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.

It's in the Post...

A Happy Birthday Envelope, all printed by a hand
cut stamp from an eraser. By Alice.

Al's Gallic envelope sent while in Paris.

A project we started during the summer, and handed in at the start of term has been finally put up in the college. I really enjoyed the combined freedom and restraint of decorating an envelope... there had to be enough space for an address and the stamp and be robust enough to go through the post. Otherwise it was whatever appealed.

Marvin the snake by me.

Some of the photos do not do the envelopes any favours and I apologise for the clumsy attempts at smudging any private addresses.  Not all of the artists are known as it was open to 1st Year students and any friends and family who wished to have a go!

These five are by Ashlee. http://ashleegrace.tumblr.com/

The next batch are by Lindy Norton who is our Printing Tutor, she has done some wonderful watercolour envelopes.

The next three are by Jorge, such fun to receive especially as summer here was anything but sunny!

You can find Jorge at,  http://jgoytizolo.tumblr.com/

I got rather carried away with the brief and did so many. The next lot are mine...

A collage made from magazine photos, monoprints and painted
with gouache. I'm sure I remember my father making
a kite like this one many moon's ago.

This was the first one that I did, having misheard Lindy's
request for Decorated Mail.

Another envelope using monoprints and gouache painting.
I was somewhat pleased to use the stamp
as the Knave's pendant.

Our dog Sookie helping out with the post. She is very fond
of post, but not usually in a helpful way.

There is such a great variation of letterboxes on our streets.

Puffin's contemplating a possible impostor in their nest.

I wanted to use old stamps...somehow!

And now for some more....

Balloons by Lauren. http://spencerillustration.tumblr.com/

Wonderful collaged fishing boats, artist unknown.

Woof. Unknown.

Dominic's Li's Russian Dolls. Each envelope fitted inside the next.
http://domanicli.wordpress.com/

Beverley's cute Hedgehog.

I love the texture and colour of this one, but yet again
I don't know who's it is.

Daisy's jolly Butternut Squash Faces.
http://www.facebook.com/DaisyBeachIllustration

Who won't want a flat Platypus and Squid phone?

Lauren's lovely hand stitched envelope, including the address-apologises
for it's disappearance.

Tom's fantastic screen print, put to use
for three envelopes.
http://tomhardwickillustration.tumblr.com/

I find paper cuts so appealing - this doesn't sound
quite right.

Rob's great Character's. To be found at
.http://barryvandango.tumblr.com/

Creating them and receiving them has been a joy. I hope that it was a bit more fun for the postmen and women to post as well. Everyone should have a go.  The only draw back is that the content was somewhat slim - all our efforts went into the envelope!