The 12th Labour of Hercules

The Capture of Cerberus

His 12th and final labour was to descend into the underworld, and bring back Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the gate to underworld, home of the powerful god, Hades.

Hercules knew how much Hades loved that fierce, bad tempered dog. Hercules asked Hades' permission to briefly capture Cerberus, and told him why. Hades agreed that Hercules could try, as long as he used no weapons and did not hurt poor Cerberus.

Hercules used his bare hands. He scooped all three heads up at once, and strangled Cerberus until he was unconscious. He gently carried the dog off to King Eury's. Cerberus began to regain consciousness as Hercules approached the king. The king scurried behind his royal throne.

Hercules explained he had to get the dog home right away. King Eury stuck his head out from behind his throne and quickly agreed that Hercules should leave immediately. Hercules promised to be right back.

After Hercules delivered Cerberus safely home, Hercules quickly returned to the palace, eager to be granted immortality. But Hera was nowhere to be found. Neither was King Eury.

It was Zeus who granted Hercules immortality. Zeus proudly brought his son Hercules up to the heavens.

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The 11th Labour of Hercules

The Golden Apples of the Hesperides

His 11th labour was bring the legendary golden apples of the Hesperides back to King Eury.

There was a rumour that the apples were hidden in the garden of the Hesperides. It was rumoured that the apples gave immortal life to anyone who ate them, but hardly anyone believed the rumour. In fact, no mortal knew if the legendary golden apples really existed.

The Hesperides were magical creatures who lived a long way away. It took Hercules several months to reach the land of the Hesperides. When he finally reached the garden, he had to slay a dragon who was guarding the garden gate, before he could search for the apples.

The apples were poorly hidden. They were in plain sight, hanging on the apple tree in the centre of the garden. It took Hercules no time at all to round them up. Hercules was tempted to take a bite and give himself immortal life. But he had heard another rumour. He had heard that the apples did not give immortal life, but rather, took immortal life away. That was not his goal at all.

Several months later, when he reached home, he gave the apples to King Eury. Eury quickly gave the apples to his wife. His wife returned the apples to the Hesperides with her apologies.

The 10th Labour of Hercules

The Mares of King Diomedes

His 10th labour was to capture the mares of King Diomedes.

The mares were horses. The mares were fed on human flesh. Hercules knew he needed help to capture these fearsome animals. Together with some good friends he had made on his travels, Hercules and his band of volunteers journeyed to the land of Thrace.

The mares were gentle. That surprised Hercules. He led one out of the stable. The other mares followed. Things were moving along nicely when Hercules was attacked by King Diomedes and the king's men. In the heat of battle, the king was thrown from his horse. His horse ate him.

When the king's men saw what had happened, they jumped from their horses and ran away. The mares ran after them. Hercules quickly gathered up the fleeing animals. With the help of his volunteers, Hercules muzzled the mares, then led them to King Eury.

The 9th Labour of Hercules

The Cattle of Geryon

His 9th labour was to capture the entire herd of the cattle of Geryon and present the herd to King Eury.

The Geryon was part man and part monster. He had two legs, the size of tree trunks. Three bodies grew from his waist, each with its own head and arms. He was very mean. And very strong. He owned a herd of red oxen that he kept on the island of Erythia. The island helped to protect his cattle from thieves. So did his two-headed dog.

Hercules had to fight the Geryon and his two-headed dog. Finally at last, when both lay quietly, either dead or exhausted (Hercules didn't actually care by then), Hercules herded the nervous red oxen aboard his ship and sailed for home..

The 8th Labour of Hercules

The Girdle of Hippolyta

For his 8th labour, King Eury told Hercules that he had to bring back the golden girdle of the Amazon queen. The Amazons were a tribe of fierce women. They were very warlike. Any men they met, they captured and kept as slaves.

This was not King Eury's idea actually. It was his daughter's. Hera had told her that wearing the girdle would make her as strong as an Amazon. That was pretty strong. King Eury's daughter wanted to wear the girdle. She wanted to be as strong as the Amazon queen. King Eurystheus' daughter did not care that this was an especially difficult mission, even for Hercules. She thought only of herself.

Hercules also thought this might be a difficult labour, but he was surprised. It was not difficult, not at first anyway. Hippolyta, the Amazon queen, had heard tales of the mighty Hercules. She knew Hercules would be a good friend to have in times of war. In the spirit of friendship, she willingly gave the girdle to Hercules to take back to King Eury's daughter.

As Hercules reached for the golden girdle, the Amazon women thought Hercules was reaching for their queen. They attacked him. During the fight, Hippolyta was accidentally killed by her own people. That started a big fight among the Amazon women. While they were fighting among themselves, Hercules managed to escape with the golden girdle.

The 7th Labour of Hercules

The Cretan Bull

His 7th labour was to capture the Cretan bull.

The Cretan bull had walked out of the sea. The bull found himself on the island of Crete. It was a beautiful island and a beautiful bull. The island sparkled with sunshine and happy people. The bull was huge, with silvery horns, and snow white skin. They seemed to fit.

There was a tribe of people on the lovely island of Crete. These people, the Minoans, had a favorite sport enjoyed by both boys and girls - bull jumping. Shortly after it arrived, the Cretan bull had been captured to use in the games. But the bull was not happy to be captured. The bull tossed and gored and trampled anyone who tried to leap over it. One day, it escaped.

To the Minoans, bulls were sacred. It was against their religion to kill a bull. They tried to recapture it, without harming it, but they did not succeed. The bull hid during the day. At night, it ripped destruction from one end of the island to the other.

When Hercules finally found the bull, who was hiding in the forest at the far end of the island, the bull threw its head down and pawed the earth. While the bull has its head down, and was not looking, Hercules quickly grabbed the bull by its horns and threw it to the ground. It made the bull dizzy for a minute. Before the bull could recover, Hercules had him tied tightly up with rope. Hercules carried the bull back to King Eury, much to the relief of the Minoan people of ancient Crete.

The 6th Labour of Hercules

The Augean Stables

His 6th labour was to clean the Augean Stables in one day.

Augean, the King of Elis, had many sheep and cattle. All his sheep and cattle slept in the royal stables. This might sound nice, but the stables had not been cleaned for several years. It was not nice at all! The most horrible smell greeted Hercules when he stuck his nose in the stable door.

Obviously, it would take a great deal of water to wash away all the filth. Hercules used his mighty strength to push the riverbeds of a couple of nearby rivers and change their course, so that the rivers would rush through the stables and clean them out! It was a clever solution. The job was done in just a few hours.

Hercules put most of the river beds back where they were. But he left one babbling brook for the comfort of the animals.

When all of the animals who lived in the stable came home that night from the fields, they found clean beds of hay, warm buckets of oats, and fresh running water. They could not have been more happy.

The 5th Labour of Hercules

His 5th labour was to kill the Stymphalian birds.

The Stymphalian birds were just plain nasty. The people in the area spent their days and nights hiding from these scary birds. The Stymphalian birds had pointed beaks and ripping claws and their feathers were made of razor sharp bronze. They were the stuff of nightmares!

What the Stymphalian birds loved to do more than anything was to fly high in the sky looking for anyone or anything they could attack. They especially loved to drop their sharp feathers on children and animals. You can see why everyone kept their children inside, and sheltered their animals as best they could.

Hercules made a large shield of sturdy bronze, to protect his body from the feathers. He used poisoned arrows to shoot all the Stymphalian birds as they flew by overhead. When the last bird fell, the people hiding inside their huts and homes rushed outside.

Hercules made many new friends that day.

The 4th Labour of Hercules

The Stag of Artemis

His 4th labour was to capture the stag of Artemis.

There were many stags in the mountains. But this one was special. The stag of Artemis was known for its incredible beauty, its golden antlers, and its remarkable speed. It was not dangerous. It was just fast.

Hercules tried to catch the stag for a very long time without success. He had hoped to catch it without injuring it. But the stag was too fast for him. Finally, Hercules shot the stag with an arrow, being very careful to hit the stag in its leg, so the wound would heal. He tied the stag gently to a tree, and left the stag there, while he looked around for a witness who would agreed to swear to King Eury that the stag had been captured. Hercules intended to let the beautiful animal go free once he could prove he had captured it.

It took a while to find anyone who was willing to speak up to King Eury, or to any king for that matter. By the time Hercules returned, dragging his witness with him, he found the goddess Artemis standing next to the empty tree where Hercules had tied the stag. Artemis was furious when she heard that King Eury had sent Hercules after her favourite stag. But she was not furious with Hercules. She offered to be his witness. As she told Hercules, she was going to be speaking soon with King Eury anyway.

After Hours Manchester Festival

I think overall this was a success. I personally wished I had a wall but I think I did best with what I had. I put a lot of hours into this and if anything made me think that sculpture be the main part of my practice. I fret alot when I have deadlines, and more with this one in particular, I just need to plan my timing alot better. That is easier said than done, and with working full time, I'm surprised I managed to fit working this many hours on a project. My next task is what to do next.

"Thereby was wrought the mighty tameless Boar with foaming jaws; real seemed the pictured thing, as by Aleides' giant strength the brute was to Eurystheus living borne on high."

The evolution of my boar, it took me four days in all the make the whole thing. I started with a balloon, newspaper and lots of pva glue. I made the shape with newspaper and tape and just made lots of layers. I had so much fun, I felt like a kid back in primary school. I had one hiccup when I tried to varnish the head and the blue gouache bled so I had to paint over it all again. I thought its best to varnish is but I'm a little hesistant to try it again and I do spray it often with lots of hairspray. Also I'm finding it quite difficult to photograph, so I will have to use an actually camera and not my iphone. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, I'm just a little clueless of what to do next. 

Title text here

The 3rd Labour of Hercules

The Wild Boar of Erymanthus
"Hercules third Labour was to bring the wild boar of Erymanthus back to the castle, alive.

Boars are wild pigs that can cut you, and they're smart. And mean. The wild boar of Erymanthus was a gigantic boar, which made him even more dangerous.
Hercules chased the huge boar up and down the mountains for almost a week before the dropped in exhaustion. Hercules was barely winded. He was glad he did no have to kill the boar, he had gotten quite fond of the tricky fellow.

Hercules slung the boar around his neck, and carried him home. By the time he arrived at the castle, the boar had begun to recover. Hercules dropped the boar at King Eury's feet. The boar lifted its heavy head and snorted angrily. King Eury screamed and ran away. No one saw the King for the rest of the day. As for the boar, he disappeared. Some say Hercules gave him a lift home, back to the forest."

Image: Hercules 4th Labour Coin
Link for text here

The 2nd Labour of Hercules

The Lernaean Hydra

"His second labour was to get rid of the Lernaean Hydra.

The Hydra was a big snake, a very big snake and it had nine heads. One of its heads was immortal, you just couldn't kill it. King Eury made it quite clear that he did not want Hercules returning with any part of the serpent. No snake skin boots.

King Eury and Hera both knew that anyone who approached the monster's den in the swamp was killed by the monster's poisonous breath. Hercules did not have a chance.

But Hercules lured the monsters out of the swamp. With the help of his servant, Iolaus, he clubbed off the monster's nine heads. He burned them but one refused to die. It kept coming back to life. So Hercules crushed that head and buried it deep in the ground, and to this day, it was never seen again."


Image: Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra. Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna
Link for text here

The 1st Labour of Hercules

The Nemean Lion

"The Nemean Lion had huge teeth, and skin so tough that it could not be pierced by arrows. Everyone in the land of Nemean was scared to death of it. Many hunters had tired to kill the beast, but none had succeeded.The Nemean Lion was also very smart. Several hunters had tried to trick it with poisoned meat. The lion never ate the meat, he did, however, eat the hunters.

The lion was strong, but Hercules was stronger. Hercules lured the beast into a trap and strangled it. He made a coat out of the lion's fur and he wore the lion's head as a helmet. With the cheers of the grateful people of Nemean ringing in his ears, Hercules headed for home, delighted with his new clothes.

When King Eury sae the lion's head approaching, he went screaming into his castle. It took Hercules most of one day to convince King Eury that the lion was dead."

Image: Hercules and the Nemean Lion
Link for text here

I found this text online of a very basic version of the well known greek myth of Hercules. As this is for the 'Manchester After Hours' festival, I do feel like this was the best of the bunch. I've started to look at more Greek myths, and I feel like this is a good road to go down. I have only five days to finish everything so I as soon as this is done and dusted, I will start thinking think about what I could possibly do next.

"Hercules was half man and half God. His mother was a mortal. But his father was a king, a very special King, the King of all Gods, the mighty Zeus. But Hercules did not know he was part God until he had grown into a man.
But right from the beginning, Hera, Zeus' wife was very jealous of Hercules. She tried all kinds of ways to kill him, including sending a couple of big snakes into his crib. Hercules crushed those snakes in a flash! Hercules was incredibly strong, even as a baby.
Zeus loved his little son. He figured that sooner of later Hera might actually find a away to kill little Hercules. To keep his small son safe from attack, Zeus sent him to live with a mortal family on Earth. Hercules grew up and loved and noble. But he didn't fit in on Earth. He was too big and too strong. One day, his Earth father told him he was part God.

Hercules had a cousin named Eurystheus (Eury for short). Eury was the King of a little village in the city of Argos. Eury was an evil man. He thought everyone wanted to steal his crown, especially Hercules. One day, when Hera and Eury were chatting about their mutual hatred for Hercules, Hera came up with a plan, a plan to kill Hercules.
Hera helped Eury design 12 Labours that Hercules had to complete. Supposedly, when Hercules had complete the 12 Labours, he would earn his immortality, or so Hera promised. But really, Hera and Eury were certain that one of their 'Labours' would surely kill Hercules, probably the very first one.
Hercules was no fool, he asked the Oracle at Delphi if this was a smart thing to do. The oracle agreed that it was, and said, "If you complete the 12 Labours, immorality will be yours." Being an oracle, she never explained what she meant by '"immortality" - would he live forever in legend or for real?"

Image: Hercules of Monterosso al Mare, CinqueTerre, Liguria - Italy
Link for text here

Stereotyping Animals [Part 3]

Octopus: Weird and otherworldly, probably the closest thing on Earth to alien life.
Opossums: Somewhat raccoon-like in personality. ✷
Orangutans: They possess the strength and determination of the first and the agility, goofiness and trickster nature of the second.
Ostriches: Panicky and frightened.
Otter: Fun, joyous, playful, expert swimmers and acrobats. Laid-back and optimistic. ✷
Owls: Wise and mysterious.
Panda: Gentle, peaceful and cuddly, usually a bit lazy and often fat.
Peacocks: Vain, elegant, pompous.
Penguins: Inherently comical. Dignified, but clumsy in the water. Rather cheery and optimistic, even in harsh climes.
Pigs: Greedy and slovenly in a comical way, but often intelligent and good-natured.
Porcupines: Pragmatic and fearless, being well aware of how respected their defensive abilities are. May be either gentle and innocent, or prickly and irritable.
Rabbits: Sweet, innocent, and cuddly, but also trickster rabbits for the purposes of self-defence. ✷
Raccoons: Sneaky, clever, bold, and rather cute, but usually heroic or at least likeable ones. ✷
Ram: Always ready for a fight. Tough, perhaps surprisingly so, but perhaps a bit dim. Something like a smaller version of the bull. ✷
Rats: Traditionally nasty, cowardly, indecent, aggressive, greedy, licentious and cunning. Often associated with filth and disease. Always a tough survivor type, whether good or evil. ✷
Rhino: Powerful but somewhat dim. Incredibly dangerous when threatened, but prone to charging headlong with considering the consequences.
Roosters: Proud and loud. Pompous and arrogant.
Seals and Sea Lions: Cute and playful. Adorably clumsy on the land, but breathtakingly graceful in the water. ✷
Sharks: Hunger and menace personified. Cold and emotionless.
Sheep: Passive and gentle, but rather dimwitted. Prone to suffering from 'herd mentality' and blind, unquestioning obedience toward authority. Easily frightened and incapable of depending themselves.
Skunks: Gentle, innocent, and totally fearless, owing to their well-known natural defences.
Snails and Slugs: Very slow and slimy. Snails tend to be portrayed in a little more positive light than slugs are.
Snakes: Pure evil, almost always cunning, deceptive and manipulative. ✷
Songbirds: A symbol of vitality, freedom and joy.
Sparrows: Humble, cute and happy, agile and surprisingly brave.
Spider: Patient tricksters or venomous antagonists.
Squid: Weird and otherworldly, probably the closest thing on Earth to alien life.
Squirrel: Agile and graceful, but hyperactive and perhaps a bit crazy. Short attention span.
Storks: Frequently cast as a Delivery Stork. ✷
Swans: Beautiful, graceful and pure. A symbol of love and sometimes vain.
Tanuki: Sneaky, clever, bold and rather cute. Often thieves but usually heroic or at least likeable ones.
Tigers, Panthers, Jaguars and Leopards: Charismatic, exotic predators with an air of grace and power about their ever move. Awe-inspiring even as they crush you. Black panthers in particular tend to emphasise the big cats skill as stealth. Equally likely to be on the side of good or evil.
Toads: Ugly, cute and clumsy. Hidden beauty that reveals itself if you're being kind to it.
Turtles and Tortoises: Slow but wise, except if they are snapping turtles, in which case they're bad-tempered. Often very long-lived.
Walruses: Cute and contently fat, but comically dignified.
Wasps: Aggressive, nervous, evil and highly prone to mass fury.
Weasels, Stoats, Martens and Polecats: Scheming, treacherous, cunning and malevolent villains, or else just plain out of their minds. ✷
Whales: Gentle, mysterious giants of the deep, slow-moving and very wise.
Wolves: Evil, murderous and voraciously hungry or powerful, majestic and beautiful.
Worms: Disgusting, filthy, repulsive and mindless. Symbols of rot, decay and corruption.
Zebras: They are tougher versions of the antelopes, brace and fiercely independent, although not always very strong fighters.


Animal artwork by Laura Carlin
Cheetah artwork by Kate Pugsley
Link to text here

The Soft Moon by Italo Calvino

Notes from the short story;

"According to the calculations of H. Gerstenkorn, later developed by H. Alfven, the terrestrial continents are simply fragments of the Moon which fell upon our planet. According to this theory, the Moon originally was a planet gravitating around the Sun, until the moment when the nearness of the Earth caused it to be derailed from its orbit. Captured by terrestrial gravity, the Moon moved closer and closer, contracting its orbit around us. At a certain moment the reciprocal attraction began to alter the surface of the two celestial bodies, raising very high waves from which fragments were detached and sent spinning in space, between Earth and Moon, especially fragments of lunar matter which finally fell upon Earth. Later, through the influence of our tides, the Moon was impelled to move away again, until it reached its present orbit. But a part of the lunar mass, perhaps half of it, had remained on Earth, forming the continents.

Because it was a thing that, though you couldn't understand what it was made of, or perhaps precisely because you couldn't understand, seemed different from all the things in our life, our good things of plastic, and nylon, of chrome-plated steel, duco, synthetic resins, plexiglass, aluminum, vinyl, formica, zinc, asphalt, asbestos, cement, the old things among which we were born and bred. It was something incompatible, extraneous.

....in that corridor of night sky glowing with light from above the jagged line of the cornices; and it spread out, imposing on our familiar landscape not only its light of an unsuitable color, but also its volume, its weight, its incongruous substantiality. And then, all over the face of the Earth-the surfaces of metal plating, iron armatures, rubber pavements, glass domes-over every part of us that was exposed, I felt a shudder pass.

"Yes, the planet Moon has come closer still," Sibyl said, before I had asked her anything, " the phenomen was foreseen."

Now, I have use the word "excrescence" to indicate the Moon, but I must at once fall back on the same word to describe the new thing I discovered at that moment: namely, an excrescence emerging from that Moon-excrescence, stretching toward the Earth like the drip of a candle.

Would it stop in time, the Moon, as Sibyl had said, before one its tentacles had succeeded in clutching the spire of a skyscraper? And what if, sooner, one of these stalactites that kept stretching and lengthening should break off, plunge down upon us?

The Moon was moving off in the sky, pale, and also unrecognizable: narrowing my eyes, I could see it was covered with a thick mass of rubble and shards and fragments, shiny, sharp, clean.

The true materials, those of the past, are said to be found nom only on the Moon, unexploited and lying there in a mess, and they say that for this reason alone it would be worthwhile going there: to recover them. I don't like to seem the sort who always says disagreeable things, but we all know what state the Moon is in, exposed to cosmic storms, full of holes, corroded, worn. If we go there, we'll only have the disappointment of learning that even our material of the old days-the great reason and proof of terrestrial superiority-was inferior goods, not made to last, which can no longer be used even as. There was a time when I would have been careful not to show suspicions of this sort to Sibyl. But now, when she's fat, disheveled, lazy, greedily eating cream puffs, what can Sibyl say to me, now?"

Link for text here

After Hours Festival

So a friend approached me with this email a couple of weeks ago;

"Going to have a few things going on the evening of Thursday 18th May 2017 at Manchester Craft and Design Centre in the Northern Quarter. As I've mentioned it'll be inspired by/themed around the work of Alan Menken so anything from the following:

Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Home on the Range
Enchanted
Tangled
Mirror Mirror
Newsies
Sausage Party

I'm looking to have some things to display so whether this is a piece of art created for the event, a painting, an illustration, a poem, a costume, a film inspired by, some songs inspired by, straight up covers of songs from the films, reenactments, whatever!

Things will be displayed in and around the craft centre, we'll have performances on the stage area and screenings in the cinema room. So please get back to me ASAP with your idea.

Will need pieces to be complete by w/c 15th May so I can collect  things and get them ready to exhibit."

At first I was a little hesitate to take this comission and I worred it would clashed with my MA studies but then I just thought intertwine them!
I think I am going to choose Hercules, I think out of all of them, that's the only one I actually like the background story. I've wanted to look more into Greek mythology and because I know the bare minimal I had to research this on a 'Ancient Greek for Kids' which helped alot.
As I've only got 10 days, I've just got to crack on.

Link is here

 

Sketchbook update #1
I'm trying to explore different ways to design the 'masks'.

Stereotyping Animals [Part 2]

Eagles: Similar to Birds of Prey.
Earthworms: Unattractive but portrayed in a more positive light than other worms.
Elephants: Powerful, majestic, wise and with a great memory.
Ferrets: Clever and extremely playful. ✷
Flies: Often symbols of disorder, peskiness and insignificance.
Foxes: Tricky, pragmatic and confident. ✷
Frigatebirds and Skuas: Bigger, meaner and nastier versions of gulls, with qualities of thiervery and brutality. ✷
Frogs: Usually cheerful and friendly.
Geckos: Cute and likeable, but a little on the odd side.
Geese: Arrogant and irritable, but also graceful in flight.  ✷
Goats: Humble and quite stubborn but surprisingly aggressive. ✷
Gorilla: Intelligent but calm and more serious and immensely strong.
Guineafowl and Turkeys: Dignified but snobbish, unpleasant and uptight.
Gulls: Greedy and undignified but also brave.
Hare: Admired for their fast and cunning flights, independent and a little mysterious, even magical. ✷
Hedgehogs: Can be portrayed as 'prickly' and difficult to get close to.
Hens: Incurable gossips and not very bright.
Herons: Graceful, calm and patient. ✷
Hippos: Contented and gluttonous giants of the river. Obese, lazy and often rather stupid.
Horse: Elegant, noble, passionate and spirited. Sometimes proud and vain. ✷
Hyenas: Harmless jokester and laughs like a maniac for no reason. ✷
Kangaroos: Extroverted, good-natured characters, usually devoted mothers.
Koalas: Cute and friendly but rather lazy, or else irritable, gruff and not too bright.
Leeches: Like maggots and worms with the addition of bloodsucking, associated with putrid waters and the basest of natural instincts.
Lions: Brave, proud, noble, majestic and powerful. 'King of the Jungle', can be lazy and vain.
Llamas: Like Camels, slightly weirder and little more even-tempered.
Maggots: Disgusting, filthy, repulsive, and mindless larvae of flies. Symbols of rot, decay and corruption.
Magpies: Cunning thieves with a penchant for shiny objects. May be good or evil. ✷
Mice: Cuter and far more sympathetic than rats. Mice are more likely to be prey, often meek, humble, gentle and inoffensive.
Moles: Bright, technically minded, and a bit nerdy, often with a special talent for digging or engineering in general. ✷
Mongoose: Vaguely resembles a weasel, but is a cute and fearlessly heroic defender of the innocent. Although they look harmless, they take on terrifying enemies and win through a combinations of agility, with and boldness. ✷
Monkeys: Hyperactive, mischievous, skillful and curious.
Mosquitoes: Pesky, annoying, some even dangerous bloodsucking flies.

Horse artwork by Luke Best
Animal artwork by Laura Carlin
Link to text here

Today I've been designing a somewhat relaxed story board for my narrative.
The things I would like to be apart of the narrative:

• When the moon touched the earth - maybe will be the title
• One day it would happen they said. - the opening sentence?
• They were named by the colour of their eyes, it got quite confusing. - I like the idea of the characters being named after eye colours. First off it could be visually better and I think its a nice touch to the story.
• Yellow eyed Bull stood up and took off his mask. "I just can't be doing with this right now", he said shaking his head. He rearranged his mask and got back on all fours. - So this sentence needs alot of work but I am really keen to have a single mention that all the animal characters are actually just masked creatures, I think this will be an important part of the story. The animals will portray their stereotypes or meanings, but why? Is this because they wear the masks they must become the animals traits.
• All the beasts and creatures climb on top of each other, forming a great big wall. Higher and higher. The large animals at the bottom. -I am still deciding if I want this is how they solve the problem, this or a big ladder. These are things I need to decide now. I think tomorrow I am going to draw up a very simple story board. See what looks best and start trying to do at least one to draw up a day.

(Just to let you know this is just notes in my notepad so it could come across as complete nonsense)

Stereotyping Animals [Part 1]

So I will be looking at stereotypes of animals, this is all research for my short story I want to attempt to write. I want to characters to be symbols of human traits. Even if I wasn't doing this unit for my MA, I think its good knowledge to know because I use animals all the time in my illustrations and I use them to symbol how I feel or how I want the audience to feel. Other than naive deer or stubborn bull, I feel like this should be general knowledge for me.

Ants: Hard working to the point of losing all individuality. Less emphasised than with bees.
Antelopes and Gazelles: Gentle, graceful and very swift.
Baboons: Fiercer and more aggressive than other monkeys.
Badgers: Cranky, stubborn, tough but not evil.
Barracudas and Pikes: Cruel, ruthless and often evil.
Bats: Nocturnal, poor eyesight, sometimes bloodthirsty and sometimes eccentric and insane.
Bears: Intimidating and ferocious when provoked, but also calm, slow-moving and wise. Young cubs are portrayed as calm, cuddly and brave. ✷
Beavers: Industrious.
Bees: Hard-working, dutiful and territorial. Queen Bee is always stern.
Birds of Prey: Fierce, dignified and serious. ✷
Boars: Extremely aggressive and irritable, tough and quite dangerous if provoked. ✷
Bulls: Short-tempered, intimidating, tough and extremely strong, but somewhat stupid. ✷
Butterflies: Shy, meek and inoffensive as caterpillars, but bold and beautiful as adults.
Camels: Not very energetic, but slow and steady once they get going; they can endure any hardship. Cranky, stubborn and bad-tempered, but not actually aggressive. ✷
Cats: Clever, curious, and rather arrogant and vain. Aloof and independent, can be portrayed as manipulative and smug but also may be cute and heroic.
Chameleon: Often stealthy tricksters, portrayed as rather weird
Cheetahs: Known for their speed. 
Chickens: Cowards and prone to self-destructive panic.
Chimpanzees: Erudite and snarky.
Cockroaches: Dirty.
Cows: Contented and docile, not especially bright.
Coyotes and Jackals: Cunning and tricky. ✷
Crabs and Lobsters: Crabby, unhelpful and easily angered.
Cranes: Majesty, grace and strength without aggression. ✷
Crocodiles and Alligators: Lazy but strong, usually vicious bullies and more savage than other animals.
Crows and Ravens: Cunning and often ominous; an archetypal symbol of death. ✷
Cuckoos: A harbinger of spring and also being insane.
Deer: Delicate and unperilous. ✷
Dogs: Loyal and friendly, but not too bright and easily distracted. ✷
Dolphins: Cheery, playful, friendly, clever and extraordinarily graceful.
Donkeys and Mules: Humble, hardworking and somewhat stubborn. ✷
Ducks: Clumsy but possessing a strong will and perhaps a hidden grace.



✷ symbol is a mental note for me for potential characters
Baboon artwork by Miroco Machiko
Bear artwork by Jen Collins
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"Now that's a sewing finger, honey"

Over Easter break, whilst trying to find creative things to do, I took up embroidering. I've always admired embroidering and I always think its a great skill to learn.

At first I thought it would be quite difficult, I read a few blogs on how to and even watched a youtube video. But It was very easy! I know how to sew in general from sewing on patches and fixing up wear and tear on my own clothes. But it seemed so simple and I feel a bit silly for not trying this out years ago.

But I didn't know what I wanted to be my test piece, I decided on my hand logo. I have this on my business card and the bottom on my emails.

From this trial, I have learnt that:
A. Use less thread.
B. Buy enough of the same colour thread.
C. Draw on the material with a light pen not a pencil and try and rub it out.
D. Be as neat as possible when starting the outline
and E. Practice makes perfect! This wasn't going to be a masterpiece but it turned out better than I actually imagined.

Anthropomorphism

This is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.

This is common in literature such as:

Religious texts

There are various examples of personification as a literary device in both Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament and also in the texts of some other religions.

Fables

Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well established literary device from ancient times. The story of "The Hawk and the Nightingale" in Hesiod's Works and Days preceded Aesop's fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the Jataka Tales and Panchatantra, also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of the stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections.

Fairy Tales

Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from the earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault. The Tale of Two Brothers (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and in Cupid and Psyche (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest.

Modern Literature

Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, specifically children's literature began to emerge in the nineteenth century with works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) by Carlo Collodi and The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling, all employing anthropomorphic elements.

Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to a sub-culture known as furry fandom, which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism.

Artwork by Monica Ramos
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Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

Came across this book when I read the short story, The Distance of the Moon:

"At one time, according to Sir George H. Darwin, the Moon was very close to the Earth. Then the tides gradually pushed her far away: the tides that the Moon herself causes in the Earth’s waters, where the Earth slowly loses energy.

...Moon’s phases worked in a different way then: because the distances from the Sun were different, and the orbits, and the angle of something or other, I forget what; as for eclipses, with Earth and Moon stuck together the way they were, why, we had eclipses every minute: naturally, those two big monsters managed to put each other in the shade constantly, first one, then the other.  

Climb up on the Moon? Of course we did. All you had to do was row out to it in a boat and, when you were underneath it, prop a ladder against her and scramble up.

Now, you will ask me what in the world we went up on the Moon for; I’ll explain it to you. We went to collect the milk, with a big spoon and a bucket. Moon-milk was very thick, like a kind of cream cheese.  

Transparent medusas rose to the sea’s surface, throbbed there a moment, then flew off, swaying towards the Moon.

I saw her become restless, as if on pins and needles, and then it was all clear to me, how Mrs Vhd Vhd was becoming jealous of the Moon and I was jealous of my cousin.

I took to singing in a low voice that sad song that goes: ‘Every shiny fish is floating, floating; and every dark fish is at the bottom, at the bottom of the sea...’ and all the others, except my cousin, echoed my words.

raised my eyes as I did every time I touched the Moon’s crust, sure that I would see above me the native sea like an endless ceiling, and I saw it, yes, I saw it this time, too, but much higher, and much more narrow, bound by its borders of coasts and cliffs and promontories, and how small the boats seemed, and how unfamiliar my friend’s faces and how weak their cries!

.,..she too would remain distant, on the Moon. I sense this, seeing that she didn’t take a step towards the bamboo pole, but simply turned her harp towards the Earth, high in the sky, and plucked the strings. 

 I could distinguish the shape of her bosom, her arms, her thighs, just as I remember them now, just as now, when the Moon has become that flat, remote circle, I still look for her as soon as the first sliver appears in the sky, and the more it waxes, the more clearly I imagine I can see her, her or something of her, but only her, in a hundred, a thousand different vistas, she who makes the Moon the Moon and, whenever she is full, sets the dogs to howling all night long, and me with them."

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Onwards and Upwards

Start of a new term. Feedback has come back and I'm more than disappointed within myself. I feel like I let general life get in the way of my work. I feel as if I shouldn't dwell on marks but I think it's important to remember I'm on a course. I need to show all development of my ideas. I need to think what I am actually doing. And I need to stop abandoning things, and working only on things which are just easy and aesthetically pleasing finished looking things.

I'm going to start with a narrative. I'm going to concentrate on that narrative, mock up a story board, work on characters. And in the next couple of day find story that will influence myself to make up a narrative with a Magic Realism style.
Magic Realism in the first brick of this MA building. I felt like last term I just relied on it too much and just read narratives for months.

Now I need to just simply get on with it.