Life drawing. Tattoo man

Our life drawing task today was to draw a male model who was covered in tattoos. This was an interesting life drawing session. We started with a warm up activity where we were given a few seconds to draw five different poses. We had to do a one line drawing which I found quite fun to do. At two points in the session we got to work on a drawing for fifteen minutes which was fun for me. I like how the two drawings turned out. One activity was to draw the negative space around the model, I haven’t done anything like this in the past and I found it interesting. Below are some of the drawings from the session. 

The Book of Drawings. Constructing the book

Once the titles were dry I could then start putting the book together. To start this I glued the illustrations onto the right hand pages using watered down PVA glue. The water colour paper I had used for my pages had begun to buckle and fold because of the amount of water I had used. This would be a problem but I kind of like it. It adds to the idea that the book was sat in a pond. Before sowing the pages together I marked out the holes where the needle should go. To sow the pages together I used a needle and green thread. Once I had  sown the pages together I also sowed in the water colour leaves. This was so they would stick out of the pages.

I added a border to the illustrations using patterned green craft tape which I found in a local store. I like how this turned out but I had to use pva glue to help the tape stick down. To make the book appear more organic I used some flock down the middle of each page spread. I did this because I thought it would look like moss growing in the book. I had to dye the flock green using food dye. I wasn’t fond of this at first because it’s a bit messy but over time I’ve become quite fond of how it has turned out. 

Final page spread for the Newt

The Book of Drawings. Preparing the pages

Now that the illustrations are finished I need to prepare the pages where they will be glued into. To begin this I have transferred the outlines of the footers onto the bottom left page of each spread. I then painted them using the same techniques I used for the original designs. I changed some of the patterns on the Newt but this was the only change from the original drawings. At the top of the left pages I added the titles of the animals. These were illustrated using a sienna coloured felt tip pen. The colour wash over the top was done using ink wash that I applied using a scrunched up paper towel. I have tried to keep the colours looking organic and mossy so they fit in with the book. When it was drying I let the ink run down the page so it added to the watery pond idea. Below are some photos of my progress.