Crocodiles

For this unit I looked into crocodiles and how their society operates. I found out that it functions in a strict hierarchical manner and wanted to look into illustrating this. I decided to look at how it might relate to human behaviours which also demonstrate social tiers, so I was thinking about social satire which gives commentary on these behaviours (such as Spiegelman's "Maus"). My final illustration is in ink - similar to the styles of a lot of satirical cartoonists. It involves a lot of crocodiles parodying human behaviours, and also includes a small reference to a myth about crocodiles that I briefly looked into.

The Rat

For this unit I chose to research the rat, an animal I have always been fond of and believe to be widely misunderstood. I informed myself on both the positive and negative attributes of the animal; the part they played in the spread of the Black Death, symbolism and representations in popular culture, the pet or 'fancy rat' and the creature as vermin. As part of the project, I created a cute rat from knitted carrier bags and discarded materials to address the comparison between 'pest' and 'pet'.

Below are a selection of sketchbook pages, my wire sculpture and knitted rat:

The Dragonfly

The theme that I have researched and illustrated was that of the dragonfly. It is such a complicated thing it amazes me on how it works. I have made many drawings to show the many different things that make up the creature and have found some things I did not even know about its habits and anatomy.

Anglerfish

Experimental drawing of an anglerfish, using white ink on black paper to try and portray the deep, dark depths of the ocean, aswell as the bioluminescent glow of the fish