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LADY MECHANIKA LA DAMA DE LA MUERTE COMIC BOOK SERIES.

This is an incredible beautiful and edgy comic book series that have heavily influenced what I do aesthetically and the way i present some of my female characters in Wonderland Palace and in the illustrations that I have constructed. The series is set in mexico and has a clear link to the day of the dead with a steam punk fusion. Its exciting to look at, I have never been so drawn into a comic book before. The artist uses a mixture of delicate line work to create textures similar to that seen in my House of White and House of Whore Illustrations. These comic helped me to understand how to make flat look three dimensional in certain manners, how to bring light into it, how to make objects glow. I still have a long way to go in terms of developing my technical practice of colour work and shading, but these comics certainly helped me to develop on from negotiated study. 

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ALICE’s ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND LEWIS CARROLL AND CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA.

An amazing book and my reference point for all of character profiling. Firstly the illustrations in this book are beautiful, they give a really different edge to the story, it captured the darkness of alice in wonderland and the dangers of wonderland, despite the bright colours, the thin eyes and sharp angels really paint it in a different light.

I have always been fascinated in alice in wonderland, its beautiful, crazy and teaches us the importance of nonscense, imagination and above all curiosity. Having read this book I began to map out Wonderland Palace because I had a mask right next to me that I used to perform with. It sparked this amazing concoction of beauty, sex, colour. I knew I had to do it, but reading the book helped me understand my links and characters more, learn what disorders or issues sit nicely with who.

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HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY: ANATOMY DRAWING BOOK

A huge part of my project is based on anatomical drawings, I wanted to push my abilities. I have always struggled drawing people and drawing features, hands feet, the usual response from a young artist. My style has a touch of realism and after a tutorial with Joel Mercer I came to realise that I need to really start bring it to scratch to relearn. This is a project I am still working on and developing and will take years to get to that point. However, I have noticed that through practice, running life drawing workshops, drawing and doing my project work I have noticed a considerable difference in my proportions and I have to say I am happy with my two final outcomes. 

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BCU BURLESQUE at BIRMINGHAM PRIDE PARADE:

This was an incredible experience to be able to march for equal rights, the very notion that has fed my illustrative and dance study for my final major project. Even writing this brings tears to my eyes about the pride and joy I have to be working and teaching these beautiful and amazing people. Living in that moment, conducting that type of research is amazing. These two projects for me really have been about conducting research, understanding me, what I want and where I want to go and equal rights activism is a huge part of that. 

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JESSICA RABBIT: WHY DON’T YOU DO RIGHT

I want to base many of my characters both female and male of influential people. Giving them a deeper layer of character and meaning. For example I have looked at grace Jones and Madonna, however, Jessica Rabbit is a huge inspiration of mine, despite being a cartoon, in terms of the way she uses seduction. I have applied this to my daily life and it has allowed me to succeed in measures I never thought possible. This is important to me and I want this presence and attitude to translate into many of my characters for example the white queen and the duchess as well as the cheshire cat. 

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MUSIC FOR THE WHORE HOUSE!

The whore house combines classical and historical whoring and brothels. I want the whore house to have the atmosphere of Wild West brothels, because the brothels had huge female empowerment even to a political level. Furthermore, I wanted to capture the class and riches of the moulin rouge and combine the two together. 

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RAY CHARLES:

As a huge fan of rhythm and blues music I wanted to put a cameo in my whore house of ray charles giving a bit of credit to those who deserve it in the music industry. 

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LIFE OF A MANIC DEPRESSIVE: DOCUMENTARY BI POLAR

Being diagnosed with bi polar resulted in me wanting to support mental health rights a lot more. I have been suffering for years of my life without diagnosis which resulted in a lot of dangerous situations. Tweedle dee and tweedle dum will be based on bi polar disorder in Wonderland Palace. Although I am not including them in the final work for my graduation show, I am doing lots of research to start to think about the palace and what it is going to tackle over all. This will really educate people on the life of bipolar, the struggles and the dangers it poses. 

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CARRIE ROBERTS: L6 GRAPHIC DESIGN FINAL PIECE

Carrie Roberts is a graphic communication student at BCU and has explored drag and gender as part of her graphic design. Seeing how contemporary creatives uncover these hidden cultures fascinate me as well as educate me. This is a great reference for drag and androgyny, which has influenced some of my character designs in the whore house particularly. 

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WE MADE THE NEWS!

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BCU BURLESQUE MARCHING AT PRIDE:

Each of my two main projects have been one creative journey that has really sparked work that I want to commit to for life. To hopefully add to modern pop culture and help to influence society for a more equal future. Being a part of so many things has given me first hand research giving me such a rich knowledge which has fed into my work. BCU Burlesque marched at Birmingham Pride to fight for equal rights, this gave me the experience of being able to understand the culture so much more, it is so fabulous and is responsible on influencing modern language, fashion, dance, music. LGBT is such a huge influence on the rest of the world and deserves equal rights. This community is heavily references in my Wonderland Palace work from representation, sex scenes, gender difficulties, explorations. Just having it represented in these works starts to stimulates the audiences head on topics that probably don’t normally circulate, resulting in greater awareness. 

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PARIS IS BURNING: FILM

This is an amazing film documenting LGBT culture and has some voguing and club kid scenes. This underground bar scene is what I want to incorporate into my whore house. This will be a little network where creativity and sex meets. This will add lots of ideas to the development of my narrative. 

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CLUB KIDZ: DOCUMENTARY

As part of Wonderland Palace I have tried to include diversity and want to experiment more so with fashion and gender as the narrative continues. This has already been touched upon on my final pieces, however, I am trying to get as much knowledge of current and historical references points in the LGBT culture. Club Kids are a huge influence on modern fashion and on drag as we know it. They try to push gender to new levels. This is a great way for me to expand my knowledge on the differences between gender and sex. As I am communicating so many issues within modern society I need to educate myself so this can inform my dance and illustrative practice to the best of my ability. 

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HARRY POTTER WARNER BROTHERS STUDIO TOUR 

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A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST BARN DANCE SCENE 

As part of my wonderland palace whore house scene i want to reference wild west whore houses in terms of their characters so music dance song drink but combine this with more of a Moulin Rouge feel. So it becomes a combination of higher class with western elements. So this dance scene can help demonstrate and act as a reference for the west and my Moulin Rouge research can act as the other. I want to capture a seductive atmosphere combined with the racey, high spirited feeling found in this scene, except less comical. When this is placed next to the house of white illustration in my graduation show, even though it is less tasteful and more crude, it might appear more fun and provoke a reaction of wanting to be there in the audience. Thus challenging or questioning their ideas around sex and intimacy. 

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SENSE 8 ORGY SCENE 

This is a good visual reference for drawings characters for whore house. 

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MADONNA EROTICA MUSIC VIDEO 

LUST OR LIBERATION EXHIBITION 

Erotica was originally banned by MTV due to its sexual explicit nature. This goes to show that sex has been a taboo in culture and during the previous century, as well as using sex as an art form. As part of the lust or liberation exhibition and the libido project this is the type of issue i want to challenge and bring so essentially, harnessing the taboo of sex as a way to express beauty and empowerment. I want to challenge the current issues similarly to how Madonna has in Erotica, for example quite subtle sex material combined with more explicit sex material. I want to challenge why it is  explicit, why it is or isn't tasteful, and if it is empowering or both or if it is  just sex. For the exhibition i plan to combine performance, poetry, illustration, photography and moving image to tackle all of these issues.

WHORE HOUSE WONDERLAND PALACE 

Erotica is a great reference to look at how body’s entwine and interact to help build up the atmosphere and tone and characters of the whore house in wonderland palace. I want to take the themes of using subtle tones as well as really explicit imagery to again challenge how we view sex etc.