Hannah Lewington - Wolverine

For the Research Methodology project, I decided to look at the Wolverine as it had not been done before and it is relatively unknown to most people (apart from the Marvel character from X-Men). The Wolverine is an elusive animal that lives in Canada, Norway, Finland, Russia and some states in America. It is an animal that has little known about it due to the fact that they're constantly on the move, travelling up to 20km a day to scavenge for food. They have been known to take down prey much larger than them such as caribou and even polar bears, with a similar ferocity to its African cousin the Honey Badger.

I decided to focus on the Wolverine's paws in particular for this project due to their sheer size compared to the size of the Wolverine itself. This then became part of exploring the idea of the Wolverine's journey every day in search of food. I therefore created a variety of works incorporating this concept, using a 1:1 scale throughout.

Workshop with Los Dave

Earlier this week Los Dave worked with the first years to explore the movement and balance of the animals being studied in our current unit 'Research Methodology' and express it in found materials, (namely barbecue grills, wire, sticks and string) He outlined an initial modelling technique using Blu Tac to capture the movement in 3 dimensions, before developing it using the intended media.

For more info on Los Dave see www.losdave.bigcartel.com

More on frogs

This was another experiment using water, oil and colour in order to create the idea of water and ripples within it.  Below is also a line of frog bunting representing the different personalities of people.

Squids

I chose to look at the squid for this project.
Scientifically, little is known about many species of squid, and some have never actually been seen alive, so one of the themes I looked into was the unknown, and how curious and fascinated humans are about things they know little about. I also looked into what makes the squid a unique creature, and focused a lot on how they glow in the dark, and their skin.

I was mainly interested in the mythology associated with the squid, so I looked into the legend of the giant squid, old pirate stories and maps and eyewitness accounts of the huge creatures. I wanted to create something that people would be curious about, and illustrate the mystery that surrounds the squid, so I looked into victorian curiosity cabinets and had a try at making my own version.

aggie davies

The Rat

For this unit I chose to research the rat, an animal I have always been fond of and believe to be widely misunderstood. I informed myself on both the positive and negative attributes of the animal; the part they played in the spread of the Black Death, symbolism and representations in popular culture, the pet or 'fancy rat' and the creature as vermin. As part of the project, I created a cute rat from knitted carrier bags and discarded materials to address the comparison between 'pest' and 'pet'.

Below are a selection of sketchbook pages, my wire sculpture and knitted rat:

The Indian Elephant

Elephants have always been my favourite animal, so I was sure about using them in this project. Through further research into Elephants I chose to look at the Indian Elephant, where I found about their incredible intelligence and their use in symbolism (both religiously and aesthetically). Elephants are strong and big but also playful. They are also symbols of wisdom and stability; something that I wanted to try and convey in my work as well as the fact that they are easily recognisable creatures.

Wire 'drawing'

Using ordinary gardening wire these sculptures have been made using a continuous line technique, but in 3 dimensions. Consideration has been given to the weight and quality of line in conveying an aspect of the animal depicted. Some are incomplete, and some explore just one element of the creature.