Meg the dog

It's been quite some time since I've updated my blog (disgraceful!) as I have been sadly adjusting to life away from Manchester. Oh how I miss it...
However, that doesn't mean to say that I've given up making art work. I've been a busy bee with various little bits and pieces, including this (sort of...cut price) commission for a friend of mine. It's one of my favourite things to do, making a 'mini-me' of a pet. I'm determined to make this one extra special as it's to commemorate his pet dog Meg who passed away recently.

I've approached this one slightly different than I usually do when I make my animals. I've begun by making the head separately first. I decided to do this because I wasn't pleased with the head I made for my last made animal (a fox, which I will do a separate post about) and I wish I'd spent more time getting it right before rushing on to the body to get it complete quickly (the body being relatively easier and less fiddly to make well).

 

When I started bending my wire to make the structure of her face shape, the most important thing seemed to be the muzzle. I used two parallel pieces of wire which form the centre of her face in general, and curve around at the bottom to form the muzzle. Building the rest around that was fairly easy. I quickly got onto the knitted covering and have now got a great idea of how her head will look when it's finished (complete with shaggy-haired ears). It didn't look right at all until I added what will be the eyes. The important decision was whether to use pins or make embroidered eyes. My first instinct was to embroider the eyes on and use a dot of white paint for the shine of them catching the light, as I did with Monty (below).



 However, it became obvious after I stuck a couple of pins in that they were the perfect choice in this case. Meg's eyes are very big and shiny and one of the main reasons why she has such an endearing face! I couldn't achieve that using thread and paint. I will soon be taking some better quality photos of my work in progress, but for now here's a quick peek at how she's looking...

...to be continued!

Animation

On Thursday I was allowed to spend the afternoon creating my stop-motion piece in the moving image room. I could have spent hours in there! (Except for a bit of a headache from the bright lights). I had been nervous about approaching this task as I wasn't sure my wolf's movement was going to be successful, and because of this I didn't feel able to create a storyboard that I would have been able to follow closely. So in the end, the plot of this short film is improvised based on the movement I could achieve in the set-up.

The basic idea is to introduce the main character, Mr. Wolf. He is welcoming the audience to his woods and demonstrating how he can manipulate the nature around him. I included the flowers as they are his main tool for distracting Little Red Riding Hood with; since they are so beautiful, she cannot resist going to pick some for her grandma as he suggests. However, during the process of making the animation I realised that his movement was not easily manipulated in a rigid sort of way (like a proper stop motion figure with a strong armature structure). As I adjusted him for each frame, it was clear that I had to let the figure sway and settle as it most easily fell. The result is that the wolf's movement is quite undisciplined and uncoordinated. So, I decided to base the rest of his movement in the clip on the idea of him being drunk; a suave, but oafish villain (like Roald Dahl's version in Revolting Rhymes).

As I didn't have completely easy control of the wolf's movement, the pacing of it sometimes hides the gestures I wanted to convey. For example, at one point near the end he looks down and notices that his coat isn't covering his crotch, so he covers it up before making a hasty exit. Another potential improvement would be what is supposed to be his bow at the beginning; I'm not sure it comes across as that rather than him simply bending down to look at something on the floor! 

However, overall I'm pleased with the results. I think the simple movement of the flowers is effective, and their interaction with the wolf figure went as planned. The wire structure of the hands is particularly good for the movement of the fingers and general hand gestures, so the act of grasping the flowers is believable. The combination of the reasonably mobile head and neck with the pin-heads as eyes also meant I could suggest good contact with an audience; the wolf is clearly performing, engaging with the camera throughout. And an unexpected bonus to the improvised movement was the dishevelment of wolf's clothes after he's been rolling around on the floor; I didn't expect his bow to fall off, but the act of him picking it up and throwing it away served as a good action to suggest his embarrassment and pride, despite his obvious inability to remain composed. 

Some still frames:

Welcoming the audience to the forest...

The bow...

The flowers gather...

Mr. Wolf loses his dignity...

 ...and tries to recover...

 ...

...

Throws away his bow...

Waves...

Loses his dignity again.

Now all that remains left to do is to crop the unnecessary edges, possibly adjust the colour/lighting, and add some sound. I am hoping for the help of a friend for the voice of Mr. Wolf, as I don't think I can do a convincing enough one myself! 

This has been such a good experience, I wish I had the time to experiment more with stop motion. It is such a simple yet effective process, and would bring my animal characters alive so well. For my first attempt at creating a mobile creature, I'm surprised with what my wolf can achieve. If I were to continue creating things for animations I would benefit from the experience this time round and hopefully be able to improve a lot. Perhaps investing in some stop-motion equipment is something I could also look into in the future...

The Fair

Previously I hadn't realised that this was such a high profile event! Inside the venue it was overwhelmingly warm and busy, and the stalls were packed tight. I felt intimidated by the professionalism of the work on sale compared to the items I had donated, but the prints and zines that my fellow students had contributed looked right at home. After arriving and seeing how our stall was looking, it was clear that we wouldn't be able to squeeze in alongside Paul and Kat behind the table to assist, so we wished them luck and mingled around the northern quarter for a while. 

After lunch at the Nexus Art Cafe we returned again to see how our stall was doing. It was a little disheartening to see that none of my work had gone, and I was a bit worried that it was priced too highly for people to be interested. Paul mentioned that lots of people had been intrigued by my hand-crafted animals, picking them up to inspect but seemingly not enough to hand over money for them. There was a bit of debate over the issue of pricing, which was settled with the idea that people would pay a high price for things that were made well and seemed 'limited edition'. Although I think that we should have brought the price of my animals down, it was encouraging that my fellow students appreciated the effort that went in to creating them to value them quite expensively.

Manchester Print Fair 2013

For the past couple of weeks I've been preparing work to sell, along with fellow illustration/graphics students, at this event. The money raised from this will go towards the funds for our degree show outside of college.
I have contributed a few hand-made animals and hand-bound notebooks. I'm a little nervous about whether or not my things will sell amongst the very professional looking graphic prints people have been producing! But hopefully a little diversity isn't such a bad thing.
Only tomorrow can tell what will happen...

Further pampering and preening for Mr. Wolf...

Although my wolf character has looked to be in an acceptable state for a while (enough to build my book narrative plans around him), there always seems to be room for picky little adjustments.
Certain improvements have been entirely necessary though; in particular, the addition of his hands and feet (or paws-something of a werewolfy mix). I found I'd been putting off adding them because I wasn't quite sure how to go about making them. It was quite a fiddly process, and I was unhappy at the though of probably needing to use glue at this point, to fix wool to wire (I'm not sure why, I have a stubborn reluctance to go beyond tying and sewing to fix things together). But I'm glad to say I managed without, and it was just a case of wrapping wool around wire and tying it securely. In the end, building the shape of the hand around the 'skeleton' was easier than I thought with the wrapping method.

In-keeping with the idea of the wolf character being a dangerously charming predator, I made him a tiny fitted jacket to add to his 'suave' appearance. I have yet to add a few buttons here and there, but I'm satisfied I've got an almost complete figure to work with. Now he just needs a grandma night-gown, and to meet little Red Riding Hood!

'Nonsense'

Today was the deadline for a brief set to us by Lord Whitney.
We were asked to explore the limericks of Edward Lear, and create an image in response to the rhyme we chose.

Try to work as quickly on this brief and not get too hung up on the researching and the illustrations already produced. In the world outside university briefs often have to be completed in a very short space of time.

We hope this brief will give you a chance to try something different, it's all about ideas and being as playful as you like. There is no set size or media as we want each outcome to be as creative and free as possible. 

I chose the following rhyme:
There was an Old Man who supposed,

That the street door was partially closed;

But some very large rats,

Ate his coats and his hats,

While that futile old gentleman dozed.

We were encouraged to work as quickly as possible, and when I spoke to Rebekah and Amy they advised me to keep the image simple and representative, which meant that my initial ideas changed (e.g. instead of drawing a full old man dozing in the corner, I might include just his legs and feet in view, a 'Tom & Jerry viewpoint').

Due to various inconvenient time restraints I've only managed to pull my image together at the last minute-so my picture now only includes the rat and pieces of fabric I've used to represent the old man's clothes and carpet. I would love to have more time to make the background more elaborate-I think being able to see some sort of Victorian decoration would have enhanced the setting a lot more. Luckily, I will have the chance to work for longer on this before it is used for another purpose.

Although the final image was a bit of a disappointment for me, I am very pleased with how my rat turned out. Every time I make a new animal I seem to be able to produce it faster, but getting it just how I like it does take considerable time and concentration.

Leon the Lion

My lion had been sitting unfinished for quite some time until one day I decided to finish him properly. He is now a proud resident on our work desk at home. 

A little bit stuck on my work for the Howkapow brief...

This holiday I have a daunting task ahead of me.

After speaking with Howkapow it's clear that my work has to be altered quite dramatically!
I feared this would be the case as my work isn't ideally suited to the more graphic work their site seems to favour. I got a little bit carried away at first.

As instructed in the brief, I based my design on Scandinavian folk tales, choosing to look at the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff. I was a little bit stuck on how to approach it at first, so I looked back on to an early exercise we did this year where we made inventive animal characters, when I made a 3D stoat and based drawings and a painting on it. I thought this might be appropriate for the brief, so I threw myself into making my goat over the weekend. Here's how he turned out:

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Sneaky peek at Leon (soon to be wrapped up for Christmas)

As I was in the process of stuffing his head, Bryony suggested that I gave him a brain....so, using thin strips of crumpled up felt, sewn together with red thread, that's exactly what I did!

Today I'll be starting to make one of these...

a new year begins....

Project 1a- Inventive Characters
Our first brief has been very similar to exercises we did in the first year, which were intended to loosen up our drawing styles and get us to approach it more freely. Ironically the restrictions sometimes did force me to draw in a more free and creative way sometimes.

The brief reads: "The figure is the most recurrent element you are likely to represent as an illustrator. Moreover the language for the figure is often the thing that distinguishes the 'individual handwriting' of the illustrator. It is important to remember that this process whilst rooted in academia, it can also be the catalyst for inventive and spontaneous drawing."

We were given a framework of characters and adjectives to pair together to create 6 different characters.
We had to base the drawing method on a set of rules:

• Draw characters using only straight/ruled lines.
• Draw characters using only circles/curves.
• Draw characters using only torn/cut paper.
• Draw characters using no outline.
• Draw characters using only printed marks.

Here are some examples of the work I produced:

Some sketches based on the 3D stoat I made, using ink pen, coloured pencil and watercolour (no outline); and the 3d stoat itself!

A stoat i drew within the rough outline from the reverse side of a sewn piece, using only little straight line marks.

An angry fire eater drawn with scribbly pencil (no outline).

A proud king, collaged shapes of patterned paper.

A friendly spider, made with pieces of wool and fabric sewn to paper.

Friendly spiders, dangling from web strings, pencil and collaged paper.

Getting back into working in the studio has been a bit challenging. I am determined to get back into working more naturally in 2d, and regain my confidence with ink and watercolour in particular. I've become so involved with a hands-on, 3d approach that it seems to be my default way of working. I still enjoy drawing, but i am able to create 3d characters with the least thought or effort. I am worried that creating characters with craft based methods in some ways dilutes my own personal 'visual language', in that it is much easier for somebody else to replicate to look of my 3d work, rather than the style of my drawing, which is based much more on gesture rather than practical methods. Drawing is more spontaneous and fragile, less reliable in a way, which makes a successful drawing far more rewarding. (Although i do like my little creations).