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.

The Gorilla

I chose to look at these ground-dwelling herbivores because they are powerful and intelligent. They live in social groups and often display gentle, human-like behaviour. Some able to learn basic sign language and communicate with humans. Would you believe 1 gorilla has the strength of 4-8 human men. It's incredible feats like these that made me want to study this magnificent creature. It's just a terrible shame that some species of gorilla are still endangered today. 

Tiger

I picked the Tiger for this project as they have long been one of my favourite animals, being such a feared and respected hunter, and also the mascot to my Rugby team. I used a mixture of mediums throughout the course of the project, but really wanted to reflect the areas where the Tiger can be found, namely China, Asia and Eastern Russia. But after discovering the Chinese governments dual policy of both protecting and hunting these graceful animals, I wanted to represent them as the product that China seems to think they are. So I tried my hand at some Chinese paintings and some came out better than others, but I did include the bar code logo to reflect the commercial use of these beautiful creatures.

White Tailed Deer

For my research methodology project I have chosen to base it on white tailed deers. The reason why I have chosen this animal is because I was interested in their white spotted fur. I also find it interesting how only the baby deers have white spotted fur as when they grow older most deers lose their spots. Most of my illustrations for this project were penciled based sketches.      

                                                             Pencil, white ink and glitter

                                                       White pen, colour pencil and sketching

Paper cutting of Bambi

Foxes

For my Research Methodology project, I focused on foxes - due to the fact that where I live in Portsmouth, you can witness a vast amount of foxes in the night. I personally like the mysterious aura around these nocturnal mammals and so I wished to research into them further. Throughout the project, I looked at the stereotypical characteristics that foxes have within society where they are seen as cunning and malicious, however when I looked into other societies across the world, such as Japan, I saw that they are portrayed to be gods, either being extremely malevolent like in our society, or being seen as immensely benevolent and wise. The concept of the foxes traits being at two opposite ends of the spectrum intrigued me and so, the majority of my project was concentrated on the kitsune - the Japanese fox - and the Japanese tales surrounding it (such as the fact that the majority of Japanese tales show foxes to only transform into females in order to bewitch men).

The illustration above was supposed to portray the malevolent side of the fox in terms of the colour codes of the female fox's robes whereas the images below show the benevolent fox where the colours are more welcoming. The digital drawing to the right shows an incomplete shrine in the background which I wished to finish because it showed that the female fox would've been worshipped dearly and would have backed up the fact that it is a loving god rather than a malicious one.

Bats

For my menagerie project I chose to focus on bats.

I wanted to do an animal that I thought most people wouldn't do. Bats are not very popular and even feared but I think they are misunderstood and cute yet elemental. I looked at the different types of bats and where they live. I found that there are two branches of the bat family; Microbats and Megabats. Microbats are nocturnal, have external tails, are carnivores, use echolocation and are smaller than Megabats. Where as Megabats eat fruit and nectar, don't have visible tails, are diurnal so they have good eyesight and have no need for echolocation and are much larger.

I also looked into their behaviour and what their relationship is with people around the world. I used pencils, ink, collage and origami to show different aspects of the bat. The origami was the most challenging and the most rewarding.

Harlyn Blanchflower.

Short animations

3 short animations resulting from the Research Methodology project;

Save the Arctic
Pen and ink drawn animation by Aaron Baker

Gorilla 

Claymation by Johnathan Smallwood

How the Black Death Began 

Paper cut animation by Bryony Mellett

Cats

I love cats and this is the simple reason way I chose them for my project. They are loved by many and apparently mainly by crazy lady’s, including me. Besides being affectionate, cute and adorable I find they have a lot of character and attitude. This is what interested me most and what I wanted to focus on and convey in my drawings. I tried to communicate this through gestures, symbols and expression and use medium that would work and compliment the message and style. 

Red Fox

I decided to focus on the fox for my research methodology project. I have always been fascinated by foxes, considering I had seen one bareley a handful of times in real life as they are such timid creatures. I began looking at lots of different species of fox, but quickly settled on the Red Fox. Having grown up in a fairly country-based town, I would frequently wake in the night startled by the sound of a Foxes shrill cry. However it would be near impossible to catch a sight of the sly creatures as they would lurk in the shadows in my then overgrown childhood garden.

I think the fact that I knew Foxes were difficult to catch a glimpse of created an interest within me for the creatures, and as a child I would constantly be fascinated if I caught sight of a Fox skulking into a bush in the day, or scuttling across a land at night. This Idea of a child so fascinated by a particular animal, yet not being able to see it with their own eyes, gave me quite a distinct idea. I knew I wanted to act on my love for children's illustration within this project, so that was the path I decided to go down, and I created Ella and Fox. A story based around a girl who finds all of the clues to a living creature in the forest, but cannot see this creature, so she goes searching for him, and learns all about foxes along the way. It seemed to me that as the character was discovering this information about the animal, the child reading the story would too, so it became a sort of mini fact file as well as a children's story. I had a lot of fun on this project!

The Rabbit

I looked at rabbits, first focusing on how they live in the wild,

but then moving on to examine how they are kept as pets.

Through my research, I found that many rabbit-owners are not aware of basic

rabbit needs and rabbits are frequently abandoned when they are more work than the

owner anticipated. I wanted to show that rabbits are not 'easy option' pets and in

particular communicate the fact that they can live for 10 years. I also experimented

with how I could visualise the inquisitive nature of this creature.

Pomeranian

I based my methodical research on the breed of dog named, Pomeranian. After informing myself of its interesting history and origins, I began exploring social issues involved in owning a 'Toy' breed, its personality and behaviour. With the Pomeranian being a symbol of fame and decadence, I experimented with different ways I could portray this, considering the use of media, texture and colour. I directed my ideas into screen printing on pillows to conclude and convey the symbolic depiction of social class and fashion of Pomeranians.

Danielle Noakes

Domestic Cat

I chose to base my project on the domestic cat. I focused mainly on the textures found on cats for example, their rough tongues and their soft fur. I also looked in to their sensitivity to their surroundings and also their sensitivity and fragility in general. I tried to use different mediums, techniques and materials to reflect these qualities such as using thin paper and origami techniques, paper cutting, and using stick and ink to create looseness in my images.

The Big Horned Sheep

I chose to look at the big horned sheep because I was interested by the horns of the animal. I once heard that when the big horned sheep has become a skeleton the weight of the horns outweigh the bones of the whole animal put together. This fact was the first thing that sprung to mind when being asked to choose an animal.

I think when people originally think of sheep with big horns they automatically think of them bashing their heads together, from great run ups. So on first thought the words stupid and aggressive came to mind when picking this animal. But soon I realised how nimble on their feet they are when climbing up very steep mountains. And also how strong and military they are when it comes to protecting the herd against predators.

After looking at the big horned sheep for a while, I started to focus far more in on the scull. I think the way the scull looks with the horns is quite sinister. It didn’t take long before I started to look at more satanic imagery, as the big horned sheep/ ram are well known for sacrifice. Also there are connotations and links of the horns of the devil and the horns or a big honed sheep/ ram.

These are some of the images gathered from my Research Methodology project.

Becca Henderson