TIME COUNT
33 hours 11 minutes - Overal week's hours
+- 2 hours - Blog Update (Not including London Updates)
I will show the complete breakdown this one time and then from now on I'll just show the total daily Time Counts.
Breakdown of work time:
Monday 09/04
11:30-12:40
13:13-1753
4 hours 40 minutes
Tuesday 10/04
9:30-12:10
13:20-14:09
15:06-15:24
16:00-16:49
17:04-18:07
18:40-19:55
6 hours 54 minutes
Wednesday 11/04
9:30-12:06
13:04-16:00
16:33-18:31
7 hours 30 minutes
Thursday 12/04
9:17-12:33
13:53-18:10
7 hours 23 minutes
Friday 13/04
9:24-11:55
13:05-15:05
15:20-17:33
6 hours 44 minutes
zaterdag 14 april 2012
Hellblazer Cover Research
Thursday, 12th of April
Research: Background and Imagery
I have definitely picked the first issue of Hellblazer to illustrate the cover for. It is part 1 of 2 of the storyline "Hunger". The story is about John Constantine, a moody chain-smoking anti-hero, who is tracking down the cause of strange occurances. He discovers they are linked to the hunger demon Mnemoth and then continues to contain the demon in the second issue.
To start I looked up Mnemoth, I was curious whether he was actually a historically listed demon or devil. I discovered he wasn't but was in fact created by the writers in this very episode of Hellblazer. The demon causes people to devour what they desire (food, comics, women, themselves etc.) with full compulsion and they eventually die from starvation as the demon drains them of their life force. Mnemoth appears in the form of a monstrous giant fly or a swarm of locusts.
With a real interest in this character I want to focus on Mnemoth and these themes in Hunger. First of all you see here the original cover, with and without the text. I have also added the pages that refer visually to Mnemoth and some pages of the hunger compulsions. I picked out a few existing covers to put on my first research page as well. I discovered that Constantine is always on the cover (except on two or three of the more recent covers, out of more than 150 indiviual paper comics this is pretty minimal) whether in the foreground or in the background. On one of them he's in a mugshot lying on the table with someone else sitting behind the desk. So he doesn't need to actually be on it personally to on the cover.
As always I also made a mind-map of my thoughts and research discoveries.
While searching through the National Geographics I found an article on "Flies that Fight". I thought this was a pretty good visual source to keep at hand. I also researched other source pictures on the internet.
I finished off my research by making a collective page of images relevant to the atmosphere needed for the cover. Colour wise it seems to have come out at mainly greeny-browns with hints of red. Naturally it is of a very dark atmosphere and mainly creature/people based.
Research: Background and Imagery
I have definitely picked the first issue of Hellblazer to illustrate the cover for. It is part 1 of 2 of the storyline "Hunger". The story is about John Constantine, a moody chain-smoking anti-hero, who is tracking down the cause of strange occurances. He discovers they are linked to the hunger demon Mnemoth and then continues to contain the demon in the second issue.
To start I looked up Mnemoth, I was curious whether he was actually a historically listed demon or devil. I discovered he wasn't but was in fact created by the writers in this very episode of Hellblazer. The demon causes people to devour what they desire (food, comics, women, themselves etc.) with full compulsion and they eventually die from starvation as the demon drains them of their life force. Mnemoth appears in the form of a monstrous giant fly or a swarm of locusts.
With a real interest in this character I want to focus on Mnemoth and these themes in Hunger. First of all you see here the original cover, with and without the text. I have also added the pages that refer visually to Mnemoth and some pages of the hunger compulsions. I picked out a few existing covers to put on my first research page as well. I discovered that Constantine is always on the cover (except on two or three of the more recent covers, out of more than 150 indiviual paper comics this is pretty minimal) whether in the foreground or in the background. On one of them he's in a mugshot lying on the table with someone else sitting behind the desk. So he doesn't need to actually be on it personally to on the cover.
As always I also made a mind-map of my thoughts and research discoveries.
While searching through the National Geographics I found an article on "Flies that Fight". I thought this was a pretty good visual source to keep at hand. I also researched other source pictures on the internet.
I finished off my research by making a collective page of images relevant to the atmosphere needed for the cover. Colour wise it seems to have come out at mainly greeny-browns with hints of red. Naturally it is of a very dark atmosphere and mainly creature/people based.
Clannad "Legend" Research and Imagery
Wednesday, 11th of april and the morning of Thursday, 12th of April
Research and Concept Development
Like in the previous project I started by collecting the images of the existing product. The covers are purely photo based (except for one drawing of Robin on horseback) and is very strongly linked to the TV-Programme "Robin of Sherwood" of which Legend is the soundtrack.
What I've noticed while watching Robin of Sherwood is that the songs are used at very particular times, just like most movies it's not random. I watched bits of the programme, skipping through the majority without sound, to figure out when the songs were used. Some of them were a wee bit hard to find but I got them in the end. I mind-mapped this while watching. As I really want to base the project on the combination of the programme and the music I thought it was very important to have this properly figured out.
I also made visual mind-maps of the different songs, as they all have their own atmospheres and relevant characters from the programme. I included pictures from the programmes, art works and concept based pictures (the trees, which I'll get back to in a moment). From doing this it became clear to me that some of the songs aren't visually particularly important or interesting. It may be better in the long run to visually support five songs and make those really interesting and good instead of doing ten not so good images.
I made a mind-map of my general thoughts on the programme and music. Although at this stage I was very clear on what each song stood for I didn't really have general idea/concept to hold it all together.
I decided to have a look at the song lyrics. I hadn't done this earlier as I wanted to focus on the tv-music connection first. Although some songs hold little content, for example in the first song "Robin, the Hooded Man", is merely repeated throughout the song. When I got to number ten though, "Ancient Forest" I found something quite meaningful and relevant. Here are the lyrics:
Ancient Forest
Came upon an ancient forest
A guiding power that led me there
Walking through the mystic forest
The legend tale of times gone by
Once its whisper in the black night
Reflection deep in wooded lands
A floating mist that circles shadows
A legend tale of times gone by
Giant trees are falling night and day
For many years and ages past
Will they ever share the answer
Of legend tales and times gone by?
Walking through the mystic forest
I'm walking through the mystic forest
They really summed up that the whole story was a reflection of an old myth. While reading the lyrics, I could imagine walking through a forest and having this amazing story of heroism and bravery revealed to be by the trees. I felt that this could be a theme that would hold together all of the elements. I looked at the inividual songs and connected types of trees or tree forms that went with their own themes. "Herne" got an old gnarly oak (Herne orignally showed up first in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" as a ghost. There is a larger story but it is said that he was hung from an Oak Tree for thievery. That oak still stands at the grounds of Windsor castle.), the oak being a tree connected to the Druids as these trees held a huge amount of knowledge due to their age. (There are naturally many other factors of their Druidic importance but I won't get into that now.) "Scarlet Inside" got a split tree. This song is played when Will Scarlet is throwing one of his tantrums generally due to an argument with Robin or while he is melancholy about his wife who was raped and murdered by the Sheriff's men. I felt that something split or broken revealing it's inner self was relevant to the theme. In this way they all got their own tree related theme. (I haven't made a selection on the most visually interesting songs to focus on yet but will be doing that when I start up this project again.)
Friday, 13th of April
Start of Artwork Atmosphere Sketching
I often have the comment from teachers that I still don't have a style which is uniform across all of my work. I think it's mainly because I like doing so many different things. It generally comes down to relatively realistic acrylic painting or pen line drawings. I've generally kept these two things seperate and have only combined them now and again but not really develloped the combination properly. I really want to focus on doing this so that I have more uniformity in my work. I tried to at least make a start at this on Friday and although it still needs work (obviously) I think it was a good start.
I decided to start on Herne as this was a subject I had tackled before and thought I would be able to focus more on the atmosphere. I started by doing a pen drawing of Herne and then I seperately made four more images: ecoline inked figure colouring, ecoline inked background, acrylic painted figure colouring and acrylic painted background.
I then scanned them all and photoshopped them together. I continued to add more detail and adjust colours in photoshop, still not quite finished with that but good enough for a sketch.
I think it definitely has the right atmosphere due to the colours, lighting and shadows. I also feel this is a good way of combining my skills and love of different materials and digital/photographic work and certainly a good step in the right direction. The colouring of his face still isn't right, something that will need working on for the real images. More detail in the original painting I think might do it, a wee bit too much reliance in the computer in this sketch.
Research and Concept Development
Like in the previous project I started by collecting the images of the existing product. The covers are purely photo based (except for one drawing of Robin on horseback) and is very strongly linked to the TV-Programme "Robin of Sherwood" of which Legend is the soundtrack.
What I've noticed while watching Robin of Sherwood is that the songs are used at very particular times, just like most movies it's not random. I watched bits of the programme, skipping through the majority without sound, to figure out when the songs were used. Some of them were a wee bit hard to find but I got them in the end. I mind-mapped this while watching. As I really want to base the project on the combination of the programme and the music I thought it was very important to have this properly figured out.
I also made visual mind-maps of the different songs, as they all have their own atmospheres and relevant characters from the programme. I included pictures from the programmes, art works and concept based pictures (the trees, which I'll get back to in a moment). From doing this it became clear to me that some of the songs aren't visually particularly important or interesting. It may be better in the long run to visually support five songs and make those really interesting and good instead of doing ten not so good images.
I made a mind-map of my general thoughts on the programme and music. Although at this stage I was very clear on what each song stood for I didn't really have general idea/concept to hold it all together.
I decided to have a look at the song lyrics. I hadn't done this earlier as I wanted to focus on the tv-music connection first. Although some songs hold little content, for example in the first song "Robin, the Hooded Man", is merely repeated throughout the song. When I got to number ten though, "Ancient Forest" I found something quite meaningful and relevant. Here are the lyrics:
Ancient Forest
Came upon an ancient forest
A guiding power that led me there
Walking through the mystic forest
The legend tale of times gone by
Once its whisper in the black night
Reflection deep in wooded lands
A floating mist that circles shadows
A legend tale of times gone by
Giant trees are falling night and day
For many years and ages past
Will they ever share the answer
Of legend tales and times gone by?
Walking through the mystic forest
I'm walking through the mystic forest
They really summed up that the whole story was a reflection of an old myth. While reading the lyrics, I could imagine walking through a forest and having this amazing story of heroism and bravery revealed to be by the trees. I felt that this could be a theme that would hold together all of the elements. I looked at the inividual songs and connected types of trees or tree forms that went with their own themes. "Herne" got an old gnarly oak (Herne orignally showed up first in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" as a ghost. There is a larger story but it is said that he was hung from an Oak Tree for thievery. That oak still stands at the grounds of Windsor castle.), the oak being a tree connected to the Druids as these trees held a huge amount of knowledge due to their age. (There are naturally many other factors of their Druidic importance but I won't get into that now.) "Scarlet Inside" got a split tree. This song is played when Will Scarlet is throwing one of his tantrums generally due to an argument with Robin or while he is melancholy about his wife who was raped and murdered by the Sheriff's men. I felt that something split or broken revealing it's inner self was relevant to the theme. In this way they all got their own tree related theme. (I haven't made a selection on the most visually interesting songs to focus on yet but will be doing that when I start up this project again.)
Friday, 13th of April
Start of Artwork Atmosphere Sketching
I often have the comment from teachers that I still don't have a style which is uniform across all of my work. I think it's mainly because I like doing so many different things. It generally comes down to relatively realistic acrylic painting or pen line drawings. I've generally kept these two things seperate and have only combined them now and again but not really develloped the combination properly. I really want to focus on doing this so that I have more uniformity in my work. I tried to at least make a start at this on Friday and although it still needs work (obviously) I think it was a good start.
I decided to start on Herne as this was a subject I had tackled before and thought I would be able to focus more on the atmosphere. I started by doing a pen drawing of Herne and then I seperately made four more images: ecoline inked figure colouring, ecoline inked background, acrylic painted figure colouring and acrylic painted background.
I then scanned them all and photoshopped them together. I continued to add more detail and adjust colours in photoshop, still not quite finished with that but good enough for a sketch.
I think it definitely has the right atmosphere due to the colours, lighting and shadows. I also feel this is a good way of combining my skills and love of different materials and digital/photographic work and certainly a good step in the right direction. The colouring of his face still isn't right, something that will need working on for the real images. More detail in the original painting I think might do it, a wee bit too much reliance in the computer in this sketch.
Final Globe Research and Starter Sketches
Monday, the 9th of April
Final Researching Day
First of all I collected together the pictures from the Globe's website of the Midsummer Night's Dream range and their bestselling ranges. You can really see from the Macbeth and Hamlet lines, that the darker themes sell far better. I also looked at existing images of Midsummer Night's Dream. They are generally of a very light mood so it will be interesting to put a more dark twist on it.
I then continued by making a mind-map of information and specifications. This was followed by a mind-map focusing on atmosphere, quotes and elements I found particularly interesting, faerie-character design ideas, which creatures were present in the scene etc. There are basically the faeries and the creatures of the night. I feel that scale-wise the creatures should be far larger than the faeries as this will make the faeries seem far more fierce if they can hold off/kill such huge beasts.
I continued my research by making a visual mind-map. I focused on lighting, colour, atmosphere, scale and a little bit of creature research. On this page I also included a section to typography, I don't generally remember to do this until later on. I think text made of natural substances, such as sticks and twigs really could be quite cool. They fit within the natural world scene but also have a scariness to them if left bare (no leaves).
I then built up a decent database (61 images - below a small taster) of photos of the creatures in the text as source pictures for drawing.
Tuesday, the 10th of April
First Sketching Day
As Meghan and I discussed, the faeries should be scary which is actually mythologically correct. Faeries are not kind sweet things, they are mischievious pests. As I want the faeries to look a bit different to your regular faeries I focused the day on developing ideas for that. The other creatures in the illustration will probably only be larger in scale and a bit scarier. I started by doing some general sketching, basically just what came to mind. A lot wasn't right, but there were a couple of interesting ideas in there.
Some were a bit insect-like (skelletal frames and six legs/arms) which worked well for the idea of making them scarier but still faerie-like.
I wasn't quite happy though at first and thought it would be interesting to make a faerie with bird-like elements. Philomile singing is a reference to a mythological lady who was raped by her brother-in law and afterwards was turned into a nightingale. I thought that this could be an interesting base for making the faeries bird-like. I did some bird studies first. I then very quickly remembered (from earlier projects) that I really don't like misforming birds to create other creatures. I couldn't just use the wings because that would make them angels and I couldn't completely substitute the faeries with birds because this to me doesn't leave enough magic in the story. The faeries need to be foreign but still something you can relate to. Nightingales don't exactly have that fear factor either.
I then went back to the original sketches and thought about the insects. I had to be careful how I made them look because there are some insects that are driven away by the faeries, actually only beetles come to think of it. I thought about which insect I find most terrifying. The answer would be the weta. This a a giant grasshopper which lives in New Zealand. It has really long antennae and there are hooks on the ends of their legs so they can lock their grip onto things. Theoretically they're harmless, but bloody terrifying all the same. I started again by doing some study sketches to just properly look at their anatomy. That's as far as I got so when I pick this up again I shall be combining the weta with my original insectoid sketches and then continue to sketch out some different scenes with the faeries in them.
During the day I also searched through our fifteen year collection of National Geographics (just looked at the spines for relevant subject titles, not page for page :P) for good source images for this project and the other projects.
Final Researching Day
First of all I collected together the pictures from the Globe's website of the Midsummer Night's Dream range and their bestselling ranges. You can really see from the Macbeth and Hamlet lines, that the darker themes sell far better. I also looked at existing images of Midsummer Night's Dream. They are generally of a very light mood so it will be interesting to put a more dark twist on it.
I then continued by making a mind-map of information and specifications. This was followed by a mind-map focusing on atmosphere, quotes and elements I found particularly interesting, faerie-character design ideas, which creatures were present in the scene etc. There are basically the faeries and the creatures of the night. I feel that scale-wise the creatures should be far larger than the faeries as this will make the faeries seem far more fierce if they can hold off/kill such huge beasts.
I continued my research by making a visual mind-map. I focused on lighting, colour, atmosphere, scale and a little bit of creature research. On this page I also included a section to typography, I don't generally remember to do this until later on. I think text made of natural substances, such as sticks and twigs really could be quite cool. They fit within the natural world scene but also have a scariness to them if left bare (no leaves).
I then built up a decent database (61 images - below a small taster) of photos of the creatures in the text as source pictures for drawing.
Tuesday, the 10th of April
First Sketching Day
As Meghan and I discussed, the faeries should be scary which is actually mythologically correct. Faeries are not kind sweet things, they are mischievious pests. As I want the faeries to look a bit different to your regular faeries I focused the day on developing ideas for that. The other creatures in the illustration will probably only be larger in scale and a bit scarier. I started by doing some general sketching, basically just what came to mind. A lot wasn't right, but there were a couple of interesting ideas in there.
Some were a bit insect-like (skelletal frames and six legs/arms) which worked well for the idea of making them scarier but still faerie-like.
I wasn't quite happy though at first and thought it would be interesting to make a faerie with bird-like elements. Philomile singing is a reference to a mythological lady who was raped by her brother-in law and afterwards was turned into a nightingale. I thought that this could be an interesting base for making the faeries bird-like. I did some bird studies first. I then very quickly remembered (from earlier projects) that I really don't like misforming birds to create other creatures. I couldn't just use the wings because that would make them angels and I couldn't completely substitute the faeries with birds because this to me doesn't leave enough magic in the story. The faeries need to be foreign but still something you can relate to. Nightingales don't exactly have that fear factor either.
I then went back to the original sketches and thought about the insects. I had to be careful how I made them look because there are some insects that are driven away by the faeries, actually only beetles come to think of it. I thought about which insect I find most terrifying. The answer would be the weta. This a a giant grasshopper which lives in New Zealand. It has really long antennae and there are hooks on the ends of their legs so they can lock their grip onto things. Theoretically they're harmless, but bloody terrifying all the same. I started again by doing some study sketches to just properly look at their anatomy. That's as far as I got so when I pick this up again I shall be combining the weta with my original insectoid sketches and then continue to sketch out some different scenes with the faeries in them.
During the day I also searched through our fifteen year collection of National Geographics (just looked at the spines for relevant subject titles, not page for page :P) for good source images for this project and the other projects.
vrijdag 13 april 2012
Part of A Midsummer Night's Dream Script
To start off, here is the part of scene II that I will be basing my project on. I thought I should keep it seperate from my general update post, so here it is.
SCENE II.
The wood. Enter TITANIA, with her RETINUE
TITANIA
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
She reclines. Fairies sing and dance.
FAIRY I
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
CHORUS
Philomele, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
FAIRY I
Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
CHORUS
Philomele, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
[TITANIA sleeps.
FAIRY II
Hence, away! now all is well:
One aloof stand sentinel.
[Exeunt Fairies.
SCENE II.
The wood. Enter TITANIA, with her RETINUE
TITANIA
Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,
Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to your offices and let me rest.
She reclines. Fairies sing and dance.
FAIRY I
You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
CHORUS
Philomele, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
FAIRY I
Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
CHORUS
Philomele, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby,
Lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
[TITANIA sleeps.
FAIRY II
Hence, away! now all is well:
One aloof stand sentinel.
[Exeunt Fairies.
woensdag 11 april 2012
Brief Overview of other things I visited on my trip
Westminster Abbey
Here is the postcard of the sculpture I spoke of in the Shakespeare Locations in London post. It really doesn't do it justice!
The Charles Dickens Museum
This building is one of the places where Charles Dickens actually lived. There was such a huge collection of Charles Dickens book editions here, cases full of them. On special display were some of the very early publications.
In the first half of the school year I did a book cover for Charles Dickens' "Bleak House". Before I started illustrating, I did research on the existing book covers, naturally I discovered the original cover. There it was sitting in a case, the very cover I had seen on the internet. Not only the Bleak House copy either, but also a large amount of ther books from the same printer/illustrator.
The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street
I arrived at the Baker Street Tube Station and finally I had found what had been missing from the other stations. This one, unlike the other new and clean stations, was dark and grimy, it was positively creepy... I LOVED IT!!! As I was heading off to 221b Baker Baker Street this was such a treat. I could just imagine Moriarty hiding around the corner and Watson following Holmes as he eagerly discovered clues to unravel a mystery. It immediately set the scene and made me feel a bit dissapointed that I didn't have any Sherlock Holmes projects coming up, but no fear as there's a long fun future ahead.
I carried on to locate the famous 221b Baker Street. While waiting outside, as only so many people were allowed in at a time, I chatted to the guard in full bobby costume of the period. Very nice bloke, as were all the people working there which always makes a visit so much nicer.
When I was allowed to enter, I found that the house had been recreated to give as strong an atmosphere as the Tube Station. After walking up the first flight of stairs which creaked beneath me with every step I came to Holmes and Watson's living room. No surface was safe, the room was absolutely heaving with trinkets and tools of detection.
Next door was Sherlock's bedroom which was the same as the previous in it's plethora of items. Up another moaning flight of stairs and I came to a room which held all sorts of supposèd artefacts from the Sherlock Holmes tales. (These were accompanied by quotations, for if one's knowledge of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels wasn't quite up to scratch, I have to admit mine wasn't. I should be as equally agitated by myself as by the Rossetta Stone lady it would seem.) Into Watson's room there were all sorts of potions and other odd things hiding in cabinets as of course he is a Doctor by profession.
Up the last flight of stairs to find two rooms full of waxwork figures (Madame Tussauds is only just down the road) from the books including Holmes, Watson, Moriarty and other victims and passers-by and not to be forgotten the Hound of the Baskerville's head which was mounted on the wall. If you weren't convinced this was his house yet, which I'm sure any easy-to-fool tourists probably were, another small flight of stairs was to be found. Up there, flung into a dark dusty corner, was a collection of old suitcases ready for any trips, just like you'd expect in any house.
Portobello Road Market
I watched many Disney movies when I was little, one of them was Bedknobs and Broomsticks. This featured a scene set in the Portobello Road Market so I really wanted to go and see what it was really like. It was a lot busier than on the movie and come to think of it there were probably as many people singing there as well. I did look for a stereoscope, thinking I might get a good deal, but I didn't even find one.
V&A
As you may remember, I mentioned earlier that there was a particular reason for me to head back to the V&A. At the beginning of this school year I did a project on Punk Clothing. My workplace at school had numerous Adam and the Ants pictures up on the wall which were a pleasure to look at ;). Well I discovered that Adam Ant's Prince Charming outfit was at the V&A. It was in the performance section which I had just literally been around the corner from when I was there the first time.
When I went into the Performance section I had another surprise before finding Adam's very dishy outfit. As I like making clothes and costumes, I regularly google pictures to find inspiration. One time when looking up faerie dresses and skirts I found the most beautiful picture of a tutu-like dress. I saved the picture but had no idea where it had come from. Then at the V&A I turned the corner after having worked down a long hallway adorned with Beatrix Potter originals (:D) and there it was, the very dress. I was completely amazed. I managed to snap some very bad and out of focus photos, due to low lighting and not a particuarly great camera.
Carrying on I saw loads of cool costumes and then... Prince Charming. It was absolutely wicked, I want that outfit and if the young original Adam Ant could be thrown in that would obviously be a bonus :P I also had the luck to discover all of the Shakespeare items I mentioned earlier in the Performance Section, so it really was worth going back.
The British Museum
As I said before, the British Museum was as impressive as I had expected it to be. Just quickly before I move on, there were a few other things that were really cool in the Egyptian section. One thing was a collection of three men but what I thought made them particularly cool was the way in which their faces had been smashed. It made them look like zombies or you could imagine like the sculptures that came to life in th Mummy Movies.
A couple of other notable things were a giant scarab beetle (Cheper) and a very cute Falcon.
Along with the Egyptians I also really love the Celts, the Vikings and other old European civilisations. I was amazed to see in the postcard section of the shop that this was the actual home of the Battersea Shield, not only this but also the Sutton Hoo Grave artefacts, a large collection of the Lewis Chessman and a shield which I had drawn last year in the summer from a photograph in a book. I was also very happy to discover some of John Dee's possessions while looking around.
The Science Museum
Although this would have been a lot more fun if I had not been alone, as a good amount of it was interactive, I still saw a lot of interesting things. There was a huge collection of clocks and watches, a section on geometry which was very interesting and two floors of medical history diaramas and items which I enjoyed seeing as I studied this for a term at school in England.
I visited a quite a few other places as well but these are the ones of relevance to illustration.
I had a brilliant time in London. It was great staying with Keith and Patrick and it was such a lovely evening with them, Graham, Jim and Doug.
Here is the postcard of the sculpture I spoke of in the Shakespeare Locations in London post. It really doesn't do it justice!
The Charles Dickens Museum
This building is one of the places where Charles Dickens actually lived. There was such a huge collection of Charles Dickens book editions here, cases full of them. On special display were some of the very early publications.
In the first half of the school year I did a book cover for Charles Dickens' "Bleak House". Before I started illustrating, I did research on the existing book covers, naturally I discovered the original cover. There it was sitting in a case, the very cover I had seen on the internet. Not only the Bleak House copy either, but also a large amount of ther books from the same printer/illustrator.
The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street
I arrived at the Baker Street Tube Station and finally I had found what had been missing from the other stations. This one, unlike the other new and clean stations, was dark and grimy, it was positively creepy... I LOVED IT!!! As I was heading off to 221b Baker Baker Street this was such a treat. I could just imagine Moriarty hiding around the corner and Watson following Holmes as he eagerly discovered clues to unravel a mystery. It immediately set the scene and made me feel a bit dissapointed that I didn't have any Sherlock Holmes projects coming up, but no fear as there's a long fun future ahead.
I carried on to locate the famous 221b Baker Street. While waiting outside, as only so many people were allowed in at a time, I chatted to the guard in full bobby costume of the period. Very nice bloke, as were all the people working there which always makes a visit so much nicer.
When I was allowed to enter, I found that the house had been recreated to give as strong an atmosphere as the Tube Station. After walking up the first flight of stairs which creaked beneath me with every step I came to Holmes and Watson's living room. No surface was safe, the room was absolutely heaving with trinkets and tools of detection.
Next door was Sherlock's bedroom which was the same as the previous in it's plethora of items. Up another moaning flight of stairs and I came to a room which held all sorts of supposèd artefacts from the Sherlock Holmes tales. (These were accompanied by quotations, for if one's knowledge of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels wasn't quite up to scratch, I have to admit mine wasn't. I should be as equally agitated by myself as by the Rossetta Stone lady it would seem.) Into Watson's room there were all sorts of potions and other odd things hiding in cabinets as of course he is a Doctor by profession.
Up the last flight of stairs to find two rooms full of waxwork figures (Madame Tussauds is only just down the road) from the books including Holmes, Watson, Moriarty and other victims and passers-by and not to be forgotten the Hound of the Baskerville's head which was mounted on the wall. If you weren't convinced this was his house yet, which I'm sure any easy-to-fool tourists probably were, another small flight of stairs was to be found. Up there, flung into a dark dusty corner, was a collection of old suitcases ready for any trips, just like you'd expect in any house.
Portobello Road Market
I watched many Disney movies when I was little, one of them was Bedknobs and Broomsticks. This featured a scene set in the Portobello Road Market so I really wanted to go and see what it was really like. It was a lot busier than on the movie and come to think of it there were probably as many people singing there as well. I did look for a stereoscope, thinking I might get a good deal, but I didn't even find one.
V&A
As you may remember, I mentioned earlier that there was a particular reason for me to head back to the V&A. At the beginning of this school year I did a project on Punk Clothing. My workplace at school had numerous Adam and the Ants pictures up on the wall which were a pleasure to look at ;). Well I discovered that Adam Ant's Prince Charming outfit was at the V&A. It was in the performance section which I had just literally been around the corner from when I was there the first time.
When I went into the Performance section I had another surprise before finding Adam's very dishy outfit. As I like making clothes and costumes, I regularly google pictures to find inspiration. One time when looking up faerie dresses and skirts I found the most beautiful picture of a tutu-like dress. I saved the picture but had no idea where it had come from. Then at the V&A I turned the corner after having worked down a long hallway adorned with Beatrix Potter originals (:D) and there it was, the very dress. I was completely amazed. I managed to snap some very bad and out of focus photos, due to low lighting and not a particuarly great camera.
Carrying on I saw loads of cool costumes and then... Prince Charming. It was absolutely wicked, I want that outfit and if the young original Adam Ant could be thrown in that would obviously be a bonus :P I also had the luck to discover all of the Shakespeare items I mentioned earlier in the Performance Section, so it really was worth going back.
The British Museum
As I said before, the British Museum was as impressive as I had expected it to be. Just quickly before I move on, there were a few other things that were really cool in the Egyptian section. One thing was a collection of three men but what I thought made them particularly cool was the way in which their faces had been smashed. It made them look like zombies or you could imagine like the sculptures that came to life in th Mummy Movies.
A couple of other notable things were a giant scarab beetle (Cheper) and a very cute Falcon.
Along with the Egyptians I also really love the Celts, the Vikings and other old European civilisations. I was amazed to see in the postcard section of the shop that this was the actual home of the Battersea Shield, not only this but also the Sutton Hoo Grave artefacts, a large collection of the Lewis Chessman and a shield which I had drawn last year in the summer from a photograph in a book. I was also very happy to discover some of John Dee's possessions while looking around.
The Science Museum
Although this would have been a lot more fun if I had not been alone, as a good amount of it was interactive, I still saw a lot of interesting things. There was a huge collection of clocks and watches, a section on geometry which was very interesting and two floors of medical history diaramas and items which I enjoyed seeing as I studied this for a term at school in England.
I visited a quite a few other places as well but these are the ones of relevance to illustration.
I had a brilliant time in London. It was great staying with Keith and Patrick and it was such a lovely evening with them, Graham, Jim and Doug.
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)