I suppose I post this with the caveat that if I end up signing an NDA, I’ll have to come back here and take my paddington content down. But with things as they stand, I want to keep a project thread, and so will post my storyboards.
I had fun making this, which is what matters. I still find myself in deep downtown of what-do-producers-want-ville. It’s like figuring out what’s on the assessment mark scheme is except you have to guess and try and interpret spoken advice instead of opening a word document with learning outcomes on it.
come on ed gamble, come on champagne soaked victory.
Time to shake and roll the dice on my every day game: am I ill? Am I just saying I’m ill because that means some of the pressure comes off my artwork, and it doesn’t represent me-at-my-best, rather – me-but-trust-me-I-can-make-better-than-this.
Do I need an excuse to feed tutors when they look at the work I make and raise an eyebrow? Or am I really, honestly ill? My head has split on and off for weeks. Today I fell asleep in the day and couldn’t get back up.
The difference between Ludwig and Techo is that whereas they both have these can-I-go-into-today moments, Techo usually wins the battle and gets to work, and Ludwig usually loses the battle.
This day was productive, as we assigned work to each member of the team to sort out. Rory is directing the official production poster, Tia the tickets, Joe the stickers, Niamh the zine. I am sort of available to help and contribute to all of these things, and keep floating around taking videos. This video is not mine, but captures the day!
I have a big speaking part in the production now, and my work is going to be split between the Broadcast group and acting from here on out. I am helping Niamh with a bit of written work for the zine, which is going to parody the conventions of a fashion magazine like Cosmopolitan – it’s called Mos-Jito. (I personally preferred Harper’s Buzzaar.)
Below is the written article, an interview with the caterpillar. Niamh can use it how she wants, but it’s just some fun content to play with putting in there somehow.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BIGGEST CATERPILLAR
By Sally Silkworm
As a senior editor here at Mos-Jito Publications, I never thought I would have an opportunity as rare and lucky as this: to sit down with Mr Ornithoptera Goliath himself in an exclusive interview. What makes this monumental caterpillar tick?
The bar is buzzing with life, and all types of insects have crawled out of the woodwork to get a drink this evening. What do you expect after the afternoon’s refreshing rainfall? I notice as I sit down with Mr Goliath that many pairs of eyes – often belonging to the same creature – were laid upon us. Goliath seems not to notice: he’s clearly used to the attention and fame an insect of his stature attracts. We get some Buzzweiser – the round’s on me, as he’s too busy eating to order – and settle down for the interview.
So, Mr Goliath, it’s a privilege to speak to you. I’ll start simple – where are you from? Where do you call home?
[Mr Goliath shovels fresh fistfuls of leaves into his mouth and avoids eye contact. I can tell from his wistful gaze that wherever it is, he holds his homeleaf dear to his heart.]
Simply enlightening. Next – and I’m sure our readers are all aching to know – what has been difficult about your newfound fame? All this attention must have its drawbacks: maybe you lost the girl you loved as you rose to the top; maybe you became estranged from friends and family?
[Mr Goliath doesn’t pause eating to answer – utterly typical, simple, showstopping. I fancy from a particularly loud chew that underneath all that glorious fat lies a hidden, tortured soul.]
And Mr Goliath, what sort of leaf would you say is your favourite? Do you go in for brand-name buddleias, spicy nettles, or the cosy, homely taste of bramble?
[No verbal response from this caterpillar celebrity, but his muteness speaks volumes: this is a caterpillar uninfluenced by sponsors or product placement, who would never sell out.]
That’s all we have time for, Mr Goliath, but it has been an absolute pleasure.
I listened to a song called Enemies to Lovers while trying to drop off to sleep and got the most vivid visual of Mitzi and Antonia having a sword fight. And Mitzi holding a sword got me thinking about that DND universe Ben designed with me this year. And then I started redesigning the DND fantasy universe, but outside of the structural and formal limitations of actual dungeons and dragons. More like… a campaign but also just a plot.
I was gonna draw Mitzi realising her sword could talk, and started thumbnailing that.
But you can see I didn’t know what the sword looked like, and this sword happens to be a priceless royal heirloom of mysterious origin that can talk (but only to people of the royal bloodline). So… its design was pretty frickin important. The task of the day changed! We begin to design swords!
I must say this process was hugely fun and also felt flooby. I had images in my head that I tried to get out, and then bounced off of those, and bounced off of reference images – the process of image generation was just so organic and fuelled by genuine passion.
Jamie even helped me at the end: he’s a boy, he’s bisexual, ergo he knows a lot about swords. This is no euphemism: there’s something about fruity boys and sword knowledge. Maybe that’s just Freddie and Jamie, actually. Anyway. Together, we talked about how the sword would look, and we came up with this coloured one on the bottom panel as the working final design.
Of course, it can change, but now I have a real shape and feel to work with when I next draw Mitzi. Designing these elements – almost fashion, or props – is giving me a LOT of good feelings.
Also, in case you are interested, here are the words.
Today Phil showed us some ways we can digitally manipulate images, and I tried to be brave. I find it hard to push myself to make new, interesting things: once something looks good I tend to pull my hands back as quickly as possible and let it be. But there’s an art and a courage to idea generation.
Digital is actually difficult for me because I find it so hard to create lots of work, and the amount of choice is paralysing. Working in PowerPoint proved useful for me because it acts as a low-stakes sketchbook, and the image alteration tools are clunky. This almost helps me because then you’re almost collaborating with the software, and some of the choices are made for you. What did I say to myself earlier? If I have to make one more creative decision today, I’m going to throw up.
The image with the very dark blue and slight tint of orange over the body is particularly strong. I also like the playfulness of the shade on the sleeve in my freeform shapes. When I cut my lino for this print, I’ll try and keep the design playful and organic like this.
This felt like a very important drawing. I felt like my hand and my brain were having a conversation again, and that something new is born, and I like it.
Something is changing. Some understanding of planes on the face, specifically the eyes and bridge of the nose, is maturing. Depth and volume on the head is also maturing: note fringe/no fringe, one of the ones I drew without a reference. I see a real sense of volume on the head, where I know my OC art can feel very flat.
Ben convinced me to download Blender by showing me cool stuff you can do with it. I already was fully aware of the cool stuff you could do with it, but something about the air tonight got me putting down my double vodka orange juice (with immense purpose – think daniel craig slamming down his scorpion shot in that one bond film) and downloading the software.
I opened it, believing confidently that I would be ok muddling my way through. Here’s how far I got.
Thoroughly frustrated and defeated, I have returned to Blender foundation tutorials, and found many incredibly useful things out already.
I make this blog post because all this took hours, and I want to document that I’m using my time in this way. We’ll see where we go. Ben says he’ll call me and run me through some of what he knows, too, which will be hugely useful.
This was an experimental image, if you can’t already tell. It felt good to make. Look at the shape of Ludwig’s eyes: they’re real, and they hold a lot of emotion, but they’re still definitely mine.
This was me messing about with the gloaming brush beyond all recognition to create a new lineart brush. I’ve since changed it a bit more and am enjoying using it immensely.
Another great product of this image is that it spurred a good conversation with a friend about the narrative of this evening, and now I know how they kiss. You know, I’ve had this night of narrative simmering for more than a month in the back of my head, and it needed a pinch of that random talk about a master’s degree I attended on Thursday to kick it into motion again. If you’re looking for inspiration, you’ll find it.
The official day 2 of the performance project was bitty and tiring, but good fun!
I was pulled out in the morning to attend a talk about a masters’ degree at the RCA. I reckon Roderick just wanted the numbers up so as not to offend the people who bothered to come out to the uni, but I really appreciated the chance to listen to some professional creatives talk.
The afternoon was interrupted with another meeting about the Paddington video, which I need to sit down and think about. Having to be creative and interesting on command is beginning to get to me. Should I just move to a farm somewhere in France and stamp on grapes for the rest of my life? These are some big questions to ask.
Anyway, I took lots of videos, and stitched them together to make a reel.
I went with Rory’s format of timing the videos to music, which packages the content up nicely and makes it fun to watch.
I also worked on some poster designs – it’s quite nice to be on this team, because these poster designs will get presented to the group on Monday but if the team go with another design, I can still use it in my personal poster submission.
Tia is looking to work with the costume department to create some videos about the costumes, and draw what they’re hoping they will look like.
Joe is creating a series of stickers using pixel art, and they look marvellous.
Monday will be sorting out a poster design to work up for the performance, and the activity on the day will likely shape our next move.
This was the first event the student reps have organised this year! I was very excited about it, and really wanted it to go well! I made a poster:
The night went so well. We had about 20 people who stayed behind – one first year, too! – and people bought snacks, hot chocolate, we had too much to eat! I think the people that stayed really enjoyed it.
This night meant a lot to the reps. It was the first big sense I got of a community being formed that went past very casual friendships or housemate-level cliques.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 