This was is my first ever Illustration Friday topic. For ‘urban’ I chose my favourite aspect of urban life, the pigeon! I love pigeons so I couldn’t pass up the chance to depict one using my favourite media.
This is Octiprey
I sculpted the head and body of this clay octopus around a supporting wire armature, the arms were sculpted separately upon their own armature and then pushed into the body.
After a coating of PVA to give it a glossy finish, Octiprey was born!
Dairy Industry Illustration
This was a one day fine art project.
I gathered my thoughts about the dairy industry and produced a piece to reflect my opinions! I used fineliner, ink and water to make these drawings, I really enjoy the sense of melancholy in these drawings.
Mixed Media: Owl Illustrations
This was a communication project where I was asked to describe what my dream job was when I was a child.
I had always wanted to work with animals, and these fineliner drawings that I produced reflect on the animal charity experience I have done in recent years.
Bee Observatory
This project required us to do something unconventional with a shipping container, I made a bee observatory. There is a circular seating (made out of plasticine) in the centre and a plastic covering over the hives so that people can view the bees without the bees escaping into the container.
Beekeeper suits are frequently white or an off-white colour, in part because it’s believed that this has a calming effect on bees, so, the interior walls of the container are painted white. There are little flaps on each side to allow the bees to come and go but keeping the rain and other elements out. And to complete the design I added a little bee friendly roof garden so that the bees wouldn’t have to travel far for sustenance!
Inflatable Life Drawing
These drawings are a mixture of ink and collage, the model sat in the middle of the room, clutching an inflatable banana and with a blanket over her.
Found Object Installation
This project on found objects had me rummaging in Kingston's skips and recycling boxes to find interesting items.
The cat scratcher like podium is made from sheets of glass and bottles filled with food colouring, and in the final few hours I constructed a cat out of masking tape.
I blagged it and told my fellow students I was making a comment about a cat’s natural behaviour in a home environment. Turns out red food colouring dries like blood so it looked like a murder scene. They bought it!
Swan Installation
For the first project at Kingston University we were asked to create a significant “thing” to represent the borough. I instantly pushed my group to do something on the living conditions of the swans that live on the nearby River Thames.
And by chance some Kingston University students were, with help from a local scuba team, hauling out shopping trolleys that had been dumped in the river. More than twenty trolleys were retrieved, all full of junk and all transformed from their shiny industrial finishes into what appears to be curious pieces of coral. The silver colouring had gone and these strong earth greens and rusts took over.
Along the river you can also see where the swans have made magnificent nests with crisp packets, plastic bags and other floating pieces of litter, perhaps a little organic material but not much.
We made a mural representing this side of Kingston, including the thuggish nightlife who’d think nothing of pushing each other around in stolen supermarket trolleys and dumping them into the river for a bit of a laugh. We composed this elegant swan made only from cardboard and toilet tissue paper nesting in pollution, the end result has quite a significant shock value.
My favourite part of the project is the tiny little maquette I made which still hangs in my bedroom.
Worth vs Value
For my summer project at Kingston University, called Worth vs Value, I decided to focus on religion. I feel that religion is worthless and in contrast Darwinism is extremely valuable historically and scientifically.
I sculpted the creatures of Darwin’s study, including the Galapagos finches and Galapagos giant tortoises, devouring the pages of the book of Genesis. For my own peace of mind I read the book and felt no guilt in its destruction. I took a series of photographs which I then presented to my new class on the second day of starting the course.
I made the creatures from airdrying clay and gave them a coat of PVA for a bit of a sheen. I relished the cracks in the clay as I thought it described how ancient and imperfect evolution is.
Dutchess
Here are some drypoint prints I am really proud of. I made these at Coulsdon College by simply carving an image onto a metal plate before slathering on the ink, then, by using a press I transferred the image onto paper. I am super chuffed with the results, my first time printing!