3 Case Studies of Practitioners:
Practitioner 1:
James Stuart Blackton
Video (Enchanted Drawing):
The Enchanted Drawing
'The Enchanted Drawing' (1900) is a short silent film that combined both stop-motion and drawn animation techniques. It was the first silent film that included animated sequences and recorded on standard picture film.
This was done James Stuart Blackton who was an film producer and a silent film director who was born in Sheffield, England January 5th 1875 and died in Los Angeles, America August 13th 1941. Due to his work on 'The Enchanted Drawing', J. Stuart Blackton is considered the father of American animation. James Stuart Blackton uses both stop motion and drawn animation techniques in his film. He is also the founder of Vitagraph Studios which produced the film. Thomas Edison was also the producer of 'The Enchanted Drawing'.
In the Enchanted Drawing the scene is filming using standard. J. Stuart Blackton uses a large sketchpad in which he rapidly draws his elderly gentleman and the various items he receives. By using the stop motion technique, within each scene he has filmed he can make a slight change/adjustment. After drawing a bottle of wine and a glass the camera stops to allow J. Stuart Blakton to arrange himself in the same position but now with a bottle and a glass in his hand with the drawings of the objects gone from the sketchpad by altering the picture, such as changing the facial expression at the same time to give the illusion that the objects had come to life and that the drawing of the old man himself has come to life.
This was done James Stuart Blackton who was an film producer and a silent film director who was born in Sheffield, England January 5th 1875 and died in Los Angeles, America August 13th 1941. Due to his work on 'The Enchanted Drawing', J. Stuart Blackton is considered the father of American animation. James Stuart Blackton uses both stop motion and drawn animation techniques in his film. He is also the founder of Vitagraph Studios which produced the film. Thomas Edison was also the producer of 'The Enchanted Drawing'.
In the Enchanted Drawing the scene is filming using standard. J. Stuart Blackton uses a large sketchpad in which he rapidly draws his elderly gentleman and the various items he receives. By using the stop motion technique, within each scene he has filmed he can make a slight change/adjustment. After drawing a bottle of wine and a glass the camera stops to allow J. Stuart Blakton to arrange himself in the same position but now with a bottle and a glass in his hand with the drawings of the objects gone from the sketchpad by altering the picture, such as changing the facial expression at the same time to give the illusion that the objects had come to life and that the drawing of the old man himself has come to life.
"On a large sheet of white paper a cartoonist is seen at work rapidly sketching the portrait of an elderly gentleman of most comical feature and expression. After completing the likeness the artist rapidly draws on the paper a clever sketch of a bottle of wine and a goblet, and then, to the surprise of all, actually removes them from the paper on which they were drawn and pours actual wine out of the bottle into a real glass. Surprising effects quickly follow after this; and the numerous changes of expression which flit over the face in the sketch cause a vast amount of amusement and at the same time give a splendid illustration of the caricaturist's art. 100 feet. 15.00." - Edison's Film CatalougeThis is an influence for my final outcome for my 3 in 1 brief as I had an idea to do something similar to J, Stuart Blakton's 'The Enchanted Drawing'. I though the idea of combining stop motion/animation sequences and film together was very clever and intriguing. Upon seeing the Enchanted Drawing I was instantly inspired and came up with an idea in my mind for something with a similar concept involving the same film and stop motion/drawn animation techniques relating to my 3 in 1 brief about Creatures (Dragons).
Practitioner 2:
Dong LuYu
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Concept Art (Castel Sant’Angleo)
The image above is an Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood concept art of
the Castel Sant’Angelo by Dong LuYu. Dong LuYu is a Canadian concept artist that works at Ubisoft Montreal and is most famous for working on the Assassin's Creed game series. It was concept art created to portray an idea of what
the Castello might look like in the game. It was made in 2010.
The shapes and forms in this picture are rough, jagged and straight.
This gives the building an ancient and antique feel. The texture of the bottom
half of the Castello is rough and sharp to imitate rock. The top half of the
Catsello is smoother to show flat smooth stone brick. The painting is realistic
and very detailed, especially with the windows and the decorative features on
the Castello such as the overgrown vegetation. The colours used are warm and
cool colours. The sky is a dark grey with white patches to show light shining
through the clouds. The dark grey shadows the buildings and sculptures which
use warm colours for example the orange and brown brick of the Castello and the
bright red flag that catches the most attention in the picture. The use of a computer to paint provides the painting with very distinct brush strokes and texture that you would get using software to paint.
The picture was created to represent the concept and idea to a
game developer for an idea of the architectural design and overall look of the castle that should be made in the game therefore the 3D artist has something to work from. I
think that it also appeals to a gaming audience or people who appreciated gaming
art or the work of other concept artists.
The effect this piece has manages to provoke a feeling of excitement
and intimidation to the audience. The artist achieves this by painting a huge towering castle with a giant red, eye catching flag that had a dark shadowing background and
the building overshadowed all the other buildings surrounding it.
This piece is very impressive, immersive and emotional. If I
was doing something similar I would be proud of the realisticness and the
detail in the painting.
A big challenge that the Ubisoft concept team for the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game was that they had to create 30 square kilometres of Rome, which was three times bigger than the previous areas they had created in older games. In order to recreate the city as accurately as possible of that era, they did a vast amount of research into the architecture and design of the city. They sent a team of six artists who worked on environments and characters designs. They then sent another group to collect a large amount of photo and resources to support the design of the city and historians were hired to provide facts to the production team. The concept art team's biggest challenge is to achieve a balance between respecting historical facts and integrating creative elements to provide inspiration for level artists and designers
The concept artists developed three visual themes for the game architecture: Renaissance inspired from Baroque style, Medieval inspired from the Gothic style, and Antique inspire from Roman style. The different visual themes enhance the gameplay and the story flow. They also have a modern look to the visual quality due to the photographic treatment. Photographic treatment comes from combining different lens effects and effects from film. Examples of this are lens blur, lenses of different focal lengths, film grain, realistic colour and lighting treatment.
Practitioner 3:
Alex Lundy and Clare Jackson
Filmed by Daniel Walding
Hands Like Houses - A Fire On A Hill music video
The above video is the music video for the song A Fire On A Hill by one my favourite bands, Hands Like Houses, an alternative rock/post-hardcore/experimental rock band from Canberra, Australia.
The music video is a stop animation video as the two artists, Clare Jackson and Alex Lundy. As the film is a stop animation, the effect of speed painting is achieved here as the frames are taken with later gaps between the time. The two artists begin with the already drawn outline of the house on the hill on the canvas. They proceed by painting the hill, the foliage and eventually the house. They paint the house further in vivid detail until completion.
They then draw the fire on the house using charcoal and pastels, eventually until the whole painting is covered in dark charcoal emulating the smoke and carnage the house has 'suffered' from being burnt by the house fire. They also draw the fire onto the foliage, bushes and letter box on the hill. The way they draw the fire and smoke almost 'ruins' or destroys the painting and work they did before although this could be intended to represent the carnage the fire has. As this is an animation, the artist draws and creates the animation whilst being filmed
As the smoke subsides, the Jackson and Lundy eventually use water to clear the smoke from the painting leaving the original painting of the house visible similar to it's previous state even though around the house the once foliage and trees had stood there is ash showing a powerful contrast. This cleverly represents and symbolises the cycle of a fire and how that even after everything has burned down to the ground, that the smoke will eventually clear and a fresh start arises again for a new future.
Here are pictures that show the process and behind the scenes of making the music video:
Alex Lundy is a emerging Canberra based artist who is currently studying the Diploma of Visual Art at Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT). She often uses research from multiple scientific fields to inspire her works.
Clare Alexandra Jackson is also an Canberra based artist who graduated from Australian National University's (ANU) School of Art with a Visual Art Honours.
I find this work inspiring and clever just like the Enchanted Drawing by J.Stuart Blackton, it combines the idea of filming and stop motion animation. Both also use the idea of drawing in the animation whilst being filmed but the only difference would be that in A Fire On A Hill, they are pictures instead of actual filmed footage. Both utilise animation in different ways. This influences me for my idea on the final outcome for my creature brief to do something that uses both film, stop motion and drawn animation.
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Wednesday 19th November - Contextual Studies Lecture: Modernism
In the lecture we looked at the cultural movement of Modernism.
Modernism: A cultural response to wide spread changes in society, technology and economic structures starting around the year 1870.
Breaking down the word we have two words each with their own definition.
Modern = New or contemporary. Up to date.
ism = Movement of a type of art.
Group of creative people creating identifiable movement/culture that has a set of criteria.
Criteria or Manifesto: A set of ideals a movement has written down which they may follow or apply to their practices.
Modernism follows a manifesto that is applied to how the artist crafts their work which ensures that that what they are doing or making is "modern". The Modernist manifesto is:
Criteria or Manifesto: A set of ideals a movement has written down which they may follow or apply to their practices.
Modernism follows a manifesto that is applied to how the artist crafts their work which ensures that that what they are doing or making is "modern". The Modernist manifesto is:
- Modernisms = Embrace of the new
- Rejection of tradition
- Rejection of middle class values
- Rejection of conformity
- Rejection of realism and mimesis (the artwork is more abstract and breaks traditional conventions)
- The idea that creativity can change the world
- Must be formally adventurous and structurally complex works (applicable to art, design and architecture)
Modernism is happening within and part of a large process in the era of modernity which began in the mid 18th century (1750's) which is an ongoing process where concepts such as Capitalism and consumerism were developed.
Modernism is both a cause and effect.
There are many causes to modernism and these are the result and consequences of a major progression in society especially during the industrial period:
Wednesday 26th November - Contextual Studies Lecture: Modernism 2
Different disciplines have different responses and time periods of modernism.
Fine Art:
Architecture:
Applied Arts (Media, Graphics, Typography, Illustration):
Fashion:
Post-modernism occurs after the modernism movement but the exact date of when it begins is difficult as it is unknown when modernism ends and different disciplines may have different interpretations of when it occurs.
"One person's post-modernism is another person's modernism" - Andreas Huyssen: After the Great Divide: Modernism, mass culture and Post-modernism. London: Macmillan, 1998.
Urbanism - The Birth of Photography.
Louis Dagurerre, a French artist and photographer developed the first photographic process called the daguerreotype which widespread use was during the 1840's. This process renders mimetic art and painting useless as the photograph could produce an exact replica of what was taken. This contributed to the idea and criteria of modernism.
Oldest photograph taken by Daguerre in 1838 where the long exposure time in the picture caused the traffic in the photo to disappear.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris is almost like a symbolic representation of a tower modernism due to it being constructed and designed in such a modern way. Using modern materials and functional designs that weren't just about aesthetic such as the metal lattice work and proudly showing them off as if they were for ornamentation.
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish fine artist whose work was in the style of Cubism. His abstract style used a lot of shapes and abstract forms.
Les Demoiselles (The Young Ladies of Avignon and the original title The Brothel of Avignon) is a oil painting by Pablo Picasso created in 1907. This work shows his influence by African masks as displayed by the two women on the right.
Wednesday 10th December - Contextual Studies Lecture: Bauhaus
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a professor at the Bauhaus school in Germany, he was a Hungarian painter and photographer and was highly influenced by constructivism and intergrating technology and industry into the arts.
Gunta Stolzl was a German textile artist who was fundamental in the development of the Bauhaus. She joined the Bauhaus as a student in the 1920's and became a junior master in 1927 and a full master in 1928 (Bauhaus Dessau). As she was the only female master in the Bauhaus, she created a huge change in the weaving department of the Bauhaus as it transitioned from individual pictorial works to modern industrial designs. She had to flee Nazi Germany.
As the professors fled Nazi Germany, their teachings and Bauhaus ideals spread globally. The Bauhaus had an open door teaching policy.
The Bauhaus followed their statements.
Bauhaus Statement: "Form Follows Function" - Louis Sulivan
This means that the use the work will have should define the way it is made and look and the materials used to create the piece of work.
An example would be flip chairs or hairbrushes as they are functional and their form is built for the function.
Bauhaus Statement: "Ornament is crime." - Adolf Loos
This means that anything that doesn't contribute to the function of the work is a 'crime' for example ornamentation (details such as decoration that have no functional purpose). Reasons this may be is due to the fact that it is harder and longer to add unnecessary non functional details to the work. Bauhaus did not like the idea of mass production and this mean that removing ornamentation makes it easier for factory workers or for people who hand craft such items. It almost represents ornamentation as a crime against humanity for those who work painfully and strenuously in factories. They also believe that ornamentation can also cause objects to go out of style so after a period of time, the object will be thrown or way or disused. Without the ornamentation the work can be respected as the functional piece it was meant to be. (Although this may not apply to fashion as clothes are functional but can also go out in style for example jeans etc).
Modernism is both a cause and effect.
There are many causes to modernism and these are the result and consequences of a major progression in society especially during the industrial period:
- Industrialisation (Mass production)
- Transport and improved Communication
- Urbanisation (Farmers and rural workers migrate to cities for factory jobs)
- Universal Sufferage
- Woman's Rights
- The expansion of the Empire
- Conquest of other countries
- Discovery and improvements in Science and Technology
- New inventions (electricity, cars, trains, aeroplanes, fridges, drum kits)
- 1890 - 1939 World War II broke out
- 1900 - 1914 World War I broke out
- 1880 - 1970
- 1890 - 1991 Berlin Wall was torn down.
Wednesday 26th November - Contextual Studies Lecture: Modernism 2
Different disciplines have different responses and time periods of modernism.
Fine Art:
- In Fine Art this can be characterised as the rejection of realism and mimesis combined with a search for new forms of expression (such as abstraction).
Architecture:
- In Architecture and design it can be seen as a rejection of ornamentation and the self concious use of new materials combined with utopian social ideals.
Applied Arts (Media, Graphics, Typography, Illustration):
- In the applied arts it can be seen as a simplifying of the design process to create new universal forms for mass audience.
Fashion:
- In fashion it can be seen as a response to a relaxation in social structures, a response to the growing liberation of women and the use of new materials and manufacturing processes.
Post-modernism occurs after the modernism movement but the exact date of when it begins is difficult as it is unknown when modernism ends and different disciplines may have different interpretations of when it occurs.
"One person's post-modernism is another person's modernism" - Andreas Huyssen: After the Great Divide: Modernism, mass culture and Post-modernism. London: Macmillan, 1998.
Urbanism - The Birth of Photography.
Louis Dagurerre, a French artist and photographer developed the first photographic process called the daguerreotype which widespread use was during the 1840's. This process renders mimetic art and painting useless as the photograph could produce an exact replica of what was taken. This contributed to the idea and criteria of modernism.
Oldest photograph taken by Daguerre in 1838 where the long exposure time in the picture caused the traffic in the photo to disappear.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris is almost like a symbolic representation of a tower modernism due to it being constructed and designed in such a modern way. Using modern materials and functional designs that weren't just about aesthetic such as the metal lattice work and proudly showing them off as if they were for ornamentation.
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish fine artist whose work was in the style of Cubism. His abstract style used a lot of shapes and abstract forms.
Les Demoiselles (The Young Ladies of Avignon and the original title The Brothel of Avignon) is a oil painting by Pablo Picasso created in 1907. This work shows his influence by African masks as displayed by the two women on the right.
Wednesday 10th December - Contextual Studies Lecture: Bauhaus
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was a professor at the Bauhaus school in Germany, he was a Hungarian painter and photographer and was highly influenced by constructivism and intergrating technology and industry into the arts.
Gunta Stolzl was a German textile artist who was fundamental in the development of the Bauhaus. She joined the Bauhaus as a student in the 1920's and became a junior master in 1927 and a full master in 1928 (Bauhaus Dessau). As she was the only female master in the Bauhaus, she created a huge change in the weaving department of the Bauhaus as it transitioned from individual pictorial works to modern industrial designs. She had to flee Nazi Germany.
As the professors fled Nazi Germany, their teachings and Bauhaus ideals spread globally. The Bauhaus had an open door teaching policy.
The Bauhaus followed their statements.
Bauhaus Statement: "Form Follows Function" - Louis Sulivan
This means that the use the work will have should define the way it is made and look and the materials used to create the piece of work.
An example would be flip chairs or hairbrushes as they are functional and their form is built for the function.
Bauhaus Statement: "Ornament is crime." - Adolf Loos
This means that anything that doesn't contribute to the function of the work is a 'crime' for example ornamentation (details such as decoration that have no functional purpose). Reasons this may be is due to the fact that it is harder and longer to add unnecessary non functional details to the work. Bauhaus did not like the idea of mass production and this mean that removing ornamentation makes it easier for factory workers or for people who hand craft such items. It almost represents ornamentation as a crime against humanity for those who work painfully and strenuously in factories. They also believe that ornamentation can also cause objects to go out of style so after a period of time, the object will be thrown or way or disused. Without the ornamentation the work can be respected as the functional piece it was meant to be. (Although this may not apply to fashion as clothes are functional but can also go out in style for example jeans etc).
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