Wind In The Willows

This is a new brief I am working on at the moment thinking about wind in the willows creating characters, scenes, a sense of place in my own way. 

Here is what the brief is asking of me; 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Spend a season on the river bank and take a walk on the wild side...

Spring is in the air and Mole has found a wonderful new world. There's boating with Ratty, a feast with Badger and high jinx on the open road with that reckless ruffian, Mr Toad of Toad Hall. The four become the firmest of friends, but after Toad's latest escapade, can they join together and beat the wretched weasels?

First published in 1908, and inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures with quintessential English charm, The Wind in the Willows possesses a wonderful fascination for children of all ages.

Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for The Wind in the Willows, in order to reinvent this classic for a new generation of readers, encouraging children (and adults) to revisit it time and time again, and ensuring that it remains an integral part of childhood.

I found this brief very interesting to comprehend as I will love to give the wind in the willows this whole new look with the taste of collage and other techniques and skills I will learn exploring and experimenting. Wind in the willows was a book  used to read when I was a child and its fascinating to revisit the book however with a whole new look at it. 

Here is an image of the very first book published by Kenneth Grahame in 1908

To start my sense of place for this project I have looked at a variety of images, textures and objects that I feel relate to wind in the willows in my own little world. 

I first look at a description of the main characters to get a feel for who they are; 

Mole – A mild-mannered, home-loving animal, and the first character to be introduced. Fed up with spring cleaning in his secluded home, he ventures into the outside world. Originally overawed by the hustle and bustle of the riverbank, he eventually adapts.

Ratty – Ratty (actually a water vole) is cultured, relaxed and friendly, with literary pretentions and a life of leisure. Ratty loves the river and takes Mole under his wing. He is implied to be occasionally mischievous and can be stubborn when it comes to doing things outside of his riverside lifestyle.

Mr. Toad – The wealthy scion of Toad Hall. Good-natured, kind-hearted and not without intelligence, Toad inherited his wealth from his late father. Spoiled, conceited, and impulsive, he is prone to obsessions and crazes (such as punting, houseboats, and horse-drawn caravans), each of which in turn he becomes bored with and drops. His motoring craze eventually sees him imprisoned for theft, dangerous driving and gross impertinence to the rural police. Several chapters of the book chronicle his daring escape from prison.

Mr. Badger – Gruff and solitary, who "simply hates society", Badger embodies the "wise hermit" figure. A friend of Toad's late father, he is uncompromising with the disappointing Toad yet remains optimistic his good qualities will prevail. He lives in a vast underground set, part of which incorporates the remains of a buried Roman settlement. A brave and a skilled fighter, Badger helped clear the Wild Wooders from Toad Hall with his large cudgel.

Otter and Portly – A friend of Ratty with a stereotypical "Cockney costermonger" character, the extrovert Otter is tough and self-sufficient. Portly is his young son.

The Gaoler's Daughter – The only major human character; a "clever, wise, good girl", she helps Toad escape from prison.

The Chief Weasel – The story's antagonist. He and his band of weasels, stoats, and ferrets from the Wild Wood plot to take over Toad Hall.

Which then leads me to found out what do these animals look like just to give me a sense of idea of how they should look ,for instance; 

Toads

 

Badger

Moles

 

Rats

Here is some of my own work of how I interpreted the characters throughout a skill-full format of collage, cutting up materials to make up there physique!

Here I tried to get a feel of the animals Badger and Mole and a little bit of there personalities.

Here is Ratty with picnic food surrounding him.

This is a painting a created of mole trying to get a feel of what clothes he would wear.

Here I painted how I felt the forest may look like.

This is an evil Stoat or Weasel.

This is a sketch of a horse that would pull the cart at the beginning of the story of wind in the willows.

Here is a painting of the car trying to get a feel for what the car may look like during that period of time.

This  is a collage of the shiny red car, Toad falls in love with, 'POOP, POOP, POOP'
Then I started to collage my work to the different objects and characters to give these compositions  a more unique flavour.

Here is wise old Badger with his glasses on and his walking stick.

Here is a collage of Mole with his jazzy pants.

Here is  collage of  Ratty with his dinky Bow Tie!

                                                  

And here is the famous Mr Toad!

Here is a collage of Ratty's picnic blanket and basket with some food and drink peeping through at the top.

Whilst thinking about my composition for the wind in the willows front cover  my Ratty character looked like he needed to be doing something so I experimented with making a fishing rod with some little fishes in the see.

After a discussion with my Tutors we agreed that the walking stick my character of badger  was holding wasn't good enough as it wasn't that bendy so I tried again and feel this walking stick looks a lot better.

Here is a collage I produced of the Horse and Cart Toad obsesses over at the beginning of Wind in the willows.

Here is my first draft for the wind in the willows front cover.


And Here is my Complete Final Wind in the willows piece with added changes from my draft!
I am very happy with my final outcome!

Interests !

I found this when i was looking on Vimeo this guy called Ash Nehru is really cool in what he does throughout art digitally with lights and music which he has also done commissioned work for celebrities I also love the ideas him and his team come up with.

Check it out and find out for yourself its a good talk to listen too!

http://vimeo.com/55517416

I love his stuff its so unique and random!!

Age UK - Wartime Research

What uniforms men had to wear as head cooks in the army during World War 2!

[Ehrang, Germany, 1918] (1) Sgt. Tebbe (2) Corp. Milton (3) Pvt. Walters (4) Sgt. Todd (5) Pvt. Segler (6) Sgt. Lynn (7) Corp. Rippberger (8) Pvt. Hunt (9) Corp. Pugh (10) Pvt. Rumohr

(11) Cook Weber, Head Cook (12) Sgt. Fedders (13) Cook Elliott, 2nd Cook (14) Corp. Doty (15) Pvt. Running (16) Corp. James (17) Corp. Blankenship (18) Corp. Grimes (19) Corp. Fluhart (20) 1st Sgt. Schoolfield (21) Sgt. Jarman. Captain Swaim [seated, left] 2nd Lt. Wanter.

This is an image of three German Army cooks during the Second World War

Quote; ‘The newly arrived Hauptamnn had casually tossed a bottle of Hungarian red wine to old Tomas, head cook, with a wink in his eye, and asked him to add some to the goulash that was being prepared . . . "to give it extra depth!" ‘

Student dietitian discussing recipe with head cook.

Dietitians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists became part of the Army's medical program during World War I. As civilian employees, they served not only in the United States, but also with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and with the army of occupation in Germany.

Army cooks gathered around a clay oven

Parachutes

 Parachutes open as waves of paratroops land in Holland during operations by the 1st Allied Airborne Army in September of 1944. Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne operation in history, with some 15,000 troops were landing by glider and another 20,000 by parachute. (Army)

 The woman in this photograph is a worker at the Pacific Parachute Company in San Diego.

Nylon was used throughout world war 2 to make parachutes, mosquito netting and surgical sutures. Postwar production returned to hosiery.

Here is a soldier with a rifle in one hand and his back pack on his shoulder.

Tap dancing shoes

Age UK - Wartime

Throughout the beginning of the briefing for ‘dialogue ignites change’ there was three different projects and I knew straight away which title I was going to choose out of them and that was, ‘Age UK – Wartime.’ I chose this project because I thought it would be a very interesting area to explore, especially as I just love history and old photographs.

When I read the brief and found out that over the duration of this project I will be visiting people who have dementia at white hill resource centre, I was very nervous and worried about the whole thing. Then a couple of people from Educate called Mark Perry and a lovely women called Alice whom suffers from short term dementia came to talk to us about how she copes and deals with her problems. By this stage I was in tears as Alice’s story was so moving she really touched me, it was so emotional, but I also felt so proud of her. Alice is an amazing woman, I just wanted to give her a hug and tell her how wonderful she is. Hearing Alice’s story made me less nervous about going to white hill resource centre.

When I arrived there it was a lot less daunting as I thought it would be and I had a wonderful time meeting new people and making friends. I really enjoyed exploring the different experiences people shared during the wartime and I loved showing them my old photographs, sharing my knowledge of what my Granddad went through during the Second World War. My favourite part of going to the centre was playing dominoes with the lovely ladies that I was sat with.

I also went on a tour of Stockport with a lovely gentlemen as a guide called ........... it was really fascinating founding out different facts about places I never knew about for instance I found out there use to be a castle where Primark is in Stockport where the Roman governor of Britain, Agricola in 76 AD alludes to a station at this location as part of defences mamucium (Manchester) although its origins go much further back due to its  topography and strategic position overlooking the ford across the Mersey. 

Here is an image of a plan of what the castle may of looked like; 

   

I also found out lots of other interesting facts about other different places in Stockport, especially one building in particular I thought was rather fascinating and that is the plaza, as the plaza was a little late on the scenes as Stockport cinemas go but in 1932 it took a new level of scale and opulence to new heights in town. it was what was called at the time a super cinema and in the days during world war two there was a flurry opening these picture palaces and during this time the plaza was probably one of the largest cinemas going in Stockport being able to accommodate for 1870 patrons. The plaza not only features films but theatre as well as this has been carried out until today and one of the most fascinating facts I learnt about the plaza is that the very first acts to perform at the plaza were the comedy act of 'Laurel and Hardy'. Even today there fame goes on, I love them I think they are so funny and are great together. 

Here are some images of the plaza; 

There are so many interesting buildings in Stockport that I never about I really enjoyed the Tour of Stockport it really is a trip to remember especially if you love your history! The tour really helped with some of the research I have explored during my Age UK - wartime project. 

Going back to when I visited white hill resource centre I spoke to two lovely ladies called 'Olive' and 'Betty' I seem to of got more memories from 'Olive' and so I used her memories of her dad throughout the second world war to create and produce some compositions for my project. 

Olive told me a lot of interesting things about her past, especially how her dad was injured during the war and so he had to change his job by being the soldier head chef. She told me that when she was little she was frighted of the air-raid sirens and the gun her father would bring home when he was home on leave as he would walk home with his backpack on one shoulder and his rifle on the other and when he knocked on the front door five times to let his family know it was him, his wife demanded that he left his rifle at the door because the children were so scared of it.  

Olive also told me that her mum used to play the piano in pubs and when her dad came home on leave he would go to the pub his wife was playing in and he would take his soldiers Jacket off and tap dance on top of the tables. I like this memory of Olives I feel it creates a happy atmosphere throughout the bad times of WW2. 

Here are a couple of my final images I created on the amazing memories Olive has of her past; 

This first image goes with the Quote; 

'My dad would come home on leave and go to the pubs my mum used to play the piano in and he would tap dance on top of the tables....' 

The second image goes with this Quote; 

'I was so frightened.......when my dad came home my mum demanded he left his rifle at the front door because the children were really scared of it. '

Thank you for giving me this great opportunity to experience the wonderful knowledge of Stockport on the tour and to experience meeting lovely people with there fascinating memories of the past at the white hill resource centre, I really appreciate it. It has been a very enjoyable experience!