Meet our hero, Hugh Arkwright of Arkwright’s Mill in Sabine Baring-Gould’s thinly disguised version of Horbury in his semi-autobiographical novel of 1868, Through Flood and Flame. I’ve gone for him encountering peril number one, the flood.
I based the action-hero pose on an Indiana Jones movie poster but as Indy is holding his trademark bullwhip and our hero Hugh was negotiating the flood walking along a garden wall clinging onto a clothes line to keep his balance, I’ve shown him in a later scene which involves a rescue by boat (although in that case Hugh is catching the lifeline rather than throwing it).
Hat, frock coat and necktie, along with the character himself, based on Timothée Chalamet’s version of Willy Wonka.
Despite the melodrama and the larger-than-life characters, Baring-Gould’s novel Through Flood and Flame was semi-autobiographical. Annis Greenwell was closely modelled on Grace Taylor, a young worker at Baines’s Mill, who – in real life – he met, fell in love with and, a few years later, in May 1868, married at St Peter’s, Horbury.
The first character for my Baring-Gould Centenary display is taken from his Horbury-inspired novel Through Flood and Flame: Richard Grover, man-monkey (and firebrand preacher).
This year we’re remembering Barbara’s brother John, who died last April, a newsagent of Ossett (hence the ‘Star’, ‘Sun’ and ‘Mirror’). He had a starring role in the Ellis family pantomime on New Year’s Eve 1986.
John was born on a snowy March day at Manygates Maternity Hospital in 1941. Just after he was born the air raid siren went so he spent his first night in the shelter. Not with his mum though: Betty had to stay in bed.
Also appearing in The Wizard of Ozzett: Joane (Tin Man), Susan (Dorothy), Andrew (Scarecrow) and Betty (Cowardly Lion). Karen was a suitably malevolent Wicked Witch of the West. She does a great cackle but in real life she’s really nice.
And no, that wasn’t me as Belinda the Good Fairy. That was my late brother-in-law Carl, who made his own tutu. The Wizard repaired Belinda’s wand with a Star.
Planning the Redbox Gallery Baring Gould Centenary Show
There’s so much that I’d like to include in my Redbox Gallery show but there’s only so much that you can fit into a phone box but the good thing about the limitations is that it makes me focus on the essentials of the story. I will be able to squeeze in a few extras though because I’m able to include an animation playing on a continuous loop.
1865 proved to be a productive year for Horbury’s new curate, Sabine Baring Gould as not only did write the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers for the church’s Whitsuntide Walk from the mission at Horbury Bridge to St Peter’s, he also published The Book of Were-Wolves and was inspired to turn his experiences in Horbury into a melodramatic novel, Through Flood and Flame.
By the way, this is my first post using a new theme, WordPress 2024, and I’m using Lightbox for some images, for instance this one: hover over it and click to see full size (and click again off the image to return to this post).
Click for full size image.
Of course the were-wolves were the subject that I wanted to start trying out my Procreate animation skills on but there are some colourful characters to include in the novel and, if times permits, including Onward Christian Soldiers would give me plenty of practice on animating a variety of characters walking.
I reassembled the set from a previous Redbox show and carefully measured up check on how much room I had available for the display.
My next practice exercise in illustrator Martín Tognola’s Animated Illustration in Procreate: Tell a Story with Movement Domestika course is to use word lists, mind maps and a ‘visual data dump’ to come up with an idea for a short looping animation.
As I’ve been thinking about my Baring Gould centenary show in Horbury’s Redbox Gallery for a while now, I’ve skipped the word list stage and gone straight on to a visual mind map. I’m a visual rather than word-based thinker.
I realise that I’m not short of potential material.
With mid-Victorian factory smoke and steam in the air plus the ‘Flame and Flood’ in the title of the novel inspired by his time at the mission at Horbury Bridge, I’ve got the basis of a swirling movement to frame the snapshots of Baring Gould’s life and literature that I’d like to include.
What, Who and Where-Wolf?
Martín suggests looking for a not-too-obvious but not-too-obscure middle ground solution for an animation idea. His example is for an illustration to accompany an online editorial article but my animation will be stand-alone, so I’ve gone for instantly obvious versions of each idea, answering the questions what, who and where:
Baring Gould’s ‘Book of Werewolves’ clunks down into the frame and an assortment of historic werewolves pop out from the pages.
Carrying his carpet bag, Baring Gould, the new curate, arrives by steam train at Horbury Station, steps out of a billowing cloud of steam and introduces himself by doffing his hat.
We zoom in on a graphic version of the Redbox Gallery.
The Redbox Gallery sequence would be along the lines of the film production intros that precede a movie. I’m thinking of the intros that have a graphic, hand-drawn look such as those for Bad Robot and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free production companies.
Frame from hand-drawn animation for Scott Free intro, in which a running figure morphs into an eagle.
Redbox Format
If I’m technically able to show my animation in the Redbox Gallery, a former telephone box, a screen aligned in portrait format would be the most appropriate. To make the animation Instagram friendly and more versatile in general, I’ll set it up in Procreate in a square format but make sure that the main action is always fits into a portrait-format rectangle.
My latest Domestika course is illustrator Martín Tognola’s Animated Illustration in Procreate: Tell a Story with Movement.
Our first practice exercise is to ‘start testing and see how the animation tool works, discovering what each thing is for,’ so I’ve gone for some simple seasonal subjects.
‘I invite you to do your own experiments,’ he suggests, ‘Start by drawing simple objects and see how magical it is to animate them. This is the ideal place to make mistakes, learn and clear up doubts.’
He starts us off by explaining how to animate this looping bird, this is my version, closely following his example.
Fur and feather textures drawn for my Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate Domestika course by Román García Mora, using some of the virtual brushes he created.
It’s so long since I drew in London so I took the opportunity as we waited for a train to draw St Pancras from a bench in the welcome shade of the Francis Crick Institute.
