Moving Pictures: Research and Notes

Explore drawing and image making.

Collage

Related to Shakespeare 

Len Lye

Pioneer of illustration 

Painting coloured inks onto film

Graphic

Trade tattoo 

Seperate images viewed quickly in succession.

Simple

 - 12 frames per second

 - Avoid legs/walking

Www.gifparanoia.org 

WATCH- Valerie Pirson 'Pistache' 

-backlit 

-photocopies

-stop motion

-play with opacities 

-cut out colour thickness

-inks

-simple jointing -card - silhouette -blue tack - Lottie Reininger 

Layers- background - camera zooms

Drawn animation 

-the man with the beautiful eyes 

Johnathon hodgson -sherbet film -metamorphism

How can you simplify it but communicate the message 

EatPES - western spaghetti - highly experiment experimental and commercial 

Norman McLaren

George Dunning 

Moving Pictures: Research

30-60sec sting advertising a forthcoming documentary about Shakespeare's life and work.

Or 3-6 ten second animation promoting prominent literary works e.g. Set of repackaged books or educational resources. 

Think about things leaving the frame and entering back into it. 

Supporting development work and blog.

Research:

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/stevie-gee

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/fundamentals-of-neuroscience
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/the-weekender-10-10
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/sbtrkt
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/takashi-murakami
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/tom-jobbins-real-thing
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/rami-niemi-fart
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/reasons-to-be-creative
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/nicos-livesey-and-tom-bunker-radio-1-even-more-music-month
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/leo-verrier

fka twigs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFtMl-uipA8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4YSwb60yuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99YyWeqHaBo

http://www.moonassi.com/

Printed Pictures: Screen Printing Part 1

For my screen printing workshop I had to create a black and white image to use as my template. I created this with the theme of Midsummer's Night's Dream in mind. I am exploring the idea of alcohol replacing the love potion as I think there are tons of similarities with the effects of both and it may be a way to create a message within my work related to Shakespeare's plays. I feel like I may have made this image far to complicated/detailed for screen print but I'm really into detailed work and I wanted to experiment with how far I could take it with printing so it will be a learning curve what ever the outcome!

Hand drawn in black fine liner and sharpe.

I also got some lino to take home and draw onto to practice with that as this is one possible media I can use for my final images.

I also went onto Absolut's website and they had an art 'exchange' so I entered my design into it...
Link: http://www.absolut.com/uk/artexchange/#/home

Moving Pictures: Dragon Frame Part 1

Dragon frame induction - allows u to take pictures through the computer useful see through the camera and edit simultaneously

Matt av resource e studio email 

Work shop next to photography

Can book out a camera for moving image 

Setting up 

Base setting dslr camera

Camera connects via USB camera

Turn on

Menu - settings- auto power off must be disabled 

Turn dial on top to m (manual)

Vostram holds camera in place 

Connect USB to computer

Full battery? 

Local drive - user work - but keep work on hard drive 

Create new scene 

Bass settings...

Camera settings bottom right...

Shutter speed 606

Aptiture 1.4

ISO 100

Image quality- large fine jpg

White balance - cloudy

 Adjust the aptiture if u feel it's too bright/dark

Put wide screen mask on 

File export image sequence 

High resolution jpg tiff

Crop aspect ratio 16:9 

Scale 1920 x 1080  (33% smaller than original image) 

One folder and then into an encapsulating folder 'image sequence 1' 

To experiment and practice with Dragon Frame I created a simple image to animate and explore techniques with.

I decided to use one base image for the back ground and then just use cut out details to add and subtract from the image to show movement. I also wanted to create a magical feel to fit with my Midsummer Night Dream theme so I used a silver pen to create metallic spots in the piece. I hope that throughout the animation light might reflect off different parts of the silver pen; creating a shimmery effect... we will have to wait and see! If I had more time I would have created about 6 different photocopies of the background with different silver spots of pen and other slight changes in the background to make it look like it has more movement. However for now I have just animated the eyes to blink, the mouth to turn into a scribble, tears to fall from their eyes and a red spot exploding (symbolising their hearts/bleeding/exploding to link to the theme of lust and complicated love in the play).

Moving Pictures: Dragon Frame Introduction

Dragon frame induction - allows u to take pictures through the computer useful see through the camera and edit simultaneously

Matt av resource e studio email 

Work shop next to photography

Can book out a camera for moving image 

Setting up 

Base setting dslr camera

Camera connects via USB camera

Turn on

Menu - settings- auto power off must be disabled 

Turn dial on top to m (manual)

Vostram holds camera in place 

Connect USB to computer

Full battery? 

Local drive - user work - but keep work on hard drive 

Create new scene 

Bass settings...

Camera settings bottom right...

Shutter speed 606

Aptiture 1.4

ISO 100

Image quality- large fine jpg

White balance - cloudy

 Adjust the aptiture if u feel it's too bright/dark

Put wide screen mask on 

File export image sequence 

High resolution jpg tiff

Crop aspect ratio 16:9 

Scale 1920 x 1080  (33% smaller than original image) 

One folder and then into an encapsulating folder 'image sequence 1' 

Moving Pictures: After Effects Workshop

• After Effects- Preferences - Media and Disk Cache... Change location of the cache… to user work folder.
• Panel with yellow outline = the active panel
• Window - workspace - can change workspace or reset standard
• Project Panel - top left hand side (functions as a library- file - import
• Bottom Panel - Timeline (use the timeline to make an arrangement of the imported images.) Also like a layers palette.
• Middle - see it playing back. 
• End product then exported as a video file.

• Once you've got a project….
• Must create a composition… every after effects project contains at least 1 composition.
• Composition - Create a new composition
• NTSC and PAL - Standard Definition
• HDV, DVC and HDTV - High Definition
• My brief = Pal D1/DV Widescreen Square Pixel
• Videos work in PIXELS! (size)
• PIXEL ASPECT RATIO - square pixels
• Frame rate - 25
• Yellow text with an underline- can change
• DURATION -hrs, mins, secs, frames
• When u highlight the composition in the Project area you can see the details of that composition

• Click the composition area (timeline)
• Layers - new - solid
• Can see the layer in spacial (where it is within the frame) and temporal (time) properties. 
• If you double click on your layer - isolates the layer …can just close that window and click onto composition window again.
• Layer - new solid layer
• can change the stacking order of your layers on left hand side to order overlay.

• RAM preview button - preview - where all the buttons are the furthest right arrow. The green line on the timeline indicates the preparation after effects does to play back your video - once its done it will be real time. 
• The inför window in infö area top right - Playing from RAM 250, fps 25 (realtime)
• If you want to focus on part of your composition you just need to move the grey work area bar (grey with yellow ends) on the time line to the parts you want to focus on. 
• triangle nest to the red block of layer on left -- layer properties

• Space bar allows you to move the page once you've zoomed in

• Key frame - where a significant change occurs.
• Stop watch icon - means that this property can be animated by that key frame. 
• Key frame - yellow diamond in the timeline- fixed the layer in that positon in the time line
• Specify a start end point by using 2 key frames.
• dotted line = motion path , each dot is a different part.
• select a point in the motion path 

• can select a key frame and copy 

SHORT CUTS

• select layer and press P - JUST SHOW YOU THE POSITION PROPERTY
• A - ANCHOR POINT
• R - ROTATION
• O - MOVES YOUR TIME LINE TO THE OUTPOINT OF THE LAYER
• I - TAKES YOU TO THE INPOINT
• SHIFT AND S - POSITION AND SCALE

• Project Area- can drag down a layer to repeat it again in time line bit
• 
  

Interim Evaluation

PUT ILLUSTRATIONS IN AS EXAMPLES

5 things I have gained from this work and how it will impact on my practice...

1. Play is important.
2. Texture goes along way.
3. Collage is a fast way to get initial ideas/themes down.
4. Pushed me to try different ways of working with lines/shapes.
5. More hands on approach with collage.

5 things I intend to explore further through my Visual Journal...

1. Depth and light
2. Foreground/midground/background - layers
3. Play with lines and patterns more.
4. Keep trying out colour schemes to get intended mood/atmosphere. 
5. Texture to add depth.

The themes I intend to explore further through my visual journal...

1. Loss 
2. Revenge
3. Tragedy
4. Love/lust
5. Magic

THINK ABOUT A MAIN THEME AND SOME OTHER SMALLER ONES...

Themes to think over: 

POWER

• The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition
• The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity
• The Difference Between Kingship and Tyranny
• The Complexity of Action

DEATH

• The Mystery of Death
• The Nation as a Diseased Body

LOVE

• Love’s Difficulty
• The Forcefulness of Love
• Love as a Cause of Violence
• The Individual Versus Society
• The Inevitability of Fate

SURREAL

• Magic
• Dreams
• The Impossibility of Certainty

These themes relate to my research as they are all strong themes throughout particular plays by Shakespeare.

The research activities I will undertake in order to explore these themes further include; looking into events happening in today's society relevant to my themes- newspapers. Interview people about the subjects/themes. Look at Picassos life and work - his abstract way of working with the human figure, line, shape and colour.  

Studio Development: Motifs

Develop a broad and exploratory range of visual responses, media investigation and thematic drawing based on the initial research into your chosen author. You will need to expand on your summer brief in order to develop a body of visual starting points for the practical and conceptual investigation of your ideas.. These visual responses should focus on : (a) The "tangible”: The physical world around you such as character,locations, motifs,  objects, people and those aspects of the world that you can visually evidence through drawing, media and visual language.  (b) The “intangible”: The unseen, emotional and conceptual phenomena that affect the way we see the world such as moods, atmosphere, humour, fear, touch, smell and sound. You will then find ways for the tangible and intangible to collide. This on-going imagery production will then continue to feed appropriate and well-researched content for development of practice for Studio Briefs 2 and 3. Making informed, yet also exploratory connections between these briefs is encouraged. Through on-going independent visual responses in drawing / making and supported studio drawing sessions, the aim is for you to generate a wealth of visual material, rich in potential concept, visually diverse and exciting, enhancing the content of your imagery production in the related briefs 2 and 3. It is vital to avoid “stylization” in your developing practice. As educator and practitioner Roderick Mills emphasises in Varoom(Style: Summer 2014: Issue 26, p.16), “with the consumption of imagery speeding up…the appetite for the next ‘trend’ is potentially altering how we value images, and illustration” and he goes on to consider the extent of the authenticity and honesty in the Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935 (Jane Berlo). You are encouraged to find the authenticity and openness in your image-making for your visual journal during this module. Continue to research and explore as you begin to solve problems visually.

I then selected 3 of the motifs relating to Shakespeare's work:

I used 3 pens to create a directory of lines in my sketchbook: 

Using this directory of lines I then created a set of drawings of my chosen motifs, using a single or mixture of this variation of lines, this helped me to understand the effect of line quality on meaning and effect on the illustration:

I chose to use ears/hearing, skulls, and poison/love potion as my motifs. For the work below I chose to change the ear/hearing (from Hamlet) to thumb-biting (from Romeo and Juliet) as I felt this image would be more interesting to work with and bring more atmosphere to the image. 

I created 4 landscape compositions using a range of line work for each as well as exploring with boldness:

First I used shape to represent these, using negative shape for one, keeping in mind the integrity of the edges;

Then I chose paper to represent the motifs in a background, mid-ground and foreground layout;

Next I selected 1 of the motifs to add some level of complexity to by adding collage, a combination of shapes and tones to represent it;

TO DO: Make different ways to present 1 motif using lines and collage. 

PEER REVIEW (above)

Aesthetics

• Takes colour from the collage and uses responding colour choices. 
• Varied mix of pens and media integrate well. 
• Collage used very successfully for definition.
• Good use of frame and filling a page.
• Varying thickness of line.
• Really nice continuation of collage shapes drawn in.
• Varying scales - great exploration. 

Improvements

• To include intangible, perhaps use collage to represent the scale - show undercurrents of the mood/atmosphere.
• Try drawing and collage to convey two different things - murder vs romance.
• Layers - photoshop!

Motif

• Motif is relevent to theme, and conveys a sense of lust and other such emotions often found in Shakespeare's plays.
• Symbolic imagery from Romeo and Juliet.

General Comments

• Picasso 
• Research artists in Journal. 

PEER FEEDBACK:

• The collage faces are nicely varied even though they are the same motif.
• I like the collage faces with black and white lines to show depth and light.
• Use of colour and line really works well,
• Love colour, collages are perfect mix of playful but are visually successful.
• Really lovely stuff in sketchbook.
• The collage with the portraits look ace.
• Perhaps try not to draw portrait very often but I got to admit that you are good. 
• Really like your sketchbook - so much fun! Good experimentation of media, colours and line!

TO DO: Make images combining up to 3 motifs and the intangible to add atmosphere and feeling.

Visual Journal: Sketchbook

Sketchbook work experimenting with themes and ways to portray characters in books and plays by my three chosen authors. 

In this piece I experimented with layering colours using water colour and then selecting specific parts (the eyebrow and eye) to add details in with pen. I think this would be an effective technique if I wanted to convey a specific emphasis on a particular part of the face. For example, in Shakespeare's work eyes are a recurring motif. 

Here I was experimenting with the raven motif in Edgar Allan Poe's work to see how I could combine it with fashion illustration. I like how the use of black and white pen and watercolour has turned out, however I think there needs to be a stronger message/meaning in the work. 

In this water colour and pen illustration I was experimenting with the motif of a raven whilst also looking at how to portray other characters; here I was thinking about Lady Macbeth and portraying her darker side and power - crown. I used Dolce and Gabbanas Spring Summer 15 collection as inspiration as the colours and styling channels power, love and royalty; http://www.dolcegabbana.com/fashion-show/woman-runway/catwalk-gallery/

Here I used a scene from a programme to inspire the content of my work... I chose this scene because the characters are in mourning and suspicious; linking to Shakespeare's Hamlet. I used black pen of varying thickness for this and I really like how drawing the form with a thicker pen allows me to loosen up when drawing from reference. However it would be good to use primary research to reference such as from life or photographs I have taken myself. 

I then experimented with using coloured pencil to add colour. Here I reinterpreted a photograph of FKA twigs because I loved her pose in it and I think that the hands, almost in a prayer sign, and tilted just to her left and her face, with puppy dog eyes, convey a sense of innocence which contradicts and juxtaposes to her 'cool' image. I think the use of contrasting factors and themes would be a great thing to think about when creating my work. 

Here I used ink to experiment with the themes and characters in Shakespeare's plays. I didn't use any reference for this and I found it helpful in allowing my visual thinking to free up however I think some of my proportions etc would have benefitted from some visual reference... this however could take away from the feeling of the work. In future it would be good to experiment with how proportion could portray a message; such as enlarging parts which symbolise other themes in the play, for example the eyes. 

I decided to include flowers in my work to add meaning and symbolise some of the themes within the plays such as mourning and lust.  

Here I used acrylics to experiment with lighter shades of colour. I think these shades are effective in capturing the mystical characters such  as the fairies of the forest in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.