'Where Do I Live?' cards update.

Hi, just thought I'd show these small creatures who are (probably) finished and in their homes. The last little bit of painting went on for days which was more to do with distractions, then hours of fine painting work being lavished on them  Something the photograph cannot show is how nice they are to pick up and handle which may sound a little odd but they were partly made with the idea of being made into a simple educational game for children to fit the right animal to it's favoured habitat. This needs more work as just four animals does not create much of a challenge! I also have to consider whether the animals faces should be completely free floating and complete within the circle, like the hedgehog or have some of the background included, as with the otter...ermm will be pondering more on that. Anyway, there they are!

Water Vole

Hedgehog

Otter

Pine Marten

Working on the Screen

Hello. While the painting of the animal's faces and habitats are coming along I've also been working on the idea of a screen or possibly a triptych.  I have always been fascinated and frightened of underwater seascapes - the effects of growing up watching Jacques Cousteau perhaps.  Which has only increased as underwater exploration has developed along with the technology to take such wonderful photographs.  It also ties in with seeing a programme about the concern surrounding overfishing - so a local seascape it is!

This is the prototype I've made and painted. It is only A4 size and I
haven't painted it in detail yet. But I needed to see how well hinges
made out of fabric worked and whether I should do more cut out pieces or fewer.

I have gone back into Illustrator and adjusted the shape on this one and have also created another screen. The new one will show woodland, river and loch. The two side panels will close neatly on top of the centre panel and interlock - well they do as bits of paper! Tomorrow - when I cut it out - will tell me if my measurements are accurate.

The outline. I think this could still be worked on before it's cut out.
Most of the interest is in the painting, but looking at just the shape I think
I could make it bolder.

The Tree Screen. I will leave any judgement until it is cut out
and then painted.

A Little Bit More.

The animals are coming along...

A hedgehog and the pine marten started.

The four of them photographed in some rare sunshine.
Almost finished.

Not only, but also...

Have also been working on small furry critters. They are to make a card set - though at this point it will only be a prototype of four-with the idea of 'Where do they live?' ...fitting the animals into their correct habitat.

Far from finished, but the start of the Water Vole and the Common Otter.

Branching out.

We are being encouraged at college to create animations (simple is good) so that our work breaks away from paper. So I took photos while painting the rose and bee motif. Setting the camera up on a small tripod and the tripod up on several recipe books, an atlas and an all important notebook to achieve the right height.

There was a slight problem in that I didn't get the painting done on the same evening - and therefore, nor the photos - and things had been moved! So there was a whole size discrepancy when I cropped the later pictures on Photoshop to hide the movement and then found out the canvas size to be different and needed to infill them to correct this. I was very chuffed when I learned to use the record Action button on Photoshop as that cut out having to individually import and alter about 100 pictures.

As with learning anything new, it all took a very long time to put together and ended with a very short, very amateur film, but I'm pleased.

It really is short, but happy!

Making the picture.

It took a while to figure out the look of it, till I drew it in the round. The insects are cut out separately so I could move them around the picture...they get lost all over the table and in the sketch book.

While thinking about the main image, I used part of the design as a mock up to learn about the use of Illustrator and the laser cutter.

Cut out and ready to paint. This is more of a 'thing' then
a jigsaw!

 I was considering fully painting each
layer, and keeping them separate, but
thought I'd just lose the pieces.

Fully painted, not yet varnished.

Making a Start.

Already many days have gone by with tea drunk, pens chewed and screens stared at, before this blog is finally written. I am in the middle of a contemporary illustration assignment and it was pointed out to me that soon I will have finished the project and have forgotten all the processes, small triumphs and lumpy lows that have happened along the way.

So here goes...I was wanting to explore creative ideas around a small bee and two frilly shapes I cut out of mdf with our colleges exciting laser cutter. They were being made into brooches and I was kinda pleased with the result (I also discovered that mdf is a wonderful surface for acrylic paint). The bee theme tied in with an earlier project from our first year when we had to make a book of superstitions and I chose to make mine concerning the folklore surrounding bees.

On wondering how to take the theme further I thought over the ideas of making jewellery, perhaps fitting one piece into another which lead me to think about a jigsaw. 

Sketch book page; working out ideas of what kind of  jigsaw might be the more interesting.

On deciding to make complex jigsaw, rather than one for young children, I next needed to choose the plants and insects to include and the size of the finished item. The drawing above was my attempt at scaling the various creatures.