Sketches from the Cathedral - Norwich.

For one of our workshops we went to the Cathedral in Tombland, Norwich. As a local girl I've been to the Cathedral many times before, but I've never taken the time to sit down and draw in there, So being given the chance to draw here was amazing. We had to draw in Thumbnails to begin with, apologies for the quality these were taken on my camera phone for convenience.

 

The final image was a 45 or so minute sketch where we had to incorporate a fantasy setting, I chose to have a monkish robed figure with vials of unknown liquids, sort of like a Hogwarts, wizard-like place, there was a part of the Cathedral with hollowed out walls like windows that I had drawn before in my thumbnails so I chose those. Here is the final result.

I would love to colour this in as I thought it was quite good considering I've never drawn a full image with a background in it as well, but as it doesn't quite fit in with my actual project I will leave it aside for the time being, I think it would look nice with colour to bring it to life though. This workshop has helped me a lot and I can't wait for the next offsite one.

Choosing weapons for my Soldier.

As I chose the Soldier character, naturally a Soldier needs weapons. At first I looked at what kind of weapons a pirate would have had access to.

     General Shipboard Weapons

• Belaying pin
• Boarding axes and tomahawks
• Grappling hook (boarding hook)
• Caltrop (crowsfoot)
• Markin Spike (hand fid)

Edged Weapons

• Buckler
• Cutlass
• Dagger
• Dirk
• Sailors knife
• Scimitar

Rifles, Pistols and Small-arms

• Grenadoes (grenades)
• Flintlock weapons
• Matchlock weapons
• Snaphance weapons
• Wheel lock weapons

I was given the idea of using other nautical items as weapons in one of our Group Critiquing sessions, items such as small anchors, fishing lines and nets, boat ores. I like the idea of using an anchor as some kind of swinging weapon, but with the size and weight of most anchors and the fact my soldier may not have the skills to forge her own anchor that can have the weight to swing around her but still be holdable is a little too complicated for the moment, but I will still give it a try and see what images I can create.

I started looking at images of pistols from the Georgian period, a lot of these guns are very detailed and beautiful which I quite like, I figured even though she was a rough, tough pirate she would still like an elegant weapon to use, also a more intricate looking weapon would look like she had looted plunder from a rich ship.

I like the look of the really ornate ones that have animal heads on the end of them. If I can't get an anchor as a weapon then I would like to add some find of nautical theme to the pistol, like some kind of mythical creature such as a kraken or a mermaid along the side of the gun.

As she can't just use a gun she needs a sword, I like the idea of a cutlass as they have the basket guards to protect the hand of the user. As I'm keeping into Britain within my Georgian period I want to try and keep to finding British made swords and guns.

The British swords aren't as fancy as the French and Spanish ones but if she has a fancy gun then I don't want to overload or saturate her with beautiful weapons as I think it would look a bit too unreal and Hollywood'esque if she has all these expensive items.

Soldier 'pirate lady' outfit ideas.

As my Pirate Soldier is a woman who is in disguise as a man, I initially wanted to stay away from fancy, feminine clothes, I do like the look of some of the fancy dresses but I don't think they would be very appropriate for a girl trying to make it as a tough man. I like the sleeves on the dress posted below, I think I could have them poking out from underneath a coat like the one also posted below.

I want my girl to have a massive hat, Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean style, but without looking too over the top, I like the way this one looks so I think I will use this in the final designs. I'm not sure if I will be using feathers in the design as she is wearing quite over-sized clothes and I don't want her to end up looking too big with feathers poking out everywhere.

As my girl has a peg-leg I started looking at how it would attach to the leg, I want quite an ornate leg, but with quite a rough feel, it was suggested in a group critique that I somehow use driftwood in my designs, so I thought hey why can't the leg be made of driftwood. So I will be experiment with that idea.

With having only one foot I thought my girl would go all out with the footwear, I really like the way that these shoes look, so I'm thinking I will make the buckle quite fancy and the fabric of the shoe quite fancy too. I'm not sure if I'll turn these into the traditional pirate boots with the elf turn downs or make them look like this, I'll just have to see how the values turn out.

I will probably use pieces from all the pictures I've posted here in my final design, as I'm looking through the pictures I think they all work well together, the colours on the dress in the top pictures interest me a lot, they look quite muted and bleached out by sunlight which would happen with colours on a boat, with constant exposure to sunlight and sea-salt. I don't want her to be very colourful and standoutish.

Synopsis of 'The Tinderbox'.

Looking down my blog I noticed that I completely forgot to add my synopsis of 'The Tinderbox' so here it is.

Synopsis of 'The Tinder Box'


A marching soldier back from the wars comes across an old, frightened looking woman who is a witch in the road. The witch asks the soldier to climb up and inside a hollow tree and he will be rewarded with money, the money is in three chambers, in chests guarded by three dogs. He has to get the money by placing down a blue checked apron on which he must place the dogs to get the money out of the chests. The only thing the witch asks for is an old tinder-box  that her grandmother left behind when she was there last.

The witch ties a rope around the soldier and he goes into the hollow which opens into a large hall full of burning lamps, he encounters the first dog which has eyes as large as teacups, he collects copper after placing the dog on the apron. Onto the second hall he sees a dog with eyes as big as mill-wheels, he repeats the process of placing the dog, seeing that the chest is full of silver, he throws away the copper and takes the silver instead. Going to the final hall he sees the last dog with eyes as big as towers, again he repeats the process from the last two halls but sees the chest is full of gold. Thinking of all the things he could buy with that amount of gold he throws the silver away and loads up of the gold so much so that he can barely walk.

Having replaced the dog he asks for the witch to pull him out of the tree, when she asks him if he has the tinder-box, the soldier says he forgot about it and goes back, retrieves the tinder-box and the witch pulls him out of the hollow tree. The soldier asks what she is going to do with the tinder-box and the witch says it is nothing to do with him. The soldier threatens to cut off her head if she doesn't tell him and she refuses, so he cuts off her head and takes the tinder-box from her. Tying up the money in her apron he goes to the nearest town and goes to the best inn, ordering his favourite meals. He soon hears about the Kings beautiful daughter, the Princess who is locked in a large copper castle by her parents as there is a prophecy that she will marry a common soldier.

The soldier soon spends all of his money, he has to leave all his trappings of rich living behind, he didn’t have any money to buy candles, he remembers that the tinder-box had a candle still stuck in it. Striking up the tinder-box several times he discovers that the dogs from the halls come out and fulfill his requests, he asks for more money, then realises with this magical item he can meet the Princess. He summons up one of the dogs and commands that it bring him the Princess, the dog does and the Soldier is entranced by her beauty, giving her a kiss. The dog takes her back home.

In the morning the Princess tells her mother, the Queen that she had a dream about meeting a soldier and being carried around by a dog, she also recalls that in the dream she was kissed by this soldier, the Queen sets people to watch the Princess as she sleeps, The soldier summons the dogs to bring him the Princess again, as the dog takes her away the lady set to watch the Princess follows the dog to the house where the Soldier lives and puts a large cross on the door to remember what house she had been taken to. In the morning the King and Queen go to try and find the Soldiers house but he was very sneaky and put crosses on all the doors around his house. Not deterred the Queen fills a bag with wheat flour around the Princesses neck so a trail would be left behind. Once again the soldier summons the Princess, but the dog doesn’t notice the trail left behind by the flour. In the morning the King and Queen found the house of the Soldier where their daughter had been taken, the Soldier was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging. The next day the Soldier is taken out to be hung where he meets a shoemakers boy, who he asks to fetch his tinder-box for some money.

The shoemakers boy gets the tinder-box and brings it to the Soldier, who is taken to the gibbet, he asks that his last request is to have a smoke before he died, his request is granted, he strikes the tinder-box three times summoning the three dogs, he asks them for help so that he won't be hung. The dogs attack everyone at the hanging throwing people into the air. The King says he will not be touched, but the largest dog attacks him as well as the Queen, killing them. The people who had not been killed asked that the Soldier become their new King and marry the Princess. The Soldier marries the Princess who is very pleased by this.

Overall I don't feel like there is much of a positive moral to the story. The soldier character comes off as someone who is quite greedy and doesn't have much respect for people around him. Even though I feel this way about the Soldier I chose this character because of the way he is, it strikes me as a very Piratey character, in that he will take all the money for himself. The only character I feel sorry for is the Witch who was killed just because she wouldn't answer the question asked by the Soldier. Even the Princess is slightly immoral in the way she doesn't seem to be fazed that her parents were killed by her husband, I understand that she might have been annoyed about being locked in her room all the time, but even so you would think she would feel something for her parents and their death. The only moral of the story I can think of is never say no to someone carrying a sword.

Finishing the Silhouettes 12-50.

It has been awhile since I wrote a blog post, I have to admit I am finding it hard to write this as it is something so new to me, but it is one of those things I will have to adapt to, and the more I do it the better I will get at being able to write down what processes I am using and what I feel about my work.

Having gotten that out of the way I have finished my 50 silhouettes, this like the blogging was a bit tricky for me to get my head around as I always want my work to look finished and polished, seeing just the blank shapes made me feel nervous  but actually finishing them and looking back at them I can see how good they actually look for what they are, the looser ones even more so. Here are the last 39 of them.

Doing the silhouettes is a really good way of getting ideas down for the future part the project, after looking through the whole lot I can see ideas that have been coming up, such as the false (peg) leg, a rumpled powdered wig and a large oversized coat.

Now moving on from the silhouettes I have another challenge to overcome, doing the values and colour variations. As I always say, I love a challenge!

researching Georgian Europe, Character selection and ideas.

 Europe as it was during the Georgian Period of History.

Timeline for the Georgian Era

1714

Upon the death of his second cousin Queen Anne, George Louis, Elector of Hannover succeeds as the new King, George I, of Great Britain and Ireland, the former of which had itself been established in 1706. This is the beginning of the House of Hanover's reign over the British Crown.

1715

The Whig Party wins the British Parliamentary Election for the House of Commons. This was the party that was in general opposition of the policies of the King.

1727

George I dies and his son George, Prince of Wales ascends to the throne as George II

1746

The final Jacobite rising is crushed at the Battle of Culloden.

1760

George II dies, and his grandson George, Prince of Wales ascends to the throne as George III, since his father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, had died in March 1751.

1763

Britain is victorious in the Seven Years War. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 grants Britain domain over vast new territories around the world.

1765

The Stamp Act is passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, causing much unrest in the Thirteen Colonies in North America.

1775

The War of Independence begins in the Thirteen Colonies, specifically in Massachusetts.

1776

The Thirteen Colonies in North America declare their independence from the British Crown and British Parliament.

1781

The British Army in America under Lord Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington after its defeat in Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781.

1783

British formally recognises the independence of the original 13 American States when the Treaty of Paris of 1783 is signed by David Hartley, representing George III, and by the American treaty delegation.

1801

The Act of Union 1800 comes into effect on 1 January, uniting the Kingdoms of Great Britain and of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1811

George, Prince of Wales begins his nine-year period as the regent (he became known as George, Prince Regent) for George III, who has become delusional. This sub-period of the Georgian Era is defined as the regency period.

1815

Napoleon I of France is defeated by the Seventh Coalition under The Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, in what is now Wallonia, Belgium.

1819

The Peterloo Massacre occurs.

1820

George III dies, and his son George, Prince Regent ascends to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as George IV.

1830

George IV dies. According to some authorities, this is the end of the Georgian era of the House of Hannover. However, many other authorities continue this era during the relatively short reign of his brother, The Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who became William IV.

1833

Slavery Abolition Act is passed by Parliament through the influence of William Wilberforce and the Evangelical movement, thus criminalizing the African slave trade and all its cruelties and abominations within the British Empire.

1837

William IV dies, ending the Georgian Era, and is succeeded by his niece, Queen Victoria, the last member of the House of Hanover. She married Prince Albert, who was of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and so, when their son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales succeeded as Edward VII, that House gained the British throne.

~*~

I wanted to mess around with Georgian era Transylvania but, finding it hard to research this time period going through everything Dracula, I abandoned this in favor of sticking with Europe possibly Ireland or England. I had toyed around with the idea of Pirates first looking up famous pirates of the Georgian era.

List of Famous Pirates Names - 1700 - 1800

The following list of names represent the most famous pirates who were associated with the 1700's:

Black Bart (Bartholomew Roberts) - Welsh Pirate

George Booth - English Pirate

John Bowen - English Pirate

Black Bellamy (Samuel Bellamy) - Famous English Pirate

Edward Teach or Thatch, known as Blackbeard - English Pirate

Anne Bonney (Anne Cormac) - Famous Irish Female Pirate

Edward England - English

Henry Every (Avery) - English

Benjamin Hornigold - English

Calico Jack (Jack Rackham) - English

James Kelly - English Captain

William Kidd - Scottish

Mary Read - Famous English Female Pirate

Bartholomew Roberts - English

Thomas Tew - English

Charles Vane - English

Richard Worley - English

John Morris - English

~*~

I wanted originally to play with the Witch character setting the story before the slave trade abolishment as I like the idea of a voodoo/hoodoo witch, but as it's mostly pictured from the deep south and Cajunesque I will drop this in favour of the soldier character despite the characters given flaws as my first desire to have a pirate theme will be easier with this. I like the idea of a greedy pirate wanting more money.

I will be changing the character from male to female, as Anne Bonney and Mary Read were around during my given time period it wouldn't be a strange concept having a female pirate acting and dressing as a man. For the story I quite like the idea of keeping the Princess as a female character, for the reason her parents are keeping her hidden. With attitudes towards lesbianism in this time period, the idea that a rich families daughter was being taken away in the night to be seduced by a woman would be quite frowned upon.

I was worried that I would end up slowly creeping away from Europe as common Piracy tales come from around the Caribbean and are often associated as such with big name movies basing the stories in places like Jamaica and Port Royal. I am going to make sure I stick close to Europe as piracy happened around here with fisherman villages smuggling all sorts to tempt the upper classes.

With the dogs I would like to use manatees as replacement trying to link in Hans Christian Andersen's other tale 'The Little Mermaid' as manatees were often mistaken for mermaids by sailors. I'm not sure how I could fit the manatees into the story as they are quite a bit larger than dogs and trying to keep in with the theme of Europe the closest manatees get to Europe is the top of Africa, but with the tree in the story it opens up into a large room. I can also play with the idea of seagulls instead as these would be a common site around ships. I also have to consider how these creatures would attack at the end of the story, I can't imagine manatees 'dashing people to pieces' without it looking too comical.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/famous-pirates.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_era

First 11 Silhouettes.

Doing the silhouttes has been more of a challenge than I thought it would be, no matter how hard I kept telling myself that I didn't need to do details and that the images where supposed to be sketchy, I couldn't stop myself trying to make them look neat. These are my first 11 done after so many throw aways and deletes. My next 11 I will aim to make them messier and more shapey.

I like the idea of the wooden leg and the crutch, it does look very 'stereotypical' pirate style but I figured if the soldier was returning from a battle it could be very feasible that they lost a limb whilst fighting. I think I would like to use that and some form of large dress and large hat combination. Also want to have some form of powdered wig in the final design that could be peeping through a hat, but I still have a fair few to go so who knows.

First Project at NUAGAD - BA1 Concept Visualisation.

So I have begun my time at Norwich University of the Arts studying Games Art & Design, received my first project called 'Concept Visualisation' the project is to Transpose Hans Christian Andersen's "The Tinderbox" being given a specific time and place.

The final submission will include.

• A short synopsis
• 50 silhouettes - minimum - a minute for each one
• Character iteration
• Model sheet
• Character sheets
• Research portfolio
• Reflective journal (this blog)
• Final resolved image

My given time period was 'Georgian Europe' Overall I am very excited about this project, I will be doing work I have never done before and working with equipment I have never really experimented with. The one thing that particularly worries me is doing the silhouettes as I do like to add detail into my work and just having the blank image and having to spend so little time on each one makes me feel weird, and time management, being quite scatterbrained my train of thought does tend to drift off slightly. But we are here to learn and learn I will. I am always up for a challenge.