BERLIN Day 1 - 2nd May 2018

Day 1

Exploring Berlin

On the first day, as we were getting shown how to use the train and learning our general surroundings, as a class, we were given two hours to explore Berlin and to meet back at the TV Tower afterwards.
To the right are the two things I use to remember where I am. In the first image is the tower, and as it is so big, no matter how far my group strayed away from the centre, we could always see it over the tops of buildings, so when it was coming up to the meeting time, we started heading back to the tower by following it in our line of sight. In the second, is a giant art piece on the side of a building, which shows two hands, one which I believe symbolises peace, and the other symbolising a stop gesture. When getting off the train, no matter which side I came up, I would use this image to direct me in which direction our hostel is. I knew if I walked in the opposite direction to these hands, and just followed the street/path, I would eventually be back 'home'.

When left to roam freely, me and my group of friends started following random streets, seeing where each would take us.
I am in love with the buildings/streets we had found on our adventure. I felt myself pulling out my camera quite often to take photos of the streets as I liked the colours, shapes or general aesthetic of the area we were in.
I especially loved the 'leafy buildings' as I called them. I enjoyed the thought of nature attacking back against manmade buildings, as the flora would wrap around the building, almost engulfing it whole.
I took quite a few photos of our surroundings because I would like to use a few as references during future projects, whether it be the 'nature attacking back' theme, the beautiful architectural elements, or whether I solely use the colours. I feel very inspired by this adventure, and it did get me excited to explore more and find what else Berlin would have to offer.
Although we did only have two hours to explore, I do believe my group had covered a lot of ground, but I believe we will be doing more tomorrow, possibly using the trains more as well.

Urban Spree Alumni

When meeting back at the tower, together as a whole group (all three courses included) we got on a train to Urban Spree to see the Academy All Stars, which was an exhibition by the Alumni from Pictoplasmas Academy 2017.
This is the only exhibition that I had known about before coming to Berlin, as I follow one of the artists, whose work is in the exhibition, on Instagram, so have been watching her set it up and getting everything ready for the opening. I have been following her since Pictoplasma's #RabbitReloaded call for entries, I loved her creations for it and I believe she had liked one of my bunnies, which I was so shocked but so happy about, so I was very excited to see her work set up.
As I only follow 'Joannawearsboots' on social media, I did not actually know what the artist looked like, so I did not get to meet her, as I was too afraid of going up to the wrong person.
Speaking of which, there was another artist who I follow on social media, by the name of 'Mais2_Art' who was also at the event. Her name is Alessandra Criseo, and I have used her work (as seen on the right) as inspiration for my own designs in a previous project, the queens I had created, which I personally believe is my best and favourite work throughout this whole course so far. I had never in a million years expected her to be at this event or even in the same room as me, so fair to say, I was a little starstruck. I must have told everyone I knew, that she was in the room, including my tutor, who then convinced me to go talk to her. I was so nervous, I think I even said her Instagram name wrong and said 'Hi, are you Maisie on Instagram?'; At the time, my mind had gone blank, so I couldn't even remember her real name, my voice was shaking, but she was so kind and was trying to reassure me that she was much more nervous than I was, (which I did not believe in the slightest 😅).
The conversation was short, but she was so nice and I did not want to be too much of a nuisance and take any more time away from her and her partners holiday. But I am so happy that I got to meet her and that I actually plucked up the courage to talk to her, because as my tutor had said "they are just human" so I shouldn't be scared to talk to fellow artists, even if they are more experienced than myself. I am happy that he helped me realise this because even though I was very nervous/shaky, I believe I would have regretted it so much if I had not made an attempt to talk to her.
Back to the exhibition, there was a lot of characters, which were all unique from one another, all which had been created with different mediums, from paintings to interactive installations, to sculptures and so on.

My favourite piece was by an artist called Santi Almenara. He had created a sequential illustration that could be read 360° degrees, (well more like 90°, 180°, 270° then 360°). The piece wasn't just a 2D illustration but had layers for each of the elements within the background, mid-ground and foreground, giving the story more dimension and interest. This piece has given me more inspiration and opened up the possibilities of what I could create for my own final show, as I would not have to create something flat, and could potentially create something that was more outside of the box.
I also loved the work of Carolina Coroa, who had created a model of her character 'Zora', Gonzalo R Checa, who had also created a 3D model of his character, Keren Rosen, who had created '21st Century Totems', Zinkete, who had created an interactive piece in which you could create your own character, and the list of Alumni artists go on.
I did manage to find a few business cards from these artists, some of which had looked more like little prints. When looking at each of them, part of me wishes that I had seen these business cards before I had created my own, because I believe I could have gained more inspiration as to how I could have represented myself better as an illustrator, just as these artists have done so.
Other than the inside of the exhibition, I also loved the work outside of it and around the area, possibly more than the work I had seen within. The work was fun, unique, abstract and colourful, and I had enjoyed seeing art that was not confined in a small exhibition space, as it would mean that it could be visible to a lot of more people, who of which may not have been able to go to the exhibition. Although I was inspired by a lot of the character pieces within the exhibition, the artwork outside is what had made me feel happier, more amazed and it made me want to be more creative with my own work.

Pictoplasma Opening Party

On the night time, there was an event we had attended which was Pictoplasma's opening party. At this event, there was drink, street food, live music and a couple of side events that you could go to as well, this had included a costume party (which I had not attended as I thought you would need a costume) and a stare-down competition. In the stare-down event, two challengers would have to battle each other in a staring competition, the winner staying on to challenge the next contestant (whilst taking a shot of vodka after each win, as to make it harder for them). A couple of my friends had a go themselves, and one did survive for at least 4 rounds, so 4 shots of vodka, whilst beaming spotlights were set on him and his competitor, so as a group, we were proud of his achievement. Whilst this was all happening, on the wall behind the competitors, was a projection of all of the animations that had been submitted to Pictoplasma's call for entries - Character Stare-Down, in which I had seen a couple of familiar characters, mostly from the teachers from college, including my own tutor, David Hails aka OneThousandEyez.