Mucha, my new love

Time Remaining: 5 weeks.

Ah Mucha....How happy you make me.

I discovered the works of Alphonse Mucha when I was in Prague, at an art exhibition. I had seen some of his work before, but it had never struck me quite in the way it did at that exhibition. I have become entirely obsessed with his style. Whimsical women, line work, flowing hair, pastel colours... What's not to love? Such a brilliant example of Art Nouveau. I have decided that I want to learn how to recreate those images.

It's really funny, but I already had an example of his artwork in my apartment and had no idea. Last Christmas, my mum got a box of chocolates as a present, the box is in tin, with an illustration on the lid. I saw it and told her I thought it was beautiful. End of story.... until April, when she gave it to me because she remembered I had found it pretty. Fast forward to about three weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about Mucha, and she saw the box on my dresser, and remarked that the image on it was by him.

Coincidence? Yes, most definitely, and a fortunate one at that. :)

The first time I tried my hand at re-create the Mucha style, I used my little tin box as a reference. Of course, it's not an exact copy. I have nowhere near as many details, I've changed things, and I used completely different colours too.

I'm using just four colours of inks in this one. Black, red, blue and yellow. I like to mix my own colours, and I find that inks are more vibrant than watercolour. Above is the image in progress, on my very cluttered table, and below is the finished image, though I still need to un-wrinkle it.

I'm still in the sketching process for my second image, I'm working from a small reference image, that is, a lighter that has the image on it.... It's tiny. I've drawn it a couple of times already, but I'm still not satisfied, so I'll rework the big one until I like it, or start from scratch. I'm planning on doing this one in acrylic, just because I feel like it.

Ahhhh, and here is the finished version of this one. I do rather like it. I won't pretend to have any of the finesse of the artist, or even come close to it, but that's alright with me.

This last one, I don't like at all at this stage, but I'm going to redo it again, until it becomes better. It's very random how I decided to draw that one. The music was playing on my laptop, on shuffle, and the song Mein Herr sung by Ute Lemper came on. Now, that song is from the movie Cabaret, and I happened to have seen it produced this year by the KTS (King's Theatrical Society, it's the sister university of the one that I attend, we share the same campus.) and I loved it! It was fabulously amazing! So I found an image from the movie that I liked, printed it out and used it as a reference. (I also like how my printer started running out of ink, and it looks a bit like the German flag, how fitting.)

Such are my artistic ambitions. I don't claim to be good, I just draw for fun, weil es mir gefaellt.

So Many Posters!

I'm a student, on a student budget. My apartment has beige walls. That's boring! Let's make it better!
I already have an impressive collection of posters, most of which are actually rolled up and stored in my closet, but some have found a place on my walls.

As for any respectable student, my posters are stuck to the walls with that blue sticky paste that lease a grease stain where it makes contact with the poster itself. I grew tired of those stains, and of the posters snaking down the walls, slowing, oh ever so slowly. I was trying to find a way to frame them for cheap, and most of what I found was too much of a hassle. I'm lazy, stinkfaul, actually, which is one of my favourite German words to describe myself. I always say it with a smile. Ich bin stinkfaul, und stolz darauf. ;)

I came up with my own way of framing/backing posters. It looks better, cleaner, and classier (or more classy. The comparative form of classy looks funny to me for some reason). It is super easy to do, and takes no time at all.

Material needed:

- Posters in need of some oomph

- Black cardboard (I got my at the dollarstore)

- Straight ruler (I'm using my drafting square ruler)

- Pencil (and eraser if needed)

- Exacto knife

- Hot glue gone and sticks

- Large working surface (living room floor, for example)

All of this is very easy, I promise. The black cardboard acts both as a backer for the poster, so that it is sturdier, and the excess that shows around the edges acts as the frame. I stone two birds.

I marked the width of the frame at the corners, and put a tiny-little-minuscule dot  where the corners of the poster need to rest. Then I glue them in place. I only burned myself a few times, yay!

Then I cut off the excess black cardboard by using my ruler as a straight edge. I made sure I had a protective layer of newspaper between my knife and the floor.

 Repeat for all posters, and tadammmmm! I used clear thumb tacks to put them back up on the walls. It's really not that bad. And better than that awful blue sticky stuff.

In my kitchen I keep two small posters, they are very important. They remind me where my beverages are.

I always need to be reminded how important coffee is when I set my mind on doing something stupid. And of course, I need to be reminded to keep calm, the wine is right there, along with my mum's canned spaghetti sauce. :)

In my living room, I have the most posters. On one wall I have a print of a painting by Egon Schiele, and another from Alphonse Mucha (yes, I'm absolutely obsessed with his work.)

On another wall, it's mostly a random assortment of things I like. Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, French Cats, more Mucha.. I'm thinking about adding my telephone booth poster between the door and the dalek, when I bring myself to tear it down from the wall in my room, and removing that pesky blue stuff that's stuck to it.

                               

I seem to have a thing for southparking myself whenever I can. I think I would be an interesting character to appear on that show :p. But then, anyone would make for an interesting character.

There! I like the way my wall looks like right now! (I know, Einstein hasn't been framed, but that's because even perched on my highest chair, I can't reach the top of it to take it down...) I really like how the colours work they're way from blue and black, to beige, to red from left to right. It was unplanned, and I like it.

Framing posters: Done! (for now. I'll be adding more posters for sure later, maybe after the next poster sale at the uni.)