Owls

Here are the finished faces of four British Owls which will make up part of the final major project. They've been a pleasure to do - perhaps now I will try more of a challenge, and the next set will be fish?!

Tawny Owl

Long-Eared Owl

Short-Eared Owl

Barn Owl

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.

Making a Start

A proposed CD cover I did last year
that I will adapt for a flyer.

This is will be a short work in progress - not a  long project - I'm just waiting on the college to open again, so that the lino below can be printed. The idea is that it will be turned into a poster/flyer for Holy Moly & The Crackers who will be performing in aid of the making-enough-money-to-print-our-3rd-Year-Catalogue Appeal...think we may need to work on a snappier title there!

Must have been especially sleepy, as it will be the wrong way around when printed - sigh

I printed this lino last year, but plan to use it as well.

Watching Over You

Since the dissertation I have been working on the final major project. I've been approaching the assignment from several different angles, and basically I just wanted to do too many different things. But with gathering my ideas under the title 'Watching Over You'  it has helped to make sense of it...well at least to me!

These are the first few images I've been working on.

I wanted to concentrate on the eyes of the animals, as the title suggests, but the circular boarder around their face may suggest being watched through binoculars, or the barrel of a gun, so is the viewing for conservation purposes or commercial reasons or a combination of the two? And of course they may be watching us.

Amur Leopard.
  Panthera pardus orientalis

Amur Tiger.
Panthera tigris altaica

Snow Leopard.
Uncia uncia

Clouded Leopard.
Neofelis nebulosa

Distracting Dissertations

The lack of posts has partly been due to the dissertation needing to be written.

It is now in (Hoorah!) and already the hours of fretting and reading and worrying are starting to fade.

I really enjoyed the research and all that information one crams into the brain now has no use...I had wondered if a pub quiz would be the answer but it would have to be very specific and how many quizzes are there on the representation of bears in children's literature? Non...more's the pity!

The following images are some of the many that did not make it into the essay but I have grown fond of for one reason or another.

An Ainu carving.

Johnny Crow's Garden 1903, Leslie L. Brooke.
I grew to love his work while using his book The Story of The Three Bears
as a case study.

I could not find out much about this picture, or the illustrator.  Possibly by an Hispanic illustrator
in the 1960s. There was a shortage of honey and skirt material at this time, it seems. 

The beautiful and ancient. One of the bears, along with many
other creatures
found in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in France,
circa 30,000 BC.

A study in relaxation by Feodor Rojankovsky.

A very stylised illustration by Kay Nielsen 1930.
 Favouring the original Southey tale by showing an elderly woman,
not a young girl. 

The wonderful Oliver Jeffers and his
'The Great Paper Caper' 2008
the stick legs bother me though.

The (now) little known Roosevelt Bears and Their
Travels and Adventures by Seymour Eaton,
illustrated by V. Floyd Campbell. 1905.

The Three Bears by Herbert Cole 1906.
I really like the clear lines and strong composition,
but the bears do not look very happy at their accessory choices.

These bears, however, look very real and very angry.
The Story of The Three Bears by Henry Justice Ford, 1892.