I chose to illustrate the Hindu tale of Matsya; Vishnu's first incarnation. This is partly due to my imagination being fired up by the wonderful imagery possibilities, and partly due to the convergences of various world faiths beginning to unravel. By the latter I am referring to the flood myth, which we recognise from the Christian Noah story, but here I noticed a different retelling of the same concept.
Between deciding on “A History” (this title, I felt, gave me maximum freedom, and still very much applies to the outcome), and starting to create imagery, there were two things I had to do.
The first was to acquire primary research; I began with visits to the British Museum, the V&A and the Horniman, to take lots of photos and sketch. Walking through the exhibits put the development of eastern ideas in a more chronological order, and more correlations between eastern and western mythology surfaced. Buddhist sculpture, for example, is very much influenced by the Hellenistic Classical age, resulting in a crossover known as Greco-Buddhism. The broader term for such crossovers is Syncretism.
Already my tangent-filled writing style is reflecting how I felt at the time (and still do) about the possible ways such a world of research could take me. So to carry on the research I took out particular books from the library to help narrow things down. These were books on Indian art of the past and the Golden Age of Illustration – see the enclosed bibliography.
The second requirement for producing a well-considered illustration to the chosen text was to thoroughly experiment with all media available to me. I took drawing, painting, collage, embroidery, screenprinting and digital media through a range of tests (seen in sketchbooks and portfolio), and found that in order to create vibrant imagery that retained the organic atmosphere of the text, while producing sufficient detail for a text-reading eye, pen, ink and watercolour was the best option. I am also well-practiced in the medium, since I enjoy it, and therefore have a lot of patience.
In my stylistic approach, I took influence from Mughal-period Indian painting, in particular that of Nihal Chand. In the approach to presentation, I was influenced by early illustrated books, where bookmakers used image plates, printed separately to the books, to retain the highly vivid colours of the work of Edmund Dulac, Rene Bull and Arthur Rackham. In a very old book (see bibliography) on Indian painting I read (printed in the 1970s), this method was used. I went to a high quality digital printers to get the best results for this. Inserting the images separately also allowed me to use gold paper, reflecting the opulence of much Indian regal art and shrines to the deities.
Influenced by real illustrated books, I retained the juxtaposition and correspondence to text. Words speak for themselves. A few intricate illustration plates help us slow down and savour the story.
Where the text did not fill a whole page, I emulated what I had seen in work by W Heath Robinson and other illustrators of the time, where chapter headings and endpieces added a little extra visual pleasure where there is space.
For final gallery presentation, group crits and experimentation with the allocated white wall were very useful. Here I responded to critiques from peers and tutors and decided against my initial use of a shelf, and opted for simply hanging the book from a decorated nail.
The paintings themselves remain unframed, pinned up modestly, inviting a closer look. The Khadi cotton paper I used has lovely rough edges, and in itself is another of many subtle references to the culture I have been studying.
I feel I have a much broader understanding of Hindu culture and traditions, but have merely scratched the surface of something ancient and evolving. This 'project', to me, is not finished. But on the wall and in the book I hope I have presented an introduction to Indian culture, a reflection on antique methods of image creation and reproduction, and a new way of looking at mythology.
Bibliography:
'Hindu Epics, Myths & Legends' [Vassilis G. Vitsaxis, 1978]
'Fantasy Book Illustration 1860-1920' [Brigid Peppin, 1975]
'Indian Painting' [Mohinder Singh Randhawa & John Kenneth Galbraith, 1969]
'Stories From The Arabian Nights' [illustrated by Edmund Dulac, 1907]
'The Arabian Nights' [Illustrated by René Bull, 1912]
'The Illustrators 1800-2008' [Chris Beetles, 2008]
'The Illustrators 1870-2009' [Chris Beetles, 2009]
'The Arts of India' [Joseph M. Dye III, objects from the Virginia Museum collection, 2002]
I like your blog!...Daniel
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