Final Evaluation of Preparation Work

Interpreting the theme

The exam theme for the project was Inside, Outside and In between, this is a very abstract concept compared with past project themes this left a lot of room for interpretation. I interpreted and approached the theme in a literal sense, meaning inside an object, outside and object and in between an object. This for me was ideal for the brief I had chosen because the two stories both include separate worlds that can be explored through this theme.

My plans for the final piece is to create a violent reenactment of the chapter the last battle from the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This will be the representation of the world INSIDE Narnia from the OUTSIDE worlds point of view and imagination. There are many ways to interpret the Last battle but I decided to takes literal approach to the world of Narnia, fully understanding the world operates on different rules.

Recording Observations

I made a trip to London Zoo to acquire primary imagery of animals which is an integral element of the world of Narnia. I took photographs of several different animals from different angles and poses so that I had as many perspectives when I used them for development.

Idea Development

I used these images throughout the creative idea process, I drew the animals using observational, sketch and focused hand drawn form. I developed a wing of a butterfly which I had hand drawn. I felt that the pattern and mix of light and dark tones would be a perfect benchmark to add colour to develop an idea of the colour application I felt was appropriate. I experimented with oil pastel, colour pencil, watercolour pencil and watercolour paint. I settled in the watercolour paint technique as I felt that it represented animals in the most lifelike and natural way. I also felt that the delicate nature and the way the technique portrayed softer textures was a perfect balance to my heavily violent aspect of animals.

Materials, Techniques and Processes

I investigated many techniques while in the process of developing a final idea, many of which I instantly knew were not techniques I wanted to pursue for my final product. I delved into the world collage and found that no idea that came up was particularly focused towards the briefas they were not imaginative or original enough. I made collages out of paper and also digitally. I also tried to use of my greater skills in the Graphics subject which is Photoshop editing but decided against it after some experimentation as I wanted to think outside the box and try a different type of challenge. I encountered some problems with the technique that I chose and that was the impractical nature of drawing on watercolour paper. The dense and heavily texturised paper makes it very difficult to draw on with much detail. I made this problem less of an issue by experimentation of pencils, I discovered that a hard pencil would give more resistance against the texture of the paper for a more accurate result.

Influences

Alison Fennel was my main influence, I found great direction through analysing her watercolours of animals, the animals were very life like and authentic. Her choice of colour was brilliant and she blends them perfectly to create the best variation of an animals fur. The image which influenced my interpretations the most was Alison Fennel's fox watercolour, I feel that it was the most effective because it directly applied to my ideas and the form of animal watercolour. Another influence to my work was Nicholas Kole he is also a watercolour artist but he has a very realistic approach and uses a lot of detail in his illustrations compared to Alison.

Final Piece

My final piece will be a series of illustrations for the chapter Last Battle in the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I will recreate the battle with graphic detail. I will be creating scenarios represented from the text of the book and translating them into more realistic terms as if this was a real battle were characters are severely violent. I will use a heavy focus on weaponry and the use of them in battle captured and illustrated with watercolour finish.

London Zoo Trip - Through The Looking Glass Theme

London Zoo Trip - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Theme

Exam Evaluation

Ideas and Conception, my ideas from the beginning of the project to the end of changed quite dramatically. My original ideas for this project was to create illustrations for Through the Looking Glass in a surreal wonderland. This is a concept that I had thought through and was ready to develop my most early experiments, I had created initial drawings and ideas towards the theme. I then moved away from Through the Looking Glass and started deliberating ideas for a The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe themed set of illustrations. I had many ideas for this theme, my first idea was to create a series of illustrations of the creatures from the world Narnia escaping the Wardrobe, coming into this world. This idea was to be very realistic and the characters would lose all personality urning into actual wild animals as they escaped the magic of their world making creatures like Aslan would be extremely violent and raw character. This was linked obviously with the exam theme of Inside, Outside and In between as the animals were inside their own world, in between the wardrobe and the real world and then finally outside the wardrobe to the real world. I then went on to my final idea and the one I developed further and went with, which is the graphic portrayal of the last battle chapter of the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe story. My interpretation of how it links to the exam brief is slightly more abstract than the previous idea, the inside is the world of Narnia, the outside is the graphic retelling which is extremely violent and realistic and the in between is the watercolour illustration which link the two sides which are also soft and rough contrasts.

My inspirations, my main inspiration was Alison Fennel a watercolour artist which eavily influenced my approach towards watercolor technique, I also played with her technique using water colour pencil techniques in different ways to create different desired effects. I heavily researched Alison as a specific inspiration to my project. I also took heavy inspiration from artists and illustrators such as Nicholas Kole and Giovanni Maisto that I discovered on Behance and Pinterest through independent research. These are artist that I would like to emulate not only in these project but also in the future as I feel they are the best representatives of what I wanted to achieve in this project.

Experimentation and Development, this was a heavy focus for this project I found that unlike many other projects that ideas for experimentation came frequently. This led to me doing the most drawings i have done for any brief up to now, I did several types of drawing incorporating the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe theme into them. To get a better grasp on animal structures which was to play a major role in my piece, I made a trip to London Zoo were I took may photographs from several angele staying to capture as many aspects as possible to make it easy for me to draw from any position or stance I felt necessary. I still and a difficult task as for obvious reasons not all situations were practical to my idea and in the exam I had to draw some animal body parts on to human bodies and vice versa. I also did lots of digital experimentation to tet the medium even though by this time I was quite set on the illustration method for this theme.

To conclude, my overall thoughts on the project, are positive, I feel I represented myself well in my outcomes trying to incorporate as many different aspects and interpretations of the last battle into my images. I feel that I used a lot of different drawing techniques in conjunction with various angles weaponry and Narnia characters. I feel if I had approximately 2 hours more I could have made some minor differences in my final product which I feel would be improvements. I ffel the preparto n work up to final is key to creating a well rounded product and that is exactly how my preparation influenced my product. The preparation leading up stops you going onto the final without testing out ideas that may be milling in your head and allows you to experiment thoroughly  before making irrational decisions in the exam.

Alison Fennell In Depth Analysis

These watercolour creations were made by an artist called Alison Fennell, a british freelancing watercolour artist. She is 47 years of age and currently resides in South Wales. She currently sells the majority of her artwork through the electronic mediums Eastwitching, UrbanMeldown and her two Etsy shops. Her main creative interests are figurative expressions of animals and humans.Alison is mostly self taught except for a 6 month period where she learnt from Arnold Lowrey. Alison captures immense amounts of detail and emotion through a artistic medium most would say is one of the harder mediums to do so this is accomplished through her talent at applying excellent tonal and colour contrasts. Alison has had artwork published by a greetings card company called Beechwood Publications and has had her children's book illustrations In the Morning which she also co-authored.

I will definitely be using Alison's work as inspiration for my own watercolour outcomes a I feel her style is the kind I find will suit my project best and I feel her style is the best I have found. In my experimentation there will be obvious reference to how I have been inspired, I will take on board her blending techniques and apply that to my colour blending technique going forward. Alison hopes that her intense and emotion filled depictions of animals will change the mind state of the world on the importance of animals in society and the world. She tries to make her representations of the animals seem as life like and relatable through gestures and mannerisms as possible with a hope that people will appreciate the humanity of the animals in the long run. Her main aim wich also relates to the meaning of her creations is to raise awareness of animal protection. Through selling her creations she supports many international charities which support her cause. Alison finds focus and inspiration from self developing and creativity books.

I personal find Alsion's creations enchanting and her colour choices are the element o find the most interesting as she finds a balace of light and dark colours and tones which keeps her paintings vibrant but authentic. Alison's work caught my particularly because the majority of her work is of animals which is a important focus in my exam and I was instantly inspired by her depiction of animals. It also gave me a very good example on how to go about my own watercolour paintings of animals.