Flapping Wings

I am really enjoying drawing swans and looking at how they move.
There are 6 different kinds of swan 'Mute' (above), 'Trumpeter', 'Whooper', 'Black', 'Black-necked' (also above), and 'Tundra'.
The other 2 images are my drawings of how a swan flapping its wings.

So new project has started and I am looking at Swans. I would like to develop it to produce a costume piece - a ballet piece like Swan Lake maybe, but right now I am concentrating on the Swan itself, I am exploring how they move, their feathers, growth etc and will see where it takes me.
We had a drawing workshop to get us started last week and we had to make rules - our groups rules were 'draw without looking at the paper, no black, change scale, draw by taking away, and draw only texture.'
The first image is my drawing without looking at the paper, taking away, and no black.

I have been looking a the feathers and learning about their different functions etc - here are some drawings made by a feather + quink + bleach; and another by using a craft knife.

Jam Tart has officially been handed in and so now it's time to start work on my next project! I am still going to be looking at birds and looking into costume, as this is what I am interested in. I am going to start with looking at Swan Lake as well and see where that takes me. I also have some very exciting news which I am buzzing for - I have got a work placement at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh for 3 weeks in the wardrobe department and I cannot wait! I feel I am going to learn a lot from the experience and it will be such an amazing opportunity to see behind the scenes of a professional play/theatre.

jAm TaRt

As the deadline for the 'Jam Tart' project approaches I have been working on my bird designs. I have chosen to look at Seagulls and Swans so far, I might do another bird if I have time. I have been playing with compositions and see how it would look on a mug. I originally wanted to have text as borders and along the handle, but it doesn't work as well as I had hoped. However, as I say I'm still playing but this is what I got up to this week so far :)