collage and ephemera

Used plant drawing to create further work on photoshop. Played with patterns and layering - creates a nice background print, links with textile work. But also trying to create finished work. Don't think that has worked as well, everything looks like it is just floating without properly fitting into the image. But I do think the combination of rock images and my analogue drawings fits nicely.

Found working with collage quite difficult, when figuring out what to actually put into the piece and how to position it, what I wanted to show. This is a very basic piece, was playing around with selecting sections of photos, adding colour behind images to give a sort of filter. But I do find it easier to keep going on an image if I am trying to create a landscape - something finished. 

I felt I was losing momentum slightly with this project, as I have just been drawing from google references which isn't very inspiring. So I did some research around my subject, looked at a book of Ernst Haeckel's drawings, who works a lot with natural forms and found these lovely old drawings of vegetal matter. 



Cut out the individual sections in photoshop and played around making patterns. Would work nicely as background images, or as a smaller section in a bigger piece.

Watched a documentary about Alfred Russell Wallace, who was around at the same time as Darwin and actually came up with the same theory of evolution and natural selection as Darwin at the same time, but was away exploring so couldn't present his findings. But he sent Darwin what he had found asking for a second opinion, and Darwin, not wanting to lose out on the fame from his own findings, presented both his and Wallace's work but with his own name surpassing Wallace's, without Wallace knowing at all. And now everyone knows the theory of evolution as Darwin's theory when Wallace's findings were just as vital, if not more, to the theory but not many people have even heard of him. 

Thought this would be an interesting development to my project - to focus more on Wallace's findings and where he explored. I find doing research definitely aids in progressing a project, gives me more motivation to carry it on. 

From this I looked into islands Wallace explored, and the tribes people there.

Thought the colours of their culture would make a good collage.

In this I have only looked at shapes and lines, rather than features of the people, but think it has worked out well as it is still clear what the image is but you focus on other aspects of the scene.