Duck

The Blue Duck, the one that features on the reverse side of a New Zealand's $10 note.
This species is an resident breeder in New Zealand, nesting in hollow logs, small caves and other sheltered spots. It is a rare duck, looking after their territories consistently on fast flowing mountain rivers.
The Blue Duck is a very limited species now threatened by being hunted by mammals especially stoats, competition for its food with trouts, and human activity causing the ceased mountain rivers flow for building work.

In 2011 the New Zealand Department of Conservation and Genesis Power started the Whio Forever Project, a five-year management programme for Whio (New Zealand locals, Maori, call the Blue Duck 'Whio'). It will enable the start of a national recovery plan that will double the number of fully operational secure Blue Duck breeding sites throughout New Zealand.

They are amazing animals and key factors that influenced my visual developments are: they all inhabit New Zealand rivers, they occur nowhere else is in the world, Blue Ducks have unique features such as streamlined head and large webbed feet to enable them to feed in fast moving water, and they are in danger of extinction due to human activity. I have made many drawings, some 3D objects and animated my animal to expose some of its habitual behaviours and routines.

Penguin

The mechanical animal penguin; I liked the idea of how you can use technology to overcome something that is naturally impossible. In this case, penguins cannot fly naturally, so like us, they've built machines to help them.

James Nicholls

Pigeon

These images are from my Research Methodology project,  where I explored the pigeon as my chosen animal. By using pencil, ink and water colour, I have attempted to communicate aspects of the pigeon which interest me such as colour, form and movement. I tried to put a positive and humorous spin on my work to change people preconception of the pigeon, which is often negative.
Alice Carter

"The pride of the peacock is the glory of God."

“The pride of the peacock is the glory of God” is a quote by poet and painter William Blake. It talks about the peacock from the view of Christianity, and in my project I have explored the mythological and symbolic meaning of the peacock using cut & paste. 

Emily Freeman 

Peacock

Continuous line drawing developed using Photoshop. Emily Freeman.

Peacock

Red-tailed hawk

I did some studies of the red-tailed hawk while keeping the idea that it is a natural born killer in mind.

Pigeon Experimentation

Experimenting with different materials to try to reflect various aspects of the pigeon.

Crows

Emma Nutbeem

Cara Powell - Owls, Research Methodology

Dan Pease peregrine falcon

Toucan Reaper - Joy Miessi

"In it's native region, toucans are associated with evil spirits and are thought to be the incarnation of a demon. In certain religions of South and Central America, the father of a new child must not eat toucan flesh as it might bewitch the newborn and cause it to fade away. The toucan can also be a tribal totem and the medicine man can use it as an incarnation to fly to the spirit world."
http://www.seaworld.org/

After a few weeks of research I found out about the spiritual side of toucans. I read stories by tribesmen about toucans which revealed a whole darker side to these creatures. There were many stories and tales which involved toucans being a symbol/ sign of death and bad health. My final piece is a representation of everything that I have learnt about the dark side of toucans.