Magpie - Dylan Botting

For this project I decided to focus on magpies as I have always found them interesting and I already knew a few facts about them before hand which would help with my starting point. As I developed my research I focused on the riddle connected with magpies and began to talk about the meaning of it.

I made a series of images for each section of the riddle, these are a few examples. I started these by taking photos of magpies then sketched them out. I then put them onto Photoshop and began experimenting, with inspiration from artists such as Kathryn Webster and work from Magpie studios. I then experimented with colours linking to my focused theme. 

Hedgehog - Madeline Bugden

For my Research Methodology unit I decided to research the Hedgehog. I chose this because I found it an interesting animal and an animal that I liked. Once I started researching I found good information about it, however I did struggle to find ways of illustrating this and the Hedgehog in general.

I first started looking at general information about the Hedgehog and I found out that there are more than one species of the Hedgehog and that they originate from Europe and around the UK. And other information like the are born blind and can carry up to 5,000 parasites and fleas on just one Hedgehog. I found that the best information when researching came from the website 'hedgehog street'.
Once finding general information, I found it difficult to find any inspiration to illustrate my research. Although when experimenting I found that using fine line pen and watercolour really worked with the outcome I wanted.  I also used the idea of using materials to represent the softness of a Hedgehog's belly.

Chameleon - Amy Tainsh

I chose to study chameleons for my Research Methodology project, I was interested to find out more about them as their ability to camouflage fascinates me.

I started with taking a closer look at it and did a few sketches, I started researching about their behavior and ability to camouflage and catch insects with their tongues at an incredibly fast speed. Chameleons visual abilities are also a huge part of what makes them so unique and successful, I wanted to focus on just an eye, so did a piece in fine liner. I also experimented with adobe illustrator putting together a digital piece that looks like chameleon scales.

I then experimented more with this my fine liner drawing as a starting point and reproduced the image in several screen prints. I looked at artists who use screen printing as a medium, such as Bicicleta sem Freio. I started experimented with a messier approach, but for my final piece I wanted to create something that was really clean and bold.

Crow- Amir gurung

Mixed media piece, I have used charcoal for the skull, cut out silhouette for the crow and torn cardboard for the background. Crows are also a scavenger which is why i have drawn a skull and crow on top of the skull.  

Charcoal drawing of a crow catching a frog and ready to eat.

Crow on a branch, I have used a watercolor for this work and used black as it is the color of the crow. Splashed lots of different colors for the background to see the outcome.

Crow is intelligent ! This is a continuous line drawing of a crow on top of the tree so it can drop the nut from top so it breaks into pieces for the crow to eat.

Wolf - Oliver Theobald

For my Research Methodology Unit I chose to research the Wolf. I chose the wolf because I think it is a really interesting animal, and its an animal that is rarely brought up. As I began my research I found out many weird facts about this fascinating animal.


For my 1st Image, I replicated the style of an artist that I had found Luke Dixon as I also like working in intense detail as it really reveals the details of the image. I used a black fine-liner pen so that the fur of the wolf was crisp and sharp.


As I started experimenting with a wide range of materials, I thought that water colour would give me the change in fur colour that I was trying to accomplish. I really like the outcome of this image as I consider water colour painting to be one of my major weaknesses.


A4 pencil of a wolf standing in the snow, found on a wildlife documentary and drawn from a still image.


On this my final image I thought about my animal and its habitat and realised that the animal would disappear if the environment around it were to vanish/be destroyed. So I created this image using Photoshop so that people can see if you take away the image of the wolves habitat then there would no longer be a wolf.

Praying Mantis

I chose the Praying Mantis as I wanted to choose a creature that is unique looking so I could experiment more with different materials and medias.

For this image I wanted to see how human and Mantises differ I used eyes to show this as they are a very distinctive features.  I used an A4 pencil and drew from memory I then paired the images together to show make a comparison of the two.

whilst I was experimenting with materials I found using green leaves to create a mantis is a very fun and unique way of experimenting and links back to the mantises original habitat.

For this image I created a stencil using Stanley knife I made the image a basic outline of a mantis because it is very unique and distinctive.

For this image I used an image of a mantis from and old book I found and used Photoshop to add more colours and more detail.

Jellyfish - Megan Bull

For my research methodology project i chose to look into Jellyfish. I chose this because i found them fascinating, in the way that something whom has no brain can still survive, breed, eat etc. I used a variety of materials and visuals. 

After a few hours of research, i found that they are quite troublesome, in the sense that they can cause quite a lot of damage when in large quantities. They are also victims of ocean pollution. This has a knock on effect to other sea life that are predators to Jellyfish. Turtles being the main ones for mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish. This gave me the idea to use plastic bags as my primary material, and how i can perceive jellyfish as plastic bags.

I also did a variety of experiments using jelly as a primary material, wrapping up lumps of jelly in cling film and pushing them round the sink with the tap on full to act like a current. These weren't too successful as the jellyfish became very top heavy. I tried another with cotton wool as the head wrapped up in clingfilm and this wouldn't submerge into the water because of the trapped air.

I found this unit quite interesting in the way of how I can create jellyfish using unconventional materials and percieve them in a different way relating to current issues we are facing in the sense of pollution.