Headlines
Trystan Mitchell Talks The Beasts Of Bodmin Moor Currently On Kickstarter
A Beast Of A Project
Cornish artist and illustrator Trystan Mitchell has a campaign on Kickstarter to fund his greetings cards for the Beasts Of Bodmin Moor. Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows spoke to him to find out more about the project…
TRIPWIRE: What was the genesis of the Beasts of Bodmin Moor?
TRYSTAN MITCHELL: It originally began as a quartet of images inspired from reading works on witchcraft traditions in Cornwall by Gemma Gary, describing the Witch’s Compass, a seasonal wheel of the year marking the four main pagan festivals with the snake, hare, toad and crow as totem creatures corresponding with the cardinal points.
Less formal traditional folk magic in Cornwall and elsewhere, such as pellars or cunning folk, employs Christian iconography and biblical references in its charms and rituals, along with earth from graveyards or communion wafers from the sacrement, holy water, church candles etc, so the county’s distinctive parish churches were an obvious background setting for those first pieces.
TW: How did you select the specific beasts?
TM: I grew up on Bodmin Moor and did much of my early schooling there, so when it came to expanding the series I naturally gravitated to my fascination with the local folklore and traditions. There are numerous tales of shape shifting witches and even saints taking animal form, with some of the old Cornish saints numbering bagers and deer etc amongst their disciples and helpers in constructing their early churches and chapels. I also deliberately chose beasts that I’ve personally encountered or interacted with over the years in my walks over the moor and its surrounding woodland.
TW: Cornwall still has a unique mythology different to other parts of the UK. How did you tap into this?
TM: Cornwall has a wealth of tales featuring the Pobel Vean (little folk) or the Devil and such that occasionally find their way into my personal work, but with this series I wanted to focus on the folklore of the fauna of North Cornwall and the neolithic, bronze and iron age landscape features where I’ve personally encountered them. Sharing eye to eye moments of contact and awareness with a roaming badger or full grown stag, or being scoped out by a swooping owl at night on the moor have been some of the most quietly electrifying experiences I’ve had.
TW: So what made you choose the greetings card format for this project?
TM:I have an agent who puts bits of educational publishing work my way now and again, but most of my commissions come through word of mouth social media and mutual network communities around illustration, comic books, independent film and audio drama, folk horror and folklore, with an ever growing network of folks concerned with Cornish culture and identity. Putting this series of illustrations out as greetings cards seemed like a really accessible and affordable format with the widest appeal among all those groups, especially on the back of the great response I got from publishing The Wicker Pasty last year.
TW: What has been your approach for creating the art here?
TM: Technically, everything is still drafted and plotted straight to my sketchbooks, not wanting to lose that connection with pencil and paper. The drawings underpin everything and I’ve already made most of my style and palette choices at the sketchbook stage. But all the inking and painting happens digitally, mainly with Clip Studio Paint. Being pretty much entirely self taught, even then I do tend to stick with a more old school approach when laying down colour, close to how I use to paint when working exclusively in gouache, although I’ve been enjoying exploring textures more recently with this series.
TW: You have decided to use crowdfunding again. What are the pros and cons of using this method?
TM: It’s such a great funding model for small independent creatives. My income isn’t substantial enough to invest on print runs at scale for a reasonable retail price without knowing it has the appeal to sell in the first place. A successful crowdfunder means a fully funded print run with an immediate audience, guaranteed pre-order sales and stock in hand for after sales, with no precarious personal outlay beyond the time and labour creating the work and running the campaign. The niche targeted word of mouth that comes from backers and supporters on their various socials is invaluable. The positive feedback that comes on the back of all of that is also incredibly encouraging, in a way that you don’t get carting your wares around retail outlets on a wet weekend out of season.
The only downside I’ve experienced personally is the incredible deluge of spam, fishing and bad faith actors offering their unparalleled marketing services that seem to accompany every crowdfunder as soon as it launches, if not before. In just ten days I’ve blocked and rebuffed dozens of accounts and contacts on all my social media. For a couple of days or so it was relentless, but it seems to come with the territory and you need to be savvy to all the con artists out there.
TW: What have you learnt from running several kickstarter campaigns?
TM: Keep it manageable with your expectations, costings and prices based on a modest and realistic number of backers to meet your target. As a small independent creative you’re not likely to recoup all your labour costs on a campaign, but a successful one means you’ve recouped all your other production costs with stock in hand. Be clear about your goals and exactly what you’re offering and what backers can expect and keep in touch with them around each of your milestones and any hitches. Make it available internationally rather than just UK/home based to get as wide coverage as possible. And a good concise video.showing the project makes a massive difference to your impact. Oh..and deliver on time!
Support The Beasts of Bodmin Moor by Bigfoot Studios on kickstarter now
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