Conclusion

I have finally reached the end of this project. I think I've done rather well. There's been difficulties and obstacles that got in my way but I've finally done it all now. I was worried that I wouldn't finish everything on time but I did so now I can relax.

I enjoyed being able to have to chosen my own theme because it gives me an originality to my classmates and it was good for my specialism skills in illustration. I enjoyed drawing and learning all about the different kinds of mythology, I wish I could've worked around more different kinds of mythical creatures but there's just so many.

I have visited a few places for research such as museums and Chester Zoo which was fun. It was also nice to get out and about, it feels like I put in a lot of effort into it.

My peers have been friendly and helpful with giving advice as well as the tutors. Without their support I probably wouldn't have done as good as I have. Giving out suggestions and advice myself was also good because it got me to think creatively which is good if I'm aiming to go to university.

The hardest part of the project was definitely my final piece, the dragon head to be more specific. It took me two days to make and all my dedication to finish it on time. The only thing I'd change about it is the size, I wish I could have done it a bit bigger but the way I've done it still looks good to me. I've even asked my brothers what they thought about it and they said it looks way better than my first attempt.

Overall I think I did a great job. I focused around both 2D and 3D works which was great because it means I can work in different ways. I'm just so glad I finally got through to the end, I put a lot of effort into it and now I just got to wait for my results.

2nd attempt

 

This is a little frustrating but I had to do another dragon head because my first attempt wasn't strong enough to keep it's form and I also didn't like how it looked. My brother said the first attempt looked more like a crocodile than a dragon and I admit that I thought the same so I started a new one but made differently.

 

So first I started to draw the outline of a dragons head on cardboard seven times just so I can layer them up to make it thicker.

 

I then had all seven layers stuck together to make it look thicker with glue and gaffer tape and then I used paper mache out of computer paper to cover all around it except for the teeth because it's easier to paint the teeth in as it is. I got to this point from scratch when I started it yesterday, I really wanted to finish with the paper mache before I went to sleep so I worked on it until about 2AM which was hell.

This is the finished head of the dragon. I'm so happy that it's finished, I'm glad with the way it looks. I think this is way better than what my first head attempt is were I to have finished it. I painted it and added some glitter for a sparkly effect. I would have liked it to be a bit bigger but too late now.

Display

At first this was how I wanted my final piece to be displayed for the exhibition. I've changed my mind and so I won't be doing it like this because it seems too difficult to get the parts in the right places. There is also only one long straight beam that I can use to hang my final piece on so this  display wouldn't work.

 

These are some of my design ideas for both the head and the body parts of the dragon. I have still not decided which design to use for the head of the dragon.

This is the display diagram that I've chosen. This one is simpler and easier to prepare as it will only hang along a straight beam. I want the dragon to be wavy just for effect. Each piece will be separate from each other and it will be over three metres long.

This is the colour scheme of the design of the body parts that I've chosen. I may remove the blue diamond in the middle but first I'll see what it looks like without as I get on with the painting. The gold parts will be gold on 4 of the pieces and the other 3 parts, it will be silver.

Black eyed people

I remember saying that I've been reading really creepy "true" stories on the internet and so this drawing was inspired from it. The stories were about all sorts of things from the supernatural but the one that occured the most was the stories of the "black eyed people". This got me really interested because these kinds of people had to be true since theres been so many incidents about them. I drew this drawing to try and create the image that was in my head when I read about these "black eyed people". I took a photo of me for reference and used black soft pastels with pencil. The skin was left white as most of the descriptions that I read from the stories says that they were pale and gave a feeling of dread which I tried to interpret into this drawing.

Process

I have made my dragon head out of paper mache. I used a lot of newspaper and scrunched them up to form the head and then applied 5 layers of paper mache over it.

After It dried out, I used a craft knife to cut the head in half so one part is the top and the other is the bottom. The pieces were still a bit too weak for my liking so I tried to strengthen it up with some tape.

I then added a layer of gaffa tape all around both pieces and then added a layer of masking tape which was a bad idea because it didn't really stick as strong as I hoped it would.

 

I also made a paper mache balloon with 3 layers. I'm planning on using this somehow to attach both pieces of my dragon's head.

 

I've also made some teeth cut outs from normal card and then painted them with silver acrylic paint.

 

I started painting the body parts in red because that's my favourite colour and its the colour that catches people's eyes the most. I found out that the paint just crumbles off wear I painted on the gaffer tape so I scrubbed it all of the tape and have it's black strip as part of the design.

This is how far I got with the head...it's not good. My brothers say it looks more like a crocodile head which I kind of have to agree with them. the spray can in its mouth is for support because its too weak to support itself. This is one way how to not make a dragon head.



Final Piece mini samples

I have decided on trying to make a huge Chinese dragon hanging for my final piece because my other hangings that I've done went pretty well. I'm choosing to do a dragon because it's one of my favourite mythical creatures and it's physical structure is perfect for how I want my final piece to be hung. I plan on making the head out of paper mache and the body will be in sections made out of card.

 

I tried crafting a little version of how I want my final piece to look like out of card and string. I did this to give myself a good idea of how it will be displayed. I figured that when hanging things, the object doesn't stay in one position so I'm going to have to figure out how to make them stay still. Making this mini version of a final piece has given me a good visual idea of what it's going to end up being like.

I also did a prototype of one of the pieces of the body. I used card from cereal boxes because I didn't have any other card at my disposal. I used ordinary selotape on every corner to create this 3D object. I now know that using ordinary tape won't be good enough because of the lights in the exhibition area so it was suggested that I use black gaffa tape instead because it's much stronger.

This is a spike/horn type of feature for the head that of the dragon that I tried to make to see if this method would work. I wrapped newspaper around a thin metal wire and then wrapped around it again with masking tape then twisted it. I then tried to see how acrylic paint would be like over masking tape so I added a little crimson red paint to it. It seems to work, the texture of the wrapped masking tape adds a little detail which is good because I don't want my dragon's head to look too unrealistic.

Unicorn Head

I've finally managed to get round to posting this. It took me a while because I didn't have the materials for the mane until just yesterday. I thought tassels would be best for it because they look nice and there were an assortment of colours to choose from. I used silver and gold paints with a bit of blue, black and white as well. This is just a trial sample piece and I think I did pretty well. The only thing that I don't like is the roughness of the texture, I should've tried to sand it down a bit more.

 

 

Unicorn- They are magical beautiful creatures that some believe once roamed the Earth. They are depicted in many folk tales usually as a mysterious white horse with a single horn on the forehead. Unicorns are virtuous creatures and it's said that they only appear to those who are of pure heart or are on a mission of good.

 

Lino Nine Tailed Fox again!

I worked a bit more onto my fox print a black and white print sometimes.t because I didn't like how the colours were too flat and it didn't stand out much. I asked Dave the print guy what colour I should add for the background and he suggested a black to make the red pop so I went for it and it worked. I also did a purely black print as well to see how it'd look and I think it's actually nice to have a black and white print sometimes. It was really tedious to cut through more from the lino block, it took me so long but I'm glad it's finally finished to my satisfaction.

 

This print got featured in the exhibition in the college's library because Dave (the print guy) thought it was good enough to be exhibited.

Nine tailed fox- In Asian mythology the nine tailed fox takes about 9000 years to grow all nine tails with the ninth being the maximum. They say they can shape shift into humans, usually a beautiful woman to seduce men and make them lower their guard so that they have the chance to strike at them and eat out their liver. When they turn into humans they usually have a feature that resembles a fox. For example sometime they might expose a fox tail, or their shadows may take the form of a fox.

Warrington Museum

I visited the Warrington Museum last saturday to find some inspiration. I wanted to look at the animal type works because they link nicely to my project. Most of the animals on display were of fish and reptiles so it was pretty limited. I took a lot of photos and also drew some 1 minute still life sketches which was advised from one of my tutors. It was a nice day out, it was interesting to see all kinds of the beautiful art that was on display.

Films

I've been watching films whilst working on my project. Most of them are disney films and have a slight link to the theme of my work. I've watched Alladin which has the genie, The Lion King 1 and 3 which invloves a lot of animals and Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters which involves witches. I've been watching films for inspiration and because its better to have a film on that to work in silence.

Chester Zoo

I went to Chester Zoo the other day to loo at some of the animals. I thought it would be good to look at real animals because a lot of mythical creatures have feautures of modern day animals. I also thought it would be good to try and draw some animals too while I was looking at them. I only managed to draw a few birds quickly sketched, I don't really like how they turned out because I usually like to do neater things instead. I found it really difficult to draw them as they kept moving around so I didn't draw that much but I did take a lot of pictures with my camera

 

I found this engraving art thing at the gift shop so I bought one to see what it was. Basically I got given a special piece of black card and a cutter to engrave with and I engraved this fish picture giving it a rainbow effect. It's a little bit similar to lino cutting but the colour comes underneath what you engrave rather than having to put ink all over it.

 

These are some of my faourite pictures that I took at the Zoo. It was a really fun day out, I'd love to go again sometime.