jellyfish drawing, work-in-progress
I’ve been drawing jellyfish lately… and I realised pretty early on in my attempts that, despite the plethora of photographic reference material to be found in books and online, without access to a real live model I had no idea how to articulate the twisting, undulating, entwining, knurly oral arms of these compelling creatures.
What’s the next best thing to observing a live model (without leaving your desk)? A highly scientifically-inaccurate dummy hastily constructed from scrap paper, pipe cleaners, tape and bits of yarn, of course!
jellyfish stand-in
Fun to make… and it really did help me to figure out how I might draw those tricky, twisty oral arms!
Taped to a window, the overlapping paper ‘arms’ coupled with the play of light and shadow create some interesting abstract shapes too…
My trusty assistant has been on hand to offer advice on the best brush for inking…
… and to engage in a bit of virtual interspecies arm-wrestling.
More jellyfish WIP to come…
4 comments
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3 September, 2015 at 10:24 pm
ifandany
Lovely and ethereal and evocative! Forgive me if I am hopelessly redundant, but I adore your line quality!
4 September, 2015 at 8:05 am
erich
1. seeing this I realize that every house needs a jellyfish in the window. I’m writing to my MP as we speak..
2. Ditto to the line quality. (would love to be more eloquent than simply “ditto”, but “fawn”, “drool”,etc. don’t really look so good as text)
4 September, 2015 at 10:26 pm
swig – filz felt feutre
I’m looking forward to what will come!
good-night-greetings from Paris!
14 September, 2015 at 1:17 pm
The Kadee Experience
“‘virtual interspecies arm-wrestling.” Nice one! :D