Animal Farm Research

Animal Farm

by George Orwell

'Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is organized to benefit all who walk on four legs. But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten. And something new and unexpected emerges...' 

-Blurb of Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm was based around a kind of satire of the Soviet Union, Orwell's characters are based on members of this party. For example, Napoleon the pig is based on Josef Stalin, Snowball was based on Leon Trotksy and Old Major on Karl Marx. A lot of the book takes key parts of the Russian Revolution and simplifies them into events throughout the book. 

http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/summaries/animf.html

THE BRIEF

My goal for this project is to show fully developed and professional illustrations through research on my chosen book and different techniques and materials. I will do this by creating design sheets, thumbnails, medium exploration, peer and audience feedback and will show any design changes that were required for fully realized illustrations.  

WHAT I NEED;

SKETCHBOOKS 

WORK SHEETS

THUMBNAILS

DESIGN SHEETS

FULL RESEARCH DOCUMENTATION

TEN FINISHED ILLUSTRATIONS 

BOOK COVER

SHEPARD FAIREY

Shepard Fairey, Obey logo

 Shepard Fairey is a well known illustrator based in America, he's done many different medias within art such as Graphic Design and contemporary street art. He's most well known for his project 'Andre the Giant Has a Posse' which was a street art campaign in which he worked with pictures from the Weekly World News, which included the picture of Andre the Giant, and created a stencil out of them which became well known in the skating community and began getting tagged everywhere.

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/shepard-fairey#_
His designs for George Orwell's books, Animal Farm and 1984 caught my eye when I was looking for Animal Farm, the colours are in the style of the Russian Revolution propaganda posters I found which works well with what Animal Farm is based upon.

Animal Farm Communism Representations

ANIMAL FARM COMMUNISM REPRESENTATIONS

Below are a list of the representations of the Russian Revolution within Animal Farm. These were intentional by the author, George Orwell.

Manor Farm represents Russia during the Russian Revolution. 

Anonymous, Poster for Russian Revolution

USSR Flag

Animal Farm represents the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics abbreviation).

Animalism represents the Marxist Communism which is a belief based around economic and political theory and is a practice originated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that states that actions and human institutions are economically determined, that the class struggle is the basic agency of historical change, and that capitalism will ultimately be succeeded by communism. 

Marx Engels Lenin Stalin, Unknown Artist (marxengelsleninstalin2.jpg)

REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTERS

'Other farmers represent the Tsarists.

The Pigs represent the Communist party leaders.

The lower down animals such as the Sheep represent the Proletarian people.

The dogs raised by Napoleon represent Russia's KGB.

Old Major represents Karl Marx.

Farmer Jones represents Tsar Nicholas II.

Napoleon represents Josef Stalin.

Snowball represents Leon Trotsky.

Squealer represents the propagandist Vyachaslav Molotov.

Moses the raven represents state religion (Russian Orthodox Church).

Foxwood (Mr. Pilkington) represents Britain and America (the Allies).

Pinchfield (Mr. Frederick) represents Germany and possibly Adolf Hitler.

"The Barnyard Speech" made by Old Major represents The Communist Manifesto.

"Beasts of England" represents "L'International' / "To the Men of England".

The Animal revolt (battle of the cowshed) represents the Soviet Revolution, or the October Revolution.

Battle of the windmill  represents the German invasion of Russia during WWII.

The animal executions (Snowball, and other lower animals) represent Stalin's Great Purge during the 1930's.

The starvation of the animals represents Holodomor (The Ukrainian famine).'

Source
http://quizlet.com/2684786/animal-farm-communism-relationship-flash-cards/

The several attempts to build the windmill represent Stalin's five year plans.

And the final meeting with the humans and animals represent the Tehran Conference, where Stalin met with Roosevelt and Churchill.