A little Celtic flavour

So, with my project centred on the Mabinogion I've had to do some research on the era that it was written in to get an idea of the times. There are no exact dates for when it was actually written but the work it is based on (The White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book Hergest) were all penned between 1300-1400AD. With this in mind i've been looking at the Celtic society in the 5th Century. I was surprised at the range of fashion that was around at the time, and it's meant i've had quite a lot of creative freedom with the designs. I've also drawn inspiration from the film 'Tristan & Isolde' which is also set in the same era.

Here are my initial sketches; they are of no particular character or from any story, I just wanted to get a feel for the designs. These will be followed up with some colour work, i'm planning to do a mixture of pencil, watercolour and digital and see what medium is best suited.

                                

            

The only sketch which has some narrative is the old man surrounded by dancers. This image was just a blast to illustrate! 

A stressful week

Well, it's been non stop for me this week. As it stands I have a deadline for thursday for my observational drawing project. I've been illustrating my work place, but instead of drawing work...i've been at work. Everyone has bills to pay and its taking its toll on me this week. Thats not to say i've not been working, its just a long way off what i'd hoped to have achieved over these last few days.

I'll be finishing the final piece for that project tonight so will have that up here tomorrow for your judgement, as well as uploading the last of that sketchbook too. Once all that is out of the way, I can resume my focus back on my summer project. I have about 5 images ready, waiting to be painted. But alas my greatest downfall as an illustrator (my irritatingly slow process) is once again meaning I have an ever increasingly 'to-do' list. No rest for the wicked eh.

Well, in the meantime here is some sketchbook work from my summer project:
 

These were my mock ups using the circular symbol, and then combining it with welsh mythic heroes and legends. Included here are 'Twrch Trwyth - Protector of the ever-living ones', 'Blodeuwedd - the maiden of flowers', 'Cwn Annwn - The wild hunt of Arawn' and 'The road to Annwyn - the welsh otherworld'

With these sketches I was most happy with the development of the text. At first, the writing was just ineligible and just distracted attention away from the image. The latter pictures I felt integrated the two elements far more effectively.

As for these two, they were drawn immediately after reading some of the welsh fairy tales. I suppose they are the most traditional drawings i've done recently, and were very quickly coloured with watercolours. They are some of the very first pictures I did on this project, and to stop and actually reflect on where i've progressed to now still bemuses me. The wheels of creativity never stop!

The Fourth Branch

So, thought id show you what i've been up to at the moment with regards to my welsh mythology project. These thumbnails are to do with the character Blodeuwedd who appears in the fourth branch of the Mabinogion. My aim with this was to create a complete story in one picture. This idea originated from the Mappi Mundi maps painted in medieval europe. Whilst they functioned as maps, and quite accurately at that considering what measuring equipment they had at the time, they also portrayed figures and stories from history, mythology and important religious icons to that area. Thus, they became a living landscape that incorporate both the geography of the area, but a cultural understanding of it too.

I took these ideas when completing my own Mappi Mundi for the Welsh tales, and also incorporated as much iconography and clues relating to the tales as possible. I havn't decided which figure best matches the frame yet, but once i've come to that conclusion, I'll be painting that up into a finished visual.

In regards to this part of the Mabinogion, the owl references the eventual fate of Blodeuwedd, while Llech Gronw is the stone where her lover, Gronw, was slain by her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes. The inscription around the image reads: 'Flowers of the oak, flowers of the broom, flowers of the meadowsweet'.

I want to include as many references as possible in these images, which will give them as much depth as a viewer is willingly to go. If anything, I like hiding secret clues and messages within my work, so I expect these will only get more elaborate!

Im going to do an entire series of these chronicling the story of the Mabinogion, so what this space.

In the works

So, as I keep alluding to on here, i'm right bang in the middle of my summer project which as of now I've kept rather quiet about. But, no longer!

The general outline was to pick a theme, any theme, and then development it as and how you wish. Featured into this though were three supplements that you had to use, one was a story extract from a novel, a section of a famous illustration and an undefined symbol which had no specific use.

Anyway, I chose Mythology as my theme for a starting point, then narrowed that down to welsh mythology, then to a specific text (The Mabinogion) and then looked at a particular part of that story, being the fourth branch.

I have always loved to explore myths and legends, and up till now I had not found a logical way to tie this into any of the work I had been doing during my studies. This project however gave me free reign to pursue it wholeheartedly! I chose Welsh mythology in particular simply because it was not something I had ever investigated before. I was enormously surprised at the sheer amount of material available, and saddened to discover that traditional welsh stories are slowly becoming extinct.

Its a shame because the local legends I find to be far more entertaining and provocative. Its these stories that I'm primarily going to be focussing my project on. However, to begin with, I've used an established text, the Mabinogion. Its a great read and i'd thoroughly encourage you to have a peak at it.

Enough talk though, here's some early sketches I did whilst reading it. Here's Twrch Trywth, the boar king. Whilst reading the passage I instantly thought of Lord Okkoto from Princess Mononoke and had that in mind when I did these images. To be honest Studio Ghibli is never too far away from my thoughts when it comes to the fantastical.

An introduction to my summer

So, following on from my last post I outlined that this was my head first plunge into resembling some form of illustrator. With that in mind, I suppose I should start publishing some illustrations then!

Currently I am working on 2 projects. One involves choosing a location and making sustained  observational drawings for thirty days *yawn* and secondly, my summer project, which is to choose a theme and develop it as and how you wish. Now, although the first project is critical in terms of actually passing my course, the idea of developing my own project has, naturally, meant that I have been more enthusiastic with pursuing the second option.

I will be putting up a full outline of the project itself shortly, but for now I wanted my first image that I displayed to be one that I was proud of, and, with a silent drum-roll currently resounding in my head, I give you my rendition of 'Dogsbody'

The inspiration for this piece comes from a mixture of sources but the most direct influences are from the Welsh tales within the 'Mabinogion' and Diana Wynne Jones' novel 'Dogsbody'.

I've been continuing practicing with watercolour, while this illustration also uses touches of gouache. I have been steadily increasing in confidence with this media. Why did I want this image to be my first? Well, for one, it has a dog in it, which will make a certain dachshund happy. Two, it has a dog in it, and I am very well known for not being able to draw animals at all! (Incidentally, this very fact was one of the factors why I started this particular project!)

I've also included these pages from my sketchbook of other dogs I researched and drew. The albino colouring and red ears is a reference to the spiritual dogs found in the first branch of the Mabinogion, so I tried to figure out which dogs would be best as both hunting dogs, and mythological at the same time.

So, here is the beginnings of what I've been up to this summer, in-between cheese and ham toasties, but expect to see more up here soon.