It has become increasingly evident that having an online presence has become important. I need to consider how I present myself in order to create a brand and an image which people experience when viewing my social platforms.
My skillset is rooted in my experience in Fine Art and painting, this has given me some levels of understanding of composition but in a very flat 2D manner. When moving to working digitally a whole new level of being able to work with perspective was opened. I made this move from still to moving image due to a passion I have for telling a story within my work, I felt that by moving to animation I could tell the stories I wanted to in a richer manner. This movement into digital work has given me experience in software such as TV Paint, Toon Boom Harmony, Procreate, Adobe Premiere and After Effects. With my continuing use of these I intend to develop and widen my abilities to tell these stories in a richer manner.
I want to develop my skillset to be more proficient digitally due to the opportunities it opens up for my future as a creative. By being able to tell a story in a more detailed manner with more complex software is where I strive to be, since learning to use different packages will greatly shape my own style. Improving my knowledge of the softwares I use at the moment is my main focus so that I can fully explore their potential such as with TV Paint, I thoroughly enjoyed using it during the LipSync project last year and would love to record my own conversations and animate to them. I live in a house of 6 girls and some of our conversations would be perfect to animate to, I often think of visuals whilst having these conversations. My storyboarding process and the way I plan my animations also needs to be developed so that I make sure I am able to create a solid storyline that I can adhere to and is easily translated to an audience. Another necessity I have found whilst working is my ability to edit film, I have basic abilities but anything complex stumps me. Therefore by the end of this year I intend to have experimented and learnt how to use the aforementioned programmes to their maximum potential.
It would be nice to experiment with complex animations, I have never considered camera movements and panning, I enjoy transformations since I do more representational animation. Yet the transformations could look a lot more interesting if there was a 3d element to them, like moving around the subject. I have kept my animations very flat and solely one camera view straight on from the front, the one time I changed the camera and perspective was on my final project for first year on Loops. That animation was instantly more engaging and richer.
Artists who inspire my work
Piotr Jablonski – Art station, Instagram
His work appeals to the side of me that likes detailed pieces, I love the fantasy and apocalyptic themes. There is such a rich story in these pieces with emotions and so much movement due to the level of detail that he adds, every part of the figure is considered on how it would be executed in order to develop the story. Especially the detail in the skin and the different hues used to add more to a character, such as the more decaying greys used in the first and the pale blush seen in the last piece (shown above). The poses that he uses for the characters also display so much movement, in my own work I need to consider the poses and the movement I use to enhance the storyline since I find that my characters are very stationary when animated and illustrated.
Nahuel Bardi – dribble, instagram.
Bardi’s work has abstract characters and such a wide range of visual imagery. The glowing, colourful fairytale theme in his work creates the idea that he has another world where these characters exist. Even within the illustration style you can fine a narrative, as well as the actual composition, this creates as rich a storyline as an animated piece.
Jamie Wolfe – website, instagram, vimeo.
Her animation style is my main influence at the moment. The way it is so organic and hand drawn, the way the frames come together in this constant movement is how I would like mine to look. The hand drawn element is highlighted in her style, every part is moving and thus so engaging to watch. It helps me break down the way I am hung up on perfect smooth animation and how the jumpy nature of her work looks as good as a smoother piece since it works well with her style.
Alice Bloomfield – Website, instagram.
Alice Bloomfield’s work inspires me due to her more sketchy style yet the way she uses line and shading bring in the more refined tone I like in work. Again in her work I love the gradients and glow she brings to her characters to make them into these ethereal gorgeous women. In her animated work the smoothness and imagination in her transitions to enhance this gorgeous otherworldly universe her work is part of.
Out of all these artists it is clear that the creation of another world is something I like to consider when it comes to what I produce. This is something I am striving to bring to the world of my characters, by bringing in a style and visual imagery that give a piece its own atmosphere as if it is not from our realm. To me this is important in the narrative of my work, you will know my world just from the style before it begins to move.
It has become clear to me that creating an online presence for my work is essential since growing a network online has proved useful in obtaining commission work. Therefore curating an image on social media platforms such as instagram is important to promote and share my work with a new audience. Here is my instagram, vimeo, youtube, portfolio website.
Alongside my animations I share online I do stick and pokes on the side as something I’m interested in, my illustration style is focused on the body and I consider the tattoos I do as part of my artistic practice. I choose to do stick and poke instead of using a machine due to the more organic way it settles into the skin. It forms part of my love for embracing human form and women’s bodies in my work, it is part of expression and telling your story. A lot of the time, I take stills from my animations and parts from my illustrations to use them as tattoo designs. It has also become a form of expanding and editing my social media presence as an artist and has very much become part of my online image. However part of growing my name as a stick and poke artist has been doing pieces which people want not one of my own designs, not everyone always wants part of my flash, these custom designs I charge more for.
As well as my own work I have begun to work on commission work, the latest being a music video for Kilder for his song ‘Bad For Me‘. I worked to a brief and alongside another creator and made sure it was finished in good time to be able to go through it with a film editor to add the pieces Kilder wanted on-top. During this project I accurately planned my time so that it was finished a week before the deadline therefore we could do further work and and necessary changes. There were quite a few issues to work out due to COVID, any film sent from K_anti was what she had tried her best to capture but was not specifically what we needed. So I discussed this with the musician and his agent and worked around these issues by coming up with ideas and processes that would work with what we had. Due to the short time scale I had to do this animation I had to change my work process slightly to make sure it was finished in time, I did this by filming myself in my room and rotoscoping a few of the clips. This proved to be quicker as a method to produce movements that looked good when played and I had to think less about whether it worked and moved smoothly. However I found that doing this I paid too much attention to something looking perfect and has not left room for me to stylise my work in the way I want to.
I have recently tried to do this in my latest animation, (here is a clip) I have not used rotoscope but my own knowledge of how the figure moves. I find this more interesting since then the piece is not just how film would look it is more free and organic which I find it more engaging as it is different from what we would experience. This desire for development and more stylised features has made itself evident in my illustration style too, creating a story and layout in my illustrations is better than in my animations. This is a skill which I need to begin to develop and transfer to my animated work.
The devil figure I use in my work now has become a motif which I use in almost every piece if I am able to. I settled on this since it expresses this this powerful attitude I have as a woman, women have been criminalised throughout history and seen as manipulative witches who are lusty and tempting. For me I want this sexual nature that the female image has been portrayed in as something that I can take back and be confident with. Therefore by assuming this image I am showing this powerful god-like sexy woman content in herself, taking back the ideas that have been pushed onto our image and using them to remake ourselves.