Artist research - Alex Clark

Alex Clark is a local illustrator who was born in 1974, and was raised in the North of England.
Like me, she is an illustrator who focuses a lot of her work around the theme of animals, and harbours a deep love for the countryside, and the wilderness.

http://www.tgartgallery.co.uk/s/cc_images/cache_2448781045.jpg?t=1408700071 < image reference at this link.

Clark is an illustrator that deals often in the commercial market of greetings cards, and I first came across her work whilst inside Durham Cathedral's gift shop.
Clark has been making cards since 1998, and now ships them to numerous countries worldwide.

http://www.alexclarkart.co.uk < image reference at this link.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bb/e9/f2/bbe9f2d08e8fdd08e9d40c3347b428e7.jpg < image reference at this link.

Clark never studied at an art school, however she has a clear talent which allowed her to overcome the need for any training.
I really do like her artwork, and her style appears to have that children's illustration look and feel, one which I personally adore.

http://www.alexclarkart.co.uk/about-alex










Thomas.

Page #9 (Badger)

For page #9, I decided to feature the Badger.
I felt that I could comfortably fit up to two Badger designs on the single page, and I was very happy with two of the illustrations that I created, as I felt that they fit, and worked perfectly together.

I intentionally illustrated a left, and right version of the animal, because I had a really good idea of how to display them.
I had the idea of having them both facing away from each other, and this would allow for the viewer to get a good sense of what the animal looks like, and how they look from differing animals.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I did just that, and I feel that it really works for the design of the page.
Once I arranged the images, I enhanced the black point of the CYMK slightly, in order to compensate for the photocopier's laser washing the tone out of the image.

Once I was happy with the arrangement of the illustrations, and how the design looked so far, I thought about what wording I could possibly use to work with the design of the page.
I turned my attention to looking at the folklore of the badger.

I looked at a few websites that went into some level of detail about the folklore behind the Badger, and I came across the following short poem below, which discusses the Badger's mythical association with bad luck.

"Should one hear a badger call,
And then an ullot cry,
Make thy peace with God, good soul,
For thou shall shortly die."

http://www.badgerland.co.uk/education/stories/folklore.html < image reference at this link.

Since I filled most of the page with the illustrations, I thought about where the text could possibly go, and with the illustrations taking up the majority of the page, I thought about perhaps weaving in the text with the illustrations.

Since I found that Badgers have an association with bad luck, I wanted my text to be on this subject,
Like all the other pages, my text was written using watercolour paints, and I continued this with page #13.

I thought about how I could layer the text onto the page, and I had the idea of making the page almost appear 3d, and to have an element of depth.
This effect I thought could make the page more interesting, so I split the file into layers, and applied some text behind, and some in front of the two illustrations.

I really liked how some of the lettering has been hidden by the illustrations, however is still legible, and understandable.

With the text now included as part of the design, I felt that page #13 was finally complete, and I am very happy with the outcome of this page.





http://www.badgerland.co.uk/education/stories/folklore.html










Thomas.

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

The Blue Tit is a bird that can often be seen widespread across the UK, and is a species that operates over a large range.
The bird is a staple of British garden wildlife, and can be easily recognised by its blue, green, black and yellow feather tones.
The bird is very small at an average size of 11.5cm, however is a rather common bird.

http://www.stephenburch.com/oxonpics/2009/Blue%20Tit%20LWW%2012%20Dec%2009sm.jpg <image reference at this link.

The Blue Tit has a diet of insects, nuts and seeds, and commonly lives in such habitats as woodland areas, which offer the bird a good level of nesting opportunities, food, and shelter from predators, and the weather.

http://www.birdguides.com/media/large/00248000/00248571.jpg < image reference at this link.

The bird's breeding season is around mid April, and each clutch can produce around 8-10 eggs. The females produce up to 2 clutches a year, so one female bird has the capacity to produce up to 20 offspring a year.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/naturelibrary/images/ic/credit/640x395/b/bl/blue_tit/blue_tit_1.jpg < image reference at this link.

This bird is a common sight across the country, and is also a beautiful species of bird.
 would be very interested in including this particular animal in my zine.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_04/BluetitDM_468x359.jpg < image reference at this link.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/learn/earlyyears/birds/bluetit.aspx
http://www.twootz.com/bird/Blue-Tit












Thomas.

Common Shrew (Soricidae)

The Shrew is a very small species of Mammal that is native to the UK.
The Shrew is commonly around 44mm from nose to tail in length, and is one of the UK's most smallest rodents.
Shrews live a very short lifespan, and and it is very uncommon for a shrew to live longer than one year.

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/Common_Shrew.jpg < image reference at this link.

Wild Shrews live commonly in areas of grassland, woodland, and even in gardens.

Shrews feast on a diet of insects, and small worms, slugs and snails, and the Shrew can be often seen foraging for food most of the time that it is active.

Shrews are a source of prey for a lot of animals, including Foxes, Stoats, Owls, and other birds of prey, such as Kestrels.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/kestrel_tcm9-18299.jpg?width=530&crop=(234,378,1016,818) < image reference at this link.

The Shrew's mating season begins around May, and females often have litters of pups between 5 and 7.

Although the animal is protected by British law, he animal's numbers exceed 41,000,000, which means there is no imminent threat to the species short term numbers.

http://www.liveanimalslist.com/interesting-animals/images/pygmy-shrew.jpg < image reference at this link.

I really have a liking for the Shrew, as I adore most rodents. Shrews are very small animals, and I feel that I may have a lot of fun illustrating them, which is ideally what I want.

http://www.davidplantphotography.co.uk/British%20wildlife/Mammals/slides/David%20Plant%20Photography%20-%20Wildlife%20Photography%20-%20Pygmy%20shrew%20-%20A.jpg < image reference at this link.

I have a strong feeling I will definitely feature this particular animal in my zine.








http://www.mammal.org.uk/species-factsheets/Common%20shrew











Thomas.

Project update 21/3/15

Since the last update, I have created more illustrations for my project, and I have also been piecing together more page designs for the zine.

For a few days now, I have been suffering with a bad case of art block, and this has hindered some of my progress, although I have tired my best to keep up.
Artblock is something that many people in the creative sector super from, and unfortunately it can occasionally be hard to overcome.

Despite my block, I have tried my best to keep drawing regardless, as I need to keep working due to time constraints, however lately I have been feeling really frustrated with what I have been producing.
Below are a few of the illustrations that I have created while battling with artistic block, and sadly these particular illustrations, in my opinion, are awful.

However, despite my recent artblock, I have still produced a few illustrations that I am happy with, and I may want to use these in some of the unfinished pages of the zine.

As well as drawing, I have still been working on the designs of the zine's pages, and I am now one or two more pages complete, compared to the last update.

I am hoping to finish the zine's pages really soon, perhaps within two weeks.

Once the pages have all been designed, and ready to be printed, I will begin work on the assembly of the zine, and I will also be focusing on the cover of the zine, which I would like to explore the process of Screenprinting.

I will regularly produce update blogs now and again, so that a record of my progress can be shown.

Thomas.

Artist research - Hugh Thomson

Hugh Thomson was an artist and illustrator, born in 1860.
When Thomson was 14, he began working at a local linen factory, and three years later, he moved to working with colour printing, and publishing.
While working in the field of printing and publishing, his artwork began to show, and his skills were encouraged by John Vinycomb, the then head of the art department.

http://img15.nnm.ru/3/a/0/f/3/92a206e4de766e06f88c6606a79.jpg < image reference at this link.

In 1884, he began working with Macmillan & Co, which involved working on the English illustrated magazine, and whilst working on this publication, he worked with some of the most recognisable writers and artists, in the day.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9c8ipYMjl1qac76ro1_1280.jpg < image reference at this link.

Thomson has illustrated a large amount of books, and below are just a few of the ones that he has worked on.

• The Ballad of Beau Brocade (1892)
• The Story of Rosina (1896)
• Sense and Sensibility (1896)
• Mansfield Park (1897)
• Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1898)

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328863618l/110804.jpg < image reference at this link.

The Ulster Museum in Belfast holds a large number of watercolours, drawings, and a complete set of his illustrated books by Thomson.

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/22-scene-from-pride-and-prejudice-by-jane-austen-hugh-thomson.jpg < image reference at this link.

http://www.ulsterhistory.co.uk/thomson.html














Thomas.

Page #4-5 (Dormouse)

For pages #4-5, I decided to choose to feature the Dormouse as my highlighted animal for these two pages.
I wanted to give this particular animal a double page spread, and I had two illustrations that I felt were good enough to be showcased, which I will display below.

I was really happy with these two illustrations, so I felt really good about these two pages, and their place within the zine.
After scanning the two illustrations in via the hi-resolution photocopier, I decided to choose to feature the second illustration featured directly above, as the first piece to feature out of the two pages.

I left some room below the illustration to allow for the placement of text.

Like all of my other pages to date, I had to enhance the black point of the images slightly, as the scanner tends to wash out some level of colour when an image is scanned in using the laser.

Since each of the pages only used one illustration, I had plenty of room to add language and typography, and so this made me think about how I was going to present this to the reader.

I couldn't find folklore about the Dormouse that was interesting enough to use for the zine, so I decided to fall back on highlighting the creatures traits.
Obviously some things sprung straight into mind, such as the fact that the animal is very small.
Another thing that sprung to mind, is the fact that the Dormouse is very swift, curious, and nimble, despite its small size.

I decided to make these traits the feature of the wording to be on the page.

With the wording added on page 4, and both illustrations working well together, I decided to mark these two pages as complete.



































Thomas.

Screenprinting practise #2

Today I tried my hand at screen printing again, however this time  I used a different image to print with.
Since I have recently been illustrating Rats as part of my zine, I decided to use one of these images as my base for the screen printer, since I was happy with it.

I used the same process as the last practise run, and burned the image onto the mesh screen in order for it to be transferred to paper via the screen printer.
The mesh came out in good enough quality to allow for printing, so I created a number of different prints, consisting of the colour tones below.
My personal favourite are the two tone, blue and yellow copies.

Once again, I loved working with the process of screen printing, and I would love to use this process for the front and rear cover of my zine.












Thomas.

Hancock Museum

Today I made an educational visit to the Hancock museum which is located in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
I made the visit in order to study their vast collection of taxidermy animals, and to gain some helpful primary research.

The museum has a very large collection, and since the museum is totally free to the public, I decided to take a look inside while I was in Newcastle.
Some of the museum's specimens are 100's of years old, and some of the taxidermy are of endangered species, or animals that I wouldn't commonly come across in the wild.

Below are a few of the photos that I took of various animals, from the Red Squirrel, to the Rabbit.

I found the visit to be very interesting, and it allowed me to get a better sense of some of the animals that make up the content of my zine.

I will be using a select amount of the photos that I took as drawing references, and also to study the anatomy.

Thomas.