Mr Liony Wiony

Thursday, 10th of May

After feeling pretty depressed the previous week about this project and just really not getting into it, I had a lot of fun on Thursday.  After having decided to use a skeletal theme I did a quick study on the general skeletal anatomy of a lion.

I felt the body was too long so I shortened it in later pictures.  I decided to sketch in ballpoint because it's a lot faster than pencil as I don't sit there rubbing everything out and being really bloody pedantic about everything.  I was about to carry on down another bad track with drawing and quickly stopped myself.  I quickly grabbed my portrait from last week that I did at the end and set out to fix this.  When I had drawn it with ballpoint I really wanted to see it coloured.  So I could do this quickly I used ecoline and indian ink.  I had a lot of fun :D The paper was crap so it puckered because I couldn't be shagged to stretch the paper. 

I think he looks really cool.  I then carried on doing different angles and expressions, not loads but enough for now.  I mainly did this to check that the face still worked, which I think it does. 

I also had a crack at the body this day.  I tried a couple before I had done the side angle.  I just removed bits of the flesh basically for now to see what I got.  

 

 I then wanted to figure out the feet because as I had mentioned right at the beginning, I think they're visually important.

 I then had another crack at the body.  I wanted enlarge the shoulder blade but it didn't work it just ended up looking more like a wing.  When it this small the head looks bird-like which is weird.  The back legs being exposed it not good at all, he looks like he'd fall over if you nudged him slightly. I will carry on this week by combining all the different bodies I've done and changing a few bits here and there to get it right. 

As final designs I'll be doing two A1 illustrations (on thicker paper), one front on full body- the other side-on full body.  I'll probably do a few more smaller portraits as well of different facial expressions and photoshop these all together to make a sheet.

Along with the bust, which will be done in the summer holidays I've also decided to make a mask of the creature.  After having done the first portrait I realised it would be a real shame only to do the transformation bust.  I did some research on materials and found a website that sells loose hair in numerous colours so I'd be able to make the mane out of that.  I've found some fur for the fluffy bits but I'll keep looking just in case.  For my Birthday I got a seriously cool book from my parents and brother, "The Alchemy of Mirrormask".  Mirrormask is a film created by Dave McKean and is one of my favourite.  Masks are one of the themes :D, so there are loads of images of those.  They said that the bases were mae out of paper maché and clay, which I think left them with this amazing raw feeling.  I'll be doing that as well as I think it will be suitable and of course I have no knowledge of prosthetics.  The mask will be wearable but not something to be worn in the rain :D Really looking forward to making it in the holidays.