Ashputtle with the bird/ mum
The journey through my third year, illustration, final major project.
21 Mar 2011
Drew some bird women today for when the mum comes back as a bird to 'help' Ashputtle. In Carter's version, it seems as if the bird mum is controlling Ashputtle, getting her to do certain things, some unpleasant, such as stepping into the bloody shoe. Is the mother doing this because she wants to help her daughter? or because she is in competition with the step mother, and doesn't want her to be successful in gaining a Prince as a son-in-law?
Week Summary : week 9. 21st- 27th March
- Sketchbook work
- London trip: Somerset house, illustrators and portfolios
- Individual pres doc tutorial
- Rego and Goya
- Work in progress meeting with Jonny and Louise
- Sketchbook work
- Fund-raiser
- Sketchbook work: considering backgrounds, settings, compositions and final ideas
20 Mar 2011
sketch book update...
I've been a bit rubbish with putting sketches up on here the last couple of weeks. Here's what I've been drawing since the last sketch I uploaded...
In these images I tried to get across the idea of the 'hen pecked' father and controlling step mother. I wanted to show her keeping a slight hold on him, reminding him to whom his loyalties are to and to who is in control. This also links to the idea that she 'snatched him from Ashputtle's mother before her corpse was cold'.
Within Chinese versions, Ashputtle confides in a fish. The step mother dislikes this and kills the fish. Ashputtle finds the hidden fish bones and buries them. These then grow into the wishing tree. I found it quite hard to draw fish bones however, so I followed the Grim brother's version, using the tree branch (As Carter writes three versions of her story, she uses both the fish and the branch)
The story of the mother killing the fish reminded me of a story I loved to read when I was little.
'The Chinese Cinderella', by Adeline Yen Mah, is a true story about her life growing up. She was born a girl, and the youngest of the siblings, which lead to her being the least favourite child. But her mother also died while giving birth to her, leading to her father neglecting her, and her siblings often picking on her. The father remarried and her step mother also disliked her. The children were given chicks as a pet. Due to her status within the family, Adeline had last pick, and received the smallest, weakest chick. But she loved it. basically, the mothers Alsatian dog caught Adeline's chick and killed it.
(Adeline grew up and did better than was expected of her. She did very well in education, became very independent, and eventually became a teacher- this story links very well to the theme of my project, where the daughters are not expected to choose their own destiny's ).
It also reminds me of another story within Carters 'Burning in Your Boots', where someone likes to eat eggs right before they turn to chicks!
I link these two stories to the common theme within fairy tales, of young girls, (normally only sixteen) being given to men by their parents or 'hunted' by men looking for a wife. Often describing these women a prey and men as predators.
(This is partly where my ruined wedding dress comes in.)
....And below we have more crying girls!....but this time their crying on to the planted tree branch, which then grows into the wishing tree... :)
(I really like the style of this first image. I like how its simplified in some areas and more intense in others, such as the face. I also like how I've completely left out some section, such as the torso, so that not all the information is available to viewers. It makes it a bit different I suppose.
I also quite like the style of this image above, especially the tree branch. I blew ink with a straw to form the tree branch (as with the other branches in the above images). Its more fun than simply sketching it!
19 Mar 2011
Fridays lecture with Graham Rawle was so good. His work isn't like my own style, but i really liked his way of thinking, how he made his work unique. He also has really made me consider using text within my own work.
(Rawle's use of text within his book, 'Womans World')
After the lecture, we had a talk about our London show...still got alot of money to raise Kim reckons at least £2,000! Eeek! So weve got alot more planning to do- more cakes, art and booze events to set up!
Finally manage to print my etching!
inked up plate
left to right, attempt one to three
Think the last try was the most successful. This is because I got the amount of ink left on the plate before printing right (the first attempt had too much ink), and I had applied the powder to the edge of the plate evenly before printing, meaning I had a neater edge when I printed. I also think the green ink was more suitable. It seems to help create a more sinister atmosphere, where as the blue print is too bright. The green also symbolises jealously so it relates to the image more effectively. Although I don't think I'm too impressed by this. I know the drawings not too good (crazy left eye especially!), but think maybe for the amount of time its taken me to print this, I'm hoping for something better? Guess it is my first one though. Think I will take a look at more etching examples before I choose another image to do. Oh yeah, was also put off of doing this on Friday evening. Charles was helping me to choose another image for me to use from my sketchbook, but I got the impression he didn't think etching would work for me as well as Pete did?! Panic!
17 Mar 2011
Book Binding
Had a book binding workshop with Katherine today. She showed us how to make a few folded books to the more complex stab- bound book. Learning the process was good, although my books were not very neatly made in the end. Not bad for the first go though, and we did get through the day quite quickly, so there wasn't much time to be really neat with folding. The emphasis was on understanding the methods. I signed up for this workshop because I'm not 100% sure of what my final outcome will be for the FMP. I want to keep an open mind, just in case, and thought this might come in useful, if not now, then surely in the future at least.
I really like Sterling's images with the ripped magazine images against her face. I like the concept and how the over all image looks. It can also be connected the the Russian doll image in the sense that, like a Russian doll, the image has a line running through it where the two halves don't exactly match up.
Folded books
hard back book bound with thread
I spoke to Derek. Was helpful, but also slightly confusing in away as he gave me more things to think about for final outcomes...
He liked the idea of etchings and thought they'd work well with the way I work, but told me to take it into consideration that etching equipment will be less available to me once I've left uni. So this may put me off choosing a method I cant keep working with.
He also liked the stitching ideas (ie stitching onto a small wedding type dress) I had and suggested that I could perhaps gets some photogrames out of these too.
He then suggested that I consider including text alongside my image, such as quotes from the 'Burning in Your Boots book', other Carter stories or quotes from other pieces of research I've collected. I do agree with this as it will emphasise my back ground knowledge, and make my images more understandable and significant.. This then lead to thoughts of making my own book of images and considering sequence more carefully. Producing a book was something I wasn't very interested in initially, but Derek said this could just be a very rough dummy book, just to get an idea or see if it produces any other ideas. (I was actually considering including a quick, small flip book of a girl crying on the planted branches. This would show the branch growing into the wishing tree.) The book idea then lead to thoughts of some sort of digital book that may even just consist of slides of images and text in a sequence. Hmmmm think I just need to keep going at the mo and bear all these in mind, until it becomes clear what would work best for my project.
Derek suggested looking at....
V & A exhibition photographs without cameras (which includes some images using dresses)
Meret Oppenheim
Linder Sterling- Buzzcocks 7" single. Cover: 'Orgasm Addict'. 'Ludus'.
I really like Sterling's images with the ripped magazine images against her face. I like the concept and how the over all image looks. It can also be connected the the Russian doll image in the sense that, like a Russian doll, the image has a line running through it where the two halves don't exactly match up.
I Slotted in an hour or two in the print room after the workshop too. I've now covered all the areas of my plate in varnish at different stages. It is now ready to print tomorrow. I must admit, I don't really understand how this stage of the process works, but I know it will be clear once I've finished printing the first one.
Adding more layers of varnish, to produce different tones.
Tiredddd!
14 Mar 2011
Card
A card I've been making for a friend who likes Russian dolls
Links to my idea of using dolls for my project...
Week Summary : week 8. 14th- 20th March
- Book binding workshop
- Tutorial with Derek (plus research following tutorial)
- Print room: continuing with preparing the aquatint
- Lecture: Graham Rawle
- London show meeting
- First aquatint prints
- Sketch book updates (plus symbolism research, links to 'Chinese Cinderella' by Adeline Yen Mah )
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