15 January 2016
After my visit to the Magnificent obsessions exhibition on the 8th Jan, and seeing Damien Hirst’s collection of taxidermy, I remembered that we have an excellent collection of bones, fossils and stuffed animals at the Ipswich natural history museum. I took my sketchbook along. I made a conscious decision to do all my sketching in biro pen. I wanted to get away from trying to make a ‘good’ drawing and concentrate on capturing the important elements of the objects for my textile work. All the objects were in glass cases, which limited the angles from which they could be viewed.
First, I sketched a red deer antler. I liked the different textures and grains in different parts of the horn, and how the patterns flowed along it’s length.
My second sketch was of the foot of a red colobus monkey taxidermy specimen. Being a stuffed animal, the toe pads were rather shrivelled. However, I liked the texture of the fur which was longer in some areas than others, and the dimensions and curve of the toes.
I enjoyed drawing the pig-tailed macaque taxidermy head. It was enjoyable to draw. Unlike human portraiture, I did not get hang-ups about the ‘face’ and the importance of the features. It was just natural.
I was interested in the negative shapes of this brown bear skull and the different textures and shadows across it’s surface. Unfortunately, I ran out of space on page. Rather than squash up the image, I let it run off the page. It was a shame because the nose area was also interesting.
Finally a sketched a rainbow Lordy taxidermy specimen. It was displayed wings spread out to show the underwing colouration. Maybe the subject for a colour study?
I made all these sketches in about an hour. I hope to return to the museum again, as there are lots of other specimens that I would like to draw, including, butterflies, fish, shells, a boa constrictor skull, and many more bones and teeth.
Sketches and studio work in support of textile degree studies after 20 April 15 