Swiss Zine - Lo Straniero

Firstly, I would like to say that this is not my work, but I have found it very inspiring to look at. I found this zine at a comic book convention in Switzerland over Easter, and have taken the liberty to scan some of the pages in. I like that each page makes use of the negative space, and uses quite crude drawings and a minimal amount of mark making to convey the narrative. Hence the there is no need for text.

Open publication - Free publishing - More mountain

story board of edited film

Here is a rough story board of some of the most poignant  stills from the film that I have edited together from the rough footage I took of the Peak District. It forms the basis of the journey that I experienced on a particular day whilst I was in the Peak district. The main elements focus on the way in which the weather changed an the impact this had on the landscape. I noticed in particular the way in which the weather caused the lighting to changed and the physical aspects on this such as the noise of the rain hitting the windscreen and the sound of the wind captured when exposed the environment. 

I now need to find a way to integrate the drawings,  film footage and sound to create the essence of this journey that I experienced.

Below are some of the same images highlighted in colour just to see what they look like. I don't think colour pencil alone can work with these images as the definition of the image is lost. 

During the easter break, I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to Switzerland, hence I took a sketch book to try and capture the some of the beautiful landscapes. Here are two of my favourite ones. It is apparent to me, that I like to use colour and linear mark making. I aim to capture the essence of what I see and highlight certain aspects, as it is not possible to see everything in your line of vision. What you look at in that moment is what you see.

 The view from Patrick's garden...

The lake in Nyon...

Bill Viola talks about his childhood landscape building techniques...

And you did drawings ten feet long as a child didn't you?

Yeah, I invented this planet that was inhabited by humans and of course aliens, I forget the name of it... oh it was called "Clamph" and I started drawing the landscape of it, in a kind of a horizontal almost oriental scroll like way, and I kept adding with sticky tape more and more sheets of paper, until I was out at about ten feet and then I had the great idea, if I do say so myself, to end the landscape on the final sheet and make it identical with the beginning of the landscape on the first sheet and I wrapped them around and put the last piece of tape together.

Bill Viola.


I found this excerpt from an interview where he spoke about the use landscape and its horizontal appearance

the light

One of the main things that I noticed about the Peak district, it is rapid change in weather over a period of hours. The photo montage above depicts the lighting in the sky at one point in the day, where the it had started to rain. I took a series of photographs to try to and capture the essence of the entirety of the scene.

David Hockney Exhibition

On Friday, I visited David Hockney's exhibition at the royal academy. I was in awe of his vast array of paintings. It was very different to see the paintings of landscapes in the flesh, as I found them very striking and they almost imposed their presence, which was helped by their sheer size.

The use of colour and line in his paintings indicate the change of season, light and time and when the paintings are seen in series, it is very clear to notice these changes. They seeming create a narrative. -They show a sense of a journey.

His vigour to capture a the essence of particular areas in the Yorkshire area has meant that he has had to look at what is in front of him and understand what he is seeing. The depiction of colour is particularly striking as there is an abundance of bright colours which are not typically associated with the type of landscapes found in Yorkshire.

Michael Dudok De Wit

This animation by Dudok De Wit uses 'lyrical lines' and simply drawn characters, which express the landscape, as he has always been inspired by the 'clean line' (mainly from Herge's comic books). He states that the clean line 'seeks suggestion and meaning in its purity'.

He sees the layouts and visual compositions as movements. When he draws landscapes, he visualises the lines and shapes that show the directions and dynamics.

In an animated film, all these interesting movements; the moments created by dynamic lines in each landscape, by the animation of the characters, by the transitions from one landscape to another provide a poetic quality, that help to make the narrative clearer.

I particularly like how DDW. has used the same landscapes throughout the animation, which I think creates a consistencey and stresses a sense of time passing, strengthens the narrative.

glossop map tester

I created this short animation of the map of Glossop, in hope that it would aid the transitions of the animation and give an indication to the viewer of where the film was taking place. In reality, I don't think the map was clear enough, and it didn't really add anything to the film.

The laughing Badger

During my research weak while I was at the Peak district, interviewed a local artist (Sean Wood) who runs a local art workshop every week, one for both adults and children. I asked him about the Peak district landscape. The peak district weather is well known for being flippant and it is possible to get sun, rain, hale and snow all in one afternoon. It is for this reason that Sean likes to describe the Peak as 'The Big Sky!' He keeps a camera at arms reach in his studio so that when he wants to capture the landscape, he can immediately.

His words of advice advice for were:-

• If you're trying to capture a landscape, do a series of drawings, paintings etc...
• The landscape is about shape and colour and form, and it is always changing and this is one of the main characteristics of the Peak that attracts people tp it

The image below is one of Sean's paintings, which I think has really captured the essence of the landscape well, with regard to the dark grey colours and textures from the acrylic paint that he has used. Everyone sees things differently, so painting something in your style correlates to how you see and understand what is in front of you.

I did record an interview with Sean, but the quality of the recording isn't great, but here are some of the things  he said:

''Anything can spark your imagination, -I like the notion of little vignettes. Like for example, there might be a big scene of something, but you might notice some little bit in it that will inspire you - just little details.''

''Like I was saying about Breugel earlier, if you look at his stuff, you could make 100 images out of one of his paintings"

Katy Dove Melodia, 2002

This is an animation by the Scottish artist Katy Dove. She has used an ambient soundtrack to emulate the atmospheric presence that the landscape in her animation has. The landscape is in fact an existing painting that she has animated over. Her animations often start from a process of free associative drawing that she calls 'automatic drawing'.

''Dove’s interest in how film and animation foreground a temporal rather than solely visual relationship with the viewer, and in doing so, ‘embrace the increasing temporalisation of the image which has shaped modern visual practice from the invention of cinema to the spread of the Internet''

http://www.axisweb.org/ofSARF.aspx?SELECTIONID=60

bird fight - sound effects

Today Robin, Leanne and I created sound effects for the section in David Attenborough's nature documentary for the mating dance for some tropical birds. We used Robin's banjo playing, keys, bells, drums and the human voice, which we then manipulated with an adobe audio program. We then synced the recordings in time to the video clip. I think it was quite successful!

Concertina Sketch Book

Here is a link to the concertina images I drew from the Peak District. The media used was pencil, watercolour and acrylic. These drawings will help to form the basis of the animation in terms of how the concertina sketchbook acts like a moving canvas that can be viewed in terms of the moving focus.

Open publication - Free publishing - More landscape

Zarina Bhimji - Whitechapel exhibition

http://www.zarinabhimji.com/dspseries/18/1FW.htm

This weekend, I got the chance to see Zarina Bhimji's exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery in london. She primarily works with photography One of the feature pieces was a film entitled 'Yellow Patch'. It was shot on location in Mumbai, Kutch and Gujarat using 35mm colour film. She focused mainly on the landscapes and interiors, and has created a poetic and evocative exploration of place. Within Yellow Patch it is evident to see the artist's interest of light, space, and attention to detail.

She has created her own sound effects to complement the film in a subtle way, which I consider to be extremely effective. She uses slow panning shots that slowly and smoothly glide through the landscape to create an atmosphere, and it it is almost as though the viewer is going on and tracing an actual journey.

research is important to her and she often asks herself questions before she makes her work to try and find out what she's trying to say.

So here is my synopsis of Study...It still feels a bit vague as to what I am doing, but as it is an experiential journey that will make these doubts clear.

Synopsis of Study

“There is never a moment where we stop to look at something, and our eyes never stop moving, because otherwise we’d be dead. We move the focus every time we move.’’ This is known the ‘Principle of moving focus.’ (Hockney, D. 2009)

Within my illustration practice, it is important to me that I am always learning new skills whilst keeping up with new technologies because we live in an era where technology changes at a rapid pace. For this unit, I would like the main focus to be about drawing because after evaluating my technical skills, it is apparent to me that I have a weakness for drawing in 'the background'. The imagery I create seems to hang in the middle of the page without a sense of belonging. Therefore to improve my skills I would like to create a screen based animation where the main focus would be about the landscape itself.

Previously in my work, I have developed film montage techniques involving stop frame animation, film and timelapse. I would very much like to expand upon these skills and find new ways to explore these techniques whilst incorporating drawing, as more and more I am using moving imagery in my practice.

In terms of the brief, I am going to explore the divergence of a visual and experiential journey from the northern industrious landscape to the natural landscape of the Peak District in the Derbyshire area.

I would like my animation to be emotive and thought provoking, and stress the point that a lot of the time we never stop to really look at what is in front of us. E.g. when we’re driving in our cars or in a rush to get to a destination, we generally focus solely on the task in hand. I aim to target this screen-based animation towards those whom may have busy lifestyles, and wouldn’t necessarily take the time to look around and question what it is they are seeing and how they are seeing.

In terms of where the animation would be viewed, it would make sense for it to be viewed in a place considered to be busy e.g. on the wall or floor of a busy highstreet. This would help to create a contrast between a busy environment and a that of the Peak District.

In the book ‘The art of seeing’ Berger states; “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled and the way we see things is affected by what we know or believe. We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”. (Berger. J 1972 pg.8,9). Bearing this in mind, it would be good demonstrate in the animation, that we are living creatures and there is a beauty of ‘looking’.

I grew up in a suburban town and I have never lived in Derbyshire, but it is where the majority of my family live and it is a place that has always has a strong place in my memory because of the countless journeys I have made there in my childhood. I am in awe of the vast Peak district landscape, which covers 555 square meters, and is full of history and is visited by people from all over the globe.

Also, my uncle has been a peak district ranger for over forty years now and has a vast breadth of knowledge about the area. He has kindly offered to aid my research, as I will be going to the Peak district to do some primary research.

The program about David Hockney, ‘The Bigger Picture’, and how one sees with memory greatly inspired me, as the large scaled paintings he created were painted quite rapidly in situ and this is how he saw what was in front of him at one point in time. They reflect the journeys of the Yorkshire landscapes that have accumulated in his past and present memories and help to tell a story. I would like to examine the process of how we create and make journeys and visually record them as a drawing through seeing and looking at what is in front of us.

I have had a little previous experience with using animation programs such as after effects, and Premiere Pro. I have also had previous experience with sound software to create sound effects. I would like to take the opportunity to further my knowledge within these programs, as I aspire to work largely in screen- based outcomes in the future of my creative practice.

6 principles of Chinese painting

1. Spirit, resonance, Vitality  and energy
2. Bone method via Calligraphy and painting (they are seen together)
3. Correspondence to object SHAPE and LINE!
4. Application of colour
5 Placement and arrangement, composition, space and depth
6. Transmission