A change of location (NEW BLOG LINK)

I have decided to continue the rest of my blog on Tumblr, here is the link:

http://katebyrneunitx.tumblr.com/

My sketchbook so far...

Here are a few images showing the progress of my sketchbook thus far. I am still in the early stages of the project, having been put a little behind schedule with a change of idea and a couple of nasty colds. At the moment I am just doing a little research into the history of bees and bee-keeping, as well as beginning to do some preliminary sketches of bees using a variety of materials.

This is one of the earliest pages in my sketchbook, including portraits, and a little information on two of the owners, and main figureheads of Quarry Bank mill (who would have been in charge during the Industrial Revolution)

Simple black ink studies of a few of the medicine bottles that caught my eye whilst at Quarry Bank, you can probably tell that I was drawn by the interesting text and patterns.

Once my idea had changed. To get me started I produced a double page spread including lots of initial ideas about Bee's, their places within the city of Manchester, and the direction I could take Unit X. On the second hand of the page is a few initial sketches of a bees life cycle and anatomy. An aspect that I want to explore in more depth at a later date.

 On the same day that I visited the City Library, I also made a brief trip to Manchester's Town Hall, a beautiful building with some amazing Gothic architecture. I particularly loved the tiled floor of bees, and the inner courtyard.

Still unfinished, here I have just prepared the page so that it is ready to work on tomorrow. I will explore the history of bees, looking into the impact they have had on the world.

Again, still unfinished, however on the second page I have a small sketch displaying a visual aid of beehives through the ages.

My first sketches of bees! On the right of the page I have produced more detailed studies of a couple of honey bee specimens using graphite pencil, and on the left, simpler, more graphic studies of native bumblebees using pen, watercolour, and oil pastel.

The final page of my sketchbook thus far, continuing my theme of illustrating bees, I decided to try something a little looser using watercolours. 

A change of direction

Initially I was planning on basing my Unit X project around the theme of surgery, medicine and disease within Victorian Manchester, however after a trip into the city to look at the archives, this concept altered. I travelled into the city early on Monday 30th March intending to visit the city library as well as The People's History Museum (as I remembered visiting a few years ago when there was an exhibition on Victorian Death, I hoped some of the exhibit would be present in their archives, however, unfortunatly, much of the items had been donated.) After an unsuccessful visit to The People's History Museum I decided to try my luck at the City Library instead. I managed o find a few interesting books in the reference library and a couple in the lending, however nothing was really jumping out at me, I knew if I were to go down this route I wanted to look at medical illustrations. After much asking around someone directed me to a far corner on one of the top floors of the library, which housed their medical section. Whilst there were many contemporary books on disease and medical illustrations, I struggled immensely to find anything that would fit with the direction in which I had hoped to take Unit X. I was left feeling disappointed and slightly concerned that I had pick too wide and obscure a-subject matter. Just I was about to leave a beautiful mustard coloured book spine caught me eye. Housed on the opposite shelf to the anatomy section were books on zoology, botany and entomology, subject matters that I have a keen interest in. This small, fairly unassuming book was on Bees.




I knew immediately that this would be my theme for Unit X, remembering that 'the worker bee' is the symbol of Manchester. After leaving the Library I went straight to Waterstones to purchase the book.

A Trip to Irwell Vale and Quarry Bank Mill

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Irwell Vale, it is a small village on the outskirts of Manchester which my family has connections to. During the Industrial Revolution my ancestors the 'Aitkens' owned the village as well as the cotton mill located within it.

A street within the village name after my ancestors

In this photo you can just see the edge of the mill, which partially still remains to this day.

After a quick stop off in Irwell Vale, I then went onto Quarry Bank Mill. I have visited the mill a few times before but only as a child, therefore it had been quite a while since my last visit. However, I have very fond memories of the place, in particular the old school building (unfortunately that was closed today as I arrived a little late.) 

The exterior of Quarry Bank Mill

I spent a good few hours wandering round the Museum housed within the old mill, and luckily, because I arrived quite late in the day the place was very quiet, meaning I could go at a more leisurely pace, taking my time reading and photographing the exhibits. Here are a few details that caught my eye:

As I first entered the Mill I was drawn to these beautiful woodcut illustrations by Barbara Greg that were on display as part of the 'Drawn Out of Love' exhibition.

                                                   
                                                      One of the many looms on display

Fabric samples

 One of the aspects of the museum that I found myself most intrigued by were the more personal elements, such as belongings and letters.

I also really liked these trade union posters, which although not original (they were created for the Channel 4 series 'The Mill' which was filmed at Quarry Bank) were still eye catching for their colour and bold use of text.

The office

These were metals cups which were used by the workers to collect their wages in

 Perhaps my favourite section of the Mill was one of the most unassuming, it was a cabinet containing some of the medicines and remedies that were used to treat the workers. Some of them fairly recognisable, and other more unusual and unorthodox, I found myself drawn to the beautiful packaging and bottles, as well as the stories about their use.

Little has changed. This is one of the main rooms of the Mill, the machines are still running and give a frighting impression of the claustrophobic, deafening and dangerous environment the Mill would have been for its workers.

Le Gun Lecture 17/3/15

For this lecture we were visited by Neal Fox and Robert Rubbish from Le Gun. This was the lecture I was most excited about as I am a huge fan of Babyshambles, and as I was perusing Le Gun's website before the lecture I happily discovered that they were responsible for creating Babyshambles video for 'French Dog Blues'. Altogether Le Gun consists of 5 illustrators and 2 graphic designers, although today we were lectured by only two of its members Neal Fox and Robert Rubbish. I found the whole talk to be incredibly inspiring, from their first steps as 'Le Gun', where they would create extravagant, wild themed parties in order to raise money for future projects, right through to their latest exhibited pieces. They explained how in their magazine, they give full double page spreads to the illustrations in order to create a more immersive, impactful effect. And how in the process they wanted to prove that a simple letterpressed word can be as effective as a drawing. 

Perhaps my favourite part of the lecture was when they moved into talking about and showing us their 3D scenes. I loved the quirky look of these and the amazing attention to detail in order to create a fully realised, believable world. Each portrait or object on the wall has a story to tell and adds towards the narrative. I found it interesting how, their stark, limited use of colour (they use black Windsor & Newton ink and apply with brushes) was down to the fact that as a unit, the seven of them struggled making their individual styles mesh. Therefore, they chose to limit the colour palette, so that the drawings would not be lost underneath the competing colours. A decision, that I believe was very clever, and as a result has given them their distinctive, unique look.