The Weather.

The weather plays a large part in influencing me as my mood tends to change along with the weather and as I also love using colour, the colours tend to reflect the seasonal weather as to when I've created it. The warmer the weather gets the brighter the colours I use.

Fashion Is a Large Influence On Me (Part 2 Mary Katrantzou)

Mary Katranztou's work has influenced my pattern design as it shows how a pattern can alter the whole shape of a dress for example her lampshade dresses in the first picture shows. Also I like that she has created patterns out of unconventional elements such as interior designs and perfume bottles.

The main way however her work has influenced my work is through the colour schemes she uses as from looking at her work it inspired me to use brighter colours.

Fashion influences my work (Part 1 Diane Von Furstenberg)

The way Diane Von Furstenberg's work has influenced me is it has shown me all the the different ways to be able to use patterns and how different patterns can evoke different emotions without having to necessarily having to use moody colours.

Places I Visit (Part 1 Prague)

Places I Visit (Part 2 Venice)

Angela Carter

Erl-King.

A young girl walks into the woods and is seduced by the Erl-King, a sinister personification of the forest itself. However, she realises that he plans on imprisoning her by turning her into a bird; as he's done many times before. On this realisation she murders the Erl-King keeping her freedom and freeing the 'birds'.

Bloody Chamber.

A young girl marries an older, wealthy French Marquis. When he takes her to his castle, she learns that he enjoys sadistic pornography and takes pleasure in others embarrassment. She is a talented pianist, and a blind piano tuner hears her play and falls in love with her. When her husband leaves on a business trip, and forbids her from entering a particular room, she does so and realises the full extend of his perverse and murderous tendencies upon finding the bodies of his previous wives. When he returns he knows she has entered 'his' room and tries to add her to his collection of dead wives, the tuner vows to stay with her knowing he won't be able to save her; yet at the last moment her mother arrives and murders the Marquis.

The Snow Child.

A Count & Countess go riding the middle of winder, and the Count sees the snow, a pool of blood & a raven and wishes for a child to match all the elements. As soon as he made his final wish a young woman of matching description appears at the side of the road. The Count pays her immediate attention which annoys the Countess, so she commands the girl to pick a rose but the thorn pricks her and she dies, after which the Count then rapes her corpse. After this, her cadaver melts into snow leaving a bloodstain on the snow, a black feather and the rose she picked.

Angela Carter's works in the Bloody Chamber have massively influenced my written work as I have transformed many of her works into different mediums including turning The Erl-King into a film script. I really enjoy doing this as it allows me to show my creativity whilst still having a strong starting point.

Greek Mythology.

Pandora's Box.

Pandora's Box is an artifact in Greek Mythology; The 'box' was given to Pandora and told not to open it; however the temptation became too strong and she opened it releasing all the evil in the world out into the open; there was however one item that didn't leave the 'box' and that was hope. Even now the phrase 'To open Pandora's box' means to create an evil that can't be undone.

Icarus.

Icarus is the son of the craftsman Daedalus; the tale is about how Icarus is attempting to escape from Crete by creating wings out of feathers and wax, he is warned by his father to not fly to close to the sun; however he ignores these instructions and the wax melts and caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned.

Arachne.

Arachne was the greatest mortal weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom & Crafts, she also refused to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part, from Minerva. As the Goddess was so offended she challenged Arachne to a weaving contest. The Goddess was so envious of the tapestry and of her success, she destroyed her loom and eventually turned her into a spider.

The way I feel has influenced my work, both art and written is by trying to add an element of extraordinary drama to it.

Influences from English Literature.

A fair number of 'classics' from English Literature have influenced my work, even if some of them are quite subtle. A few of the ones that have influenced me are;

Wuthering Heights.

A heavily romantic novel, based on two characters that are in love but brought up as siblings that aren't able to be together; slowly turning the novel into a dark tale of revenge and hatred, still stemmed out of deep love and desire.

Alice In Wonderland/Alice Through The Looking Glass.

The 'Alice' stories follow a girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropormorphic creatures. This story plays with the readers sense of logic and in forces them to use their imagination.

Othello.

Othello follows four central characters; and is a tale of racism, love, jealousy and betrayal. The main theme through the play is based around Iago pretending to befriend Othello in order to control and eventually destroy his life.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde is a tale that in it's simplest form is one of split personalities, yet the deeper you look into it shows how quickly people are able to change themselves; even if they don't like what they're changing themselves into.

The way I feel this has influenced me, is more in my written work as opposed to my art work, as I like to have strong themes going through my all my creative writing and a lot of these come from these tales as they are some of my favourite novels and put underlying themes in my work.

A lot of my influences come from well known fashion photographers. (Part3)

What I find fascinating about Patrick Demarchelier is that even though the majority of his work is in black and white you can see so much emotion and depth to it.

For example this photograph of Naomi Campbell even though its only in black and white it is highly dramatic and shows just a deep storyline without actually having to show much at all.

A lot of my influences come from well known fashion photographers. (Part2)

What I really like about James Nader's work is that he focuses on small details and makes them such huge elements when in reality they're normally looked over. I also love how the majority of his work is in black & white which makes the images a lot more dramatic and moody.

The way I feel Nader's work has influenced mine is I try to make unconventional elements in my photography the main focal point.

A lot of my influences come from well known fashion photographers. (Part1)

The reason Tim Walker is an influence into my work because he shows how he really isn't afraid to make a large dramatic statements even if the majority of people won't/don't understand them.

For example this photograph from Walker, is highly dramatic and on first glance looks quite dark, however when you look at finer details in it it shows a highly romantic side.

The way I feel this influences my work is I have a lot of bright contrasts in my images. I also try to create a dramatic atmosphere in my work.