Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
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).
Have a magical Christmas . . .
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.
Willy Wonka raising his hat on the cover of last week’s Radio Times struck me as the perfect gesture to show Sabine Baring-Gould introducing himself when he arrived in Horbury in 1865 as the new curate.
My first rough (on the right) for the main display in my Baring-Gould centenary exhibit results in awkward shapes to fit the characters into, so I’ve decided to go for simple rectangles (left).
The characters will be cardboard cut-outs to give the effect of a Victorian toy theatre.
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).
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.
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:
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.
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.
This morning a skein of 60 or 70 wild grey geese went over, heading west. Our local Canada Geese meanwhile had gathered on a shingle bank on the quiet inner bend of the meander of the River Calder around the marshy field known as the Wyke.
This is my final spread for my Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate Domestika course by Román García Mora, drawn on the iPad in Procreate.
A primary feather from the right wing of a tawny owl, which I picked up on thee lakeside path at Newmillerdam in the summer.
Rowan leaf from the tree in our front garden.
