Developing Visual Narratives

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Evaluation

For this project, I chose a new medium to work within, being puppetry, this was incredibly fun to work within and I learned new skills, such as articulation, sculpting with foam, and general puppet construction. As well as this, I believe I was able to affectively portray the characters of my chosen story effectively through this medium, utilising the medium to exaggerate their characteristics and gestures. I am also happy with the research I put into designing the characters accurately to the period and story, making the age and context clear through their designs.

However, despite the fact I am happy with the work I produced, I couldn’t complete my intended project within the deadline, leading to a lot of it being unfinished or rushed. As well as this, many aspects regarding the artistic direction could be improved if given more time to develop. For example, the folk art and pagan inspirations for the puppet designs are mostly lost, as their final designs are a lot cleaner and more contemporary in execution than intended. If given more time to develop these designs, research and experimentation would’ve gone towards traditional pagan puppetry and art.

Unlike with other projects where I have struggled with finding topics to cover, I chose this topic quickly, due to it being chose to my heart. Nevertheless, due to poor project balancing, I didn’t start making work physically until a lot later, leading to the final production being incomplete. Although I was able to produce work in the form of a concept pitch, I am disappointed that I couldn’t create the puppet production I had intended to make within the time.  A habit that may have caused this is my tendency to spend too long researching and planning instead of making things physically due to a fear of making mistakes in the process. Within further projects, I’m planning to prioritise physical work and experimentation above all else, allowing myself to fully flesh out my projects as I make them

Within this project, I struggled a lot with time management when balancing this project and the visual culture project. This is a consistent issue for me and has caused many of my projects to be left unfinished. Within the future, I am hoping to prioritise multiple smaller manageable projects that add up to one overarching brief instead of one large and long-lasting project so that my project schedule can better adapt to my personal workflow, as I find it difficult to maintain momentum working on one project consistently for extended periods.

In conclusion, I am happy with the work I was able to produce, but I am disappointed that I couldn’t finalise it how I had intended. I plan to remedy this by basing my future project structures around my own personal work style as to better prioritise and delegate time.

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Background character Progress

Baby

(Original concept art)

The baby prop was fairy easy to make due to the simplistic design. I made a simple teardrop shape, sanded and painted it and then sprayed with paint sealant.

Livestock (Sheep and Cow)

(Original concept art)

The sheep and cow were fairly difficult to complete due to their complicated shapes and fragile areas (such as their ears and legs).

To make the base for each, I used tin foil and wire to sculpt the silhouette of the animal, sealing with hot glue. After solidifying, I applied clay, sanding and applying more once dry. This proved difficult as many times their ears or legs would break off or parts would crumble off, because of this they took a long time to finish.

Although I am happy with their final designs, I am disappointed that their shapes arent as dramatic as they were in the original concept art, however this would be difficult to sculpt and stand on its own.

Another aspect I would change would be to alter the sculpt of the cow, as it's design as is makes it unable to stand due to its uneven and weak legs.

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Wise Woman Puppet Progress

Due to time, I wasn’t able to start construction on the puppet of the wise woman, but her design was heavily influenced by the style of Jim Henson’s puppets.

For inspiration on the construction, I looked up guides to the articulation on the mouth and eyes, which uses a wire lever function that pulls the lower jaw open when squeezed.

If I had the time, I would’ve attempted this mechanism, but with the time and the complexity of the process, I’m not sure if it’d been possible.

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Knight John Puppet Progress

With the design for armoured John Lambton, the idea was to have the puppet be papier mache instead of clay coated like the other humanoid puppets, as to make it lighter to hold.

This would never get into fruition due to issues with timing.

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Lambton Worm Puppet Progress

Idea for design

Lamprey-like (aligns with original tale)

Deep-sea creature like

Buggy eyes

Long thin fangs

pale/white for otherworldliness

Folded cardboard base for mouth

Hot-glued foam on top, cut to shape the head and nostrils

White t-shirt fabric draped, pinned and sewn onto head

Doll eyes attached

Depth added with black pastels

Red felt added to mouth

Fabric draped and sewn to form a neck, which the arm goes through to puppet

Gills/wrinkles added to face through pleating + more shading with pastels

Teeth made with hot glue

Dripped onto red fabric to harden as to give reddish/off-white effect

Red paint added around teeth to look like bloody gums

Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of the lambton worm puppet, however I don't believe it fits the aesthetic I had intended.

I had wanted this puppet to look pagan-like and folk-y, but ended up looking too 'modern horror', inspired. If I had the time to work further on this, id rework the puppets design to look less polished and more abstracted, similarly to the other puppets.

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Lord Lambton Puppet Progress

Based on Henry III and Edward III

Design focus on deep purplish colours to invoke royalty

Square face to show stability

Wall-eyed expression to show age and unreliability (contrast)

Base of head formed with cardboard toilet roll tube

cardboard nose glued on

Clay layered on top and left to harden

Pieces painted and sprayed with sealant

Hands painted, sprayed and elastic attached

Irises and eyebrows added

Faux fur added to head as hair

Cape with gold button and chain embellishments added

Hands and marionette strings added

Overall, im very happy with how the lord Lambton puppet came out, however my only regret is not having the time to make his crown or to get a blue fabric for the cape instead of tartan (unintentionally looks more celtic/Scottish)

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John Lambton Puppet Progress

Head shape intentionally silly and phallic to show that john is unreliable, rude and dimwitted (unlikely hero)

Red clothes to show bravery/passion

Freckles for youth

Common bowl cut hairstyle of the time, also vaguely monk-like to work with religious theming

Head formed from toilet roll tube, nose is faux pearl

Hair shaped with foil then clay clay applied overtop, sanded when dry

Painted then sprayed with paint sealant

Shoes and legs painted, sewn and attached

Eyes glossed and freckles added

Tunic sewn and attached

Arms sewn and attached (colour matched with pastels as head was different shade to fabric used for arms)

Belt added

Articulation added to arms (Red button used as a shoulder joint)

Shading added to clothing using pastels

Marionette strings added to hands

Overall, I am incredibly happy with how the John puppet turned out, I believe I captured his design very well and he has a lot of charm.

Changes I would make would be to make the hands more detailed, as theyre quite formless, despite my efforts to define the fingers with pastels.

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Style Guide

One of the main inspirations for the design of the whole cast, is the work of Maria Prymachenko, a Ukrainian folk artist. I found her piece, ‘War is a Terrible Beast’ (1968) from the book, 'An opinionated guide: Folk Art', when I was researching pieces for visual inspiration.

I was really struck by her bold shapes and colours, utilising the 'flattness' of the medium to make very geomentric but recognisable abstracted figures.

Lambton worm

More traditional medieval serpent/wyrm inspiration than earth worm

Lamprey as main inspiration

Gnarled and scarred from battle and rapid growth

Traditional hand puppet design, inspired by folk masks

Smaller puppet (for penshaw hill scene) based on traditional Chinese dragon puppets (skewered accordion)

John Lambton (Knight armour)

Exaggerated body features esp long head, big shoulders, big chest, big feet

Spikes on every surface esp where edges connect

Grommets and ventilation

Large sword

Livestock/backgrounds

Simplistic bold shapes

Lisa Larson big inspiration

Simple colours

Warm-up Sketches

When preparing to work on the character designs, I first went to quick pose, a website which gives you random poses and expression to draw whilst timed.

This was a great warm up each time I sat down to brainstorm c character designs.

Character designs

Backgrounds

Cardboard to add depth and texture

Moving parts with dowel/skewers

Child-like charm to the material

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Story Planning

When writing and composing the story, my main inspiration came from the 'Dragons' book I had previously mentioned being a large inspiration, however, the interpretation of the story told in my short film is a mix of multiple retellings.

For example, in the retelling in my story, the moral lies within responsibility and owning your actions, when most of the older retellings are solely focused on piety, and the repercussions of missing church.

I also wanted to exempt the aspect common in many retellings, where in which it incorporates 'The Lambton Curse', so thought to have come about because John Lambton didn't kill the first thing he saw after slaying the worm, being his own father, which was instructed by the wise woman. I chose to not include this within the story, as I believe it'd overcomplicate the story unnecessarily.

Storyboard

Script

With the script, I intentionally only had two speaking roles, that being the narrator and the wise woman. This is so that from the perspective of the audience, it's like you are the one going through the journey and being lectured alongside John, the main character.

Animatic

Visit Original Link

The voiceovers I had recorded myself on Audacity, if I had given myself more time I would have done a casting call for voice actors, preferably ones with North Eastern accents, to play the roles within the script instead of amateurishly doing it myself.

Final (Incomplete) Animatic

I had intended to create an animatic for the whole short film, but due to time constraints I wasn't able to complete a full animatic. However, with the chunk I was able to complete, I believe it simplistically portrays how I wouldve wanted my short film to have been, compositional wise and structurally.

If I had given myself more time to work on the animatic, I wouldve wanted to visualise the whole film, including the opening and end credits, as well as include sound effects and music if relevant to the scene.

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Final Idea

The story I chose for my project was the story of The Lambton Worm, this is due to the fact that, out of all the stories I had considered, it had the most potential for puppetry and the most vivid imagery. I would also hope that through my project, I can bring more attention to the story and possibly garner a wider audience interested in British folktales and mythology.

The audience I would hope to garner through this would be a broad one, I am hoping to appeal to everyone but families and older-aged children would probably be the target audience (due to the distressing scenes within the story). I would also want to appeal to fans of puppetry by utilising multiple techniques and styles of puppetry, such as marionettes, stop-motion, hand puppets and shadow puppetry.

What I am hoping to create, is a humorous short film recounting the story of the Lambton Worm, told through narration and puppetry. With the visuals, I want it to utilse the folk traditional style of puppet booths with cardboard props and set cards that get changed out with each scene. I am hoping to also utilise a bunch of different styles of puppetry and visuals, including pagan/celtic/medieval inspired textile work to invoke the period in which it is set.

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Mechanics Workshop

Within the mechanics workshop, we learnt and tested many mechanical structures using cogs, levers and cams in order to make our own automata.

When tasked with making a simple test automata, a design of something that could swing from side to side, I decided to do a crocodiles jaw, so that when the handle was pulled, it looked as if it was biting the air.

The inspiration for my final design came from the YouTube video pictured above, which had a wire crank operated automata, that simulated a whale swimming up and down with each turn on the handle.

For my own design, I decided to choose a hammerhead shark, due to their unique appearance. Looking back on this project after the fact, I shouldve chosen another mammalian sea creature such as the original whale in the video for this build, as hammerhead sharks don't actually swim up and down, but left to right lol.

I made the shark out of wire, cardboard and hot glue and the frame for the automata was plywood I cut and glued together.

With the final piece I created, I didn't have enough time to attach the shark to the mechanism, but the shark still had a lot of articulation, allowing it to bend at each segment of its body. This proved very helpful later in my project when working on articulation within puppetry.

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Anthology Presentation

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Anthology Workshop research 1

Prior to the main project brief, we were given a short week long brief to complete to help prepare for the main project.

This brief concerned forming groups, and working as a team to create an illustrated publication depicting a chosen anthology series. To help explain each anthology series, some of the writers of the publications guest spoke on campus, I hadnt read any of the anthologies prior to this, so I took notes on the day of what stories grabbed me.

Through this, I found a great interest in the 'Necrosmologies' by Anthony Cartwright. What attracted me to these stories was the vivid imagery and the locality to myself, as many of the areas portrayed in the stories I grew up around or had visited. Its because of this, I chose to work on this anthology as I believed I could add nuance to the depictions due to the fact I came from the areas discussed within some of the writings.

(Misc sketches and notes made during Anthony Cartwright's guest speaking)

During the talk, I made sketches for each of the stories discussed, helping me visualise the stories and negotiate which I would like to illustrate within the brief

GROUP WORK

After assembling with my group, we all discussed which stories we should illustrate. Through this discussion, I was left with the story 'Llan Cau', a story which involves a large sea creature in Machynlleth, Wales.

Looking back, I believe I shouldve chose a story majority set in the midlands from the anthology, as my research and photography wouldve came in better handy in the outcome.

We also decided to publish our works as a zine and for our individual illustrative pieces to be two page spreads. I chose for my piece to be as comic, as I felt it'd be the most fitting medium to show the progression of the story, especially the visual of the main character being sucked downwards underwater.

(Moodboard for the sea creature in the story)

When brainstorming the sea creature in the story, I looked at a variety of sources of inspiration, notably the 'Afanc', a welsh mythical beast that's a mammalian sea monster, said to resemble either a beaver, seal, prehistoric aquatic dinosaur or crocodile. I also looked at globsters, whales, deep sea creatures and water horses. When looking for visual inspiration, I wanted aspects that invoked awe and beauty as well as terror and otherworldliness, as to substantiate the main character's confrontation with the creature.

(Mood boards for upperground scenes (Left) and underwater (Right)

When deciding how I wanted to style my comic, I wanted to utilise texture to show the contrast between the gritty industrial town on land and the deep, rich, mysterious sea. Two artists in particular I was initially inspired by were Lane Smith and Tomm Moore. Lane Smith's work is oftentimes very earthy and utilises texture from his materials, such as collage, pen, oil paints and pastels, giving his work a very gritty but warm tone. On the other hand, Tomm Moore's work is very symmetrical and geometrical, utilising shapes heavily in his visual language. A specific work of his I looked at inspiration for my underwater scenes was his film, 'Song of the Sea (2014)', Moore's style shines through his depictions of the flow of water in this movie, using geometrical arches and curves to heighten the magical tone. He also utilises watercolours within the backgrounds, making the environments seem serene and flowing.

(Moodboards of 1910's Machynlleth and relevant fashion/boats)

I also gathered reference images of 1910's machynlleth harbour/highstreet and boats, fishermen/scientist fashion of the era so that my depictions could be period accurate.

(Colour scheme and compositional idea sketches)

As a group, we all attempted to create a rough estimate of our colour schemes before starting our work, as to gauge the styles we were all going for and to keep the zine fairly concise colour wise. For my colour scheme, I chose a mustard yellow/green/blue, to encapsulate both the musty industrial sky, sand, and the sea.

One of the visuals I had wanted to incorporate since the start of this project, was the main character suspended underwater directly in the iris of the large creature. I wanted the underwater scenes to feel inescapable and endless, which is why I looked into a lot of spiralling and labyrinth patterns for inspiration.

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Anthology Workshop research 2

For the group project, I made the effort to go back to my home city of Birmingham and take pictures of some of the areas mentioned within Necrosmologies, so serve as reference imagery for illustrations and potential collage material for page inserts.

Areas I took pictures of include the canals, the Lickey Hills, and the Jewellery Quarter.

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Anthology Workshop 3

Character designs

When designing the creature, I looked at all the inspirations I had collected on my moodboard and sketched out designs that I believed fit the elegant but terrorfying style I wanted. In the end, I decided to make the creatures true appearance vague, making it only visible in small segments due to its incomprehensible size. I also wanted it's design to blend into the environment, making it hidden in plain sight until revealed. I depicted this effect by making the creature's spines and gills resemble caverns and coral, making it blend into the seabed environment.

For the main character, his design was fairly easily realised. I wanted him to look unassuming but reliable, using sturdy rectangular shapes for his design to show he strong and humble, but unassuming through his beady glazed-over eyes.

Compositional planning

The visual of the main character in front of the creature's eye was a detail I wanted to highlight within my two-page spread, because of this within my plan I had intended for it to fill a majority of the second page for impact.

Progress Pictures

Final piece

With the outcome I made with this mini project, I am fairly happy with the outcome, however I believe a lot of aspects don't work as well as they could and it wasnt completed according to the original plan.

Such problems include the darkness of the colour on the first page, due to the highly textured and dark design, when it was printed a lot of the detail was lost and many of the panels became illegible. I'll avoid this in future with test prints and by working in CMYK initially.

As well as this, I believe I didn't utilise my inspirations enough, and I wouldve liked to experimented further in their styles.

Additionally, due to time, a lot of the detail and additional panels I had intended to include had to be scrapped in order for our team to print in time for submission. Although I believe these were elements not detrimental to the story, I wouldve wanted more time to experiment with the composition and design without the time constraint.

Feedback we received for this project included the want to see more experimentation. As a team, we were unaware that we werent expected to have a finalised piece, due to this we chose an achievable goal (a printed zine) for the deadline. If we were given more clarifications on the limitations of the project, I wouldve hoped to have made something more experimental and larger scale.

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Initial story/medium ideas

Going into this project, I have some aspects I want to look for when choosing which story I want to depict:

Faction/unfiction ideas | Although I do like depicting both fiction and non-fiction, I have always been drawn to unfiction as a topic, I find it fascinating how humanity implements legend and belief into our customs and traditions, how the unreal impacts the real and the real impacts the unreal, and so forth. Its because of this, I am focusing my story search solely on Factional/Unfictional stories.

Puppetry | Puppetry is a medium I have wanted to experiment within for a long time, I love working physically and with textiles. I also adore the medium itself and its versatility within storytelling, adding a more grounded feel due to its physicality. Its because of this, I will be keeping an eye out for stories that I believe may benefit through being portrayed through puppetry.

Stop-motion | Stop-motion animation, much like puppetry, is also a medium I would love to experiment within, much for the same reasons as puppetry. I love the physicality of it and I believe factional stories would benefit from, being made physically in real life but depicting untrue/debateable stories. Its because of this, I will be searching out stories which may benefit through being depicted through stop-motion animation.

Lambton Worm

(Scans from 'Dragons' by Christopher Rawson and Stephen Cartwright)

'The Lambton Worm' is a folktale originating in County Durham around the 14th century detailing a story of John Lambton, heir to the Lambton Estate, slaying a large lamprey-like worm or 'wyrm' (archaic term for dragon) depending on the retelling.

This is a story I have been greatly interested since I was young, as it was my favourite story in 'Dragons' a book by Christopher Rawson and Stephen Cartwright. The story always has stuck with me all this time due to a mix of the impactful illustrations within the book and all the bizarre details within the story which make it unique (such as the worm-like nature of the beast, its hunger for milk, the armour used by John Lambton to slay the dragon, and the habit of the dragon wrapping itself around Penshaw Hill to name a few).

This is the story that first got me into folklore and legends, making it have a very special place in my heart and a large point of inspiration for a lot of my other works.

(Screenshot from 'In the lair of The White Worm' (1988)

This story has been adapted many times, most notably in the folksong written in 1867 by C. M. Leumane and Bram Stokers 1911 novel 'The Lair of the White Worm' which draws heavy inspiration from the legend. If I were to choose this story to depict, I will put further research into these contemporary depictions of the story.

I believe this story will fit well within the brief and my own interests within this project, as the medium of puppetry holds great importance within folk tradition globally, especially within the United Kingdom. This will make it easier for visual inspiration and adaptation of the story to the medium of puppetry.

Barney and Betty Hill Incident

(Pictured Betty Hill, Barney Hill and Delsey (Dog) pictured with a diagram of the supposed UFO they were abducted by)

The 'Barney and Betty Hill Incident', also referred to as 'The Zeta Reticuli case', was a famous alien abduction case from 1961 often credited as the origin of the 'Grey Alien' archetype.

According to the story, the Hill's where driving home where Betty spotted a moving light in the sky, gradually growing bigger and closer. After stopping the car to observe further and to walk their dog, Delsey, Betty observed the craft further, claiming it was a UFO. The object pursued them as they attempted to drive away, eventually stopping the car by hovering in its path.

Barney claimed to have observed humanoids inside the craft, wearing glossy black uniforms and caps. After this, the couple initially remembered no further, waking up dazed and in a new location.

Once going under hypnosis in attempt to regain these lost memories, the couple recount being abducted by the humanoids, communicating with them telepathically and observing their craft

(Left: Screenshot of 'The UFO Incident'(1975)| Right: Illustrative depictions of the alien abductors sighted by the Hill's)

This story has been subject to many adaptations, due to it being arguably the most famous and impactful alien sighting story within pop culture. Notable examples being The 1975 film 'The UFO Incident' and the star map presented in the 2012 film 'Prometheus'.

This story works within the brief and my preferences for this project, as I believe the medium of stop-motion lends itself well to unsettling and supernatural stories, due to its usual janky style of movement mixed with physical props and material.

John Fare

(The story of John Fare as retold in a zine made by the band, Coil)

'John Fare' refers to the folk legend of a supposed Canadian extreme performance artist by the name of John Fare, who would perform exceedingly dangerous and grotesque self-mutilating performances, with his final performance ending in his head being severed from his body by a large robotic-armed contraption.

This story originates from 1968 and is largely believed to be an urban legend due to no concrete evidence suggesting its credibility and many testimonies from people in the art scene of the time claiming to have never heard of John Fare prior to the legend.

(Left: Screenshot of the music video for 'Happiness In Slavery' by Nine Inch Nails | Right: Screenshot from the shortfilm, 'Mainstream' by Adam Barnick)

This Legend is clearly inspired by the popularity boom of performance and endurance art within the 60's-70's, from figures such as Chris Burden and the Fluxus art collective. The story of John Fare has gone on to inspire many other performance art pieces and artworks, such as the music video to the Nine Inch Nails song, 'Happiness In Slavery' and the shortfilm, 'Mainstream'.

Although this topic really intrigues me, I don't believe it'd be the easiest to portray due to its non-linear nature, being made up of separate retellings of various performances. It'd also be difficult to portray in my preferred mediums, because of this I don't think i'd be considering this story further.

The Mouse Utopia Experiment (Universe 25)

(Image of John B. Calhoun with 'Mouse utopia' experiment)

'The Mouse Utopia' experiment or 'Universe 25' was an experiment that lasted from 1968 to 1973, carried out by John B. Calhoun at the National Instititute for Mental Health (NIMH) to study the effects of overpopulation on the behaviours of mice, with the intent to mirror humanity in the results.

Within this experiment, Calhoun constructed a bizarre city for mice, complete with apartment buildings with rooms for each mouse, rooftop fountains for water, and dining halls in the apartments for the mice to eat upon. The conditions of the enclosure where to be as accommodating and safe as possible, allowing each mouse to be healthy, fed and able to reproduce safely as to make it easier to observe their reactions to the gradual overpopulation.

As the experiment progressed, the mice would display more and more unnaturally and strange behavior, including the decline in sexual interest from male mice, overall self-destructive behavior and the loss of maternal instincts of female mice to their young. In the final years of the experiment starting in 1972, the mice would stop reproducing, leaving the mouse population to slowly decrease from its peak at 2,200 as all the mice had lost the social skill to mate despite being completely physically capable.

This experiment has since received mostly negative reaction, being unable to be recreated and debated to even be applicable at all to humanities reactions to overpopulation, however at the time of the experiment's run many already had fears of overpopulation that this experiment had reinforced.

This experiment has always intrigued me, due to its strange nature and disturbing results and documentation. If I were to adapt this story for this project, I would want to portray it through a 'historical fiction' lense, showing the experiment through the mice's eyes and humanising the experiment by commenting on humanity's flaws, much like how Calhoun had initially intended with the experiment.

I believe this story may work well in the medium of puppetry or stop-motion, as the mice would be easy to depict in either. Stop-motion may be preferable due to its previously mentioned unsettling movement style, this would allow the disturbing themes of the story to shine.

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Brief

For this project, we are tasked with visualising a narrative (be it fictional, non-fictional or faction), into a medium of our choosing.

The outcome should effectively portray the narrative in a concise and effective way, utilising it's chosen medium to further the themes/story in the chosen text.

Within this project, I am hoping to experiment in mediums I haven't before to fully push myself with depicting narratives. Because of this, i'm going to try and avoid digital/traditional illustration for my final piece.