Getting Creative in Cards

I really enjoy drawing in people’s cards, the thrill of completely messing it up is enormous which is quite stressful, but this stress I interpret as a push to really create something memorable. Using ink in cards is a particular favourite, as using cotton buds you can often remove layers of ink creating tone, I emphasise this by streaking on white acrylic paint. Excuse the handwriting!

Masking Tape Bat

In lieu of my next Aesop fable illustration, I’ve made my own little long eared bat from rolled up tubes of masking tape and carrier bags. I really enjoyed making my masking tape cat when I was at Kingston University, so I thought I’d get the tape out and get busy with making another weird luminous green sticky creature.

Say Happy Fathers Day, with Hippos!

My dad loves hippos! So I made him one.

Initially I was going for a full hippo sculpture, big and bulky.

I made a flimsy wire support skeleton and sculpted wads of clay very roughly over the top. I decided on just going with the top half as the sculpture would have been too heavy and too time consuming to meet the deadline of the 16th of June, Fathers Day!

I enjoy leaving my sculptures grey as I love a more natural vibe to my sculptural work, but I had to keep it exciting and vibrant as my dad unfortunately doesn’t have the longest attention span. I thought giving it a bit more of a colour boost would make my dad appreciate the gift a little bit more.

I sculpted the hippo by hand using wire throughout to keep the beast together.

When air drying clay dries it can be difficult preventing breakages, using tiny pieces of wire in the ears, jaw and teeth were vital to make sure they didn’t break off during handling. After all his bits and pieces were sculpted I then after much experimentation painted him with red acrylic which further strengthened and sealed it. As always I gave him a final layer of PVA to give my hippo a glistening finish.

This was my first attempt at my hippo which proved a chunky challenge and probably would have not suited the boisterous Bennett household.

My second attempt completely naked!

My First Bear Maquette

I sculpted this clay maquette by hand, using a thin piece of wire, it took a day and a bit. I coated the maquette with PVA to harden and give him a sheen.

I work with air drying clay, and if you don’t skewer it with lengths of wire to act as a skeleton and seal it with something such as PVA it will crumble and crack. The safest thing to do is to make a structurally sound wire skeleton before you even think of claying. But I’m a glutton for punishment and went ahead and didn’t make a skeleton for this maquette as I am impatient and was rushing to meet a Kingston University deadline.

The proportions of the body is off, the head is too big for the body and it looks too much like a teddy bear. It’s not a bad start, I hope to get back to this project in the near future and really work hard to finish this hairy chapter.

What Could Be Sweeter?

I made these couple of drawings for Illustration Friday’s topic, Sweet. And honestly you cannot help be in awe of baby rhinos, they are so delectably squishable!

In 2013, the BBC broadcast their wildlife documentary series, Africa, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. In the memorable and heart felt closing scene we saw Sir David cooing with a blind baby rhino, and it was the most tear jerking sight.

More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qmbqn Sir David Attenborough in conversation with... a blind baby rhino.

Midway Albatross Sculpture

Look at the mess I made! What you are looking at is the sculpture I made for the Midway cause, I created a wire armature, covered it in kitchen paper towels then I used this as a base for claying.

I invited students to pick away at the clay albatross, revealing these endearing colourful plastics with which we are all too familiar, in the hopes to do a little story telling myself!

I hope this little project expresses in a small way how much I appreciate the giant effort that Chris Jordan and his team are putting into highlighting our human meddling in the environment on Midway Atoll.

Midway Prints

At Kingston University I was introduced to etching and monoprinting. Using the tragedy of Midway Atoll as inspiration I used these printing techniques to create a series of albatross inspired images. I etched an infant albatross begging for food from its parent, oblivious to the fatal consequences.

Midway Journey

A team of activists, led by Chris Jordan, have been documenting the environmental tragedy that is unfolding on Midway Atoll. I have been so deeply touched by their work that I wanted to share this with others.

These islands are located in the North Pacific Ocean, and although they are remote, the remains of our consumer lifestyles wash up daily onto the shores. Toxic swirls of plastic flotsam from all over the world find a permanent home on these small secluded islands, at the expense of the inhabitants.

Every year thousands of dead infant and adult pacific albatross litter the island, among them are thousands more albatrosses slowly choking and starving. The birds decomposed bodies reveal the colourful culprits: milk tops, combs, pens, cigarette lighters etc. a signature of our insatiable consumerism, which lie nestled amongst the fragile bones and gentle feathers of these curious creatures.

Through skilled photography and storytelling they have produced a film, Midway: Message From the Gyre, [not yet released] that follows the lives of the great pacific albatross and their struggle against the never ending tide of plastic.

The way these gentle birds churn this plastic poison through their bodies with these deadly consequences is heartbreaking so I amassed a fair amount of research and began thinking about how to relay their story to my fellow students at Kingston University. 

Card Designing

The time has come — I've had enough of scanning shopping through the checkouts — I have been working on a few images that might help me see an end to working in money hungry multinational companies and allow me to start achieving some financial independence!

I will upload my selected designs to a card printing company and impatiently wait for them to arrive, when they do they will go straight up on my online shop. All the images I have made using ink and watercolour, my favourite medium.

Animation: Scoff

These are stills from my first every animation! This was a weeks task set by Kingston University. I made a little plasticine pig which I have depicted through the video scoffing himself until the cupcakes have their revenge.

I took over 300 photographs, and then used QuickTime Pro 7 to assemble and bring the short animation to life, and I pinched a soundtrack and ‘Scoff’ the movie hit the big time!

Dairy Industry Illustration

This was a one day fine art project.

I gathered my thoughts about the dairy industry and produced a piece to reflect my opinions! I used fineliner, ink and water to make these drawings, I really enjoy the sense of melancholy in these drawings.