Brown paper packages?....

Although I have been toying with making a print of barn owls, I also wanted to use a medium which I haven't used for some time......brown paper! 

The problem with it of course is that it isn't light fast but I love the texture and it is a perfect background for the ghostly image of a barn owl about to attack his prey.

I'll continue to work on this even though
I know that it will have to be placed somewhere out of the sunlight.

I really like the way the gouache paint creates a strong contrast and is easy to work with.


Perhaps my work output will increase once I've got rid of the cold which has descended on me so hopefully I'll have a finished painting to share with you before handing over to Val next week......?????!

 

Ugly chick to beautiful bird.....

 

Looking at Val's beautiful paintings and drawings of pigs I can't imagine how anyone could not like them.......but ugly ducklings often turn into something rather special in the world of beautiful beasts.........

 

Do you know what it is yet?

 

 

 

Yes, of course, you guessed it, a one week old barn owl!

 

Just as it was getting dusk we spied one of our local barn owls perching on a fence post and then soundlessly taking off to check the hedges and headlands for something to eat. I think it's too early yet for a brood although the mild weather we've been having might be confusing some of our feathered friends

 

 

 

By 7 weeks the owl chicks are looking a little more appealing and feathers are beginning to form.  This barn owl chick was born with an insulating layer of down to keep it warm, and when fluffed up makes him look like an old fashioned  powder puff! Whilst we're reaching for the warm coat, it's strange to think that keeping cool on a hot summer day is quite a challenge for  birds who have one of the highest metabolic rates of any animal.

 

 

 

 

Finally, the beautiful owl is revealed and is ready to delight us with ghostly white flights over the hedges and pastures.  I've got it in mind to use this image in a larger picture together with other owls but this quick sketch with watercolour is my starting point. 

 

Although I do rather like the idea of doing a print of the 7 week old ball of fluff.......perhaps I'll be able to reveal my final decision later on this week!!   

 

 

 

Pig Progress

Because I am planning a series of pigs I wanted to see what they would all look like together and spent some time making a page of coloured thumbnails. I think it’s a must when considering a set of anything. It helps clarify how they look and to some extent their characteristics.
It is the first time I have really looked hard at pigs. How lovely they are, with their different colours, and ears and shapes.  There may be more than 12 in the end.

Twelve pig breeds

12 Pig Breed sketches for Salute The Pig.

The Splendid Pig.. (working title)

I am also planning one larger piece of work in black and white. I am so inspired by the wonderful old breed paintings of those gigantic, oversized and much exaggerated prize beasts. It is going to take some time as I am hoping to include quite a few details and it will be a pen and ink piece. I am pretty rusty with fine detailed pan and ink work so will need some practise.

Roughs for “A Splendid Pig”

 

And a pen and ink study for a bit of practice.. only another 9,998 hours to go.

More pig progress when I am back in week’s time.

Saddleback Pigs

My next page of sketches for Chris’ Salute the Pig blog. They are so very design-y..with their smart black and white colouring.

Chris has written about them here; “ Fattening Fast… 

 Sketchbook pages A4

On the board…

Watercolour on Fabriano. Image 10 x 8 “

"A Certain Sleepy Perfection of Contour”

What can this be?.. Why, a pig of course!

“To begin with, pigs are very beautiful animals.  Those who think otherwise are those who do not look at anything with their own eyes, but only through other people’s eyeglasses.  The actual lines of a pig (I mean of a really fat pig) are among the loveliest and most luxuriant in nature; the pig has the same great curves, swift and yet heavy, which we see in the rushing water or in rolling cloud. “

GK Chesterton liked pigs.. this is from “Rhapsody on a Pig” published in the The Illustrated London News, 8 May 1909.

I think it would be fair to say that G K Chesterton himself had some of those very same luxuriant contours.
And he is so right about the pigs. Those gorgeous soft curves and that wonderful spread of weight as they lie down….

 Sleeping pigs…well, most of them.

Pencil on A4 sketchbook

Skeleton Sketches

I do like to understand a bit more about the structure of pigs so spent some time looking at the skeletons of pigs and wild boars. The high vertebrae at the top are Interesting at the top..more so in the boar which accounts for its “crest”. There is so much info about animal skeletons muscles and structure on the internet.. Fabulous!

Pigs… Beautiful Pigs

My partner Chris started writing a blog about pigs, Salute the Pig  a little while ago. He likes pigs but also likes pork so as a part time project we look for local ethical pig breeders and pork producers. Happy pigs are our first requirement.
So far we have met very happy pigs and very caring pig farmers. It has been a delight and we are looking at the different breeds of pigs as we go.
I have been doing some sketches with an idea of something more finished later in the year and to date I have sketched The Gorgeous Curly Coated Mangalitzas,  see blog post: "The Complete & Utter Gorgeousness of Pigs Ears" with their amazing curls.

 

Check out those ears!

The gentle and rare Lops. See blog post “The Big British Lop Pig”

And the feisty Duroc. See blog post “A Gorgeous Ginger Pig”

Sketches in pencil, pen and ink and watercolour in A4 sketchbook.

You can read much more about these pigs and pigs in general over on Chris’ blog

It’s time for the next pig, so for my Beautiful Beasts week I am going to be looking at the very smart Saddleback Pigs and pigs in general. 

As always with my printing, things never go according to plan. I was clear in my last post that I would not be making a reduction print so of course you can imagine what happened - I ended up making one!

I was quite pleased with the first print of my 'Thought Fox' as the moon added mystery to the scene and there was a tension point between the nose of the fox and the twig.

 

As always though, I thought I could improve on it by adding more definition to the head of the fox.  This meant cutting out all the area which would remain as yellow ochre and leaving the dark blue shadows to do their work.

 

 

 

The block itself looks great at this stage as the texture of the stained, printed areas highlight those which have been newly cut.

 

 

And the final result........

 

 

I will be keeping prints of both  images as I like the different 'feel' of them, and I hope that Ted Hughes would approve of my version of his  Thought Fox.

 

Val's turn next week, but I'll be back soon.....

No more sightings of Mr [or Mrs] fox but I've been thinking about them a lot as I wrestle with the form my print should take.

I recently bought a copy of a book called Bestiary MS Bodley 764 which was originally produced around the middle of the 13th century and has some beautiful and colourful 'illuminations' of both familiar and mythical animals. Turning to the page on the fox I was surprised to read that

'The fox has very supple feet and never runs in a straight line but always in devious ways....'

it also states that the fox is the symbol of the devil, and plays dead to encourage birds to come down and perch on him and then 'seizes them and devours them.'......

 

He wouldn't play dead for very long if Poppy was around!

I've been doing some playing around myself, trying to decide on the best  background to 'illuminate' my fox and have done some unfinished prints which I will use  in the process. It's unlikely that I will make this a reduction print initially so I'll have to mask out the areas which I want to remain white.

 

My original drawing and unfinished prints ......is that a moon forming behind the fox's head?

 

In the next day or two I will be printing the final image and my aim is to have several different ones posted by Sunday so wish me luck and see if I've achieved my goal!   

Thanks Val, after all those fascinating prints of belemnites and ammonites I was wondering how to progress the blog. There are so many beautiful beasts out there!

Fortunately, things have a way of just happening and on our dog walk yesterday morning, who should I see but a fox outlined in the morning sun and just  about to cross the frosty path in front of us.  Fortunately I managed to put our lurcher, Poppy, on the lead before she saw him or picked up his scent otherwise the two of them would have been chasing through woods and over fields for the rest of the morning.

I took it as a sign and thought about a poem by Ted Hughes called 'The Thought Fox' which is part of his debut collection The Hawk in the Rain [1957]. He perfectly captures the ethereal, almost magical quality of a fox moving across the snow at night. You can hear him reading the poem on 'youtube' if you're interested  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHclDG71OlA  Absolutely wonderful and a great source of inspiration!

THE THOUGHT-FOX

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.
 

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near

Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,

A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

It enters the dark hole of the head.

The window is starless still; the clock ticks,

The page is printed.

 

Next step - to draw a series of small sketches in my sketch book  to work out ideas for a lino cut, and the line about the fox's nose touching the twig makes such a vivid picture in my mind. I need to decide on tonal values, position and size of the fox and what sort of background to use so these sketches are a quick way to try out ideas.

 

 

Should I use a different block for each colour or use the reduction method and print different colours using the same block? ...Decisions, decisions.

By Wed this week I shall have some first prints done even though  the image may not be finished so join me then if you can and see what decisions I made and how things are progressing..........

 

 

Devil’s Fingers…and Bertie.

I am continuing my explorations of the fossils that can be found here at Grafham. So far I have found Gryphaea, Belemnites, bits of Ammonites but as yet no sections of Crinoid stems. They are a common find but I need to take some more time to look as they are tiny..but unexpectedly very beautiful. Some are simple and circular in sections and some are star shaped.

Photograph from the British Geological Survey website.

I have written a little more about these lovely fossils and the general folklore of fossils over on Pencilandleaf.

I shall be looking at Crinoids next week but meanwhile, after some explorations with the ammonite I turned to the Belemnites for some print inspiration.
I found a nice piece of a belemnite last week in my fossil hunting by the reservoir.

The belemnite is the large bullet shaped piece at the front. They were known as Devil’s Fingers or thought to be thunderbolts. They are the remains of these..

 
Image from this fascinating piece about Belemnites from Ferrebeekepeers

I had made three different possible background plates, fronds, wavy lines and a circle and then a 2 colour reduction lino plate.

 
Frond background and first printing.

 
Circle background, first lino print was rotated and reprinted. Then second colour added.

Chris said “What are you calling it?” “Bertie the Belemnite.” I said.

Oh dear, it just slipped out. I am supposed to be a serious artist but I guess it will stick, as these things have a tendency to do.
And one last print.

 
With wavy background and two colours. I will post more of the process  on Printdaily soon.

And to end, a glorious bunch of Berties on the Bench.

Well, its been that sort of day … more fossils when I return to Beautiful Beasts in a weeks time. Over to Sue…

Ammonite:The Snake Stone

Amongst my fossil finds on the reservoir shore this week was a fraction of an ammonite. Only a tiny piece but enough to justify an ammonite print.

I am rather fond of snakes so was dismayed to discover that ammonites were thought to be the remains of snakes, cursed and turned to stone by St Hilda. And then to add insult to injury they were subject to a beheading curse by St Cuthbert. All this to account for these curious curled and apparently headless things found in abundance near Whitby.

They are a beautiful shape. Maybe one day I will find a whole one!

The piece, the lino and design an a proof print.

The ammonite with overprinted fronds . Lino print 4 x 6 “

I was wondering about adding some type so tried this.

I may think about a series, I am not sure a fossil ABC is feasible but might be interesting.

Fossil progress.

I made a quick lino cut of the devil’s toenail and am playing with combining a gelatine print with the lino. The gelatine prints tend to be soft and can give a rather appropriate layered look. The lino on the other hand has sharp edges.

 

The lino print.

The gelatine print 4 x 4 inches

The layered print with an extra black added in Photoshop.
I have written about the gelatine process over at PrintDaily.

More fossils to come.

Small Beginnings: Devil’s Toenails

“Beginnings” are always exciting and surely nothing can be more exciting than the earliest forms of life. Fossils, I thought might be the perfect place to start my year of exploring the world of Beasts. This first week then will explore my local fossils.

I live by Grafham Reservoir whose shoreline is littered with shelly fossils. They are mostly Gryphaea remains, otherwise known, delightfully, as “devils toenails”.

This beautiful image is from the Natural History Museum’s page on the Gryphaea of Lyme Regis. The ones we see here are much more weathered and misshapen but there is still the magic feeling  of handling something so very ancient. They are from the early Jurassic period approx 199-189 million years ago. There must be millions of them here.

Most of the ones from the shore here look like this:

 
Devils Toenails from Grafham Reservoir shore Jan 2014

 

A typical piece of the “shingle”in today’s sun. It’s mostly made up of bits of graphaea from a bay on the reservoir that I, really creatively, call Devil’s Toe Nail Cove.

Devils Toenails 2012 Sketches from earlier P&L post, inspired by their odd shapes.

In life the Gryphaea were bivalves and relatives of our oysters.

From Bristol University’s site  Fossil Types

 GRYPHAEA (or Devil's Toenail): An extinct genus of bivalve. It is believed to have been an unattached recumbent recliner on the sea floor, with its very own self-righting mechanism if a strong current knocked it out of the sediment.

From the Natural History Museum’s Gryphaea page

“As a bivalve it possesses two valves. The valves are markedly unequal in size and shape, the left valve is strongly incurved, the right valve is small and flat. The left shell is thick and its surface is marked with numerous ridges.

They lived on the sea floor with the flat right valve facing up, it probably acted like a lid, when open allowing water carrying oxygen and nutrients to flow in and be filtered out of the water.”

Having read this, it now makes more sense of the shape.

Devil’s Toenails: Graphaea Fossils from Grafham Water

 Pencil on cartridge 8 x10”

I did find one today with a fraction of the “lid” intact. See the drawing top left. It explains some other odd shaped things I have found.

Devils Toenail?
The name does seem rather obvious when you see the gnarled and twisted shapes. Some may have thought they were the actual  toenails of demons. In that case there were legions of demons around Grafham, which could account for quite a bit.

More about these strange creatures, other local fossils and their inhabitants tomorrow.

B is for Bestiary

Hello, I'm Sue and am delighted to be sharing this blog with my good friend Val as we delve into the weird and wonderful world of Beautiful Beasts. I love drawing and I've decided to use a sketch of our lurcher, Poppy, as my introductory image because she has been my inspiration for over 2 years. You'll be seeing more of her as time goes by, as she has such a great love of life which I want to share with you.

Like Val, I find printing is a fascinating medium as it is unpredictable, agonising, joyous and very demanding. With my interest in drawing I found that etching was a natural choice for me. I also love the strength of form and colour found in wood and lino cuts  so my weekly contributions will be about the use I make of these different forms.

Writers in medieval times were so fascinated by the natural world, they created the  Bestiary or Book of Beasts. Not only did this provide [rather inaccurate] information on what they looked like, but it was also  a sort of moral code book  using the attributes of animals as well as throwing in some mystical meanings. Quite an act to follow, but thankfully, my motivation is all about expressing the wonder of the natural world, and I'm really looking forward to delving into the many sources all around us.

As you can see, Poppy has already gone to sleep so I hope you'll find our blog far more exciting than she does!

Winged, Horned and Spined:

I am Val Littlewood and next week I will be starting the first week of the Beautiful Beasts blog that I am sharing with Sue.  We will be taking a week in turn to explore the fabulous world of Beasts in prose, poetry and art. It will be a truly rich source of inspiration for our work.
I draw, paint print and make things. You can find more about me and my work at Pencil and Leaf and Printdaily.

And I am also very fond of bees so I have chosen my first and only woodblock print Fly Bee Night as an introductory image. It was made a couple of years ago and you can see my blog post here.

I had included Hardy’s poem at the time as I had been thinking about bees flying late into the night but it also reflects some of my own feelings about our tiny insect friends. An “August Midnight” seems a long way off at the moment, but the celebration of the “winged, horned and spined” will feature very much in my work. I am also hoping that the Earth may just reveal a few more of it’s secrets to me along the way. “Earth-secrets”… how lovely.

 August Midnight by Thomas Hardy 1899

A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter--winged, horned, and spined -
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .

Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
- My guests parade my new-penned ink,
Or bang at the lamp-glass, whirl, and sink.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.

Fly Bee Night. 2 colour woodblock print on hosho paper. 12 x 16 inches