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medieval depictions and folklore around bears

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medieval depictions and folklore around bears

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continuing my initial interest in taxidermy, I decided to consider how bad taxidermy happens, and how miscommunication throughout history has caused some poor visual translations of these animals to come to fruition

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Medieval Bestiary : Animals in the Middle Ages

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An online repository of information on the Medieval Book of Beasts - the Bestiary - its history, meaning and sources; and on animals in the Middle Ages in general.

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medieval depictions and folklore around tigers

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medieval depictions and folklore around tigers

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another really interesting article about medieval depictions of animals and how they affected folklore and art

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I rented this book from the library to better understand the actual process of taxidermy. I wanted to know how the models are made, to better understand how they can go wrong and end up looking uncanny or downright outrageous

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Buy Taxidermy Art: A Rogue’s Guide to the Work, the Culture, and How to Do It Yourself 1 by Robert Marbury (ISBN: 9781579655587) from Amazon’s Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

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I read about Morgan in the book I borrowed about taxidermy. I wanted to study her and her unique use of the art form, and how I could translate that into my illustrations

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Why animals in medieval art often look “wrong”

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Why animals in medieval art often look “wrong”

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I read this scanning looking for inspiration when developing my poorly translated animal illustrations

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I used these very basic flashcards to experiment with drawing animals from a description, possibly one I could misinterpret

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Cataloguing anatomy with taxidermy and its significance

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Cataloguing anatomy with taxidermy and its significance

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this article made me consider how taxidermy is used in modern day applications, and how this was relevant when considering it as an art medium

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i used this article to consider anatomy when creating my sketches

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All Zoological Skeletons - Bone Clones - Osteological Reproductions

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Our growing selection of animal skeletons includes several great apes, primates, mammals, marine mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.

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my initial source text that this brief was based off of

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pin up girls- the epitome of exaggerated femininity

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pin up girls- the epitome of exaggerated femininity

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A collection of popular pin-up photos from the 1940s

Pin-up images became popular with the introduction of magazines, newspapers, postcards, and lithographs. As print media became more accessible photos and drawings could now be produced and shared on a mass scale, and it didn't take long for people to cut out their favourite features and pin them up on walls - hence the term pin-up was born.

Pinning art and photos really gained popularity in the 1800s, but pin-up photos by modelling women became especially popular in the early 19th century thanks to burlesque performers and actresses. These ladies used photos of themselves for promotion on both business cards and advertisements for their performances. The cards/photos could often be found backstage in almost every theatres green room (a waiting room/lounge for performers to use before, during, and after a performance), with the cards being pinned up or stuck into frames of the looking glasses and in the joints of gas burners.

A popular burlesque show from the 1800s

There was, of course, a fair amount of female supporters and protesters with the continuing popularity of pin-up images. Protesters argued that pin-up photos were corrupting the morality of their society and saw these public displays of women as lowering the standards of womanhood, destroying their dignity, and reducing them to mere objects of pleasure for men and therefore harmful to both men and adolescent. On the other hand, early supporters of pin-up material considered them to be a positive rejection of bodily shame and gave them a new healthy respect for female beauty that had too long been controlled by patriarchal society. Either way, pin-up content was only going to grow in popularity through to the early 1900s.

Antique pin-up postcard

The Modern 'Pin-Up' Girl

Just before the start of WW1, a model known as Miss Fernande in Europe had a grasp on troops on both sides of the war. Miss Fernande is potentially the first modern example of a pin-up girl that we would be familiar with. She wasn't afraid to show her cleavage and full frontal nudity that many considered quite taboo. It's no surprise that her pictures quickly became sought after and cherished on both sides of the war. With such violent and gruesome scenes around them the soldiers latched onto these images for much needed escapism as well as having a reminder of what they were fighting for and what they would hopefully return home to.

When the US declared war on the German Empire in 1917 in WW1, the US government created a specific division for pictorial publicity to create propaganda to help with the war efforts. The US government had observed that the success from the past 100 years of pin-up material clearly showed that sex sells, and so they started using pin-up girls on their recruitment posters to entice more young men to enlist to the military.

WW1 American Recruitment Poster

With pin-up content becoming so widely available and in sight to the public, the overall attitude of women began to change in both the US and the UK. The First World War and following period of the 1920s had brought about a revolution in society which had given liberation to women, and much more revealing clothing became more common and acceptable - especially with the flappers of the roaring twenties!

Post WW1 would also see the introduction of artists own renditions of pin-up girls. This art showed idealised versions of beautiful curvy women, with Charles Dana Dibson creating the Gibson Girl and Alberto Vargas' Vargas Girls . Work from both of these artists was frequently featured in Esquire men's magazine and were consistently a popular feature.

Although pin-up girls in both painted form and photographs had hooked the public (the male members especially), the Second World War would give it absolute iconic status.

Pin-up Girls and The Second World War

Gibson and Vargas' artwork evolved and inspired others to reflect the time throughout the Second World War. Artwork began to show women dressing up in military clothing and posed in a seductive manner which was an absolute hit. This kind of artwork was so popular that from 1942 to 1956, nine million copies of Esquire magazine (without the adverts too!) had been sent free of charge to American soldiers.

WW2 American Recruitment Poster

Similar to WW1, the US government once again used pin-up girls in their recruitment posters. But now the pin-up images also decorated military barracks, the walls of ships and submarines, painted on fighter planes and bombers, and taped to the inside of soldier's helmets - pin-up girls were almost everywhere in the US military.

Soldiers with their collection of pin-up images

Nose art painted on planes and bombers also became a tradition. Women would be represented in various stages of dress and undress, with artists pushing the limits of decency to the maximum. Although some considered this raunchy artwork rather tasteless, it became a form of battle cry for the soldiers. The more imaginative, provocative, and even offensive, the more it reflected the soldiers desire to intimidate and tease the enemy, even if it was rather childish at times. Nose art was also unique to the aircraft which gave them their own personality, and hopefully a bit of good luck too!

'Little Gem' painted on a nose plane

The art also made the aircrafts easier to identify rather than using numbers, so when you saw the Shoo Shoo Baby returning to base you would immediately know that the crew had made it back safe.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby"
Hollywood Actresses

Hollywood wasn't one to shy away from pin-up either! With all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, many actresses also joined in with the pin-up movement whether it be for film advertising or to help with selling war bonds to the US public. It wasn't only Hollywood actresses who were taking pin-up photos, but everyday women too. Many women posed for seductive photos as they hoped it would give them an entry point into a movie career, but it also paid quite well as a side job when so many needed the extra money.

Carole Landis was one of the everyday women who did manage to break through to Hollywood stardom and posed for hundreds of pin-up photos throughout the 1940s. The platinum blonde was well endowed and was given the nickname " The Ches t" as her photos emphasised her curves. Carole did appear in a quite a few smaller film roles and had a small breakthrough to stardom with a role as the lead cavegirl in One Million B.C.

Carole Landis posing for a pin-up photo

Carole Landis in "One Million B.C)

Rita Hayworth was one of the most celebrated celebrities of the time was a favourite wartime pin-up and second only in sales wise to Betty Grable and the famous photo where she seemed to have legs that went on forever!

Just before Pearl Harbour was attacked, LIFE magazine ran a black and white photo of Rita who was kneeling on a bed made up with satin sheets, a silky white gown with black lace trimming. The photographer, Bob Landry, had taken many photos at this photoshoot but his favourite was an accident. Landry had his flash on too bright and this gave Rita a stunning silhouette. Enamoured with his accidental creation, Landy immediately submitted it to the LIFE magazine.

Bob Landry's photo of Rita Hayworth

Four months after this photo was published American soldiers departed overseas to join the fight in WW2, and Rita's photo went with them to remind them of home. The picture became iconic, and became one of the most frequently reproduced pin-up images ever. The U.S Navy dubbed her "The Red Head We Would Most Like to be Ship-Wrecked With".

Rita personally was very active with the war effort, volunteering with the Naval Aid Auxiliary and visiting hundreds of cities as part of war bond tours. She also visited touring camps and military hospitals and really left an impact on those she visited.

Having such beauty and compassion does come with its downsides, as Rita's likeness was painted on an atomic bomb used in a nuclear test. The Able Bomb was dropped near Bikini Atoll in 1946 as part of Operation Crossroads, an experiment into nuclear warfare. Rita had recently starred in the film Gilda which was a smash hit, and her character had been carefully painted on the surface of the bomb. Although she was supporting the war effort on the home front, Rita was horrified to find out that her likeness was painted onto a bomb which had the potential to cause so much destruction and death.

An artist carefully painting Gilda onto the Able Bomb

Explosion from Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll

Post-war pin-up images retained their popularity well into the 1950s - especially with the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953 which saw pin-up images becoming much more risqué and even pornographic.

But pin-up images are still so popular with many of us that they serve as a great source of inspiration of those creating their own pin-up outfits and images even in the 21st century!

Ideal places for further reading:

Joanne Meyerowitz, Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Material

Carole S. Vance, Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality

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Beauty, Glamour, and the Pin-Up Girls of the 1940s

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The pin-up models of the 1940s/50s are iconic symbols of the time, with scantily clad ladies being painted on military vehicles, appearing in war propaganda, and being popular in general in America especially throughout the war and post-war period.

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I really like plasticine as a medium and the way this video use melting layers to blend shapes and colour

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I looked into the artist who directed and created the music video where i loved the style. i thought her 3D work could translate to oil pastel studies in a really interesting way

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I really love the amount of texture in Grochulska's close up portrait studies

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i really love this artists use of colour

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i used scans from this book to create collages which informed my final development. Petra collins is a very well celebrated feminist photographer, and this book is a combination of her work, as well as the work of artists she admires

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Curated by Petra Collins featuring over 30 Female Artists from around the world.

Babe includes work by Collins as well as over 30 artists who have been part of her online collective The Ardorous. Though their work is aesthetically varied, it all represents a current zeitgeist characterized by explorations of female identity, scrutinization of the role of the Internet and social media, and a penchant for pastel colors. The artists in the book, such as Arvida Bystrom, Sandy Kim, Harley Weir, Jeanette Hayes, and Kristie Muller, hail from a variety of places, including New York, London, Moscow, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Toronto. Together they reflect an all-accepting, affirming, distinctly female point of view that teens and young women everywhere can respond to. With a Foreword by Tavi Gevinson, writer, actress, fashion blogger, and creator of the online magazine Rookie, this is an inspiring collection for a new generation of creative, forward thinking women.

Published by Prestel/Random House - June 11th 2015
Best Photography Book of 2015 via NYTimes

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Curated by Petra Collins featuring over 30 Female Artists from around the world. View/Buy Babe includes work by Collins as well as over 30 artists who have been part of her online collective The Ardorous. Though their work is aesthetically varied, it all represents a current zeitgeist characterized by explorations of female identity, scrutinization of [...]

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primary research- on site reference photos

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primary research- on site reference photos

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initial reference images i took during my first trip to the market. i immediately felt drawn to this stack of mannequins and chose this to be my starting point for the project

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Angela Smyth is a west yorkshire based artist who creates twee, collaged illustrations that are often quite whimsical are childlike. I studied Smyth for her use of composition and colour, which i found really interesting for this brief.

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Sylvain Mendy creates minimal, duo or tritone illustrations depicting mostly feminine subject matter. i chose to study her as i really resonate with the way she illustrates faces, using oversized eyes and eyebrows. i took this into account during my devlopments, using her as a source of inspiration when creating my mannequin characters

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sylvain mendy Connect with them on Dribbble; the global community for designers and creative professionals.

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collection of mannequin reference images i worked from during my development stages

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Explore a hand-picked collection of Pins about Kirkgate on Pinterest.

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I thought there was something quite unnerving and spooky about especially the more retro spa's for missing children. I thought these would make a good basis for my theme, and I could study their structure to inform my leaflet

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National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

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Be part of our celebration! Join us here each week to learn a little more about NCMEC.…

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NetSmartz kids- unsettling early 2000s safety videos

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NetSmartz kids- unsettling early 2000s safety videos

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Protect Yourself Featuring Teddy Ruxpin & Tiffany Brissette (2)

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this technique of applying ink to manhole- or 'coalhole' covers, and then taking a print of them is really interesting, and something I would like to investigate personally

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I was introduced to this technique by Stephen Fowler, who on his blog had a huge array of printmaking techniques. I personally asked him about his process and I look forward to experimenting with mono prints

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lithography is traditionally the study of prints taken from rocks or hard surfaces, but I thought it could have some really interesting applications within this project, perhaps taking rubbings from man holes, or brick textures associated with them.

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I discovered Soltau and immediately felt drawn to her disturbing, hyper-feminine but gruesome collages, in which she uses real stitches and staples to attach images together. this create a really brutal appearance, which often juxtaposes the content f the image itself. i felt this was extremely relevant for my project, and drew a lot of inspiration from her work.

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Annegret Soltau Bio - German Photographer - Hundred Heroines

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Annegret Soltau uses photography, collage, performance, and video to challenge representations of the body through the theme of identity.

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Hochs' famous signature style of collage, in which she combines misfitting, cuttings of images to create strange, disturbing creatures was a huge influence for my idea of creating animals from collage.

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Benesch is a contemporary illustrator who draws animals in the style of medieval folklore art. her work has a really vibrant, fresh feel to it whilst staying loyal to its medieval inspiration. i used Benesch's work as a starting point to develop my style in the direction of medieval art.

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Images from an illustrated version of a 13th-century Arabic treatise by Zakariya al-Qazwini titled 'Ajā'ib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharā'ib al-mawjūdāt (Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing). The text is probably the best known example of 'ajā'ib or 'jā'ib al-makhlūqāt literature, a genre of classical Islamic literature that was concerned with "mirabilia": cosmographical and geographical topics that challenged understanding. Al-Qazwini's treatise explored an eclectic mix of topics, from humans and their anatomy to strange mythical creatures; from plants and animals to constellations of stars and zodiacal signs. The treatise was extremely popular and was frequently illustrated over the centuries into both Persian and Turkish. The images featured here are from an exquisitely illustrated Persian translation, thought to hail from 17th-century Mughal India. For more info see the note on the US National Library of Medicine website.

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Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing

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Images from an exquisitely illustrated Persian translation, thought to hail from 17th-century Mughal India, of Zakariya al-Qazwini's medieval treatise on all things wondrous.

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reportage artist Liu Mengxia creates zines and journals documenting the bustling life within his city. I chose to explore his work due to the free, expressive nature of his style, as well as his use of colour and layout.

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Inkygoodness – Championing new and emerging talent in the creative industries

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the scp foundation is described as " a fictional secret organization that captures, contains, and studies paranormal phenomena. The SCP acronym stands for Secure, Contain, Protect". I took a lot of inspiration for this brief from scp content and other analogue horror creators

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The SCP Foundation’s ‘top-secret’ archives, declassified for your enjoyment.

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I investigated collectors who devote their life to collecting as many of the same object as possible, as well as cataloguing them and their methods of doing this

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These collectors with more unusual themes made us want to know more about them and how their passion for these collectibles came about.

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I started this brief with a trip to the discovery centre, where we had the opportunity to look at and handle many antique or rare objects. this sparked my initial interest in taxidermy

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Explore our incredible museum store, where you’ll find an astonishing collection of over one million objects and their stories.

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Printmaker Jim madison creates really bold, high contrast screen prints. i took inspiration from his work as they often only feature two colours, and they tend to represent a location or action, which was essentially what i was trying to achieve in this brief

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We're excited to welcome US artist and master screen printer Jim Madison to the walls at Outré. Jim is producing signed and numbered limited edition silkscreen prints fully authorised by Ed Roth's estate and using original material from their archives to create brand new crisp and roaring prints of great quality. These hark to the best of 1960s Kustom Kulture Southern California style and have a wonderful authentic vintage aesthetic.

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We're excited to welcome US artist and master screen printer Jim Madison to the walls at Outré. Jim is producing signed and numbered limited edition silkscreen prints fully authorised by Ed Roth's estate and using original material from their archives to create brand new crisp and roaring prints of great quality.