Jamal the Jaguar

Well, the collage ended up looking much more male than female in my opinion, so I decided to choose a masculine name. Jamal means "beauty" and according to wikipedia, it could also mean "inner beauty, from the heart." I like that. =)

(To view the study, sculpture, drawing, and vector graphic for this portrait, please view a previous post.)

Here are some pictures of the finished collage.




The people of the Maya revered the jaguar as a magnificent beast, and they incorporated the animal into their mythology. I placed Mayan ruins in the backdrop of this portrait to tell that history. I wanted to also depict nature itself as a powerful force, as the buildings are overgrown and the stones are eventually taken back to the earth.

Lesson - remember to talk about the work in order to sort out ideas and problems
Discovery - folklore and myth is a good place to start when researching an animal
Challenge - vary the composition, more active posture, push the expression (thanks to my dad for these suggestions!)

It seems like some of the previous challenges are resurfacing, the main one being the animal's pose. I think this is such a struggle because it's hard for me to make the sculpture in an active stance while still being stable. But, I have an idea!

I'm going to try and create a sculpture which will be suspended by a string or wire. That way, it won't have to balance on a flat surface. So, for example, a bird could be flying in the air, a frog could be in mid-leap, and sea creatures could glide through the water. This will open up a lot more oportunities for dynamic poses, and it will be a solution for animals that swim and fly.

I'd also eventually like to make a series of sculptures that depicts a movement (like the flapping of a birds wings) and string them all up as one artwork. It would be kind of like a mobile that one could hang as decoration.

Please keep suggestions and opinions coming! Your feedback is so helpful. =)