- Day of the Dead: edited photos for printing -

I used an editing programme in order to edit some of the photos I took of the Day of the Dead makeup I created.  I used an effect to make the photos look like prints; I will then use these photos to create monoprints, using one or two colours.

Below are the edited photos.

I like this effect on the photo editor due to the fact that I could change the colour of the entire image.  I think this effect works well to highlight the detailing of the makeup, as well as the shape of the models' faces.

I will use some or all of these images to create some monoprints, as well as creating some more makeup/face paint designs.

- El Día de los Muertos -

After exploring mandalas and various tribal patterns for a while, I thought of creating some pieces of art inspired by el Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, celebrated in Mexico.
The festival is to honour and celebrate loved ones who have passed away; traditional objects from the festival include sugar skulls, marigolds and favourite foods of the deceased.  The day is on the 31st of October, similar to Hallowe'en in England.

People also paint their faces in the style of skulls, emphasizing the hollowed eyes, nose and cheekbones.  Spider webs are usually seen in many of these designs, as well as teeth and elongated mouth marks on the cheeks and other forms of decoration.

I have tried to recreate some of these designs using face paint and makeup.  Below are a few photos I have taken of my first two attempts:

Aims:

• Create more Day of the Dead designs in paint & makeup on the face
• Use these designs to create some prints (monoprints?)

- My own Psychedelic art through digital art -

I discovered a digital art programme which enables me to draw various patterns using different textures and colours but utilising a kaleidoscope-type symmetry to create geometric-like patterns.  Below are some examples of digital art I have created on this programme:

This programme is great for creating symmetrical patterns with various different colours.  I am sure I could create many more pieces if necessary, perhaps trying different types of symmetry, such as just a horizontal or vertical plane rather than a kaleidoscope.

- Sophie Roach: Psychedelic Tribal Art artist -

After viewing various examples of Psychedelic Tribal Art, I came across the artist Sophie Roach (http://sophieroach.com/).  Roach creates amazing pieces of detailed artwork, starting with fineliner pen drawings before colouring the page in with various colours and sometimes adding details.

Some of her pieces have a clear centre to them.  For example, this piece seems to show a setting sun behind different coloured waves of the sea, coloured in pastel colours within a circle directly in the centre; the surrounding patterns contrast in both their colours and density.

Some of her works seem to tell a story, as well as having detail only on specific points of the page rather than fully covered.

I would like to try some drawings in this style - detailed and intricate, with different colours.  The style is cartoon-like, but also manages to encompass a high level of detail and story.

- Psychedelic Tribal Art -

Through researching mandalas, I came across another type of symmetrical art - psychedelic tribal art.  This is made using mathematics and 'fractal exploration'; this creates hypnotic-like patterns and they look somewhat similar to mandalas.  Bright colours and interesting details are often used.

Here are some examples:

These designs are all very eye-catching, perhaps sometimes too detailed!  

Aims:

• Create psychedelic tribal art-like designs using computer programme
• Find artists (tattoo artists?) who use similar designs.

- Mandalas: progress & drawing -

After researching some different types of mandalas, I decided to try to draw some myself.  I began by drawing a simple mandala very quickly:

Here, I began by drawing circles surrounded by leaf-like petal patterns, as well as some detailing in the third layer before the edge.  I thought this was good for detail practise, however I did not like the final appearance of the mandala as it was not very symmetrical in any way.

I began to draw another mandala, taking a lot more care in the drawing by first drawing crossing horizontal and vertical lines and then checking the symmetry of my drawing every few minutes.

Here is the beginning of my second mandala.  As you can see, I concentrated a lot more on ensuring there were equal numbers of 'petals' in each quarter of the page (separated with the lines), as well as attempting to make the detailing as symmetrical and even as possible.

                                     

I added more and more detail to each layer of the mandala before finally deciding to finish it by adding more petals on the outermost layer.  Each section has at least a basic amount of detail.  Once I had drawn the entire mandala in pencil, I outlined it in pen (both fineliner and gel pen).

I have started one more large mandala, currently only drawing in pencil.