Sketchbook: Birds Of The Natural History Museum

  Attending New Designers 2016 yesterday, I had arrived in London a few hours early to get the most out of my visit to the capital. One thing I decided to do, as I had brought my sketchbook, was to investigate the Natrual History Museum. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was keen on drawing some birds for a change of pace, fortunately the museum has quite a nice collection of  them. And while the current display wasn't as impressive as a previous year's exhibition showcasing a display of around 100 taxidermied hummingbirds in flight,

  Granted these aren't as finely tuned as my previous drawings as I only had an hour or so and I wanted to focus on body shapes or profiles rather than fine detail drawings, but these sketches did give me insight into these animals, who all share common anatomical features that evolved with the express purpose to maximise their flight capabilities.

  I also took time to investigate how wings work, as it is something I want to improve on. Fortunately one of the museum's longstanding displays shows how a bird's feathers and muscle connect to the bone. And I was able to work out the primary shapes that are assembled to make wings in this case. There's still some variation to investigate this is a foundation, as wings - be they bat, bird or whatever other animal - are usually a form of arm in some shape or form.

  Stellar's Sea Eagle, a bird of prey found in Northeastern Asia was the crown of my visit. Asian hunter of the sky, as can be seen in comparison to the more familiar dodo, and the budgie-sized Ou, is enormous! A giant of the eagle world that took my breath away with its massive talons and grand wingspan.

  These photographs taken of the way bird wings are constructed were particularly inspiring. And I think they could go a long way to improving my anatomical understanding when it comes to drawing and designing wings.

Sitting in the same exhibit as other great birds, the humble tawny owl.

  Outside the bird exhibit, the Natural History Museum has a beautiful display of sea-monster fossils, most prominently the Pliesiosaur, and the dolphin-like Icthyosaur. I also took a visit to the dinosaur wing, took some photos but didn't do any sketches as the museum was roughly an hour from closing for the day when I visited.

Fantastic Voyage: Research And Influence Map

    After giving some thought, I have considered the target market for my project to be young boys aged between 13 and 21, particularly the kind of students who often find science boring  I have had my fair share of experiences where the content delivered in a science lesson may be lacking to some people and I recall that within such classes it often takes a practical lesson that involves spectacle such as a heart dissection or colouring the flame of a Bunsen burner to get such students exited.

    Science is all fields, but often when young people think of science the thing that often comes to mind is high-tech gadgets or billion-dollar projects from the realms of science fiction. The keywork for my project should logically be "spectacle".

    Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, one of the latest release in the Call of Duty franchise is one of the most highly acclaimed of the series in recent years as well as topping 2014's sales charts (IGN, 2015, Allen, 2015). I'm looking at Advanced Warfare in particular because the near-future setting and - more pivotally the game's exosuits - correlate with the bio-mechanical theme I have been looking into. I don't think this is an isolated incident either. A previous near-future installment that also featured futuristic technology - Black Ops II - sold $500 million worth of copies the first day it was released (Tassi, 2014). While there might be significant atmospheric difference between the Alien and "Modern-era" Call of Duty franchise, they both share the use of an industrial setting featuring fancy technology, a gritty industrial look to the tech and environments and - importantly - robotics.

    Simon directed me towards the designs of Syd Mead, who worked on films such as Aliens, Blade Runner, Johnny Mnemonic, Tron and Elysium. His art style is grounded, functional, geometric and clean-ish (the degree of cleanness depending on the intended atmosphere).

    I also decided to look at other aesthetic hallmarks of the teenager sitting on the back-bench beyond Call of Duty such as smartphones and the staples of the kind of science fiction film and television popular among young teenage men. One of the things I discovered while looking for spaceship interiors was a photograph of London's Southwark Station, the interior of which, according to the photographer, looks like a spaceship (Tim, 2013)

Bibliography

• Allan, D., 2015; Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Still Top Of UK Game Chart; ITProPortal; http://www.itproportal.com/2015/02/09/call-duty-advanced-warfare-still-top-uk-game-chart/ (last accessed 27th February 2015)
• IGN, 2015; Call of Duty: AW, GTA V Dominate US Sales Charts: IGN; available at http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/01/15/call-of-duty-aw-gta-v-dominate-us-sales-charts (last accessed 27th February 2015)
• Stegner, B., 2014; Is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Worth Buying?; Make Use Of; available at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/is-call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-worth-buying/ (last accessed 27th February 2015)
• Tassi, P., 2014; Activision Smokescreens 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare' Sales, Continuing A Trend; Forbes; available at; http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/11/20/activision-smokescreens-call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-sales-continuing-a-trend/ (last accessed 27th January 2015)
• Tim, 2013; Southwark Tube Station; Flickr; available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/locksmithtim/9135051356/ (last accessed 27th January 2015)

25/02/15: Life Drawing

    I feel things might have been a bit rapid with this life model drawing session but nonetheless I got some interesting imagery out of it, particularly the image where he is sitting on or using a large ball (my favourite of the quick poses is him posing as Atlas with the world on his shoulders). Of particular note this session was my introduction to collage (top-right), two poses I assembled from the covers of a newspaper and a magazine, making focus on using the colouration of the paper to work in light and dark. To add hilight for the image of the subject lying down I used chalk and a PVA coating to give a "shine" to the body