ZOO VISIT
For this briefing, we were asked to choose between The Zoo project or the Penguin Project. As part of our research for these two projects, we were asked to go to the zoo and take pictures or sketch the animals. I was instantly drawn to the reptile section. I have been a big fan of reptiles since i can remember, I have a Gecko called Bacon myself. I find the different colour palette and textures you can find within these species. Wondering around I found multiple interesting species which made my brain explode with ideas.
It might sound a bit cliche but this visit was a real adventure for me. I went through one if the most terrifying experiences in my life. I suffer from very intense arachnophobia. I can hold cockroaches with my bare hands, snails, any being except for spiders. I saw the Arachnid sign inside the reptile section so I decided it was about time that I get over my fear. The spiders are in sealed cubicles anyways, right? NO THEY WERE NOT. I went in and instantly looked down and held onto the supervisor, hiding behind his back. I could see and almost feel the spiderwebs above me, knitted from one side of the room to the other, with their owners hanging in the middle of them. The supervisor found it really funny and started showing me around and explaining the different species. At one point he was showing me what it looked like a Transformers car (biggest spider I have ever encountered face to face) and said, do not worry, these do not jump !!! As he said that the spider dropped itself to my eye level and I could feel the pressure leaving my body. Then he was kind enough to offer to holding one to me , which I “politely” declined. I left the place and I could feel the sweat dripping down my chest. The most terrifying experience. I still believe that Arachnids in general have a very interesting structure and pattern to them but, I knew I was not going to be able to research and have to look at spiders from that day onwards.
Looking at the mammals, a few ideas popped into my brain. One of the brief’s options to choose from was the interaction between humans and animals at the zoo, and if this interaction was the most adequate. I contemplated the idea of using hybrid, or anthropomorphic figures for my project, combining humans and animals. The reason being is that animals are humans, the only attribute that in my opinion, based on the study of philosophy, draws the line between both humans and animals as a species, is reasoning, a quality yet-to-be-proven that animals do not posses. I created some pencil sketches based on the visit.
I found this experience really helpful, since it helped me decide which one of the projects I will choose, being the Zoo project the one I would work with. Being at the zoo and seeing all the caged animals, in such small confined places, made me reflect on how unfair the animals are treated just for human entertainment. I believe zoo’s are a mock-up of reality. They are a created and controlled environment to contain live species just to feed human’s curiosity but it’s not real. In order to engage and learn from the animal you have to observe it in its natural habitat. Animals can’t behave like animals when they are caged in. Some safaris give us the opportunity to watch animals in their real habitat by caging us in a truck, from where we can look at them and they can’t harm us just like divers when they have to study sharks or any other dangerous animal. This visit left me thinking about the interaction between the observer and the observed, the human and the animal, and how the animal becomes an observer too.
BRIEF
For this project , we were asked to reflect on the positives and negatives of the Zoo visit
. We were also given a text, “Excerpt from John Berger Why Look at Animals? (1980)”,four themes to respond to and links to to look at for every theme:
- Global Warming (migration, extinction, displacement)
- Camouflage (colour, pattern, survival, movement)
- Architecture (spatial design, protection, imprisonment)
- Humans and animals (tourism, veganism, interaction)
I was drawn to the interaction between humans and animals within an imprisonment environment. My theme for for the project would finally be be a combination of humans and animals and architecture. I want to play with the idea of irony and satire. It would be interesting to swap humans and animals and create a series of illustrations.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
ZOO SKETCHES
I started my development by finishing up the sketches I drew at the zoo. For these drawings I used a mixture of wet techniques, watercolour brushes, watercolours, ink and over-lined them with markers. I enjoy detailing and playing with colour so it was quite fun to be able to use such vibrant colours.
LINKS
Before choosing the final topic for my project, I looked at all the links provided in the brief so I have a bit of knowledge about every theme and I can decide based on what I find most interesting.
“Animal & Us” Exhibition: Animals & Us’ is a major exhibition exploring artists’ reflections on the relationship between humans and other animals. At a time when scientists warn that humans may be causing the sixth mass extinction on earth; how do we see and relate to other animals? Focusing on contemporary artists who explore the iteration between humans and animals and how we affect them based through contemporary art.
- “The Game Changers” Documentary: The Game changers Documentary consists of UFC Fighters and notorious people from the fitness world such as Arnold Schwarzenegger realising that everything they had been taught about protein and its inportance in fitness wasn’t true. They claim that switching to a plant based diet has a better outcome in terms of performance. As a female who is dedicated to fitness and works out 6 days a week, being on a plat based diets doesn’t allow me to build muscle or have more energy, I need to have 100g protein per meal. I have tied plan based diets before, it might be that I haven’t done it properly but it makes me bloated and tired. I understand that we are all individuals and what doesn’t work on someone might work with you. I believe that Veganism is a very broad and personal subject so I rather not use this theme for the project.
“Animal & Us” Exhibition: Animals & Us’ is a major exhibition exploring artists’ reflections on the relationship between humans and other animals. At a time when scientists warn that humans may be causing the sixth mass extinction on earth; how do we see and relate to other animals? Focusing on contemporary artists who explore the iteration between humans and animals and how we affect them based through contemporary art. An example of this interpretartion would be the artist Shimabuku. He creates a similar between an octopus and humans, explaining why he sees an octopus almost as a human being; octopuses, when scared, tend to hold a stone or a piece of glass from the bottom of the sea as protection. The taste can also vary between individual octopuses. This is, in my opinion, a very humanly behaviour. Humans have similar traditions of superstition or religion. Another interpretation of the interaction between humans and animals would be Stephanie Quayle’s clay sculptures of gorillas. She uses clay as a medium because, according to the documentary, clay allows her to capture the essence of the animal by moulding it and the letting it dry so the essence is captured. She also pretends to give back to the chimps, since they have been used for human advantage for too long. She resembles the behaviour between chimps and humans, stating that they are both emotionally intelligent. Chimps understand social groups and family bonds. This intelligence is usually dismissed by humans. Another example would be therapy dogs. Therapy dogs inflict a calming effect on special needs people, they also aid in hospitals and homes. They develop a bond with the person they are taking care of and this, for me is some sort of protective instinct they have towards us. To summarise, Animals and us documentary aims to raise awareness on how, the more humans, the more animals natural habitat are harmed. This means more humans, less space which is leading to endangering or extinctions or of various species. The relationship between animals and humans is being pushed to a limit. This exhibition aims to educate people on how animals are fundamental to everything else in nature, and what a catastrophe would be if they were extinct.
- “CARNAGE” directed by Simon Amstell: Carnage is a film based in 2067, where all humankind is vegan. The storyline is in retrospective, with the older generations trying to make peace with having eaten meat in their past. Personally I thought the film is very well made and delivers the message clear. This being said I thought it was too crude and I couldn’t finish it but the message was clear on the first two minutes of the film, The curious part of me was watching it through my fingers, but the sensitive part of me was getting sick from the blood. Being someone who eats and loves meat myself, I thought engaging on a project that raises awareness against meat consumption wouldn’t work for me or even make me feel like an hypocrite. That being said, I could use what I have learned from the film to protest against over production of the meat industry and it’s abuse towards animals. What really suck with from the film is the2024 musical production threatening to blow the milk industry apart. It wasn’t just the message, it was the visual effects, the aesthetic of the character, a mix between an animal an a person. This performance aided me into having a solid concept. My concept is mixing humans and animals in a human or animal environment. The aim is now to create illustrations using animal, humans and animals to protest against the abuse implemented by humans the animals.
Having now a concept, I proceeded to sketch based on my ideas. I started off by drawing the sketch above, an office worker with a pigeons head. by using the pinion as an animal, I represent people’s freedoms within the city. Pigeons roam the streets of the cities like humans, but they are free in the sense that they don’t have responsibilities. Even people who claim to feel free are following some kind of rule or human created belief. I used the office worker to represent the concept of imprisoned human within its routine, then I chose the pigeon head as another “citizen” and I used the cage in a more literal form of expressing imprisonment. I then added pigeons flying around its head to show that there is always an aim of freedom present in our lives.
I drew the octopus based on “Animals and us” based on how octopuses hold glass as an amulet. As a barmaid, a person holding a glass of wine was the first picture that came to my mind. I used the concept of the octopus holding things as a similar of the typical human in a pub, holding a glass in their hand, sometimes with a cigarette between their fingers while still holding the glass, using the limbs like an octopus would, to carry as many things as possible. The I decided to mimic the ink octopuses release with the smoke of the cigarette.
The similarities of a human being and chimps are also mentioned in the documentary “Animals & Us” so I thought of representing the more instinctive nature of humans, the strong dominant side. wrestlers fight and so do animals. Animals follow the rule of the strongest. They fight to establish hierarchy and dominance. This is, in a way, what wrestlers do. They take their most brutal side to the ring and they fight till only one man stands.
As a medium for these drawings, I used A5 watercolour paper and to colour, watercolour pens. I overland them with 0.1 marker to give more definition to it. At this point, I am sure of what my topic is and what I am going to do.
ARTIST RESEARCH
Based on the sketches and my drawing style, I immediately thought of satirical illustrations on newspapers. In year 1, we had s CTS lesson about the history of illustration and how illustrations are used in a manner of protest or to inform about complex topics. Since I am going to create a series of satirical illustrations, I thought researching newspaper illustrators would be the best way to start.
J.J GRANDVILLE
Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard Grandville was an artist from the 19th Century, famously known for bringing inanimate objects to life. His art is based on anthropomorphic objects, animals, plants, etc. He was also considered a pioneer of the surrealism movement. Despite his life ending at 43 years old, his art ranged across the entire spectrum of art, from graphic illustration to political caricature. His best known work was the anthropomorphic of humans an animals. The reason for this is that these illustrations aimed for a bourgeois audience, who related to the illustrations and its messages. He also represented scenes of the public life, choosing different animals to represent different positions in society (Marnaidi, 2020). See for example the two images below:
On the left side you can see a Pedder. A Pedder is someone who sells on the streets. On the right side you can see someone from a higher class. The difference is obvious, while The Pedder is represented by a monkey, which has been used throughout history as a derogatory way of referring to someone in a lower position to others. On the contrary, the novel person is represented by a vulture. In my opinion, and what I have seen in many films, books and cartoons, vultures have been used to represent someone wealthy and greedy. Grandville does not only play with animals and objects, he also represents androgyny and gender role swaps. This is way ahead of time for a man from the 19th century and in my opinion, it is what makes him stand out more. This might be the reason why his most controversial artwork was the least successful and known. People from a higher class don’t want to be associated with something so controversial.
This image takes me back to the “Animals & Us” exhibition. It reminds Stephanie Quayle’s interpretation of chimps and how she sees them equally emotional intelligent as humans. Even though this shows a man turning into a rat, you can read the message he’s trying to engage. Humans are animals but we posses an attribute that makes us different from other species, reasoning. This image show how the human side is slowly fading only to turn into an animal, who lives bu their instincts. I didn’t know anything about Grandville before, but I believe we share the same passion from anthropomorphic illustration.
KAWANABE KYŌSAY
Kawanabe was a Japanese artist from the 19th century who was aware of western art but still kept the traditional style of illustration. In October 1870, Kyōsai was arrested after taking part in a shogaki held by the haiku poet Kikakudo Ujaku at a restaurant on the banks of Shinobazu Pond at which he got very drunk and painted works that satirized the authorities. He was held in detention for several months and then sentenced to fifty lashes in January 1871. Kyōsai gadan says the works in question showed shoes being put on inhabitants of the island of long-legged people and inhabitants of the island of long-armed people pulling hairs from a large statue of the Buddha – both of which were interpreted as satirizing officials’ sycophancy towards foreigners.(Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889) – The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints, 2020)
The image above is his on take on his arrest. What really draws my attention to this drawing is the take on a controversial topic in the style of Japanese traditional woodblock prints. The strong lines and lack of perspective makes this piece even more interesting. This piece also reminds me of the Red’s Women’s Workshop, where suffragettes would create prints protesting for their rights.
School of spooks is another painting that I find interesting to look up for my topic. This painting was created on the Meji period. This period is characterised for being heavily inspired bu Western culture, but you can see how Kyōsay maintains the traditional Japanese style. The painting alludes to the introduction of comprehensive education for all. Each character is represented by a demon. It is another form of morphing between humans and something else (School for Spooks (‘Bakebake gakko’) No. 3, (1874) by Kawanabe Kyōsai, 2020). The demons are taking lesson in a classroom as humans would do. I also find interesting the colour palette, even thought vibrant colours are not as present, the little details stand out making the print colourful.
DAVID ÁLVAREZ
David Álvarez is best know for creating anthropomorphic illustration that glow and look alive despite the being made using black and white graphite. He likes playing with black and white contrast to make the illustrations look alive. One of his most recent work, in collaboration with Julia Díaz, is called Ancient Night surrounding Mesoamerican myths (The Black and White Anthropomorphic Illustrations of David Álvarez, 2020).
David’s use of graphite is so polished that the drawings seem soft. You can also tell his professionalism and attention to detail by how clean the drawings are. I have worked with graphite before, not graphite pencils but the graphite bars. I found it very difficult to soften and avoid scratching the paper. It is a technique I am willing to try since I am used to bright colours and water based paints. Another of David’s most outstanding works is his series “I Dreamed I Was The Night”. At the moment these images are part of an online catalog but he is planning to turn them into a narrative for a story (SIERZPUTOWSKI, 2020). These illustrations represent the night as physical being with human traits.
SATIRICAL ILLUSTRATION
Satirical illustrations are thought-provoking illustrations used to address conflict. A great example of what a satirical illustration would be the work of Pawel Kuczynski. I have previously researched on Pawel since we had a lecture on satire in 1st year. He creates beautiful, dark meaning illustrations using pastel colours. Even though the images themselves are aesthetically beautiful, there is a dee and crude rarity represented in them. His satire addresses war, political manipulation and hypocrisy, environmental damage, economic disparity, and many other ills facing humanity today in a very simple way so anyone can understand not just by looking at them, but understanding them (D, 2020).
In image number 1, you can see a butcher feeding and serving a cat while other animals meant to be butchered are watching. I interpret this image as both human hypocrisy and class privilege. Hypocrisy is shown by the man prioritising, protecting and taking care of the cat for being a domestic animal while he kills the others. You can see how there is a different treatment for the cat. The cat is cherished and important, part of the family while the other animals, not considered domestic, receive no affection or proper treatment, they serve a purpose.
My interpretation of image number 2 would be how the access we have to information is biased and controlled by higher forces. The image shows a border separating the internet from humans, and a guar controlling wether there is access or not.
Another image representing control of information and population would be image number 3. The image shows a flock of sheep walking towards the only piece of grass conveniently placed in the vote box. The shepherd would be the politician guiding the flock towards the only hope they have.
This type of irony or satire is the one I aim to portray in my illustrations. I need to decide wether to add text or not.
SKETCHES
Based on my research, I sketched a number of scenarios who I feel are a form of protest agains the differences made between species. I intend to make the viewer aware of how cruel it can be the way we treat animals. For this sketches I borrowed a tablet. I intend to buy one in the future so I thought it would be interesting to try how the images would turn out.
For this image I used Procreate. Since I am not familiar with digital, I painted the whole 
image blue trying to change the colour of the lines. The image shows an office environment with a mermen (half-human-half-fish) sitting at the desk. Next to him I drew a fishtanks bit instead of being a goldfish inside, there is a human snorkeler. With this drawing I want to express the confinement of the fish inside such a tiny tank in comparison to the human’s office. Sometimes sitting at the desk in such a monotonous and tiny space can be overwhelming, so it’s the fishtanks for the dish. Despite the fish’s short lifespan, it needs to have space in order to live properly like humans. Sometimes we see fish as objects we use for decoration, people forget to feed them or change the water. They don’t cherish it they use it as decoration just because it’s size and because we as humans are unable to hear them complain or suffer.
This image is inspired by one of the most controversial entertainment method of my home country, Spain. Bullfighting is cataloged under the name of “Sport” but such as cock-fighting or dog-fighting, using a living being’s suffering for entertainment should never be considered a sport. Bullfighting consists on a bull being locked in a space so small he can’t even sit, standing surrounded by its own feces, no light, no food, no water and on top of that they give him electrical shocks so when the bull comes out is blinded by the light, confused, angry and weak. The bullfighter then procedes to provoke the bull to have an excuse to stab him slowly, getting pride from harming a defenceless animal. Then when the bull slowly bleeds until it han stand anymore, the bullfighter cuts its ears ( still alive ) as trophy. I do not understand how this was once part of Spanish culture and people see it as art. The image shows a bull dressed in the traditional “Torero” outfit, grabbing what makes a man a “man”, his balls, as a form of trophy and pride, radicalising and degrading the human in front of an audience. I am constantly addressing confinement and suffering for entertainment. This applies to Zoos, therefore why I chose this as my topic. Animals should be able to roam free just based on animals having their own habitat. If they have an habitat is for them to use it, not to be pot into small cages trying to resemble their natural habitats.
I really enjoyed looking into David Álvarez’s graphite paintings. I decided to try graphite out. I din’t have graphite pencils but I had graphite bars. I tried the colours out on a piece of watercolour paper but the paper was too grainy so I had to choose a softer one.
For this drawing I used graphite bars. Since it is quite a soft material like charcoal, I had to use a paper stump to get the darker tones and seal the graphite into the paper. This allows me to remove the excess with a brush. For the brighter tones, I used a pencil rubber. I am not very pleased with the outcome. This might be because I used a thick block of graphite to paint instead of pencils so I couldn’t pay a lot of attention to detail. Based on not being very pleased with the results, I decided not to use graphite as a medium and use a more comic-style medium.
HISTORY OF ILLUSTRATED PRESS
The illustrated press first appeared in the 19th century due to the advances in technology and printing. The illustrations treated themes such as politics, military struggles, celebrities or caricatures. This developed the art genre called art-reportage. Art-reportage consists on capturing a moment or object in situ (Picturing the News: The Birth of the Illustrated Press, 2020). Artists used to go to locations to recreate the historical events. Artist used to be commissioned by the wealthy to document the news for them but with the advances of printing it was possible to create multiple prints of the same drawing faster and for cheaper prices. Artists started to be commissioned to document daily events. Artists were commissioned depending on the danger or difficulty of the task. Some are were being sent to war and had to carry guns while drawing, and had to use mediums such as cigarette paper or scraps to create quick sketches without being noticed and putting themselves in danger. This lead to an “identity problem” because printmakers would perfect or re-draw the documented sketches, making new drawings replace the essence and style of the artist (Netter, 2020). Here are some examples of art reportage in the 19th century:
When I started doing secondary research, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do and research on. My illustrations are going to be drawn in the style of the comics/ caricatures features in the newspapers. I remember my dad would give me the last page of the newspaper to read because that was the page where the kids section and comics used to be. I didn’t know how that style of illustration was called but I could picture it in my head so I started googling names such as newspaper illustrations, editorial illustrations, etc until I came across art-reportage, which I described earlier as the illustrations created in situ while taking place and are re-drawn to be mass printed. The definition is what I am aiming for but the style not quite. As I was getting frustrated I looked up newspaper comics and I found exactly what I was looking for. Hand drawn comics printed in vibrant colours and over-lined with strong black lines. Those comic have not only been fundamental in the development o my artistic curiosity as a child but to my whole generation and generation above and below mine. If I mention names such as, for example “Tin-Tin”, “Calvin & Hobbs”, “Snoopy”, “Charlie Brown”, “Garfield” everyone, from my parents to my little brother knows what I’m talking about. While researching about newspaper comic-strip illustration, I learnt that they developed from the art-reportage from the 19th century. I was feeling unsure wether to keep art-reportage research for this project as I thought it was not relevant but now I can like the two together.
Development in printing caused a higher demand of illustrations in newspapers. Artists started innovating in order to meet those demands. The Swiss artist Rodolphe Töpffer is credited with creating the first multi-panel comic in 1827 and the first illustrated book, “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck,” a decade later. Each of the book’s 40 pages contained several picture panels with accompanying text underneath. It was a big hit in Europe, and in 1842, a version was printed in the U.S. as a newspaper supplement in New York .As printing technology evolved and allowed publishers to print in large quantities and sell for a nominal cost, humorous illustrations changed as well. In 1859, German poet and artist Wilhelm Busch published caricatures in the newspaper “Fliegende Blätter”. In 1865, he published a famous comic called “Max und Moritz,” which chronicled the escapades of two young boys. In the U.S, the first comic with a regular cast of characters, “The Little Bears” created by Jimmy Swinnerton, appeared in 1892 in the San Francisco Examiner. It was printed in colour and appeared alongside the weather forecast (The Colorful History of Comic Books and Newspaper Cartoon Strips, 2020). Although there were may comics before, “The Yellow Kid” by Richard Oultcout is often considered as the first real comic strip.
The character first appeared in Truth magazine in 1894. By 1895 Outcault had a steady gig at the New York World newspaper, drawing a strip called “Hogan’s Alley.” One of the many characters was Mickey Dugan, a bald, big-eared youth in an oversized nightshirt. In colour editions, the nightshirt was yellow, and within a few months readers were clamouring for more of The Yellow Kid . The Yellow Kid wasn’t a comic per-se. It was more like individual illustrations with messages within them making the comic so popular it would have fans and imitators all around the world (The Yellow Kid, 2020). The Yellow kid is the perfect example of what I want to do. I don’t want to create a comic strip or more than one image about the same topic, I intend to create one single illustration that speaks for itself.
Researching on all these artists and styles, I now have an audience. My audience is going to be newspaper readers and the medium is going to be paper. The technique I am going to use is markers and water-based colours and I am going to use protest and satire as the aim.
FINAL OUTCOME
For the final outcome I chose to re-draw my initial digital illustration but by hand. This is because I am very sloppy still using digital and I believe the outcome would look better If I can draw it by hand. I started off with the fish design. Using a blue pencil I drew the lines as a guide for perspective, then I overland them with pencil and started drawing the furniture and the mermen.
After drawing the outline with black marker, I started applying colour with coloured pencils using the same method as in the graphite drawing. I applied the colour by adding soft layers of pencil on top pf the others, softening and blending with a paper stump, a brush and water.
To add more detail, I accentuated the shadows with watercolours on top of the pencil. I used black marker to over-line it again and added pointillism and shadows using thin black lines. I also used a white marker to add light into the figure.
This drawing is intended for a newspaper. It is a satirical illustration protesting against animal captivity. I hope people see the irony in this drawing. The naked human inside the fish-tank represents how we deprive animals of their freedom by using them as decor or human entertainment. The human with the fish head represents that animals have the same right to be in their natural habitat. Being the office the natural habitat of the humans represents how even though we believe we are free, we follow the rules of society so we are not completely free. The irony of this drawing is that the characters are in a loop. The half-human half-fish is inside the office, having to stay there for the hours allocated to him and he’s surrounded by sea. The office would be another metaphorical fish-tank. This is why I chose the interaction between humans and animals as a topic because if humans are as reasonable as we claim we are, why aren’t we more empathic when seeing animals in such an unfair situation, being the situation , a metaphor of how human beings are expected to follow rules and are conditioned by the environment we live in. This is how it would look like mocked up into a newspaper:
Since I am not very skilled with photoshop, I asked a friend to help me create the mock-ups. We tried different outcomes and I really liked the idea of seeing someone reading the newspaper.
This would be the final outcome. I thought it would be a great idea to edit a fishtanks into the picture. I am very pleased with the outcome. Seeing it as a simple drawing was making me doubt myself and think it’s too simple but once edited into the newspaper feels like the concept is coming to life.
IVM YEAR 3 