Rodrick

final major project

To begin with I decided for my final major project I would be creating birds through experimenting with collage and then creating lino prints. I research into different artist and how to lino cut. Also I did some life drawings of birds and also went to the national history museum in Cardiff to get inspiration.

So to start I photocopied some photos of birds and started to cut them up. this then using the different heads, beaks, legs, wings to create my own breeds of birds. here are a few:

By doing this I was finding that I was creating different size birds, some with very big heads and little bodies and other fun and unusable birds. I enjoyed doing this. then i started to give them a bio of there breed. like you would see in a bird book. One thing I found hard was creating names for the birds so I haven't done that.

Next I thought if I drew these created birds in colour pencil it would help my gain the structure of the birds form. And help me gain the feeling for the textures of the birds.

The next step was creating the lino cuts. At first it seem quite difficult as I had not really done it since our workshop day with Nick Morley. But it is fun and easy to crate different textures for different areas of the birds. I decided to mix up some of my linos with ink line drawings so heads of certain birds where drawn whilst their bodies was lino printed

this image is not a good scan

After feedback from fellow students some did not like the different in combining the two media together so I decided to just make them out of lino prints.

Because I was lino printing many birds this did consume most of my time and in the beginning I was just creating them not thinking what I'm actually going to do with them. So when Ian Murray came in for a talk I had a tutorial with him and we talked about backgrounds and how they could be simple colours and shapes, to being maps to suggest migration to using branches, leaves, reeds ect to frame the work.So I went about experimenting with this.

Here are just a couple of lino prints:

.Here are some experiments with full colour backgrounds:

 I dont really like this as the fact that they are printed and the colour paper I've used and marks I have done are lost some how in having full colour backgrounds. Thus I am just going to use the branches or some means of nature to create almost a frame for the images. Keeping it simple.

 The two images above are mock up of two of my final images. The final images are in different colours to these.

For my main final I will create a bigger lino print of a bird with its wings out, as I think I will be able to use many different marks on which I can show what I have learnt during this project and by printing it on different coloured paper collage it together to create a large colourful image of a bird.

I will upload an image when I get a photo.

Artists

"Ballindalloch blackbird" a linocut by Mark Hearld. I enjoy Mark's work as it seems simple but delicate. The blackbird shows characteristics, as the blackbird is collecting things to create its nest. The foreground showing the leaves and seeds gives the image a kind of frame that draws your eye straight to the bird. I like the way that he uses different types of lines of cuts thick, thin, wavey, straight. Also the limit pallete of colurs brings a sense of light into the image.

"Tate" by Mark Hearld. This image is created by linocutting using different marks to create the texture on the birds. It is all done sepratly and then collaged together. This is very effective as you can compose your image however you like, so not to worry if you mess up one small bit as you can just do it again.

"Squirel" by Mark Hearld

http://www.stjudesprints.co.uk/collections/mark-hearld - Mark Hearld's website

Nick Morley

"Dodo with a Yoyo" by Nick Morley. I love the colours used in this image, as it gives the dodo a slight personality. It is a funny image, simple but makes you laugh.

An image taken from "the lion and the ox and the boar and the bear" by Nick Morley. I enjoy this book as it combines many animals within and as you turn the pages you create different animals, like in the image shows a hyneina body and a crocodile face. This was created by lino cut. He uses different techinques to creat the shades and texture of the animals.http://linocutboy.com/prints/

Wind In the Willlows

This image is to show the weasels taking over toad hall, I thought this would be a good image for wind and the willows book cover as it shows the darker side of the book instead of the traditional approach to the book as everyone knows what rattie, molie, toad and badger look like.

This is what i think the main characters from wind in the willows would look like, the toad is slightly scary (not to sure if I like him). But I dont want to make the book cover of the characters on the cover as I want to show the other side of the book the more scary part. This image would need a background but not to sure what to do for it though.

This is my first attempt to colour on photoshop, I decided to do the colouring on photoshop as to expand my knowledge of the technique. And I thought it would be quicker ( which I was wrong). I found it quite hard to get the right colur tones to match and to do the highlight?sheaded areas.

this is the second phase of colouring which is adding colour to toad hall (building in the back). because i had finished the weasels the building wasnt to hard to do.

this is the final outcome, I added some bushes to give the background a bit more detail and not to make everything seem flat. Overall I like the image I do need to work on my photoshop skills but that will come in the next projects. the image could be a little darker as to show more of the dark scary side of the book. I think I should of spent a little more time on this project but there we go.