focus study
white pencil on black
TASK- humanimal collage
anthropomorphism
noun
the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object.
You will be creating a collage that combines human and animal attributes. Artist Holly Gaboriault has excellent examples of ways in which this can be done.
I recommend that you work on a couple of collages at the same time - 1 focus on starting with an animal and adding human attributes and 2- start with a human and add animal attributes.
Go beyond just sticking a head on a body! you need to consider replacing facial features and body parts. Play with size - large eyes, small head, add wings or horns, replace feet with fins etc...
Once you have combined your pieces [use blue tack to start] Glue down each piece thoroughly. Some exemplar student work is shown here.
TASK: NAMING YOUR CREATURE
In true surrealist fashion and to give your immaculate creature life, we need to come up with a glorious name for it! using the table, either close your eyes and randomly select one from each column or have a friend call out a number [ie 5, 13, 10, 6 would be The Thrilling Princess Bellindana Omato]. Make note of their name on your collage - this will also be the title of your print for editioning.
Working with a white pencil on a dark background provides a challenge to those used to working with graphite. This is because you are actually drawing in the highlights NOT the shadows!
Read through the document called "High Contrast Drawing" and do the sphere activity at the end. This is the same process we did with Graphite in the Eyes to hands unit at the start of the year BUT remember you are drawing the lighter parts - not darker areas! start of light and build up layers for smooth transitions
WCP Sphere Exercise ed.pdf
ACTIVITY: Immaculate Creature on Black
select one of your Humanimal collages and if needed, photocopy it to A3 size.
Transfer your creature to the black paper using either freehand/grid method or carbon paper
Using white pencil render your immaculate creature with value and tone to give it form. Refer to your collage for value placement but also add other areas of interest as you go.
The aim is to make your piece look unified and NOT Like a collage so you will need to use your artistic licence to decide where to add more value and texture to create form and shape
Adding your creatures name
You can add your creatures name to your drawing. This can be done free hand or transfered on using font sheets. Use value and shading to add definition to your text. CONSIDER how your text and creature interact... does the text follow the form of the creature, it is a label top or bottom, is it straight or curved? Use your photocopy to design name placement...
