Friday 9 January 2015

Overview and finals

Overview:

Throughout this assignment for animals and creatures, I have tried hard to experiment further with my materials, colour and marks. This has allowed me to get a greater idea of what works best for each creature, and what I would and wouldn't like to use and develop in future assignments. In my fourth sketchbook, I tried to focus also on particular animals that I felt were quite interesting, and that may have some interesting features that when working on my finals and my 'monsters', I could combine with other animals and maybe even exaggerate. I worked mostly from the internet, however looked at some of the books I had previously worshiped. Here are some of the studies I have created to help me reach my final images:


I found the image I worked from here at this site

I drew this bear in pencil, and again took influence from the artist E.H. Sheppard, and his quite traditional, simple style. I found it quite enjoyable to draw and took time adding the detail of the bears fur, and I was interested in perhaps using a bear or type of bear in my finals. 

I found the image I worked from here at this site

After illustrating the panda bear above, I found that I could develop some of the features I focussed on in my first bear study like the fur, and add them to a panda which I actually think might have a bit more potential for my final images in terms of character and interest for viewing.


I found the images to work from for these studies on this site and this site

I wanted to have a look at hippos because I think that they're quite interesting animals and I had not yet looked at them. I used fine liner to create simple line drawings but despite enjoying looking at them and drawing these, I found that did not see much potential for these drawings in my finals.


I drew this using pg 79 of 'Skeletons' which I used for previous research.


I thought that it might be interesting to look at bats and bat wings with them being such an interesting feature and bats being such interesting animals generally. I used fine liner to create a semi detailed sketch of a skeleton wing to get an idea of the form of it, although after developing my ideas was unsure of how to fit this in. I originally had an idea of adding them to the body of the panda for a sinister, monochromatic drawing.

I found a photograph of a hare to work from on this site, and have later
realised it actually has a lot of lovely illustrations to view.

I had really been enjoying drawing the rabbits and hares over this project, and this time I decided to experiment further with my media when studying the animal. I used a mix of watercolour, pencil, graphite, charcoal, chalk and fine liner to build up the details of the hare and the textures of the fur etc. I found the process rather enjoyable although I am now quite confused as to what works best - this or the more limited studies I created earlier. I had an interest in perhaps using the head or maybe just the ears of the rabbit in a final.

I found the image I worked from for this study on this site

I thought that an ostrich would be quite an interesting animal to look at because they definitely have some very outstanding and unique features. I was quite interested in their large bouncing feathers, but mostly the long neck and legs of the bird, because I think they look quite comical. I thought that I could perhaps use a couple of these features and combine them with other animals. For this study I used black ink and fine liner for the details of the feathers, and also the head neck and legs of the bird. I thought that because of the interesting marks - like the dots on the legs and neck and the bold blotted marks on the feathers, that this study or whatever I would choose to do with it would work well as a print.


I found the image for this study on this site


I was quite interested in looking at horses because they too have quite bold features and appear quite bold and strong. I was not at all happy with the above study I created using acrylic paint, however it did enable me to look at the body of the horse again and focus on the muscular build and form of the legs etc because I thought it would be interesting to use the body of the horse with perhaps the head of another animal.


Image for this study found here

Here I did another simple like study of a bull because I thought I would like to look at the animals horns, and after went on to look at them in more detail, as well as the horns of the buffalo:

I found the images I worked from here at this site and this site. 
I tried to focus on the main features of the bull, the horns,
because I thought that it might be quite interesting to add these to another animal. I wasn't able to get my studies to a standard that I was happy with, however the idea of adding them to another animals body I think is still quite interesting.

I found the image I worked from for this study here
I used only ink to sketch out this elephant quickly using a stick to work with the media. I wanted to briefly focus on elephants because I think that they are quite magnificent creatures, and definitely have some astounding features which could be very fascinating to look at in further detail, and combine with the features of other animals bodies. These naturally include features such as the trunk, tusks and ears of the animal, but also the height and general structure of the elephants body.

I found the image I used to work from for
this study here
I used the same image for both studies





 I chose to look at parrots for a moment because I quite enjoyed studying birds earlier in my work and I thought that these tropical birds would be particularly intriguing to look at due to their brightly coloured feathers. To bring out the vibrancy of the colours I used brusho, and on top of this used ink in the same way I had with my study of the yellow lizard, and am still finding influence from Quentin Blake's illustrations when looking at these. I found putting them together very fun and interesting, however wasn't sure about how the first one worked because of the limited detail, so in the second study I also used fine liner in an attempt to bring out some more of the details. However on reflection, I think I prefer the first one more and so will remember this when approaching my finals.

I found the image I worked from in this site here

This is another simple line drawing using fine liner, and varied shapes to express the pattern of the zebras stripes. I had chose to look at the zebra because after struggling depicting the image of the horse, I thought it might be good to look at this animal because they obviously share the same characteristics but the zebras have an added bonus of the interesting stripes which I decided could have potential amongst my finals.
I found the image I worked from for this study here

I created this study using watercolour, pencil, fineliner and acrylic. I wanted the giraffe to perhaps feature in my finals also, because of its outstanding characteristics. I was however very unhappy with this study. 



My finals: 

When I began planning my finals, I decided to start crossing over animals that I had enjoyed drawing, and that I thought had interesting quirky features that might work interestingly together. I thought showered a few ideas and then started to put them together roughly in simple sketches to try to put the different shapes and forms together which I found quite challenging. 
For my first idea, I decided to cross a panda bear, a horse and a zebra, here were my initial sketches when I was struggling to get my creature together: 


A grazing panda (again unsuccessful!)

First sketch in pencil

Side view attempt (awful!)
More detailed fineliner sketch from front


 I found it quite difficult to get the features to combine together well, and so began trying different drawing techniques so that it was not as vivid and noticeably ineffective. Here are some of these:




















I am still very uncertain of these studies on reflection, but I do think they work better in this style than in my previous attempts. I decided to use the face of the panda (which I studied with an image found here) and then I looked at the body and the build of a horse (using an image found here) and then the legs of the zebra for the patterns (here). I chose to combine these animals because I thought that the black and white patterns could help provide some camouflage as this creature would live in rocky areas, and the stripes (as with zebras) they keep irritating insects at bay. I used the body of the horse and legs of a zebra so that the animal would have strength and the ability to run fast from predators.

Here is my final for this creature:

Final 1


For my next imaginary creature, I decided to swap the features of a giraffe, ostrich and bull. I decided to combine the characteristics of the giraffe and ostrich especially because I find that they each have quite feminine qualities, the giraffes being its facial features like its long eyelashes for example, and the ostrich having its very long bare legs and huge feathered coat. Also, both the giraffe and the ostrich have long necks which is quite interesting. I then decided to add the horns of the bull onto the giraffes head due to them already having stumpy horns for fighting each other with (the males) and so I thought that this could help the creature whenever they were in battle. The long legs of the ostriches body would also help with running away from predators and the neck to continue being able to reach food. Here are some of my initial sketches:

2

1
3
4






I had decided after drawing these that the media best worked fluidly, using ink, watercolour and fineliner rather than just fineliner alone or pencil. I also recognised that the animal was best drawn facing the left like in my later studies. I then went on to draw these:

1
2






Before completing my final here:


Final 2


For my next animal I decided to put together a mix of a bear, a hare and a fox. I wanted to combine the ears of the hare, the face and body/general build of the bear and the foxes tail into one creature. I decided that the animal would have huge long ears to help listening when hunting, and that the body would be big and strong with sharp teeth and cunning eyes. The fox tail would help to keep the animal warm and hidden when sleeping. Here are some of my early studies of this imaginary animal:

Initial first sketch in pencil

Adding detail in watercolour and graphite
Practicing with brusho and ink

Brusho and fineliner


After creating my first attempts, I found that the one that worked better was a study I did using just fineliner, a detailed drawing building up short lines in an attempt to create the textures of the animals fur. I then decided to base my final on this. Here are the drawings:

Sketchbook attempt
Final





For my last and final creature, I based it on two very different creatures, an elephant and a parrot. I did this because I had the idea of wanting to give an elephant wings, and so did not draw the parrots wings on to scale, but to suit the size and mass of the elephant, giving it the ability to fly. I wanted there to be a contrast between the dull shade of the elephants skin and the bright vibrancy of the tropical bird wings. I first sketched this idea out quickly, and then after liking the look of the rushed, basic drawing, I decided to repeat this same drawing process through monoprinting. Here were these results:

Quick pencil sketch of idea

Print 3

Monoprint 1

Monoprint 2


 I quite liked the way the images looked so childlike and rushed, and decided to stick to this idea to complete my final, here:




Overall I found this project very interesting and very beneficial. I was given many great opportunities to study real live animals up close and practice drawing them both still and moving. This project enabled me to study the anatomy of various animals and focus on their varying qualities. It has gave me a chance to strengthen my skills and also my imagination by thinking creatively when designing my own pretend creatures.

































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