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I think my CPP is a summation of my research and development throughout this unit, I think it reflects my points of interest and also indicates the direction my work is heading in for unit 10. Exploring animation more and traditional techniques were my top priority going into this project and I think they are aspects of my practice I was really able to develop. I'm generally quite happy with the direction of my project, having to adapt my outcome to fit my time frame was quite disheartening but I think it is ultimately a lesson I had to learn, being overly ambitious in this sense ended up hurting me. I think learning about Welsh history, culture and folklore has genuinely helped me understand myself a lot more, why I reacted a certain way when I was younger and why I do feel a sense of isolation when it comes to talking about culture; I just cannot relate in the same way that other people can, because my culture is still being actively erased. It also helped me feel a lot more connected with my family, having a somewhat contentious relationship with my grandfather - and then having to engage with talking about these deep and sometimes troubling events he went through really helped us to connect again.

Going into unit 10 I want to be much more broad with how I think about animating, especially in a 2D format - the cyanotype experiment was something I didn't think much of at the time but ended up being a really interesting technique to me, and allowed me to develop my understanding of how I can work with moving image.

Linking folk history with academic history allowed me to see the importance of being culturally aware. I was not educated in school about Welsh history, only some folk tales, and I was surprised to see how relevant they were to my research. By using these in combination I was able to see how much of my life had been directly impacted by the imposition of English rule, having always considered myself to be just as privileged as the English - I was not aware of how much my country has lost, and how we are still in some ways second class to English citizens. My position in this project has been informed by my research entirely, initially I was only somewhat aware of the context of Wales and I want to create something that will inspire Welsh people specifically, who have been disconnected like me, to engage with the type of research I have.

I also want to make clear here I did do some independent research on Patagonia, where a small colony was formed at the 'request' of their government. I ultimately decided not to include this message into my project as it seems as though all the evidence I could find is very 'white washed', with the only negative statement I was able to find was a single incident of a racial slur around 70 years ago - this is something I want to explore more in U10, whilst I think that considering my starting point and lens my outcome here was critical, I want to delve even further in this in the next project.

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I layered audio clips from my walks in Wales as background noise, I think they help to ground the piece as when I tried layering music it all felt too chaotic. (similarly, I added text from my script at one point and I felt as though it distracted from the message I was trying to convey). I did have a voice actress lined up to recite the poem in both English and Welsh but she had some unforeseen issues which led to me having to record the narration myself only in English (as I'm not confident enough in my pronounciation), my aim with the editing was to try and create some blend with the noises in the background - as though the trees were a part of the poem, as in it the trees are telling the story.

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I didn't go into my final outcome with a storyboard in mind, I wanted this outcome to be a reflection of my research rather than a retelling of the claw - perhaps to act as a trailer almost for my next project. I find I work best when I experiment on the spot with ideas rather than plan out my editing process.

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Animation on top of one of my cyanotypes; the Welsh dragon can be seen disappearing and reappearing in the corner whilst the silhouette of Owain Glyndwr (Welsh independence icon) is seen. Castell Caerfilli was a symbol of Owain's defeat, a castle built by English nobleman to establish power in the south, built out of fear of Owain's army. Now the castle is viewed as a testament to his power, a symbol of English fear against the Welsh.

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I thought that this was relevant imagery to include; the claw represents England directly taking from the Welsh, behind is one of the last images of Chapel Ceyln, a historic Welsh town flooded to supply water to England (which is then sold onto other countries...). It was an event that came up multiple times during my survey, I feel it is representative of the image welsh people recollect of the English 'stealing' from us.

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Playing with the idea of distortion; the notion that both welsh folklore is distorted due to the loss of language and our history is largely distorted due to the fact we have been prevented from learning it.

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Using imagery from my interim project and the Welsh Spiral (Celtic symbol associated with folk practice in mid Wales) I created an overlay for my found footage.

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I cut down the poem to fit with the pacing of my film; not wanting it to loop over and over again to fit with the poem I wanted to prioritise the image.

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Archival footage used:

Capel Celyn revealed, Wales at Six, 1989. (2017) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ui2rFSP6AM (Accessed: 05 February 2024).

Miners strike | police tactics | flying pickets | trade union | TV eye | 1984 (2019) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGeICaYnuo8 (Accessed: 05 February 2024).

Aberfan remembered: Disaster in the welsh valleys - BBC news (2016) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZns_Cj0aY (Accessed: 05 February 2024).

Wales: Strikes: Strikes scenes in Rhondda Valley, Cardiff (1926) (2020) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRcTJT55kHs (Accessed: 05 February 2024).

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I went out to the mountain by my house over Christmas - and found some recordings from the summer and recorded some ambient noises.

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TV references:

Wales: England’s colony?, series 1, episode 1 (2019) BBC Two. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003c77 (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Wales: England’s colony?, series 1, episode 2 (2019) BBC Two. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003j7g (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Wales: England’s colony?, series 1, episode 2 (2019) BBC Two. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003j7g (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Audio Shows:

Bowen, J. (2022) This union - being welsh - episode 3 - BBC sounds, BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00146bd (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

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1) Cadw, Caerphilly Castle, Cadw. Available at: https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/caerphilly-castle (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

2)The green lady (2015) Gritty Realism. Available at: https://grittyrealism.co.uk/projects/green-lady/ (Accessed: 04 February 2024). - Film I made in year 5.

3)Gov, W. (2019) Welsh index of multiple deprivation (WIMD) 2019: Results report - GOV.WALES, WIMD (page 12). Available at: https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2019-11/welsh-index-multiple-deprivation-2019-results-report-024.pdf (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

4) Eisteddfod 2013 (no date) Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Urdd Gobaith Cymru - Penfro 2013. Available at: http://www.urdd.net/eisteddfodau/2013/cdt/LLCDTGen2013.asp (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Aberfan disaster:

TheAberfandisaster:33-year follow-upofsurvivors. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/AC7358FC5D7F362BB8080FC1579C074A/S000712500022905Xa.pdf/div-class-title-the-aberfan-disaster-33-year-follow-up-of-survivors-div.pdf (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

.NET framework. Available at: http://swplive.blob.core.windows.net/wordpress-uploads/2-HN-Aberfan-Disater.pdf (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Cad Goddeu poem research:

Cad Goddeu, National Library of wales viewer. Available at: https://viewer.library.wales/4654784#?c=&m=&s=&cv=11&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4654784%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-288%2C-1%2C2709%2C2988 (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Wagstaffe, A.E. (2021) ‘CAD goddeu’, ‘the battle of the trees’: Texts and interpretations, Research Repository. Available at: https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/2072/ (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Welsh History:

Union, act of (Wales) (no date) Oxford Reference. Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803110707792 (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

The Blue Books of 1847 (no date) National Library of Wales. Available at: https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/printed-material/the-blue-books-of-1847#:~:text=The%20Blue%20Books%20of%201847%20%2D%20National%20Library%20of%20Wales (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Folklore:

The mystery of mari lwyd (2022) Horniman Museum and Gardens. Available at: https://www.horniman.ac.uk/story/the-mystery-of-mari-lwyd/ (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Sheppard, B. (2020) The story of Mari Lwyd, Rhinwedd. Available at: https://rhinwedd.cymru/blogs/news/the-story-of-mari-lwyd#:~:text=Mari%20Lwyd%20is%20a%20tradition,important%20part%20of%20Welsh%20education (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

Authority, B.B.N.P. (2021) Mari Lwyd, Atlantic Culturescape. Available at: https://atlanticculturescape.eu/mari-lwyd/#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20Mari%20Lwyd,use%20in%20agriculture%20and%20transport (Accessed: 04 February 2024).

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Folklore:

Williams, E. and Brown, M. (2022) The Mab. London: Unbound.

Davies, S. (2018) The Mabinogion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jones, T.G. (2020) Welsh folklore and folk custom. Bangor: Cockatrice.

Owen, T.M. (1974) Welsh folk customs. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, Welsh Folk Museum.

Lewis, S. and Leblond, V. (2019) The four branches of the Mabinogi. Havertown: Rily Publications Limited.

History:

Gower, J. (2014) The Story of Wales. London, England: BBC Books.

Morgan, K.O. (2002) Rebirth of a nation: A history of modern wales. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Art references:

MOORE, D. (2020) Art for Wales: The legacy of Derek Williams. S.l.: GRAFFEG LIMITED.

Armstrong, C. (2013) Ellen Gallagher: Axme. London: Tate Publishing.

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Pryderi - Freedom from anxiety, relief - traditional Welsh boy's name.

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Castell - Castle

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A big focus of my project has been the story of 'The Claw' from the first branch of the Mabinogion, I have read a variety of versions of this story so I found it useful to write out my own version to work from. I wanted my lens of research to impact this, and my position as a person, so this version is written from the character 'Rhiannon''s perspective, she has a fairly large role in the story but in the versions I had read, she was quite largely overlooked.

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Scripting for the text to appear on screen during my outcome as well as spoken parts.

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This is my translation of Cad Goadeu, The Battle of the Trees, I'm not confident in speaking Welsh but can write it (sort of okay) so speaking it in Welsh was not really an option for me. The poem is very long, and tells the story of an army entering a forest (likely English), and the forest feels compelled to fight the army for the blood it has shed within it. I chose to include it as I feel that it perfectly blends the two sides of my research; the historical premise of English invasion and this almost spiritual way of fighting back (folklore adjacent).

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Poem I was considering using in the background of my animation.

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Poem I was considering using in the background of my animation.

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Cad Goddeu poem

I was in many forms before I was freed from restraint,

I was a slender sword forged by a skilful hand,

I was a droplet in the air,

I was star’s radiant light.

I was a sword in hand,

I was a shield in battle,

I was a string upon a harp.

I was a fire’s sparking tinder; I was a tree in a forest fire.

I am not one who does not sing, I have sung since boyhood, I sang in the treetops before Britain’s ruler.

The trees are armed,

The great oceans swift since I heard the battle cry.

Not from mother and father was I made,

And my creation was created for me from nine kinds of element,

From fruit, from fruits, from the first fruit in the beginning.

From primroses and flowers,

From blossoms of trees and shrubs from the earth,

From salt I was wrought.

My molten sword wins me honoured blood.

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developing police design to be used as a farmer plus baby designs 

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developing police design to be used as a farmer plus baby designs 

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Characters for the Claw story - thought of using rotoscoping so had to have more realistic proportions.

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Characters for the Claw story - thought of using rotoscoping so had to have more realistic proportions.

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Gathering my thoughts just before Christmas into a more fledged idea.

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Gathering my thoughts just before Christmas into a more fledged idea.

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These are rough notes and not very formal...

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Honestly just wanted to focus more on animating at this point.

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I was considering animating moments in Welsh history at one point so wanted a design page as reference if I went into that, it is an idea I discarded as I thought it wouldn't allow me to tell a story with the flow I wanted.

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making a rotation, considering it in the context of animation

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making a rotation, considering it in the context of animation

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really rough sketches considering making this into a different folklore creature - the giants that formed mountains.

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The point I realised I wasn't going to hit my target audience, I needed to make it slightly more matured.

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Definitely something I'm going to continue with in unit 10, think it gives so much more depth.

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Monster design 1, considering different textures and colours ...

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Monster design 1, considering different textures and colours ...

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Breaking down structure, studying claws and animals - I wanted to know and understand this monster before I created it.

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Breaking down structure, studying claws and animals - I wanted to know and understand this monster before I created it.

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Looking at creatures and elements of some, studying their movements and build to translate that into my monster, I wanted it to feel down to earth and organic.

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I started looking at designs for 'The Claw' monster in the first branch of the Mabinogion, it is not seen in the story apart from its long arm, and I wanted to make it more of a focal point in my story.

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I started looking at designs for 'The Claw' monster in the first branch of the Mabinogion, it is not seen in the story apart from its long arm, and I wanted to make it more of a focal point in my story.

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initial designs

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more refined storyboard for this story - I might go on to adapt this in unit 10, maybe look more into shot composition as I thought it was a bit flat. I ultimately did not end up making this as per my original idea as it was wayyy too long, though I have planned a whole outcome around this. It would be good to use as an experiment in the future.

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When I was planning on making a much more goofy, upbeat portrayal of the story of the claw. I found that it would likely draw in a younger crowd when I showed family and friends - which I don't think would be appropriate with the type of content I was planning on layering.

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Throughout the project I made a number of storyboards - this was never something I enjoyed doing, I often found myself deviating from them when I got into the project. I think a large portion of these show my main problem during this project - overshooting myself. I was fully convinced I could animate 6 sheets of animation alone in a few weeks - I suffer from delusion - so it was a process I had to learn to condense throughout the progression of this project. A lot of these are very quick and loose, I wanted to allow myself to be more free with my drawing and allow it to change with the setting.

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Using a rotoscoping technique and blending it with more traditional 2D animation, I found this useful in thinking more broadly with my animation but I found that I wasn't a massive fan of how I was drawing in the 2D style. I think I wasn't fully confident in animating in a 'realistic' way, even though it's more close to my typical style of drawing.

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quick and loose animation using one of my character designs

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quick and loose animation using one of my character designs

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I wanted it to be readable whilst also not loosing movement

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Test animation of a dragon (Start of Project)

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Test animation of a dragon (Start of Project)

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Initially I was considering hosting a series of workshops for unit 9, creating and performing a Mari Lwyd in my community in Wales and the Welsh community I’ve been able to cultivate here in London. Whilst this is something I might consider doing after I graduate, I feel that this idea isn’t as indicative of the direction I’m hoping my career to go in at this point, so I decided to gear my work more towards animation and more traditional illustration. Animation is something I’ve always been quite passionate about and something that is reflective of my practice as an illustrator, it is also a vessel I’ve personally not seen much work surrounding my topic (at this stage) been transferred into – not only intended for a younger audience, so I feel it is something I can explore in a more mature way.

Comics and animation are something I feel are very closely related, especially in relation to the storyboard phase of an animation so I visited the Comic Museum. At the time of my visit there was a Wallace and Gromit exhibit documenting the process of making the film – which I based my own process off of, working with storyboards and scripts before sound etc. A tendency I’ve found in previous animation projects I have had has been getting too carried away with big ideas and long plots, forgetting time restraints and the fact I do not have a team, so seeing the process broken up in this way helped me to visualise how much work I can realistically set myself to do for this project.

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I took all of these !

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Photos from my hometown; Castell Caerfilli

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Photos from my hometown; Castell Caerfilli

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Francis Bacon - couldn't find a title for this piece

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Pieces at Tate Britain I was drawn to; thinking about oppression and ways of demonstrating pain through art 

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Pieces at Tate Britain I was drawn to; thinking about oppression and ways of demonstrating pain through art 

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not my best look.

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Using a Lightbox and beads, thinking of more abstract ways of animating.

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Drawing at the V&A workshop; looking for pieces that related to folklore.

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Drawing at the V&A workshop; looking for pieces that related to folklore.

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A really impactful way of portraying history - with the end goal of putting these up in the places these stories represent. I did notice at this exhibition a few of the people I was with didn't engage with every plaque so not all the information was put through - but I think the visual of all of these on the wall was enough to convey the scale and severity.

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Visit to The British Library & 50 Plaques and Places Exhibition in Notting Hill

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Visit to The British Library & 50 Plaques and Places Exhibition in Notting Hill

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The part of this workshop in The British Library got me to consider different ways of presenting stories - adapting them into different forms, how this impacts the story and how it changes who is going to interact with it. This particular project was my favourite - the wolves in the walls book being adapted into a VR game. The visual language of the book I think informed a lot of my future character designs - but I think the adaptation had the greatest impact in the structuring of my narrative. By changing this children's book into a game they were able to stretch out certain emotions portrayed in the story to a much more intense degree - thinking a lot about how I can harness format to enhance my story.

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(I got the protagonist's name wrong here - it's supposed to be Pryderi and the claw - was in very deep reading the same stories over and over again and very tired...)

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Here I was thinking about the pace of which information was revealed, whilst also considering this idea of a 'building' of information - you can actually see where you've come from to get to this point in the story.

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This was a very useful workshop, allowed me to think different ways of telling a story, how the way we tell stories impacts the way an audience engaged with the information and their reaction to that. It was also very interesting to think of pace of reading through presentation and different methods of book making

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Storyboards from Wallace and Gromit; this gave me a foundation for the process needed for this project.

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Ellen Gallagher (Drexcyia)  Hauser & Wirth. Available at: https://www.hauserwirth.com/viewing-room/ellen-gallagher/ (Accessed Last: 04 February 2024). 

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One artist in particular, Ellen Gallagher was very influential in my research development as I am beginning to solidify a narrative for my outcome. One of her works in particular, The Myth of Drexciya re-imagines a folk tale coming from slavery – often enslaved pregnant women would be pushed off the boats of the incoming slave traders, where in this story the foetuses still developed and grew gills. This piece explores the ‘What if?’ element of folklore in a way I hadn’t yet considered, by recontextualising and reimagining the context behind the story, if the oppression was avoided or changed what could have been. Although this is a fantastical interpretation of that, it plays really well into my own study of folklore.

As I have developed my research I began to look more thoroughly into the more academic history of Wales, the widespread colonial input from England was much deeper than I had initially imagined. Although it feels very insensitive and wrong to directly compare the oppression faced by many people imported from Africa in the slave trade to Wales, and it is nowhere near the callousness and cruelty faced by many, the themes of oppression and methods are paralleled in Wales many years before England expanded its colonies, so there are places of appropriate comparison. One significant fact is that from 1247 Welsh people were considered second-class citizens in law as the Anglo’s took power, one documentary even claiming it to be a tester, some groundwork into what would eventually form Apartied.

I feel as though I can take the methodology from Gallagher’s work as inspiration for my own work, developing my own recontextualised versions of these folk stories. I was initially worried about the folk tales I was studying being potentially biased in some way, but after researching academic Welsh history pulled from both English and Welsh sources, I feel as the majority of these stories are quite level in their portrayal of events. I also think it is relevant to consider leaving these stories, even if biased, as my focus is on Welshness, the feelings and views of the Welsh people – not necessarily a historian’s interpretation of what is the ‘unbiased’ version of events. I believe that folklore provides a different account of these events, if I am able to put forward context – or a new context, I would be able to explore the ‘What If?’ element of Gallagher’s work that inspired me so much

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So I developed it to incorporate elements I liked, but reduced the amount of illustration needed to focus on more of the 3D elements.

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My initial designs were really flat, I was thinking about the image a lot not really considering the context and the main focus being the animation - also not considering my time frame too much.

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Photo from me in 2021

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Exploring the figure of Mari Lwyd originally 

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Exploring the figure of Mari Lwyd originally 

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Print of a photograph of Caerphilly Castle I took.

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Wind blew my stencil - really like the effect.

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Wind blew my stencil - really like the effect.

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Before it washed out (needed longer to develop)

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Before it washed out (needed longer to develop)