Owls

I focused on owls for my research methodology project.

I looked at their symbolism in various cultures and their association with witches. They are thought to be messengers of witches, and it's also believed that witches themselves can turn into owls. They symbolize wisdom and foresight and are thought to be keepers of secrets and knowledge. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and strategy, had an owl as her symbol. According to myth, an owl would sit on her blind side, so that she could see the whole truth.

Owls are often associated with death and bad omens; however, they are also associated with dreams and psychic awareness. I focused a lot on owl associations and representations, especially their symbolism in dreams and divination. I was interested in the mysticism of owls and their place in the old world.

My Dog Sighs Workshop

Scarabaeidae; Celestial Navigators - Lucy Bertram

Beginning the Research



Extract from the 'Dictionary of Symbols' and watercolour studies

I chose to study the insect family by the name of Scarabaeidae, or most commonly known as the Scarab family. This is a family of beetles that makes up around 10% of all insects and therefore is incredibly wide spread. Some of the most common beetles under the Scarabaeidae term are Dungbeetles, Cockchafers and even the so called 'Thunder bugs' which are drawn to incredibly bright colours during summer. I was fascinated by this super family and began my research by finding a dictionary definition of 'Scarab' and exploring a few different ways to portray the most widely known type of scarab. Within my research, one thing that would crop up every few passages was their connection to the ancient Egyptians, whom believed that the Scarabs had eternal life, reincarnated through the balls of dung they would roll. They were often depicted in images laced with gold and therefore I chose to do the same thing, use golden paint to highlight certain areas of their bodies.



Acrylic paintings with Liquid Leaf golden highlights

Celestial Navigation



Watercolour and salt painting. Liquid leaf golden highlights

After completing some further research by contacting Entomologist, Moya Burns, I discovered that this super family had the ability to Navigate using the stars, which is something that utterly fascinated me. I researched how we, as humans could achieve the same thing. Scarabs navigate differently to us, they are able to do so using the milky way but, we as humans rarely have strong enough eyes to do this without technical support.

Developing the Final Piece

During a tutorial I realised that the thing I wanted to depict about these creatures was my fascination with their navigation skills, this brought me to the Victorian circus posters which often promised the experience to see something never seen before, something spectacular, when in reality the shows weren't as exciting as promised. I felt the same about these Scarabs, they had an amazing ability but, if faced with one, it would be far smaller than expected and probably wouldn't move whilst you were there. I wanted to use this to my advantage and set out to produce an A2 poster that promised grandeur.

The Final Piece



Final A2 poster.

The final piece was completed in 4 different stages, the painting of the actual base, the adding in of the celestial chart through photoshop, the printing onto an A2 sheet and then the addition of the golden paint. Almost entirely central in this piece is the star Polaris which is the brightest and most northern point in our skies within the northern hemisphere. The gold bands around the scarabs shell represent the equator which separates the northern and southern hemisphere so that there is no confusion about whether the two constellations (which represent how we, as humans can navigate using the night sky) are connected to one another.

Ladybirds

Acrylic ladybird illustrations

For the Research Methodology unit I decided to look into ladybirds as they are my favourite insect and commonly associated with Britain's gardens. With the painting above I wanted to illustrate the delicacy shown through the insects size and features; I chose to do this through the medium of acrylic paint in order to utilise the vivid colours shown on the ladybird's body.

Warhol inspired lino print edit

After researching into the works of Andy Warhol for his use of bright colour and repetition, I decided to experiment with lino printing as it's a medium I had not used before. I used a black ink to print and then scanned the image into photoshop in order to change the colours making the ladybirds bright and bold, juxtaposing the stereotypical colours associated with ladybirds.

                                                                       
As part of my research process I began to look into the decorative pattern of the polka dot - which is my favourite pattern and is a key association to the ladybird. Here I made hanging circular pendants using acetate after being inspired by the artist Olafur Eliasson and his installations highlighting light and circles. I took this notion and combined it with the idea if the ladybird to create this composition with the ladybird painting being shown to hang in suspense within the piece.

               

'Ladybird Interior Collection'

The research into the decorative pattern of the polka dot lead me towards my final outcome 'The Ladybird Collection' where I made a set of four interior accessories: a cushion, lamp, door knobs and wallpaper. Research into a ladybirds habitat portrayed the negative connotations in the media of ladybirds within the home; I wanted to take this idea and turn it into a positive. I made the collection by fabric printing, up cycling and utilising old materials within the home which all had red polka dots and ladybirds making the collection stand out as a whole.

Budgie - Oana Iolea

My chosen animal for my latest project entitled Research Methodology was a budgie. The main reasons why I chose it is because I used to own two budgies that I loved very much and ever since they came into my life, my love for birds has grown more and more. I started off the project by doing some research about the tiny bird therefore I filled my sketchbook with information about their anatomy, diet, etymology, colour mutations and many more!

        

 After creating this base of research, I started experimenting as much as possible using every working technique I was comfortable with, such as watercolour, collage, simple pencil sketches and origami.

   

My next step was attending my tutorial with Karenanne who helped me a lot by coming up with multiple interesting ideas for my final piece. Out of the three main ideas, I decided to focus on the one related to combining collage and origami and I can say that I'm pretty happy with the final result.

Jaguar - Lucy Ward

Research Methodology on the Jaguar

Continuous Line

For Research Mythology I chose the Jaguar as I wanted to focus on the fur and their tendency to eat the Yage vine which causes them to hallucinate, I combined the two main focuses for my final outcome by making a psychedelic felt piece representing how the jaguar sees itself and its surroundings.

Koi fish - Sergi Traverso

For research methodology I chose koi fish due their vibrant colours and patterns and my fascination with the waterfall legend.

Mechanical Animal workshop work - Koi fish