16mm Update

Been wanting to update for a while now, but have had to hold off until we find how we should display our work this year. Still, been busy with flipbooks, stop motion, flash, maya, after effects etc so it's been an exciting first few weeks!

In the mean time though I applied to Bristol Big Screen to get a piece shown on their huge TV screen. It needed to be accessible to people just walking past the screens, so I thought the 16mm film experiments that I did were perfect for this. They're abstract so allow quick in and out viewing, it doesn't rely on sound and it's short enough for it to be viewed entirely on a quick visit.

To submit it I added titles and a fade, so I thought I'd upload the updated film again in it's new version.

People Watching Storyboard

Forgot to add clearer images/photos of some of my exhibition work, so here's an update covering some of those pieces.

Peach Stone

 

Tried out my ancient tablet today to see if it still works and this was the result. It wasn't too bad for something that's coated in dust. I got a bit too used to Lucy's Wacom, but this should help with any future withdrawal symptoms.

Summer Evening Sketch

ELCAF 2013

I had an amazing day yesterday attending the 2nd ELCAF event at York Hall in London! I got to see some great talks, like To publish or to self-publish: that is the question, Character design for comics, toys and animation and I was able to sneak into Matthew Hodson: poetry and pictures (although standing at the back and having bad hearing already, I could only get snatches of it. What I did hear was darkly hilarious though). I came out with a much better understanding about work processes and how difficult the commercial side of illustration can be, but what options are available. Also by hearing about the development of work and the artists' thoughts behind it, it really gave me a better appreciation of their work in general. Plus I saw two animation show reels by Not To Scale and Studio AKA that left me so pumped! Both seem to be trying to push narratives and animation and be original, but in a commercial setting.

As ELCAF is hosted by Nobrow, to celebrate the release of their new book The Burgermat Book by Gavin Lucas, there were lots of burger themed events running, like fake tattoos and a nail bar. Even the hand stamps were burger themed!

If this could stay on my hand forever, I would be happy

Overview from the stage

I'm glad I got there early as by 3pm it got super busy! Everyone there (on the tables and in the talks) was incredibly nice, although this only guilt tripped me into buying more from them! There was a perfect mix of well-known and emerging Illustrators so everyone had something new to discover (and something within their price range).

 

Street Kitchen were there as well serving appropriately named burgers

Lucy's Foghorn Leghorn burger (chicken, bacon, coleslaw & lettuce in a brioche bun)

I had the Butch Cassidy Burger made especially for ELCAF (cheeseburger, lettuce, red onions, mustard & salsa in a brioche bun).

Possibly the best and the messiest burger I have ever eaten

Wall painting as you walked in. ELCAF design by Andy Rementer

Lucy (who seemed to avoid me for most of the day)

Me with my wares

One of the best moments of the day was accidentally meeting Bernardo Carvalho at the Planeta Tangerina table when I bought Praia-Mar and getting my book signed!

I also got to see most of the Secret Walls drawing fight between Luke Pearson and Jack Teagle.

Everyone crowded round for the start of the fight

 Progress:

I had to leave at this point (about 3/4's of the way through), so I didn't get to see the finished wall. It would have been amazing to capture it being drawn as a Vine, but Lucy said no.

Everything I got from ELCAF (inside the tube is a Matthew Hodson screenprint)

Overall it was a fantastic event! The only downside was that the sound on the projector wasn't working in the morning, so the schedule got a bit messed up...and I probably spent too much money.

Foundation Art Exhibition

On Friday the private view of Chesterfield College's Art Exhibition was held, which included works by Foundation and Extended Diploma art students from all specialisms.

It was a great evening and really busy. So much so that everyone and everything started to overheat a bit (including unfortunately the 16mm film projector that I was using so it wouldn't start up).

Despite this I had an amazing time - it was great to see everyone's work, especially from the other specialist areas as I'd not seen any of their pieces before. I was surprised by the textile pieces the most - a lot had some lovely illustrative elements, mixed together with texture and shape, that looked incredible.

Here's some photos of my exhibition space (in the Illustration room) with the projector running.

Looped with spools suspended from the ceiling

My final outcome animation was also shown on the Exhibition showreel.

Highly recommended viewing - the exhibition is on at Chesterfield College from Monday 24th June - Friday 28th June 2013, 9am - 5pm each day.

People Watching

Final Outcome animation for the confirmatory stage and my project on human behaviour.

Vine Animations

Finally joined Twitter and so now I can upload my Vine animations to Blogger!

(It does take a minute or so to load them all up though)

Ignored Etiquette vine.co/v/b2IUHzvzDpb
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Oil Split Pin vine.co/v/b2II9vdeFuO
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Bl-ink vine.co/v/bQXEqVXKqpM
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Eye Test vine.co/v/bQXxVOb7BAh
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Ink Head vine.co/v/bQXIu5wDvbH
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Paint Depth Test vine.co/v/btKd7TLWbmW
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Sandman vine.co/v/bI0bKF2V6rv
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Making A Sandman vine.co/v/bI206PdM057
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Sweep vine.co/v/bIvbngduMlL
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

80% vine.co/v/bImn3vAuiP2
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Audience Observation Method vine.co/v/bImexJxYl1T
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Depth Test vine.co/v/bjFVju3g5Oz
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Sheffield Train Station vine.co/v/bjFx5rEulUm
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow Movement Test vine.co/v/bDJVdtwPdBe
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow Catch Up vine.co/v/bDJ0tQF2EQm
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Dog Walking vine.co/v/bDJ22IDbWPF
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow Man: A Much Quicker Journey vine.co/v/bDJQ06eBHjx
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow View Around The House vine.co/v/bDJQ5W0lr1Q
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow View 1 vine.co/v/bDJUnVpDavD
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Snow Trial vine.co/v/bDJF7qU3PLY
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Gallery Attendant: At Work vine.co/v/bpeluKI3uuI
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

A Man Moves A Curtain vine.co/v/bpeVu0Z5iO3
— Jodie Haslam (@JodiePHaslam) June 11, 2013

Original Rorschach Ending

My People Watching animation ends by the figure disintegrating into Rorschach like ink blots before fading away. Initially this was animated using the mono print plates, but it was extremely messy and I had problems cleaning around the ink blots, so it all looked a bit rough and it all ended a bit too quickly. I didn't have enough control to be able to move the ink blots in a way like the oil and ink tests or to even create defined shapes. 

Here's a video of the original ending, which has since been re-animated and extended using Photoshop:

Zoom Test

Incredibly quick test of mono print plate and light box animation technique, just to see whether movement is clear enough and if the camera can zoom out well or not.

Linocut Flipbook

Mixed feelings about this - it was quite a long process and it's sometimes a bit difficult to flip because of the elongated shape. I tried for 3 speeds of walking, but it's not too obvious in so short a time space. Still the actual linocuts came out great - I thought they'd be too small to show any detail and despite not strictly 'moving', they were easy and quite enjoyable to use.

They made nice lino prints by themselves as well. This set came out a bit blurry because there was too much ink, but the colour and line combination still looks good.

Oil, Ink, Water and Sand

More experiments with materials:

Colour Inks and Oil

Strangely the longer you leave the inks, even without any interaction, the more they merge into just one, almost black colour. I thought there would be clear separation and bright blocks of colour, but they stayed quite small to begin with. The biggest problem was that I think I added too many different colours, which probably caused the quick merger later on.

Colour Inks Silhouette

Came out a lot darker than I thought it would, although I like how the ink creates layers of sizes and colours - gets a bit of depth in there.

Colour Inks, Oil and Sand

Had to be really tentative with this - made it hard to get any good movement out of the inks, but the colours help to make it more interesting.

Ink and Water

Accidental, but I liked the action of the ink diluting into the water.

Mono-paint Experiments

Just trying out some more mono-paint tests, but I'm really liking the results. It seems quite versatile, especially as the printing ink doesn't dry out quickly. Images appear a lot clearer on a light box as well.

Mono-paint Walks

Initially this was a test to see how well images would show up when drawn on a mono-print plate and placed on a light box, but then it became a test to see if this process could cope with small images as well as big, expressive ones for scenes.

It did quite well:

Really missed working expressively though, which ended up in a bit of a crazy, experimental animation afterwards.

The walking was good, but after trying out loops before I wanted to see if this action could be made convincingly into one. It seems to run quite smoothly.

Linocut Loop

Love the look of this, especially the grainy film type quality at the top, but it was a bit exhausting to do at the same time as trying to make a linocut flipbook. Plus whereas the usual worse that I can do is get covered in a material (lately it's been seemingly permanent ink), with this I ended up cutting my hand instead of the lino...as well as getting stained by ink. Worth it though and I'm still surprised at how fluid the motion is.

Printing Ink Painting Animation

Just a quick test - love the energy, but needs a bit of refining for a clearer image. Kind of interested in the shine on the plate as well. 'Printing Ink Painting Animation' seemed too long for a technique name, so I have nicknamed this process 'mono-paint'.

Oil vs Ink

Experiments with oil and ink separately reminded me of the old oil and water resistance test that you'd do in primary school. I wondered whether this might look like a Rorschach test if water based ink was used instead of water - the effect is quite nice.

 
But it's even nicer with a silhouette.

Projector Tests

Few experiments with the projector - just trying to see what happens when 16mm film is projected onto oiled paper, through glass and when using coloured plastics.

Oiled Paper

 

 Painted Glass

 

Colour Plastic and Painted Glass (directly in front)

 

Colour Plastic on Painted Glass

 

Colour Plastic on Oiled Paper

 

Food Court Etiquette - Surreal

(Literal) Extension of the live action Food Court man. I wanted to play around a bit with cuts and the psychology aspect of his behaviour, in particular just how strange it was to see him licking his hand this way. Not sure whether he was as engrossed with it as this video makes him out to be...this probably reflects badly onto me if anything...

Thanks again Lucy for the help.

Food Court Etiquette - Live Action

I was amazed to find out that the original series of John Ryan's Captain Pugwash was broadcast live, with the movement being done directly in front of camera with the use of levers. I wanted to have a go at this method of animation and mistakenly set about it thinking that it wouldn't be too hard...Incidentally this took 6 tries to get right and also produced quite an extensive blooper reel.

Gross Man - Now with added 16mm film background! Try and spot the errors!

Blooper Reel

Thanks go to Lucy for masterfully operating two of the levers.

16mm Film (2)

More experiments using 16mm film - this time using oil-based printing ink and leaving it to soak in water-based ink.

35mm Film Animation

First time animating by scratching into 35mm film and making a gif. Have to say that I'm quite happy with the result (I did expect it to just appear as one large mess of scratches).

And here's what it looks like if Photoshop adds the inbetweens in (horrific, but nice fade). Thought this might save me some time if it worked, but no luck - ah well.

16mm Film Reel (1)

Had the chance to do a few experiments with 16mm film with materials like permanent marker, printing ink, pins, cocktail sticks and even nail varnish.

Played forward:

Backward:

Teapot Flowerpot

Mini-project on the side today - painting a teapot for a family member to use as a plant pot.

Apparently you're not supposed to offer your services for free, but when this family member keeps you in a continuous supply of cake, offering to paint a teapot is the least that I could do.

Strange start: I saw that day a teapot being used as a plant pot in a magazine and then my relative said she had a large teapot that she was going to give away...weird coincidence.

I was going to go for a boring typical spot pattern, but then I saw a design on a teapot of large block colour leaves, almost abstract. It reminded me of St Judes' work, in particular Angie Lewin because of the bright blocks of colour. (I would have posted the image of the block colour teapot, except that it was on ebay and so has now disappeared). Her style is a bit intricate for my teapot and timescale though.

Sprey Birches - Angie Lewin

Image from: http://www.angielewin.co.uk/collections/current-prints/products/spey-birches

I wanted a design that was quite simple and bold for a few reasons: it has to stand out in a garden, it's going to get battered by the elements, so it needs to be easy to re-paint and it's for an older relative, so something a bit out there wouldn't be her cup of tea (pun intended).

As always observations were needed:

The Teapot

The quality of the photos isn't great (I blame the clouds), but I'm not sure about the final design...maybe it's a bit too simple, I perhaps could have used more of the space, but I quite like the overlap and mix of scales. I might add some more items if I get time.

Paint On Glass Animation

Since I've no hope of ever owning a real multiplane camera, I made an extremely basic copy to try perspective tricks with. The first test just involved seeing the effect of moving one glass panel back. It doesn't help that the camera moves as well, but I think this set up works quite well, making creating a sense of depth a bit easier. The only thing is that the frames and viewpoint of the camera mean that you don't just see the action.

In the next test I also tried out paint on glass animation...it went...ok. The main problem was that because there was no outline, the blocks of colour merged some features into others, making the action unclear and sometimes messy. Animating two figures separately was fine, it made times when they overlap easier, but the whole process felt too time consuming, with poor results, for the finished animation. Compared to sand animation, paint on glass felt less immediate, with less personal energy in there as well. The glass helped for scale, but I started to rely on it solely, losing some of the details of the walk of the figure, like a decline in height when he reaches the steps.

Photogram And Sand Split Pin Animation

Another trial, this time just to see whether using a photogram as a background works. I was worried that any animation would simply merge into the background, but by using a piece of glass and the sand split pin, the difference in weight and colour helps to keep them separate. Because the photogram looks so frozen and there's distance because of the glass layer, I wanted to play with this, blocking any intended interaction between the sand figure and the people in the background. It even works in a loop, so you can see the figure being ignored 3 times over!

I quite like how the distance between the figure on the glass and the background can be seen, the only problem is the distracting reflection on the glass - no one needs to see me pouting in the background!

Sand Split Pin Animation

I've been doing some tests using sand and plastic split pin figures...so I thought, why not combine them? The result had the ease of split pin, making the process quicker, but it lost the sweeping energy of the sand. Both techniques have their own benefits, but when the sand's not used directly, the full effect is lost.  Still, I quite like the accidental reflection of my hands and the camera dancing in the background.

Glass and Paint Animation

A tester piece, just to trial out the process. The method was fine - watery acrylic could be applied and wiped from the glass easily and the actual movement is good. Also using glass from a photo frame proved to be useful as the frame held the glass well (most of the time) while I painted it.

Illustration: Sequential Imagery - Thinking Outside of the Box

Below is my storyboard and colour storyboard for the mini-project: Thinking Outside of the Box. Beginning with the premise of there being a matchbox and a match next to it, the match had to get back into the box somehow. I wanted to try and include some character development and a definable narrative, but I didn't want to suddenly give the match limbs and features - that seemed just a bit too surreal for me. Instead I went for a more flexible version of a typical match, which I think works well and is still able to express emotion. I enjoyed the challenge of this project, not so much the limited time scale and late nights that came with it.

Illustration: Sequential Imagery Animation

I've loved working on this project over the past few weeks as I've been able to try some short animation pieces as well as practice drawing storyboards. Really, it just gave me a valid excuse to watch a lot of films, read a lot of books, buy a zoetrope and play around with some classic animation techniques. Videos of these can be seen below - the first starts with a thaumatrope (which I call 'The Passive Aggressive Tea-Drinker') and then heads into two zoetrope experiments, where one of the characters from the project Creatures and Characters makes a re-appearance. 

This second video is the flipbook 'How To Make A Bed', which provides a clear image of what a perfect bed should look like. I left the sound on as a flip book isn't a real flip book unless you hear that distinctive "flack" when it's flipped. (My flipping technique still needs some work though.)

Illustration: Characters

This week long project focused on the creation of characters, although, as typically with Illustration, in perhaps unconventional ways. My favourite way was drawing 3 random shapes in ink, then passing this to someone else and receiving someone else's 3 shapes. We had to select one of the shapes and using the shape as the main form, draw a character. This was passed to someone else again and repeated twice until afterwards we had to give the characters in front of us personality traits. Finally we exchanged sheets again to end up with already formed characters that we had to draw until we knew their design completely, imagining them in different scenarios as well. I loved this way of working as it was incredibly loose and reduced any pressure to immediately come up with an amazing design. When we were given 3 personality traits on Friday and asked to design a character matching them, I found this new way of working great for generating ideas and being a bit different with the designs.

Below are some of my sketchbook pages and character designs from the week.

I love the design of this character - there's so much personality in him just in this one position already (I'm quite annoyed that I didn't design him!)

Given the chance to modify him though I gave him hands to allow better action and lowered his tie below his collar

Nothing harder than trying to make a beaky nose look good in a front view! I took inspiration from Belleville Rendez-vous to help solve it though.

 The Final Colour Test

I wanted his outfit to be as dull as possible so that he could blend into the background, with almost sickly yellow-white skin to show that he often does.

Own Character Design

Personality Traits : Baking, Curvy, Dashing

Luckily it was 'Cake Friday' at college, so there was lots of observational material around. I loved looking at the folds and creases in the cupcake wrappers, which reminded me of old Elizabethan ruffles and the smooth curves of the icing were great to draw.

Initially I was happy with this as my final character design, but I started to find him too static and boring - there was nothing distinctive or unique about him, he looked like a design from Paperchase and he didn't leave any room for actions.

I returned to the ink shapes and this design as the more I looked at him the more his position suggested 'dashing' and his body looked gloppy, like cake mixture.

I really liked the ruffle idea though, so they stayed.

His sticky nature was really fun to play with, particularly on his run.

  
Colour Tests

Just a bit too dark, doesn't suggest cake mixture enough or light heartedness

 Final Choice

Just right! Light beige looks more like traditional cake batter

Overall I found it a great project and a fun week that resulted in some really nice designs and taught me a more natural and inventive way of designing characters that I'll definitely continue to use.