Here, and 'The Dark Knight Rises' in Gotham city

Success of studying tons of things these holidays... Not very much.

I think my problem is my curiosity for so many things. And laziness, of course!

Ah, but it's life, therefore whatever you enjoy doing is what you should do. Or something of the sort...

Last week I went to watch this movie. It was really awesome:

Batman. The Dark Knight Rises. 2012.

It was a great day that one :). I dragged along my beloved ones, and even though one of them didn't like this sort of movies, she loved it! I thought about something I heard once about films, catching you entirely for some moments, all your attention and self. It was like forgetting about our world and actually going to Gotham City and living part of all those extreme emotions! And I think you can't stop wondering about film technology XD.

Pff.

Evaporating

I see everywhere, and my mind keeps marveling about everything there is: museums, parks, events, workshops, music, markets, food, theatre,... There's some issues happening at the moment here in Mexico, and I have so many things I would like to say about us, yet I am not a person of words... I think that here we have a nation, which sometimes looks divided, yet everyone is fighting for the same reasons, or moved by the same motive..

I also entered some free workshops at 'Injuve'. One of them is Art Therapy. We made these drawings:

 

Self-portrait left-handed, looking at a mirror, and without looking at the paper.

 

 Self-portrait right-handed, looking at a mirror, and without looking at the paper.

 

 

Quick drawing about what I thought Art Therapy was  about.

For the self-portraits, we created a dialogue between the two drawings... I thought it was related to finding yourself in these two drawings. Mine was a small conversation where they meet and analyze their factions, ending with complementing/helping each other.

I have been moving quite a lot, going here and there. I keep practicing a little bit of juggling (I am becoming a little bit addicted to clubs now..)

Ah, and I musn't forget, though my mind is moving so much and wanting to do so many things, I need to practice for animation! Reading something about the Story in Film... Ahh, but I think I need glasses now... I feel a little bit blind at times when reading..

Secrets and signs in photograps. Unrelated title.

Aha!

Back in Mexico! So far, haven't made anything from my 'to do during holidays' list apart from reading...

It's been great, though! Fire fire fire mixed with water. Mmmm.

That's me, and that's life. It's just feeling the flame.

Burning lines.

We are making a setting (our room in a scale of 1:6) and a puppet for this project. I feel I would like to make a thousand animations, a lot of puppets and a lot of settings. And then I'll feel more confident to even offer my work to help other students or participate in exhibitions and such...

When you have tried one technique, the more you try it the more confident you feel with it. And the less time it takes.

Meanwhile, and in general, I feel a little bit lost.

Christmas card

This was a project were we had to make a small animated Christmas card message. I remember I listened a lot of Christmas songs back then, and did feel the Christmas spirit haha. There was also a small party in the department and we even had a small Christmas tree.

I had many problems with this animation as I didn't use a tripod and at some point I was really stuck..

Some sketches of candyland and the idea in general:

The monkey dance

I FINISHEEEEEED!!!!!! HA!!

Fixation things...

I tend to draw a lot of these:

- fish
- clocks
- old people
- trees
- bubbles
- cirque
-

I'll keep writing this list whenever I think of other things I tend to draw a lot...

Our project of 5 films in 10 days is almost over.

Carrots

After reading this article: lettuce article I think my recent liking to carrots is due to all the time I have spent in front of the computer some of the last days...

According to the article, your body asks you to eat what you are lacking or you need (certain vitamins and such. Would write more about it, but I need to continue with my work...). And they say carrots are good for the eyes. So I think my body knows my eyes are getting too exhausted and asks me for the thing that's in the carrots... Interesting!

I have work to update now! But I can't because of lack of time! I have sketches and animations! And they are cool animations! Although I need to upload them to my vimeo account....

We are making the '5 animations in 10 days' project and it's great! I mean, I want to shoot myself at times haha, because we just have 'till midnight for each animation, but it's a really productive project... I'll get going now... Really need to keep going on with whatever I am doing.

2012. Beginning and end.

2011 was an interesting year.

The feeling of exploding into a million of particles is still lingering, and the numbness and surreality. I can't say it's all good, I can't say it's bad.

It's complicated explaining it.. It's like tearing paper. A black sea. It's explosion. And actually, through all of this, it has been a great year.

It's almost Christmas!!

I would just like to say: "It only gets better", and, "you can only be yourself"

Edinburgh

Woa! It's been a long time! So many things have happened! Where could I begin??? It's impossible to say everything, so I'll leave it short..

Soooo... Holidays were great and I feel as if I were a new me.

And now I'm back to uni, at ECA (yesssssss), and well, the animation above is part of the beginning of this year. Hopefully later I'll upload way better things!

Also I'm in the juggling society and I just love it... And the film society is great as well. Haha, so many societies, so little time.... Anyway, maybe I'll be around more often in here again! Keeping track of thoughts and work is a great way to analyze and improve your work!

Cirque! - Barullo

On monday of last week I went to my first juggling class and suddenly, the next day, I was on my way to a cirque convention in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

It was like living in another world. Every day was full of workshops, and every night there was a show. I met amazing people and came back with passion for juggling and cirque (we even saw a tornado taking a camping house up just like in the movies).

I'll keep practicing so one day I can be as the people I met there..

For Japan...

Designed by my friend, Scuaren (all life friend, like a sister, and many good adjectives..).

Never give up the hope, Japan. You'll stand up again. You are strong. People keep sending their thoughts and love to you... I keep doing it, and I will keep doing it. Don't be scared. We keep sending our voices.

"Suspense"

Animation so far.

I was always thinking in each project I wanted to do an animation, but always contradicted myself with other thoughts like "there's no time", "how am I gonna do it?". It might not be the best animation in the world, but that's how people begin... It's like drawing: it's all about practice and not being afraid of white pages. How can you become better at something if you don't try? (those were my thoughts when I began this project ;p)

So, the animation workshop at school left me thinking you can make a non-perfect animation. I wanted to experiment with movement and spots.

One of my influences is Anna Ginsburg, again, with her short animations per day. And also Michèle Cournoyer with her short animation "Le Chapeau" (the hat), where she bases the story in lines that transform in different parts of the body. Very expressive.

I also have recently watched an animation by Caroline Leaf called The Street. She's very experimental in her animations and uses different materials to make them. I love the feeling this one has. She used paint with glycerine on glass.

Final Project Proposal Unit 7

The nightmare

Section 1 Progress and Achievement

At Foundation I have learned about the importance of experimentation, of research and process. That an idea can overcome the skill of drawing, that the craft feeling is still important. It’s in the process where we get many ideas, but if we are not keeping track of it, then we’ll miss the opportunity of creating something new.

Section 2 Context

During these course I became very interested in experimental stop-motion after watching the work from Anna Ginsburg, studying at Foundation two years ago. Investigating about her work, I came to know animators like PES and get into short experimental films. Some of the works that have had an impact on me are the animations from Jan Svankmajer, Synesthesia (2007) from Terri Timely and Les Kiriki acrobates japonais (1907) by Segundo de Chomón and films like Requiem for a Dream (2000), Persépolis (2007), The Triplets of Belleville (2003), Perfect Blue (1998) and some from Hayao Miyazaki. Most of them gave me some sort of disturbing feeling, and specially the one from Requiem for a Dream or Svankmajer made me think of a nightmare.

Western Spaghetti (2008) by PES (Adam Pesapane). He uses common material to represent other objects and make his animations.

Photo available from http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/07/in-videos-western-spaghetti-by-pes-stop-motion.html>

Darkness Light Darkness (1989) by Jan Svankmajer. His work is very surreal and disturbing.

Photo available from http://www.animationblog.org/2008/07/jan-svankmajer-darkness-light-darkness.html>

Synesthesia (2007) by Terri Timely.

Photo available from http://www.booooooom.com/2009/06/21/synesthesia-by-terri-timely/>

Les Kiriki acrobates japonais (1907) by Segundo de Chomón.

Photo available from http://lesbranquignoles.blogspot.com/2008/11/les-kiriki-acrobates-japonais.html>

Les Triplets of Belleville (2003) by Sylvain Chomet.

Photo available from http://www.flixster.com/photos/the-triplets-of-belleville-the-triplets-of-belleville-10869494>

Section 3 Project Proposal Aims, Methods and Realisation

My purpose is to analyze and comprehend better animation and the surreal and bizarre feeling given when you watch certain short films. One of the methods I thought to achieve this is going into the theme of nightmares. There’s irrationality in our dreams we don’t notice at the moment, people feel and remember nightmares in a way more deeply than normal dreams. I believe this research will help me to give this feeling into an animation.

I will be asking as many people as I can about their dreams and nightmares and will be mapping the dreams of two or three for a period of time. Investigate all I can about nightmares and surreality, watch animations or films related or that give the feeling I’m looking for, go to galleries, expositions or places to take notes of bizarre and strange objects or figures, check daily life for sounds or weird experiences, maybe read some stories, experiment with different materials.

One of my thoughts is that experimental animation certainly gives you this weird feeling, so I’ll be trying different ways to make a stop-motion animation.

It’s in this process of tape recording and using different materials where I hope to generate some ideas, so that in the end, I have either a story or flashes of different feelings together in my final work and a deeper knowledge about the surreal feeling.

Section 4 Evaluation

I will be using a reflective journal, blog and sketchbook to keep record of information, ideas that come to me. I’ll keep taking photos of everything and maybe some videos. I’ll keep with the schedule and try to move with it according to my own deadlines and of course, keep reviewing everything.

Bibliography

- Rees, A.L. (1999), A History of Experimental Film and Video, London, British Film Institute.

- Les Kiriki acrobates japonais (1907), Segundo de Chomón, Pathé Frères, 3 min, [short]

- Perfect Blue (1998), Satoshi Kon, Mad House, 81 min, [Video:DVD]

- Persépolis (2007), Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 2.4.7. Films, 96 min [Video:DVD]

- Requiem for a Dream (2000), Darren Aronofsky, Artisan Entertainment, 102 min, [Video:DVD]

- The Triplets of Belleville (2003), Sylvain Chomet, Les Armateurs, 78 min, [Video:DVD]

- Darkness Light Darkness (1989), Jan Svankmajer, 6 min, [Video:DVD]

- Synesthesia (2007), Terri Timely, [Online short]. [January 27, 2011]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.territimely.com/_/v/2-short-films?video_id=34>

- Western Spaghetti (2008), PES, [Online short]. [January 27, 2011]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.eatpes.com/western_spaghetti.html>

Health & Safety

You must consider the health and safety implications of your project and complete a risk assessment form if necessary.

Please consider the ethical implications of your project and discuss them with your tutor.

Learning Outcomes.

The learner will: have a critical and contextual understanding of different approaches within art and design subjects of study or work.

Assessment Criteria. The learner can:

Describe the critical and contextual perspectives for a project proposal.

Use critical and contextual approaches within the development of a proposed project.

Action Plan Timetable

Level 4 Art & Design Foundation Diploma in Art & Design

Communication pathway

Final Major Project UNIT 7

Camberwell College of Art

Duration of final project 6 weeks. Start Date: 21/02/2011. End Date: 6/04/2011.

Little words

Just writing a little bit to keep this updated.

I'm back to my country, and it's just warm days passing by. Soon it will be Christmas~

Good night, sunshines..

I think I'll be doing a poker deck, since it gives me the opportunity of using many images and I like poker cards haha. Another althernative is doing a book, but I want to do something else... I am not really sure, since a poker deck is a lot...

Where did I leave...

Some really cool illustrations with magazine cut-outs and typography:

By spanish designer and illustrator Javier Mariscal

Nate Page drawing with a magazine.

Jeff Fisher's illustration

Su Blackwell

Julia Brodskaya

42 drawings

What a good feeling! My mind (note: just my mind, I hadn't done so many things) has been thinking in work for so long, and I wasn't used to that anymore! Coming back is just exhausting.. but, I feel so good right now. Mmm.

So today I'll be leaving you with 42 of my 100 drawings (haha, the other 58 are very hurriedly sketched, and I'm lazy to upload them all). My favorites of the 100.

Addams

We began school again on monday, but I have been feeling very tired without reason at all jaja. My eyes just feel really exhausted. So, until later!