What I’ve done so far

 

I said I’d get to work on a journal about what I have done this term. Really I should be doing one of these at least once a week. But with my slow progress and needing to write about my Constellation work I haven’t felt much inclination to get to on these. Well I know this is late. But I suspect it is needed if I am to have any chance of passing this term. Here goes.

 

Over the summer I worked at the summer brief slowly. Not taking it as seriously as I should. I decided what sort of piece of music I wanted before choosing the piece. I wanted a piece of classical music as classical tends to last longer before it becomes a chore to listen to. And I wanted a piano piece as that would have clear notes to animate to. As is turns out I may not be animating to the notes and beats at all. But I did not anticipate how badly I was going to do at the time or how little time I’d have when term started. And as of this journal I’m still hoping to get a tiny bit of animation to the music done.

With my parameters set I knew exactly who’s music I wanted to use, Patrick Hawes. A British Christian composer who is still alive and composing. He writes beautiful music that is soft, simple but very honest. It can be sad, happy, or consoling. And while he mostly writes choral and orchestral music. But he also writes very beautiful piano pieces that are slow and thoughtful. And exactly what I needed. 

I must have somehow missed the part in our brief where it said we had to select three different pieces of music by different artists I got straight to work on listening to Hawes’ discography, trying to find the perfect piece.

While I listened I would also draw and paint. Trying to go for a stream-of-consciousness approach. Letting images that I felt matched the music come to me. Before I had even chosen the piece of music I had my first image. A luminous, shining moon against a dark blue night.

I knew as soon as I drew this it would set the tone for the whole work.

 

 

I continued, trying for something more abstract. I draw these purple towers

Inspired by old fashioned audio spectrum analysers

 

My hope was to have the towers go up and down in time with the music just like how it would on a spectrum analyser. But I’m guessing that’s not going to happen now. We’ll We’ll see. 

My next piece of inspiration, trying to keep with the colour palette I’d set up, was rain at night. And surely raindrops look how piano key sound? This would end up setting up the recurring visual and emotional them of the peace. Water, and life. For water is life. Just as water falls from the heavens life marches on. And both water moving and life going forwards are beautiful.

My animation was not going to be abstract in the pictorial sense of the term. But it would be abstract narratively. It would be a sequence of images and themes set to the mood of the music. Like a collage of images designed to convey the theme of life and movement, All bound together by the slowly progressing music.

 

When I chose my piece of music I went with Pavane. A slow piece that is itself like a river. Strong, but stately. One Hawes’ most accessible but moving pieces. Once I had that done, the rest of the images fell into place.

Knowing the Christian connection between myself and Hawes and that that’s why I was drawn to him I decided to go all in on it. I would open my piece with the same way I would end it, with rain. Make the thing cyclical. I’d open the piece with a view of a lake with a church in the distance, All would be silent. Then the rain would start and the music with it. Nature, religion, and life coming together to make music. I drew the whole scene first. And then went in to the fine details of how the rain would look.Just as well, I made the church and trees a bit too big in the first drawing. I was confident I could combine the two elements together later. And I feel I have in my later drawings.

I then drew what the rain at night would look like

It’s alright.

Just to really put the Christian theme together I decided to open the piece with a prayer. Like Homer appealing to the muse. I’m not good at being spiritual but I hope it doesn’t come out too pretentious.

 

 

With my theme of water established I decided to move from raindrops landing to what happens when they land. Pond ripples. I took some inspiration from the sketch like work of Cy Twombley 

And decided to draw ripples in an abstract style with unreal, lurid colours. I’m pretty happy with the result.

That said seeing the original and mine next to each other really hurts. I don’t know how I’m going to make it in the art world.

 

Thinking about water made me want to work with water. I pulled out my watercolours and got painting the best way I knew. With my fingers. Working heavily in wet-in-wet. I made an orange sun overlooking a sand dune while the sky turns purple as night approaches. I felt the scene needed a little more, pulled out a small brush, and added in a camel rider. Symbolism perhaps more islamic than Christian but I don’t think it matters too much.

Embodied by how well the camel rider came out I decided to homage eastern watercolours and paint two cranes flying.

I felt that would look good in animation. I’d known for a while now I’d want to lean heavily into blue as the animation went on. The Moon pic having already been very blue. I decided to make my cranes all blue. Again my painting hand surprised me with the quality of the brushstroke it produced. Sadly the image had been ruined by black pastel from the opposite page rubbing against it. Hopefully you can still see some of its beauty.

Keeping going with my blue theme I drew two dancers. One male and one female.Moving and a circular motion. Holding each-other lovingly. I painted a blue background, drew their lines with soft blue and grey, and left their interiors hollow so they’d be the same blue as the background. Giving them the impression of dancing nowhere, In a magical non-place. Fading into it. Becoming one with it, each-other, and the dance.

With the paper dry I decided to do another watercolour, this time going as deep into wet-in wet as you can. With the page sopping and covered in blue paint I  pulled out my brush and black watercolour And painted a unicorn. I wanted it to seem vague, mysterious and serine. I’m not disappointed in the result.

 

 

My painting high was still going so I decided to pull out my oils and decided to homage Twombly again. This time I would reference his green paintings.

These paintings have always made me think in plants that live underwater. Swaying in the current. And that is how I will animate them. Like the river plants, swaying in the underwater breeze. Painting this was fun. Even if it is a shameless imitation.

 

All this paint and water has warped my sketch book a little. But I don’t mind. It’s good that it looks well used.

And here’s what the pages inside look like

 

And that’s what I made over the summer.

 

 

When I came back I had a surprising amount of energy. I got to work on making thumbnails. I even made a piece of concept art. Inspired by the view outside my window, trees blowing in the wind

I used my thumbnails to refine by designs, like with the church 

And again I took notes on how these could be improved

Here’s what they all looked like when completed 

When I was done it seemed like I didn’t have enough pieces. I decided to end the piece  bridge the opening and the ending with a shot of rain with at twilight 

I even made an extra thumbnail for the night rain as I ran out of space on the first two pages. Again, they’re good for refining designs. And this one came out better than the others.

 

 

When I eventually got my act together Morgan helped me scan the images in and turn them into an animatic. And I cannot stress how much he has helped me this term. I would be sunk without him. He’s been a godsend. I think I might actually (fingers crossed) be getting the hang of using Premier now. 

We put all the images in as an animatic. And I discovered that if I wanted this to feel right, not have any piece of music outstayed its welcome and be on a piece, I’d need three more pieces. I got to work on this. I picked out three ideas I’d considered but never followed up on. A ship at sea, a comet, and a planet.

 

For the ship I knew I wanted to base it on my memory of an Alfred Wallis painting

I think my attempt came out ok

I spent a long time looking at images of blue comets are tried to combine them into a single image

It’s a mess. But I think I’ve been able to make it better in subsequent versions. 

For the plant I had to go with Saturn I find the planet fascinating. This isn’t the first time I’ve used Saturn in my work. I used it in a mandala I made for my art diploma. Both then and now I wanted to base it on how Saturn looks in the poster for the movie Gattaca.

Saturn is utterly fascinating when viewed through infrared or ultraviolet light.

For this occasion I opted to base it on this image of the ringed planet

Beautiful…

Here’s what I made

Not too bad.

I want to put Saturn near the end of this animation. Almost like meeting God the end of journey.

I made some thumbnails for these two so I could put them into the timeline.

 

I was now ready to start animating. 

I decided to start with the prayer. I wrote out the best and most honest prayer I could think of. I won’t even judge how I did. Here’s what I wrote

 

I pray thee lord. Take us through life’s procession. 

Through the good and the bad. Through all life’s joys and it’s sorrows.

Open our eyes so we may see the true wonders and beauties of life’s journey.

Hold us us close. Grant us peace.

 

I decided I would write this out on paper. Keep the handcrafted look consistent. Trying to keep the text centred was hard. So I did a practice run first.

I worked from the centre of the line and moved outwards. I think it has come out surprisingly good.

 

Now at last I am animating. And now I feel alive. I’m still in a rough spot. I’m not working as hard as I should be. I’m writing this after all. But I am working at least. 

 

At Owen’s suggestion, I decided to try animation at a similar scale to the thumbnails I drew. Owen likes how they look  (I sort of like them two) and working at this scale saves me a lot of time. I can get these done within minutes. 

Morgan showed me a scaling grid. Something animators use to draw within so they don’t have to draw all the way up to the edge of the paper. This is going to be a huge benefit for me. Drawing up to the edge took up a lot of my time. But I had to so I could keep the placement consistent. This will be a lifesaver. Normally apparently animators work within a size slightly below A4. But this grid can let you draw rectangles at many sizes. Here I’m drawing at about 5 by 3 centimeters

I’m not sure what this will look like. It will look quite unique I’m sure of that.

 

I feel like I should be talking about what I’ve learned more. What mistakes I’ve made and what I can do to improve. People seem to like it when I’m self-reflecting. Maybe later. I’m too tired to think right now. 

Well It’s clear I shouldn’t wait on these journals. I didn’t do this until now because it didn’t feel like I had enough to say. Clearly a mistake. when it comes to courses like this, don’t let the work pile on. Even if the journals will be small and boring doing them in the moment will save you time in the long run.

 

I’ll soon have another journal about how the animation is coming (I have no choice) and hopefully I’ll have something good to report. But I doubt it. It’s too late in the game And I’m far from my peak. But I’m hoping I’ll have at least a few seconds of animation to show. And maybe that will be enough to get me by. And On top of all that I have to also write 3500 words for Constellation too! Why do did they ask us to finish subject and Constellation on the same fucking day!?

And my black pencil is getting really short now.

Hopefully that at least is a good sign of where I am