For the research methodology project I focused on the Octopus. I was fascinated by their movement and how their arms flowed so elegantly. I loved finding things out, about their eight limbs; two of which are actually legs. I was really intrigued about tentacles because each one had a mind of it's own and in my opinion they looked weird yet wonderful. I found words that described an Octopus and from there it propelled my research further.
I looked at words such as fluid, elegance, free-flowing and strange, all of which described the nature of an octopus when it moved. Going on from the words, I looked at each of their meanings and I found ballet. I found that the Octopus and ballet dancers have something very special in common with each other; they're elegant and move very gracefully, limbs moving in time with one and other.
I wanted to incorporate ballet into my work so I drew what it would look like if a ballerina had the tentacles of an Octopus. It looks rather strange yet it has a powerful effect on the viewer. Working on acetate allowed me to represent the similarities between the two. It also gave me a ghost-like image when held above the drawing I was developing. It's like the dancer is flailing her arms around much like an Octopus would do in the water.
My final piece was created with ink, watercolour and Promarker pen. The idea behind it was that the octopus can walk on two feet on the sea bed, it flails its arms around gracefully with fluid movements like a ballerina. When it moves under the water I'd like to think this is what they think of; like they're a dancer in training.
The octopus dances and performs a pirouette and in the mirror she see's herself as a beautiful ballet dancer.
