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.

Captured angel

This piece was a piece I put quite a lot of experimental work into. I like the brush that I used, gave a paintbrush-like effect, and worked well with the atmosphere of the picture. Im really proud and happy with the colours that I used in it, dark, depressing colors.

The only thing that I dislike about this piece is the anatomy which is incorrect and the hands are back to front, but these are mistakes everyone makes from time to time. Luckily the colour takes more attention than the anatomy, which hopefully means I've executed it well.

Sketches

I've done various sketches, including the one above of two of my skulls. I really love the grungy feel of this sketch. I also like the way I did the sketchy coloring on the skulls, and the painty background. The fact the skulls are facing opposite ways and their composition also pleases me quite a bit. Overall, I am very satisfied with how this sketch came out. It has a very graphic look to it.

First drawings.

Drawings

My first drawings for college were of basic internal organs, namely the digestive system, to get then anatomically correct. The drawings I created were as follows.

This was the first one. I wanted to get an effect which looked like they were spilled. I also really like the shading technique and detail that I put into this. I used highlights to give the work a rather cartoonish-shiny look, whilst keeping with the realism. Its somewhat a happy medium. I decided, however, this was more of an anatomical practise..which I then pumped up into a collage from previous drawings I'd done prior the course.

Its a busy picture, but I honestly really like it. The background is interesting, but it doesnt distract too much from the main subject, which was the drawing mentioned above, due to the white outline. I like the colours, too. All very natural.

This was the next piece I made, attempting composition. I really like the binding look it has, and the way the depth of feild shows with the darkness. Really it was just copying and pasting parts I'd already done, but I was very happy with the overall effect. However, I thought the colours didnt really look right, too saturated. So I decided to change them up a little, and I like the final result a lot more.

The final result, with added color.

Skulls

Bones.

Context of my work.
My art and design activity is Fine installation photography,  as well as sculpting. I do it not only because its quite aesthetically pleasing but because I also wish to show respect to the animals in death as well as in life. I intend to show this through my work with the way I photograph the animals in a respectable manner, just like if they were alive, possibly by using the lighting and softness as well as quite delicate poses to aid this.

I have a collection of bones at home which I have applied into my work, as I am doing internal body parts. I believe they'd be good for primary research as they are physically in front of me. I took various photos of them which I tried to make quite dark.

I really like the composition and effect I added onto this photo, it gives it a really unclean and untidy, quite grungy and mysterious effect. I like how I placed the bones at random around the baphomet too, and the angle. I like the contrast between the black of the cloth and the white of the bones..and the colour filter gives it that whole eerie effect.

I also like this picture. The angle is slightly more basic but I love the lighting and again, the eeriness, especially of the older fox skull. 

I also like the way the spine is leaning.

This is my entire bone collection. I also have intentions on drawing a lot of these in my studies, as they make some interesting shapes.