Genevieve Edwards 1609237 Final Major Project
Project Proposal: Sites of Arthurian Legend and their stories.
My project is going to be based around Arthurian Legend, looking at what makes it so influential to English Myths, why it is still so prevalent today, and the locations behind the stories. Since a very young age I have been fascinated with the Arthurian Legends, having grown up in Devon I was constantly surrounded by the locations of some of the stories, my favourites being Tintagel and Glastonbury Tor, shown in the images below. Combining that with my love for history and magic I believe that this project could have a very interesting outcome. Hopefully it will portray the result of my research in a clear defining way and appeal to a more modern audience as I am trying to keep the legend alive.
For my work I would like to explore a range of different mediums, as I feel I work best with more sculptural or textured illustration I would like to put this into practice for the unit. This could include exploring techniques such as clay work, embroidery or printing. I think that the range of media will help me to appeal to a wider audience as I can try to find a balance between a medieval still painting or tapestry and todays preferred mediums like digital art and animation. The Legends of King Arthur have been illustrated throughout time, in the painting ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (as shown above), illustrated by John William Waterhouse, it is very detailed and painted precisely, a really good representation of art from the 19th century, however I would like to try and make my pieces more relevant and eye catching to today’s modern audience. When researching I am going to focus mostly on the legends and the locations in which they supposedly took place. Many Arthurian Legends were based around Wales, Somerset, Devon and
Cornwall, I believe that I can travel to at least one of these places within the time set for the unit to gather primary research. As well as this, I want to try and discover new techniques of working, as in medieval times they didn’t have a lot of resources we use today I wanted to try and recreate some of these supplies, for example dyes made out of flowers or paints from herbs and personal art pieces such as corn dolls.
Looking at artists and illustrators, such as John William Waterhouse, Chris Riddell and Aubrey Beardsley. But also reading the Arthurian Legend poems and stories, have become the basis for my secondary research. However, I have also been watching the BBC television programme, ‘Merlin’ (as shown in the image above), which turns the Arthurian Legends into a drama to engage all audiences, even though it is not entirely accurate to the legends they try to stick to the main plotlines and accurate character representation as much as possible. I think this is definitely something I should try to explore within my own work, hopefully I will be able to find more examples of modern-day practices and renditions of the Arthurian Legends to look at in further research. In order to achieve the good standard of final product that I want I am going to task myself with acquiring new skills and doing so by following tutorials online as well as attending workshops at the university, such as the bookbinding workshop, and taking refresher courses on the skills I already have. I believe that once I have tested all different methods of work, I will be able to come to a conclusion on the final mediums and techniques that I will use, of which will be relevant to the time period of Arthurian Legends and reflect the stories told.
By the end of this project I intend to gain a vast range of knowledge on the Arthurian Legends and the sites in which the stories are set. Similarly, I want to have the ability to use at least one new technique. Along with the finished final product or products that I come up with appealing to a wider range of audience. To do this I am using a timetable I have created, showing all days of the week for the next 5 months until the deadline, specifying what work and research I do on which days and working around plans that I have already made, starting with the initial research to get my project off of the ground and learning about some of the older techniques used.
Observational trips looking for inspiration
As I was uncertain about my project at first, I wanted to go to places that would make it easier for me to experiment with the style of medieval brickworks and settings. The first place that I went to was Farnham castle, I got to climb up into sections of the castle see the well, archers’ windows and different aspects of the place. As well as this it was the first place where I could look at some medieval style art. In one of the rooms they had a timeline with a glass panel placed against a brick background. This inspired me to use different mediums and layering. At Guildford castle although I was definitely inspired by the beautiful gardens it wasn’t exactly a lot to look at. I was more interested in the landscapes around this castle than the castle itself. I felt that if I wanted to create an inspirational piece that lured in a modern audience, I need the surroundings of my settings to look fantastical and magical. Winchester cathedral, was high on my list of places to visit for this project. After researching Tintagel, I found out that King Edward the first had a roundtable made at the castle that was then taken to Winchester cathedral. Going there and seeing the memorabilia made for the “King Arthur Mania” made it clear that the story had been influential to many people throughout time, Arthur had even become somewhat of a role model to other kings. As the table was hung on the wall at the centre of the cathedral this proves to me that the Legends are still a monumental part of British History.
Experimenting with media
Glass: As mentioned before, on my trip to Farnham castle they have a piece of glass with a character drawn on top of it and placed in front of one of the really old brick walls of the original castle. I really enjoyed how you could see the brick through the drawing and wanted to try out using a similar technique on my own pieces of glass, combining them with a different method for the background.
Flower dying: Flowers were used in the medieval ages in many different ways. In cooking, as decoration in tapestries and clothing. As well as natural dyes in wools and materials. To create my own flower pressed dyed effect I have placed flower petals in between paper and kitchen roll on top of a chopping board. I then used a hammer and hit on top of the flowers until the colour had transferred onto the paper.
Experimental, using restrictions: In order to come to terms with the type of mediums I wanted to test, I used restrictions on my drawings of objects and items inspired my myths and magic. My favourite experiment was the continuous line drawing of a green man mask. This is because it turned out stylised and I really wanted to venture forward into a more sculptural medium without. However, I think the worst restricted drawing was the multicoloured drawing of a fairy house, it was cluttered, messy and too childlike.
Ink painting: With this medium I have been exploring the more detailed ways to illustrate my Arthurian landscapes. Using ink and water I wanted to figure out the best way to combine a detailed method with the more three-dimensional ideas. What I discovered from this is that although the ink painting did work really well, I think that the ink would have bled better together if I was using a paper designed for watercolour as it really allows for me to explore texture. As well as this, experimenting with greyscale pieces I have found really striking so far, so it may be something I take forward.
Mixed media bottles: Previously I have shown an interest to working in a sculptural manor. Using imagery of the sword in the stone I created a tiny polymer clay version and using tweezers placed it inside of a tiny bottle. Although this is interesting to look at, I don’t see how this media will help me in my final piece or in development.
Canvas: The idea of using a canvas came from wanting to do something that pops out to the audience but also trying to keep illustrative aspects of the piece the main focus. I did like the detail I was able to maintain in the ink pen drawing, as well as the textured effect that came through from the canvas. However, I once again believe it is too small to be of any use to my final piece.
Painting on fabric: Using acrylic paint I painted a beetle onto a cotton shirt. This is because I had the idea of tapestries in mind, they are always full of detail and used to tell a story. I found the medium really easy to work with and get the right vibrant colours. I think this is something to take forward, maybe painting an Arthurian landscape on fabric. One thing that I thought could be improved on was the background, tapestries are usually stylistically cluttered and it felt odd to have just one object on this piece.
Calligraphy: In many medieval manuscripts the writing was adorned with creatures, plants, objects and people, mostly they were used as borders or to make illuminated calligraphy. As an experiment I have used a flower pressed background, as mentioned earlier in my tests, and only used black white and gold ink to test out the detailed writing. I think that using this type of writing on a final piece could be what combines the two styles, medieval and modern. However, researching the different font types is something that I could look into.
Overall, from my media experimentation I have realised that I am looking towards giving my final piece the effect of a sculptural piece without making it not an illustration. I think that doing this will allow me to tell some of the lesser known stories of the Arthurian legends, using the landscapes in an interesting tapestry story telling way. Doing so by taking forward the mediums of clay, fabric painting, ink painting and calligraphy forward.
Clay Maquettes and Matte Painting:
After having a feedback session with Iro, we decided that it would probably be a good idea for me to investigate a more three-dimensional style of work. In order to achieve this, I used the images I sourced from my research trips as a reference and made them create a scene, once they were painted, to stand out. The majority of these investigations have been made using clay or as a matte painting technique. Matte painting is a technique once used in old movies where a detailed scene is painted onto a piece of glass and used to create an absurd image. A bit like a manual version of CGI. I am interested in this technique as I feel like it could be good way to portray my images of the Arthurian landscapes, as well as this it reminds me of the glass panel paintings I created earlier on in the project. But maybe I could put my own twist onto the style of matte painting, using a different medium than glass? These photographs of clay maquettes are what I created when developing my matte painting research and ideas, I especially want to develop on the castle wall idea:
Tintagel Castle: Inspired by the matte painting research and the clay maquette of Tintagel Castle that I created I wanted to try to combine the two ideas together. Tintagel Castle is thought to be the place where King Arthur was conceived and also where the legendary tale or Tristen and Isolde took place. Although I am focusing mainly on the story of King Arthur, I wanted to try to make the piece feel romantic and dreamy. Using the clay skills, I have acquired I used air dry clay to create a part of the walls of the ruined castle. Through that you can see the sky and sea, which I have drawn using chalk pastels. I love how this turned out, especially putting it into the frame. The only problem I am struggling with is now that the current pandemic has happened, I wouldn’t be able to get as good of a photograph of this type of piece unless it was digitally made. This is definitely something for me to think about and progress on. Glastonbury Tor: For the next framed piece, I wanted to use the same kind of techniques as the first piece, especially because the clay worked so well. Glastonbury Tor is supposedly the place where Avalon used to be, the fairy kingdom that King Arthur was taken to when he was wounded in battle. I find this story so magical because when there is a particularly cold day a mist settles around the hill of the Tor, which creates the illusion of a lake. The difference between this piece and the last one is that I used watercolour for the background hoping to make the clouds look more realistic. One thing I would like to work on with these pieces is that if you aren’t aware of the legends of King Arthur already you are not going to understand the significance of the images. Dinas Emrys: With this piece, instead of using the clay I painted onto the glass panel to get the full matte painting effect. I feel this brings in the troubles I was having with displaying the Arthurian stories a bit more and allows for a fantasy element. The story here is that of Merlin and the fighting dragons in Wales, it is one of the first scriptures that mentioned Merlin and therefore goes along well with the Tintagel image as it is like we are seeing where both of their stories began through to where the story has ended.
Aubrey Beardsley and Tapestries: Aubrey Beardsley was an artist during the Victorian era who focused his work mainly on ink on wood drawings that he then turned into black and white prints. Beardsley’s work has always been influential to me as I loved his use of decoration, detail and the grotesque. As well as his ability to merge landscapes with this unique style of character. His work adapts itself to the brief with ease, the block colours and thin lines allow for him to explore the detail of a scene yet give it depth and perception. My favourite part of his illustrations representing the Arthurian Legend is his use of natural elements, swirling in from all directions and occasionally intwining themselves into the border, giving the art an almost tapestry like effect. As well as this Beardsley titles his drawings in a way that addresses what the story is trying to tell, this could be something to look into for my own work. In order to explore Beardsley’s work thoroughly I took to drawing flowers and vines inspired by his pieces, in black ink. It really reminded me of the flowers you see in the backgrounds and borders of old tapestries and I wanted to take this further. I thought back to how I created the hammered flower backgrounds at the beginning of the unit, how flowers were used through out many different mediums. This is definitely a subject that I want for the background of my tapestry inspired pieces, however in order to get it right I needed to research tapestries more thoroughly.
I found out that tapestries were most commonly owned by people of higher status and used to decorate both private and public spaces. Henry VIII was said to have had over 2,000 tapestries hanging in his various palaces. Famous tapestries at Hampton Court Palace even contained pure silver and gold threads. As time went on tapestry became more functional and decorative with the era of industrialisation and machines producing the weaving techniques. Making them less of a statement for wealth and more for decoration. But, even in the 21st century large scale handwoven tapestries are too expensive for those with moderate incomes. In this tapestry we see a caged unicorn surrounded by a multitude of different flowers much like the style Beardsley uses only in colour. As this is a reoccurring theme throughout tapestry, I am definitely going to figure out a way to get this woven textured look into the background of my final pieces.
Bleach on Fabric: In order to create the flower-patterned effect, I used the technique of bleaching fabric. I cut up some black jersey fabric first, then I pinned the lace to the fabric to make sure that the pattern would come out strong and not move in the wind, as I had to do it outside. I also experimented with using leaves as a stencil, some of these pieces worked better than others so I may stick with the lace technique. When creating the pattern, I found it easiest to apply the bleach by using a perfume spray bottle, it allowed for the bleach to be evenly spread and create a template. I then allowed the fabric to dry thoroughly before putting them in the washing machine. If I hadn’t waited for it to dry the bleach would have spread and wrecked the pattern, but I needed to wash it so that the bleach would not deteriorate the fabric.
As the beetle painting on fabric worked so well at the beginning of the project, I felt that it would be best to try out painting in the same way on top of the bleached fabrics. The first one I did was of the iconic Tintagel Castle scene, on top of the splashed bleach piece. I preferably wanted to get the tapestry effect, but I think the acrylic might not be the best idea as it is very hard to work with getting a small image to be so detailed. Instead of this I could try scanning the bleached image and drawing on top of it digitally. I could have also made it better by creating a more obvious link to King Arthur as well as inserting text. However, I didn’t want to give up on this idea just yet and tried another acrylic piece in a more abstract style, once again the detail did not pick up very well. But I set the painting in the mist to give the illusion of a lake once being there. This has given me the idea to possibly include some kind of character link when drawing it in my final piece, possibly the boat containing King Arthur floating away?
My Chosen Narrative: I was really struggling at the beginning to figure out what my narrative should be. Looking at so many book extracts and wondering if I should come up with one of my own or if I should use the stories nobody could understand. In the end I have decided to take different snippets from different sections of my favourite tales and put them together to make a cohesive paragraph about the Arthurian landscape my illustrations will be presenting. Tintagel Castle: “The castle is built high above the sea, And there is no way in except that offered by A narrow isthmus of rock.” -
King Arthur in Legend and History
As you can see, I have chosen the passages that perfectly describe the setting of Tintagel where King Arthur was conceived. In the story Merlin disguises Uther as Gorlois so that he may court Ygraine who he has fallen in love with.
Glastonbury Tor: “The Island of apples produces all things. Hurt by wounds, we committed the king to her And returning gave sail to the assisting winds.” -
Vita Merlini
These extracts have now portrayed the story of Arthur being taken to the Isle of Avalon as he is mortally wounded and where he remains. I think it is descriptive of the landscape and also tells the story beautifully.
Dinas Emrys: “The plague is caused by a red dragon. Another dragon is fighting with it. Bury them in the strongest place you have in your dominion.” -
The Red Dragon of Wales
Finally, for this piece I have used the story of the dragons to explain why they are there, linking to the Arthurian Legend and give a little bit of a description about the landscape of Dinas Emrys.
Colour Samples and backgrounds: As we have seen I have been using the style of a medieval tapestry and putting a new more modern twist to it. As I had decided that painting on top of the fabric was not the way to go, I tried to scan the fabric onto the computer and digitally draw the landscapes on top. Here I have two examples of the same illustration. One is using an old bleached background with no particular design or pattern to the background and is facing with the pathway going to the right. The other image has a more obvious patterned background and is facing towards the left. From this variation I have decided that I prefer the second pieces background as it is more floral and the leaves are displayed clearer. However, I think I will keep the illustration the original way as the proportions would make better sense that way. My next step will be adding characters and text to the pieces after I am sure I have got the colour scheme right.
Although I like the orange and greyscale tones of the original drawings, as I feel it gives the effect of a modern tapestry. I haven’t actually tried out any other colours yet and this could be detrimental to my project if I don’t get it right. In the first colour experiment I have got rid of the background colour, making the entire image greyscale. I think that this merges the two components well together but at same time it doesn’t make me think of tapestries and almost gets rid of the image entirely. Whereas, for the second experiment I went to a completely opposite end of the spectrum, changing the orange aspects to a highlighter blue. I really love how modern this makes the image look, and even how some of the background is so bright it comes through the top layer of the image. However, I think that this gives more of the illusion of a dream scenario rather than a modern remake of a tapestry.
Final Illustrations: Here is the first illustration, based on Tintagel Castle. In the end I used the leaf background as I was very infatuated with the look of the big leaves looming over the castle walls. I used the light grey to make the illusion of grass and give the illustration levels and layers. The inclusion of a character, Merlin, was a really good idea as it ties together the Legend with the landscape. I also made it so that you can see the background coming through the character, I feel like this works because it brings the tapestry effect forward into the illustration. The font I chose to use in the end is copperplate light, along with the text extracts from The History of the Kings of Britain. Overall, this piece worked well and I feel it really illustrates the story of Tintagel Castle in a modern unique way.
The second image I created, based on Glastonbury Tor, portrays the story of King Arthurs death. They say he was taken there on a boat to the Isle of Avalon. For this piece I used a lace fabric for the tapestry background. I love this one as you can see the swirls and the colour variation really well. As well as this the white wave effect I’ve used on the bottom gives the piece a bumpy look, one person who viewed this piece thought it looked like an optical illusion, as if the waves were really moving. In order to bring the character representation into this piece I used a boat, as the story goes.
Lastly, for the final image, representing the story of the Welsh dragon at Dinas Emrys. I drew the mountains, using a rocky texture and made the bushes in front and behind using this circular rounded pattern that was inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s pieces. The character I have displayed is a dragon sleeping under the mountain. The story is that Vortigen, influenced by Merlin’s advice, trapped the dragons under the hill in order for his fort to be built. I have continued to use the copperplate font for all of my images as it was perfect for my piece, it looks modern and the letters are clear to read, but it still has a slight edge to it similar to that of the text in the Bayeux tapestry.
Exhibition: In the ideal circumstances for this exhibition I wanted to get my final three illustrations printed onto fabric, like posters or a modern-day tapestry. Possibly all together so that I could roll them up and make them into a scroll. For the exhibition I would have hung them up on the wall, unrolled, showing the full story that I have put together. Using nails hammered into the walls, taking the proper safety measures. I also considered accompanying the tapestries/ scroll with a video of it being unravelled. The scroll would have a wax seal on it and the video would show a gloved pair of hands breaking the seal and unrolling the scroll, then a walkthrough of what’s on it and this would be projected onto the wall, like a lecture reel. I feel like this would have given the viewers something to look at as todays youth are more interested in looking at things digitally it would have made it more modern and eye catching to them
Corona virus Exhibition: As we were unable to have our exhibition, I still didn’t want to leave my final pieces without displaying them. Looking back on my earlier project I decided to recover the idea of using frames. I took three frames, two were 15x15cm and one 21x21 cm frame. I made sure that they were all the same colour and arranged my images in a clustered way. I feel like this made it more aesthetically pleasing to look at. I painted my wall and hung the frames. Arranging the images so that the most important one, of the place Arthur is now, is in the biggest frame and therefore the one that catches people’s attention the most.
Project Summary: Overall, I feel that my final product does fit the original brief I set myself; to investigate the landscapes talked about in Arthurian Legend and bring them into the modern day. This is because, I have 3 illustrations that clearly contain, characters, landscape and text and are interesting to those that view them. However, there is a lot of aspects to this project that I would have done differently if it hadn’t been for the corona virus pandemic. For instance, I was really hoping to have had a three-dimensional piece, as this is what I work best with. I wanted to use frames but bring them to life by including layers of sculptural mediums within the piece, like a scene illustration. This however was not possible with the time and resources I had available to me. Positively, it did mean that I was able to focus purely on the illustration, I got to practice doing digital work as this was something I had been meaning to do for a while. Aubrey Beardsley has been a major inspiration for me during this project and I was really looking forward to going to the Tate and seeing the massive exhibition they had of his work there, including pieces from his Arthurian set. Unfortunately, this has been postponed, but I was able to look at some of the rooms online and I adored his use of characters and natural objects to make the pieces look detailed and tapestry like, telling a story. In my final pieces you can clearly see the inspiration he has provided through my use of lace, looking like the types of vines he draws, as well as the fine stylised details I created in the white sections of my final pieces. In a perfect scenario my final outcome would have contained more than 3 illustrations. I was hoping to look at the story of the green man some more, research into where Merlin was last mentioned in the legend and see if these were possible images that I could fit into my final piece. As well as this I would have loved to do more on the display in the exhibition. Although I am happy with the framed pieces it would have been really interesting to explore different mediums as well, such as video. The three stories I chose to illustrate in the end were: King Arthurs conception at Tintagel Castle, where his mother was tricked into laying with his father due to a potion given to him by Merlin that made him transform into the man she loved. Secondly, the story of Dinas Emrys, where Merlin as a boy advised the King of the land on how to stop two dragons from fighting beneath the land that he wanted to build his castle. And lastly, the story of Glastonbury Tor, once thought to be The Isle of Avalon, where Arthur was taken to the mystical isle to be cured of his wounds by Morgan le Fay and remains there still. To create my final illustrations, I used lace and leaves as a stencil and sprayed bleach onto some black fabric. I then scanned them onto the computer and using my iPad I drew digitally on top of them in greyscale, including characters and text. I feel that my final piece brings awareness to the legend, a final piece that merges together the old and the new. Making modern generations learn about the stories of King Arthur and Merlin through techniques that combine different types of media and their relations back to the medieval ages that have now been mostly forgotten about. Even though it has been such hard circumstances to complete our final major projections in I believe that I have done well to portray my favourite myths in a unique new way.