Anne Walker Mini Part V (Conclusion)

 Finally, I have come to the end of the Ann Walker project! Here she is, with her shawl done up and placed in an appropriate environment.

Ann Walker, front

And also from behind.

The groundwork was first built up with Milliput 2-part emoxy, painted green and then covered with pebbles and sticks I found in the backyard. The vegetation is an assortment of basing materials produced by Army Painter and Gamers Grass (Portugal), including, if you look closely, a couple of laser-printed bracken plants under her skirt.

And here they are, the Ann(e)s together on my shelf, accompanied by the books that discuss their lives.

Lister and Walker

I learned a lot while working on this project, not the least of which was how to render plaid. I can certainly see as this is a technique in which I could improve a good deal, but am satisfied for now.

And I hope you enjoyed following along with me!

Next? A rendering of Francois Rude's sculpture of Joan of Arc Listening to her Voices (1852), the original of which is found in the Louvre. Stay tuned!

Ann Walker Mini Part IV

 As mentioned in my last post, Ann Walker and Anne Lister provide essential role models during times such as these, when the rights and well-being of LGBTQ2SA+ people are under threat from Christo-facist, Conservative douchebags.

Because they dared to live openly as queer women married to one another in an era in which even they did not have the vocabulary to describe their experiences, Walker and Lister were subject to violence and mockery. Lister mentions a number of incidences in her diary in which she was harassed by men making inappropriate comments and offers. She describes also an occasion when she was physically attacked. She fought back, cursing at her attacker, "God damn you!"

After Walker moved in to Shibden Hall following their "wedding" on March 30th, 1834, they were stunned to discover a marriage announcement in the newpaper some months later, detailing the marriage of Ann Walker to "Captain Tom Lister." Although Lister's father, James, had been a captain in the British Infantry during the American Revolutionary War, the marriage announcement was not a matter of confusion of identities. "Tom" was a perjorative name denoting masculine women (i.e. "tomboys"), and this was clearly a cowardly and hateful attack on the two women.

Events like these rattled Ann Walker badly. Always delicate in her mental health and prone to depression, she struggled with internalized homophobia. This makes her determination to live authentically with Anne Lister all the more profoundly admirable. She was afraid, she was made to feel afraid, yet she persisted.

It is therefore with humilty and pride that I continue work on my project. 

Walker plaid skirt, gloves and shoes

This is my first attempt at plaid. It was tedious at first, but I appreciated watching it all come together as it progressed. Unlike the rest of the model, the skirt is done in acrylics, simply because doing it in oils would take forever. Shadows and highlights will be completed by means of washes in appropriate tones.

You can also see the putty I have in place in preparation for the groundwork, which I anticipate will resemble that of the figure of Anne Lister I finished a while back. After this, I will finish off with another plaid pattern on her woolen shawl before spraying the entire figure with a protective matte varnish.

The costume from which I'm working

Ann Walker Mini Part Three

In the face of rampant homo- and transphobia all over the Western world, heroes like Ann Walker and Anne Lister are needed more than ever right now. So let us do as Miss Walker would have us do and "Go on bravely!"

There are no surviving portraits of Ann Walker, although we know from Lister's diaries that she was blonde. She was also probably small in stature, since one of Lister's pet names for her was "Peewee." Lister herself was not tall, being roughly five feet three inches tall and of an athletic, slightly masculine build, so perhaps "Peewee" had more to do with Lister's sense of protection over Ann than any physical dissimilarity.

Most often, Lister referred to her wife, both directly and in her diaries, as "Adney," from a Latin word meaning "to adhere." Ann called Lister "Dearest."

We do have a portrait of Ann's sister, Elizabeth Sutherland, showing the golden tresses shared by the Walker sisters.

Elizabeth Sutherland (nee Walker) date and artist unknown

It is not, therefore, much of a stretch to see the enchanting Sophie Rundle in the role of Ann Walker in HBO's Gentleman Jack.

Sophie Rundle as Ann Walker in Gentleman Jack Season Two

It is this image of Ann Walker that I am trying to capture in my mini. When last we visited our intrepid heroine, I had cleaned up the 3D print and sculpted her braids, her hat and her shawl, after much travail.

Upon returning to my workbench, we know have some paint in place, bringing her a little closer to life.

Walker face, hair, hat, shirt tie and jacket

Although it is difficult to see in this photo, I have attempted to reproduce the soft pink brocade of her coat by dabbing an old worn-out paintbrush onto the surface in more or less random spots. Trying to reproduce the pattern as it appears in the still from the show would be tedious, and I believe would also "steal focus" from the rest of the figure as a whole.

After a good coat of white primer, Miss Walker was undercoated in acrylic paints, over which I have rendered her in Grumbacher oils. With figures like this, I work "from the skin out, top to bottom", which is to say, I begin with the face and eyes, then the hair and the hat. Moving down, I did the shirt, the tie and the coat.

I admit I am somewhat intimidated to do the shawl and the skirt, both of which are tartan in lovely rich earth tones of brown and green. But it promises to be a project that is educational, and I look forward to Miss Walker taking me to class, much as she took the children of Halifax, Yorkshire, to school.

Stay tuned!