Spontaneity and Creativity

A few quick illustrations for a friend's university project about the link between being spontaneous and creativity. I was given the green colour scheme and these images were created from initial concept to final image in about 12 hours.

Striving for immortality

A couple of final images for my Terror Management Theory project.

Birdman wip

Photoshop experiments

Ageing experiments

Some WIP illustrations dealing with the ageing process and the inevitability of death.

Juggling with death experimentation

Layering experiments

Juggling with death

More experiments and slight variations on my juggling with death illustration . Still not sure I'm happy with the juggler, I will have to try some more.

Experiment

Trying the superiority over animals illustration with a slightly different girl. I still think I possibility prefer the earlier version. Thinking about adding some red ink around the tiger to look like blood.

Juggling with death illustration idea

I think I would need to change the figure but this is an early idea that could illustrate humans juggling with death - trying to keep the inevitable at bay but sooner or later the balls (or in this case skulls) will have to fall.

WIP Procreation illustration

Illustration ideas about procreation being a way for humans to gain symbolic immortality.

WIP escaping death

Some early ideas illustrating man's quest for symbolic immortality. Inspired by a quote by Ernest Becker which I posted earlier that discusses man's building of structures and societies that reflect human value and their ongoing significance even after the death of the creator. 

"we are meat, we are potential carcasses"

Illustrating the connection between feelings toward animals and death. Humans often beleive that they are worth more then animals/nature in order to feel better about their own impending death. They do this by creating cultural concepts that make them believe that their lives are more important & meaningful than those of animals and that their creations will outlive and outshine the natural world. These illustrations aim to show that beneath the surface we are all just animals really and we are all going to die. This concept reminds me of a quote by the artist Francis Bacon - "Well, of course, we are meat,  we are potential carcasses." 

WIP Human vs Nature

More ideas for illustrating humans' feelings of superiority over animals in relieving death anxiety.

Illustration inspired by immortality

"They [humans] earn this feeling by carving out a place in nature, by building an edifice that reflects human value: a temple, a cathedral, a totem pole, a skyscraper, a family that spans three generations. The hope and belief is that the things that man creates in society are of lasting worth and meaning that they outlive or outshine death and decay that man and his products count." (Becker, 1973).

Terror Management Theory - superiority over animals

Two images trying to illustrate human feelings of superiority over animals in response to anxiety toward death.

Terror Management Theory project

I have a few weeks left for this module and I have been exploring death imagery. This has evolved into exploring a psychological concept called Terror Management Theory that I looked at whilst writing my dissertation. The theory involves looking at how humans possess a psychological conflict resulting from having a desire to live but realising that death is inevitable. To remove the anxiety about the knowledge of death humans create cultures which are symbolic systems that act to provide life with meaning and value. Examples of these are religion, national identity, having children, the desire to leave a legacy, feeling of superiority to animals.

My aim is to create 2-3 editorial illustrations about Terror Management Theory.

Final 'Howl' large drawings

Here are the last large-scale drawings inspired by 'Howl'. These are two sizes, the largest are 1.5m x 1m and the smaller are 1m x 0.75m.

More death inspired imagery using ink and Photoshop