Mind map - painted in watercolour
Moodboard- My collage of secondary photographs that inspired me.
"Song of the Sea"- an animated feature film with a style and palette that largely inspired me.It has simplistic, harmonious & childlike style, that uses shapes to emphasises the mood of the scenes.
ARTIST INSPIRATION - Verity Warner-Moulding is currently studying a degree in BA Illustration at the University of Brighton. Her work is inspired by nature. She is an illustrator and self-taught animator who is skilled in many different mediums. Her paintings (above) use certain colour tones to evoke specific moods. In her Octopus Cavern (above far right) digital illustration, she uses deep blue to evoke sadness, and black to infer a sinister mood.
LEFT; Top left is a photo I took of the Pett Level cliffs for my background reference. Below it is an initial composition sketch. RIGHT; I was experimenting with different backgrounds and different mediums.
ABOVE (left and right); A primary photograph I previously took of seals basking, on the Inner Farne Isles, with a Canon camera. I thought it would be a good reference for this project.
LEFT: secondary reference photo used, because I love the composition and shape of it! RIGHT; a seal linoprint. I wanted to play around with the how stylised the waves are, and cut long, deep lines to portray a peaceful sea.
ABOVE: same picture drawn in pen. I didn't like the scribbled effect, so I drew some more.
LEFT; (Far left) Colour pencil drawing of seals. I like the light hues and the harmonious composition, which is exactly as I intended it to be. MIDDLE (left) Ink drawing. I really like the monochrome tone and rough texture of the waves.
I achieved that by dry brushing ink in arches. MIDDLE AND FAR(right); Linoprints of the seal Lino in blue and red. I wanted to see how the different colours juxtaposed the shapes and lines of the original print.I prefer the blue.
Close up of colour pencil drawing of seal
Graphite pencil, pencil and rubber tonal sketch
BACKGROUND EXPERIMENTATION: Reflecting back on my mood board, I noticed I liked full moons. I wanted to include this because the moon affects the sea, and also because of its association with folklore.(Which is a theme in this project)
So I went to the beach with my dad to shoot the full corn moon. I used a tripod to balance the camera. LEFT; I used a 100 millimetre lens, ISO 400, aperture F10 and shutter speed of 2 and a half seconds, to blur the moon's reflection.
RIGHT; This is my favourite moon picture as it captures the texture and saturated colour of the moon. I used a 400 millimetre lens, ISO 1600, aperture F5.6 and shutter speed of 1/60th.
Experimenting with the composition. I used the last one in my final piece because of the balanced layout and clear focal point. I also love how there is many circle shapes the piece, which is inspired by "Song of the Sea" to create a harmonious effect.
Because I love selkies (a mythical half-human half-seal creature), I thought it would be very fitting to include them, or create my own. I photographed my sister on an iPhone, and added a monochrome black and white filter, because I wanted to set my piece in moonlight.The reason I chose my sister is because she has a round, symmetrical face that would easily morph into a seals.
After practising drawing her a few times, I took a photograph of a seal, and merged my sister and the seal on Photoshop. I played around with the opacity of the layers, so it looked more realistic than surreal. I added a blue filter and painted a rough version of the "selkie child" in watercolours (right).
Drawing of my selkie, in the style of "Song of the Sea", using pen and watercolour
Rough composition with watercolour
Painting my final piece in watercolour was a very layered process; I wanted to create depth and saturated blue tones, so the painting would feel mystical.As you can see, I included my photo of the moon and cliffs.
THE FINAL PIECE: After a pencil sketch, I built up many, many layers of tone, depth and colour. I printed a wave linocut over the foreground, attempting to recreate calm waves. I added highlights to the seals shiny head in white pen.
Using the white pen, I carefully drew the seal's whiskers, the stars, and the highlights on the clouds. I smudged the clouds with white acrylic paint to create realistic depth. I really like how the main medium used (watercolour) connects with the ocean scene and creates a more authentic piece.
EVALUATION; I love how the incorporation of metamorphosis and folklore in this piece gives it a different edge. I used the golden rule to create a more aesthetically pleasing piece to the viewer, and I think it turned out really well. I was comfortable painting in watercolours and I am very pleased with the outcome.
