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The Cottingley fairies was a story caused by 9 year old Frances Griffiths, and 16 year old Elsie Wright who fabricated images of fairies, claiming them to be real.
Elsie had copied the drawings from a book she had at home, and used her artwork outside to create the fairies in the images.

I do quite like the idea of mixing drawings and photography, as I feel the combination tends to create an almost surreal feeling. I think this type of artwork does well when created in dark room, as you can add even more layers to the image very easily.

To start this project, I decided I wanted to paint a portrait of myself as a child, as I have no experience in painting people and it felt as though it would be fitting.
Whilst there are a few areas of the painting I would now alter, I feel as though this was beneficial to me, as it has improved my confidence in painting portraits, which is something I was apprehensive about prior to this. I would like to do more in the future, as I wish to further develop my painting skills, as I am still somewhat new to it.

John Bauer is a Swedish illustrator that is famous due to his unique, and charming depictions of trolls.
I really enjoy Bauer’s work due to his ability to create extremely expressive characters, and immersive settings. I believe this is emphasised deeply by his choice of colour palette, and use of light and shadow within his work.

In a previous project I looked at Bauer’s watercolour work, which is the medium the majority of his pieces are created with, however within this project I wanted to look at his sketches, as I find them to be useful when understanding how he planned his shadows within his final works.

I then decided to see if my issue was the scale I was working at by making a larger piece. I do think this drastically improved the image, as the colours didn’t muddy as much, which I think is due to them having more room to blend.
In this piece I decided to attempt sgraffito on the beak by layering colours. I enjoyed this a lot as I felt it added the depth the piece needed, while entirely avoiding the cakey texture I had previously created.
I do think I will use oil pastels in the future, however I will ensure to work on a larger scale, and I will further experiment with sgraffito in a more in depth manner.

Yoshimoto Nara is a contemporary artist that is known for his illustrative pieces that often depict children.
While some of his pieces are extremely detailed, such as ‘Missed Autumn Rendez-Vous’, my favourites are the ones that take advantage of his bold linework and simplistic character designs; as I feel that is what distinguishes his style from other artists.

I really like imitating Naras style, as I find it to feel rather fun and freeing to work in such a way. I think in the future I would like to attempt to incorporate some of this minimalistic style within my own work.

The kappa is a prominent figure within Japanese folklore.
They are described as humanoid turtle creatures that linger in bodies of water. Their behaviour ranges depending on different tales- as in some stories they are seen as dangerous to people, opposed to being merely mischievous.
Their head is said to have a hole in it, which is filled with water and holds the kappa’s power. It is believed that if a kappa is to spill this water, and a person refills it, the kappa will be forever indebted to its rescuer.

Due to their aquatic habitat, I decided to paint one with watercolours, as I thought it would capture their nature well.

Sleepy dragon statue, gifted to me by a Marie Curies volunteer

I very briefly used pastels within my last project, and wanted to further experiment with them in this one as I wanted to get a further understanding of how they work.
I decided to use toned paper, as I felt it would allow for the pieces to have a more contrasting sense of tone, without having to darken them too much. I found this to be a good decision, as I also think the brown paper makes the colours appear more defined.

I really enjoyed using soft pastels, as I found their colour to be highly saturated, but not overpowering. I also liked how smoothly they blend together, while still maintaining their original hues.

I quite like how this study of my dragon statue came out, as I feel like the general texture of the pastels allowed for me to capture its expression fairly well.

I will definitely be using them in future work, and I look forward to using them on a larger scale.

After considering the projects link to the Marie Curie charity, I decided to change my focus to folklore, which was heavily inspired by my experience with a volunteer at the Marie Curies hospice.

Marie Curie is a charity organization that specialises in aiding those with cancer, and other terminal illnesses, ensuring they get the correct care that they require.

The charity was founded in 1948, and was named after the famous scientist, Marie Salomea Sklodowska-Curie, as she contributed deeply to cancer treatment research throughout her life.

Marie Curie uses a daffodil as their logo. Whilst also being very recognisable, the flower was chosen as it represents new beginnings, and resilience.