I often get asked where I find the inspiration for my work, especially my more abstract and figurative pieces. In this post I thought I would give you a glimpse at some of the sketches I made towards the development of one of the characters in my work. This is not at a finished piece of artwork but more of an insight into the process of how I develop my ideas. I found the inspiration for this particular character preserved in a jar of fluid at the Grant Museum of Zoology, you can see my recent post about the museum here.
On the label of the jar it says Macropus rufus, which is the scientific name for a red kangaroo. There is a strange beauty to this specimen and after my visit to the museum I started to create a series of drawings. The first of these drawings was in graphite, pencil and charcoal.
Drawing on paper with graphite pencil and charcoal.
The next stage of ideas development after the graphite and charcoal drawing was to make a very quick pen and watercourse sketch, taking certain features of the character and beginning to modify and exaggerate these. I concentrated on enlarging the bones and angles of the arms, and enlarging the ears and hips.
Quick Pen and watercolour sketch
For the third drawing I continued to modify the features of the character with an emphasis on elongating the figure and curving the limbs.
Refining the shape
Look out for this figure in some of my future work, and now you will know a little bit more about his origins.
