Interpretation of Guido Fawkes

Guido Fawkes (Guy Fawkes) is well known due to bonfire night, he has a few interpretations of him and I have pulled a few off of Google to put a basis to work off as after all I am running on the time period, but also to stay away from the stereotypical view of Guy Fawkes and make my designs stand out and be different. Guido Fawkes is portrayed often with a hat and wispy mustache and I like these features, I will try to keep small attributes that keep the character who they are however try to change the rest and create a truly historically fictional world. Another large part related to Guy Fawkes is the Guy Fawkes mask. This mask has been used in protests and actually has quite a creepy look about it, I feel this could be used to design a nice assassin mask similar to the new game Dishonored by Bethesda. However I don’t really want to use this mask too much in the design as it has been used in V for Vendetta.

 

Guy Fawkes is portrayed with a very prominent beard and mustache, one thing I have noticed is that he is portrayed with quite good clothing, he is not poor but neither is he extremely rich. Again with this image and the one below you can see the hats and long hair.

 

The image below shows a mask that is said to represent Guy Fawkes, it has been used in some campaigns and known as the logo fronting Anonymous. This mask seems good for an assassin due to the errie and creepy mood a emotionless face gives, the smile also adds this effect. However I also found about the comic book/film V for Vendeta which I have not seen, this uses this mask with a character who is also an assassin so I really want to stay away from tis mask. I will however look  at different masks.

 

 

Some quick sketches I did to picture what Guy Fawkes could look like, I was thinking items that are light and more available to the middle class poorer citizens like linen, perhaps having a clock and a mask to conceal identity. Guy Fawkes should not stand out too much though as he doesn’t really want to be noticed, but different enough to stand from the crowd and be noticeable to other characters.

 

17th Century Fashion Continued

When I think of Guy Fawkes I picture a pointy hat and long thin mustash. High boots that fold over and a long coat down to just below the waist. In the 17th century there were various periods of style, the style of which I depict Guy Fawkes actually came into fashion a little after he died so perhaps the art I imagine of him is wrong. This era of fashion is called the Cavalier Period. It was a period of richer garments and finer materials, the focus of dress was also having the waistline slightly higher than normal. Here are some images to represent this. Due to Guido Fawkes survival rather than the actual death in history this is a period he would be living through even if he would be quite old for the 1600’s. The woman’s dresses were much less tight fitting and become rather large of the arms and body.

17th Century Clothing

In the 17th century there was not really a peasant class or a evidently poor class of people, rather the time period reflected that the richer you are the more intricate and colourful your clothing was. Due to this even the poorest citizens look presentable enough and were well dressed compared to many other countries, this is not to say they were not poor however, England was largely in debt and a lot of the country was in poverty. For the working class linen was used in much of their clothing, it was worn straight on the skin. Due to the inability to afford to keep their clothes white their clothes were often beige, grey or cream. Only natural dyes were available but most colours could be achieved, the rich could afford to get more bright and vibrant colours while the poor stuck to what was listed above. Woman in the 17th century kept their hair covered unless rich in which it was often put up and on display in a expensive fashion. Men were not quite the same although many poorer men did wear hats.

Here are some images for the richer society in the early 1600 hundreds;

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here some upper class women;

Here are some lower class woman, unfortunately due to paintings only being constructed for the rich and noble, there is not many pictures of the working class, I will have to try find out some more information about what the poor wore n the 1600’s through primary research.

Research and Development

Choosing to base my Final Major Project on a self generated plot involving Guido Fawkes I need really improve my resources and reference material I have while designing to create a more realistic history based base of artwork with my own twist on top. There are a few key features that I need to research to get the full potential out of my art work and also to help me create more varied and interesting designs while relating to the period. In the years of the event 1604 and the following years, it is a era known as the Jacobean era, this is an era when James I (IV) came to be King after the death of Queen Elizabeth. The era was a struggle between Catholics and Protestants, it followed the end of the Tudor and Elizabethan period. The first big factor is the materials that were available at the time, this will implement and shape my designs I create from the materials used in clothes and buildings and also the materials I can play with to create some fiction such as assassin weaponry to perhaps an element of magic in the order of the Jesuit, a group of high English Catholics. The second is the clothes used and materials and colours that were worn, by both nobility and the poor. The clothing will have a distinct fashion that I can use to design of off and create my own interesting designs of clothes. A third major factor is the environment and settings they lived in, the building and the architecture that surrounded London in the 1600’s. Basing my art on 17th century London allows me to actually visit London and get some good primary research from the museums there. While I am not necessarily planning on designing transport there may be exceptions such as how Guido travels around in secret and so again looking at the vehicles used in the 17th century can be useful for reference.

The key points summed up for research are;

Clothing;

Style
Colour
Patterns
Shape
Class related clothing
Iconic clothing
Materials used

Buildings and Environment;

Architecture
Style
Layout
Materials used

Materials;

Current Materials
Widely used and common/rare materials
Materials found out in the era
Technology developments

Hopefully with some good research I will have plenty of reference material to design off when coming to moving on to the design stages. I will be acknowledging what I have research in each bit by applying them in a drawing sense by doing small thumbnails and sketches after I have found something worth using or considering.