Megalichthys is a large fish (quite literally as in Greek mega-ichthys means big-fish) from the Late Carboniferous (345-300Ma). It has been known to reach sizes up to 2m long and was a predatory fish feeding on smaller fish, in the coal swamps and rivers, such as Platysomus.
On finding a scale of this ancient extinct fish, I designed and carved a piece of linoleum, in order to create a linocut block to then be printed. Here is the process:
Pow Gill is a small ghyll that is a tributary of the river Waver in north Cumbria. This small ravine is wooded and full of wildlife, but this covers an industrial past. The Pow Gill Colliery was a small coal mine that excavated low-quality coal in the early 1900s. At its peak in 1929, it employed 17 people, who dug and exported the kennel coal to the nearby villages of Bolton Low Houses, Ireby and Uldale. This industry could only take place here due to a natural outcrop of the Pennine Coal Measures. These coal-bearing rocks are an outlier of the far larger outcrop down in west Cumbria, an combined area that forms the Cumberland Coalfield.
Late Carboniferous fish are not well represented in palaeoart, and most species/ some groups have not been represented in life at all. As this was the first piece of 'palaeoart' I was undertaking I thought it best to first examine some other reconstructions.
The block was then carved and ink rolled on the block.
I was very happy with the design and printing results. The areas of complex pattern were balanced with the black and white block areas and the fish stood out without being too dominant, masked by Calamites in the foreground.
The next step was to hand-colour the piece. I did this using watercolours. Watercolour is the best media to paint a lino-print that that been printed in an oil-based paint as the watercolour is repelled by the ink. As a result, you can paint over the black and no colour can be seen giving clean lines and a faster method.
Happy with the print, I next attempted to try something new. As I have mentioned, the Coal Measures is rich in haematite and iron oxide nodules. The biggest haematite mine in Cumbria is Florence Mine in south Cumbria. It was the last working deep mine in Western Europe when it closed in 2008, and now the Florence Printmakers, based at Florence Arts Centre, produce hand-made art materials using the remaining haematite.
One of these products is 'Egremont Red' Haematite watercolour pigment. By using this as my material, it links the subject of the piece and the materials used.
(I have experimented with using iron nodules from the Coal Measures before. I used a particularly lurid orange nodule as a natural dye to dye sheep's wool for spinning. I may have to experiment further...)
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| A preview into some of the final pieces. |
On finding a scale of this ancient extinct fish, I designed and carved a piece of linoleum, in order to create a linocut block to then be printed. Here is the process:
Pow Gill is a small ghyll that is a tributary of the river Waver in north Cumbria. This small ravine is wooded and full of wildlife, but this covers an industrial past. The Pow Gill Colliery was a small coal mine that excavated low-quality coal in the early 1900s. At its peak in 1929, it employed 17 people, who dug and exported the kennel coal to the nearby villages of Bolton Low Houses, Ireby and Uldale. This industry could only take place here due to a natural outcrop of the Pennine Coal Measures. These coal-bearing rocks are an outlier of the far larger outcrop down in west Cumbria, an combined area that forms the Cumberland Coalfield.
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| Pow Gill (NY 25137 44182) |
Not only do the Coal Measures provide coal, but various minerals such as haematite. This iron oxide ore supplied a medieval iron bloomery at Parson Bridge- a fact that I will return to. As well as resources the Coal Measures are rich in fossils. Predominantly, these are plants and mussels, but there are some large vertebrate fossils, namely fish.
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| A wide range of Pow Gill fossils including Calamites, Sphenophyllum, Neuropteris, Alethopteris, Lepidodenderon, Stigmaria, Carbonicola and various fish. |
There are 4 fossil fish species that can be found in Pow Gill. These are
- Rhabdoderma (A lobe-finned fish),
- Platysomus (A small ray-finned fish),
- Rhizodopsis (A lobe-finned fish) and
- Megalichthys (A lobe-finned fish).
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| A Megalichthys scale: more substantial than other fish scales found in Pow Gill, an enamel-like coating makes for an attractive fossil. |
Late Carboniferous fish are not well represented in palaeoart, and most species/ some groups have not been represented in life at all. As this was the first piece of 'palaeoart' I was undertaking I thought it best to first examine some other reconstructions.
The reconstruction below had many features I liked, such as the lifelike pose and forward facing head that put forward one of, in my opinion, the fish's best feature: its head plates. However, I thought that the colouration was a poor choice and had little scientific backing. Megalichthys' nearest extant relatives are the coelacanths and lungfish, both have dark and subtle colours and patterns- very different to the bright and complex patternation of the reconstruction. If you then examine extant fish that for fill a similar niche, such as the snakehead, the colours are, once again, inaccurate.
When I planned to do recreate Megalichthys, I chose a medium uncommon in mainstream palaeoart. Contemporary palaeoart is often defined by the digital medium, instead, I chose linocut printing, an old media that I was familiar with and practiced in.
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| A reconstruction of Megalichthys by ДиБгд. |
When I planned to do recreate Megalichthys, I chose a medium uncommon in mainstream palaeoart. Contemporary palaeoart is often defined by the digital medium, instead, I chose linocut printing, an old media that I was familiar with and practiced in.
I also wanted to include a complex background including some of the plant fossils also found in the Coal Measures. As the fish's scales form a complex criss-cross pattern, it would be fitting to include plant species with a similar complex pattern- in this case, Lepidodendron and Calamites.
I constructed a very basic sketch plan:
This plan would, of course, have to be reversed so that when it was printed the design wouldn't be flipped. Taking a heavy influence from the only other reconstruction of the fish, I sketched the fish out on the linoleum block. The pose was identical, however, the fins were different in shape and orientation, and the scales would be different and more detailed, based on my original fossils scale.
I chose to only include Lepidodendron and Calamites as they were patterned, and I didn't want to include too many plant species and take the focus away from the fish. When designing the fish I also included some knicks in fins and breaks in the Calamites- revealing the hollow tube structure. These features were added to represent the 'real life' aspect: damages from fights with larger fish and the degradation and decay of plant matter at the bottom of the water column.
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| The carved block with oil-based lino-printing ink rolled over it. |
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| The printed black and white print (Carboniferous Fish I : Megalichthys I). |
I was very happy with the design and printing results. The areas of complex pattern were balanced with the black and white block areas and the fish stood out without being too dominant, masked by Calamites in the foreground.
The next step was to hand-colour the piece. I did this using watercolours. Watercolour is the best media to paint a lino-print that that been printed in an oil-based paint as the watercolour is repelled by the ink. As a result, you can paint over the black and no colour can be seen giving clean lines and a faster method.
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| The Lepidodendron scales were particularly time-consuming as each scale was coloured three times. |
I chose colours that represent a likely reconstruction. The Calamites were an obvious green as all modern horsetail relatives have a similar colour. The Lepidodendron, I painted various browns, as they would have been equivalent, at least in my mind, a analogue for modern tree trunks. These colours seemed fitting and natural.
As for the fish its self I chose a slightly different green tone, in hindsight, this could have contrasted more. The body's pattern is not too bold and similar to the extant Coelacanth. Coelacanth's have a dark grey-blue base colour with speckled pale scales randomly along the body. Using the same principle I dotted darker scales along the body.
The silty bottom is a neutral grey and the water is a grey-blue. The choice of colour for the water is a hard one. On the one hand, most water when looked at is not blue, especially in a dark swamp, however, to be recognisable there must be some blue tones. It is this balance that is often hard to achieve.
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| The final coloured print (Carboniferous Fish I : Megalichthys II). |
Happy with the print, I next attempted to try something new. As I have mentioned, the Coal Measures is rich in haematite and iron oxide nodules. The biggest haematite mine in Cumbria is Florence Mine in south Cumbria. It was the last working deep mine in Western Europe when it closed in 2008, and now the Florence Printmakers, based at Florence Arts Centre, produce hand-made art materials using the remaining haematite.
One of these products is 'Egremont Red' Haematite watercolour pigment. By using this as my material, it links the subject of the piece and the materials used.
(I have experimented with using iron nodules from the Coal Measures before. I used a particularly lurid orange nodule as a natural dye to dye sheep's wool for spinning. I may have to experiment further...)
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| Painting using various tones of 'Egremont Red' |
The watercolour paint was easy to use, especially after the surface layer had been used. I was originally sceptical that the pigment was more of a novelty than a functional artist's media, but I was happily proven wrong. I look forward to using it in the future.
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| The final single colour print (Carboniferous Fish I : Megalichthys III). |
Some source information/further reading:
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2013/02/12/underwhelming-fossil-fish-of-the-month-february/
http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/p028.htm
https://www.florenceartscentre.com/florence-paintmakers/
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