TRANSCRIPTION
'In Art, the term Transcription is used generally to describe the process of making a work of your own, based on a preceding work by another artist'
My chosen Artist is
ALPHONSE MARIA MUCHA
Born 24 July 1860
Born 24 July 1860
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| Dance 1898 |
Mucha grew up in a Moravian Village
I went to a Moravian School, at Fulneck Settlement near Pudsey. The motto/emblem for the Moravian people was on my school badge. Our lamb has conquered, let us follow him!
I never knew or maybe forgot it's significance!
Mucha was influenced by Folklore as a child, as was I. I had every Ladybird fairy-tale book, because my mum was a reception teacher. I loved the Brothers Grimm and I have always been mesmerised by Eastern European shadow puppetry, and reading pop up books where you could escape into.
For a while Mucha worked as an office clerk in the Court where is father worked. I was a litigation clerk big yawn for too long!
Mucha volunteered to produce work for Sarah Bernhardt when there was a sudden request for and advertising poster. Landing himself a contract for 6 more posters and costume and set design work. I volunteered to photograph a wedding decorator, who's boss saw my email and subsequent work and booked me to photograph her wedding.
Mucha had a tendancy to overspend like me!!
His main subject in his early years were women, (like me brides and boudoir), and passionate about capturing natural beauty in a powerful way.
He used flowing hair in his advertising posters and I often use my eldest daughter to model for me as she has long flowing hair.
Mucha was able to tap into the pulse of the people and elements of Art Nouveau, and as we would say now, give the customer what they want!
Which is what I try to do, but fall short on confidence, and have a long way to go to develop Mucha's artistic skill.
I also love Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Celtic Design, Art Nouveau, Nature, Spiritualism, which I will mention later.
Mucha was influenced by Folklore as a child, as was I. I had every Ladybird fairy-tale book, because my mum was a reception teacher. I loved the Brothers Grimm and I have always been mesmerised by Eastern European shadow puppetry, and reading pop up books where you could escape into.
For a while Mucha worked as an office clerk in the Court where is father worked. I was a litigation clerk big yawn for too long!
Mucha volunteered to produce work for Sarah Bernhardt when there was a sudden request for and advertising poster. Landing himself a contract for 6 more posters and costume and set design work. I volunteered to photograph a wedding decorator, who's boss saw my email and subsequent work and booked me to photograph her wedding.
Mucha had a tendancy to overspend like me!!
His main subject in his early years were women, (like me brides and boudoir), and passionate about capturing natural beauty in a powerful way.
He used flowing hair in his advertising posters and I often use my eldest daughter to model for me as she has long flowing hair.
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| My curly girly |
Which is what I try to do, but fall short on confidence, and have a long way to go to develop Mucha's artistic skill.
I also love Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Celtic Design, Art Nouveau, Nature, Spiritualism, which I will mention later.
Ideas and visual research
I have chosen to post all my research online for a few reasons. I find it easy, neater, it's a reference for me. Universities now prefer you have a blog. It can easily be shared or presented, I can update it, move items, and also study or research using my mobile anywhere.
I have used Pinterest for a few years and already had tons of items on my boards. It was useful for studying all things Mucha and more.....
Mucha's Inspiration
Celtic Art covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art from the middle ages and was in fact called Insular Art, which actually originated in the 7th Century AD 601-700.
Insular being Latin for island, in this case the British Isles.
Insular being Latin for island, in this case the British Isles.
The Celtic Art revival came to represent a reaction to modernisation. Another influence was that of La Tène "vegetal" art on the Art Nouveau movement.
The La Tene style became popular after an archaeological discovery of La Tene, a Celtic Village in Switzerland in 1857.
An example of an Insular-Style animal pattern from the Book of Kells.
The Book of Kells is one of the finest and most famous of a group of manuscripts in the Insular style, produced from the late 6th through the early 9th centuries. There is debate about its origin from Ireland, Lindisfarne, Kells to Pictish Scotland.
La Tene Designs
Flat colour and line drawing were used in his Poster Advertising work.
Not dis-similar to this image.
Image from The Amazings Scroll of 1460 called
Fish-Basket Kannon by Bokkei Saiyo
If you are interested in the influence of Japanese Art around the 1800's follow this link
Another influence on Mucha's work is Hans Makart. Born in Vienna in 1840, (20 years older than Mucha) his work was richly coloured with historical legendary themes.
His paintings dramatic and sensual with a dreamy style. He had a way of revealing the subject's spiritual qualities. Quite often involved in scandels due to his decadent nudes and outrageous parties, he was a popular man, who's painting days ended at only 44 years old.
You can see that a young Mucha only 24 himself when Makart died, was influenced greatly and was able to also create work such as his beautiful Panneaux and capture his models spiritual and sensual side.
The Five Senses 1872-1879 by Hans Makart
Mucha, The Times of Day
Muchas was also greatly influenced by Pre Raphaelite paintings
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| JW Waterhouse |
The image I chose to base the Transcription Project on was a page within a book illustrated by Alfonse Mucha in 1897
This is page 106
of
ILSEE PRINCESS DE TRIPOLI
written in French
with my translation at the side
When I researched it there was a rare copy available in a Paris Bookshop, selling for no less than £39,222.95!!!!
I do have an image of each page but I have not posted them here.
Let's just say that the illustrations were produced via Lithographic prints.
Mucha worked relentlessly with a team of others to produce 132 lithographs.
Research
On my Pinterest page I have boards on book-carving. So that was in my mind that one day I would try hacking up the prized published pages of someone's written work!
I searched all the popular Mucha images, mainly posters or panneaux, but kept looking online over the next few weeks. I had started to read his biography and knew just how many types of art & design Mucha had been involved with.
As I have mentioned as a child I loved illustrated books, at first nursery rhyme books, then The Water Babies, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland, all classics with just a few illustrations.
When I came across a surviving copy of Ilsee Princess de Tripoli on sale through a Paris bookshop, and then with the help of an over enthusiastic blogger who had an image of each one of the pages, I narrowed my favourite illustrations down.
Ok so I knew which image now, the one on page 106 of this beautifully illustrated book. Now what?
I didn't have artistic block, but I have been to a place I never visited before with this project.
U u r r r r g g h ! ! !
So my advice to anyone reading this is don't give up! Continue researching, browse, find help and inspiration, type your questions into your browser - it will come.......
Finding Mucha's technique hard to study I looked at elements used in his work, subject matter and composition. I bought Mucha's Figures Decoratives to help me study his work.
From the college's library I found one of only 4 books on Mucha, MUCHA - The Triumph of Art Nouveau.
Plus there's a fabulous site to find more at Mucha Trust set up by his family.
Project's online Sketchbook
So still not knowing what my final piece would be I started weekly workshops, watched most people, sketching and painting and felt completely stuck. It wasn't until I went to lunch with the girls and we talked that I went back to my hacking up a book idea!
Which I liked as I was going to cut up a book, to transcribe a page in a book illustrated by Mucha.
Flowing hair!
I finally found an answer to being able to easily draw, flowing hair Mucha-Style.
I looked at Manga art, developed in Japan and part of the whole Anime scene.
21st century Manga cartoon drawing by some guy on Deviant art not me
who mentioned Mucha - yay breakthrough
I studied how to make swirls using line and develop it Mucha-Style
Below roughly sketched hair lines
Where lines crossed thicker lines were drawn at either side
creating continuous ribbons of curves
Gradually becoming more fluid
From memory I practiced drawing by chosen image by Mucha
using the sketch line and filling around them technique
rough practice will draw fill lines in pencil so fluid when try again
I aim to develop this with pen, ink, stitch and maybe paper cut.
*******
How to cover an old book
Click to view
I had no idea how to either book-make or how to re-cover one.
I found out how on You Tube, part 2 was the most useful and put me on track using a fabric for the spine and cover.
(the good thing about a blog is you can fit bits in)
I didn't use this method as I aged my cover even more with sandpaper.
*******
Collograph workshop
With my chosen image in mind a lithograph with a girl on a rock looking out to sea, I made a plate with sandpaper waves based on the flow of the border around the image. I used lentils for sea spray.
I wasn't too happy with the result, I wanted to do a relief press, I did a blind print, but the sandpaper was not build up enough to impress into the paper with bold indents. I tried colour as part of the workshop but prefer without. I tried to clean off all the ink and try another day but it just came out grey.
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| Waves plunged into sea with water bubbles |
Mixed Media Workshop
I asked if I could use a circle rather than a rectangle like my image and covered the card in torn newspaper, I separated large text from small and stuck them on. Mucha used tulips as decorative flowers and I had practiced scrunching paper to make a tulip shape. I did this and some long leaves and coloured them with inks. Then I machine stitched them to the board with metallic thread.
A little felting in there to resemble blowing seaside grasses.
I liked the mosaic feel near the bottom when I used silver felt tip to outline the newspaper scraps.
The bottom was edged with a shell border, and the space coloured with yellow pastel
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| Circular Mixed media workshop example |
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| Shell rubbing on newsprint with graphite pencil |
Mould and Plaster Cast
from string impression
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| Chambered Nautilus |
After doing the mixed media workshop and finding shells which went with my coastal theme and through studying Mucha's technique, I chose a seashell or rather Nature's Growth Spiral.
I thought about Mucha's placing of figures within shapes and figured he must have been using the Golden Ratio in his designs using 1.618 proportion.
He most definately used Plants with the Phyllotaxis proportion in his decorative borders.
Examples are sunflowers, pineapples, pine cones, snail shells, chambered Nautilus and last but not least the human body!
If you want to look into it try Hambridge's book The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry 1920
Then with the shell theme I tied it in with an Art Nouveau feel
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| Above images from Style Source Reference Book |
Fabulous mouldings from Mucha's design work within Fouquet Jewellers Paris
Wave forms
Sea bubble feel actually Ink Marbling which I tried and liked best on fine silk
Final transcription piece
As I would like to study textiles, I would like to create a mixed media and textile portfolio.
I had always admired my Grandma's embroidery she had on display and some I remember in circular frames.
I have also seen Steampunk items with circular elements.
My chosen image has one and it's Celtic and spiritually everlasting.
I thought I would embroider a front cover and place it behind a piece of acrylic I bought on Ebay.
I embroidered a golden nautilus shell spiral and aged the book (kindly donated by Katie from the college library)
The cutting of the book took about 7 hours.
On the inner cover I used silk marbled fabric to convey watery sea foam
The background of the original image was sketched in black ink and placed on the back cover of the book, a hole carved out in wavy cave form, the girl on the rock was illustrated from a photograph I took of my daughter with a make- shift headress on as a prop.
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| Yes she has arms honest, my daughter not happy with me for making her dress up yet again |
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| Mucha bought a camera and never looked back, he categorized his images, such as 'no breasts' then filed them away |
A border with shells in Art Nouveau design and Japenese influenced waves, and Celtic Circle patterns formed the foreground.
Then I was knackered
as was Mucha after 20 years on his Slav Epic!
I have found this project difficult because I have never studied as much and pushed myself to produce something that has taken hours to create. (Apart from Wedding Albums)
I need to work on the flow of line Mucha seemed to create with ease and maybe try a 10 foot poster like he used to knock up while hanging off a ladder.
x
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