Final Piece

 

This is my final piece. Its a photomanipulation of two pieces put together, but I really like the way it looks. I like the way the lighting works with the piece, and the way I've mirrored the head at each side. It gives the picture quite a nice border and the way it is the same deer. I like the way the deer seems to be smiling, and how bright the light reflecting off the skull is. I also like the soft light on the deers skeleton in the center of the piece, too. The way it doesnt steal too much attention from the rest of the piece.

The two pieces below are the pieces that I blended for the piece above.

I really like the way I set this photo out, the way its in the order and the lighting of the fish. I also like the quite sharp contrast. I like the way the first two pictures blend, but the third one looks really out of place with the way the fin is positioned. All in all, though, I really like the way these pictures came out considering I took them in my bedroom.

These are three pictures I took in the studio,  Practising with lighting, they were some of the first photos I took with low key. I like the dolphin skull because of the orange-ish tints of the skull really give the picture quite a warm feeling. I also like the way that only the center of the picture is visible, the exact center of it and everywhere else is in darkness. The other picture has rather soft colours despite the contrasts, the shadows on the white are really soft. The intense red of the feathers below also help this picture, making it seem rather mythical and dragon-like. The final picture has a lovely intense light source, and I love the way it sits, and which parts of the skull are lit up.

This was my favourite photo from the above photoset. I love the way its set up, the composition, and the colours. Its one of my all round favourite photos. I still love the way the dolphin skull collects the lighting and glows the orange-ish colour it does. 

This was a picture I took at the Bolton Museum, of one of the taxidermy bird displays they have. I really like the colours of the birds and the way they're positioned in the photo. The soft shadows behind the birds mean that the birds get all of the attention of the viewer, and the picture is really comfortable to look at, even though its busy.

Bolton Museum also has a porpoise skeleton, as seen above. I thought the pale orange lighting would make really good for a picture if I edited it, and due to the unique shape of the skeleton, I thought it would make for some quite eerie pictures. 

These are the two pictures I made through the editing, I really like the bottom one, the way its really intense and the grungy pattern that the map/cloth in the background creates. I also like the way the greens still blend nicely with the reds, despite the two colours contrasting and not working too well together. The intense darkness of the background gives the picture quite an eriee feel to it, and the alien look of the porpoise skeleton adds to this effect.

Deer Photoshoot #2

Soon after the first photoshoot, The fourth leg of my deer was found. I articulated it rather quickly so I could get more photos taken. The photos below are the next batch from the next photoshoot.

These pictures were all taken on top of a natural coloured cover, which also had very warm colours. Combined with the light it gave the opportunity for some fantastic photos where I could play with the shadows I especially like the last photo as you can see the shadow of the deer very well. The other two Im not as fond of, they seem to be missing the flare that the bottom one has. The top one is too dark and at a weird angle, I couldnt get the entire deer in due to not being high enough,  and the one below it doesnt have enough of a contrast to it to be eye catching.

After the above pictures, I suspended the deer in the air to get some low key shots. This is a picture of the deer in the studio. Originally it was just going to be a journalist picture, but I ended up really liking the atmosphere of the shot, like a photo from a hollywood set, so I chose to include it in the blog.

I like just how dark this picture is, and how the light is behind the deer. The way it highlights the thinner areas of bone makes it really quite eerie. I also like the shine on the neck bones. However, I think this picture could be improved if I removed the light on the right from the picture and made the entire background black.

I really like this picture, the way that the light is shining through the ribs, and the way you can see the shadows of the ribs through the scapula. Even though you can see the poor attempt at glueing the parts together, it doesnt really show up in the picture, as the ribs steal the attention.

I like this one due to the interesting lighting on the nasal bones, I also like the fact that half of the head is in shadow and the other is in rather intense lighting, and the way theres an interesting background going on too, but its dim enough not to steal the attention from the main subject matter. I also like the way that the deer is not exactly central, making the picture more interesting.

These three pictures are my favourite ones from the entire photoshoot, I like the way that the lighting is situated on the deer, and how the background is as dark as it is, drawing attention to nothing at all but the deer. I especially like the last one as it illustrates the entire deer, and the way the ribcage is lit up. The lighting on the first one is extremely intense, theres a large contrast between the white and the black. I also like the way they zoom out from the head to the whole deer.

Deer photoshoot #1

Before I had added the fourth leg, I chose to do a photoshoot with the deer in the photography studio. I used several of my other skulls and various backdrops and lighting to experiment more with this piece.

I love the atmosphere of this piece and the way it seems quite touching, the male deer resting his head on the female deer, whilst the two more draconic deer skulls hang around the outside, maybe waiting to feed. I also like the colours which give it quite a warm feeling despite the meaning, its quite conflicting and the composition works well.

This is where the picture above was taken, I was stood on a ladder to take the image. I like the way this image is laid out, with the most light shining on the deers face and spine, and most of the animals are surrounding the deers head. I like the way the background gives it a rather sepia-tone.

These two photos are two silhouette pictures that I took of the deer, using back lighting to make the deer stand out from the background. Im happy with these pieces as they have quite a unique appearance to them, and they are reversed to my other photos. The lighting on the bottom photo also gives it a quite eerie look, as it is directed from below it. 

These photos are similar to the above ones, only reversed, the lightness of the deers bones showing up on a dark background. I also had a light spotlighted on the face for more effect. I was thinking about using these in my final piece, maybe using them as "border" pieces.

Deer articulation

The fourth leg arrived for my deer, so I chose to articulate that, too. The skeleton looks much better

now that it has four legs. I chose to position it in a more interesting pose than the typical standing pose to add more interest to the piece. All round, I am pretty proud of it, considering it is my first articulation, and it has helped me with a lot of understanding the body. I plan to photograph it in a better environment at a future date.

Articulation complete

Today, I finally finished articulating the deer skeleton in the desired position. However, the deer was still missing its fourth leg, so it was incomplete. I wanted to choose a more interesting pose than the typical "stood up" pose. After completion though I looked at other references of deer skeletons and noticed I'd attached the legs wrongly, so I tweaked them once I'd gotten the final leg attached.

Articulation research

Considering my project is focusing on articulating skeletons as well as deer, I decided to research

some famous articulations and their creators. The most breathtaking one I found was one by

Mike DeRoos, where he articulated an entire Blue Whale Skeleton, which he titled Cetacea, Which is the name of the family the blue whale, dolphins and porpoises come from.

Another famous articulation is from a prehistoric animal, called Sue.Sue was a large, very near complete 

Tyrannosaurus rex, which is on display in the Natural History Museum in Chicago

As you can see, pretty much all of the skeleton minus a few minor parts, is there. she is a very impressive articulation. Her real head was not used in the articulation as it would've been too heavy to support itself that far off the ground, so a light plastic cast was used to replace it.