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The Plot
May. 7th, 2009 | 03:33 am
IT'S STORYTIME! Well in a way. It's actually time to tell a story about trying to tell a story. It's been a long past couple of weeks with this project, and in all honesty I had no idea it was going to shape up like this until ... yesterday. I was just illustrating for the slides when lo, it became a little story all it's own. So far I've had nothing but good things come out of getting carried away this semester, so.. what the hell, lets roll with it! : D
( The Plot )
( The Plot )
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Multiple Sketch-Pad Disorder
Apr. 27th, 2009 | 08:10 am
Hello digital logbook, it's another stunning monday and the semester is growing terrifyingly near to it's end. What are we now, two weeks and two days? Yikes! There really is never enough time.
Anyhow, this midweek post is about our studio practice. We talked about this in class last Thursday, we went around the room and everybody sort of took a turn commenting on what they do when they're doing stuff. Are we loners, do we prefer to be surrounded by noise, music, scenery, all the little factors we set up that enhance and enable our work practices. Today I get to dig up something in my logbook that demonstrates my practice.
There is one thing about my logbooks that illustrates my work, one that throughout the years has helped to build a fire-hazard under my bed: I am a keeper of multiple sketch pads. Back in the day, I generally kept one and drew everything in it. Nowadays, I have preferences. For instance!
Here's a bite from my Ideation and Process sketchbook, relating to my individual project. This is one of the pages from the 9 obstructions assignment, and so it's covered in writing, musing, troubleshooting, and a couple of doodles. This semester, I've really been using this logbook to journal-document what I've been doing, so whenever I have anything written especially, it goes here. I won't make 'finished' art in it, the paper is too slick. The size is also funny and I don't like the binding. But it's a very 'closed' book, and I feel comfortable writing and doodling in it. I know other people have to read it, but out of my sketchpads, I can consider it something one on one - a battleground in which ideas are cracked together like coconuts.
-----
I came to a point in my project where it was time to start drawing "for real". I began by making a few stray doodles in the pages of my logbook, but the paper was not growing on me and I found myself reaching for my strathmore pad. I wound up going out and buying an entirely different sketch pad for this part, because I wanted to keep the work for this project from getting lost in my personal doodles - to create a focused space for this part of the project.
It will probably grow fuller with concept doodles from the end of the semester on, but for now, it's a relatively freshly created forum for strictly developmental story-sketches. Character art and scenery goes here. Even the size factors in to why it in particular gets to be the sketch-pad for the job, but sometimes i'm not sure why. For this one, it made sense to me on the grounds that i would be essentially sketching single character shots and doodles of scenery, no need for a larger 9 x 11 or anything. Keep it condensed!
----
But wait, there's another one. I have a third sketch pad now, for graphite drawings - Doodles to be digitally rendered do not go in here. I am toying with the idea of making the actual illustrations for the project like this, inspired by the illustration style of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but also by the urge to play with blending stumps again. I used to use them all the time, but I've never created anything fully tonal to be my finished art. So i'm scratching the back of my brain for everything we covered in Drawing, and just having fun. I keep referencing Hugo Cabret as kind of a ground zero 'how to', though it's not at all a tutorial.
Part of the reasoning behind the birth of this sketch-pad is I want to adopt a style for this that fuses pop culture with something a little less focused on a particular style school. Im definitely more for the eastern cartoons than the western. I love their storytelling, the expressiveness, the colors, I think it's great. But I don't want to pidgeonhole the work i'm doing visually into any one category, plus I think more people would enjoy it this way. It's pushing my work further. It's also a little problematic, I jumped into the art for this assuming I'd be taking it in the direction I normally do.. but these are things that tend to develop mid-way. It's just the nature of the beast it seems = =;. Luckily, this is what this project is about.
Anyway as you probably guessed, there was no way I was going to make these drawings in my concept pad, nor in the process book. Both were too small for my liking. The concept pad had a workable binding, but the sketchbook I bought for this one has some of the nicest feeling paper I have ever touched. It's hard bound like a book, and it lays perfectly flat even if you open it at the middle. It was about six dollars. I was sold the moment my friend Naki showed me hers.
So yeah! My studio practice relies a lot on specific spaces for the work I'm doing. Outside of ideation and process, I'm currently keeping four other active sketch pads, all for various purposes:
This one's a large Strathmore drawing pad, 11x14. I say large, its just larger than most I keep. Anyway I bought it last spring to be a process book for the same story I'm working on now! But really, it evolved into a sequential concept pad, so it's mainly home to a lot of comic and animation thumbnails plus a few scroodles.
-----
This one's a Strathmore drawing pad too, but a 9 x 12. I rotate this one with....
..this sketch pad, so between the two of them I can draw big or small depending on how im feeling. Sometimes I need to be cramped, sometimes I'm not into it. The work in these pads usually consists of art that's going to be digitized. I do a lot of my coloring digitally, but I always sketch traditionally these days. The quality of the art ranges from very very loose to very very finished, though the big one (up top) is just a baby and has a lot of filling out to do.
----
And one more, my watercolor pad. It's fairly new, I don't like to paint so I decided to really try getting into it. It's a Canson pad, good sized, and all that goes in here is watercolors. So far the above is all i've managed to finish, but I am going to try and fill out the pages over summer. Fingers crossed!
----
I also keep every sketch pad I either finish or abandon, so I have a huge collection of old art and process back home in the attic. ...My big sister keeps trying to get me to throw them away.
Anyhow, this midweek post is about our studio practice. We talked about this in class last Thursday, we went around the room and everybody sort of took a turn commenting on what they do when they're doing stuff. Are we loners, do we prefer to be surrounded by noise, music, scenery, all the little factors we set up that enhance and enable our work practices. Today I get to dig up something in my logbook that demonstrates my practice.
There is one thing about my logbooks that illustrates my work, one that throughout the years has helped to build a fire-hazard under my bed: I am a keeper of multiple sketch pads. Back in the day, I generally kept one and drew everything in it. Nowadays, I have preferences. For instance!
Here's a bite from my Ideation and Process sketchbook, relating to my individual project. This is one of the pages from the 9 obstructions assignment, and so it's covered in writing, musing, troubleshooting, and a couple of doodles. This semester, I've really been using this logbook to journal-document what I've been doing, so whenever I have anything written especially, it goes here. I won't make 'finished' art in it, the paper is too slick. The size is also funny and I don't like the binding. But it's a very 'closed' book, and I feel comfortable writing and doodling in it. I know other people have to read it, but out of my sketchpads, I can consider it something one on one - a battleground in which ideas are cracked together like coconuts.
-----
I came to a point in my project where it was time to start drawing "for real". I began by making a few stray doodles in the pages of my logbook, but the paper was not growing on me and I found myself reaching for my strathmore pad. I wound up going out and buying an entirely different sketch pad for this part, because I wanted to keep the work for this project from getting lost in my personal doodles - to create a focused space for this part of the project.
It will probably grow fuller with concept doodles from the end of the semester on, but for now, it's a relatively freshly created forum for strictly developmental story-sketches. Character art and scenery goes here. Even the size factors in to why it in particular gets to be the sketch-pad for the job, but sometimes i'm not sure why. For this one, it made sense to me on the grounds that i would be essentially sketching single character shots and doodles of scenery, no need for a larger 9 x 11 or anything. Keep it condensed!
----
But wait, there's another one. I have a third sketch pad now, for graphite drawings - Doodles to be digitally rendered do not go in here. I am toying with the idea of making the actual illustrations for the project like this, inspired by the illustration style of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but also by the urge to play with blending stumps again. I used to use them all the time, but I've never created anything fully tonal to be my finished art. So i'm scratching the back of my brain for everything we covered in Drawing, and just having fun. I keep referencing Hugo Cabret as kind of a ground zero 'how to', though it's not at all a tutorial.
Part of the reasoning behind the birth of this sketch-pad is I want to adopt a style for this that fuses pop culture with something a little less focused on a particular style school. Im definitely more for the eastern cartoons than the western. I love their storytelling, the expressiveness, the colors, I think it's great. But I don't want to pidgeonhole the work i'm doing visually into any one category, plus I think more people would enjoy it this way. It's pushing my work further. It's also a little problematic, I jumped into the art for this assuming I'd be taking it in the direction I normally do.. but these are things that tend to develop mid-way. It's just the nature of the beast it seems = =;. Luckily, this is what this project is about.
Anyway as you probably guessed, there was no way I was going to make these drawings in my concept pad, nor in the process book. Both were too small for my liking. The concept pad had a workable binding, but the sketchbook I bought for this one has some of the nicest feeling paper I have ever touched. It's hard bound like a book, and it lays perfectly flat even if you open it at the middle. It was about six dollars. I was sold the moment my friend Naki showed me hers.
So yeah! My studio practice relies a lot on specific spaces for the work I'm doing. Outside of ideation and process, I'm currently keeping four other active sketch pads, all for various purposes:
This one's a large Strathmore drawing pad, 11x14. I say large, its just larger than most I keep. Anyway I bought it last spring to be a process book for the same story I'm working on now! But really, it evolved into a sequential concept pad, so it's mainly home to a lot of comic and animation thumbnails plus a few scroodles.
-----
This one's a Strathmore drawing pad too, but a 9 x 12. I rotate this one with....
..this sketch pad, so between the two of them I can draw big or small depending on how im feeling. Sometimes I need to be cramped, sometimes I'm not into it. The work in these pads usually consists of art that's going to be digitized. I do a lot of my coloring digitally, but I always sketch traditionally these days. The quality of the art ranges from very very loose to very very finished, though the big one (up top) is just a baby and has a lot of filling out to do.
----
And one more, my watercolor pad. It's fairly new, I don't like to paint so I decided to really try getting into it. It's a Canson pad, good sized, and all that goes in here is watercolors. So far the above is all i've managed to finish, but I am going to try and fill out the pages over summer. Fingers crossed!
----
I also keep every sketch pad I either finish or abandon, so I have a huge collection of old art and process back home in the attic. ...My big sister keeps trying to get me to throw them away.
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Meow!
Apr. 22nd, 2009 | 11:48 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTxwAyh_
Cat video! But a sentimental cat video. Actually I locked onto it for the scenery, I love garbage filled alleyways. But cats are also a part of my work, in many stories I've worked on before. They may not be as frequent as trees, but in their defense, they don't spring naturally out of the ground and would look very bizarre if not disconcerting if seen as a forest. That may be too many cats. Then, they would probably start fighting, and it would be noisy and unpleasant.
Now that i've thoroughly diverted from any sensible train of thought, everything is still running along. I feel like I've got a bad case of middle-mindedness, that dreadful point in the process where everything is in motion at the same time and you start to float. On a good note, I know for sure how i'm going to tell this story of mine!
Inspired by Nawlz, I'd like to try and build on the concept of a navigational comic. Sort of like the old pick-a-path adventures (what ever happened to those?), only incorporating a lot more art. On the web, the illustrations would be bitmapped - you would be able to find links within the image that would lead to a new scene, a new route or even an offshoot to the story. It would still be a linear story, it will go from a point a to a point b, but there's going to be a lot to explore along the way to help pad it out.
It helps a lot to have that kind of attribute. The setting of my story is a little complicated, I'd really rather not have to randomly inject explanations into the main story. Giving the option to "explore" the setting, I think readers could get their own feel for what's happening in the works, and build a better sense of atmosphere rather than just following the storyline alone.
Of course the deviations would progress the plot in a strange direction, and some of them will dead end, this also adds another facet to how this could work. I mean if it got really intricate, a person would be able to read the story multiple times, having a different take on it each time. Who doesn't love the multiple ending? ^ ^.
It's a different spin on just trying to write the comic or the novel with the illustrations, both of which I normally get over-crazy about and quit. I definitely didn't expect it, but hey if it does one thing, it gets trees back into the project as more than just a background element: the story, all of it's deviations and twists, if mapped out visually would resemble a tree. And that map is what the final product of this process-project is going to be : 3
Cat video! But a sentimental cat video. Actually I locked onto it for the scenery, I love garbage filled alleyways. But cats are also a part of my work, in many stories I've worked on before. They may not be as frequent as trees, but in their defense, they don't spring naturally out of the ground and would look very bizarre if not disconcerting if seen as a forest. That may be too many cats. Then, they would probably start fighting, and it would be noisy and unpleasant.
Now that i've thoroughly diverted from any sensible train of thought, everything is still running along. I feel like I've got a bad case of middle-mindedness, that dreadful point in the process where everything is in motion at the same time and you start to float. On a good note, I know for sure how i'm going to tell this story of mine!
Inspired by Nawlz, I'd like to try and build on the concept of a navigational comic. Sort of like the old pick-a-path adventures (what ever happened to those?), only incorporating a lot more art. On the web, the illustrations would be bitmapped - you would be able to find links within the image that would lead to a new scene, a new route or even an offshoot to the story. It would still be a linear story, it will go from a point a to a point b, but there's going to be a lot to explore along the way to help pad it out.
It helps a lot to have that kind of attribute. The setting of my story is a little complicated, I'd really rather not have to randomly inject explanations into the main story. Giving the option to "explore" the setting, I think readers could get their own feel for what's happening in the works, and build a better sense of atmosphere rather than just following the storyline alone.
Of course the deviations would progress the plot in a strange direction, and some of them will dead end, this also adds another facet to how this could work. I mean if it got really intricate, a person would be able to read the story multiple times, having a different take on it each time. Who doesn't love the multiple ending? ^ ^.
It's a different spin on just trying to write the comic or the novel with the illustrations, both of which I normally get over-crazy about and quit. I definitely didn't expect it, but hey if it does one thing, it gets trees back into the project as more than just a background element: the story, all of it's deviations and twists, if mapped out visually would resemble a tree. And that map is what the final product of this process-project is going to be : 3
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A bite!!
Apr. 20th, 2009 | 10:37 am
I asked on my DA if anybody out there knew of some sweet modes of storytelling, and if they did, to send me a link. A fellow deviant, (not as in they commit unsavory acts, but everyone on deviantart is referred to as a deviant. It's the namesake,) Vandalk posted me a link to this one:
http://www.nawlz.com/
My instant reaction was "what do I do now?" but having navigated in, this thing's a beauty. Auditory, the flow, the navigation is something I'd never even thought of. I don't think I could do anything of that magnitude, but it would be amazing to build each part of the series as a website, like the old text RPGs from back before shiny graphics replaced good storytelling.
I've been derailed again. Thanks, Vandalk! (that sounds sarcastic, but it's not - it's a good thing!) I'll have to be sure to include a thanks to everyone in my presentation.
http://www.nawlz.com/
My instant reaction was "what do I do now?" but having navigated in, this thing's a beauty. Auditory, the flow, the navigation is something I'd never even thought of. I don't think I could do anything of that magnitude, but it would be amazing to build each part of the series as a website, like the old text RPGs from back before shiny graphics replaced good storytelling.
I've been derailed again. Thanks, Vandalk! (that sounds sarcastic, but it's not - it's a good thing!) I'll have to be sure to include a thanks to everyone in my presentation.
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And the gears turn..
Apr. 20th, 2009 | 09:59 am
Cripes! I've been working in my logbook a little obsessively, I got on a train and there I went. Digital logbook, can you forgive me?
Today i'm continuing on with character designs for Crow, but so much has happened since the last time I updated. To quickly break it down-
-I went to class.
-I wrote a lot.
-I gathered a lot of information that I thought i would never think about again.
-I worked on the story 9 different ways:
as a recipe
with only font (as in the graphic font, not as in writing.)
backwards
as a music montage
from the perspective of a cat
as a dialogue
including trees
in one paragraph
with one word, one picture, of one mark
-I went to class, I realized I am still bad at explaining my story. Which, at the time was not finished. But i did way better talking about it this time than last time! Which should let you know that the first time I tried to make mention of it was disastrous. I'm expecting good things if this keeps up, and have begun assaulting people with information on it whether or not they ask me for it.
-I wrote more on the story, different configurations, different plot points and tries. Rearrange, rearrange, got frustrated.
-Nearly gave up. Took a break, fussed with character designs to make myself feel better.
-Had an epiphany, story came full circle. I taped a cougar to the door of my room in celebration. Im not joking.
-Executed a draft of the plan for my presentation, have begun padding it out.
-Characters designed, pencils are finished. Two are completely done, and have been posted to my Deviantart for critique, feedback, and to help rescue my gallery from the abyss it so frequently sinks into.
http://shirotsuki.deviantart.com/art/Ra
http://shirotsuki.deviantart.com/art/Ed
I also typed a lot about my process in the entry for each of the images, so see those links for further info on that. Im so excited too, Deviantart is actually a bit more feedback-tastic than it used to be!
-plan is to finish one of the 7 designs each day and to continue to work on the presentation, which im hoping to do a powerpoint. IT WILL INCLUDE: (ive put what i've already got in bold, everything else is in progress.)
a grandma statement
the setting and backstory
the characters
the synopsis, a visual outline
the process
an example of how i want to tell it
a link to a blog where i will update with news about the series and eventually link a website to
at least one full-blown illustration
It looks like.. a pretty good sized project I guess. So far i'm finishing the character art at a rate of 1 per day, and in the meantime working my tail off on everything else simultaneously. The project is continuously shifting and shaping, but as long as it is moving forward to the goals I am along for the ride. Those being:
1- Establish a story
2- Work out the means of telling the story
3- Take note of how it comes together - the process is the project, one day i'm going to need it for another story no doubt.
So much to do. But at least i know where i'm headed now, more or less!
Today i'm continuing on with character designs for Crow, but so much has happened since the last time I updated. To quickly break it down-
-I went to class.
-I wrote a lot.
-I gathered a lot of information that I thought i would never think about again.
-I worked on the story 9 different ways:
as a recipe
with only font (as in the graphic font, not as in writing.)
backwards
as a music montage
from the perspective of a cat
as a dialogue
including trees
in one paragraph
with one word, one picture, of one mark
-I went to class, I realized I am still bad at explaining my story. Which, at the time was not finished. But i did way better talking about it this time than last time! Which should let you know that the first time I tried to make mention of it was disastrous. I'm expecting good things if this keeps up, and have begun assaulting people with information on it whether or not they ask me for it.
-I wrote more on the story, different configurations, different plot points and tries. Rearrange, rearrange, got frustrated.
-Nearly gave up. Took a break, fussed with character designs to make myself feel better.
-Had an epiphany, story came full circle. I taped a cougar to the door of my room in celebration. Im not joking.
-Executed a draft of the plan for my presentation, have begun padding it out.
-Characters designed, pencils are finished. Two are completely done, and have been posted to my Deviantart for critique, feedback, and to help rescue my gallery from the abyss it so frequently sinks into.
http://shirotsuki.deviantart.com/art/Ra
http://shirotsuki.deviantart.com/art/Ed
I also typed a lot about my process in the entry for each of the images, so see those links for further info on that. Im so excited too, Deviantart is actually a bit more feedback-tastic than it used to be!
-plan is to finish one of the 7 designs each day and to continue to work on the presentation, which im hoping to do a powerpoint. IT WILL INCLUDE: (ive put what i've already got in bold, everything else is in progress.)
a grandma statement
the setting and backstory
the characters
the synopsis, a visual outline
the process
an example of how i want to tell it
a link to a blog where i will update with news about the series and eventually link a website to
at least one full-blown illustration
It looks like.. a pretty good sized project I guess. So far i'm finishing the character art at a rate of 1 per day, and in the meantime working my tail off on everything else simultaneously. The project is continuously shifting and shaping, but as long as it is moving forward to the goals I am along for the ride. Those being:
1- Establish a story
2- Work out the means of telling the story
3- Take note of how it comes together - the process is the project, one day i'm going to need it for another story no doubt.
So much to do. But at least i know where i'm headed now, more or less!
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"Giant Waves, Fireflies..."
Apr. 16th, 2009 | 12:01 am
Ooooooooh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTysF1E4
Yes I realize I have done a lot of youtubing, but I can't help it. I'm being "monkey minded", and I like going from link to link to link finding things. And when your friends are media majors, you get subjected to stuff like this.
This is "I lived on the moon" by kwoon. I don't know very much about them, but this has been stuck into my head very solidly for the past several days and I've been growing increasingly obsessed with the rambling little melody the piece is set to. I finally looked up the lyrics today. They're strangely sweet, I didn't expect them all to be in english!
And, of course, that's probably the coolest tree monster thing ever. Go singing tree thing! Additionally though, this video is a mastery of timing. One of my obstructions was to "set it to music," as in a photomontage as the final instead of the website. "I Lived on the Moon" is so well timed to the music, sometimes the percussion and instruments sound like sound effects for the music. Then I get all fired up and crazy inspired.
..to paint.. in watercolor.
MONKEYMINDED!
------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfTGScoi
This is another example of what I'm talking about with "put it to music." This is a fan-made video somebody did just by using their line drawings like keyframes to the music. I like this format, I think I'd like to try making the elements move slightly just to make it feel less stuffy. I don't think I'd have time to really animate it, nor the expertise.. there's so little time to do this, and i'm dancing around everything else.. try as I might to not let things stomp on each others's toes. Tis the plight of the finals.
---
One thing I know for certain, I'm adding trees into the imagery. I've felt bad, like I've diverted too far off my semester topic even if it is present in the way Ive been thinking all semester long. I love trees! I love everything they stand for, so I want my work to continue to reflect them. One thing in Crow that has always persisted is the industrial city-scape setting, so.. I'm going to try changing that up. Maybe I can use one of my remaining obstructions on that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTysF1E4
Yes I realize I have done a lot of youtubing, but I can't help it. I'm being "monkey minded", and I like going from link to link to link finding things. And when your friends are media majors, you get subjected to stuff like this.
This is "I lived on the moon" by kwoon. I don't know very much about them, but this has been stuck into my head very solidly for the past several days and I've been growing increasingly obsessed with the rambling little melody the piece is set to. I finally looked up the lyrics today. They're strangely sweet, I didn't expect them all to be in english!
And, of course, that's probably the coolest tree monster thing ever. Go singing tree thing! Additionally though, this video is a mastery of timing. One of my obstructions was to "set it to music," as in a photomontage as the final instead of the website. "I Lived on the Moon" is so well timed to the music, sometimes the percussion and instruments sound like sound effects for the music. Then I get all fired up and crazy inspired.
..to paint.. in watercolor.
MONKEYMINDED!
------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfTGScoi
This is another example of what I'm talking about with "put it to music." This is a fan-made video somebody did just by using their line drawings like keyframes to the music. I like this format, I think I'd like to try making the elements move slightly just to make it feel less stuffy. I don't think I'd have time to really animate it, nor the expertise.. there's so little time to do this, and i'm dancing around everything else.. try as I might to not let things stomp on each others's toes. Tis the plight of the finals.
---
One thing I know for certain, I'm adding trees into the imagery. I've felt bad, like I've diverted too far off my semester topic even if it is present in the way Ive been thinking all semester long. I love trees! I love everything they stand for, so I want my work to continue to reflect them. One thing in Crow that has always persisted is the industrial city-scape setting, so.. I'm going to try changing that up. Maybe I can use one of my remaining obstructions on that?
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9 Obstructions - "The Recipe Is Wrong!"
Apr. 13th, 2009 | 09:04 am
9 obstructions time!
For my midweek post this week, I have to post the most dramatic departure from my project proposal. This has been a little wonky figuring it out, because at the moment everything pertaining to the manifestation of my project proposal is like a delicate web of chopped liver.. it's just kind of shredded to bits and all laid out. AND IT SMELLS LIKE MEAT!
Maybe I should have some coffee before I go completely nuts?
Anyway, it does not actually smell like meat. And that has nothing to do with the next part, despite my using Beef Stew as my recipe for this.
OBSTRUCTION #1
Tell the story as a Recipe
In class we watched the "5 obstructions," in which a director (i think?) afflicted his pupil with five arbitrarily (it seemed) chosen tasks pertaining to the remaking of a modernish piece of film called "The Perfect Human." To test him! Or to rattle his cage? It was pretty sadistic. Anyway, now my class has to do 9 obstructions to our own pieces. I feel awkward, like my feet are on backwards. I first thought I should need some direction before I'm able to actually do this assignment, "crap, what do I do?"
It dawned on me that this was a good opportunity to really jostle my pieces around better. Since i'm in week 2, I now need to be looking seriously at and investigating everything I've gathered so far pertaining to this project in order to get a couple of good drafts on a synopsis going. This is a great way to get some clues!
My individual project's goal is to tell a story. So, my deviations from my proposal will be challenges to how this will be done. It will kind of borrow and twist on the first week's task, which was to just focus on and grab up everything I could remember about the series. The troublesome part was that in order to subject it to obstruction, I needed a few keys. So, here is my "perfect human:"
Crow is/has (thus far):
A Character driven story
A conflict, whether or not it's okay to affect and change the world these characters are both a part of and outside of, who has the right to, who has the right to decide if a person has that right.
A main character who is haphazard in his ability to cause change, and oblivious to most of the conflict.
set in an industrial/city setting, to emphasize systematic, cyclic lifestyle. "day in, day out."
Symbolism! Machinery, clockworks are always frequent members of the scenery, and I normally wind up throwing them on everything for good measure. They represent the "system," underlying structure of life as we know it, are objects the characters of concern can see and manipulate.
....I definitely wasn't planning to try and tell the story in any form until I felt like I was more comfortable in the soup I was standing in.
So I picked a soup recipe from the cookbook I got for Christmas a few years back, and defaced it with my new colored pens. I picked soup because it was representational of the problem I have right now - a total lack of order, stuff is being thrown together and tried out. The recipe turned out to be a great format for what I was doing, and by putting this obstruction together it helped me narrow down a KEY POINT that I can build on from here:
"The recipe is wrong."
Write that down!! Or.. tape that down.. I probably shouldn't have done that to my cook book, but to be honest it's a silly soup recipe and I probably wouldn't've used it anyway. And it worked out for this so I don't think I feel too bad. Anyway, the writing all over the recipe is a passive argument between parties over whether or not this recipe works. Both have their own opinions, both impose their opinions on the page and on each other. At the bottom I wrote "but it was fine before.." as something apart from the argument, outside of it.
Things that came up were no characters, which was instantly difficult for me. I always tell stories through characters, I guess in this one though you could think of the viewpoints as characters, even though they're just writing on the page. (A couple of the obstructions I'd thought of has a lot to do with turning my obsession of using characters to relate story on it's ear, as a means of knocking me loose.)
BUT! It's time to move on again, must keep moving. I don't know if this is the most dramatic departure that there will be in the bunch, but it's definitely not something I would have tried to do, nor did I expect it would do a decent job relating what I could scrape together up until now.
For my midweek post this week, I have to post the most dramatic departure from my project proposal. This has been a little wonky figuring it out, because at the moment everything pertaining to the manifestation of my project proposal is like a delicate web of chopped liver.. it's just kind of shredded to bits and all laid out. AND IT SMELLS LIKE MEAT!
Maybe I should have some coffee before I go completely nuts?
Anyway, it does not actually smell like meat. And that has nothing to do with the next part, despite my using Beef Stew as my recipe for this.
OBSTRUCTION #1
Tell the story as a Recipe
In class we watched the "5 obstructions," in which a director (i think?) afflicted his pupil with five arbitrarily (it seemed) chosen tasks pertaining to the remaking of a modernish piece of film called "The Perfect Human." To test him! Or to rattle his cage? It was pretty sadistic. Anyway, now my class has to do 9 obstructions to our own pieces. I feel awkward, like my feet are on backwards. I first thought I should need some direction before I'm able to actually do this assignment, "crap, what do I do?"
It dawned on me that this was a good opportunity to really jostle my pieces around better. Since i'm in week 2, I now need to be looking seriously at and investigating everything I've gathered so far pertaining to this project in order to get a couple of good drafts on a synopsis going. This is a great way to get some clues!
My individual project's goal is to tell a story. So, my deviations from my proposal will be challenges to how this will be done. It will kind of borrow and twist on the first week's task, which was to just focus on and grab up everything I could remember about the series. The troublesome part was that in order to subject it to obstruction, I needed a few keys. So, here is my "perfect human:"
Crow is/has (thus far):
A Character driven story
A conflict, whether or not it's okay to affect and change the world these characters are both a part of and outside of, who has the right to, who has the right to decide if a person has that right.
A main character who is haphazard in his ability to cause change, and oblivious to most of the conflict.
set in an industrial/city setting, to emphasize systematic, cyclic lifestyle. "day in, day out."
Symbolism! Machinery, clockworks are always frequent members of the scenery, and I normally wind up throwing them on everything for good measure. They represent the "system," underlying structure of life as we know it, are objects the characters of concern can see and manipulate.
....I definitely wasn't planning to try and tell the story in any form until I felt like I was more comfortable in the soup I was standing in.
So I picked a soup recipe from the cookbook I got for Christmas a few years back, and defaced it with my new colored pens. I picked soup because it was representational of the problem I have right now - a total lack of order, stuff is being thrown together and tried out. The recipe turned out to be a great format for what I was doing, and by putting this obstruction together it helped me narrow down a KEY POINT that I can build on from here:
"The recipe is wrong."
Write that down!! Or.. tape that down.. I probably shouldn't have done that to my cook book, but to be honest it's a silly soup recipe and I probably wouldn't've used it anyway. And it worked out for this so I don't think I feel too bad. Anyway, the writing all over the recipe is a passive argument between parties over whether or not this recipe works. Both have their own opinions, both impose their opinions on the page and on each other. At the bottom I wrote "but it was fine before.." as something apart from the argument, outside of it.
Things that came up were no characters, which was instantly difficult for me. I always tell stories through characters, I guess in this one though you could think of the viewpoints as characters, even though they're just writing on the page. (A couple of the obstructions I'd thought of has a lot to do with turning my obsession of using characters to relate story on it's ear, as a means of knocking me loose.)
BUT! It's time to move on again, must keep moving. I don't know if this is the most dramatic departure that there will be in the bunch, but it's definitely not something I would have tried to do, nor did I expect it would do a decent job relating what I could scrape together up until now.
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Juxtaposition
Apr. 13th, 2009 | 08:37 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-i_u-z
This is a video that gave me a shove about a year ago, maybe a little less? I had originally found it looking for the song this person used, Yoko Kanno's "Is it Real?". The album was an import, expensive, and I just wanted the one song, so I went onto Youtube thinking somebody for sure had posted it. A lot of people had, a lot of AMV's - i figured there might be. It's a gloomy song, really melancholy. The piece it actually came from was really melancholy, it's a lovely shade of blue, which makes it AMV fodder. (Not that I don't like AMV'S)
(AMV = animated music video. Oftentimes, fans will assemble the footage from their favorite cartoons to music. The pieces can be very dramatic, to entirely too humorous, to just plain awful, there's a whole ton of them floating around the internet.)
Anyway, pardoning the departure there, the idea was to call up somebody's video and minimize it so I could listen to the song while I was working. When I found this video, I wound up spellbound. It's not the most amazing quality, but the footage chosen with the music, the imagery, the whole mood - and it's full of trees to boot! Everything about this piece was inspiring to me. So half the time it was just murmuring in the background, the other half I watched it.
It was a serious creative nudge for me, especially for Crow: A melancholy tale of the city where life moves like the rhythmic ticking of the clock, busy and frantic, absorbed and mindless; and the ones who notice the rhythm, and how they react to it, cope with it, and move on, or if they can move on. The story is another one of those "questioning the universe" kind of existential crazy-head rides, which makes it ridiculously hard to tell or even summarize. But I think I'm getting closer, and I wanted to call up the video that helped me before now that I'm working to pull it together.
Edit- Here's a link to a much better quality video-post of the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE-m0fdp
PROGRESS-
-Formulated 9 obstructions to the synthesis of my synopsis, posting one today! Executing another at some point before the day's out.
-Almost finished gathering history, starting to wonder what's wrong with my head. Plan is to post an illustration doodle relating to each of the "phases" of Crow as they've presented themselves, I think better when I doodle.
-played the piano, It was fun.
This is a video that gave me a shove about a year ago, maybe a little less? I had originally found it looking for the song this person used, Yoko Kanno's "Is it Real?". The album was an import, expensive, and I just wanted the one song, so I went onto Youtube thinking somebody for sure had posted it. A lot of people had, a lot of AMV's - i figured there might be. It's a gloomy song, really melancholy. The piece it actually came from was really melancholy, it's a lovely shade of blue, which makes it AMV fodder. (Not that I don't like AMV'S)
(AMV = animated music video. Oftentimes, fans will assemble the footage from their favorite cartoons to music. The pieces can be very dramatic, to entirely too humorous, to just plain awful, there's a whole ton of them floating around the internet.)
Anyway, pardoning the departure there, the idea was to call up somebody's video and minimize it so I could listen to the song while I was working. When I found this video, I wound up spellbound. It's not the most amazing quality, but the footage chosen with the music, the imagery, the whole mood - and it's full of trees to boot! Everything about this piece was inspiring to me. So half the time it was just murmuring in the background, the other half I watched it.
It was a serious creative nudge for me, especially for Crow: A melancholy tale of the city where life moves like the rhythmic ticking of the clock, busy and frantic, absorbed and mindless; and the ones who notice the rhythm, and how they react to it, cope with it, and move on, or if they can move on. The story is another one of those "questioning the universe" kind of existential crazy-head rides, which makes it ridiculously hard to tell or even summarize. But I think I'm getting closer, and I wanted to call up the video that helped me before now that I'm working to pull it together.
Edit- Here's a link to a much better quality video-post of the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE-m0fdp
PROGRESS-
-Formulated 9 obstructions to the synthesis of my synopsis, posting one today! Executing another at some point before the day's out.
-Almost finished gathering history, starting to wonder what's wrong with my head. Plan is to post an illustration doodle relating to each of the "phases" of Crow as they've presented themselves, I think better when I doodle.
-played the piano, It was fun.
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Paring down.
Apr. 12th, 2009 | 11:25 am
My progress tree didn't come out like i'd expected, I instead wound up making an illustration about how I felt about the way it's coming. A fruit with way, way, way too many seeds- too many beginnings, directional to the point of redundancy, and i doubt if planted any of those seeds would know quite what to grow into. Worse, they'd probably just grow into more confusedly stuffed fruits.
...And that's about how i feel right now regarding this project. Lots to pare down, but it's being difficult. I'm not quite done gathering all of the remnants so I'm trying still to be unbiased, but I'm also itching to move forward. It's hard not to start evaluating everything right away. But if I go about it now, I may wind up chucking something important.
PATIENCE.
Blah. So it continues!
Artists who inspire me- I got so caught up in Easter preparations I got blown-away sidetracked. But here are two things that make me go 'ooh!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g-yVv94
Yesterday, there was a concert in town... Nobuo Uematsu was in Minneapolis. Or so I think, I didn't get to go- at the least, it was a Final Fantasy concert. Anyway, I love this man's work! It's the piano versions of his pieces I really go nuts for, though. This piece in particular, "Servants of the Mountain", I almost always have on my playlists. I'll admit it's a little clunky sounding next to a lot of the other pieces, but it's still my favorite. Especially the last bit, when the refrain really gets going.
http://joshuamiddleton.com/
Joshua Middleton! I found his work on the cover of a book in a children's book store somewhere in Minneapolis the other day when my Aunt took my sister and I out to see the city a little bit. Yes, I've been here for three semesters, and by golly I have no idea how to get anywhere in this city. At least not past eat street.
But this guy's art is amazing. I love his style, I still haven't been able to pore through his gallery entirely but it blows me away.
---
SADLY this is all the time I get for now. I have to make a huge food something-or-another for the potluck in two hours .... gah, honestly, there is no time for this. But friends are important. I'll gladly be stressed out a little more about my lack of time to spend some of my easter with my MCAD "family."
'Course, getting super stressed out about things isn't good or particularly helpful. I'd better drink some tea and think calm thoughts. Life really isn't this dramatic, I'm just in the habit of looking at it that way. Perhaps this will be a later project.
