Twisty Supple

The octopus’s tentacles lead the way for the invention of the suction cup.

Pre-painting sketches

Sketching the octopus out to start off with, I take a look at the way the tentacles join on to the body and how they twist and turn. Then I explored ways to portray the octopus on the 15cmx15cm square canvas I’m completing this series on.

painting and charcoal sketches

This finished painting presents a red octopus on a gold background. It’s tentacles twist and wind around themselves, creating a mass of red on a sea of gold.

The gold colour was chosen as a stark contrast to the red octopus and to give a clear boundary between octopus and sea.

To the right shows a sketch out of my sketch book in charcoal - A4.

Below is an A2 charcoal sketch using my final painting pose.

Sculpture - Paper Mache

I came back at a later date and decided to experiment with paper mache sculpting. The recycled nature of sculpting using newspaper appealed to me and the sketches, painting and charcoal sketches meant I was very familiar with the octopus’s anatomy.