Draw Rotation: Animals

This was a pretty fun project! I've not drawn a lot of animals in my life, in fact I'm pretty sure I remember one art teacher somewhere along the lines dissuading it on the basis that fur it hard to get right. However, they make for a interesting subjects, particularly because they often include bright colours, but also because they often include opposing textures such as feathers next to a beak which can be challenging but also rewarding to draw.

The primer assignment was to go to the Natural History Museum where they have taxidermy animals- great because they don't move, but also often faded (particularly at the NHM because the specimens are so old compare to, I imagine, ones at newer museums) and busy.

 I started with an African civet, purely because it was slightly out of the way of people and had steps on which I could sit whilst drawing, allowing me to put in time and detail. This said, the civet also has a good pattern- the fur is slightly longer than say, on a cow, so the pattern isn't stark contrasts, but the drawing became both about drawing fur and drawing the pattern on the fur was quite interesting and a good way to start looking at the many ways of drawing animals.

I regret outlining in biro- mostly it's not noticeable but where I put less detail in such as the feet, or there is lighter fur, it's noticeable and seems tacky and bad practice. The angle at which I sat also captured a strange angle, and with the drawing going off the page, the civet ended up looking somewhat wonky- if it helps to imagine, it's drawn from just behind its left side, with the civet facing left, with its back right foot off page and its front right foot looking like it's behind its left foot. Hence, drawn straight on with nothing coming off the page, I feel this would have looked more dynamic and the head would have seemed correctly-sized (though there might be errors with that in the drawing regardless, I can't really remember).

Also began a flying fox in coloured biro, this time not sitting down. This meant I was closer and could get in more detail, hence my choosing biro to capture individual hairs, but which ended up being a poor choice as biros take forever as a medium and standing up in a busy museum sketching on A3 is a poor choice for that. Hence, it's not finished, despite me having spent almost as long on it as the civet. However, what's there is a nice start, even though I feel the left eye is too big and slightly misplaced, and the right ear seems to disappear into the fur a bit (hence, perhaps needed more highlight).

The Horniman Museum was probably one of the best places to draw at, and had it not been out of the way I would have probably gone back. The taxidermy exhibits, although still old, were much brighter and wide-ranging, and we visited the aquarium downstairs, so also presented opportunity to draw from life.

Fish are difficult to draw as they are constantly swimming around, which not only changes their shape but also there colours, as the light falls differently depending on where in the tank they are. The shadow on the orange fins was hard to do here, particularly on the caudal (back) fin, and looks too dark. I did this in markers, which was good because it allowed for a kind of "wash" effect and meant some (though not all) of the effect of the scales could be implied.

I also did a frog in markers. It was easier to draw as it sat still the whole time, but was also facing away, which wasn't particularly an optimal drawing angle. However, I think I did well at capturing the bright colours here, even though I think more could have been worked into the texture on the frogs back as looking back, this would have been great for the final design but the drawing was too small and impressionistic to work from.

This fish was great to draw and had a very bright, almost neon edge to its stripe that I wish I could recreate. The shading and the lighting here I did well but the curve of the bottom of the fish seems to shallow and some of the dark to light bits seem a bit odd, even if they were close to life. It was also easier to draw than the other fish because it was in a small tank, and because I could get closer to it and really appreciate its colour and form.

This parrot is probably my favourite drawing of the day- I was tired so it was the loosest, which actually gives a great effect. I think being able to draw quickly and loosely while retaining the key information is one of the great strengths of anyone trying to draw from life so even though I can see mistakes and a certain part of me dislikes that this is so messy. It's very different to what I'm used to and I feel it was a learning curve in one drawing. This said, the feather pattern is lost with colouring like this.

We also visited Vauxhall City Farm, which again was a different kind of location in that being outside, I found it hard to draw with cold fingers and therefore went back on Sunday to finish this part of the project. The animals again moved a lot, but I liked that they had little idiosyncrasies such as the way they stood or a loose feather that you can't get with taxidermy.

This turkey in particular had a lot of character, and I noticed when looking through other people's sketchbooks that it was a popular subject, with many people doing the bulbous neck much more justice than I. I drew it from both sides at a time initially as the turkey kept strutting up and down the pen, before deciding I'd worked too much into the one side and tried again with a limited palette, which went unfinished as the turkey went to stand at the other side of the pen with its back to me, as any animal being drawn would do. I feel I would have been better focusing on the feathers of this animal as it would have ended up useful, plus two of the other girls did a great job using them in their collages.

The animals just had too many interesting expressions and such character that I think I focused too much on heads. This cockerel was great- he stood very close to the fence for prolonged periods of time so I did a better job finishing him than the turkey, although the blue feathers needed more detail adding and the pose on the right looks off.

On the Sunday I tried a hen and a bunny.With the hen I tried to think more about individual feathers and full-bodies, but I started drawing her from front on only to have her stand profile the rest of the time, so no matter how hard I tried to work out the colour, I couldn't get how the feathers right. The bunny was more of a success, but it feels unfinished all the same, possibly due to the fact it's mostly white.

The workshop as a result of these was called "Cut-Out Colour Beasts" and worked to a very loose brief of an edited encyclopedia entry on an animal, out of which we were to create collages based on animals we had drawn. This included prepping hand-coloured pattern at the weekend:

As well as some extra details:

The entry on which I was to base my animal was:

"A robust beast with a menacing appearance and spine covered skin. Its colour ranges from brown or green to brick red, and females are generally substantially larger than males. If threatened, it often swells up and stands on tiptoe to make itself look larger"

This, in the end, was actually a toad (hence why a more detailed frog would have been great) but I didn't know that whilst creating the collage.

The opening presentation mentioned Dürer's "Rhinoceros" woodcut as inspiration, which is a piece I always found fascinating because it was created with so little reference, and therefore really demonstrates the powers as well as the limits of illustration. The original woodcut was destroyed when the boat carrying it as a gift to Pope Leo X but I saw a reproduction at the British Museum at the exhibition on Germany last year (2014), as well as a porcelain model reproduction.

I was good on colour from the parrot and the civet but I really lacked in references for spines so the idea was mostly based on the cockerel feathers and their direction. I also lacked interesting feet which I think is what made the finished product somewhat disappointing, as they don't work as well with the rest of the image- too much work went into creating the spiny texture that there was little extra time spent on anything else. This, and I feel something more graphic-y in terms of pattern, and not relying on natural colours, might have had more jazz to it and made the whole thing pop a little more.

(And photos from the crit- so much nice work!)