Digital sketching

After quite a while of being totally stuck I decided to mess around on photoshop to try and give myself some kind of direction. I have not done very much in the way of digital printing before. I decided to work in a kind of collage way, as if I was doing work in my sketchbook, to get started. The images I produced are by no means final design work, no where near it! But I feel that I have at least moved my ideas into a new direction, which hopefully will move me towards being unstuck.

I used scans of my sketchbook as well as photographs I had taken in the aquaria I visited earlier in the year. This was also an exercise to see what I could do with my drawings and photos. Experimenting with different ways of manipulating the images.

Aquaria

In order to start producing a body of drawing I visited the aquarium in Loch Lomond. I spent about 5 hours there and it was reall quite tranquil and very enjoyable. I had a fantastic time and managed to fill half a sketch book.

A few weeks later I visited another aquarium, this time in Bristol and had a similarly pleasant day.

On both days I had been more drawn to ocean floor creatures. Things such as urchins, anemones, corals, and so on. I liked the way that the anemones moved with the flow of the water and all the small details I could pick out. Going forward I will do some research into what other species live in the same habitats as the ones I was drawing and take my project on from there.

Honours project

I have always been interested in the ocean and all the creatures that live in it. I find it fascinating that the majority of the earths ecology is beneath the surface of the sea. It offers such a rich source of imagery as well as intrigue. For these reasons I felt it would be a perfect visual source for my honours project.

I did a two week project about the sea during the general foundation course in my first year at DJCAD. This will act as a sort of starting point for me to begin research.