Research into Dovetail

For the word dovetail I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and the definition that I got was:

1. A joint formed by a mortise with a tenon shaped like a dove's spread tail or a reversed wedge.
2. Such a tenon
3. Fit readily together; combine neatly or compactly.

After a talk with Sancha and Colin about my words we spoke about a few ideas that I could do. Sancha suggested that I look at an artist called Jacob Epstein who did a sculpture of dove's mating.
I have looked at this piece of work and saw why she thought I should look at his work.

The sculpture called 'Doves' is peaceful and beautiful. I think that the way he has made them fit perfectly together in the act says that they are made for each other in a sense. I think that it explains the word 'dovetail' really well in a way that not just becasue they are doves and that is what you initially think of when you say the word but because of the way there is no gaps between each of the doves.

 For this project, by doing illustration, I am not going to focus too much on looking at scuptures but to not futher look at patterns and repeated patterns. Like Islamic art and the meanings of the repeating of these patterns.

I have done a few ideas for dovetail that I think can easily progress into something worth while and that I could use if I was to develop them with a little more depth. All of these ideas are here:

 

 Here I have just drawn a simple way of showing a dovetail. I have thought that this could come across quite boring but in actual face if I 'jazz' it up a bit using repeated patterns or something along side it I think that it  could end up quite interesting. I spoke to my tutor about this and my thoughts about it being quite boring to show and she suggested that I combine photography as well as illustration instead of simply making it by using illustration and so I think that this would work really well with me drawing over the top. I am going to try and take some photographs of a dovetail joint so that I can experiment with this.

 

Here I have just shown a different way of drawing the dovetail joint. I thought I could make it a little more quirky but using bird tails to illustrate this. I think it looks quite cute and I was thinking of it going diagonally across a page.

 

Here I have just started to draw some cute characters showing fitting perfectly together. I have used birds because I think that I could use birds feathers to make a repeated pattern as such to create a dovetail type of link. 

 

Here I had just a similar idea to the birds. With a couple fitting perfectly together. I really liked this idea initially but I don't think that it will work so well as a piece to show dovetail. If you were to look deeper into the meaning I think that it could be understood, but just because I am only showing a small definition it may be just something that doesn't work well together. 

 

Here I am just experimenting with text. I wanted to create the dovetail word in a form of elegance. I think that it could work well along side the harsh lines on a dovetail joint.

Next I am going to look at the artist Lauren Child. Her work has a child like feeling (Charlie and Lolo) I really like her work and I think that in some respects I think that my style of drawing is quite similar, in a way wit simple line drawing. Her work is a lot more colourful where as I have a more plain and simple approach.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZbjD3YwoihJjvKp6st6xNs5kca8NXBtb8WL5krgRNRWb3uXDxRh3kZl9ehm8m8oR03Bqay9-PkZ_8UtcR4S33thFe_j_YW1-85tXRHKjF0I93nlUUhgU7wJ2spfQLR6G1k86dqXIklI/s400/LC9.jpg

I really like this illustration because of the simplicity of it. I like the way that there is a few patterns and colours that have been put on the piece in blocks and some parts are still left white and plain. 

http://jillsbooks.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/slightly-invisible-lauren-child-illustration.jpg?w=500

This illustration here I have similar views on. I really like the simple drawing that has been left plain against the background of the wallpaper pattern.

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I have looked more in to ideas and spoke to Tim and we spoke about my original ideas and I have decided that I am quite liking those and have new ways to be able to develop those into ideas that have potential to be something good.

Also speaking to Tim helped me realize that the drawings don't have to be literal. They can simply have some thing to do with the word as the definition tells the reader exactly what they need to know and the drawing just illustrates the word in it most widest view.

I have looked at company magazine where they have some illustrations in their magazine. You can see from them that they do not directly tell you everything about the article but they do relate closely - which I need to remember that is all I need to do so I can be quite abstract.

 

After looking at these I began to think about things that you would automatically put together. Such as

- cheese and buscuits

- beauty and the beast

- ant and dec

-laurel and hardy

-black and white

- romeo and juliet

-salt and pepper

- bonnie and clyde

- tom and jerry

- the chuckle brothers

 - gin and tonic

- fish and chips

- sugar and spice

they are some that I thought of that I can istantly think of when you think of pairs.. the dovetail and fit together compactly or homoniously.

I have decided that I still definitely want to keep my illustrations to my style that I have previously used as I want continuity in my portfolio and also I don't want to stray away from what makes me 'me' in my work and that is what I believe my peers think of my work too. I want them to recognize it as mine. 

I am going to try and find some images that I can experiment with to make these pairs.

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELj88nP05Y0yOJv7gnRgrP0QHlZFQeg7xqzi7MsB7aDQ-X2DuvRfv5EuzVQmjFKkngFyEr6vodxB3dd_2jiVR6mnZ_TP2xQfetNE-16ImHNw8ysdJdmwq1OXsbmPzPBF7QVO8GMmvSt9A/s400/laurelhardy.jpg

 

Here are my drawings that I done of laurel and hardy. I am really pleased with the outcome of these and I think that they portray my work well. I think that I am going to develop this idea, maybe add a little bit of colour to brighten them up a bit but I will need to do these on plain paper. 

I also quite like the plain ad simple look to these and I think that people will think its quite humorous,  I think that I could even give the pots a little bit of personality in the shadow giving them a little bit of life.