Printing involving animals

I wanted to include my animal theme with my prints so stuck images of animals to my prints, creating a mixed media piece-

I like that this piece gives humor and a strong message, you feel sorry for the little badger standing  at the end of the road.

Printing

I have decided that I would like to expand my media and technique use, so I gave printing a go! I was a bit uneasy at first, I havent had much experience with printing and all the types of printing.

I decided to give mono printing a go and started out doing some simple prints to start, I created some building city scape scenes.

I used a dark blue ink as it has been an ongoing theme in my work to use dark colours when painting or drawing the buildings.

This print above was my first try, I accidentally smudged the ink whilst doing the print. However I think this was a good mistake as I think it looks like pollution, it gives a smog sort of impression.

For the next print above I decided to rub down on the paper to create this smudged look, I think it really emphasizes the man made city, with the buildings hidden in the pollution.

In this print above I wanted to experiment with the angles of the buildings, this print gives the impression of the buildings looming, a never ending sky of buildings. I think the  dark blue patches give a really gloomy, scary feel. The angle of the buildings make you feel overwhelmed and claustrophobic.

Watercolour of a bird

I would like to look into other animals other than the deer, so I decided to create a similar watercolour using a bird-

Here I faded the background, to make it look like pollution, with the bird perched innocently in the nest surrounded by a man made environment. I really like the obvious contrast between the bright coloured bird and the dark bleak buildings, represents the life and natural beauty of the bird against the soulless man made concrete buildings.

Water colour of deer

I wanted to create a painting based on my deer photos and this was my outcome-

I like that it is quite a stark image, the deer looking and howling at the city as it slowly creeps closer and closer into the deer’s environment. Also the dark blues and greys of the buildings contrast with the natural green grass that the deer is stood on.

Photo edits of deer

I decided to definitely go down the route of looking into the migration of animals in the city. Today I went to a deer park just on the outskirts of Bristol and I took some photos of the deer. Its odd to think that less than a mile from Bristol city center you can find deer, which are commonly found in rural, farm and field areas, not in an urban environment.

To enhance the fact the deer are so close to the city I doodled on the photos, drawing buildings and skyscrapers. I want to enhance the feature of man made objects taking over the environment.

In the top photo I made it look like the deer were walking along a street past shops like a human would, I used simple lines to draw the shops. It has humor to it as well as giving a strong message which I like. The photo underneath is contrasting, it is more detailed with the skyscrapers.

The photo I doodled on above shows the buildings just behind the deer, the buildings dwarf the deer and it sends the message of the man made environment colliding and taking over the deer environment. I like that I didnt add any detail to the buildings, it gives the buildings and emotionless, dull feel as they don’t have any character due to the lack of detail.

The photo above shows the deer peeking through some buildings. I think having the buildings seemly crushing down and overlapping the deer give the impression of being claustrophobic to the deer.

Here above I had a go at incorporating the deer with human activity, again it is humorous but gives a strong message .

Idea Development- Birds

The aeroplanes flying over the city remind me a lot of birds flying over the city, getting a birds-eye view of all the buildings and people. Birds migrate over cities, from city to city. I think that I would like to look into birds migrating over the city- or animals migrating through the city.

-I want to look into what ways cities effect animals migrating in the city.

-The effect cities have on migrating birds.

Night migrating birds-

City lights, man made unnatural lighting (street lights, building lights) confuse night migrating birds and can lead to birds getting injured and killed. The city lights are affecting the birds migration. Navigating primarily by the stars, night-migrating birds become disoriented by city lights. They confuse the billions of human-made lights in tall city buildings with starlight, especially in foggy or rainy weather, and especially after midnight, when the birds begin to descend from their peak migration altitude. Once disoriented, many birds collide with the buildings and fall to the sidewalks below. Others, like moths attracted to light, flutter around the lighted windows until they are exhausted. Birds by the hundreds and even thousands can be injured or killed in a single night at just one building. The problem is greatest in cities along flyways and along large bodies of water (such as lakeshores or rivers), which birds follow during migration. Many song birds evolved migrating at night, when predators retire and winds die down, and human-made lights interfere with nature’s ways.

Twice a year, around five million birds, representing about 250 species, fly through Chicago. These migratory birds can cover thousands of miles each season. Many birds, like the song sparrow that is a common casualty in Chicago, are nocturnal migrants, meaning they travel at night. When they are flying near buildings, the nighttime lights can confuse the birds. Sometimes they crash into the lit building; other times, decorative lights disorient the birds and cause them to circle around and around, finally settling exhausted in a street tree or bush at daybreak.