Monteviot House Gardens 8th April

On 8th April my mum and I went to Monteviot House Gardens to do research for one of the units that  I am currently doing at college. The weather was really nice which meant I could sit and do a few sketches of some of the huge variety of flowers and other plants that are growing there, as well as take lots of photos with great natural light. (By the end of our visit we had taken well over 200 photos!!!)

As it is still quite early in the season, there was still a lot of blossom and buds around which were very interesting to photograph. My particular favourite is the photo of the pink blossoms because I think the different levels of focus within the image help give it depth and interest without taking away from the beautiful flowers themselves. I also think it shows the different stages of the opening blossom quite well.

 

We also saw lots of butterflies, most were too quick for us to photograph but I managed to get photos of both a Peacock Butterfly and a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly while they were resting. I was also quite chuffed when I managed to photograph a bee between flights.

There were lots of daffodils and primroses around the Gardens.  I particularly like the light on the cream and yellow daffodil as I think it subtly creates impact within the image. I also like the primrose photo because of the little folds at the edge of some of the petals which I think makes them more unique.

I sat and sketched some of the daffodils which also had some ivy growing up a tree behind them. I used Fine Liner Pen to sketch them and I later added colour using Inktense pencils and Faber Castell pens - I think the image turned out well and that the colour adds to the overall look of the drawing. I quite like the illustrated look of the daffodils.

Some of the flowers had very interesting centers so I used my camera to zoom in and focus on the really interesting details on some of the plants.

Pampas Grass

 

Pampas Grass

 

 

 

"White Perfection" Heather

At this time of year, there are more small flowers than big ones but sometimes the smaller flowers have more intricate details which can make them even more beautiful than the bigger flowers that we tend to see more of in the summer.

I saw this plant with yellow flowers at Monteviot Gardens and thought it was very interesting as it only had four petals and was growing more on branches than stems.

 

 

One of the bigger flowers that we saw was this white one. I thought it was interesting with its two halves - one half quite regular and evenly spaced and the other more curled and imperfect - but who am I to say what is perfect?

  

I was trying to photograph a close-up of these white flowers and this cheeky little fly landed right in the shot as I took the photo. 

 

Type and Time...

For this unit we had to make an alphabet out of 26 different things that we found letters in, (e.g. trees, fences, road signs, furniture, etc.). This was really hard for some of the letters such as the capital “R” – I ended up using a patch of snowdrops which were shaped like an “R”.

 

We also had the chance to use different objects to make alphabets and it was quite fun thinking about what else could be used - I made some using sweets, ribbon, pinecones, cutlery, paperclips and a few others.

 

 

 

As part of the unit we were encouraged to look at the history of typography. I chose to present this as a scroll. I got the idea from the 2010 film “Alice in Wonderland” in which they have an “Oraculum” which they describe as a “Calendrical Compendium”. I used the latter phrase as the title for my timeline. I think they call it an Oraculum because it tells them of future events as well as past and present.

I really like the scroll idea and think it works well as a timeline. I am keeping this unit in a sketchbook and on the page before the timeline, I have written “Follow the line within the scroll, and through time you will roll…”.  I think this is a clever and slightly mysterious way of saying it is a timeline.

 
I really enjoyed looking at different examples of cave paintings (in films etc) to try out. I used some images from films that involve cave paintings too, to show that they are still inspiring people today. I started doing my version of the Lascaux hand paintings – I even roped in my family to help. Mum mentioned that she’d visited the Lascaux caves in the 1980s and how amazing they were.  These caves are only opened for short periods so that the paintings are preserved and I hope to visit them one day. This was interesting and I think the result was quite effective too. I then tried painting on stones and rocks from a nearby burn. I used acrylic so that the colours would stand out even on the darker stones. Some of the images I tried to create were a deer from the Brother Bear artwork; Kenai from Brother Bear (as a bear); an ammonite; and the painting that Grug does of his family near the end of the film “The Croods”. 

 

"Brother Bear" artwork

 

Kenai from "Brother Bear"

 

 

"The Croods"

Another form of typography that really interested me was Egyptian Hieroglyphs. I used these hieroglyphics to write some different phrases including THIS IS EGYPT and GONE FISHING.  I also explored a few Egyptian symbols such as the Shen, Ankh and Eye of Ra/Horus. I used different media for these –I used acrylic paint with some on canvas, some on newsprint and some on material. I also tried to mix the old and the new by using a template of the Eye and a sponge to apply the paint. I arranged multiple Eyes in an attempt to create a graffiti style image.

This is Egypt

 

Gone Fishing

 

Shen
meaning infinity or everlasting

Ankh

 

The Eye of Ra/Horus

 

I also really enjoyed trying out runes and would like to experiment more with them in the future. I particularly like the mystery of the runes and hieroglyphs – maybe I just like others having to work out what I’ve written!

We also tried printing using potatoes – this was tricky as we had to remember to carve the letters backwards so that they would print the right way round. Not everyone remembered this so it meant we had to either avoid those letters or find a clever way to make them the same way round as the rest of the word, e.g. the “G” was carved the wrong way round so I put it at the right hand side of the page and printed “GOODBYE” backwards as the other letters could all be printed to make them look backwards.

 I also tried using some different type-pieces e.g. wood and plastic and arranged them to create some sort of image. I also tried to portray the ear shape for “Listening”.

 

 

 

It was interesting using the different materials to print the letters but the wood and plastic ones didn’t print as well as the others did. 

 
I really enjoyed this project and I look forward to experimenting further with different fonts and overlays.