Karen Li - Dragon

For my Research Methodology Project I decided to do it on Dragon, As they are very fierce and scary features recorded from myths and legends. I looked into the history of cultures stories of dragons, from this I found that origin of the legends of dragon emerged in the course of Chinese history. The Chinese believed that dragon was a benevolent creatures with powers to bring rain and good luck to the people.

In this project I experiment from wire modelling, origami dragons, Lino prints and 3D clay modelling. From those I found that my Lino prints came out very successful, which I decide to use my continuous line drawing made from my clay modelling into Lino as a little illustrated book.

Two pages of fold up book (Final Piece) 

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.

Green Sea Turtles

For my Research Methodology unit I decided to look at Turtles, specifically the Green Sea Turtle. One thing I was particularly interested in was how they navigate themselves around the Earth using an "internal compass". This led on to me studying geomagnetic fields and reading physics books, which no art student should ever have to do! Leading on from this I added my own personal interest of graphic novels and made a short story relating to pollution, with the turtles taking their revenge on the human race for destroying their habitat. I then took a different audience approach and made a suitable version for young children, ultimately ending up with a colouring book that could be reproduced by WWF.

Below are sample images of what I was working on throughout the project.

Lino cut prepped for printing

Lino Print

Polluted Turtle idea

Page from the short Graphic Novel story

Example pages from the Colouring Book

The Indian Elephant

Elephants have always been my favourite animal, so I was sure about using them in this project. Through further research into Elephants I chose to look at the Indian Elephant, where I found about their incredible intelligence and their use in symbolism (both religiously and aesthetically). Elephants are strong and big but also playful. They are also symbols of wisdom and stability; something that I wanted to try and convey in my work as well as the fact that they are easily recognisable creatures.

The Chameleon

I chose the chameleon primarily because I knew little about this animal and have always been intrigued by its ability to change colour.  My research led me to African and Madagascan proverbs.

The chameleon represents wisdom, caution and adaptation; I have used this to highlight environmental awareness.  Maybe we could learn from the chameleon's ability to adapt and change in order to live more harmoniously on the planet?

I decided to create some illustrated proverbs and print them on T-shirts.  I spent a few hours making a linocut for the text below.  The result was not so much disappointing as exciting.  It was my first attempt at a linocut for typo.  I am looking forward to doing many more.

 

Eagle Owl

I studied the Eagle Owl for this project, focusing mainly on their (and owls in general) role in ancient mythologies. I especially looked at the Roman Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, who had a companion owl perched on her shoulder who would reveal unseen truths to her. The Eagle Owl is normally the top predator and has been know to take down foxes and small deer. These are some of the drawings and prints I did for this project.

Lino and woodcut workshop