Animal Hybrid #4 (Gelfo)

For my fourth and final animal hybrid piece, that is a part of my extensive animals unit, I have merged together the characteristics of a wolf, a leopard gecko, and one element of a snake. I took inspiration from Louise Hunter, an animal artist whom I researched in this blog. You can find my research on her, here at this link.

(https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8837406714505932435#editor/target=post;postID=3570898536486406806;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=4;src=postname)

http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/art/Loka-300701329 < image reference at this link.

In this image (above), she has created a wolf/leopard gecko hybrid animal. She is the artist who inspired me to create my own illustration of a wolf/leopard gecko hybrid animal. I have also taken inspiration from her, in terms of colour usage, and giving my animal a slightly cartoon visual style.

My 'Gelfo' illustration as a work in progress (WIP).

My completed 'Gelfo' illustration, note how I have used a similar shade of purple in my piece, compared to Louise's. Also note the cartoon visual look, and the tail style.

You can see which elements I have used in this piece, but I will note below as well.
The tail resembles that of a leopard gecko, this can be displayed through the lack of fur, and also the colour bands.

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/attachments/lizard-classifieds/61936d1338640587-leopard-geckos-sale-sunglows-tangerines-carrot-tail-.jpg < image reference at this link.
You can see in this image of a leopard gecko, how the bands are displayed on the tail.

Whilst the body resembles that of a wolf. The body is very furry at this point, which continues up to the head, which is also of a canine form.

http://gf3.statico.be/wp-content//uploads/2012/08/wild-wolf-montana.jpeg < image reference at this link.

You can see in the image above, the anatomy and the form of a wolf. You can also see how my illustration features such canine elements (body, head, ears etc).

The tongue however, goes back to the form of a reptile (leopard gecko) as you can see, the tongue is forked, and thin like a reptile's.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/fb/89/39/fb8939c8a04d480c927ffc1516cf1a42.jpg < image reference at this link.

You can see in the image above, the fork tongue of a reptile. in this case, a snake.


Thomas.

Alison Fennel

This blog post is about research on Alison Fennel.

http://about.me/Eastwitching < image reference at this link.

http://eastwitching.com/category/animal-art/ < image reference at this link.

Alison Fennel is a 47 year old nature artist, who is also a fully qualified teacher who teaches in watercolour painting classes. She specialises in creating animal watercolour paintings, and has been painting for over 20 years, so she has a lot of experience. Some of her water-colour florals and animals have been published by a few major printing houses in the United Kingdom. She has also notably had her work featured at the royal Cambrian Academy, and she also features often, in several big UK design magazines, such as Good Homes, coast and Landlove to name a few.

I really love her style. I love the way she uses watercolour paint, to provide a very soft, and uneven texture. The style she uses is borderless, and patchy. I like how she uses several shades of the same colour, to create the illusion of lighting and shadow.

I will take my inspiration from her, and work elements of her work themes into one of my final pieces.

Update:
I have used my research on this artist, and I have brought this into one of my final pieces, as part of the animal hybrid creation. I have taken inspiration from Alison, in terms of style, technique and medium. I have tried my best to emulate this with my illustration, which can be found here at the link below.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8837406714505932435#editor/target=post;postID=8270311067012307624;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=6;src=postname



Thomas.

Louise Hunter

As part of my animal artist research, I chose to research my girlfriend, since she creates the type of cartoon styled artwork that I am looking into. As well as the fact, that naturally I know a lot about her work processes, and how she works, as I have seen her work on images in person. I will however research her in a professional way, like the other illustrators that I have used in my research.

This blog is originally from the book of drawings blog, but since she is an animal artist who creates some interesting animal hybrids, I thought I would use her in both projects.

Louise Hunter. Born in Durham, England, lives locally, and she creates pieces in a style that I personally love, which is the cartoon-like form. Her style is slightly similar to griffsnuff's (Tina Alfredsen) but she tends to use much thinner lines, and focuses on the expressions more, than griffsnuff in my opinion only. I believe griffsnuff is one of her favourite artists, who she takes some inspiration from, from her characters.

I love how she uses colour, and couples it with an image that resembles the 3D form, but with a lot of 2D-like elements in it. She uses Adobe Photoshop 6, with a wacom intuos tablet, to create her digital artwork. She uses a few layers per piece, and can work to finish an image in a matter of hours/days.

She has been drawing from a very young age, and her style only improved as the digital age arrived. She uses an iMac to produce her work, which I'm aware that Mac's are deemed industry standard.

http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/art/dragon-396881712

Naturally she has a passion for animals, and coupling this with her artistic style, she has brought the two elements together. Apart from the canines she draws, she also sketches fictional beings, such as dragons, and she does so usually with biro pens. I like the biro technique, as it shows that pen can be a great tool to draw with, and you can shade with a pen, if you know how to. (See above)

http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/art/loka-autumn-413778575 < image reference at this link.

This image above, displays her shading techniques.

http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/art/new-chara-283833271 < image reference at this link.

This images displays some of her darker colour palettes.

http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/art/leaves-399355126 < image reference at this link.

This image showcases her expressions, and use of wallpaper. Another thing of interest, is that the 2 images of the cartoon styled creature above, is a fictitious animal hybrid. The animal is a half wolf, half leopard gecko.



http://purplecrystaldragon.deviantart.com/gallery/ < a link to her online gallery





Thomas.

Progression

I have based my final unit in this module, on this topic. I will be creating a book of illustrations, circling around animals.


Thomas.

Animal Hybrid #2 (Finfox)

For my second final animal hybrid illustration as part of the animals project, I have decided to merge the unique characteristics of two very different species together. I have taken some inspiration from the artist, Lucy Atkinson, in terms of mark making style, line use, and also the use of watercolour paint. You can find my research on here here, at this link. > (https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8837406714505932435#editor/target=post;postID=3227425674860409006;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=24;src=postname).

http://www.lucyatkinsonillustration.co.uk/Animal-Illustration < image reference at this link.

You can see in this piece, how she uses a bold watercolour outline in her illustration.

My illustration draft plan, as a work in progress (WIP).

Creating the outline of my Finfox illustration, using watercolour paint.

The addition of colour, on my illustration.

The addition of mark making, and simple shading.

The coloured background, filled in with watercolour paint like the rest of the illustration.

The animals that I have taken inspiration from for this piece, is of a Fox, and a Dolphin (image above). The ways in which I have displayed this is quite clear, however I will note where the elements of the two creatures lie in this blog post. The reason I wanted to choose these animals in particular, is because I wanted to see what a hairless marine animal, would look like with some fur, also I wanted an animal with curves, but also with a mix of rough elements (fur).

The head is based around that of a Fox (image below), I tried my best to display this via the shape, and also the size. The ears very much resemble a fox also.

http://www.qrpfoxhunt.org/fox_hunt_logo.jpg < image reference found at this link.

I took a lot of ideas from my sketches of foxes, the opportunity came along to sketch one in primary form, as Amy brought in a taxidermy figure, of a Fox, that lay in a resting pose. this was very helpful, and it was the first time that I have seen a Fox up close. It gave me a lot of time to study it's anatomy.

Sketch of taxidermy Fox #1

Sketch of taxidermy Fox #2

Sketch of taxidermy Fox #3

My initial draft, I used this as a design plan, and also to see what a creature with Fox/Dolphin elements would look like.

The body has been based solely on a dolphin, this can be easily seen through the addition of fins, the colour, as well as a smooth body.

http://wallnen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Dolphin-01-HD-Wallpaper.jpg < image reference at this link.

I took some research from a previous blog post that I posted earlier. In this post I looked at existing images of the animals for anatomical use, and as a reference point.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8837406714505932435#editor/target=post;postID=5970409750920242110;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=19;src=postname




Thomas.

Update on Animal unit

Finishing up my 5th animal sketchbook.

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Update finished.

Thomas.

Animal Hybrid Examples

http://io9.com/unholy-animal-hybrids-as-drawn-by-science-illustrators-511039747

This website link, is absolutely perfect for use in my animal research, and inspiration on creating weird animal hybrids.

http://io9.com/unholy-animal-hybrids-as-drawn-by-science-illustrators-511039747 < image reference at this link.

The animal featured in this illustration is entitled, 'Squirwolf'. It is of a half Wolf, half flying Squirrel. This image is my favourite example photo from the site, I love the animals used, and I think they work well together, the animal in a way looks like it would be a feasible, and believable creature. There are other examples of strange animal hybrids of course, that I will detail below this image.

http://io9.com/unholy-animal-hybrids-as-drawn-by-science-illustrators-511039747 < image reference at this link.

This illustration is called a 'Taranturaptor', the animal consists of a half Spider (Tarantula), half Raptor (Dinosaur)

http://io9.com/unholy-animal-hybrids-as-drawn-by-science-illustrators-511039747 < image reference at this link.

The above illustration is called, a 'Pandaroo'. a half Panda, half Kangaroo.

http://io9.com/unholy-animal-hybrids-as-drawn-by-science-illustrators-511039747 < image reference at this link.

This image features another strange animal hybrid, of a half Shrimp, half Bird (maybe a parrot).

This webpage provides excellent examples, and also gives me some inspiration of what can be created in the latter part of the assignment, which is to come up with four A3 creations, of non-existant, fictional animals.

I have pretty much thought of my four already, but I will take some inspiration from this post, and reflect this in my final animal hybrid pieces.

I will add to this :)

Thomas.

Group display

The class had a large display of all their animal work today from the entire unit, and after taking a look at the work laid out in detail, I have to say I am genuinely impressed, and surprised by the amount of finely detailed work produced.

Items included such things as sketchbooks from the animal unit, as well as a few of the final illustrations. All using a wide range of techniques.

From this group display of artwork, I have taken a few lessons from it for personal, professional and academic gain. For example mainly in areas such as time management, anatomy, detail and also practising quality over quantity of work. These are all areas that I wish for myself to gain improvement upon.


Thomas.

Dawn Holiday

http://www.dawnholliday.com/illustrations/4574142564

Dawn Holiday was born in 1986, and was the eldest sibling in her family. She states that her family are highly creative, in terms of art, and writing. She studied GCSE art, as well as A level art, as well as other educational achievements. She left the institute where she gained her A level, and enrolled onto an illustration course at the UCA. Another important part of her education, was that she pursued a career in animal care, which most likely really helped her to learn about animal anatomy, and proportions. 

She also creates animal fantasy artwork, which could tie in with the work I have been doing with fictional animal hybrids. She creates a lot of 'unicorn' artwork

Thomas.

http://www.dawnholliday.com/#/illustrations/4574142564 < image reference at this link.

Thomas.

Pip McGarry

Pip McGarry is an amazing wildlife artist, who creates ultra realistic animal artwork. His work is very well created, and you can tell he is highly talented, through his fine style. I have added a link to his great gallery, for all to view.

Pip McGarry is recognised as one of the world's leading wildlife artists. He has an international reputation for his oil paintings of such animals as big cats, and African game.

http://www.pipmcgarry.com/Galleries_African.html < image reference at this link.

He first became known, in 2004 as he was part of a very popular seven part series called 'A Brush With the Wild' on a television channel called 'Meridian Television'. This programme was filmed in Kenya, and at Marwell Wildlife, which is in Hampshire. On the programme, he taught several 'celebrities' how to paint wildlife images.

Pip McGarry is the chairman of the largest wildlife art society in Europe, and he has been an 'artist in residence' at Marwell Zoological Park, and he has been for over 12 years.

(Image referenced at this link > http://www.pipmcgarry.com/biography.html) it is also a direct link to his biography.

http://www.pipmcgarry.com/galleries.html <gallery


Thomas.

Abby Goodman (animal hybrid)

https://www.upriseart.com/photo_main?sort=artist&&pid=59

https://www.upriseart.com/photo_main?sort=artist&&pid=59 < image reference at this link

Spectacular animal hybrid art, made by Abby Goodman. I love this Deerfly that she has created.

It's so amazing. This illustration serves as an example of creating animal hybrids. In this case, the animal featured is half deer, and half butterfly. I love how the colours of both the deer and the butterfly match very closely, and how they fit together almost seamlessly. The bold outline of the wings really go well with the black background, and also match the deer's hooves perfectly.

I will be taking some inspiration from this piece. This image is a perfect example.



Thomas.

Animal sketchbook two

Here are all my animals sketches, from my second animal sketchbook.