Monday 20 May 2013

Eyeing up

There's great excitement here as we the launch of the Forgotten project- a joint venture between myself and Caroline Willmot looking at the mythological creatures of Britain. This has been a huge amount of fun to do as it's given me free reign to dismantle those creatures and rebuild in a way that works. 


The really fascinating thing is that when we started looking at all this from a scientific point of view - location, distribution, feeding and mating habits then building the anatomy - so many of these fantastic creatures suddenly became much more plausable. So, throw out everything you thought you knew about mermaids, fairies and goblins because they just got real !


 This drawing of a mermaids eye complete with protective membrane was done in charcoal and carbon pencil on Fabriano watercolour paper. It was a challenge to do as the face shape and skin texture are different to ours- they also have no hair. I could go on for hours but that's what the projects is for so you'll have to wait :)


We will be publishing this project in stages- one paper for each creature, which will be available from my Etsy shop. It's such a mammoth project that we decided each species deserved its own turn in the spotlight. 


We also need to say a huge thank you to my partner Rich for his imaginative input (many a happy hour spent discussing critters over a glass of wine or three). You can follow regular updates on Facebook.