Sketchbook

ISSUES FACED

I've struggled to find the pleasure in drawing. It'something I lost at the start of the degree and something that has been worrying me. HOW CAN I STUDY ILLUSTRATION WHEN I DON'T WANT TO DRAW? 

I have overcome this by finding new, more stimulating forms of image making (to me - not saying that drawing is not, just that I haven't felt content with the outcomes of MY drawings for a while and that the process of drawing feels tedious and pointless - I'm just doing it because I SHOULD).

BUT I have gradually found that love again. Drawing from words has led me into so many different little worlds and I've realised that all of my work, whatever the form, coexists with initial sketches and scribbles.

(a page with print-outs, scribbles, thoughts and intentions)

My sketchbook might not look like I want it to, or how others do on the course (finally beginning to forget the urge to compare myself) It's not a book full of pages of free, loose sketches... it is more of a collection. I've got feathers and flowers and cuttings all stuck in there. Not a scrap book but definitely more of a track of where I've been and what I've found.

The drawings then follow. They spill out of these discoveries.

THIS IS THE WAY I WORK AND IT WORKS. :)

I need to keep doing this. I need to feed the book, give it some time and attention. I need to keep my sketchbook healthy and keep it going!

CHARACTERS

I knew I enjoyed creating and drawing characters but it's also great to have the hard work of inventing done for me! Poe's done that part, I just have to visualise them.

(visualisation: drawing characters. using reference from victorian postcard. Developing, drawing again. Working out a suitably 'eerie' aesthetic for Poe's tone) 

(drawings of Poe, young)

I avoided drawing Poe at first because I thought that was too obvious and that the author's appearance was insignificant. After learning about Poe's portraits and how we never see Poe in his prime, looking handsome and healthy, I thought it could be interesting to illustrate that.

Attempted to 'draw in' his dark demeanour/tragic life by transforming into an undead, almost skeletal being himself.

My use of media has been quite restrictive. I've been drawing on-the-go a lot, so have been relying on the age-old pencil... one thing I have tried which is new to me is Pilot Brush pens! Really easy to use and they allow you to do watercolour/washes anywhere. No mess.
Want to try using it with black ink but I've run out so that's one to play with at uni.
Being a HANDS-ON MAKER, I've had lots of ideas for things I want to have a go with, things I want to build, but since I've been working in the sketchbook, these drawings are just 'plans' to me.
I want to:
make a spooky house
make a moss terranium graveyard
make clay/plaster tombstones
make a (better) moving model crow
MAYBE have a go at taxidermy!

I've made lots of work this Summer and think I have followed the brief. I've done what I was asked to do and I've enjoyed it. I never know how much is 'enough' but I think I've used my time well - using spare moments to think about this, but not stressing about it or forcing myself to work when I'm not ready/have other commitments.

I'm really excited to see what happens next and where this project will go. I hope that I get to continue falling for Poe.

MYSTERY

I was watching a documentary about the Bermuda Triangle (unrelated), and they concluded the big debate about the mysterious happenings with the words 

'if we know all the answers then there is no mystery left'.

Yes, Noam Chomsky, it does sound like a plea from the government for us to leave the BIG ISSUES alone... But it's also entirely relevant to my Poe Project. I've been spending so long investigating and trying to understand Poe, but the beauty of him is his mystery. His whole life was a poetic enigma.

It's time to look back at his work and on from his life.

Ryedale Folk Museum

Heritage weekend: loads of historic sites open around the country for free! 

Our family decided to take a trip out to Ryedale Folk Museum 

(we love Beamish for being a living museum and this place seemed to have similar elements, including volunteers in-character, buildings set up to suit the time periods and functioning shops)

I mostly loitered around the Victorian and Edwardian sections of the museum and collected some photos/information around the Funeral Director's lodge and the town:

The 'Farndale Hearse' from 1839. 

An intricately carved and decorative horse-drawn hearse carriage. There is an authentic coffin inside too. Death is beautiful. Why do we spend so much on funerals?

The history of this hearse:

The Chapel of Farndale invested into a hearse, with all villagers paying something towards it (the poorest paying just a shilling and richer families paying 12 shillings). Anyone could use the hearse and all paid towards maintaining it. Likely led by a suitable black farm horse. 

Last recorded use was in 1931.

Victorian Superstitions - Death

Some quotes surrounding Victorian superstitions and death; from dogs barking to laying salt on the chest of the corpse, some very strange traditions and ideas. (right click, open in new tab then zoom to read)

In Memorium
 gave me an idea for producing some of these? Poe-themed condolence cards.
Dainty ink drawings of flowers and calligraphy, with personal messages inside for the deceased.

Mary Featherstone

A beautiful name - perhaps I could borrow this one? I could find names and characters from gravestones. A very personal item, but so grand and mounted inside one of the model cottages.

The Funeral Director

An authentic Funeral Director's attire. Black, formal and distinctive.

Eating Rosy Apples and drinking Victorian Lemonade from the town to finish off the day in true Victorian fashion.

POE THE TIME TRAVELLER

I stumbled across this weird theory that Poe was (is?) a time traveller.
He made comments about technologies and matters that were beyond his time.
Source; http://www.upworthy.com/3-moments-that-might-convince-you-edgar-allan-poe-was-a-time-traveler?c=ufb2

Interesting...

http://www.craveonline.com/images/stories/2011/2012/November/Film/Bill_and_Ted_Phone_Booth.jpg

The Poe Caricature

RESEARCH IS GREAT  BUT NOT WHEN THE INTERNET AND EVEN BOOKS(!!!) ARE FILLED WITH INACCURATE GARBAGE.
Poor Poe, he wasn't the drunk, shabby, moustached, mad man we picture.

Google 'EDGAR ALLAN POE PORTRAIT' and you'll be flooded with the same image over and over. One(s) taken in his final years (in which he attempted suicide and was at a physical and mental low point in his life.

HE WAS HANDSOME
HE WAS A CAT GUY

A GENTLEMAN

The photo above is a portrait of Poe, looking much younger and sporting some rather dandy sideburns. Weirdly, if you Google 'Henry Poe' (William Poe, elder sibling of Edgar), THIS is the photo that comes up. All lies! It's Edgar.

Why is everything about Poe so mysterious, twisted or fabricated?

Found this little gem in the depths of the internet whilst looking for some real answers. It's Edgar's hand writing!

And these are some photos of the houses in which Edgar Allan Poe has lived. Did they build into his symbol of the haunted house?

 

Useful Links:

http://www.eapoe.org/index.htm

http://worldofpoe.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/brother-of-edgar-poe.html

POE 25

5 Quotes

“I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.”

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."

"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

“I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow.” 

“From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw” 

5 Motifs

Animals: Raven / Black Cat

Evil Eye (Eyes)

Death
Dreaming

Heart (Romanticism)

5 Characters

possess psychic communication, psychotic personality, double personalities

Barnaby Rudge / Grip the Raven (Dickens)

Arthur Gordon Pym

Lady Madeline

Tamerlane

M. Auguste Dupin (Detective)

Madame Eugenie Lalande

Annabel Lee (the unattainable woman - beauty, desire and posession)

5 Locations

desolate, ghostly, eerie, untimely, remoteness, indefiniteness,

ambiguous but removed from the reader's mundane environment. Unfamiliar.

Castles

19th Century America

The Afterlife

The House of Usher
GRAVEYARDS/Cemeteries

5 Pieces of Info

The Mystery of his Death + The Mystery Mourner

Alcohol and Drugs

The Mother Complex

REYNOLDS?

Disputed facts!

Mourning has Broken

An event at Ripon Workhouse Museum about Victorian Mourning:

Only on for one week and I've been working every day this week, so today was my last chance to go!

IT'S LIKE IT WAS MADE FOR MY PROJECT. The perfect research event and it's right on my doorstop.

IN RELATION TO POE:

Although Poe fell upon hard times and didn't have much money to his name, he didn't ever stay in a workhouse but visiting the museum today has taught me a lot about the social structure of Poe's time.

When people were rich, they were very rich and the poor were very poor.

It's hard to imagine just how hard life was, and how common death was in Poe's time. He lost his parents and wife to illnesses like TB and Pneumonia.

HE WAS NOT FROM ENGLAND, BUT FROM AMERICA - SO THE CONTEXT WAS VERY DIFFERENT

DEATH IN THE WORKHOUSE:

A topic of historical importance, interest and tradition.

I'm really glad I managed to drag my little brother along because all of the activities were really child-centred and I would have looked really, really, really weird doing them all myself.

The museum was very quiet today so it felt like all the volunteers were pouncing on us (especially Finn), trying to get us to have a go.

Funeral Biscuits

 

Baking funeral biscuits following a traditional Yorkshire recipe. 

Authentic, experiencing the era through our SENSES - eating and smelling the funeral!

DEADHOUSE/MORTUARY

 

Funeral Attire

Finn and I getting into character.