Scotland

A recent visit to Scotland- lots of inspiring scenery, especially the forests and lochs. There was a lot to draw upon for the current Spirit Animal project. 

The Art of Silhouette

The silhouette has a long history in art, arguably the most basic (yet effective) manner of capturing a likeness. With all other variables removed, emphasis lies solely in the accuracy of the form depicted. An iconic art-form of this style is silhouette profile portraiture, popular and fashionable through the 18th-19th centuries. The method usually involved either cutting the form from black paper or card, which would then be mounted- or painting. The birth of photography took it's toll on this tradition, though it lasted through to the Victorian era, a romantic vestige of nostalgia in an age of technological supremacy.

-The works of William Bache

-Self-portrait of Auguste Edouart

A significant source of inspiration for some of the choices made in my current project (conceptually and aesthetically) was the receiving of this beautiful piece as a gift from my girlfriend... silhouettes and ravens.

-A collection of possessions formerly belonging to Thomas Julius Brook...

(First year 'Invented Personas' Project)

Weird Trees

My animation is ongoing, and requires many background elements. Consequently, I have been producing a forest of creepy ink trees to fill my animated world. I have sought to introduce a fair amount of textural variety, to ensure the silhouette aesthetic remains visually-dynamic. The technical side of this project has so far been a real challenge, but I've been enjoying the traditional illustration aspect very much. Here's a selection:

Music Collaboration

Music has always been a big creative inspiration for me (as with most), and through my interest in the visual arts, I have made some good friends with musical talents too. One of these friends (goes by Pharotek) specialises in electronic music, ranging quite eclectically in terms of style. I love interesting soundtracks and ambient music, especially taking to his works of that nature- and so I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with him on a recent project. I was given the title of a music release to work with, 'Shadow out of Light'; a couple of minimalist, experimental ambient tracks. The title immediately evoked an image in my mind, which upon listening to the pieces became evident as the right choice for the concept. The uncharacteristically-simple and less-than-figurative result appropriately illustrated the music in my mind, while giving a brief departure from the usual nature of my works.

Just released, on the 1st of this month, I present to you 'Shadow out of Light'!

Check out and download the tracks for free here:

http://pharotek.bandcamp.com/

And a couple of other works of his, similarly ethereal and spacey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9heHE6-jGA&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBT24yXwR48&feature=plcp

Watch this space for further trans-speciality collaboration with my Serbian comrade...

The Birds...

Recent bird photography of mine, partly inspiring my current project:

Rooks

Jackdaws

Crow

Starlings

Swallows

 (I was really lucky to have been able to photograph these chicks up-close, while being fed. They couldn't care less about me standing right next to them.)

Lace Raven

Upon the suggestion by Jo (thanks!), I acquired a black frame and once again began arranging shreds of black lace to create a raven. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome of this piece, I love the stark contrast of black and white. It's a nice way of rendering a formerly-ephemeral piece somewhat permanent. I may work in this manner again, and work on the dynamics / accuracy of form. (Less pigeon, more raven...)

The following is my studio space as it currently looks...

Animation

The next step of the project is to produce an animation from an aspect of the Spirit Animal story. I created my illustrations with this in mind, hoping to subsequently transfer the same aesthetic to my animated sequence. After investigating the different forms of animation available to me, I came to the conclusion that the most suited method for my ideas is to reproduce separately all of the elements that my images are comprised of, and then arrange them digitally. This will facilitate a swifter production process, and more dynamic visual effects, while retaining the same look as my story illustrations. I spent a while experimenting with different variations in style for the raven character, taking into consideration different factors such as consistency of form during motion, and how it works with the surrounding elements...etc. The following tests show my decision to change the raven from painted ink to pen drawing. I decided to make this change in order to differentiate the characters from background elements, while giving some variety in texture and allowing for more control over form during the actual drawing process.

The inconsistencies in form are too conspicuous when painted with ink, therefore I changed to the scratchy pen drawings.

The top right and bottom left examples show two different breeds of raven, another selection that had to be made. I decided to go for the more agile-looking of the two.

After settling on style, I began the production process. I looked at various resources including the works of Eadweard Muybridge, whose definitive and revolutionary photography documented the motion cycles of many animal species.

Unfortunately, Muybridge never photographed a raven in flight, despite having done so with numerous other bird species (and his close proximity to a large wild raven population), so I could not directly reference his images, though they helped to provide a basic visual understanding of the motions involved. The above example shows an eagle. 

In the end, I found a video of a flying raven, and used that to create my initial flight cycle: 

After some digital manipulation, the drawings came together well, producing a nice repeatable cycle.

Further elements to come, work in progress...