Timeline of Development

 

When starting this project I was trying to think of a topic or theme or some kind of semblance of what I could do. This in turn started to enrage me that I was taking so long to find an idea. That's when I realized that what I was feeling could be  something I look into. Anger.

My ideas have started in my sketchbook looking into anger and what it can be used for and what it can achieve. I looked into punk culture and especially into one of my favorite music artists and person Henry Rollins from Black Flag. Looking into his ideology and what he has said about anger is something I find very interesting. One of my favorite quotes from Rollins is this, 'I am driven by a lot of really ugly anger'. 

His interviews and his views will be something I look into more as the project goes on. 

I've also been looking into postcards and an idea about flipping the narrative of postcards to be more hateful and anger filled, which you can see more about in the research tab of my blog.

After the first tutorial with Chris what I am going to start to do if sketchbook more and research more into what makes ME angry and document it.

After my research into punk rock and into the D.I.Y gig posters that have come out of that movement I wanted to try and create my own kind of poster and I wanted to try and perhaps make it fit into postcard form to see if I could splice my ideas together.

After finishing this piece of work I showed what I have been doing to Chris in a tutorial and told her my ideas about the postcards. However I also told her about a different idea I had that was vastly different than what I have been doing. I had an idea of doing a kind of bestiary of monsters but Chris gave me an idea that I could make the bestiary of angry and evil people in history.

I really like this idea a lot and will bring it forward into what I am doing now, and after the bookbinding workshops I am excited to create a journal style book filled with drawings and writing in a kind of sketchbook way. I think doing this will play to my strengths and I will enjoy doing it. 

After researching evil people in history I have came to 9 that I will make my pages about and they are (in no particular order)

Adolf Hitler

Pol Pot 

Ivan the Terrible

Nero

Adi Amin

Ilse Koch

Vlad the Impaler

Joseph Stalin

Elizabeth Bathory

I chose these 9 as I think that they are a good variety from around the world and also have unique stories and horrors that I can show. What I also want to do is bring light to a few horrendous people in history that some people may not know like Adi Amin and Elizabeth Bathory. I dont want to romanticize these people however, I want to show their crimes and their horrors. I have to be careful to not be insensitive but I think it is obvious I am painting them all in a bad light.

I created a small test of what my pages may look like, I wanted it to be very inky to seem like a journal. 

I used a kind of medieval font as I really want to hit the old bestiary style as I think it looks super cool. I have created my full size book ready for when I will start my inky drawings and writing. I will add a leather cover and try to age the paper and the leather to make it look old. I have decided to do my drawing before I stick the book to the cover as it will be easier to draw in so it is flatter.

Now I have my idea in place I will start developing idea for double spreads for each 'character' thinking about font, placement of text and placement of images. After my tutorial with Emma she made me realize that I need to think about a formula to have for each page, however I want this piece to be very much like a journal style book from someone. I want it to seem like these people are actual real monsters, like they're different species.

I started research into bestiary and journal style books to aid myself on making it look as I want it to, as well as this I am researching into each person in more detail so I can bring out their 'monstrous' features into an exaggerated character.

Starting my final piece I use the paper (not yet bound to the cover) and draw using ink, ink pens and water ink pens. 

For my first page I chose Hitler as he is really common evil man in history that comes up often. I chose to focus on showing him as a demon/devil type character giving him horns and a tail. I wanted to show him as the epitome of evil. I made sure to show the symbols associated with the Nazi Regime.

   

For Idi Amin I gave him lifeless eyes and blood on his fingers to suggest his ruthlessness. I also included his scepter on the side to give more detail into what he is. I am going to add some skulls and bone to show his cannibalism.

 

Elizabeth Bathory was a easy enough 'character' to bring into the realm of twisted fantasy that I want to show as she is one of the real life inspiration for Dracula, so I gave her fangs aswell as showing her bathing in blood of the people she killed like she actually did.

For Nero I wanted to show him on a throne of bones and skulls with an upside down cross on his forehead as it is said that he was believed to be the Antichrist by Christians during his reign.

For Pol Pot I wanted to show literally how he kept skulls of humans in his possession and wanted to emphasise the walls of skull images that have come out from Cambodia.

Ivan the Terrible was one that I found hard to create into as monstrous as the others so I just wanted to focus on key elements such as the way he died (while playing chess).

In Isle Koch’s spread I wanted to capture her as one of Hitlers ‘minions’. I gave her smaller horns than that of Hitler to emphasise this.

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For Stalin I really just wanted to show how he was shown to the Russian people, as this normal person or this nice person.

Or glad I wanted to show his impaling and also his roots in the inspiration for Dracula and vampire tropes.

At this point in my project I am looking at my work and I am not too sure on how the completed book will look. I don't know if it will shape into something that I am proud of and something that looks polished. So I started to scan in my pages and edit them turning them into digital pages.

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I really enjoy the inverted 'colours' and I think that with this it makes my work more pleasing to the eye, however I do think I lose some of the physical aspects that i want such a a hand drawn style and the really inky drawing that I wanted. 

I then started to write in my descriptions of the people ,along sure to highlight the atrocities that they committed. At this point I am nearly done it’s my project however I then scan the drawings in to digitalise them and make it look more polished. I want there to be a physical book as well as a different styled digital piece.