The drawing is the first design of the rabbit and then i created it onto the lino cut, this was a little hard to do but was not too bad. i really enjoyed making it though as i had to think a lot about how it would look. i feel as though i did really well on this piece and showed the idea of zones of time more effectily than the main. I then decided to put it onto the lion to show the different zones but also how animals can guide each other through life and death.
i then started to collage the rabbit to see if i could use the line to create an effect but also start experimenting with backgrounds, to see if I could add more to the piece i do like the background but i also think I could develop it more.
to show the idea of time i wanted to show how one life dying over time can be another life growing so i decided to do this through animal skulls and flowers. so i decided to do just a “normal” design before reefing into a design that i would want leading to my “final thing”
First I started off by drawing a design of a bird skull (osprey, or more knows as a sea hawk). When I had done the design then slowly went into cutting the lino and keeping the bits I had drawn as they where the bit I wanted to be covered in ink.
these photos show the lino block and all the prints i had made form it i defiantly prefer all black as i feel it is m ore clear. from this i moved on the another design. for the nest i wanted to make it less business and have a skull with little foliage. so i used mushrooms and leaves and a smaller skull (fennec fox).
i really loved doing this one as while craving it i didn’t think it was going well but once i had rolled the ink on it i really liked it. i think this is one of my favourite things about lino print is the idea of i don’t truly know how it will look until the ink is on it.
i think i want to head in this direction for print or dry point but I’m still going to look in other way too.
The post before this shows how I have planned to make a skull and head out of plaster(I have also made a mini clay skull).On Sunday night I made a mould out of tin foil and masking tape, to be able to pure the plaster in.
Making The Mould…..
This is the possess of me making the skull, At first I was only going to make one half and then I decided to do the full skull as I wanted to carry on with the idea of having the mushrooms inside the skull so I going to use this doe skull to carry out that idea.
For this I made sure that the sides would line up and be able to look like a whole skull. My plan is to make a thick plaster that I can put on with my hands to the shape will be hollow, but I don’t know if it will be strong enough.
This was a lot harder to make than I thought it would be but it did end up working and holding shape in the end so after taking off the skull I was really happy with the look of it.
Doing The Plaster…..
These are some photos of the plaster being put into the moulds, at first I really wasn’t sure if it would take the weight of the plaster but it ended up holding really well.
I made one lot of thick plaster that I used my hand to layer onto the mould, next I made a thinner plaster but not much thinner and then I used some rope netting ( ) so I would put the netting into the plaster and then add it onto the dried thicker layer. This would give it a good and strong shape.
I waited two hours to take it out as I didn’t want it to break. it came out with a really good shape. it isn’t perfect but I do think it was better than I thought it would be. the edges are very ruff but I do like this as it makes a natural decay look so I can put the mushrooms inside and you have to look around the sculpture to get to see the insides.
My next post will be me paintings and adding in the mushrooms and other things.
I wanted to try and make a little skull before making a bigger one, I am going to make it out of clay and see how well I can do it and if I want to then make it bigger out of clay. I also want to try and make a head out of clay, so I could possible make a mould out of it and then have a plaster head. Or I could get as statues head and then go to plastics and get it vacuumed and then that could be my mould for the plaster.
My Mini Skull…..
This is how it turned put I didn’t do the back of the skull as I did find it hard on a small scale but I think it would be better as a bigger skull. I do think an animal skull might work a bit better with an animal skull so I’m going to make a mould of a doe skull.
I started with a ball of clay and then used a metal tool, to then mark out the shapes then I started to remove the clay. It was a simple way of making the the skull and i do like the outcome, even though I do think it could have been better.
I do want to try a bigger scale as I believe it will be easier.
For this class I needed to prep 8-10 pages with different water down acrylic colours. As we where not set colour is tried to do a lot of different colours with a big range so the colour I chose where.
blue
black
yellow
orange
red
white
brown
For this is wanted to try two different type of collaging, where one of them is more perfected than the other. So I started with an object that I could make into a perfected look, this would make it clear what it is but also weird as I prefer a messier look within collaring.
First (perfected piece)…..
This is the object that I wanted to do and see how I could make it into a collage. For the collage I’m going to be using scissors to cut out all the colours and a normal prick stick to glue them on.
I choose this as I feel it could be a simple design and also look like the object when I am done.
So I completely forgot to take photos while doing this but I did take photos of me doing my second collage . I wanted to do a more simple one to start with so I could figure out and get more confident with this way of making art.
I wanted to find better ways to convey shadowing instead of using black. So I thought I could use red for the darker orange and to show the shape of the pumpkin.
I really like this piece and I think it worked well. If i was to develop this piece I would change the black at the shading of the pumpkin on the floor to a blue, this is due to shadowing is normally a little bit more of a blue than a black. Other than this I do really like this piece, after this I wanted to try a more messy look and ripe the paper instead of having control over what shapes I put down. I also wanted to try a harder design so I used a skull and pillow to make a little still-life.
Second collage…..
This is the set up for my still life. I really like this as it gives the effect of the skull being within grass and gives a really nice background. I think it works a lot better than having the background of my carpet, and also gives it a more complete look.
This was a lot harder than I though as I find it really hard to see when things on a page start to get busy. It took me a while to do but now I really do like it and I’m happy I challenged myself to do it. It was also was really hard to find ripped bits of paper to fit the shaped I wanted to show.
This is the finished piece of the messier collage. I really like this piece and i think it works well. I wanted to use the black for the very dark shading and also then yellow of the lesser shadowed bits.
I did end up adding some fine liner to be able to just make some more marks and details clear within the skull and the pillow. I really feel this finished the look of the piece and helped to bring it all together.
Painting task – Only using white or white and any colour except black
For this class I had pre-painted 4 MDF boards (A5) four different colours; black, blue, yellow and red. I did this a week ahead of the class as I had the time.
(I could use what ever colour boards that I wanted)On the first board, the task was to paint a 3D object only using the colour white. The second board, was to use white and any other colours we wanted. But I was not allowed to use black. The third board, I could use any colour I wanted except black, but I could also not use a paint brush. The final board, I could do what ever I wanted.
First Board (Black)…..
This board I had to only use white paint….. I chose to use a deer’s mandible. I wanted to use this object as it had a firm shape and also I had a good idea how to establish some 3D aspect.
How I did it…..
When painting this I started by diluting the white paint with lots of water, so that I could paint a very faint “foundation” for the shape of the jaw bone. From this I slowly added more to start building up a 3D look. This did mean I had to start making up more diluted white paint, but each batch would have less and less water mixed in.
I used the thickest white paint on the areas that either had a highlight or was the closest bit to me. (e.g. the teeth, they are white and some bits that was closest to me so I put a lot of white down)
Second Board (Blue)…..
This board I could use any colours I want but not black. For this I used a bones from a deer. I choose this as it had a lot of big form changes. so I could play with the blue colour behind a lot easier and see if I could add in different levels of shading.
How I did it…..
So I decided to play with the blue colour on the board, to see how well I could use it for shading. I started by using a white paint (no water) and put it onto the board, this lifted up some of the blue paint making the nice light blue that is in the middle of the board.
Then I waited a little bit for it to dry and I decided to go in with more white paint (no water). To make the simple shape of the bone. For the shadowing and darkness of the bone I would just keep moving the white paint around in that area to slowly lift up the blue underneath. I would do this till it was as light or dark as I wanted it.
Third Board (yellow)…..
This board I could use any colour paint I wanted expect black, but I could not use any paint brushes. I used a deer’s bone.
For this painting I used my figure to put the paint onto the board, I would put the paint straight onto my finger and then add it onto the board. I started by loading my finer with white paint and making the shape of the bone. Then I started in with the grey paint and added this to the darker areas of the bones and the lightly shaded places. Then I went in with the very dark brown paint this was placed in the very dark marks on the bones and the dark shading. I also use this colour with some yellow to make the shadow to give the illusion of a shadow.
Fourth Board (red)…..
This board I could do anything I wanted. So I decided to use a rat skull that I have as it wanted to do a simple painting.
I am not as keen on this one as it is too simple, but I do like it as I wanted it to be simple. With this board I want to go over with a thin layer of red to make it hard to see, but the skull would be there.
For this all I did was using a paint brush I added white paint (no water)onto the board and then painted out the shape of the skull and teeth. Then I used a beige in order to give a 3D look and a light shadowing.
Last year I found a whole (dead) rat. I wanted to clean it but as I don’t have that much experience I decided to get some help. This is the skull of that rat (I have the entire skeleton).
This was a task that we were set in a drawing class. We had 10 minutes to draw an interesting object in our flats, So I decided that I would pick my Rat skull. This Rat skull is around 4.5 cm lengthways and 2 cm tall.
When drawing this skull I knew I did not have long, so I started by sketching with a 5H pencil. Then I went in using a fine liner (0.6 mm). I used both the fine liner and a 5B pencil to add detailing and shadowing. This is as much as I got done within the time limit.
Next…..
Next I am planning to use one of my other skulls (Fallow doe (deer)). To be able to have more time and a bigger scale. this will allow me to add a lot more detail into the piece.
For this task I had to pick a few items and place them in a certain way. Then I would have to draw these items, the catch is we would have to draw it once with my right hand (my drawing hand) and then with my left hand (my weak hand).
Left Hand Drawing…..
This was my left handed drawing. This turned out so much better than i thought it would have been. the skull was really good (I didn’t get to do the teeth as i ran out of time) we had about 10-20 minutes to do these.
I chose to do a fallow does skull (deer skull) and a cactus that I have. and i chose these because they are quite different in shape and form so i wanted to try different shapes with my “bad” hand.
Right Hand Drawing…..
This was my right hand drawing, this turn out a lost worse than I thought it did. I know I was more worried about this drawing because I knew this hand should look better than my left. I had also added a rat skull within this piece as I didn’t have time to do this teeth.
Side By Side View…..
These are they both together and really shows how similar both of my hands are when drawing. This really does consider if I am ambidextrous, as both hands are basically the same.
