PROGRESS & OUTCOME - THE BLUEBIRDS

 BLUEBIRDS ARE A BIBLICAL & SPIRITUAL SYMBOL OF JOY & HOPE, THEY ALSO ARE BELIEVED TO REPRESENT A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LIVING & THE DEAD.

In Native American Mythology, some tribes consider the bluebird to be a spirit in animal form that symbolises the dawn of a new day. Others associate bluebirds with the sun. The tribesmen of Iroquois, they were seen as symbols of good fortune, fertility, & prosperity. They were often seen in spring, meaning they were associated with growth & new beginnings. People from this tribe also believed they fight off the evil demigod of winter, Tawiscaron.

This was the bluebird section from my original sketched idea for each piece. I always end up drawing multiple 'thumbnail sketches' so I can properly plan out ideas & gain more inspiration & add things in the process. My first sketch was this one. I wanted the birds to show connection, so I decided I wanted to connect them with string by their beaks, tied in the centre. This would create a more connected and smooth composition, again, matching the symbolism of the bluebirds. I feel like all these birds symbolise positive things. The sun in the background brightens up the pieces, making them look less plain. I relate this to the phrase 'radiating positivity'. The sun, in my opinion, is related to positivity & happiness ('joy'), so I think the gold leaf circles fit well with the theme of birds.

REFERENCE IMAGE:

PROGRESS:

The feet of the birds are always my favourite part as they have tiny detail to make them look like they are bony. They are filled with white, unlike the feathers in the rest of the bird, so they show a contrast in texture. I used much much thinner string for this piece as I wanted the birds to be more detailed as they are much smaller than the crane for example.

Using thinner string definitely worked much better. I really like the way the small details turned out as the string didn't spread out like it did on the larger pieces. The section around the eye looks really satisfying in my opinion. It's the same as the wings, but round the eye, so it continues the same feather texture in another place on the body. It makes the bird look a bit less empty around the face which I really like.

The layering on the wings worked just as well on these two birds as it did on the crane. After doing two other string bird pieces, I definitely felt most confident about the outcome of this one. I had a better understanding of how to use the string to create details & as I was using thinner string, I knew I would be much more successful in creating the outcome I originally pictured when I drew the first sketch.

The blue thread definitely helped to show the birds are bluebirds. I used a shiny thread so it reflects the light when in the bright studio space for the exhibition. This also helped to add extra detail to the wings, & just simply looked pretty as it added a pop of colour, making it match nicely next to the other bird pieces.

THE OUTCOME

The raised aspect of these pieces is something I definitely want to continue experimenting with in future. I love the slight shadows created when you look at the piece from different angles. The depth it creates prevents the different parts of the work from merging together & blending into one another. The use of string kind of reminds me of continuous line drawing too, as its quite simplistic & does use a singular line to create an image.

Unfortunately my phone camera does not do this piece as much justice as there are small details you cannot see so well. For instance, when doing the gold circle, I accidentally drew one circle way too big & could not get rid of the outline. I noticed, however, that the glue creates a dark mark when put on top of the dark blue / black paint I used, so I filled that circle with glue. This created a satisfying dark ring around the gold circle which works really well to create added depth to the piece. It almost looks like a window in the background in my opinion. You can ever so faintly see it in the final image.

The blue thread I added to the birds isn't as visible in the images either, but it reflects the light in person so you can see it much clearer. I also decided to add blue thread into the plaited frame for the circle. This idea came to me when I realised that although I'd used a lot more coloured threat than in my other works, it was a lot more spread out all over them in thin lines, meaning its less prominent & visible from a distance. I thought adding colour to the boarder to would make the blues on the inside of the birds pop out more too.

As for sticking the birds down to the board, I used the same technique as I did with the others, which was to add cardboard rectangles to the back of the birds, then stick them onto the board so they were raised. I really like the positioning of the birds, especially the bottom right one, as it looks as though it's wings are helping to frame the circle / lift it up. 

I had many second thoughts about the string connecting the two birds in the centre as I just felt it wasn't that visible & sort of blends in too much with the gold leaf background. I was going to add red thread to it, but the red didn't really go with the other colours of the piece. I also tried thinning out the string so it was pretty much 2 thin threads, but this made it even less visible. For this reason, I stuck to using a single thick string piece, tied it in the middle, then frayed the ends of the string so it looked more natural. I think this works well as it looks like the bird beaks have been pulling on the ends of the string.

Out of all of the bird pieces, this one definitely had the best outcome in my opinion. There was no mistakes with the string, the details look smooth & neat, the colours work nicely together, & there is no dodgy blobs of glue anywhere or dark patches from the glue. The gold leaf is slightly smoother as I tried to keep it flat. I used less glue & let it dry slightly before pushing down on parts with my finger which created cracks & small gaps. I think it just looks nicer & cleaner, & more like it was done on purpose rather than looking messy like on the first robin piece I did for my last project.

JANE TILLEY WIRE ART:

Jane Tilley is a wire artist who creates mostly 2D designs & sells them on etsy. Unlike other wire art I've seen, she sometimes uses coloured wire. In this piece above, the coloured wire separates the different coloured areas of a real bird, in the sculpture. The chest & around the eye on a bird are normally a different colour to the rest of the body. I really like the way this wire sculpture is stood on a wooden block. Mixing it with a natural material gives it a rustic & man-made feel. A bird belongs with nature, so it works really well.

In this piece, the visible overlapping of the feathers creates the same details you would see in real life on a bird as they normally have shadows where the individual feathers overlap. This zigzag effect it creates is also quite pleasing to the eye & helps create various different shapes within the piece. Some areas are spikey & jagged, others are smooth, wavy, & curved.

Jane Tilley's work reminded me of my string birds as they include similar basic line work to create a 2D image. String is more malleable than wire, & can be bent & manipulated more easily than wire. Wire also had some safety hazards to be aware of when working with it, such as the sharpness of the ends of the wire can easily fling back & scratch you or poke you in the eye. You also have to use tools such as plyers to move, bend, & cut wire which you could trap your fingers in or drop on your feet etc. However, string is easy to use and harmless. The textures of the materials also give a different atmosphere to the artwork. Wire is made out of metal which is smooth, hard & sharp, which creates a bold & industrial feel to the piece. String is a natural form which is quite gentle, soft, & bendy, which reminds me of farms, wheat, & natural life. Wire can be used for fencing, to keep people out, whereas string is commonly used to bound things together, like flowers, or to hang things up like pictures or frames. Both create a different feeling when used in artwork. Materials you use impact the outcome of your work. How you use these materials also changes the outcome, but when we see string, we commonly think of it as softer & gentler than when we see metal.