Black Sheep - Bully Hayes

Week 6- 7: 

Who is Bully Hayes (William Henry Hayes) Swashbuckler: the story of Bully Hayes 

• https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/2018675656/swashbuckler-the-story-of-bully-hayes
• http://www.bullyhayes.co.nz/Who+is+Bully+Hayes.html

Notable points throughout the podcast:

• He earned the title of "Pirate".
• arrived in the Pacific in the mid-1800s
• was an international criminal celebrity.
• Bully was killed in 1877 by a disgruntled seaman and was subsequently buried at sea south of the Marshall Islands.
• Virtually every paper referred to him as “The Notorious Captain Hayes”.
• Notably, he never stole a ship or cargo on the high seas, so while he was frequently described as a pirate he never committed actual piracy.
• Bully learned to sail as a merchant on the Great Lakes.
• There are some very nasty stories from this period of Bully’s life, including multiple allegations of rape against young pacific island women. One case involved a girl who was only 10 years old.
• Bully’s mistreatment of his crew is what finally brought an end to his story. He was beaten to death by the ship’s cook, a Dutchman who Bully had previously tied to a tree and flogged.
• This dutch cook wasn’t charged with a crime once the ship made it back to port. Instead, he was hailed as a hero for his part in ending the “legend” of The Notorious Captain Hayes.

Movie poster for Savage Islands, a highly fictionalised retelling of Bully Hayes' life

This is purported to be the only image of Bully Hayes, but Joan Druett doubts it is authentic 

Photo: Public Domain

Summary: 

What a colourful and notorious fella, Bully Hayes was well known and had even earned the title of being "pirate" and being referred to as“The Notorious Captain Hayes”. He had a reputation of being a scoundrel from birth. Everything known about him is seen as rumors which he added too especially when it came to Newsprint articles on him “But in those days you could print anything you like, and if it was sensational enough and popular enough - all the other papers would copy it!” Through the 1860s and 70s, his name appeared in newspapers as far afield as Hawaii and Singapore.

He was known for cheating merchants became Bully’s full-time career. He was infamous for “paying with the foretopsail” - loading up with cargo and then sailing off in the middle of the night without paying. Although he never did anything that actually made him a pirate, he did, however, capture a known pirate Eli Boggs who had a bounty of $1000. Beating him into submission as the pair grappled in the ocean, surrounded by the burning wreckage of Eli’s ship.

He became known and decided to lay low for a bit so he got a job as the ringmaster for a traveling circus on the Victorian Goldfields.

Ideas:

Include south pacific islands in the background
woman and wives all over the place
boys own adventure books - national library 
Manihiki Island input

Explained physical appearance:

• Long woolen coat, white Frills
• Flamboyant
• Long Beard
• 6'ft tall
• powerfully built
• Silk Sash
• Cutless sword

What is Black Birding:

"Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through trickery and kidnapping to work as laborers. Generally, persons of European ancestry, or others being paid by them, coerced persons of non-European ancestry to work as laborers throughout the Southeast Pacific region."- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbirding

Insert from the podcast write up:

Blackbirding was a nice name for what was often a very nasty business. By this point, it was 1865. The American Civil War had recently put an end to the horrific African slave trade but there was still a huge demand for cheap or “free” labor in cotton and sugar production - particularly in Australia. The slavers changed their target. They moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Africans to Pacific Islanders. According to historian Mark Derby the reason this trade is referred to as “blackbirding” rather than simply “slavery” is partly the nature of the trade.

New Zealand Bar and Restaurant named after him:

http://www.bullyhayes.co.nz/

Books:

The Notorious Captain Hayes - By Joan Druett
Hollywood depictions of him:

Savage Islands. Bully Hayes in a more romanticized form played by Tommy Lee Jones.

Old Style New Zealand Papers:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers



Week 8 - 9: Refinement & Thumbnails
Bully Hayes Sketching:

Movie & Newspaper thumbnail ideas:

Progress sketches in illustrator:

Feedback:

• Still too much of a pirate vibe, tone it down
• The boat doesn't reflect the time. Do some more research on that.
• Present something to represent the Blackbirding, one of the more horrific things he did
• Look at Tourism posters to inspire the background
• Move his head upwards (more powerful)
• Comic book style title

Research & mood boards:

Redrawing my Bully's posture:

My wonderful teacher showing me how it's done

Notes:

• Head more upright 
• Colour corrections

 Working on the Background:

Adding texture in Photoshop to give it a comic vibe:

Feedback

• More romantic setting - orange/pink skies
• Change the cap - Marine Navy uniform
• Bigger shoulders and smaller head
• Smaller boats

Adding a more romantic vibe for the sky, oranges, and pinks with some soft brushes to make clouds. added a small reflection of light on the ocean.

I want the type to pop! so instead of doing black, I tried picking the darker colour of purple/blue in my sky to tie it in as well. It already looks much more intimate and exciting.

Redrawing Bully Hayes, adding some thickness and changing the fedora to a more navy military styled cap.

I can't get the hat quite right :( I think its the colours. 

Comparing the two: 

Final Touches:

• Shading behind the rocks to show more depth and lighting direction
• Reflection of the boat and ship onto the water
• Grass a bit bright
• The sun
• Bring his hat down so it doesn't look so big
• Try red title rather than the purple

Final Design :) 

Working on my giff

• Trees waving in the wind
• Ship Moving across
• The boat slowly heading towards the ship

The trees are hard work.

Rationale:

What a colourful and notorious fella, Bully Hayes was well known and was referred to as “The Notorious Captain Hayes”. He had a reputation of being a scoundrel from birth. Everything known about him is seen as rumors which he added too especially when it came to Newsprint articles on him. Through the mid 1800's, his name appeared in newspapers as far afield as Hawaii and Singapore. His nasty endeavours were put to a halt when the mistreatment of his crew backfired and he was killed by the cook on his ship, the cook was never charged with the crime and instead was hailed as a hero. 

Although there are no known authentic photos of him he was described as quite flamboyant with a long beard, at least 6'ft tall and powerfully built and wore a red silk sash a woolen coat and white frills wielding a cutlass sword. I made sure to include all these features within my illustration. 

In terms of artistic style, I gathered inspiration from tourism posters and retro-styled comic books. Making sure to incorporate a colourful atmospheric tone. One of the more nasty things he was involved in was blackbirding which is what I represented in the scene behind him, a dingy heading towards a ship to be traded off as slaves.