20/09/14 - Meet Sora

This week has been difficult and I've struggled to post every day. Having workshops and tutor time everyday made it a whole lot harder to battle the ongoing headache that's left me wondering whether or not I have a brain tumour (and believe me, I'm not one to generally freak out over such matters). Either way, besides the constant drumming in my head and the need to drug up on the paracetemol, this week has been the most enjoyable so far as life drawing is something I love, and the promotion workshops have been quite possibly the funnest things ever.

On Friday, we were asked to present our muses and I felt like everyone did a really good job of getting their point across. Mine was originally called Holly, but I've since changed the name to Sora- a play on the word 'soar' for 'soaring for goals and into the sky'.

6AM wake up, checking e-mails from fellow doctors.

Bathtub reading, broadening her horizons and knowledge. Constantly working to cure her patients.

Drunk and able to have fun. Letting go of life's daily stresses.

Sora is a psychiatrist, dedicated to helping her patients regain their mental health. She's a sassy, straight talking and self-proclaimed first class bitch at work but deep down, she's fragile and delicate. She's constantly working hard, answering emails, reading books and articles and studies in psychology to better her knowledge and help her become the best she can be for the welfare of others. Growing up, she only ever thought about becoming a doctor and excelling in her studies but as the years have gone on (and now that her job is stable and she understands where she is in society), she's begun to slowly move out of her shell. She's dyed her naturally brown hair blonde and she feels that this is perhaps one of the few ways she can prove she isn't just this uptight workaholic. These characteristics of Sora were all inspired by the fictional character of Ji Hae Soo.

If she were to be a lipstick, she would be called 'chappy birthday'- a limited edition Chapstick. I chose this because I thought Sora would be a little boring and 'vanilla' as it were, much like a Chapstick which doesn't add color to your lips, only a bit of moisture. However, Chapsticks are essential and Sora would be this essential addition into one's life- be it for her patients, her colleagues, or her friends. The 'Chappy Birthday' chapstick would also be clear in color, with added multi-color sprinkles in the stick itself. I thought this would be best to symbolise Sora's bubbly and vivacious nature when it comes to her friendships (and also when her juniors have managed to get her drunk at company dinners). These characteristics came from my contemporary inspiration, Lee Sung Kyung.

She wouldn't sing anything at the karaoke sober. Only if she were completely inebriated would she willingly stand up and belt out a few tunes. Such tunes I can see Sora singing include: Baby by Justin Bieber, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson and anything by Taylor Swift. All the awful songs she swears she hates? She will sing those.

Sora also believes she doesn't have time for men- being a doctor and all. She thinks she'd most suit a business man who would also be just as busy as her and therefore the relationship would be easy as neither would have the time for each other and so neither could kick up a fuss with the usual 'you never see me!' excuse. That being said, Sora really wants a young Johnny Depp type deep down. She just doesn't know it yet.

These photos were shot on my phone since I wanted to show grainier photos as I think they depict the boredom and mundaneness of Sora's life. Whilst the coloring of the photos turned out quite cool toned, I purposely kept the blueness of the photos during editing as it's a preference of mine. It also follows the blue monochrome I've chosen for this project. Were I to change anything, I would have definitely chosen to shoot on film. Whilst I love that my phone and DSLR allow me to capture images instantly and spontaneously, I like that film captures moments exactly as they are. I like digital photography just as much as I do analogue, however the images produced from the latter tend to be far more sacred in my opinion. If I'd had more time, I would definitely have shot two versions of this quick shoot- one on my phone, the other probably on my Konica Minolta.

At the end of my presentation, John mentioned he'd like to see me draw more references for my character and so I made another moodboard of images I relate to Sora. The images include that of Dr Cristina Yang from Grey's Anatomy (a strong, career-driven woman), another from Vogue Italia where Steven Meisel created an editorial based off of a psychiatric hospital and some other photos which followed a simple and muted, cool toned color scheme.