Put the line in the coconut

My theme for my Terry Pratchett research is fantasy, my three motifs are castles, dragons and wizards.

Here I used lines from my catalogue of line I made. It was really weird to work with some of the lines because I'm used to using fine liners a lot so I get used to a nice smooth line. But this was good fun and while making it, the weird lines were making me think where I could use them; although the main use I thought of was that these lines would be great in a psychedelic/trippy kind of image. 

I really liked the lines I used for the wizard. They're really loose and kind of just bounce around where a smooth line would go. My favourite part is the eyes though, its not a shape I would usually think of but I enjoy it even if its only for the fact that it's unusual.

For this task we were told to use three different lines for three motifs and to create a background, mid-ground and foreground by using the light/medium/bold versions of line.

In the bottom right corner I tried to make it from an angle so that one motif would span fore, mid and background. I used my bold version on the closest bit and then tried to smooth it back to the light version for the top. I really liked how it worked because this is a technique I had forgotten about, something we covered last year. I think I may begin doing the whole thicker line=closer because it gives depth to the piece without the need for shading/colour.

The line on the castle here was my favourite line though. It makes it look like every inch of it is turreted, which is apt for the motif.

I made a mind map of the information I already know about Pratchett. This is so that it was all in front of me to look at and think about. I then took some ink (the challenge of the task was to use a media we don't usually) with a brush which is the tool I am most unskilled with; it just flops back and forth without my say so, I need to work on brush control.

 This was about the crazy rate at which he produces books

 This is more about his alzheimers

I like this idea of unravelling brain matter, although very roughly drawn. I was originally trying to drawn the brain as a ball of wool but I was battling the brush for creative control and settled for just a block colour fill.

To end the day I did a bit of collage. I tried to make the sandcastle with similar wiggly lines as from my catalogue of line. The one that went best though I think is the wizards hat. It just went really well; the lines are smooth, its simple and recognisable and the colours go well with each other.

Something I learned from this is that when you're cutting out a complicated shape (the dragon head) use a less patterned paper. Theres too much happening on the paper I chose for the dragons and it makes it harder to see the subtleties/indents of the shape.