landscape sketches

360 degree rotating cat bookend

This is my spinning cat end animation, we were asked to pick an object and draw it from 12 different angles in order to create a short animation of it spinning. This was really hard as keeping the side the same proved difficult.

Life Drawing process

In these drawings we were trying to portray movement, by drawing ten second poses while we took turns walking across the room or slowly swapping poses.

 

 

We then had a few more tasks, here is the last task, trying to draw someone in 20 minuets, i struggled with these drawings a lot more, as i found it a lot harder to commit to the marks, leaving lot of my drawings really sketchy

Sound sketches

 

 

Here are a mixture of my sound drawings when responding to sound, I found this brief hard as In my head visualising it moving seemed simpler then it as a still image. I tried to get the textures right, being careful about the media I used for each drawing. my first set were more complex as I was listening to the whole sound. I later listened again but only focusing on a few seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sketchbook work

Although I have a few personal Sketchbooks I take around and draw into, this is my smallest one that has gone to places with me most recently. Here I just picked a few from that sketchbook to show.

 

 

Below is Barry Purves interviewing Adam Elliot.

 

Above are a few drawings from watching people waiting for there trains at different stations while I was on the train.

Set, series and sequence

 For this brief we were first given a word randomly and asked to produce 32 images relating in some way to that word. Below are a few of the images I drew as I was given the word 'fish', I tested out different materials and tried to think of different ways to show the word, along with thinking how the smell may look, a close up of the eye or maybe fish eggs, then also looking at foods or fisherman anything that seemed to relate to the word in some way.

 

We were then asked to pick one of the images from our set of 32 and create a series of 8 images from it, below are only 6 of them as 2 have not been scanned in. With this we were asked to explore the different ways, and different drawing techniques we could use to create the set. I enjoyed using water colour and ink most of all.

 

 

I then had to create a 12 frame story board using my character, so I decided to keep it simple and do a small animation of the angler fish catching its pray. I would have liked to re, work the story board and add more directing which I would do if I decide to animate it especially.

 

 

 

For the Dance

For the Dance is a beautiful 3D animation I found of a ballerina, I new an animation about a ballerina would be a good example of spinning characters. Also the fact she is suspended in air means you get to see angles you wouldn't usually have the chance to really see and look at in most animations. it is beautifully done, with keeping very simple focusing only on the characters more so then the backgrounds. especially for a university piece the shadows, the way the skirt spins and the movement is lovely for such a project.

Sensology - Michel Gagne

Sensology is a hand drawn animation created with the use of a Wacon tablet and later put together and edited using Adobe Photoshop. A 2D software called Animo was used to composited and manipulated the frames, with no use of vector animation at any point.

This animation Is a beautiful example of responding to sound, using a mixture of different techniques and textures throughout keeping you engaged through the length of the animation. The use of black and white helps to define the shapes and leave a more christ feel to the animation. One of the most impressive things to me about this animation is the timings, as the shapes and sounds are constantly changing yet they don't lag from each other at any point. I cant imagine story boarding something like this.. couldn't of been easy.

When looking at characters doing a 360˚ i found these as a good example as it is used alot in animation, and looks beautiful when done well. The first four gifs are from disney movies, and although the styles seem to change slightly the first two have a similar movement to them with with timing and just the way there body's seem to move around even though the amount of time between each being created is quite a large gap.

With princess jasmine here its nice the way her legs just flow around, looking very graceful and guinea like, with the hair moving with her. Below that we have a cute twirl from the princess and the frog which has a more cute, but less elegant spin.

The first one below is from batman of harly-quinn spinning around repeatedly on tip toes, a very different style of movement compared to the disney ones but also i think that is part of the nature of the program. Below thats is a beautiful studio ghibli spin, which is very fast and a lot simply also then the disney ones above although done in the same way.

I struggled doing a spinning object as keeping the right proportions was seen very difficult for me.

Where are you drawing and why?

Where are you drawing?
I am drawing around durham city, back where i live up north, around leeds and in my friends home.

Why have you chosen to draw there? 
Durham because its beautiful, and the cathidral especially. The courtyard is a place i love so really wanted to get some sketches in from there. Leeds because although i have been here a while there are alot of beautiful buildings i havnt stopped and properly looked at so i thought this would give me a chance to really look at the city i live in. A friends house as you never really pay much attention to whats there and this was a new place for me so i thought it would be good to really look at the way they have there home. 

What are you expecting to see, what is of interest to you? 
I am expecting to see more detail in the buildings and things around me, see the work that was put in and appreciate my surroundings more. the small details are of great interest to me once there noticed and appreciated. 

What do you think you are going to draw whilst there, (a vista that can be zoomed into with a camera, an interior scene, stairs, lifts???) stairs, stone work, public places meaning having to draw outlines of people possibly. 

How are you going to draw? (Are you going to do a series of short observational drawings, make notes about the sights, sounds smells, conversations, actions, movements and interactions of people, take photographs and refer to them later?) i did a mixture depending on the time i want to take photos of the places also for later reference incace i want to add detailing or colours.

What media are you going to use?
a mixture of media as thats something i want to explore further.

What about light, shadow, colour, texture, shape, composition, perspective.? How can these be used as storytelling devices. they all help set the mood of a scene, exaduration could be added in a film, maybe duller colours and shadows for an eary part of an animation, but the same scene could use bright colours and get a very different feel to the story.

Are there famous/infamous stories about the spaces that you already know? 
Yes, the courtyard in durham cathedral has a few stories, one main one being that a few scenes from harry potter were filmed there, they also protect local bats that live in the courtyard.

Sound Animations

Drip Drip from Bex on Vimeo.

My first response here was to a drip from a tap, when listening to this i could hear two separate sounds. One was the drip its self, then there was a slight secondary sound like an echo sound. i tried to capture the other noise using the yellow and how i imagine the sounds moving.

The timing is slightly off on this, especially the second drip but i am happy with its colours and style, if i worked into it again i would probably build it up and work a bit more on timing especially the timing of the yellow part.



Refrigorator from Bex on Vimeo.

This was meant to be how i see the white noise coming from a refrigerator, the buzzing noise being the messy, moving zigzags and  the line being the dull humming noise you can hear underneath, the dot shows the consistency of the sound and how i feel it moves and feels.

Boing from Bex on Vimeo.

The last one didnt work out how i wanted it to, as i wanted the red squiggle to be more like a spring style with the boing sound and the blue was the other sound that seemed to be in the background, bouncing off it, and how they seemed to be together in the bounce.

Firewall - Aaron Sherwood and Mike Allison

Firewall is an interactive audiovisual experience created by Aaron Sherwood and Mike Allison, two tech-artists working with media installations.

I looked at this piece of work for sound because although it not exactly responding to the sound, in a way the touch creates the sound which in return creates the beautiful images from the touch as a response, allowing three senses to work together to create a beautiful animation what moves around the firewall with touch, and is ever changing, along with the sounds. 

I love the idea of this as you can really get involved, and get enjoyment out of it, interactive art has always intrigued me and here with the fire like animations visuals seeming to mimic the sounds, the pitches and intensities it seemed a perfect way to show sound in a more visual and responsive manner. 

disney character designs

Here i looked at Disney character designs for for life drawing, how they drew the characters, captured the movement and the proportions. Above is drawings from peter pan in a gif showing the movements, along with the notes and scores for the tests of the movements. You can see the arcs and the movements of the characters along with the markings.


I wanted to look at how they moved there characters, focused on frame rates and exaggerated movements, i managed to find original drawings looking at timings and movement, like how the tail swishes with robyn hood and the high swings of the limbs.

Little Monkey - Dalkhafine

Little monkey is a beautiful student animation by Dalkhafine when she graduated, although she has produced a number of animations since this. The first thing that stands out when watching this animation is the colours used, along with the textures. It is a very mesmerising piece about a young monkey being initiated by his master into adulthood, where he has to fight fire which is a metaphor for his fear of growing up. It is beautifully done and very charming, full of movement and beautiful characters styled in a very native way, following styles used within asia.

Along with the colours the story its self is very simple and effective using little speech and using mostly symbolism to to help explain the story on something we all have often feared and had to overcome.
The set design is beautiful, simple and full of colour which is something i would love to look more at in the future and how symbols can stand for so much.

Joe Luratos - street art

Joe Luratos uses his artwork as a way to explore and document his own personal experiences by places miniature figures all over the urban landscapes to create a dialogue between his world and the world in which these figures are seem to live in.

"They are the questions I have, the conclusions drawn, the love, disgust, joy and sadness contained. Essentially, I paint what I know...or what I'm trying to understand."

The pieces no matter the size are left in public spaces, and left to interact with there environment and community. He hopes each piece will establish an intimate connection with the viewer in the "here-and-now".

I wanted to look at his work not only because of the strong meaning and messages behind the pieces but also because of there animated characteristics feeling almost alive, how they really do seem to interact with there environment. they almost feel alive as if they are waiting for something. They are also a good example of life drawing and a brief we did where we looked at movement and how the body looks when for example it is pushing a force or even just at rest in a particular position Lurato has managed to capture the essence of this in his work, managing to capture how they must feel and the possible thoughts running through the characters heads.