Rainatu Habib - Squid

For my Research and Methodology I looked at the Colossal squid. I choose to look at squids as they are very misunderstood creatures, what first drew me to them was their jelly like body which then led me to look at the Colossal squid which is know to have the largest eye in the world this fascinated me.

 Tentacles done using wire and plastercine.

This is my Squid from the my dog sighs workshop

Screen Printed Tentacle

This is my Final piece 

A life size eye made of Mod Rock, letter press and paper cut out for my tentacle.

Ross Hughes - Owls

Owls always seem to be there in the background, when I chose to do them for my project I started to see them appear on a lot of things, mainly as cute little patterns. This inspired me to do create a patter of my own, I drew them by hand and then clean them up and duplicated the owls in Illustrator. I then looked into owl myths and found a creature in one Native American tribe called Stikini who are sinister monsters from Seminole folklore. Originally they were evil witches, who transformed themselves into owl-beings. By day they still resemble people, but by night, they vomit up their souls and become undead owl-monsters that feed on human hearts. With this in mind I thought that comics are the modern day myths so I turned this monster into a anti-hero and a comic cover and the cowl he wears. The felt owl was made as a children's toy, its head turns all the way around to try and help them sleep at night as owls were seen to ward off omens.

Georgia Down - Japanese Flying Squid

For this project I chose to look into the Japanese Flying Squid. I always found squids fascinating, mysterious and totally unique, so I chose them for this project. I experimented with printing with actual squid corpses, which was a unique experience that yielded some interesting results (see below). I also wanted to create cute, childish squids - away from the colossal monsterous creatures like the Kraken that typically spring to mind (see below). For my final I chose to hand bind a concentina book focused around solving the mysterious nature of the Japanese Flying Squid. I wanted it to be broken up into basic factoids but impossible to read for the average consumer - so I wrote it in Japanese in homage to the squids home land. It was all done in ink (to represent the squids ink, of course!), which I smudged a lot. If I were to go back and change my outcome, I would have pushed that smudging more and made the final product much more weathered and aged. (See below).
I also took part in a 'My Dog Sighs' workshop which included me painting a piece of rubbish and discarding it - I took a picture of my piece where I found it originally!

Joseph Gardner - Mouse

For my Research Methodology project I chose to look at the mouse. For no simpler reason than my house was somehow infested with them, which is more common than I realised in Portsmouth. My project started when I caught a mouse in my kitchen. I tried to replicate this mouse with the wire workshop we had early in the project. After this I spent a lot of time working continuous line drawings of mice. In the Los Dave workshop I partnered up to create a owl-mouse crossover, I found this very successful as I was able to work on a larger scale than that of a mouse. After much development I decided on the idea of a Mouse in a tin can, they are renowned for going into cupboards and rummaging for food - and after the influence of My Dog Sighs I found the use of tin cans as very appropriate. I have chosen to add my Joint project from the Los Dave workshop.

 

These are some of the pictures from my Fox project. I like them because this was my first attempt at using stop motion animation to make a short animation of my own. 

Kemani Batt - My Dog Sighs level 4 Workshop

This is the work I created for our Le Dog Sighs workshop. We went looking for a discarded piece of rubbish to bring to life for the project, and then leave it out in the world for people to find.

I created a small crocodile out of a broken peg and painted a face inside a tissue box.

Vicente O'Neill- My Dog Sighs Level 4 work Shop

Local Portsmouth street artist 'My Dog Sighs' came to deliver a lecture to us on how and why he produces his unique pieces of found 'rubbish' art. Quirky and uplifting, his realistic paintings on cans and crisp wrappers are a delight to look at. We were then instructed to create our own piece of art with a piece of rubbish we found. After completing the painting we had to then replace it where we originally found them, leaving the pieces of art to the mercy of the world.
Here is my own response:

Emily Carleton - Tiger

For my project I decided to focus on tigers as I've always had a fascination with them. Their characteristics such as their markings and love of water make them unique creatures. I found it interesting to learn from my research that tigers have always been both feared and revered throughout history, and subsequently they are often associated with royalty and power. This therefore became my focus towards the end of the project.

Dan Curtis - Elephants

I decided to develop my project around elephants as I think the contrast in beliefs surrounding them, including biologically and religiously, are something that need to be addressed and are certainly something I was interested in exploring. The fact that in one part of the world they are considered to be god-like animals, whereas in another part they are relentlessly hunted and butchered for their tusks both intrigued and disgusted me; not to mention how they have been and still are being put through horrible conditions so they can be used in circuses for our entertainment. As you'll see in some of my work, I tried to combine the metaphors and symbolism found in Indian art with the tacky style of old circus posters to comment on the treatment they've received.

These images below were inspired by Salvador Dali's many paintings of elephants, in which they have extremely spindly legs to emphasise their dream-like weightlessness - mine were done by blowing large bits of watercolours all over the page and then drawing an elephant into the shapes they produced.

Holly Newman - Magpie

Magpies are hugely misunderstood animals, with a stigma that follows them around and instills fear in some who cross their paths. I chose to focus my Research Methodology on Magpies because I wanted to learn more about them, and was surprised to find out that the stories I was taught about them were exactly that- stories! Myths and fables told and retold, traveling down through generations.  

Magpies are notorious for stealing shiny, precious items, like jewellery. I wanted to play on this myth and explore themes of greed and always wanting MORE. 

John Lihou - Poison Dart Frog

John Lihou - Poison Dart Frog

Screen Print

Wire Frog

Charcoal

Psychedelic Type

I chose to base my project on the Poison Dart Frog as I was interested in how the potency of their poison is so great compared to their small size. Another reason I decided on this animal for my project was the vibrant, psychedelic colours that are displayed on their bodies that resemble some sort of design from the 60's or 70's (this being a main influence on the work that I have created). For the final piece I explored into deforestation and the effects of man on the animal which led to me creating artwork based on animal and rain forest conservation.

Hannah Summerton - Wolf

Wolf Drawing with fine liners and blue graphic pen

Stencils that I cut out with cardboard and printed with paint using autumn colours that blended together and with I also over lapped them

 Using inks, coffee and water a very messing wolf drawing with bleeding and smudges 

Fine line and water, I discovered if you drawing with the fine liner and then use water you can use of to make a smokey ghost like effect

Cleo Parker -Brown bear

                                                        Bear and elephant story board

                                          Lino print of a bear sleeping from a short bear poem

                                                         Grizzly Bear book of poems


Bears have always been a favourite of mine ever since I was little, from children's book illustrations to documentaries I find them to be inteligant fun animals. I have always been interested in bears being cuddly, fun, loving animals in children's story books, yet these animals are extremely dangerous predators. They aren't an animal i'd want to bump into, however they are beautiful creatures and fun to illustrate.