Narrative Illustration - Experimentation

When I began this module and upon selecting the book I wished to illustrate, I was very keen to utilise the propaganda posters and art from the 1919 Revolution in Russia. I considered this source, not only aesthetically pleasing and effective in it's intended purpose, but also a valuable source of information and inspiration for the book itself. Orwell may or may not have been aware of many of these posters but he knew his history and it was likely that he came across some of the imagery.

One of the pieces that immediately stood out for me was a very simple but striking poster, that called the Russian people to arms.

It consists of three men, armed with tools that indicate their profession. From left to right we have, the farmer with his sickle, the tradesman with his hammer and the scholar with his scroll. Each of the man are looking forward with a determined expression. The entire piece is comprised of only two colours, black and red, with the white of the page used to add another shade to the design. The composition of the piece, with the three men towards the right of the page, gives the impression that they are marching towards a common goal, one person rather than three, symbolising unity.

As soon as I saw this image, I was immediately struck with the idea of recreating this, with the animals of the farm as the stars.

This is my initial sketch. I have used the cow and the horse to represent the hammer and sickle, the two tools that the men in the original poster wield because in the book, the symbol on the animal farm flag is a horn and hoof, which was a not so subtle reference to the Russian flag, which utilises the hammer and sickle. I have chosen a pig to represent the scholar, because as is pointed out in the book many times, the pigs are the smartest animal on the farm.

I have kept the original, restricted colour palette attempting to create the same bold blocks of colour using gouache. While bright and vibrant, the gouache often streaked and left a very inconsistent coverage that I was not at all happy with. To solve this problem of colour, I took my design to photoshop and created two layers, one for each colour of black and red. With these two templates, I was able to apply the design to a silk screen and print the colour with the screen printing method.

The finished piece has much stronger, bolder colours that are consistent and the negative white space gives the limited colour palette a striking visual impact. I chose against adding eyes to the creatures and I am glad I settled for this design as they appear more menacing. Like in the original poster, the animals are grouped to the right of the page and are as one as they aim forward in their goal.

This powerful image not only conveys the determination of the animals and their desire to take control and unity, but it is also clear homage to the original poster, which was my intention. I regard this piece as a huge success and intend to use it in some way for the final illustrations.