Drawings

Observational Drawing

I did some observational drawings of the skulls I own and the skulls college owns. I did them digitally, attempting different brush strokes in an experimental style.

I decided to use a brush called "bristle" which is pretty self explanatory and Im very happy with the outcome.

I really like the shading I've done on this picture. I tried to do it quite realistic and quite in depth, whilst keeping it obvious that its a painting. I like the way the britstles make it look natural, and the way the white of the skull contrasts from the dark blue background. I also like the way the drawing is very soft, with desaturated colours, it gives it quite an eerie atmosphere

This was just a small warm up sketch I did, but I like the way I coloured it, it was a more sketchy. I like the way I mirrored the sketch in the background but kept it focused on the main one. This one was just a quick sketch, so I cant really comment about it.

Bones in the dark.

I missed a day of college when we were supposed to be in the photography studio, so I chose to improvise at home to make up for what I'd lost, using my fish tank lights to get a spotlight effect. At some point I decided to involve a metal bowl to attempt to bend the light more. All in all, this photo set is just an experiment with lighting, and I am pleased with the outcome. The photos were difficult to take as the shutter speed was low to make them brighter, and I had no tripod on hand. 

I like this photo, the way the feather is shining blue, and the dark colours, the way many things are in shadow. I also like the natural wooden background, giving the photo a natural image.

I really like bird skulls, they are very complicated and make great photos, so I decided to take two of my gull skulls and photograph them in the dark. I also used a bowl as a reflection for the piece, and I like the outcome.

This was my favourite photo from the shoot. I like the complete total darkness aside from a small part of the skull, and how clear and symmetrical it is. The white highlight is very soft.

This is another one of my favourite photos from this set, I set the skull in a bowl and took a picture, playing with the lights and the blues. It makes for quite an interesting photo.

More bone photography.

Photography at home

I took some photos at home when it was a sunny day, so I decided to use the light to my advantage and take some photos of the skulls I have at home.

I also decided to take advantage of my Grays Anatomy book as a background for the photos, as its vintage and makes a decent background for my project, especially considering my project focuses on anatomy.

Photo taken on F5.6, Shutter speed 1/125, ISO 400

I really like the composition of this shot, and the colours are complementary.  I also like the way the background is blurred so it doesn't steal attention from the fox skull but it is still obvious what it is. The colours are also very soft on the eyes. The lighting was quite bright so I used a lower ISO to darken the photo and give it some kind of atmosphere.

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter speed 1/125, ISO 400

This photo was focused more on the perspective using a small depth of field to bring attention to the small details. I like the clarity and softness of this image too, and how you can see the details in the leather of the book as well as the details in the foxes skull. The angle of the photo also makes it more interesting, too.

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter speed 1/125 and ISO 800

I wanted to make this picture slightly brighter than the rest so I increased the ISO of this photo. I again like the perspective of this one, and it was supposed to go in harmony with the first photo in this set, just the fox at a different angle. I also really like the holes where the teeth used to be, they add some interest to the image. 

I then decided to take some photos of the inside of the book as a background, as the pages and images look quite vintage too. I also thought as they were diagrams about internal anatomy that I could combine the skulls with the diagrams to express the human and animal similarities.

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter Speed 1/125, ISO 1600

I like the lighting on this photo, and I also like how I chose to put the fox skull on the page about the cranium. As I stated above I wanted to create a relationship between the object in the photo and the pages of the book. Again, the page in the book doesnt steal the spotlight from the fox, it works more as a complementary background.

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter speed 1/125 ISO 800

I like this photo a lot as it is symmetrical on both the fox skull, the amount of teeth the fox has, and even the pages in the book. However, I do believe that I could've made the left page stand out a little more, it was more in the light than the right page so it came out a little pale.

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter speed 1/125, ISO 800

Photo taken on F 5.6, Shutter speed 1/125, ISO 800

More Bone photography

College has a horse skull, which I decided to snake into my project. The lighting in the room was very well lit and very bright, so I decided to take advantage of it. These were the photos I came up with. 

I tried to pick unusual angles, not just taking pictures of the skull, to make it a more visually appealing shoot. I then looked through the photos for the best ones and came out with two.

I really like this picture as the horses eerie death smile shows up very well on it. It has a very eerie presence to it which is what I was going for. I also like the diagonal composition of the piece, distorting the smile on the skull further.

I also like this shot from the inside of the horse. I measured it up so that both sides were pretty much symmetrical and Im very happy with the final result. I also adore the lighting in this piece, its very atmospheric. I think I will use this shot as part of my final piece.

Autopsy

Autopsy

This is a modified photograph of the piece to make it more atmospheric, actual models of the piece can be seen below.

Autopsy is a piece I made out of air dried clay, hence the low quality. I like how I made it on a metal table, giving it a kind of surgery look. However, it was very badly executed. I think that if I had higher quality clay I'd be able to make something much higher quality.

This is the clay bare, after I've finished working on modelling it.

And this was it once I'd finished painting. I tried to use natural and realistic colours but painting is not my strong point so I struggled on it quite a bit It also fell apart quite a lot as its air drying clay which is very brittle and delicate. Considering how delicate the clay is, I like to think I did a pretty decent, pretty accurate job. I especially like the way I did the small intestines coiled around. 

Bones in the Dark

"Bones in the dark" Is an edited photo of my Glass Knife Fish, which I thought would be fun to include in my subject, as they are transparent fish. They're very long and very alien-like, and I wanted to desaturate them on a black background to make them and their skeletons stand out more. I also made the two smaller ones more contrasted, to make the skeletons even more visible. It was moreso an experimental photograph to add some life and primary photography to my project. I like the concept of living bones- transparent animals.

Taxidermy and Photography Research

I've done some various research on other people who work with Taxidermy and take photography of dead animals/people. I will be looking at people like the Post Mortem Photographers in the Victorian era to the people who work with actual Taxidermy like Polly Morgan, who is Britains most refined Taxidermist

Polly Morgan

Polly Morgan creates art using an eccentric form of Taxidermy. She forms together animals a nd fungi into pieces to show the natural beauty of death. The way the fungi is coming out of the piglets stomach shows decay, but in a quite calm and soft way. The bird resting on the piglet also gives a feeling of tranquility, as it seems clueless and birds are often seen as angel-like.

The Fox entangled in the tentacles is one of my favorite pieces by her, and the birds lifting up the tentacles seem to be giving it a feeling that the dead fox is being carried to the afterlife. 

I also like this piece a lot because of how chaotic it is, however, it sstill obvious that it is a flock of birds. It has some fantastic composition to it, and the context the work is expressed in, the quiet blank room, gives it an even better effect. 

Post-Mortem Photography

Post Mortem photography was very popular back in the victorian era. It is the process of taking photos of the recently deceased like a typical family photo, giving the photos an eerie precense when you realise the people involved are dead. They are very well done, however, as most people have to double take before they're aware.

Marian Drew

Marian Drews still life contains dead, stuffed roadkill animals and fruit, using quite impressive compositions and elements to her work, like the lighting and creased blankets. The fruit almost draws away the attention from the dead animal, making the photos quite a shock factor when the animal is finally noticed. Eg. The wombat in the first picture is quite dark coloured, like the background, whilst the watermelon is light and stands out.

Meanwhile, the possum on the second picture is white, like the plate underneath it, whilst the vegetable with it is dark, and stands out.