I have decided to continue the rest of my blog on Tumblr, here is the link:
http://katebyrneunitx.tumblr.com/
Wednesday, 22 April 2015
Thursday, 16 April 2015
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.
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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.
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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.
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
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.
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.
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