It continues...

Found this fella who has taken it upon himself to do a watercolour painting of every single AW ink drawing.

I'm not sure if it's got quite the same magic to it. AW's self-imposed task for the pictorial guide books was just that, self-imposed. He wasn't following anybody else, his inspirations were the Lakes. I think people see the success of this formula and try and latch on to it, is that cynical?

Alfred Wainwright Documentary: The Man Who Loved the Lakes

As part of my research on AW, I've watched this documentary first shown on BBC Four. It references quite heavily a Desert Island Disc episode I've already listened to, I didn't realise that that had been such an important interview in AW's life!

Here are my notes:

• Born with red hair, nobody else in the family was. His mother used to hide him in a  drawer because of this.
• Liked the shape of writing as well as the words, particularly on maps. 
• Made what were essentially zines about his office, complete with caricatures of work colleagues and gossip columns.
• Chucked out 100 pages of his first book because he wasn’t happy with the drawings and wanted justified text. Clearly obsessive.
• Publisher said that he didn’t think anybody had done a hand written book like this since the monks, it's an interesting comparison and possibly something I could build on.
• When he met second wife Betty for the first time it was to tell her off. She had rented accommodation for a charity event from the council and the event had overrun by an hour. After giving her a talking to they never met again for another 8 years.
• He could be very, very funny. ‘Take care and do not start fires. Or so waste all the effort put into drawing these little trees on this map.’
• Hid a shilling under the top of one mountain in a playful interaction with his audience.
• People wanted to meet him! Rumours would spread about where he was and crowds would gather but he was never there.
• Always felt lonely and bereft like a baby. Was a bit of a man-child.
• His first marriage had some serious issues, mostly because his wife did not share his ambitions and that caused tension between them. She was a simple mill girl and he always felt 'inferior' (as said in his Desert Island Discs episode) because of his social status.
• He wrote a story secretly about this time and in it described a magical future wife...
• When Betty wrote again and they began meeting he gave her the manuscript and asked her to read it. She decided to continue the affair
• Poor Ruth found out from the neighbour! She found something in his desk, probably a letter. She was faithful even leaving him, though they never spoke again, she left him notes on how to look after the house.
• AW had no idea how to look after himself. Christ.
• Sue Lawley: ‘It was as though his life was a long slow ascent to a summit’ 
• Gave most of his wealth away to animal charities. 
• His ashes are scattered on Haystacks, along with many others. He says of this, ‘I shall be in company.’

Lili + Marcus

Lili Scratchey


I love Lili's sweet kitschy ceramics and illustrations! The forms in her work are wonderful and imaginative. :^)

Marcus Oakley


I really enjoy the direct style that he uses, and the colours too ~

Artist Research - Tim Spooner

I've been trying to get some inspiration for the manifesto and found Tim Spooner's work, I like the textures and odd shapes. The way he photographs 3-D work using a scanner is really interesting too!

Animation!

Our finished animation! It turned out pretty well, some of the animation is a little jerky and working in a group is hard but overall we had fun making it. Nobody killed anyone.

Some kind of weird dog

Voila!

Here are some images from the making process:

(There are more to come...)

I also made it poop confetti:

The looks on their faces say it all:

Images from the parade!

Costume Project Research

My character design is almost complete. I am quite mammalian, in that I am a mammal but also that I'm sort of hairy and cuddly, so I wanted to combine aspects of mammals with more microscopic creatures.

My 5 primary needs are the following:

1. Bin bags
2. Yellow
3. Band-aids
4. Glasses
5. Space

Naked mole rats are fairly disgusting creatures but actually represent my character pretty well, burrowing and nesting are things my creature will need to do to survive. They're also quite blind and that ties in well with my need for glasses.

This image shows some intestinal cells. The cells absorb nutrients using their long finger like fronds, catching any food floating by. This links to my small hoarding habit (the reason for bin bags being included in my list!) and also that I have very long fingers.

I love fried eggs! My big Tachen Book of Symbols says that eggs are highly revered in most societies. Not only are they very nutritious but often they are compared with the sun: round, life-giving, and yellow. I will give my character egg boobs, breasts primary function is to give milk to infants, it's a way of showing my nurturing side.

Head lice are weird creatures, associated with hair and dirt and unkemptness. I like the idea of my character adopting little parasites to help them clean up the environment they live in.








I'm struggling a little with band-aids and glasses, would it be too human to just have the character wearing them? I will consider this over the next few days.

As a side note, I also have an excellent book on pre-Columbian art that I have been perusing, unfortunately I can't upload images from the book but I shall bring it to crits and tutorials. The styles of the costumes in the book are incredible and worth referencing in my work.