I’ve been laid up for a few days so progress with anything has been slightly delayed but last week I did get round to thinking about the Dragon Puppet. So far I have just played around with paper and scissors. I am basing the first version of puppet on the old woodcut of the Henham Dragon and it’s going to be just a simple articulated 2D shape.
Dragon: First steps
Taking shape
benign…
heraldic 1…
heraldic 2…
fearsome…
cautious…
with enticing biscuit….
Ready….
steady ….
leap …
The end of June is the deadline for Clive Hicks Jenkins’ and Peter Slight’s Online Puppet Challenge.
I really wanted to contribute to this so have been mulling it over for a while now. How? Why? What? The theme was “Myths and Legends” and I have chosen the legend of the Henham Dragon ( see my original post here)
I don’t have much time but enough to get some ideas down on paper, even if few of them actually get made and just researching another art form is a delight. 2D or 3D? Because I am really a 2D artist I am starting with a simple articulated paper puppet.
Clive makes beautiful articulated maquettes which he uses for his own work. These forms can be arranged in different positions and so acquire a curiously appealing life of their own. They are not quite the same as shadow puppets but have the same feel about them.
Shadow puppets from Turkey, India and China are sometimes painted on treated hide which makes the skins transparent, allowing the colours to glow when lit. See an article on the Karagoz puppet tradition in Turkey here.
Image by Tom Brosnahan who wrote the article. His website “Turkey Travel Planner” is one I will be returning to as we plan to get to Turkey next year.
I am not sure yet what exactly I will do but this is one of the forms I will be exploring.
Pinocchio
The whole subject of puppets is fascinating and if I were to consider 3D I could look at the traditional marionette. I have never made one, but have using puppets as inspiration in my work a few times. I also made sample drawings for a version of Pinocchio many years ago.
Rough for Geppetto’s workshop. pencil drawing.
Pinocchio and Jiminy. Watercolour
For my research I had visited The Little Angel Theatre in Islington and taken a few photos. Yesterday on a rainy Bank Holiday Monday I found them again. It was all long before computers and digital photography and most interesting is the photo of the “inspiration” wall, a collection of magazine clippings, cards and real photos.
Photos from the Little Angel Theatre..more years ago than I care to remember.
It’s all so inspiring…. I am now wondering about a 3D Dragon.
I am so delighted to be involved in the Puppet Challenge. The theme comes at such a good time for me as I have been researching aspects of folklore for some work for a while now.
And both of my other projects will feed into the puppet project too. I have never made a proper puppet but in my past work I used quite a bit of puppet/toy imagery and as dragons have been on my mind, I decided to base my dragon on the Henham Dragon. A dragon reputedly seen in the Essex village in 1669.
“Real” documented sightings are always so fascinating and Henham Village website has not only a splendid image of the dragon but also the front of the pamphlet which was published to describe the beast.
Sighting were many and various but from what I have read, it seems the dragon was never killed, which also appeals to me.
This may be because it could have been a hoax. Reading more on the website I see that recent evidence from Alison Barnes suggests it might have been a hoax dragon made by a William Winstanley who,
” created a hollow nine-foot wood and canvas dragon or “flying serpent” activated by a man which made fleeting appearances in and around Birch Wood, Henham throughout that summer and caused great excitement and mystification in the neighbourhood.”
So in effect this dragon was a large puppet. A perfect starting point for me. More of this wonderful Henham Dragon as I go along. Henham is also close enough for me to visit. The 17th C seems to have been a good time for dragons in the UK because another was recorded in Sussex in 1614, the St Leonard’s Dragon. The accompanying pamphlet from the Harleian Miscellany is titled:
“Discourse relating a strange and monstrous Serpent (or Dragon) lately discovered, and yet living, to the great Annoyance and divers Slaughters both of Men and Cattell, by his strong and violent Poyson. In Sussex, two miles from Horsam, in a Woode called St. Leonards Forrest, and thirtie miles from London, this present month of August, 1614”.
There will be more fascinating research to do. I see that Dr Andrew Hadfield has written a paper on the Sussex Dragon which I hope to read, and more. Exactly what sort of puppet it will be I am not sure yet but I will be starting off with some drawings.
I don’t think I am quite up to the full size Henham Dragon. But the description is reminding me of the wonderful Chinese New Year Dragons from the parades. I illustrated them years ago..so they too will be in my mind and, as a new printmaker, pamphlets appeal greatly to me.
A Pencil Margin Book Illustration
Half a full page spread, with the Dragon Head
Mine definitely won’t be on this scale. It makes you wonder about the “real sightings” of dragons.
On this black windy night we have just been for a walk. Fast dark clouds race across the face of the moon, twisted branches of bare trees flicker in the intermittent light. It’s easy to stumble, to lose your way, to misinterpret the wind shearing through the branches for something else.
In a flash of moonlight did I see a small dragon twisting itself around the spire of our village church?…Who knows.
In a weeks’ time the year will be on the turn and we will be going forward to light and spring. Wonderful! And there will be much to do in this coming year because behind the serenity of my occasional blog posts there is lots of frantic paddling. As always, so much more is happening than my limited typing and blogging skills can keep up with. I am very excited about a couple of collaborative projects, an online shop and a contribution to an online puppet making challenge.
Project One: I am getting together with another artist friend to start a year of “Beautiful Beasts”, drawings paintings and prints with some poetry thrown in. Lovely bees will be there of course.
Project Two: Is a Transatlantic ideas exchange with another artist friend. A wonderful opportunity to make some work in response to the same inspirational source. We come to this from different perspectives so the results will be fascinating.
Puppets? Hmmm… it will be my first attempt at making a puppet and I am thinking simple… very simple! But it ties in with both of my collaborative projects, things I have done in the past and will be something different. So I am joining Clive Hicks Jenkins and Peter Slight for their Puppet Challenge. The theme is Myth and Legend and so I have decided on a series of simple animal puppets, starting with a dragon continuing to black dogs and other wonderful creatures. A dragon may seem a bit obvious but dragons have been on my mind recently see “Small Dragon” and I have a dragon print on the drawing board right now. And if I needed further justification my Chinese Birth sign is the Dragon. More of the Dragon Project. Its whys and wherefores tomorrow.
Pigs: Salute the Pig drawings continue…it’s Saddlebacks next! Busy, busy….just how I like things to be.
The Delight of Returning Frogs
Welcome February!… and a few Comets
Optimism Returning
Back to Sketching in the Wood
The Book/Box Thing: Part 1.The Maquette