I went ahead and rescanned and edited the original “Black Surfaces. Black Grounds.” drawings from the “Come Closer” series. Needed to submit some images required for the MFA Exhibition website our school puts up each year for the graduating second years. I feel these images are more precise and detailed than the former scans. Took the liberty of adding the updated scans to my portfolio site as well.
I hardly have any time to draw as much as i would like, so from this point it’s going to be working with what I’ve got for the show. I’m still hanging on to the animation, but odds are against this project.
(Click images for detail.)
I was so exhausted from having to draw out each of the sketches, scann them, upload them and finally synchronize them, that I simply went to makeagif and had the blasted thing do it for me. I wasn’t ready for another three or so hours of editing 20 frames/sketches for a custom gif. I simply require to see the entire movement in sequence to understand which moments will work, just how long the piece will last and how to time the loop.
This entire exercise is completely new to me, but I cannot contain my excitement (and apprehension). There is much work to be done, and intend on tackling this during break (as well as finishing my thesis edit, but that’s another story).
This animation idea was also heavily inspired by seeing a video of the AKIRA pencil sketches, which I stumbled upon sometime last year. I was blown away by how they captured the motion of each individual character so seamlessly—even as rough sketches, and all of this was done in the 80s. It feels surreal, even as a rough draft!
I’m working on my own with this small loop. It will not be nearly as detailed as, say, my fellow CCA grad, animator and textile genius, Kate Nartker, who takes her compositions and makes them into video animations (incredible work, I know.) But I want to taste what it is like in some form, even tho’ my process is very amateur, I am learning a great deal from it.
I cannot wait to when they are all drawn, scanned and edited to go. I hope to complete each frame drawing by the end of April (crosses fingers). Here’s hoping.
lovely
