Thursday 31 January 2013

A Thousand Paper Cranes

Lino printing part 2..

The prints and lino plates that were started last week were laid out on the tables ready for the participants who came in and got straight down to work.



It was clear everyone had been looking forward to relaxing into the lino cutting process again.


We also had 3 new participants who got stuck in and very quickly were drawing designs, printing and cutting.

Those who had printed a base colour last week, cut away the areas of the design that they wanted to keep that base colour.

Then a second (often darker) colour was inked onto the plate, and the plate placed onto the base colour print with great care, so that the edges lined up.

Some participants chose to ink the plate with several colours in one stage, to great effect.
The cutting gave several of the designs a beautiful and clear definition, to what had been an abstract base colour print.


The range of papers used to print onto also gave some interesting contrasts and textures to the prints.

Once the second colour (or set of colours!) were printed, the plates were washed clean, and the process began again.

More of the lino was cut away, so that these areas will stay as they are… when a third inking is completed next week.

Its been one of the most productive session we’ve had. The enjoyment was infectious.


‘This was fantastic…. Really really good’

‘I really enjoyed it’.

‘It’s nice to get messy and have fun’

Commenting on the results..’not bad for someone without a creative bone in their body’.


Tuesday 29 January 2013

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 8 
9.1.13

This session, Ian G. said he was learning to be a director, and about timing, and realised how difficult all this was for one person to do on their own (as he normally did). “This is the most adventurous animation I have ever done”. He saw how helpful it was to be able to talk through ideas with other people and what you need to make decisions on.
The funniest bit was Elaine acting out the dog’s part – something she didn’t expect to be doing!


We viewed Paul’s work animated as a simple slide dissolve film. Paul did some more drawings of the figure walking the dog (really him walking his dog ‘Gypsy’). He said it was quite repetitive doing variations on the same drawing over and over, but he enjoyed it.


Ian S. had never painted with acrylics before but found that painting was a bit more like drawing with a brush rather than a pencil. John had a go at drawing on the ipad with Rozi after she had done an ipad drawing version of his pastel landscape and shown him how it looked.



Howard worked on another stop motion walk cycle with his Woodcutter: “once you get going, its quicker than you expect”.

It was agreed that the project “is going really well – its quite exciting!”

Monday 28 January 2013

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 7
Everyone was keen to get going with their particular project:

Ian S made a start on painting the canvas background for the ‘Grim Reaper’.



Ian G continued with the ‘Mysterious Disappearing Bulbs’(Working Title) planning while Elaine put finishing touches on the cottage and pantomime dog. Sarah also added a cat and snowman models giving Ian new ideas for the storyline.

Howard continued refining his stop motion work with his ‘Woodcutter’ animation.

Paul worked on a pen drawing of faces while having a good chat with Ian S about fishing and all sorts. He said he didn’t feel much like drawing but came to the group for the company.

One person commented: “I really enjoy coming here and it has inspired me to do more things at home. I’ve learnt a few new things too.”

Karen had brought in an interesting pack of Goddess cards and started to work out how she could create a collage with some of them. She worked out a cyclical formation, showing the cycle of the winter day from dawn to day to night – we observed how, for a winter’s day, most of the hours were dark!

Lesley also had an interesting idea based on birds and a winged angel. She had worked out detailed plans for each stage needed to get the angel’s wings to flutter and start to animate the whole picture.


We finished the afternoon with a delicious Christmas Tea of mince pies and nibbles enjoyed by all.

Saturday 26 January 2013

A THOUSAND PAPER CRANES


Session 1                                                    
And we’re back for a 4th phase at the Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders, with artists Milena Dragic and Rozi Fuller!

The dining room, where we are working, has had a fresh lick of paint and there are more canvases around the ward, from previous phases. Looking stunning and giving a lovely, positive feeling to the start of this phase.

And so, by popular demand, we have begun again with Milena’s lino printing.
There were several good image books laid out on the tables to help people decide on a design. Some chose to sketch designs on paper first, while others jumped straight into drawing directly on to the lino, as it’s not always necessary to have an image in your head before you start. These designs evolved on the plate, and will continue to evolve throughout the printing process.



The design on the lino was drawn over with black permanent marker pen, so that the design remains visible through the various stages of printing.
        
Milena gave us the interesting fact that this lino is created from compressed and heated cork, combined with linseed oil.

The participants then chose a base colour, and inked the lino block, making prints onto at least 4 pieces of paper also experimenting with different types of paper.














Having completed this stage, some of the participants began cutting their designs into the lino using the various sizes of lino tools.



 There are 2 main rules with lino cutting –
1) Move the piece of lino as necessary so the direction that you cut in, is always away from you
2) If it’s difficult to cut, you’re probably using the wrong tool!

Watch as the prints develop of the next few weeks…­­­­


OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images


We had a warm, friendly, welcoming start to the session and did a variety of activities from drawing and painting to modelling and pastel drawing.


“Coming to places like this, you learn a lot more”.

“I am amazed that I actually concentrated for so long on something I have never done before.”

“You get lost in your artwork – time just goes. Its good to be able to express what you do – it’s a good, natural medication!”

“We are lucky to have this place, to have somewhere to go to meet people and make new friends.”



Elaine has been working on a pantomime dog in fabric. She says it has been a bit frustrating but feels it is starting to come together.

 

Paul has been working on a series of sketches of a character struggling with a dog and umbrella in the rain.


Howard has been photographing his Woodcutter. He says it has been a little bit fiddly
but it will be interesting to see how it goes on a test run animation – exciting as well!


Ian S sketched out the background on a long panoramic canvas for the Grimm Reaper sequence. He also thought the funniest thing from today’s session would be knowing he could go to Elaine if he broke his arm, implying that he had faith in her modelling skills!


“I look forward to coming here and feel better for it.”

“I look forward to coming here as it’s a great escapism.”

 


Friday 18 January 2013

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images


Session 5 


We began as usual with a cuppa in the basement but this time we got going straight away with a Warm Up exercise trying out a ‘boiling lines’ animation technique. The idea had been inspired by the traced pencil images that Philip does with his birds & animals. It involved everyone tracing over (at least 3 times) a photo of a polar bear or penguin that Rozi provided. Ian G then assisted Rozi in photographing each of the traced images and started to process them on the laptop to create simple ‘shivering’ animations of the polar bears & penguin drawings.

 


After reminding ourselves of the Plans of Action we drew up last week so that we all knew what we were working on, most of the group then moved upstairs to spend a reasonable stretch of time working on the artwork, developing our ideas, drawings & models further.


Elaine & Ian S also worked on some drawings that could be used as ‘arctic’ backgrounds for the ‘shivering’ polar bears & penguins that we could put together next week.


    

Thursday 17 January 2013

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 4

We began as usual with a recap in the basement over a cuppa and discussed the progress of the project so far with several interesting new ideas emerging.



                       
Rozi showed an animated composit example using one of John’s landscape drawings, and a drawing of a swan by Philip. We were all pretty impressed with this – not least John & Philip – as it completely transformed their individual artwork into a simple animation of Philip’s swan moving slowly along the river in John’s landscape. For those who wanted, Rozi offered the opportunity to see how to create the animated composit in the computer. She also guided participants through how to prepare the photo in Photoshop, and how to import into After–Effects and complete the work as seen in the example.

Another aspect discussed was recording a voice–over to add to an animation such as Karen’s in which she had written a story for her plasticine characters.


Participants then chose between learning more about the animated composit process or continuing work on their stories, drawings or plasticine models.  




Philip continued by drawing 3 more winter 
creatures, John worked into the landscape
he’d started of Mount St Helen’s, and began
one of Heceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon.


Ian S created a very joyful winter scene,


  Paul enjoyed creating several pastel drawings of varying winter inspired themes.

 



Wednesday 16 January 2013

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 3
 21.11.12

Once again, we started the session in the basement reminding ourselves of what we had done on the project so far over a cuppa.


Karen joined the group this week and introduced herself by showing some of her previous watercolour paintings. Ian also showed some beautiful drawings of winter that he had completed during the week - obviously inspired by the theme of winter the group had chosen.

We then discussed ideas people had had since the last session and looked at how we could begin to develop the theme of winter into stories.













Jill read aloud 3 poems full of wintery imagery to get the creative juices flowing.
From last week’s session, Rozi showed an animation example created by compositing Elaine's plasticine model in some of Howard's landscape painting. 

    
The group spread out across the studio and the meeting room, to create various artworks on the winter theme.



The group then met to share their artwork and ideas at the end of the session. This gave a sense of what we’d all been doing and enabled us to start planning how we could develop these ideas.