Statement of Intent.

For my final major project I intend to create a hand-bound and illustrated book of reinterpreted stories from medieval bestiaries. I have selected 5 animals to paint; a crow, dove, stag, fox and rabbit. I selected these animals because their stories from the medieval books I have found particularly inspiring, and because they are fairly common animals that I want to refresh peoples perspective of. Each individual animal will have a watercolour, gold (eaither paint, gel pen or leaf) and fineliner illustration inspired by medieval bestiary art and illumination as well as the artists I have studied - such as Kay Nielsen, Lesley Ann Ivory and Ulisse Aldrovandi. I want to combine the bold medieval inspired backgrounds, borders and gold accents with more detailed, observed illustrations of animals more often found in modern field guides and nature books. This is so that my illustrations are fantastical and vivid as well as having elements of truth; so that viewers might rethink the commonplace animals I have selected and view them as something more enchanted.

I plan to use a coptic binding for my book; an ancient metod of binding which ties in with my references from the middle ages. I plan for the pages to be water-colour paper so that I am able to paint directly onto the book pages. I want my paintings to be roughly A5 landscape; small enough so that I am able to paint a larger quantity of pages and so the book has something small and precious about it.

Design ideas.

For this design; I turned less to the art found in bestiaries to more general medieval manuscript illuminations; taking inspiration from the intricate flowing floral designs to frame my painting of a dove, enclosed in a more conventional rectangle border with a goldleaf layer inside. I used pale greens, purples, pinks and blues to compliment the colours of the dove as opposed to the more basic, bold colours usually used in medieval art; however I think this makes my design look too 'pretty', I would rather my designs to have more of a bold presence.

This is my revised design for my dove painting, using a design which is more blockish and bold than my previous design, with more deeper colours and more simplistic patterns to counterbalance the delicate, detailed dove. 

for this design idea medieval bestiary art directly influenced the background and border; I took elements from several medieval illustration pieces and turned them around with my own ideas to create a this design. The colours are largely muted primary shades; which is very typical of this style of art. the detailed white deer in the center of the composition overlaps with the border, which is another conventional feature of medieval bestiary illustrations as the artists tend to pay no mind to perspective or to representing things realistically. The deer however would be completed in a much more fine and representative style; juxtaposing the blue and gold stylised beasts found in bestiaries. The stars, rectangle center and the square shapes in each corners will be completed in gold leaf, while the rest of the image will be watercolour (with gum arabic to create the white pattern inside the border), stick and ink for outlines and fineliner for the details. 

This design broke a few of the more recognisable conventions in medieval art; the colour combination for example are fairly atypical in this style of art (muted primary colours with golds and browns are more conventional). I based by colour choices on the fur of the fox; not wandering far from harmonious red, browns and golds - contrasted with bright turquoise. As with all my designs; I'm combining the bright, stylised technique of medieval art with a painting of a much more realistic representation of an animal. The gold areas in the leaves of the tree and the squares in each corner will be completed in gold leaf. The rest of the image will be completed in watercolour, stick and ink for outlines and fineliner for details.                                                                                                              

This design combines all three of my previously drawn animals into one design. A composition such as this one would be used if I chose my text to follow a narrative. It would also be appropriate as a cover design, or to illustrate an introduction piece of text.

This is my front cover design. The contrast between the black and white design makes it eye-catching and bold. The gold and jewel border is taken from the front cover of a medieval book, incorporating an element of the lavish, luxurious style from which I have been so influenced by.
I chose to design my front cover digitally, as opposed to painting it traditionally, as I think this will give my book a more professional, sleek appearance. This also allows me to glaze the cover without worrying about the paint bleeding or smudging.

Lesley Ann Ivory transcription.

Painting to confirm my chosen media & style of working.

This painting was completed to see how I could combine the medieval style borders with my own designs and detailed animal images. The bold, primary-colour border brings a liveliness and boldness to the modest, unimposing rabbit image that is the centrepiece. In the red outer border, i have chosen a delicate vine and leaf design to compliment the detailed rabbit image, so that the juxtaposition between the two styles is not so stark. The watercolour is versatile enough to be able to effectively cope with being applied in bright block for the border,  light, flowing stripes for the grass, watery washes for the under layers of the rabbit, the high pigment, textural stippling for the top layers to create a fur texture and still be enough absorbed by the paper so that I can work on top of the paint with ink, fineliner and gel pen. It is the flexibility of the watercolour that I have chosen to add so much detail to my paintings, as opposed to the flat, simplified and stylised egg tempura paintings of original medieval art.
Gum arabic will allow me to create fine white and light coloured patterns and borders and add a texture and a range of mark making for the animal pelts.

                                        

  

Secondary source inspiration.
click ^

Lesley Anne Ivory.

Lesely Ann Ivory is am english fine artist and illustrator from England. During her career; her wood engravings have been exhibited at the Royal Academy, has created a set of limited edition prints of animals for the World Wildlife Fund and illustrated more than 40 books. She now works as a freelance designer and illustrator in Hertfordshire. 

Ivory is inspired by her cats, who feature almost exclusively in her artworks. She utilises her knowledge of the history of design into a wealth of sources of inspiration for artworks; including Indian and Persian design, mosaics, decoration and embellishments from the ancient world. 

This is my chosen image to study. This image is part of Ivory's series of artworks 'Star Cats: A Feline Zodiac' published as a book in 1998. This image; showing the feline representation of Capricorn was completed using watercolour and gouache. 

The main body of the artwork is completed in a traditional wildlife painting style- entirely literal, with the focus being on rendering the subjects in a style as true-to-life as possible. Around this fairly conventional painting however is thick and beautiful border of incredibly rich colours, detail and symbolism. 

The frame is broken up into a tapestry of smaller sections, each segment relating in some way to the Star sign 'Capricorn'. The top center pannel of the frame features a painted copy of an original medieval illustration (left) depicting Capricorn the goat; the constellation and symbol relating to this astrological sign. This art style continues throughout the piece, the silver interlocking designs between panels, the golden bird border either sides of the frame and the pendents and the jewelled pendents in each corner all belonging to the same celtic style. 

The colours in the border are rich and opulent. The overriding golden colour with elements of emerald green give the painting a lavished, luxurious aspect. The gold and green theme continues to the center of the painting; on the golden tabby cat with wide green eyes. with the similarly coloured border and against the pale, snowy backgrund the cat has a greater prominence and our eyes are instantly drawn to it first. 

Chosen animals to focus studies on.

Selected for how well I think each beast will work in my chosen style, my vision for each piece, their prominence in medieval lore and for personal interest in their stories. 

Dove - meaning in the various colours of doves

Crow - long lived bird that tells the future

Fox - deceitful animal that won't run in a straight line

Rabbit - Wild beast hunted by dogs

Ram - were the first animals to be sacrificed on alters

Stag - A drink made from the tears and the heart bones of a stag is a cure for troubles of the heart