FMP Design development

After gathering photos to work from and experimenting with different media, I decided to develop my ideas and attempt to put my own spin on the Chimera. Using the photos as the only influence on my imagination (no pictures from the internet or books to help me), I drew three different variations of the monster, the three animals (lion, goat, snake) being the formula I used to make them. I decided to do each one in pencil as I was comfortable using it and it helped me to express details better than paint or oil pastel would.

Firstly, I decided to stick to the original design of the Chimera, or the one depicted in Greek mythology, as it was a good starting point because of its simplicity and has an iconic look about it. I used coloured pencils to show this further and I used the photos as a direct influence. The brusho inks I used on the background, although originally unintended, created a fire/ spark effect that I made dynamic by hiding parts of the drawing behind. The Chimera was said to have been able to breath brightly coloured fire in ancient literature and art, so the background was very fitting.

With the first being a classic assortment of the heads of the snake and goat stuck on the body of the lion, the second design was intended to be a smooth mixture of all three that blended together to make a hybrid. Still using the lion as the inspiration for the head and body, the goat element of the beast is not as another head but as its hind legs. The mane of the lion is made up of snakes, taking influence from another Greek legend, Medusa, of which helps to make it look much more terrifying. The background is meant to represent blood flowing across the landscape.

When drawing the last design, I tried to imagine something drastically different to stand out from the other two. With the lion's body being prominent on the other designs, changing it would drastically alter the look of the Chimera, so it became a huge, writhing snake body with the heads of the other animals side by side. I was able to include new details like scales and shine and gave the goat head a mane to blend with the lion beside it. The background is meant to represent ice or water; the creature could be a water-based one with its reptilian body or it could have the ability to breath ice as opposed to fire.

FMP Experimentation

To find the best media possible for my final piece, I decided to do some experimentation. After cutting three MDF boards to A5, I sketched pictures of the animals that make up the Chimera, choosing a different form of media for each to help me see which one works best and which one is most comfortable for me to use.
The lion was painted with gouache and, although quite thick and messy, was easily mixable and dried quickly. Secondly, I painted the goat in acrylic. This had a familiar feel to it but the colours didn't mix as easily as the gouache. The snake was in oil paint, of which I liked the most because of the texture it made and its pallet of colour. After deciding to use oils, I experimented on a canvas to test its effect on a different material. I felt that this was this best way forward, and that it would add to the oil paint to make a good background, as well as a striking foreground.

FMP Animal Photos (primary research)

After deciding to focus on the monster, Chimera, for my final piece, I needed photos to work from photographs so the painting or drawing (I haven't decided on the media yet) will have a real life feel to it. The Chimera is made up of three different animals; a lion, a goat and a snake. Here are some of the photos I took -

These pictures were taken at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Being the most important part of the Chimera, photos of the lions were my first priority.

The species of goat is an African mountain goat, or Ibex and like the lion, these photos were taken at a zoo.
 
 

Not taken at a zoo like the others, this snake's species is a Royal Python and is my friend's pet.

   

I used these pictures to familiarize myself with the animals I needed to draw by sketching them and using coloured media. Here are some of my studies on mood boards -

FMP Le Minotaure - George Frederic Watts (artist research)

George Frederic Watts was widely considered to be the greatest painter of the Victorian era. A portraitist, sculptor, landscape painter and symbolist, Watts's work embodied the most pressing themes and ideas of the time, earning him the title "England's Michelangelo". He famously said the phrase, “I paint ideas, not things". During his last years Watts also turned to sculpture, completing his most famous work, Physical Energy, in 1902. 

   

 

FMP Greek Mythology

Already being knowledgeable on the subject of greek mythology, I decided to cover it as part of my research to be able to learn more about it and simply because of the huge roster of creatures and legends at my disposal to draw. Many of these creatures have become iconic and are very recognizable because of their unique looks.



MEDUSA


CHIMERA


CHARYBDIS


CERBERUS


CENTAUR


NEMEAN LION


MINOTAUR


HYDRA

FMP Hyakkai Zukan - Sawaki Suushi (artist research)

In the sophisticated popular culture of the Edo period (1603-1868), much attention was devoted to Japan's rich variety of traditional monsters and apparitions, known as yokai. Sometimes frightening, sometimes humorous, these compelling Japanese folk creatures were the subject of numerous artistic and literary works. One such work was Hyakkai Zukan, a collection of picture scrolls completed in 1737 by Sawaki Suushi, a relatively unknown artist. Hyakkai Zukan's colorful depictions of Japan's most notorious creatures inspired yokai artists for generations. Here are some of Sawaki Suushi's paintings and my own study of the Ushi-Oni (cow devil) at the top -

 
 

 

FMP Odilon Redon (artist research)

                                           
Odilon Redon, (born April 20, 1840, died July 6, 1916) was a French symbolist painter, lithographer, and etcher of poetic sensitivity and imagination. His prints explore haunted, fantastic, often macabre themes and foreshadowed the Surrealist and Dadaist movements. His oils and pastels, mainly still life drawings of flowers, won him the admiration of Henri Matisse and other painters as an important colourist. Redon produced nearly 200 prints beginning in 1879 with the lithographs collectively titled In the Dream. He completed another series (1882) dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe, whose poems had been translated into French. Though there is a relationship between his work and that of the Impressionist painters, he opposed both Impressionism and Realism as wholly perceptual. Here is my own study of his work along with other examples.