Holly Seymour - Hummingbirds

For the Research Methodology I decided to look at Hummingbirds, within my work I wanted to depict it in a way to portray the animal in its naturally beautiful and intricate way. I used the quote from Shakespeare's play The Twelfth Night, Chapter 4 (Mistress Mary) "And, like a hummingbird, she flutters, a sparkling fleck, sportive and seemingly insouciant"

I experimented with printing as a technique for the project, Overall I made around 7 different lino and woodcut designs of Hummingbird also including a large square lino with a series of birds hovering together.

 As another experiment, I looked at mark making and creating pattern within the birds feathers and body.

For my sparkling fleck element in my project, I hand beaded this humming bird on a embroidery hoop, This is to reflect the iridescent look most hummingbirds have and wanted to capture that with this method.

Skye Jackson-Smith - Barn Owl

For the Research Methodology Unit, I decided to focus on the elusive Barn Owl.

I was drawn to studying the Barn Owl as I felt they tied in nicely with Shakespearian literature as owls have a reputation throughout the 15th & 16th century as being omens of death. 

I researched into the meaning/symbolism of the barn Owl in different cultures and they are mostly considered a sign of bad luck and quite frequently they are seen as a warning sign that someone is going to imminently die.

I found a reference to an Owl in Macbeth "It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman (2.2.5-6)" which supposedly relates to ringing of "the dead bells", which was a form of hand bell used in Scotland and northern England in conjunction with deaths and funerals up until the 19th century.

The owl is therefore referred to as the fatal bellman as it shrieked upon the murder of Duncan.

For my final piece I decided to design a Tarot cards to represent the fortune telling of the owl, I decorated them with silver & copper foil - one to represent night and the other to represent day.

Adam Davenport - Snake

Adam Davenport - Snake.

For my 'Shakespeare's Animals' project, I decided too choose the snake. The reason behind this choice was because of my knowledge of Shakespeare quotes that represent the snake in a vicious way. I started with research into the anatomy, environment, logos, artists that influence me and certain styles of snake designs. I went onto researching into Tattoo styled work on snakes, that went onto linking too symbolism as my main visual research. 

Whilst this research was going on, I was continuing with drawings of the snake that later on went onto being my final piece. I was drawing/experimenting in different styles that influenced me in my studies including ; Op Art, Tattoo, Symbolism, Continuous Line, Monochromatic, 3D Modelling and Pop Art. I will now show you some of the examples of my drawings, experiments and final piece.

Lino Print - Here I have one of five Lino prints
that came out the best. I chose to re-print these five
more times to sell in the end of year show. 

Photoshop Airbrush - This experiment was influenced through
my first initial drawing of the snake that I wanted to
develop further. However, this becomes a useful experiment
because the technique is used for the final piece.

Pop Art experiment - In the opening statement I mentioned
that I was drawing/experimenting in different styles. This
was a mixture of three; Pop Art, Monochromatic and Airbrush.

Final Piece - This piece was a development from my experiment
of Pop Art style, inspired by Andy Warhol. I then had a idea of the
snake biting into a can of drink, this drink was later called
'Snakebite'. 

My Dog Sighs - #FreeArtFriday. This was the experiment that I
chose to do during our workshop with My Dog Sighs.

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) 

Unicorn - Darcie Couch (784365)

                                         Unicorn - Darcie Couch (UP784365)

 Choosing an animal for this project proved difficult as many of the animals I had considered had a range of possibilities in regards to producing a final outcome. In the end I decided to study my project on a Unicorn because although finding primary resources would be difficult, I would have had a fluid approach to experimentation.

I began to work on the unicorns appearance, studying its poise and characteristics. As the Unicorn is a mythical animal it wasn't surprising to see that there were many varying illustrations/photos, showing different features in each; such as having wings or horns. These were initial studies I made using the references of what a Unicorn is described to look like. The varied mediums used and mark making explored what I felt would best successfully represent the Unicorn image.

I closely looked into comparing Horses and Unicorns. I made a study of a Horse using only white ink on brown paper. Making this study made it easier to compare the appearances of both animals, especially with their similarities in facial features.

Later on in the project I looked into more than the similarities and made both mathematical and scientific diagrams on their hooves, skulls and torsos. In the picture above I've included the hooves and shoes with their diagram labels and angular measurements. I found studying the contrast between the myth and the math fascinating because it dipped into key points of the broad projects spectrum.

Rats by AmberAtlantis

For my 'Shakespeare's animals' project I decided to focus upon the rat, as it's my favourite animal and they posses some interesting superstitious qualities, as well as similarities to the human body which are used for scientific study.

After conducting broad research into the animal such as their anatomy, behaviour, habitat and diet etc, I visited a large pet store and started producing lots of direct observational sketches. This is what helped me most in understanding their movement and behaviours. I also reviewed the texts in which rats are mentioned in Shakespeare's works, and I decided to centre my ideas around a scene in 'Tempest' where Prospero describes a boat that he fled to Italy on. This scene evolves around the superstition that rats leaving a ship in port indicates that the vessel will encounter misfortune at sea such as sinking.

With this idea in mind, I experimented with collage and 3D techniques which i could possibly use to illustrate the ship superstition, including wire sculptures wrapped in twine and wallpaper collages as shown above.

Eventually I settled for using paper mache to create the basic structure of the rat, and then I glued card triangles over this to create the fur. For my final piece I produced 2 rats; the card triangles on one were covered in ripped magazine, and the other was using a watercolour + salt technique to look like rust. Both of these symbolise neglect. 

I did some final research in rat euphemisms, where i came across the term 'rat king'. This is where rats live in an extremely cramped space, so eventually their tails become knotted together. I decided to join the tails of my two sculptures, but I did so by researching the types of knots used in sailing and made the tails out of rope to connote the boat superstition. I made the remaining features out of clay, and set the sculptures on a piece of driftwood which I found at the beach. My intention with this was to convey a narrative of the plank being a stray part of a recently sunken ship, and the rats had to escape together due to being connected at the tail. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this project and I look forward to seeing my work displayed in the Shakespeare's animals exhibition at Portsmouth Guildhall! Feel free to check out these links for some of my other art and photography work!

www.facebook.com/amberatlantis

www.youtube.com/AmberAtlantis

www.amberatlantis.blogspot.co.uk

Lucy Page - Tiger

For the Shakespeare project I decided to research tigers as I find them really interesting and mysterious. The quotes from Shakespeare's work that inspired me were first 'The tiger was generally considered the personification of remorseless cruelty' and second 'Even the rudest and the most heraldic of a tiger must have had stripes not spots'. During my research I looked at how tigers hunt and especially how they pounce. I discovered that tigers are extremely powerful animals, the largest of the cat family and very distinctive due to their stripes. Because of this they are the perfect killing machine and I decided to run with this description for inspiration for my final outcome.

I was attempting to capture the powerful roar of a tiger with this drawing

I created a lino print from the first image and printed it successfully 

Stripes are one of the most identifying characteristics of a tiger, so I experimented with just painting the stripes 

I started looking at how tigers are killing machines, to show this I used cogs to create a half tiger half machine outcome

Final outcome: 

For my final piece I chose to use my drawing of a tiger crouching ready to pounce with cogs added to its upper leg muscles to show the pent up power in the muscles.