Morbid Anatomy:

"collections" project

In class:

We will discuss the final project and I'll show you how to imitate the look of a hand-colored lithograph, based on some examples of chromolithography. You will find examples HERE

In this case, we will use solid areas of a single color and then add the variations in values with graphite on top of that color (see examples to the right. The bottom two are incomplete)

Note: the solid color can be added with almost any medium. In the examples on the right, I've used (clockwise from top left: watercolor with graphite on potato, watercolor with black ink on onion; acrylic inks only on mushroom; colored pencil and graphite on mandrake; acrylic paint thinned with water and graphite on creature).

Tips:

keep the solid areas of color fairly light so that you can build up the values with graphite on top.
Choose a location for your imaginary light source (if working from memory or imagination) to guide the placement of your shadows. For example, the light is up and to the right of the creature and mandrake, so that shadows fall to the left and bottom of the planes as they turn away from the light.
To use acrylic paint for this, on a scrap of paper, experiment with laying the color down as an opaque layer and drawing on top of it with a pencil. Also try thinning the paint out with water- especially if it's a dark color- and dampening the shape that you want to paint before applying the paint.
if using colored pencils, add the color in a thin delicate layer. Use a sharp pencil and a light touch to achieve this.

Homework:

Visual response:

Complete one sketch of three natural objects. These could be fruits or vegetables found in your kitchen, weeds from the garden, flowers from a vase, bones and feathers in your possession- anything at all.

In the manner of the collectors discussed in tonight's presentation, you will consider the connections (or lack thereof) between them. Pay attention to the way that you arrange them on the page. Consider the proportions of the objects in your layout. Are they on solid ground? Floating? In a landscape? Allow yourself to experiment with composition.

Written response:

Complete one description of three natural objects. These could be fruits or vegetables found in your kitchen, weeds from the garden, flowers from a vase, bones and feathers in your possession- anything at all. Consider their origins, their connections (if any), how they came into your possession, their uses or significance.

Frida Escapes Bosch's Garden, gouache on paper, 2012,

Kate Samworth

Composition and Context:

Final Project

This week you will consider the subject matter for your final project. The final project will be a composition that provides context for the specimen(s) of your choice. It can be a rough pencil sketch or a polished work. If you would like to submit a written project instead, you will some research instead using the prompts provided below.

Over the coming weeks, you will experiment with composition and drawing techniques and use these to inform your final project (see full description below).

We've discussed some of the ways that artists have provided context for specimen illustrations. On this page are notes about the various approaches to composition and providing context. Use your research or sketches to develop a composition to share with the class next week.

You may do a very rough pencil drawing to express your ideas. Not all of you have drawing experience, but please attempt to draw anyway.

You may draw from observation or use any 2D reference materials. You may work in any media, including digital tools. Be sure to give credit to the original artist if you are working from existing images.

The final project:

Visual response:

Develop a sketch based on considerations of the examples below.

Is the object floating against a bare background, or resting on the ground?
If placed on the ground, how much of that surface or landscape is indicated?
How is the background related to your subject matter? Does it serve a narrative or scientific purpose? Would it be useful in identifying the species?
If you are drawing more than one thing on the page (for example, whole fruit and cross section, or leaves and flowers, etc.) are the parts to scale? How are the different objects on the page related to each other?

Written response:

Use these prompts to gather information about your subject, whether your are submitting a written or visual response:

Where was this plant, mineral, or animal originally found?
Was it transported to other locations?
When, why, and by whom?
What is its value or use?
Is it used a symbol of any kind?
Has it been ascribed human qualities? (ie: wise owl, memory of an elephant, etc.)
What species (if any) depend on it for food, shelter, or something else?
What species (if any) does it depend on?
What details of its appearance are relevant to its identification?

woodcut Illustrations from Conrad Gessner's book

The specimen is placed on solid ground through a vague indication of the earth. The perspective of the landscape is not accurately portrayed.

woodcut from Pierre Belon's book of fishes.

The specimen is isolated and floats freely on the page, with text at the top.

Raccoon or coati from Ole Worm's book

The cast shadow suggests that the animal is standing on solid ground, but there is no other indication of the surroundings.

Text appears on the same page.

Anatomy page by George Cuvier

This composition shows the full skeleton with a few details of the jaws and teeth. He has indicated the missing part of the skull with a light line around the profile. An unrealistic shadow indicates solid ground, the light horizontal line above the feet suggests a finite plane. The line drawing near the sternum indicates the whole part of the anatomy (I think) that is shown in pieces above the skeleton.

George Ehret illustration for Carl Linneaus

The magnolia fills the page and is a little larger than all of the parts of the plant needed for ID purposes. The detailed plant parts along the bottom are in correct proportion to each other and are identified in the text below with numbers and labels.

Hand-colored woodcut from the book of Leonhard Fuchs.

All parts of the plant needed to identify the species are included (roots, leaves, fruit, flowers, stem, tendrils). They are shown in various perspectives (ie; curled leaf vs. full parallel view) and in various stages (buds and fully matured). The parts are arranged to fill the page.

Wolf by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) etching

Note that the plants and animals are composed without realistic concern for scale. The are seen from various perspectives. The animals stand on solid ground, but the perspective of the landscape is not rendered to be convincing. The ground serves as a solid foundation along the bottom of the page. The specimens are arranged to fill the page.

Hollar chose plant, animal, and insect specimens that would be found together in one habitat, but another artist might choose specimens that are related in a different way.

Notes on composition:

Scheuchzer illustrated all of the descriptions of nature that he found in the bible. He used to the borders of this series to include details about contemporary discoveries in natural history. The frame or border is decorative, architectural, and narrative.

In this image, the specimen represented is man (Adam) and the frames shows details reflecting the modern understanding of fetal development. The landscape, drawn from his imagination, represents Eden.

The contrast between the inner image and the border create a narrative- an unusual approach to natural history illustration.

Johann Christoph Volkhamer

page from Nurembergische Hesperides, 1714

hand-colored engraving

The fruit is shown in whole and cross section. The focus is on the taste or enjoyment of the fruit, not on the identification of the species.

The image is celebration of the fruits available from distant lands. The landscape is inspired by one of the estates with an "orangerie" or greenhouse to grow tropical fruits. The landscape is not realistically rendered, as it is there to serve as an element of narrative detail.

The name of the fruit is written on the decorative banner that floats beneath it.

Entire-leaved breadfruit tree with enlarged fruit (Artocarpus altilis) 1887, artist not known

This illustration includes the tree, which shows how the fruit grows, and a generalized landscape. The fruit and its leaves float in the left hand corner.

hand-colored engravings by Mark Catesby, (1682-1749) Buffalo and Bald Eagle

Notes on composition:

In the Buffalo image, Catesby shows an animal species with a plant species that it would depend on for food or shelter. However, he changes the scale so that we can see the leaves and flowers in detail and to fill the page of the composition. In the Eagle illustration, he tries present the bird species in a more life-like pose and includes an element of story by including the dropped fish and osprey in the background. He also includes some features of the American landscape in the background though perspective is not quite convincing and the land disappears behind the cliffs on the distant shore. These details make the Eagle stand up independently as a narrative painting, not just a representation of a bird species.

John James Audubon (1785–1851)

Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor), Havell pl. 217, 1832 Watercolor, graphite, pastel, gouache, white lead pigment, and black ink with scratching out and selective glazing on paper

By the 18th century, naturalists were aware of the connection between species and habitat and included two or more species that would be found together.

The landscape is more complete in this illustration, though the perspective is not entirely accurate (horizon line is lower than the eye level indicated by the view of the bird). However, the landscape provides usable information about the bird's habitat.

Claude Perrault, engravings, 1676

In these illustrations, Perrault combines the species (sometimes more than one species) in a landscape with a page of their anatomical details presented in trompe l-oeil (fool the eye), as if the page were pinned to the landscape drawing.

Artichoke, Basilius Besler, (1561-1629) hand-colored engraving.

Notes on composition:

The illustration does not show us the face of the flower, which would be useful in identifying the plant, and instead emphasizes the decorative or aesthetic qualities of the leaves. The turning or foreshortening of the leaves is not convincing and was not meant to be. The book was created as a celebration of beauty, not as a means of documenting or identifying a particular specimen. The illustration fills the page.

left: Jan Goedart

(unknown birthdate- 1668)

He was the first to depict the developmental stages of butterflies and insects on a single page

notes on composition:

Goedart shows the various stages of the butterfly's life cycle for identification purposes.

1881, hand-colored engraving

The butterflies have been arranged symmetrically. (but not in mirror symmetry)

I don't know if these all exist in the same ecosystem and if they are scaled to each other and if any or all are life-size.

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