Triple Portrait on Beige and Blue Background

Hi all. About an hour of playing around, not quit finished, as I got my pen taken away from me before I could finish it so I will probably add more to it later. This started out as a test for a large scale painting (2m by 1,20m). In the end I pushed it a bit more, all for the best as it gives me even more for the large painting.

Exhibition - AXL.EKTK Collective

 

 

 

New York, New York - December-January 2011

Alex Aqel

Carolina Caicedo

Adriano Clemente

Carlos Gómez

Paul Lemarquis

Lucia Love

Lorelei Ramirez

Maximiliano Siñani

F R E E    C A N D Y    G A L L E R Y

905 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238

www.freecandy.tv / info@freecandy.tv

Exhibition: December 8th, 2011 - January 8th 2012

Opening: Friday December 9th from 6PM to 4AM

               music live by Adriano Clemente

Directions: Take the C train to Clinton/Washington Avenue

                  then walk one block to Atlantic Avenue and continue to St. James Pl

These are not what you think - Part 4

These are not what you think - Part 3

These are not what you think - Part 2

 

 

These are not what you think

Work based on pictures I took around where I live.
AXL.EKTK is an art collectif based in New York.

Portrait

Photoshop Portrait

Getting back to Photoshop

First piece on Photoshop for a while. It's good to use it again, especially when using a cintiq. Just a random composition made with a few pictures and a lot of editing and colouring. I was wondering if I should put a black border as it seems to look better with it. I went without in the end but I might change that for the print. 

Brainstorming for Project Soundtrack 24 - Inconsistent Rambling

Brainstorming and co.

Soundtrack 24.

-Inconsistent rambling-

My soundtrack is rightly named 24. What it invokes at first is a feeling of Disney's glorious 1940's era, with energetic music that guides the characters and forms of the animation onward. It's a very multi-faceted piece of music. I see it as an ocean, calm in some moments and tempestuous in some others.

Yet what it represents more fundamentally for me is a crescendo of intensity. This can fit with a large number of subjects, though my preference goes right now to some sort of dance.

The different levels of intensity will give some working space for different types of emotions, different types of intensity and reactions. How would someone react to such a tune is probably what is most important as of now.

The quick tempo and nervous playing style implies a lot of agitation, though that is not completely necessary as the actual BPM is not that high. There are also some moments where the music loses all it's intensity to regain it in violent and unexpected surges of music.

The next step with this piece is a logical and efficient demarcation of the different parts of the song, as it contains multiple types of music. This allows a nice differentiation of the multitude of emotions and reactions the characters might have.

-Possible Setting-

The setting is important. As of now I am tending to direct my thoughts towards a 1950's America. Maybe being in the US pushes me towards this, but I would like to work around the theme of over-consumerisms which is so prevalent today.

This is Post-War era, where America is this eldorado of hope and capitalism. What really interests me is the difference between the cover that it shows the world, and the highly racist and consumerist society that lies under the cover of complete freedom.

What if someone from today found himself in that world. First we would need to define that somebody.

I picture someone who is ecologically aware, tolerant, in favor of recycling and reusable energies. How would he react in a world where global warming, oil shortage, economic crisis and modern pop music are only found in the most far fetched science fiction?

This is also a world of Cold War, where the two sides are pushing their own style boundaries to establish themselves as the model for the world. This is a time of conflict in Korea, a time of fear.

-Three Act Structure-

Though it is still early for a defined three act structure, I already have some idea on how things could go.

-Act 1-

A simplified and abstract version of what could happen.

Character finds himself in a frantic orgy of consumerism, in colorful world of cars, drive ins, supermarkets and elegant people. There is a sort of ballet feel to it, a choreographed act that every one has ingrained in their mind. The character follows and enters some place, probably a giant supermarket.

-Act 2-

The whole thing reaches a climax of, well, everything, and the character loses it. He enters this completely abstract world of shapes and forms, as he is pulled apart by the forces around him. This is the open area, where anything can happen, without too much explication needed.

-Act 3-

He comes back to his senses and finds himself doing the same thing as the others.

-End-

This is obviously but an idea, though I believe that in today's world it could be relevant. The character starts, or thinks he is, independent. Yet after some complicated and unknown process he finds himself like everyone else.

Today it seems that we are smartly pushed by everything around us to believe we are unique and that world revolves around us. With all our technology, we are always in contact with each other, yet we are so apart. Everyone believes in his own uniqueness, calling himself a world changer, an ecologist who uses the internet to propagate his ideas, who drives a hybrid car and buys his food from an organic store.

The idea behind the 1950's, at least how I see it, is independence through communitarism. Though we have our own rights, if you are white and a male, you still react as whole, proud as you are about wining WWII and your obvious superiority to the scary Communists far across the world.

Today we try and act as if everyone is completely independent and adapting the environment, be it ecological or socio-political, to his own needs. Yet it seems today that we are even more pushed into cases, completely overwhelmed by the 60 years or so of capitalist evolution. We do not control anything, and while in the 50's this was acceptable, today it is not. When I say we I mean us as collective entity. The American society of the 1950's reacted to the horrors of WWII, to the heroism of it's soldier's and mainly to the new found world order they now co-dominate. The European powers are all but spent, and without the Marshall plan, they would have been lost.

This switch of power creates a sense of birth right, and the still present belief that the world requires the guidance of the United States of America to thrive.

What could be interesting would be to include some elements that show that today's game of economics is also played by China, and East Asia in general, and that the US is more and more dependance of this part of the world, despite their arrogant attitude of dominance.

- Art Influence -

What artist could influence my work? This is a question that is always being answered as the influence of old as new artist is omnipresent, especially in today's connected society.

What I have decided quit early on is two different parts. The first, real part and the second abstract one. I have yet to decide the amount of difference between the two, but in style and color I would like them to stay similar, not to have two distinct parts, only put together in a continuous time frame.

Koert Van Mensvoort

The main goal is to show most people's hypocrisy towards the world's problems. How can we keep going in that direction? The main character is a representation of the aware masses, those that convince themselves that they are ecological, that they are compassionate about the world's issues, those that give a pound, a dollar, a euro to some random guy in the street with a t-shirt saying “Save Children in Haiti”, those that will go buy organic food because they are against the pollution of the world, those that will then buy food grown with chemicals because organic food is now contaminated by E.Coli, those that will buy expensive second hand cloth just to say that they wear second hand vintage, those that will buy a hybrid car, yet fly multiple times a year to go from New York to Tokyo to London on planes that burn four liters of fuel every... second.

Fashion

I will have to find a balance between the informative and the decorative, as this is still an abstract piece, and I don't want, as of now, to have any writing, relying more on the visuals to convince the viewer.

Norman Rockwell

For this I am going to need two types of artistic reference.

The visual.

The informative.

Again, because of art direction, I will concentrate more on the visuals at first, adapting from their. In the visual category, two types will also be found, for the first two parts of the piece.

The first part being outside, in the real world, the second in abstraction.

1. Part One.

Fashion

In part one, I will go towards a strong, crisp, highly contrasted look for the environment. I am thinking mainly in the lines of Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, the commercials of the 1950's, fashion drawings of the time, the comics, pop art and probably more as my research increases.

Edward Hopper

In part two, where abstraction dominates, the likes of Malevich, Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, the Bauhaus Movement, as well as some elements of Miro. For the animation, an obvious one would be Lauren McLaren.

Malevich

Malevich 

What I only noticed later on was the differentiation between the two parts. Now I am more convinced about it, I will keep the same colors, and probably the same techniques of production, involving things like textures, type of lines, typography, yet the main difference will be in the influence. I therefore hope that it will be understandable, with the post-war consumerist society in the first part being the main influence, while a pre-war Russian and German art movement, with links to Dada would guide the second part. Yet in both parts I find that there is a link, both in style, colors, textures and more.

Andy Warhol

Kandinsky

Two different worlds opposed. The link would then be how the art's evolved from the 30's to the 50's, as I might even have a look, actually I will, at Abstract Expressionism. The man is taken through the mixer of the 1930's and comes out as a product of society in the 1950's.

All of this is still very confused and I will need to clean up and arrange everything together. There is a reason why I called this inconsistent rambling.

Ideas for Pitch:

• Man is overwhelmed by consumerism.
• Man is submerged by consumerism and is lost in shape and music.
• Evolution of society.
• We are all consumers.
• A man is changed by the changes wrought to the world before and after WWII.

Stopmotion by my Brother

This is an interesting play with stop motion my brother did at the Museum of Moving Images in NYC. Mine got deleted the moment I was about to send it, but his I find quit funny in it's randomness. You only had a minute or two to work on it.

One-a-Day - Abstract. This is also part of experiments for the PS-24 (Project Soundtrack 24). I am trying to define a clear environment and colour theme. I will go through a lot of different experimentations, going into different directions. 

Today I went to the MoMA and saw some really awesome stuff, so inspiration is abundant here.

Abstract HIV

Though this is not finish, I still want to post this now. I will continue work on this probably later this summer or when the year starts again.

One-a-Day Meditation

This is my second one today, 1st of June, of my One-a-Day series. 

Reflection Tutorial

Robot Render Passes

These are the different layers.

Diffuse

Flat Colour

Ambient Occlusion

Specular

Completed

2001 Space Odyssey - The Postal Service - Research Part - 2

My next influences for this project where 2001 Space Odyssey and The Postal Service. The first for it's spaceship interior, the second, which is a band, for their video Such Great Heights. The two are complementary, using pure clean white to represent space. I always think of a hospital, where everything is sterile. The use of red in 2001 Space Odyssey is also something that I found of interest. The red in my animation represents danger as it is the core of the HIV Virus. The Postal Service's video is interesting in itself for the shiny metal surfaces which I also attempted to render out. Their is a cold and brutal efficiency to the virus and I wanted to represent that through the mechanical and inorganic materials I used. The video also shows a factory, probably an electronic one, or a lab. The machines are spotless in their lifeless drab coat. So unattractive, yet so alluring and menacing.

                           

Ora-Ïto - Research Part - 1

A sculpture by Ora-ïto

As part of my research work, and in accordance to my new stylistic route, I had a look at a few different art medias that helped me define my own style. I was really interested in product design and architecture. I found the site Dezeen.com, which is the sort of hub for designers and architects. Or at least one of them. Their I discovered Ora-Ïto, a product designer. 


His clean style and sharp edges was something that  proved of interest in my research. The white and shiny texture is what I am also going for. I decided to keep the shapes simple, and if the project had been less structured I would have gone for even more abstraction. I had done some research into shapes,  lines and colour a while back, I find  that this project has opened some doors for more animation. As I progressed more into the project more stylistic sources came to the fore. 


   

Inside of Organism

This is the inside of the organism where the virus will enter a cell.

Organism

I am going to add an environment to this in A/E.

Progress

Some more progress on the animation. I find quit interesting that some frames come out extremely abstract like the last one.

Intro Sequence

So this is my intro sequence. I do not know why but the background colour is extremely pixelated. If anyone knows I am listening.

Progress

Some more progress. This is a shot of the whole cell core. I still need to clean up the outer structure.

The video shows a collision between the virus and a cell particle. The idea being to show the lack of thinking found in an inanimate object.

             

Progress

Some stills of my progress. The logic behind my work is abstract. Colours are symbols as well as shapes. The floating cube represents the genetic material of the cell. I am building my set in disorder. First the Cell Core, then I will start work on the outside of the cell. The shapes are kept voluntarily simple. The title of the animation will set the context.

The cytoplasm

This my design for the cytoplasm.

A quick video turn

Final Practice

This is my final test, now Ill get to the actual thing. The good thing is that the rendering time is not outrageous.

Intro Scene

This is the first draft of my intro scene. I will actually have multiple panels that will come up with the name of the animation and anything else required at the beginning of an animation.

The next step will be to enter the vein.

Texture Testing

Now that I have changed my theme going for a much more design look, I did some tests with new textures. I want to get a very monochromatic organism, with a colourful virus.

The logic is that nature uses colour to depict danger.

My only concern now is the limits of what I can do with A/E. I am looking forward to tomorrow to get some help from Pete.

Presentation

Crit Presentation

Pre-Viz

Animatic with Sound

Animatic without Sound

Animatic from Paul Arthur on Vimeo.

I find it a bit slow, so my final will have a quicker pace.

Storyboard

A long time since I have posted anything. I have been away and without internet. I have been working though. I will post all my research later, as publishing my storyboard was more urgent regarding the Pitch.

I will post my script and story which should help understand better. I tried different styles for colors, yet most of it will remain in very rusty and recycled. Except the virus.

Their are two themes:

- The first is that in the HIV is created by our own body. After the first influx of external viruses, it is our own cells who start the production.

- The second, which is not included in the storyboard yet (because I forgot to scan it, and I don't have a A3 scanner here...), will be an attempt at mobilizing against HIV. I want to introduce a drawn character who at the beginning is healthy, and at the end of the video ends up dead. My goal is to contextualize the infection rather than just having a disease doing it's nasty job.