George and his Amazing Singing
Limpets
BA Illustration, Falmouth University
Long Term Porject
"The Circus of Curiosity and Disbelief is a show the likes of which you have never seen. Circus whales perform alongside wonders from around the coast; Darrian's Technicolor Dancing Crabs, The Floating Head of Hue, Bearded Lobster and now with our latest addition to the family George and his Amazing Singing Limpets!"
the Barker in the streets of Om
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What started as a two week found materials project in my first year of university developed into a world that has followed me ever since.
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Found Materials Project- 1st year
Skills
Challenged as a class to create a character only from materials that we were able to find, living by the sea I of course traveled down to the beach. For some reason I became fixated on collecting as many white limpets as I could and from here spawned the story which has most underlined my ideas for the past years.
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The Limpets lived on my desk at university but they never stayed still. It became a game for various people in the class to move them around when others were out of the room. Who ever was in first would have them migrate across the whole studio. When they eventually came home with me they did the same, many a guest has tried to use the loo while being stared at by multiple Limpets.
ILLUSTRATION
PHOTOSHOP
TEXTILES
CLAY MODELING
Summer Project- 2nd year
Having enjoyed so much creating the first and second drafts of George I decided during the summer as part of a Sketchbook project to try and flesh out some of the other characters from the Circus.
Now away from the coast of Cornwall at my parents I experimented with creating clay heads that could be stitched to the bodies I created. In the end they became the elders of the Circus of Curiosity and Disbelief: The Ring Master, The Barker and The Bursar.
Final Project- 3rd year
Given free rein in which to create whatever projects we wanted in the final year I decided the World of George and the Circus deserved the time to become a full project of their own. I continued the idea of found materials that inspired the original project in order to continue my design process. This was very beneficial and created many characters that I otherwise would not have done, including the fanatical 'Corkers' who wait for the day of the great flood, wearing corks upon their backs so that the faithful may float to the surface when the waters return to the ocean.
The Psychic Floating Head of Hue
"He can see your soul and knows what you had for breakfast."
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Hue stared off as a drawing of Hugh, a fellow Falmouth student, I never had time to finish the back of his head during a 1st year lecture. Throughout the development of my Circus Hue (as I had misspelled his name) turned into one of the main attractions to the Circus and something of a guardian for George from those who might take advantage of his simple mind.
On this image more than any before I tried to mix my use of Digital painting and traditional media. Hue was hand drawn, digital painted, printed, had new eyebrows painted on, stuck to a backing of tinfoil, photographed all together and finally text added digitally. All of which I kept as in keeping with the poster for George created three years earlier.
Jenny, The Entrance of George to the City of Om and The Gentleman.
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During the my time at Falmouth I found time and time again that it was my sketchbooks that were the most heavily praised by the tutors and peers alike. For my final project I stopped trying to create 'finished' looking pieces of art, and instead embraced the mixed media and layout from my sketchbook work. This allowed me to be a lot more free and create a style that is completely mine. Everything from Jennies bottles of collectable Sprites that hang within her shop so thickly that even the reader must part them to follow the story, to using photographs and taking compositions almost directly out from my sketchbooks.
