Research: Theatre sets and shows

I've always found theatre to be an influence in my work, and I get to see a lot of it while outside of university.  I find it very inspirational as it creates a new place with set, lighting and props. And overtly so, I like the idea of a 'staged' piece that you can enter and be transported into another place, inside the theatre the outside world almost doesn't seem to exist and yet what you watch can directly relate to you, society, culture, history and the world outside the theatre. I like that is isn't just entertainment, it's relevant and informative and I think that's a good thing to take on board when creating.

Matilda: The Musical

I went to see this around Christmas time as it's a new show that has just opened at the Cambridge theatre. The set is really impressive and I think there is a nod to Quentin Blakes style in the cluttered letter blocks and bright colours in the sets and props.

I like the use of shadow puppetry in this production, it was used to tell a story Matilda was imagining and so there was a device to separate the storytelling within the story. The shadow puppetry also was used with animation for more complicated motions and the set played with composition; the shadowed figure fell and the backdrop of the set became a birds eye view. I liked the different angling. 

In this video you can see the set and the use of lighting and how that creates an atmosphere very similar to the style of writing and story from the original text.

War Horse

War horse is one of my favourite productions and has been something that has influenced me throughout this year. I wrote my dissertation on the use of visual art in theatre and this production was one of my main articles. The strip at the top you can see in the top photograph is a enlarged ripped piece of paper from a sketchbook one of the characters draws in. the scene changes are shown in projections of sketches showing the journey is art from realism to cubist shapes of war artists which reflect the changing atmosphere.

What really inspires me though is the puppetry of the horses. They have great character and are modelled quite clearly on real horses. I really like the materials used to make them - wood, leather, light cloth, and that they relate to the farming background and materials of the time and place. 

I like the mix of realism - the shape and build of the horse, mixed with the materials used and the way the puppets have been constructed being left on show.

The movements and character of the horses are well adapted in the materials the puppets have been made from. 

The lighting of this show is also visually very interesting. The light is warm and soft at the beginning of the story in Devon and moves to harsh white light as we move into War. There are strong sharp lights for strobe lighting in the front line, and for explosions. Lighting is used to shield as well, we don't see the tank in the last photo until it comes fully onto stage. I think lighting is very powerful in creating atmosphere and tension and is something that can be used in many mediums.

His Dark Materials 
Through research I found out about a production of His Dark Materials based on the book series by Philip Pullman. The show used puppets for the many animal characters. They are simpler then the puppets made by The Handspring Theatre company for War Horse but I like their simplicity, like the main body of the creature in the top picture, which allows movement similar to that of a real ermine.

The sets seem quite simple but I like the icicle drops to create scenery and a more imposing atmosphere here.

Some of the costumes had similarities to the separately handled puppets. I like the simple shapes used to create the rolling bodies of the bears and their shoulders higher than their heads. 

I'm looking at these due to my long ongoing inspiration from them. Theatre provides other genres from visual arts like dance, movement and music but techniques can be taken and brought into visual image just as visual image can be used in theatre. I think my inspiration from theatre will be long lasting and it is therefore important to address this influence in my final major project. 

Research: Theatre in illustration

While trying to find a good idea to base my project on I've looked around at various things to try to spark my imagination and give me ideas on context and style. I already have a collection of artist I admire and who I am constantly inspired by but at the start of every new project and idea I like to look around and see people who are working in an area that I am specifically looking at.

Elly Mackay

Elly Mackay is a current illustrator who uses techniques similar to what I tried a little during the Bloody Chamber project. Her images are created by handmade cut outs and drawings set in a theatre-like installation which she then lights and photographs to create these unique scenes with soft colours and dreamlike lighting.

I like how she creates the smokey effects on top of the water, it's very atmospheric and is something I would like to try with my own work.

Mackay's drawing style is different to my own but I like the way real props, like the cocktail umbrella is included. 

I like her use of layers with material in between to cloud the pieces that are further back.

 I think once an illustration is set up to photograph you can spend a long time playing around with aspects like this to produce multiple images. 

Once the scene is set up Mackay plays around with lighting and composition to get different shots and include different features. 

(Macaky, Elly. http://ellymackay.com)

Jamie Caliri - United Airlines advert

Heart from Jamie Caliri on Vimeo.

I saw this on tumblr quite a while ago and thought it was a good concept for an airline of such a name. I liked that it was created from paper with the use of stop motion animation but didn't relate it to anything I was interested in at the time. I don't particularly want to look at animation but I thought this would be good to look at again in terms of paper craft. I liked hand crafted look of the characters and scenery. The figures are also flat, with various pieces of material. This is something to think about too; do I go for a full shaped model or work with flat pieces in a set up. 

(Caliri, Jamie. 2009. http://vimeo.com/7123538)

Little Dragon

Music video for Little Dragon. Also acts as a pilot for short film "Dreams from the Woods".
A shadow puppet theater featuring the little girl, the big bird and the skeleton.
Directed by Johannes Nyholm. Puppet Masters: Yukimi Nagano, Håkan Wirenstrand, Fredrik Källgren Wallin, Erik Bodin, Elias Araya, Aime Hellrand, Henrik Malmgren, Andreas Korsár and Kurt Lightner.

Here the video is made out of shadow puppets, and everything is real time and hand created. I like the use of translucent sheets with printed trees that come away during the video, and the few mechanisms like the tears from the bird and the dancing skeleton. This is made entirely front shadows which is something I was looking at previously. This means the created piece can be created quite crudely as it's the shape it makes that's important. I think light and shadow will definitely play a part in my exploration of this project and this was really interesting to see possible techniques, like the backdrops.

(Nyholm, Johannes. 2007. youtube.com)

The Sleeper Dreams

This model looks as though it can be moved by the pin connecting the tail, but is a still image. I don't know very much about the context of the image but in terms of my work I can think about what will be displayed when it comes to the exhibition. 

(Carr, Lindsey. 2008. http://velvetforest.tumblr.com/)

The Driftwood House

This is a really interesting idea. The images are screenprinted and put together into a 'flipbook' which creates a pop-up book as you flip up another section. I like the simple idea of creating layers as each page turns and also really like the added pop-ups which make it more interactive. Here, also, there is one piece - the house - being created instead of changing scenery, the story is told within one idea. 

(ANON. 2011. http://characterzoo.tumblr.com)

Generating ideas

After getting a bit stunted over not knowing what to do I decided this was a good opportunity to reveal in the things that I enjoyed. I hoped looking around at things that inspired me and things that I liked would put my mind back into 'generating idea' mode and would get me out of the blind panic I was in.

My tutor, Derek came to talk to me in the afternoon on Monday and suggested I looked at a few things, he also said it would be the content that pushes the project. So I thought I should just step back, do some research and go back into what it is that I like and what inspires me, and choose what I want to centre this project on.

Peep shows/Dioramas/Toy Theatres
It was suggested by a few tutors that I looked at old Victorian methods of storytelling like Peep Shows and Toy Theatres to think about using similar techniques with modern materials and images. With my last project I made mini set type pieces and it would be good to explore this further with this current project. Dioramas are slightly different in terms of being 'theatrical'; they are more like film sets and used in modern times for models of events or places. It would be interesting to look at having a made piece and creating final images from it varying in composition.

This is a traditional British Victorian Toy Theatre; A Proscenium Arch Theatre. The Victorian tradition of storytelling uses flat sets and paper to create characters and props which would be used to perform. With these theatres the stage and bordering decoration is included and set like a real stage to hold productions. This could be an interesting concept to consider when creating; the idea of two stories almost going on at once. 

These are pieces from 50Watts, a blog which these were posted as part of a blog post containing sets from model theatres. I thought these have been created really nicely and show a lovely technique in draftsmanship and painting. I liked the layered strips to create depth with the sea and sky.

This I found on a blog called A Puppetry Odyssey in London. The blogger put on a performance of their own with this stage. I noticed the all seeing eye (Eye of Providence - to watch over humankind) at the top which was an interesting feature. I liked the layered drawn set pieces here. 

This is screenshot of  'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' which I got from wyrdmotion. The film by Terry Gilliam references the Victorian Toy Theatre and creates it in a larger scale with live actors able to perform inside it. I really like the idea of scaling up and creating something that will be great to be exhibited. Terry Gilliams work frequently shows references to this type of scenography; 

In the film 'The Adventures of Baron Münchausen' the Venus scene shows visual links to a theatrical stage as well.

I like the aesthetic quality of using theatrical staged imagery and I like the era that the tradition comes from. I think, especially with 'Doctor Parnassus' the imagery and era tie in well with other themes I am interested in like the surreal and magic.  

Then the morning of Bruce Ingrams talk, I came across this video in a random blog - Once Upon A Blog that I didn't even know I followed on here;

The Snow Child
A new book is just about to be realised called 'The Snow Child' and is the first novel by Eowyn Ivey. It's set in 1920's Alaska and centres' around a couple who have moved to a Homestead in the Alaskan Wilderness after failing to have children. One night they create a snowman - they change to a snow child, a girl, and give it gloves and a scarf. The next morning the gloves and scarf are gone and their is something seen amoung the trees. A child appears - a girl. She slowly accepts the couple as they take her in but all the while they know she never truly belongs to them.
There was an animated trailer to go along with the realise;

Something about the basis of this story really intrigued me. It had that element of magic and the surreal but you know it's based in a real setting; there's no fairytale here. The books has been described as dark and wicked but with moments of tenderness and warmth. I think the setting would be a really interesting thing to work with using paper and staging; the red fox that follows the child around would be a great contrast to the white background. I just got a good feeling about it and so I have it in mind.

The Tigers Wife
Just on my own I've been reading a novel called 'The Tigers Wife' by Tea Obreht. It's has nothing to do with Angela Carter's short story. It's set in an Balkan country, in the present and half a century ago, and features a young doctor's relationship with her grandfather and the stories he tells her, primarily about the 'deathless man' who meets him several times in different places and never changes, and a deaf-mute girl from his childhood village who befriends a tiger that has escaped from a zoo. It's set from first perspective and is really strange to read with the definite reality of the narrators life; talking about the war, her upbringing and schooling, the fact that she is a doctor and scientifically everything she talks about is fact; juxtaposed to these two stories which are so surreal and unexplained.

I think I enjoy the realism in both stories as it makes the surreal aspects more intriguing; it's like there's a possibility it could be true.

I feel a lot better about choosing a content now and feel like I can look into ideas for both stories and see what is working for me.

I spent a little bit of time sketching some images I'd found recently on tumblr. These images stood out to me due to the character of the animal that came through. They were serene and at ease and that seemed nice with a creature of such great power. I really wanted to do some more sketching and regular drawing and so this was an excuse for that. Once I'd scanned the images in I played around with colouring to get gentler tones that I thought leant to the sketches. 

Seperately I've had a few ideas for one-off pieces based on various things. I had this image from East of the Sun West of the Moon in my head and decided why not do it. I think all the ideas and drawing I'm doing at the moment is helping to keep me working and not just be stuck on what to do. Idea's about what to do will come from these pieces I think too; I like the idea of containing images inside another image.

Guest speaker: Bruce Ingman

Children's book illustrator Bruce Ingram came in to talk to us today. I have been all over the place with sorting out work for our gallery show at The Bargate that doing anything else, including typing up things for this blog, has taken a back seat so I didn't take some time to have a look at his work beforehand specifically. However I had noticed one of the books he illustrated; The Runaway Dinner in our studio and like the humour of it. It's not the sort of style that I would usually enjoy looking at, but I like the use of painterly markings that make the images feel more hand made.

I was surprised to hear that Bruce was actually deaf as a child (I'll admit I zoned out for like a couple of seconds while looking at the board and missed any how or why explanations) and this is what lead to him drawing and reading. This just really got me listening, as I was so intrigued to hear his story. Looking back to my childhood, drawing and art was definitely a vice for me and so I think it was nice to hear that it was a similar story for someone else. 

Starting off in Fine Art, Bruce started making posters for a friend's film club. The project meant he had deadlines and that was the first step in choosing Illustration over fine art I think. He said fine art felt very self sufficient, which seemed very true to my opinions. Illustration had a bit more of a grounding. Moving to the Royal College where he was taught by Quentin Blake. Quentin gave him some advice that he shared with us; 'illustrate the moment just before or the moment just after'. It seems like it makes total sense; don't be literal. But I think it was just some really good advice put in such a clear way. Allow the interpretation to be made by the viewer; essentially that is who we give the work over  to. This was pretty much the main thing I took from the lecture. 

Panic mode: Having trouble getting started

A rabbit in headlights at the moment. Cripplingly paralysed by the prospect of how much I have to do.

After the talk on Friday I realised I needed to write up my Written Proposal detailing what I wanted to do, however I still didn't have a good enough idea of what that actually was. I had sort of been aiming towards looking at The Tigers Bride and creating a theatre set sort of thing, as I liked the idea of metamorphosis and thought that could incorporate well with looking at props and costume; masks.

After a talk with Johnny Hannah, about the Written Proposal, it was suggested it looked to something else to use as my context. As I was in danger of repeating myself. Which I agreed with. Just... what?
With my last project Johnny said there was a good sense of drama and so suggested various things to base the context on;
- Buildings though time. Southampton as a city, or a particular building.
- A famous person or someone notable; with the drama in the last project I could look at someone like Vivianne Westwood or Marilyn Monroe. I suggested Jean Shrimpton as I quite like her.
- others things suggested were things like killers, unsolved mysteries etc etc.

Afterwards, I felt a little lost. There was almost too much choice but not enough at the same time; there wasn't really anything suggested that grabbed my attention enough for me to be able to carry it through to May. I think the panic mode I've gone into has stunted my ability to generate ideas, and all I can think about is time speeding past me.

Guest Speaker: John Hegley

John Hegley came in today for a lecture and workshop. He is a poet, comedian, musician and song writer and was introduced as such; 'so someone who doesn't draw'. He began by showing us his drawings.


Before the talk
I had had a look online for any of his poetry and must admit I didn't quite get them. They seemed like the sort of humour that was a little outdated or possibily a bit silly. However I don't really read poetry... at all. And I only looked at a handful of poems.

John's talk
I realised once the talk had begun that the best way to experience his poetry is to see him perform it himself, with rhythm and beat the poems have their humour laid out properly. I really enjoyed John's lecture. He was introduced as someone who didn't do illustration and this was an interesting opportunity to experience something from the other side of the table I guess; the person who creates the subject matter that we as illustrators use. But then he got up to talk and the first thing he said was that he was going to show us his drawings!

He showed a few pictures, pen drawings of things from his childhood and sang a song about his family using a picture of his living room as a guide. The humour of his poetry and songs came from his live performance and directly from him.

John spoke about his workshops with children and he had asked a group to add things to this particular drawing. He spoke about how some of the additions had inspired ideas for other poems of his. He also used participation and drawing in his live performances, which is what he did with us in the afternoon.

He read us one of his newer poems (and made us all sing a bit too!) and then got us to draw from it. The song contained a lot of surreal situations, references to history and popular culture and began and was addressed to his brother, so their was a personal history as well.

We ended up only having about 2 hours to do drawings to everyones was quite sketchy. I didn't really have any witty or clever ideas from the text and so just drew parts of it that I liked, seeing as I could just have fun with it. I ended up drawing Joan of Arc's dog; Johan Sebastian who has a small part to play in the middle of the poem. I wanted to draw the Dalek with ears but there was already a doodle of that on the page that was given to us and I didn't want to just end up recreating the image I had just seen. I thought drawing the dog would relate a bit more to my final major project as well.

These first 3 pages I just sketched various dogs, I didn't use a reference whilst doing these as it was a short amount of time and I was just generating ideas and doodling really. I have a dog and draw her frequently on walks. 

on the 4th page is a sketch that came from the beginning of the poem, this design on the wall sets off what I assumed to be a daydream or dream for the author and he gets into the boat and sails to the island in the distance. Again this was just a doodle trying to generate ideas. I found the text create quite literal imagery; there was a Roman on a deck chair, a dog running in the water and coming back with potatoes (?) and as I have said a Dalek with ears, and so I felt like that was imagery enough. 

Here's some life drawing of my dog and other dogs on a walk I drew last year for a project just to prove I'm not as terrible at drawing as drawings from this day make me look. :-/ 

The book cover on the right was handed out to us, I put it in my book without much thought but I like the style of text as it seemed fitting to the style of poetry and performance.

(all above imagery is my own, photocopy of book cover 'Peace, Love and Potatoes' given out by John Hegley)

The dog runs into the water and carries out potatoes which are called 'spuds' in the poem. I don't really know where I was going with this one. 

Reflection on the day

The day wasn't really about the drawing for me, it was more about hearing how ideas and inspirations can be taken from image as well as text and how the two aid each other. Even though the work at the end of the day wasn't so useful I did find John's talk really entertaining and interesting. I think the best thing I gained from it was what he had said about gaining inspiration. Ideas can be gained alternatively from text and image; if words aren't coming along easily drawing can help create what cannot be describe and vise versa. At the beginning of this final major project it is useful to think about, and through the coming weeks as I gain and develop ideas I can be open to let inspiration come from anywhere and everywhere.  

Final Major Project Proposal.

We had to hand in a proposal for what we wanted to do for this final major project in written form. Here is my final major project written proposal.

Final Major Proposal. 


What I really enjoyed from the last project was the creating. I liked working on the idea of masks although that was what I got stuck on before creating my final pieces; if all illustrations were to be based around masks then what could I do for all 3? Or if not, how would they all work as a collection of images? After working that through I found I really enjoyed the process of making the ‘set’ and creating things combing drawing and paper cutting.

In the last project I looked at various artists whose work I liked the look of; Gregory Elluide who uses watercolour, acrylic and gouache alongside found objects and 3D. I really like the colours used in his work and the realism mixed with texture and marks that reveal it’s a created piece. I also like mix of realism and materials in Silke Werzingers drawings. I feel really inspired to get back into drawing and sketching at the moment and think it will be the starting point for this final major project. I want this to also be an exercise, or at least within the next few weeks, to look at regaining and developing my drawing skills as well, as I have been focused on other elements of creating lately. I also like the magical quality in Su Blackwell’s paper book sculptures. These have been inspiration for me for a while and I link to the theatrical elements of my work previously and what I hope to achieve in this final major.

I don’t have a solid idea for my final piece yet but I have two half thought through ideas.

- I have an idea to create a model of a stage set; using paper and experimenting with lighting and shadow. Almost like a Toy Theatre (which would be similar to how I created the illustration for Puss-In-Boots) with layers of landscape which could maybe be moved and slid to create new scenes/illustrations. I still don’t what story would best fit this idea. I had been looking at The Tiger’s Bride by Angela Carter. Or I could look back at my work on fairytales as it seems to fit the style I’m interested in. I would also like to carry on looking at masks and creating things from drawings. I’m a little unsure of what context this idea could be in; whether the scenery is photographed for book illustrations or put together as something to actually use.

- My other idea is to do a box set of possibly a TV series, or book series and design the covers, almost like posters without using the actors/characters faces. Again, I don’t know what to chose as my topic. I wondered about doing something unusual; How I Met Your Mother or choosing something that has gone through many incarnations; Sherlock. Or choosing a series that has come from a book/a series of classics that have been recreated onscreen. However with this idea it doesn’t really utilise my inspiration from the previous project and what I discovered I wanted to continue with.

There is a possibly the two ideas could merge.


Thoughts on proposal
I've had to hand this proposal in before coming up with a fully realised idea. I am aware that much of what I've written will change and much of any idea I do have now will change along the way. I would have liked to have had a bit more time from the end of the last project and handing this in to fully think of something as I didn't really think about it properly until I had handed in my last project. I think it's ok not to have an idea yet though, as it's got to be something that I can stick with until Spring and there hasn't been anything that's caught my attention or inspiration and so that just means I have to keep working on things I would like to do and look around and think more on a context for it. This was a good exercise to do as it's got my mind thinking logically and in order which will be beneficial in the project.