Paper Cut Inspiration

Recently I have been really inspired by the process of paper cut. In 505 I produced one of my outcomes in this method for the first time and have since been wanting to trying incorporate it more into my practice as I really enjoyed both using it and the final result that it gives. I had a browse on Pinterest to give me some inspiration and thought it could be nice to try and use it in my visual journal. It has a more traditional aesthetic to it due to the texture of the paper and being hand-made but by using shapes I can make it more contemporary, reflecting the development of fairy tales themselves from a traditional method of storytelling to interpretations in tv and film. 

Disney Remakes

http://www.girlslife.com/trending/must-list/24157/6-disney-fairytales-that-deserve-the-live-action-treatment

I found a list of Fairy Tales that have been remade by Disney and have shaped our current-day societies ideas of Fairy Tales:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_based_on_fairy_tales

I also did some more research and made a list of Disney's more recent remakes of their original remakes:

• Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)- based on Sleeping Beauty 
• Maleficent (2014)- Based on Sleeping Beauty 
• Into the Woods (2014) based on Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel
• Cinderella (2015)- Based on Cinderella 
• Beauty and the Beast (2017)- Based on Beauty and the Beast

There wasn't as many of these as I thought but I think that's because a lot of the remarks were made by film studios other than Disney. So I found a list of these and there A LOT of them as expected.

Fairy Tale interpretations made by other studios:

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls004739401/start=1&view=compact&sort=listorian:asc&defaults=1&scb=0.5828572881631975

Study Task 6- Development

I decided to re-do this study task as well as I thought it would be more beneficial to me in terms of figuring out my development so far and where I could now take things. My previous issuu document was an attempt to try and put something together quickly for the session, but I ended up not really using it and just talking through my ideas instead. It's useful now to see my research, ideas and initial sketches in one place. I feel like my project is beginning to come together a little more.

Study Task 5- Initial Ideas

As I changed my theme and didn't have enough to go off to do this task properly before, I decided to re-do it now. I have begun to plan and experiment in my visual journal. I started by first exploring line within my sketches and then moving on to explore shape and texture with the process of paper cut/ collage in my journal. This was in order to try and produce something contemporary in contrast with the traditional subject matter I am looking into. I was unsure whether or not to do the initial sketches in the given sketchbook as my understanding is that all 70 pages have to be finalised outcomes, so I proceeded to start these in another sketchbook. I aim to further experiment with shape and texture within the journal for a bit as these are things that I want to explore more within my practice any way. I also want to consider the use of colour further down the line, and possibly begin to incorporate other materials and processes.

Paper Cut Plans

I have started sketching out ideas for my visual journal based on the quotes that I have found in my research so far. My understanding was that the drawings in our visual journals have to be final outcomes. So, because I was scared to just go in and make something, I bought another sketchbook to plan. As I intend to do the final versions of these sketches in paper cut, I have been thinking in terms of shape. I find this is quite easy for me as a lot of my past work has been very much shape-based. 

Ideas of Visuals

So having carried some research into fairy tales, this has sparked ideas about what I could potentially explore within my visual journal. I was really worried about starting my visual journal because I wasn't really sure where to begin! But having come up with some ideas now, I think I'm ready to make a start, finally. 

Bruno Bettelheim- The Uses of Enchantment (1976)

I found this book in the library about 'The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales' by author Bruno Bettelheim. It looks into the psychoanalysis of fairy tales. 

Annotations

Key Notes & Quotes

I was going to type them all up here but there seems to be a lot and it would take up lots of blog space so I made an issuu document:

Karolin Schnoor

I found this lovely collection of card illustrations by Karolin Schnoor, based on the Grimms  fairy tales. In some of my research carried out I found out that the most common colours in fairy tales consist of red, black, white, gold, silver and steel and also that green is not usually a significant colour in the stories. I feel as though these illustrations portray this theory but also, I just think they really lovely examples of being able to represent a whole story in one image. You can tell exactly which story each one depicts straight away and this is something I may want to explore within my visual journal.

The images are shape-based but also carry a lot of detail, and the blocks of solid colour alongside negative space make the illustrations more interesting. I believe the process she used to create these were letterpress and foiling which I have never tried! I don't think I would be able to do so in this module as the sketchbook we have been given in this module is a little bit limiting as it is an A5 concertina book. However, I might try and give it a go in another module or over summer. 

Quotes To Illustrate

I wanted to start with something relatively simply to begin my visual journal. As I was reading some of the Grimms fairy tales, I came across some quotes that I thought would be nice to illustrate. Some of them were quite descriptive and others just simply created an image in my head:

• "Witches have red eyes"- Hansel and Gretel
• "Beautiful faces and fair skin, but with heart that were foul and black"- Cinderella 
• "Her heart turned cold like stone. Envy pride grew as fast as weeds in her heart"- Snow White 
• "First an owl, then a raven, and finally a dove"- Snow White 
• "There was little window that looked out onto a splendid garden, full of beautiful flowers" - Rapunzel
• "Snip, snap went the scissors, and the beautiful tresses fell to the ground"- Rapunzel 
• "Under the three big oak trees"- Little Red Riding Hood 
• "A goose with feathers of pure gold"- The Golden Goose
• "She ended up in front of a little door with a rusty old key in its lock"- Briar Rose
• "Seven coal-black ravens flying off into the distance"- The Seven Ravens 
• "I'll give you the ring on my finger"- Rumpelstiltskin
• "All the trees in the woods were growing tall, with their green branches intertwining"- The Juniper Tree

I think I want to create these in paper cut, as previously mentioned. I've also been thinking about incorporating hand-lettering into it somehow as these has become a big part of practice recently.

Maria Tatar- The Annotated Brothers Grimm (1978)

I read through the The Annotated Brothers Grimm in order to get a better understanding of the content of fairy tales. I found out a lot of interesting things (which I will discuss later). In order to make taking notes a little quicker whilst reading, I used tracing paper to highlight and make annotations quicker. This is so that I could quickly and easily refer back to parts of the book when I'm writing my essay. 

Key Notes & Quotes:

• “Even in an age when the attractions of high-tech entertainment distract us from stories found between the covers of books, fairy tales continue to work their magic. They ceaselessly migrate from one medium to another, shape-shifting to suit audience both young and old and morphing into variants that crackle with renewed narrative energy”
• Wystan Hugh Auden- ranked as “next to the bible in importance”
• “fairy tales have a depth that keeps us talking about the characters in them without every feeling that we have exhausted their riches. The tales not only reflect psychic realities and lived experiences, they have also shaped lives through their construction of cultural anxieties and desires.”
• Purpose- To shorten time spent on repetitive jobs
•  Initial audience- documents for scholars 
• The Grimms wanted to “capture the pure voice of the German people”- got their tales from real people
• Relief that comes with the happy ending 
• Juxtapositions/ opposites- “rags to riches"
• Stereotypes of gender – changed over time- i.e. brave
• Vladimir Propp- ‘Villainy’- fuels the plots of fairy tales – “danger lurks in every corner of the world”
• Fairy tales have been moulded and changed but story still shines through
•  One of the biggest adjustments- have been appropriated for children- 1819 (Grimms)
•  Change in writing style- more descriptive
• Eliminated references of a sexual nature, bawdy humour etc
• Preserved violence – added value- distinction between virtue and vice- children find cathartic pleasures in displays of physical violence- find theory
• John Ellis- argued that Grimms lost “authentic folk quality”
• Luthi- Grimms narrative style changed- “replacing psychological suffering by a physical blow”- Rapunzel 
• Deal with daily issues
• Address important matters that can be difficult to communicate “these are the tales that continue to enchant and entrance, the stories that invite us to engage with events that still matter to us today.
• Perfect balance of what is real and what isn’t
• Reach different cultures- Greek Mythology vs. fairy tales- Europa vs. Red riding hood
• Joseph Cambell- Myths deal with the serious matter of living life, fairy tales told for entertainment
• Fairy tales can rise to seriousness in re-interpretations- i.e. poets, Angela Carter
• Cultural issues- Cinderella: courtship, marriage, romance/ Little red riding hood: vulnerable young against predator
• Remakes in TV/ Film:  If it wasn’t for them fairy tales might not still be as popular
• Multiple “delivery systems”- “have reclaimed multi-generational appeal”
• Reach different audiences- i.e. tv shows for young adults, books for children
• Colours used- red, white, black, silver, gold, steel
• Don’t often use green as a symbolic colour- interesting- green = health, positive, red = danger, negative 

Reading The Grimms

To begin with, I thought it would be beneficial to first read some original Fairy Tales. The Brother's Grimm are one of the most renowned writers of fairy tales so I got a book out of the library to give some of them a read. It was really interesting to see how different they were from my understandings of the stories. One of the main things I noticed was the more graphic, violent endings that the Grimms stories have, as well as bawdy humour. This portrays how much fairy tales have been sanitised over the years, probably to make them more suitable for children. 

Helpfully, the book is an annotated version where academic Maria Tatar has analysed the stories and explained where some of the themes within the stories have come from. I took some notes and wrote down things about the backgrounds of the stories, a brief summary of the plot and also any key symbols- which I thought could come in handy for ideas for my visual journal. 

Changing My Theme (Again)

After receiving my feedback for my essay draft, I realised how much I need to find a focus for my essay. Pete mentioned perhaps looking at one of the subjects I was looking at in more detail, for example children's narrative or more specifically, Fairy Tales. I think this is actually a really good idea. I spoke a little bit about fairy tales in my draft and I know there is probably a lot of theoretical resources out there based on them. It also seems like a lot more fun than my topic at the moment. I made a spider diagram of possible angles to look at:

Some of these include :

• Affects on society- morals/ life lessons
• How fairy tales have changed over time
• Analysis of fairy tales- common features