Wooo.. inspiration!

Monika Traikov's flickr.

Just so beautiful - I am going to use these as major inspiration for my digital design paper!

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Creative block - 0, Alanna - 1

Finally have breached my creative block (to a degree)... so here are some of the fruits I have produced!!

Have someone from Charles Parsons coming in today for class, and she is going to have a little look at where we are at - Charles Parsons is wanting to purchase some of the designs from our class at the end of the semester.

So a wee bit nervous about going into uni today, but oh-well.

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The things I do.

From this... -> ...to this.

And that folks, is what I do whilst experimenting.

Oh, one initial concept!

This is just a quick sample of a 10-minute design I played around with (it was originally an image of a mossy tree that I tilted, saturated, and then manipulated it for a bit). I am not a huge fan of the repeat, it is too symmetrical for my taste right now!

That awkward moment when...

I am currently facing the awkward position of utter inspiration, yet my mind is buzzing, so I am unable to coherently apply what I want to do, to what I need to do!

Anyone understand??

Ugh, I am going to use this post to purge all of my ideas for my digital print class... the brief is to come up with a collection of Spring/Summer '12 fabrics that will be presented to Charles Parsons, and then they will select some designs to purchase (for a whopping 400 dollars each!).

So... no pressure...

This is exactly what I scribbled down in my journal to describe what kind of thing I am going for: "I want to create highly-saturated, altered-hue photographs with graphic design/vector elements, and buildings, crossing into nature." If anyone can decipher this for me, let me know?

This resort collection by Carven features large-scale, no-repeat digital designs, that are almost abstract. I really love this (mostly because I can't really be bothered using cliche 'double-reflections' etc to create repeats), and from here my ideas have come forth.

This image above is a perfect example of changing the hues to create less-than natural images.

The above image is taken from the International Space Station, and depicts a series of crops. I just love the geometry in this, and how the colours already seem unnatural, without the need to saturate or alter the hues.

This is an example of the graphics/vectors elements I want to add to images of nature, or where it just seems completely juxtaposed.

The above images are further examples of nature-meets-man in a visual point of view. I want to also take the direction of having man-made structures like buildings/statues etc and chuck some nature into them! I just love this mix of elements - it makes me all excited and really want to start designing!! Might have to borrow my flat-mate's DSLR to get some images worthy of manipulation.

This is the type of extreme saturation I would seriously love to experiment with!

And again - I just love this, it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland, just another dimension, a separate universe almost.

I really want to also tie in a few 3D-looking elements if I have the time to experiment and mess around with these ideas a bit more!

Just another exciting example of things that are inspiring me right now! I love this screen-print. It just makes me stop and stare.

Last image: This one is something that I would like to bring in from the nature perspective - lichen and mosses etc, these create such amazing patterns and details that I would love to incorporate into my work. (Although at the point, my ideas are everywhere, and I really need to cut them down and be a bit more realistic with where I am at!).

So this is what my mind would look like if you could see it. It is also mixed with a further array of emotions, questions and ideas.

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