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SARANGU’s WORLD A Work Book BY FABRIZIO ELLUL
A FILFLA STUDIO E-PUBLICATION
#1
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK Published in May 2020 as an e-publication. A Filfla Studio e-publication: #1 You can find this publication : https://filfla.studio/e-books/ A project supported by the Malta Arts Fund - Arts Council Malta
Layout and production by Fabrizio Ellul www.filfla.studio
Copyright text, art work and illustrations Š Fabrizio Ellul All rights reserved.
This e-book is being made available for free as an educational tool on the condition that it may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in whole or in part, including photographs, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD A WORKBOOK Fabrizio Ellul
A project supported by the Malta Arts Fund - Arts Council Malta
THE PROJECT
E-BOOK
Aim:
The aim of this e-publication is to provide a cursory look on the development of the ‘Sarangu World’. There are different ways and manners how such Worlds are created. It is really up to the artist/ creator to decide the best approach. This is just how I approached it.
“Applying traditional methods of Fine Arts and Research methodology to graphic arts utilizing the case study of the 1813 Malta black plague to form the ‘world’ of a graphic novel around the mythological figure of ‘Sarangu - the sack man’”
My approach was through a mix of archival research and practice. The archival research consisted of documentation on the Black Plague of 1813. All documentation used for this research is being made available on www.filfla.studio.
Timeline: Dec 2019 - May 2020. Funding: The project was supported by Arts Council Malta through the Malta Arts Fund (Research Support Grant). The project proposal came first in a competitive call in 2019. Description & Aim: The aim of this project is to utilize traditional methods of Fine Arts and research methodology in producing the concept art for a potential graphic novel on the Maltese mythological figure ‘Sarangu - the sack man’, a creature that inhibits the underworld and kidnaps children at night. The research will utilize as a case study the creation of a ‘world’ for the graphic novel by using the black plague that hit Malta in 1813 to create a credible and realistic backstory to the future development of the story. World Building is an important aspect of any storytelling and needs to provide a sense of immersive realism to create depth and richness to draw the public into it. The research grant chieved the scope of creating a world where the Sarangu lives and where the public can navigate into. The research is practice based and will lead to the development of a series of concept art that will form the basis of a graphic novel that uses the 1813 black
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plague as the back story
Two workshops were carried out with Teodor Rejlic, writer and film critic, to develop the story arc of the Sarangu - the sack man for an eventual graphic novel.
The same methodology was applied on the study of Maltese folk. This part was particularly challenging as the material is less available. I am indebted to the work of Fr. Emanuel Magri and Stephan d. Mifsud in compiling the stories and information on Maltese folk. Two Maltese folk stories were made available on the Filfla Studio platform. Any future material on the subject will also be made available for free. The research then developed through re-creating Malta of the 1800s. This was possible through a study of early 19th century Maltese landscape paintings. A number of ex-voto paintings around the Black plague were used as reference of the period. A number of maps were also used as reference. Since Malta of the 1800 was a more rural country than today - some focus was dedicated to the studies of trees and landscape. Similar studies were conducted on Valletta. The worked was mainly carried out on an iPad pro using the procreate app. The practical side of the research was dedicated to develop a personal style that fits my personality and the story. The use of a mood board was important in finding the correct atmosphere for this story: dark and sinister. Light and Shade became an important aspect of the work - both in terms of symbolism (light and darkness) and form. A number of concept art works were created on the creatures that inhibit the World of the Sarangu. This e-book will be translated into a short workshop for the Malta School of Art. This e-book is being made available for free. All rights reserved.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
A WORD ON MALTESE FOLKTALES Maltese folk is a rich and spectacular place to navigate. Most of the stories have been lost … or rather no one tells them anymore. Myths and legends derive their strength from storytelling. If people stop telling these stories then they cease to exist. I believe the history of Maltese myth has been one of ‘rescue’ to preserve such stories. This was done by Fr Emanuel Magri in his collection of Maltese legends and more recently by Stephan D. Mifsud in his excellent collection ‘The Maltese Bestiary’.
Throughout this research project I learnt that the only way to keep them alive is not only to preserve the historical side of them, but also to build on them, to use them, mould them into storytelling. Because this is what they are? Beautiful stories, told, for many reasons, by our grandparents, and they need to be re-told … but they need to be re-told in a different language. Adding, subtracting into something else. For this reason we need to free them from the historical/academic mould and place them into popular culture. It is in popular culture that myths live. One of the best mediums to reflect popular culture are graphic novels.
Similiary this research is partly that – a ‘rescue’ operation to preserve the stories, myths and legends. But it is also a little bit more – It is an attempt to build a new narrative. To establish the foundations to create new stories. For this part I have been aided by writer Teodor Reljic in forming a story within the context of Maltese folk within the set-up of the 1813 Bubonic plague in Malta. I am hoping this will eventually turn into a graphic novel. During this period, thanks to a research grant by the Arts Council Malta, I was able to precisely re-create and work on the theme of Maltese folk. And from my research I found it to be many things, but for sure it is no safe place for children. It seems that most of the stories and mythological creature were created to scare children off. Maybe there was good reason for that. For instance you do not want children to go too close to a well (at the time most households had a well). So what do you do? You tell them that demons inhibit wells. If you go too close they’ll drag you down to the underworld. Such demons went by the name of ‘Mhalla’ – Well Ghoul. Yesterday’s nightfall was darker than today. There were no electricity to keep the light going. So night came early and shady stuffy can hide in its midst. It is easy to disappear in it. So how to do you tell children not to stay out at night? Same. You tell them that there are a bunch of demons and monster waiting for you. These took the form of ‘Wahx il Bahar’ (part man, part goat, part bull …), il Babaw (bogeyman), Gadajdu and … the Sarangu – the sack man – a creature that kidnaps children at night.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
CONTENT
This e-book is divided into three parts.
Part1: 1813 Bubonic Plague - Snippets This part consist of short blog entries which appeared on www.filfla.studio on the Bubonic Plague. They follow the main developments of the plague, from the arrival of the San Nicola Brig to the Quarantine measures applied by the authorities.
Part 2: Development This section focuses on the development in finding the right style, the use of light and shade, use reference pictures - including Fine Arts paintings, photography and other documentations such as maps. It also make use of a mood board to find the right atmosphere for this story. Some studies are also featured.
Part 3: Concept Art The last part is all about a series of concept art developed for this project. While it is not extensive, it shows the progression of the study. This part ends with the development of the ‘Ghoul’ concept art.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
1813 BUBONIC PLAGUE - snippets
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
1. THE 1813 BUBONIC PLAGUE In March of 1813, three ships (known as brigs) arrived from the port Alexandria, which was infected with the Bubonic plague. The brigs were put into quarantine. One of them – the San Nicola – was quarantined at the Lanzaretto Creek for 14 days until it left again to Alexandria. The Authorities wanted the brig out of the harbour right away. The owners wanted compensation. It is believed that Salvu Borg, a shoemaker and smuggler from Valletta, purchased some stolen goods, including some items from the San Nicola Brig, from a wine shop in Sliema. Him and his family were the first to die of the bubonic plague. They were followed by neighbours in the St Paul’s Street area – at the time a poor area of Valletta. The authorities were initially unable to contain the disease. The result was 4,500 dead by the end of that summer. * An ex-voto of the Plague of 17 Aug 1813 of Anna Lungaro showing the pest Hospital Valletta
2. THE ROLE OF THE FRENCH WAR PRISONERS IN THE 1813 MALTA BUBONIC PLAGUE The Bubonic Plague was increasing at such an alarming rate that its death trail was starting to include servants, people responsible to purify the infected houses and gravediggers. Leaving no one to care for the victims. The British Government resorted to using French prisoners for such chores. In 1813 Malta had around 900 French prisoners as a result from the various conflicts between the British and French Empires. The Government offered freedom to the French prisoners in exchange for serving within the Public Health Authority. Immediately, 60 French prisoners offered their services. Within two weeks they were almost all dead. A new call was made. This time, the prisoners were more reluctant to accept the offer. For those who took the chance the same fate awaited them. During this period, the French inmates were responsible for looting, rape and theft. A painting by Pietro Paolo Caruana showing people receiving the Holy Eucharist during the plague of 1813. The painting also records the French inmates during this period.
3. THIS IS HOW MANOEL ISLAND LOOKED IN THE 1800s Manoel Island and the surrounding area of Gzira was very different from today (and from that of tomorrow). It was mainly a rural area surrounded by fields and a few farm houses. Without the lights of today, the road to Sliema must have looked pretty bleak at night. Manoel Island’s role in 1813 was that of a quarantine area for infected people with the Bubonic plague. The ship’s Captain and his crew of men, who had arrived with the San Nicola Brig from the Alexandria port, were quarantined at the Lanzaretto hospital. Two crew members had died during the trip to Malta. The captain did not show any signs of illness at first. However, a headache soon developed into a fever and vomiting. He died after a few days from the infection of the disease. 4. HOW SENGLEA SURVIVED THE PLAGUE
The use of quarantine measures is nothing new. Quarantine is an old method utilised by authorities and communities to contain or slow down the spread of a diseases as much as possible. It provides the opportunities to provide effective care to the victims. The town of Senglea managed to survive the 1813 Bubonic plague by sealing itself to the exterior world by placing itself into selfquarantine. This was quite successful because despite being a harbour town (thus, highly vulnerable to infections) none of its inhabitants died from the disease. Quarantine was one measure adopted by the authorities to slow down the spread of the disease. Senglea has the advantage of being a peninsula with three sides being naturally closed off by the sea. The narrow entrance to the town was closed off by its historic gates. Qrendi, Gharghur, Balzan, Kirkop, Ghaxaq and Safi were two other towns which avoided the plague. Other towns were less fortunate. After Valletta, the disease soon spread to the towns of Birkirkara, Qormi and Zebbug leaving a high death toll.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
After the plague was over, a number of ‘Ex-Voto’ painting were donated to churches. A case in point is the ‘Ex-Voto’ of Andrea Calleja, a doorman of the Floriana Hospital, who offered his painting to ‘Tal-Herba’ in Mellieha (Featured image, Treasures of Malta)
5. HOW DID A QUARANTINE LOOK LIKE IN 1800? Pretty much what you would expect … plus the death penalty! The same concept of containment of the diseases was applied then: Identify, isolate, treat. For such a system to be effective, the chain of transmission needs to be cut off. Thus, quarantine measures were applied. Among the measures the Committee of Health ordered: • • • • • • • • •
No crowding Closure of schools Stay at home Keep houses clean (the poorer areas were the most hit. The bubonic diseases is transmitted by fleas) A stop to the selling of clothes, skins No Mendicants Suspension of the departure of ships Shutting down of the Court, theatre and places of crowding Restriction of government offices
The three cities, Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua were put under the direct supervision of physicians with daily visits. People were advised to keep dogs and cats indoors. In some case people resorted in shooting them. When these measures were not enough and because many did were still not taking the plague seriously enough, the Govt put in place the death penalty. This was also done as a detriment to looting and crime. 6. MORE ALCHEMY THAN MEDICINE - MALTESE FOLK CURE From eating a hen’s neck and head, boiling of puppies and bleeding a female tortoise are among some old Maltese remedies against illnesses and the evil eye. YOU CAN FIND THIS PAPER AND ANNEX DOCUMENTATION USED FOR THIS PART CAN BE FOUND FROM HERE ***
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
DEVELOPMENT
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
FINDING A STYLE The first challenge was to find an adequate style for this graphic novel. After a number of attempts I modified a brush on the Procreate App to get a ‘HARD-EDGE’ style. Hard Edge style was quite popular in the 1950s with art movements such as OP-ART and GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION. I was already exploring this style with my short animation ‘MR TEDDY IS ANGRY’. I felt the sharp edges provided the needed dramatic effect for this story. I also created a simple system of 1) Base colour 2) Light and 3) Shade. Using just three colours I simplified my work and ensured consistency throughout the project. The first attempts were costumes of the time. I used a number of historical paintings as reference.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
For the landscapes the hard edge effect was retained but a more grainy effect was applied throughout the work for a more ‘vintage’ look. Two concept works: 1) View of Manoel Island and 2) View of Hal Tarxien.
Both of these works are based on Fine Arts paintings.
Giorgio Pullicino - View of Manoel Island
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
USE OF REFERENCE WORK A number of reference paintings were used. The works that mainly inspired some of the environment of the Sarangu were taken by Anton Shranz - a prolific landscape painter active in the 1800s.
From the Treasures of Malta no16, 22 and 25
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
From the paintings you quickly realize that Malta was a much more rural country than today. The maps that I found provided a good understanding of how Malta must have looked at the time.
http://www.maltaramc.com/articles/contents/plague1813.html
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
A number of photos were used as reference.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
This gave me the opportunity to produce a small number of thumbnail studies of trees. It was also an opportunity to experiment with brushes (see which one work and which don’t), colours and textures. Eventually I settled on something different but it is important to experiment in the early stages. Here I am still in the first weeks of the project.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
THE MOOD BOARD To create the atmosphere I was looking I turned to others for inspiration. Here I create a mood board to understand better what sort of atmosphere I was looking for.
Two examples - screenshots from the instagram pages of Igorpiwowarczyk and Beeplecrap
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
Eventually I settled on two styles: CARAVAGGIO and the Spanish Chiaroscuoro school (below) and ‘INSIDE’ - a digital game produced by Playdead (right). Both styles satisfied the needs of the story - Dark but also make great use of light and shade as both a symbolism of light and darkness and also to create form.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
I ran a series of small studies of Valletta using the hard-edge style combined with the dramatic use of light and shade to create form and a sense of drama.
From here I attempted a colour palette for the story >
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
CONCEPT ART
Key words:
Dark/ Brutal/ Weird THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
Once I had a good grasp of the Bubonic Plague at the time in Malta, found a style that I could work with and had an idea of how I was going to use light and shape in this work I moved to produce a series of concept works that would reflect the Sarangu’s World. I started to work on a set of quick sketches of concept art. In here I try to re-create the mythical Maltese creature the Gadajs as he crawls to his victims. There is an idea of a ritual going on but nothing much else. The key words: Dark, brutal, weird
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
I gave a lot of importance in developing some of the creatures that inhibit Maltese folk.
In Maltese folk, Giants and Cyclops are believed to have roamed the land for years
Not all demons are dangerous. In traditional European folk, some demons – The imp or Xifajk were known more as troublemakers than as evil forms. Sometimes they were considered as sort of pets. In the above I pay tribute to European folk found in prints and manuscripts.. Sometimes they were considered as sort of pets.
The Arfeet - a sort of genie in a bottle that grants wishes. But beware of his promises!
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
PORTALS Maltese folk world is rich in content. Shame most of it got lost. For instance one interesting aspect of Maltese folk is the upside world or ‘Id Dinja ta Taht’. In Stephan D. Mifsud’s ‘the Maltese Bestiary’ this world is made up of different levels: Nephilim, Bufies, Atlandide and Bigibda … all of them with their unique character and flora. This world can only be accessible through portals. These portals can be found in wells, caves and the largest one is situated at il Maqluba – a sink hole just outside of Qrendi. Portal are not unique to Maltese folk culture. Japanese Manga and anime make great use of portals to travel from one dimension to another. Here are shots from ‘Bleach’ - a Japanese Manga. Bleach follows the adventures of the hotheaded teenager Ichigo Kurosaki, who inherits his parents' destiny after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper (死 神, Shinigami, literally 'Death God')—a death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki. His new-found powers force him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife, and set him on journeys to various ghostly realms of existence.
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
Click here for a time lapse of how I produced this concept art of a Ghoul
https://filfla.studio/2020/05/14/ghoul-concept-art-time-lapse/
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION
Thank you www.filfla.studio
THE SARANGU’S WORLD - A WORK BOOK | FABRIZIO ELLUL - A FILFLA STUDIO e-PUBLICATION