Woyzeck On The Highveld

The Handspring Puppet Company is performing Woyzeck On The Highveld at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg on 4 - 30 March 2008. (It will also be in Cape Town in May)

It's a multi-media event incorporating the animated drawings of William Kentridge with the Handspring puppets and live performers in an adaptation of German writer Georg Buchner's famous play of jealousy, murder and the struggle of an individual against an uncaring society which eventually destroys him.

The production originally premiered at the Grahamstown Festival in 1992 and was the first collaboration between Handspring and Kentridge. It brings together rod-manipulated puppets and animated film to graphically illustrate Woyzek's tortured mind as he tries to make sense of his external circumstances.

I saw Handspring's brilliant Tall Horse a few years ago, so I'm extremely excited to see another one, especially one featuring William Kentridge animations.

Tickets are available now, and it's not even that expensive. Don't miss it!

Wind Sprites

As the light of the early morning sun hits the pods, they start to emerge,weak from their long confinement and struggling against the tough shells that kept them safe throughout their time of change.
Soon their new wings will be strong enough for the breeze to lightly lift them off their perches and carry them far away.

FANTASY XXIV: "Metamorphosis"

Brief: Things change. You are to depict as fantasy image of things are changing, or how they have changed over long periods. Transformations, transmutations,emerging, polymorphing, evolution, whatever you can come up with, as long as there is some sense of a before and after, it should be fair game for a subject.

Closeup of the first, second and third sprite.

Animated Work in Progress (About 450Kb)

Sources

It's amazing how things work sometimes. I usually struggle for ages to find some kind of workable concept. This time I almost instantly knew what I wanted to do. I even made pre-sketches. On actual paper.

I also found the perfect source for my main sprite in Marcus Ranum's DA gallery, so without too much fuss, she had taken (a rather nice) form. I even tried a new technique - painting on highlights instead of using the dodge tool, to give her a much more glistening / surreal look. I'm also quite proud of how well the wings turned out.

Then it got a lot harder. I wasted almost 2 days trying and discarding different backgrounds, but nothing would work. I knew what I wanted, of course, but just couldn't find it. Since time was running out, I finally settled on this one, but it isn't really such a perfect fit.

Most of the critiques I got was about the busyness or distracting quality of the background. Even though I had cleaned the original picture up considerably, I tend to agree with them. Who knows, maybe I'll find or take the perfect picture to use somewhere in the future. Then I can finish this one properly.

Final Score: 8.999 (I can't believe how close this is!! Just a mere 0.001 more and I would have had my very first 9!)

Piper's Dream

At the base of the ruined city, an old piper still plays.

Dipping into the ancient, forgotten melodies.

Conjuring up images of what was, what might have been.

What could never be again.

Fantasy XX: Music

Brief: This image must contain something related to MUSIC. Since it is difficult to make sound appear in an image, you will probably chose to show instruments, dancing, or other activities that are usually associated with sounds. MUSIC is of course a matter of taste, so a simple horn that would summon your presence on a lonely cliff, would be acceptable,full troops of colourful dancers, pied pipers, surreal images of cellos frozen in crystal, a lonely drummer, an insect rock band, a harp soothing the savage beast or just about anything you can come up with that we could foresee being associated with some sort of sound effects will be fine.

Animated Work in Progress (485 Kb)

Sources

Unfortunately this was a bit of a rush job. It's a very nice theme, but after a hectic few weeks at work and a total blank on the inspirational front, I finally had only 2 days left with nothing more to show than a few scribbles done during the boring bits of Remix'07.

I had found the piper source earlier, loved it, and wanted to use it, but he just didn't want to fit into any else. (The vertical format is more due to not being able to find satisfactory background sources than any artistic choices)

But the dragon I like. They do seem to get easier as I go along. Still blue though. He was actually supposed to have a lot more spikes along his back, but I'm impressed by how well the horns worked.

It looks ok, not as refined as it might have been, but I'm happy enough with it.

Final Score: 7.821

The Descent

Slowly, gracefully,
the Harpy descends into the dusk,
ready to claim the soul of her first victim.

Fantasy XVIII: The First

Brief: You are to depict an image that shows THE FIRST of something.This could be anything from newborns, to the oldest, to the newly coronated, first contact with aliens, first explored planet, a first kiss, or victory, or the launch of some new overwhelming project on which something is dependent like the first starship, heck you could show the favourite among the concubines of some sultan...lots and lots of fun for the whole family.

Work in Progress

Sources

Once again, I'm really grateful to Tracie76 for letting me use one of her wonderful jump photos. (I used them previously for In Captivity)

I really wanted to do something a bit less depressing for this contest, so someone or something experiencing flight for the first time, immediately came to mind. I started this, abandoned it in favour of a Da Vinci-esque, bubble driven flying machine, and then came back to it when I couldn't find the exact right pictures I needed for the other one.

I liked the fact that her arms were merged into the wings, making her different from most usual winged humanoids. After doing a bit of research, I settled on a Harpy.

Traditionally they are depicted as a bird of prey with the face and torso of a woman. In earlier myths they were described as beautiful, winged maidens, or winged death-spirits. It was only later that they became the hideous, foul-smelling, winged monsters with the face of an ugly old woman, represented carrying off persons to the underworld and inflicting punishment or tormenting them.

For obvious reasons, I opted for the earlier description, as well as their traditional Greek role of escorting the spirits of the dead.

I like the warm, pastel colours. It's a bit different from my normal, colder palette, but it works and helps to create a much more serene atmosphere.

I'm really satisfied with the final result.

Final Score: 8.155

Slip of the Tongue

Anatomy Sramble 2

Just a quick little chop that didn't really do as well as I had hoped.
Still, I quite like the way it came out.

Final Score: 6.119

Mothers

Tree of Life 7

An arboreal Lamaze class.

Closeup

Sources

This one was actually meant for the Fantasy XIV: Humanoids contest, but with the holidays and everything, I just never got around to finishing it. It was actually going to be based on the fates - the maiden, the mother and the crone, but when a Tree of Life contest came around again, all I had to do was make them all pregnant, and it fit the theme perfectly.
I'm really not that used to short contests anymore, so their lack of proper heads is due to my time running out. (And because none of the available pregnant source pics actually showed faces)
Unfortunately, my newly pregnant sister found the fact that I had 'decapitated' them, rather traumatic.

Final Score: 7.276

The Last Naiad

"Whether science or magic was to blame, nobody knew, but something was turning all the water in the world into ice. It started slowly, unobtrusively - tiny flecks of ice floating in ponds, a few crystals on the edges of a waterfall. But like an infection, the ice kept spreading.

The Naiads, so intimately connected to the bodies of water under their protection that their very existence depended on it, were the first to feel the lasting effects. Their aqueous bodies became lethargic, hard to move. They tried to fight it, but the spread of the ice was unrelentless and absolute

Finally, one by one, they stopped struggling, giving themselves over to the ice and it's cold, hard oblivion."

Fantasy XIII: Sole Survivor

Brief: Depict an image of the last surviving entity of some type. What that survivor is, will be up to you, and we will be generous in the interpretation, but loss, tragedy, and even hope are historically the types of emotions that images of this type try to convey.

Work in Progress

Sources

Closeup

I struggled to find a concept for this one. At first I wanted to do something a lot more personal (and more obviously sad) , but while I was looking for sources, I discovered this beautiful photo by osga and this picture just sort of grew from there.

Of course, the whole viral ice thing was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's Ice-nine from Cat's Cradle. I've never actually read it, but the concept has intrigued me for a while. I just wanted to put a bit of a fantasy angle on it.

Doesn't amphibian feet just make the most interesting ears/fins?

I know the tail doesn't really make sense anatomically, but I needed something to enhance the transparency of her liquid form. I actually wanted to turn it into hair or a headdress or something, but I just literally ran out of time.

At least all this work earned me my highest score yet.

Final Score: 8.927

Carved Crayons

Peter Goldlust uses ordinary wax crayons to create the most amazing carvings.

From his website:

"The work reflects my interest in mutated, hybrid forms, and the disjunctive psychological states that they represent.

I’ve explored these themes using a variety of media. These have included traditional studio techniques, digital imaging, industrial manufacturing processes, and children’s arts-and-crafts materials. A sense of play is key to each of these creative strategies."

While googling for a bit more info, I also found a few more stationary based sculptors:

The art of pencil carving.

Joseph Barbaccia constructed a very impressive self portrait with crayons.

Diem Chau's Storytelling series.

Castle Wyvern

Fantasy XII: Stonework Archaeologica

Brief: Portray a scene with an ancient weathered structure. Ideally it should be intriguing, ancient, isolated, quite large, from some undetermined culture, and made of some durable material (stone, old wood, crystal, masonry, bronze etc). The environment is up to you, but should mesh well with the structure, and any optional life forms present.

Work in Progress

Closeup of the Dragon

Sources


I'm actually quite happy with the way this one came out.

It was a very last minute decision to actually participate this month, giving me about a week to do it. As usual, it took a few days to find a useable concept, and in the end it was the wonderful perspective of the bridge that inspired me. (The fact that I recently found a few episodes of the old Gargoyles animated series on YouTube might also have had something to do with it. It was definitely the inspiration for the title)

Finding source pictures that fit into that perspective...well, let's just say I truly considered starting over quite a few times. Luckily, atmospheric colour saved me in quite a few places.

When the castle was finally done to my satisfaction, the image still needed something, a focus point of some sort. Thus happened the dragon.

It's strange, my very first dragon took about a week to finish, and I'm still not completely satisfied with her. I made this one in less than a day, but I think his overall look is much more consistent. His face could use a bit more work, but overall, I'm pretty proud of him.

Final Score: 8.315

Dressing Up

Normally, there is never enough opportunities to really dress up, so when Anton's sister decided to hold a costume party for her 30th birthday, we had to do something completely crazy. It was established early on that make-up or bodypaint of some sort would have to be involved, but it took a few nights of brainstorming before we found the perfect characters.

Nightcrawler for Anton, Mystique for JeAnette and Illyria for me. (Blue sounded like a really good idea at the time, ok.)

Nightcrawler

Anton's Nightcrawler costume was probably the most complicated.

The tail was created from a wire framework, covered in blue material and stuffed. I think they weighed the tip down with a tube of glue or something. It was attached to his body with a complicated rig of hardboard, wire, fish line and bandages. (Trust a paramedic to do that)

JeA made the hands and feet, and added yellow mogde podged nails. The ears came from a costume shop and was just spray painted blue. We managed to make his hair with a mixture of Brylcream and black powdered paint. Amazingly, the Brylcream also made his hair curl, which was definitely a bonus. His face was just blue facepaint with detail in white pencil.

Mystique

Mystique was a lot of fun to do. For the hair we used bright red Bulldog Colour Power Gel and some more Brylcream. We used blue facepaint on her face, but it took a long time to get an even colour, and since time was running out, we switched to blue fabric paint for her neck, arms and feet.

Her shirt was originally turqoise and black, so it first had to be covered with a layer of white pvc before it could be painted blue. It became very stiff upon drying and we had to wet it before she could put it on again, but as it dried it took on her body shape perfectly. All the scales were drawn on afterwards.

Illyria

Compared to the other two, my preparations were fairly simple, but I was quite pleased with the result. Just a few blue streaks sprayed on my hair and blue eyeshadow or eyeliner for everything else, and I was ready to go.

The last photo was taken after the party, while I was putting the finishing touches on this. (The deadline was 6:00 the next morning)

Papercut

Peter Callesen is a Danish sculptor who creates the most amazing sculptures out of single sheets of A4 paper.

His work is inspired by fairytales and romanticism, exploring the relationship between 2 and 3 dimensionality, between image and reality.

"I find the materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form as an almost magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is as well an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts."

A few extra pics can be found here and here.

Star Wars Mural

As evidenced by some of my previous posts, I work for a company, and more specifically, a boss who is rather obsessed with Star Wars.
Now, to complete the assimilation of anybody brave enough to venture into our offices, the entire back wall sports a massive Star Wars mural as well.

The whole thing took Charl and Melanie about 2 weeks to complete, and it really looks spectacular. It is highly amusing to see the looks on people's faces when they see it for the first time.

The initial idea was to have a single scene that covered the whole wall, but since we couldn't find any scene that would work well enough, we settled on a collage of the 3 original movies.

The wall is a bit too big to fit onto just one photo, so here it is broken up into the different movies:



A few closeups:

Samorost

Samorost is a delightful point and click adventure about a tiny space gnome trying to save his home from an approaching asteroid.
The art is beautifully bizarre and somewhat reminiscent of Monty Python.

It was originally created by Jakub Dvorsky as his final thesis project. The word 'Samorost' in Czech means a root or piece of wood, which resembles a creature; but it is also a term for a person who doesn't care about rest of the world.

The art of the sequel, Samorost 2 , is even prettier. It's very polished and completely intriguing. Unfortunately only the first chapter is free, but it is definitely worth it.

99 Rooms

99 Rooms is an internet art project that interweaves wall painting, photography, animation and sound.

It stemmed from the mystical, often apolocalyptically charming pictures created by Berlin artist Kim Köster within the countless vacated premises of East Berlin‘s industrial sector. The often eerie soundtrack just adds to the amazingly atmospheric experience.

The Scribbler

A cool way to waste 20 minutes, The Scribbler lets you jot down a quick sketch and then takes over to create weird and wonderful things like this creature above.

10 points to the first person who can actually guess what it is!

Signs of life

I know I have been very quiet lately.

No, I wasn't kidnapped by a bunch of rogueish, yet charmingly sexy pirates who forced me to wear tight bodices and survive on nothing but skilly 'n duff and seaweed grog.

Nor did aliens abduct me to perform strange, and surprisingly kinky, experiments on my shining example of a human brain.

I didn't even find a magical wardrobe that led into a fantastical world where I had lots of wonderful adventures and later returned wiser and more mature than before. That will only happen on the 18th.

It did involve a dragon though.

The biggest reason is probably Worth1000. They actually convinced me to spend ridiculous amounts of time doing things like this and this. But it's a lot of fun. And probably one of the first times in my life where I am doing arty/creative things because I actually enjoy it, and not just because it is part of some assignment or project.

Another reason is my recent discovery of the wonderful world of webcomics. I found the first one while doing research for my dragon picture, and now I'm hooked!
I've always been facinated by manga and comic book art, but it just never really occurred to me to follow the next logical step and start drawing it myself. I do like the colouring part, just not really the drawing from scratch.

Anyway, here is a few of the prettiest ones in case somebody is interested.

Fallen - Sadly, it is not being updated at the moment, but I live in hope, since I'm completely in love with the sketchy style of the later pages.

Inverloch - Also on hiatus for a bit, but it's getting published next year, so it should be back soon. Beautiful, full-colour pages.

Juathuur - B &W, but it actually updates 7 days a week!

The Saga of Eruune - Strange story, but a very unique, avant-gardey style with lots of intricate linework.

Redemption - Some of the pages are being redone in a much cleaner, stylised way, but I still like the rough scratchy originals.

New Lifeforms

This 3D animation is absolutely amazing!

“Sixes Last” was created by 1st Ave Machine as a music video for the artist Alias.

"It is about how artificiality is creeping into the modern day world. We were looking at a merge between synthetic biology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and what could spawn from them."

The style is great and I'm really impressed with their ability to motion track with the moving camera, so that technology and nature blend together seamlessly.

Some of the creatures even reminded me of the plant life in 'The Dark Crystal'!