Right, get back into it!

SO a week on and what have we learned?
Nothing, absolutely nothing at all.

Na just kidding, it was an eventfully week. alot of progress was made and some plan's set.

firstly after finding a old wood cut illustration from a book called "The Dammed" (ominous right?) shows us our humble hero or not in the cause of this picture:

Here's the picture, sadly i cant scan the one from the book cause it wasn't mine.

However this picture is interesting. Portrayed maybe in the views of those artists at the time?

The first thing to point out is the hands. He/She or it has been given long nailed hands along with the pose of the arm in general gives it a very unnatural and un-human look.

Secondly in the background we can see another doctor this time however we see it walking towards some women who are also running away. Again interesting. maybe shows the opinion at the time? which has been hinted at through alot of my research.

it also included some English text (the one you can see on the picture is in German i think, could be quite wrong however)

which goes like this:

"Doctors who were exposed to the plague covered every inch of themselves in clothing and projected themselves with aromatic substance. The desire to completely cover all bodily orifices was not linked to the idea of germs in the scene we know it today. Instead, it was an attempt to prevent any contact with 'poisonous vapours'  in the air. According to contemporay thinking, the plague was caused by ether by God's desire to punish sinners or, more often, by the devil's meddling. the horrible odours associated with the disease, decay and rotting indicates the Devil's presence. According to plague doctors, women were naturally malodorous and belonged more to the master of Ddecay than to the creator."

Some of this extract is just weird especially the comment on women... just weird

Becuase my version of this picture was yellowy from the age of the picture i desided to do some pictures but undertoning the image with yellow water colour.

And now for an update

Ive desided for this Blog to be a weekly thing so that it is alot easer to evaluate myself.

Now.... where was i.......
The week was pretty good productivity wise,
Visited the Hereford Resourse Centre, Here is what I saw...

 

What i found most interesting is the Pepper box Pistol and the Transition Revolver, both look strangely out of place for something from the 18th century.

The selection of gas mask was also quite interesting. Quite the usual British WW2 designs but it was good to see them properly rather than just pictures. 

I was also able to take pictures of a helmet i was lent for this project. while corroded slightly it made it more real for me, this would have been someones some time ago. Worn down, dulled, corroded and chipped all make it distinguishable to someone. Alot of us distinguish each other from our faces and clothing. Sight is a primary sense we recognise more "sense data" with our eye than any other scene. Clothing is a distinguishing factor it is a problem of "personal idenity though time". Here's the helmet:

Personal belonging are an important aspect to me. Alot can be said by how we dress, the kind of music we listen too and little trinkets tell us about each other. For my character to come alive for an audience i should have those little mementos  and reminders. I can tell my coat apart from others because mine always has bits of paper in the pockets, small notes i write myself. Its import to me especially when creating a character especially when I'm limiting the expressions, to show history through the little thing we keep to our self's.

Antony Gormley once create a clothes hook for a TV project with a bunch of other artists. the premise was to create something of use everyday but also has meaning. To him people hung their work clothes like they were stepping out of an identity, changing there skin. Alot about use can be told though what we wear.

I have also been write more on the story, the narrative for my character. I will take some time to finish because it more something that develops with my designs.
Another topic of interest i have been researching is the Chernobyl disaster. an interesting collection of photos by various photographers can be found here: http://villageofjoy.com/chernobyl-today-a-creepy-story-told-in-pictures/. These pictures show the aftermath of the disaster and what it looks like today.

well that was my week summarised I guess... 

Now on with the show

Ok.... while my project tecnicaly began 3 weeks ago, i only began my blog last week because somtimes i forget (all the time). Soo I've been doddeling and planning for the past several weeks. I thought i might aswell share some of my drawing from my scetch book.

   

                   they are mosty just experiments with the mask and the costume, trying to make it look a bit militaristic. The mask has been based on some of the masks i have seen for the plague doctor along with the second world war masks i was able to take pictures of when I visited the Manchester imperial war musem. Today I went to hereford archive to see some of there collection of masks and uniforms from the first and second world war, which i want to base the costume of my character on. overall it was a pretty good week for my character alot of research was done regarding plague doctors. I was able to get alot of desighing done regarding equipment which thanks to my visit today has made what i want alot clearer. now ive just got to get what i want in terms of characteristics which is for another day (probley next week) for now ive got an Uni interview so my day tommorrow will be filled with the fun of waiting. Hooray......... damit                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Explination Part 2

Now project three. The project will combine the ideas of part one and two in order to push forward with my chosen specialism illustration.
My project to create a character and a story using the ideas that i have already experimented with.

My character will be based on an idea: "The Plague Doctor" Here's an example.

A little history, These mysterious men were amateur doctors, interns and trainee's. they were commissioned by states and cities around the middle ages. dealing with the plagues around the era, they would deal with the contagion, trying to contain the spread and dealing with those infected. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor -more information here.

But what sets it apart for me is the costume, the infamous peak mask. A symbol of the plague a harbinger of the plague.

The definition of harbinger is a bringer, usually asscoated with bad things, such as a "harbinger of winter". Plague doctors were known as harbingers of the plague, a rumor which started with their appearance.

the costume to me just seems odd, i dont know why they made them beak shaped, i know they were filled with herbs and spices to prevent infection from the foul air. (surposedly?)

Now where to begin....

Greetings and welcome to the start (proper start) of my Blog.
Here I will be starting my evaluation/explanation of my Project for my Diploma in art and design.
Now where to begin (literally).....


Shall we start with a bit of an introduction. 
Hello my name is Dominic however I preferred to be called Dom I'm an artist studying to become an illustrator at Hereford College of Arts (HCA) I am doing a Foundation diploma in art and design.
My course has gone into Part 3 the final section of the course in till may when I finish. In part 3 we have to create a project that is intertwined with our chosen specialism, in my cause this is illustration. using what we have done before as starting spring board (part one and two).
        Previously I had began my course by being asked the question by my Tutor "what do you like?" in which I replied "Manikins". Manikins are strange things to me, they are used in a way to emulate us, displaying clothes, examples of our body movements. But they aren't Human obviously just constructs. But why do I feel fascinated by them? the way the emulate however lack the qualities of humanity, to me its like staring at an abstract painting.
        In my A-levels I had adopted the ideas of qualities from David Hume from his book "enquiries concerning human understanding" while his philosophy was flawed due to the lack of criticism until after his death in August 1776. Qualities are what makes up every thing, all we see are qualities. From the colour of my skin to shape of my nose, every thing is a quality. From this Humans are made up of qualities, all the variables that create us, what make us apart from each other.
      Now manikins obviously wouldn't process all of these qualities otherwise they would be human. They are instead a flawed copy of humanity and that's what makes it cool to me. the uncanny feeling I get when I see a manikin the almost human like anatomy construction on the outside but lacking what we have. we can see this all around us everyone has the same basic qualities we recognise as human  two eyes, two arms, a nose etc.
this is why when we see something out of the ordinary, which doesn't fit into our mental stereotypy of humanity, it gives us that feeling, puts us on edge. this is known as the theory of the "Uncanny Valley". for a full explanation of the theory go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley and here  http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/730 for some good examples viewer discretion, what is seen cannot be unseen and is the exact mean of uncanny and its really weird, it cannot be unseen :(  

In my work I use the "uncanny valley" in terms of human qualities, so it can be a bit confusing but hopefully not. So with that said this is what I based my original concept for my project on. I Removed all the qualities that would make us a recognisable person in till all I was left with was shape, the shape of the human form. obviously I based the deconstruction on what i knew of humanity otherwise it wouldn't work, studying the human form. 

            I also looked into Masks, big fan of steam punk, gotta love those amazing designs and costumes. but masks always interested me also. There's something de-humanising about masks in situations, we associate them with war and all manner of horrific scenes. for me it was when I watched "the boy in the stripped pyjamas" I was horrified by what I saw. the man in the gas mask gave me nightmares. rather than the mask its self it would appear to be what its associated with. In Britain we see it as an aspect of the Blitz, the fear of gas attacks. To me I see it as an enemy, many video games have shown me not to trust a person who's face i cannot see. 

the mask itself is a symbol depending of course on your own experiences. 



 

I guess this is a first post... bla