Andy R Macpherson

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

2011-12-28T15:33:00.003Z

I've got a couple of wee video projects currently in the works, which will be written about soon. But in the meantime, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and have a good New Year!

More curling photography

2011-11-02T21:16:00.006Z

Last month there were a couple of big events at work, with the 21st annual Kinross Junior Curling Classic taking place from 7th-9th October, and the Kinross Wheelchair Curling International Invitational from 18th-20th October.

On top of my usual Ice Tech duties, I was also the official photographer & webmaster for the Junior Classic. This involved creating, maintaining, and editing a blog/website for relevant news, scores/results, and photos throughout the weekend; as well as perching myself rink-side for between 30 & 60 minutes per session to photograph the sporting action (with 13 sessions & about 48 games - if I remember correctly - over 3 days)!

You can visit the Junior Classic website at: www.kinrossjuniorclassic.blogspot.com

And you can see all my photos from both the Junior Classic & Wheelchair International on the Kinross Curling Rink facebook page.

Behind-the-scenes: Kinross Curling Rink

2011-09-20T20:23:00.007+01:00

Two-and-a-bit weeks ago I returned to work at Kinross Curling Rink (after a long summer away) in order to help get the ice constructed and ready for a new curling season, which started yesterday.

It was a busy but highly interesting process - and to enlighten curious curlers (plus anyone else that may be interested) I have photographed the many different stages of construction...

...You can see all 76 of my photos on the Kinross Curling Rink facebook page by clicking here for the Ice Installation 2011 photo album.

Scottish Women's Football photography

2011-08-31T22:55:00.011+01:00

For the past 3 Sunday's I've been doing match photography for Scottish Women's Football (SWF) to help promote the sport. It was an interesting experience, and culminated with me getting media accreditation from the Scottish Football Assocation (SFA) to photograph the Scotland Vs Belgium women's international friendly match at Falkirk Stadium, which was an exciting new experience for me.

Despite growing steadily for many years, the status of women's football in Scotland remains rather low-key, but following the success of the FIFA Women's World Cup a couple of months ago, SWF has been looking to capitalise on a growing global interest in the sport: So when I read that they were looking for a helping hand from some photographers I was keen to get involved.

I've avidly watched major women's football tournaments (ie: World Cup, Olympics, European championships, etc) for several years now - having first been impressed by the skill and flowing gameplay of the 2007 Women's World Cup in China, which (if I remember correctly) was extensively covered by BBC3 - and this years tournament, despite restricted coverage, continued to impress.

Although I was not too familiar with the game in Scotland, I was curious enough to spend time at some matches and do photography for the SWF website.

The game in Scotland is certainly far from as developed/commercial as the men's version (at this time), but I have found the few matches that I have so far experienced to be full of promise for the future; and considering the current state of our men's game (following last week's early exit from European competition by our top 3 men's clubs), I think the women's game is in a prime position to boom in popularity over the next few years.

Although our media focuses almost entirely on the men's game, and has spouted far too many despairing headlines about the poor quality of our leagues, Scottish football fans may want to start looking towards the women's side of the game for some positivity...

Glasgow City FC is the leading women's football club in Scotland, and despite being a part-time club, are into the last 32 (knockout stages) of the Women's Champions League - having progressed from the group stages undefeated against several professional European clubs!

They now face Valur (from Iceland) over 2 legs in September, and if they progress will equal the furthest any Scottish women's club has previously reached.

And while the men's national team have a tense battle against Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein, to qualify for the 2012 European championships (for the first time since 1996); the women's national team is currently riding high, having recently won their warm-up matches against Switzerland & Belgium as they prepare for their qualifying campaign for the 2013 Women's European Championships against France, Israel, Wales, and Ireland.

A trio of influential Scottish women, including the supreme Julie Fleeting, play for Arsenal Ladies, which at the weekend won the inaugural FA Women's Super League title, and with the core of our national team playing together with Glasgow City, the Scottish women have surely got to be strong contenders to qualify for Euro 2013.

In hard financial times when hefty attendance costs & dull quality of play repels fans from men's football in Scotland, women's football makes perfect sense: Attendance is cheap (if not free), matches are very competitive, unlike their highly-paid male counterparts the female players are reluctant to dive or feign injury; and most importantly at this moment in time, the women's game in Scotland is both growing in status and becoming evermore successful.

With this in mind, take a look at a few of my photos (both conventional and unusual) from last week's Scotland V Belgium game at Falkirk Stadium, and perhaps consider cheering on the team at their upcoming matches - click here for info/details from the SFA.

Julie Fleeting (blue no.10) about to take a strike.

Teammates congratulate Fleeting for opening the scoring after only 3 minutes.

Jane Ross (blue no.13) plays the ball to a teammate while hounded by opponents.

Jane Ross & Hayley Lauder (blue) chase down an opponent.

Video: Stirling Summer Skins

2011-08-12T00:30:00.003+01:00

Last weekend was the annual Stirling Summer Skins Curling competition at The Peak sports centre. It is a light-hearted event that attracts curlers from around the world, and I was there to film some of the fun.

My video, below, contains lots of colourful highlights from Day 1 (the Friday), in which every team played two games. You can expect to see plenty of crazy Loudmouth trousers, folk dressed like they're in the Caribbean (despite the rink temperature being rather cold), lots of fancy dress, and an appearance from Batman, Robin, Catwoman, and The Joker!

Days 2 & 3 of the competition were played on a knock-out basis, with the Final being contested on Sunday afternoon. I went back to the rink on Sunday to film the Final, which was a closely contested game, played with a bit more seriousness than the Friday - but as you'll see from Bob Cowan's photos, it wasn't completely serious!

I filmed most of the Final, but I am yet to edit a highlight video of the game: One reason being because it'll take a lot more time, and secondly because it won't be as colourful/fun as the Day 1 video. However if there is a demand for the Final video then I could be tempted to go ahead with it...

Commission: Chatellerault

2011-08-09T20:43:00.004+01:00

Here is a large painting commission that I completed a couple weeks ago.

It is an acrylic on card portrayal of Chatellerault near Hamilton (Scotland); and measures roughly 80 x 40cms - making it by far the largest painting I've done in several years.

Novak Djokovic caricature

2011-07-01T20:30:00.006+01:00

Of all my recent tennis caricatures, this Novak Djokovic caricature was the third (of five) to be drawn but is the last to be coloured.

Second seed Novak Djokovic met Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in this afternoon's first semi-final match: Despite defeating the mighty Roger Federer in his previous match, Tsonga was today knocked out in 4 sets, so Djokovic progresses to Sunday's Final.
Djokovic would play the winner of this afternoon's second semi-final match between defending champion Rafa Nadal and fourth seed Andy Murray: British hopes were raised when Murray won a hotly-contested opening set, however Nadal dominated the following three sets to secure his place in yet another grand slam final.

Work in progress teaser

2011-06-30T00:55:00.003+01:00

I'm making slow progress on the largest painting I've done in about 5 years. It's an acrylic on card commission, and measures roughly 80cms x 40cms (32" x 16").

The photo below is a wee teaser, showcasing the painting and my re-arranged work space (which is temporarily set-up to accommodate work on this painting).

Making of... "Fear Is On Your Side"

2011-06-28T01:17:00.014+01:00

Apart from my animation work, this music video is probably the biggest personal project I've taken on to date.
The entire video consists solely of band practice footage, with no parallel storyline (as you see in the majority of music videos) therefore I had to spend a huge amount of time synching/editing all my recorded footage in order to create the video you see below.

Because the editing process for this project was unlike anything I've done before, I've decided to write more about it for anyone that may be interested...

As you may have read in my previous post about the music video, I had spent about an hour filming the band while they performed the song multiple times (so that I could film different takes and camera angles), and ended up with over 90 pieces of video footage.

After downloading all the footage from both cameras onto my laptop I went through a lengthy process of watching every piece of footage so that I could delete the rubbish/irrelevant pieces while renaming/labeling any pieces that I wanted to keep for possible inclusion in the final music video.

Some of the 90+ pieces of footage renamed for easy identification.

Once all the pieces of footage were suitably renamed and easy to identify, I opened my editing software (Sony Vegas Movie Studio) and set about synchronizing all the different bits of video footage with the band's pre-recorded music track.
Having not really made a music video like this before (with each band member filmed separately and getting edited together later) I was unsure of where - or how - to start editing all the footage. The first few minutes I was almost aimlessly jumbling bits of footage around the timeline hoping I could quickly figure out how best to proceed.
Soon realising that this would be a very time-consuming project, I came to the conclusion that there were no easy shortcuts, and that the best way to proceed was by taking a simple, albeit long, route...

My instinctive approach was to just work my way along the timeline, adding and editing all the relevant pieces of footage as I went. However my aimless jumbling of footage around the timeline (as mentioned earlier) made me realise that it would be far easier to work on footage of just one instrument at a time, rather than working on all four instruments simultaneously. As a result I only ever needed to work with a small percentage of my overall pieces of footage (which is easy to keep track of) and the number of video layers I was working on was also of a lower quantity.

I don't suppose that the order in which I edited each instrument matters much to the final product, but at the time it seemed as though the drums would be the best place to start. The drums had the largest quantity and quality of video footage to choose from, and therefore seemed like the best instrument with which to find my feet and build upon.

Working with the longest pieces of drum footage first, I added these to the timeline on various layers and synched each of them with the dubbed version of the song. Once all the long pieces were added and synched to the song, I began editing them all down into one video layer by snipping and deleting all but the worst pieces of overlapping footage.
This allowed me space on the timeline to reduce the number of video layers I needed to use, and meant I could start adding new smaller pieces of drum footage without worrying about mixing up the existing edit.

Example of longer video pieces at the bottom, and new short pieces above.

The idea of building up all this footage for just one instrument at a time was that I would end up with a full music video of nothing but that instrument: Afterwards I would do the same for the other three instruments, and then all I had to do for the final edit was layer up all four videos and cut away small sections from each to create the conventional editing you see in the finished video. (It was perhaps simpler to do than it is to read or understand!)

After 14 hours of editing the drum track I began work on the vocals because they feature for only a small part of the music video, and I felt that it was important to know how much of the vocal footage was useable before committing to the project any further. (There wouldn't be much point editing the rest of the footage if I'd have to re-shoot much of it).

For the vocals I started a new project in my editing software, so that I could go back and edit the previous drum track if I needed to do so later. But rather than work on a blank timeline I imported a copy of the finished drum track so that I had some sort of reference material that didn't make it feel like I was editing a near-empty video (cos remember that the vocals feature for less than half the song). Once complete I rendered out the footage as a new video file of vocals only, meaning that I now had full-length video files for both the drums and the vocals.

By a late stage in the second day of the project I had started a new project for the bass guitar footage. This consisted of only two full-length pieces of footage and a few smaller pieces, so compared to the drums was a breeze to work through. I saved the bass edit as another full length video file, and was now roughly three quarters of the way through the full project.

On day three I was finally working on footage of the last instrument - guitar. Again footage consisted of only two full-length pieces and a few smaller pieces, yet the guitar solo and many varied camera angles made editing a bit trickier than the bass guitar footage.

After three days of synching and editing (equating to roughly 30 working hours), I had complete video files for each of the four instruments: So for the final time I opened yet another new project, and began the final stage of editing.

At this stage I had each instrument video edited in what I regarded as the best way possible, and all four complete video files were now layered up in the timeline ready to cut for the final music video.

This is definitely where the simple yet long working method that I had selected at the beginning of the project began to pay dividends: All I had to do now was use the beat and rhythm of the song to edit the video in small sections, and then choose the best instrument to display for each section while deleting the other videos from it. (The image below demonstrates what I was doing - notice how all the video layers, bar the bottom one, are cut into small sections with few overlaps between them all)...

Screenshot of all four instrument videos layered and cut for the final edit.

Once all the layers were cut into small sections and I was happy with how the full video now played, I considered the project complete, and rendered out the finished music video ready for publication.

Overall I'm pleased with how the project turned out. It was certainly more work than I anticipated, but it was good practice, and I learnt a few more things about the editing software that I bought late last year.

The positives to editing with this method are that:
+ It's relatively easy to keep everything under control;
+ It allows for a mix of synching and editing, rather than a huge amount of tedious synching prior to any fun editing.

The negatives of this method are that:
- You tend to spend loads of time editing nice little sequences for one instrument, forgetting that it's likely to get hidden by the editing of other instruments later on, which ends up being a waste of time.
- Although I say it's easy to keep everything under control, I'd imagine that if you accidently delete a few video or editing files before completing the project and can't retrieve them, then you'd be in big trouble.

Music video: "Fear Is On Your Side"

2011-06-27T22:24:00.006+01:00

A couple weeks ago I filmed and edited live-action footage for my latest music video: Fear Is On Your Side by Kill The Commodore, a melodic metal band from Perth.

We filmed loads of footage on two Sony Handycam video cameras during little over an hour in the small practice room of Clearwater Studios, Perth.

The compact size of the darkly-lit room with a large bright window presented some challenges during the filming process, however we managed to overcome these to a good extent.

I always knew it would be difficult to imitate the professional sheen of the music videos that we were using as inspiration (Slipknot's Before I Forget and The Eyes Of A Traitor's Come To My Senses), but considering our equipment and location I'm pretty happy with how the finished video looks.

Andy Murray caricature 2011

2011-06-24T17:35:00.007+01:00

As part of my current tennis caricature series, here's Wimbledon home favourite Andy Murray.

The colouring here, in much the same way as the Nadal caricature previously, is very different from my 'normal' caricature painting style - which is all part of my ongoing experimentation.

Nadal was painted in quite a colourful style, vaguely inspired by the illustrations of Edwin Georgi.

Murray on the other hand, I tried to paint in a monotone style patriotically inspired by the blue and white colours of the Scottish saltire. Unfortunately this caricature has simply ended-up looking dull, as if a plain blue tone has been placed over a greyscale image... Perhaps I will re-paint it later with a bolder blue and white style that uses less midtones to see how that looks - that would certainly be more like my original intentions.

Wimbledon caricatures

2011-06-23T17:53:00.007+01:00

I've been working on a number of projects recently, but until they are ready to unveil here are some caricature experiments inspired by recent tennis tournaments (Roland Garros, Queens, Wimbledon).

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Rafael Nadal.

Roger Federer.

Despite having a little tablet pen for about a year now, I've only just got around to properly installing it on my computer and personalising the settings. It doesn't work quite as perfectly as I'd like, but it's nice to experiment with every now and then...

These caricatures started off as quick, loose, pencil sketches that I had planned to paint with watercolours (as I normally do). However I admired the 'unfinished' quality of the first few drawings, so I decided to scan them and try painting digitally to see how they turn out - and I'll return to traditionally finish the original drawings at a later point.

Experimental Promo

2011-06-16T23:13:00.007+01:00

On Monday I was filming live-action footage for a short promo about an upcoming collaboration between myself and Edinburgh-based sound engineer Chris Bathgate.

We previously worked together on my 2009 graduation film, Pigment of Imagination, and this second project is the result of several ideas that we have since developed.

Embedded below is the 80-second Experimental Promo made from Monday's footage:

The above video should serve as a bold taster for the kind of work that we are currently developing: It is very abstract (which I'm intrigued with), however the upcoming collaboration will be a bit tamer with some kind of narrative background.

The plan now is to devise a bizarre script and shoot/edit the film before Chris creates a new song specifically for the film.

Music video: "Counting Sheep"

2011-05-18T22:06:00.004+01:00

On Sunday afternoon I was filming a quirky music video with Glasgow-based band Randolph's Leap, who have just released their new double A-side single "Counting Sheep / Deep Blue Sea" on Olive Grove Records.

I spent 2 hours filming the band (using both live-action and stopmotion-style photography) while Glasgow University Trampoline Club performed in the background: The result was a vast compilation of amusing footage, ready for editing.

After roughly 10 hours sifting through the footage and editing it all together, the video was complete. Today my finished video for "Counting Sheep" was released on both YouTube and Vimeo; and the news posted around the internet, leading to over 150 views within the first 12 hours of getting promoted.

So without further ado, here it is folks, enjoy!

Around The World In 6 Clicks

2011-05-18T03:05:00.008+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I started a new painting project, basically to help get me back into the practice of regular painting.

I'm calling the project "Around The World In 6 Clicks", and through the use of Google Maps I'm going on a virtual painting tour of the world.

Working process:

- From the Google Maps homepage I zoom-out until the whole world is visible;

- I close my eyes before click-and-holding my mouse cursor anywhere over the map and vividly moving the mouse around in order to spin the map to a random location;

- I release the mouse button before again vividly moving the cursor around the screen (so that it finishes over a new random map location);

- Once I've stopped moving the mouse I use the scroll-wheel of my mouse to zoom-in as far as possible and pin-point a painting location;

- Finally I select the orange Google Streetview man and move him over the exact location that I ended-up at in order to get a photo of that location, which I proceed to paint in my sketchbook.

It's been an interesting journey so far, and I've even learnt a few things about some of the locations after doing research on them (out of curiosity)!

I'll start posting the paintings on here soon, but in the meantime you can check out the first 5 paintings on my facebook art page by clicking here. (The series won't be limited to 6 paintings as the title may suggest - 6 is actually the number of clicks it usually takes to arrive at the source photos).

Photography from 2011 WJCC (Perth)

2011-03-23T14:23:00.008Z

From Saturday 5 - Sunday 13 March, I was volunteering as a steward at the World Junior Curling Championships (WJCC) in Perth's Dewars Centre: And on two of those days I was pretending to be a photographer.

Briar Hürlimann (Switzerland) delivering a stone

20 of the top teams from around the world (10 boys teams and 10 girls teams) were representing their countries and competing for the World Junior trophies. Amongst them was Scotland's Eve Muirhead, who in her final year at Junior level was aiming to win a record-breaking fourth title (having previously won in 2007, 2008, and 2009 - she missed the 2010 tournament while representing Great Britain at the Winter Olympics).

I thoroughly enjoyed the week: Welcoming many friendly faces from around the world to the Dewars Centre; getting to meet the competitors, coaches, and support staff (including notable curlers like Rhona Martin and Ralph Stöckli); and getting to watch top-level international curling from prime viewing locations every day.

Here is a small sample of the photos I took while not working - during Day 5 afternoon (girls) and Day 9 afternoon (girls final, bronze medal game, and the closing ceremony)...

Sara McManus watches as Sofia Mabergs & Anna Huhta (Sweden) sweep

Ekaterina Antonova & Galina Arsen'kina ready for Victoria Moiseeva's stone (Russia)

Norwegian sweepers (in centre) and Swiss sweepers (on right)

Most of the teams lined up during the closing ceremony

I'm surprised how well a lot of my photos came out, and I've become really fascinated with the panned action shots that [usually] make the moving players appear static in near-perfect focus while everything else is a rushing blur.

I first noticed this style of photography in a couple of the photos on the official WJCC website, where my initial assumption was, ironically, that someone had made the curlers stand out from the image by doing a bit of tacky photoshop work! I wasn't impressed with those original images because the overall style looked forced - as if the photo was originally in full focus before someone used photoshop to mask the curler (keeping them in focus) while distorting the remaining background with a motion blur filter.

I only began to appreciate the style once I saw that some of my photos appeared the same, and I realised that it was all done in-camera rather than as a quick photoshop edit.

My photo of Briar Hürlimann (top) is possibly my favourite with this style, although the Swedish photo just below it is also pretty cool (particularly how the sweepers are framed in perfect focus between two blurry photographers).

If you'd like to see more of my photos from the WJCC, please visit the relevant albums on my facebook profile by clicking the links below:

Day 5 - Girls group games

Day 9 - Girls final and bronze medal game

Day 9 - Closing ceremony

Kinross Curling Rink website

2011-03-22T16:44:00.007Z

During January and February I set up a blog/website for Kinross Curling Rink (where I work part-time as an Ice Technician) to compliment its new(ish) facebook page.

The aim was to give the rink an easily-accessible web presence so that both regulars and newcomers alike can find all of our news and information easily in one place.

After feedback from the rink/hotel management and from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club's Development Manager, we launched the site a couple of weeks ago.

You can pay us a virtual visit at:

www.KinrossCurlingRink.blogspot.com

and

www.facebook.com/KinrossCurlingRink

Fife Flare VS Eve Muirhead curling photos

2011-03-22T15:55:00.007Z

In February I did my first bit of 'serious' sports photography, during a curling game at The Peak sports centre in Stirling.

David Jones, who is the "Area Curling Development Officer" for my local rink at Kinross, had entered his amateur team, Fife Flare, into the British Open and was drawn to play his final group game against the Great Britain 2010 Winter Olympic Women's Team, skipped by Eve Muirhead.

Here is a very small sample from the hundred's of photos that I took for Fife Flare that day:

You can see more of these photos on the Fife Flare facebook page by clicking here.

And as a little experiment, here is a conceptual video of the 300-odd photos that I took in a fast slideshow-style montage... I think it worked surprisingly well!

Project Onomatopee: "New Year's Resolution" (Jan 2011)

2011-03-22T15:35:00.006Z

This was my January submission to Project Onomatopee for the theme of "New Year's Resolution".

Click here to see all the New Year's Resolution submissions.

Eve Muirhead portrait

2010-12-31T00:24:00.006Z

Last week I was asked to do a painting of top Scottish curler, Eve Muirhead, for a fundraising campaign.
The painting, as seen below, is watercolour-on-card and measures roughly 205mm x 190mm (unframed).

Exciting news about the fundraising campaign and the painting itself will be coming soon, but I won't reveal these until full details have been confirmed: So stay tuned!

Thanks go to the commissioner (to be revealed at a later date), and to Bob Cowan at the excellent Skip Cottage Curling blog [http://skipcottagecurling.blogspot.com] for providing the reference imagery.

'Alternative' outdoor curling photos

2010-12-28T18:54:00.003Z

Visitors to Loch Leven this past week may well have witnessed a rare sight - Scottish curlers playing on the frozen waters of the Loch: But there have been some more peculiarities on the ice recently, as you'll see from some of my images below.

Curling-inspired artworks

2010-12-24T13:49:00.012Z

I started working as an ice-technician at Kinross Curling Rink at the end of September, and have since created a few unusual curling-inspired artworks, as I'll showcase below...

It all started with this year's early snowfall and my first snow sculpture - a rather crude little curling stone that I built with my bare hands at the end of my evening shift on Saturday 27 November.

But a couple of weeks and much more snowfall later, I had a second, and much more successful, attempt at sculpting out of snow. This time I had much more snow at my disposal; as well as a snow shovel, teaspoon, and gloves - all of which made the sculpting much easier than before. After spending about two hours spread throughout my evening shift of Thursday 9 December, my second attempt at snow sculpting was completed to a much better standard. As you'll see below, I had now created a much larger snow-sculpted curling stone, which raised a few eyebrows over the following days!

Onto my more conventional artworks, and earlier this week I created an amusing photoshopped-image of the curling rink manager involved in an unusual ice accident...

...Since I published this image on the Kinross Curling Rink facebook page, it has received a terrific response and attracted several new 'facebook fans': It has even been spread across other social networks by the management at the Green Hotel (which owns the rink).

And finally - for now - here is a little painted cartoon that I made as a gift for the "secret santa" Christmas present at work.
The cartoon shows Santa playing curling, with the caption reading: "I doubt even Santa could get in that house". The joke here is that Santa goes all around the world successfully putting presents into everybody's houses, but in this game of curling the house [the blue, white, and red scoring circles at both ends of a curling rink] is blocked and apparently impossible for Santa to get his curling stone into.

Some landscape practice

2010-12-21T15:08:00.003Z

Here are some quick landscape sketch/painting tests that I made late last month, but forgot to upload.

Majorca

Hamilton Mausoleum

Edinburgh North Bridge

New terrorist threat in UK

2010-11-29T17:39:00.004Z

Al-qaida have claimed responsibility for the latest terror attacks to hit Britain: SNOW!

Days after the first strike, it is clear that this could become the most devastating terrorist attack in British history, with another 2 weeks of trouble expected to come...

But of course it's just a joke.

I got the idea last Winter, when London came to a standstill after a pathetic little layer of snow fell on the city. After watching the news about that story I sketched a wee cartoon strip, however it didn't convey my comic message too effectively, so I abandoned the idea like a car on the snow-closed M90.

This year, having had less than a week of intermittent snow (but now almost a foot of snow in the past 4 days), the country is again shutting down; so I have revived that old comic idea and turned it into the image you see above.

This week... In caricature

2010-11-21T23:21:00.011Z

Here are some new caricatures that I've completed in the past week or so. I've not done much drawing or painting in recent months, so these are pretty crude warm-up sketches, but they should be good practice for a more regular series of artworks that I aim to be doing over the coming months.

Craig Levein, Scotland football manager.

Scotland played a friendly match in Aberdeen against the Faroe Islands mid-week. Levein's starting line-up was rather experimental with many fringe players making their debuts in the wake of a vast number of call-offs. Despite that issue, Scotland won 3-0, meaning that they've still lost only 2 international matches at Pittodrie stadium in the last 100-odd years!

Harry Potter stars.

The penultimate film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One premiered in London just over a week ago.

In an attempt to gross more money from the box-office, producers planned on releasing the film in 3D: However they couldn't complete the post-production 3D process without delaying the films' release date, and therefore had to shelve those plans at the last minute.

Prince William gets engaged.

News that the second in-line to the throne, Prince William, is engaged to Kate Middleton has finally reached us lowly members of public: Apparently the Royal Family have known about it for months, yet last weekend we had to endure an entire evening of altered TV scheduling to accommodate their old news.

And finally...

Here's a caricature of Scottish golfer Colin Montgomerie, which I made in October after Europe beat USA to win the Ryder Cup:
...It's an old artwork that doesn't really belong here, but I'm posting it anyway because I hadn't put it online at the time of completion.

"Easier-to-see" versions of Project Onomatopee "Future" image now online

2010-11-18T01:42:00.003Z

I've just uploaded a sequence of "easier-to-see" images that gradually reveal the hidden picture from my submission for Project Onomatopee's "Future" theme [my original submission is below].

These new "easier-to-see" images can be found at the bottom of my previous blog post [there's a link included below]. But if you are going to check out these new images then please scroll down slowly so as to not spoil the surprise of the hidden picture. (The new uploads are relatively small and as you scroll down the hidden picture will become more and more obvious).

If you want to check them out then please click here to go directly to the blog post with new images.

Project Onomatopee: "Future" (October 2010)

2010-11-15T13:03:00.011Z

For October's Project Onomatopee theme of "Future" I decided to try something really conceptual; but before explaining what it is, here is the image that I submitted:

[Addendum - 18/11/10: If you can see NOTHING other than text in the image above then please read the rest of this article before investigating the "easier-to-see" images that I've added to the bottom of this blog post... I've added these new "easier-to-see" versions of the image in order to compensate for the contrasting colour/brightness settings of different computer screens. Please scroll slowly between each image so as to not spoil the surprise - because the hidden picture becomes more and more obvious the further down you scroll!].

What you should see at first glance:
You should be seeing a black page with some white text at the top and bottom, as well as a very dark grey rectangular box surrounded by a thin white outline.
If you cannot see the very dark grey box you may need to adjust your computer monitor slightly until the black/grey colour difference becomes vaguely visible.

So the image suggests that the future is a big black hole?:
Nope, it's a bit more complex than a simple image like that... To discover the message you will need to click on the image for the full-size version, and then, depending on whether or not the dark grey box is completely visible on-screen (or half hidden off-screen) you may need to scroll down a bit. Once you have the dark grey box completely visible on-screen simply stare into it for a few seconds and all should slowly be revealed!

What should happen?:
As you stare into the dark grey box you should gradually begin to notice various grey dots appearing out from the darkness. As your eyes get more accustomed to the darkness, you should begin to see some patterns forming from the grey dots, until eventually you see a little drawing appear on the right-hand-side of the box alongside a short message on the left-hand-side of the box.

How is this relevant to the "future" theme?:
This is where the image gets conceptual. Rather than being a simple image where the picture displays a clear message, this image is more experimental and requires both interaction and a bit of time to become understandable... So in this regard, the "future" theme of the image is not simply that the future is a mysterious black hole, but rather that you have to look into the image and wait until the near future [in real-time] before you can see the full image!

How was this image inspired?:
It was basically just a quick experiment (which wasn't quite as quick as I originally anticipated) that I was curious to discover whether or not would work.
It's based on eye sight, the night sky, and optical illusions. For example when you look at the sky on a clear dark night you originally see only a few bright stars, but as you stare into the dark sky for a longer time your eyes slowly adapt to the darkness allowing you to see more and more stars.
With the creation of this image I wanted to test whether or not a similar effect could be achieved digitally on a computer screen. I had thought about creating something similar to the Ishihara Test for colour blindness (the circles made of coloured dots that contain a hidden number or shape), however the success of such an image would depend greatly upon a number of variables including: the colours used, the colour calibration of different computer monitors, and the potential colour blindness of my audience. Therefore it was very likely that such an image would be visible to most - if not all - people, and require no time at all to become fully visible, which misses the point of the future-themed image.
For the simplest, and hopefully best result, I stuck to simply using black and grey tones (similar to the night sky and stars) to test my theory about whether or not the experimental image would work.
The image was easy enough to create, and certainly on my own computer it seems to work, however I still have my doubts about whether or not it works properly: Is it too dark/hidden? Is it too bright/obvious? Can other people see it all or only part of it? How long does it take to see it? Is the end result worth the time?
Perhaps this style of image would work better when printed - where it looks relatively consistent for everybody; rather than on a computer screen where the brightness/contrast, surrounding lights, and viewing angle can all affect how the image appears.

I don't know if I'll try doing more advanced work with this technique, but it'd be useful to hear whether or not the image worked properly for you and what you thought of it.

Sorry if it hasn't worked and it only wasted your time!

[Addendum - 18/11/10]
Here is the "easier-to-see" sequence of images that gradually reveal the hidden picture within the original image. Please scroll down slowly so as to not spoil the surprise:

Stopmotion test

2010-10-16T21:32:00.005+01:00

Yesterday I tried creating some 3D stopmotion for the first time in years, and below is a video of what resulted:

The video above features a plasticine fish, filmed from several angles, moving tail and fins. It was made as research for an animated music video, however I've since discovered that this won't be a suitable technique for the final video...

While working on that animation test I also filmed a live-action video sequence of myself animating the fish, which has since been edited as a short time-lapse style documentary of the animating process:

The time-lapse style video starts with a playback speed of 4x the original footage, and quickly "ramps-up" to a playback speed of 200x the original footage, before coming to a sudden conclusion at real-time speed.

Commission: Machrihanish Beach

2010-10-10T23:32:00.012+01:00

Here is a painting commission of Machrihanish Beach (near Campbeltown) that I completed earlier this week:

Not only is this my first painting since July, but surprisingly it is my first acrylic painting in 12 months (according to the blog history)!

I can understand why I've not done any major paintings in the past 3 months, and I'm aware that I've not painted on a regular basis since my Film-inspired Painting Series exhibition last December, but I still find it hard to believe that I've not touched my acrylic paints in 12 months.

Mr Spin at the Edinburgh Festival (part 1)

2010-10-09T01:29:00.005+01:00

On Thursday I finally got time at work to finish editing some of the footage that I shot of Mr Spin performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival way back in August:

The video above is the first part of Mr Spin's wonderful street performance: Consisting of amazing hat tricks, devil-sticking, and one-ball manipulation.

I got to film the full 30/45 minute performance, which includes more devil-sticking and hat tricks, along with some crazy juggling and extreme unicycling! I intend on making a second video to showcase those tricks too, however the footage appears to be missing from the work computers, so until someone locates & re-loads the original tapes we will just have to wait...

First filming of a live gig

2010-09-27T22:29:00.006+01:00

On Friday night I was at Mucky Mulligan's in Perth to film metal band Kill The Commodore as they played their first home gig since appearing at Bestival a few weeks ago.

I used my [very] recently purchased Sony DCR-SR58E Handycam; which is a big step down from the kind of camcorder I have
access to at my day-job, but it'll do for now until I discover whether a bigger camera would be worth it...

The little Handycam is very much just a point-and-shoot type of camera, which is simple enough to operate, but its manual controls (via touchscreen) are dreadful compared to the high-end camcorders that I have been used to at work. As a result of that issue (along with the short time I had to get familiar with the camera) my footage was rather hit-and-miss with numerous automatic controls conflicting with my manually-operated intentions. I also found, as per the warning in the operating guide, that loud noise (ie: live music) can interfere with the camera - to such an extent as to automatically cut the recording process after only so long on several occasions!

My above video, We Will Not Be Moved (live), should hopefully become the first of several to get edited from Friday night's gig footage; with the rest of the videos getting posted as they are finished.

To hear more from Kill The Commodore check out these links:
Kill The Commodore on Facebook
Kill The Commodore on Myspace
Kill The Commodore on Reverbnation

Bridge of Allan tunnels

2010-09-16T23:51:00.009+01:00

At work this afternoon we went for a location-scouting walk along the old railway line (and tunnels) near Bridge of Allen in Perthshire.
The old line runs almost parallel to parts of the M90 motorway, which I regularly travel on, yet until I conducted some research last week I had no idea that the line was ever there... One of the random facts I picked up last week is that part of it was bombed by the Nazi's during World War 2!

After parking our cars on a farm road in the middle of nowhere we went across an over-grown railway bridge and then walked the trail for about 1.5 miles; during which time we had gone through two very long, pitch black tunnels and encountered numerous decaying objects (of the mechanical variety).

I had never encountered a tunnel that can compare to these (while on foot), so thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and I think it would be a great location to film all sorts of things... Indeed I was actually asked last month about filming a music video there for a metal band! So now that I know what it's like I can't wait to push ahead with that idea.

On another note, I used my digital stills camera to experiment with some time-lapse photography & experimental stopmotion (similar to Pixelation) on the way back to the cars. I haven't really done much time-lapse or pixelation before, but I am planning another music video (for a different band) that uses this kind of filming technique, and so thought this would be a good opportunity to experiment with the process.

For this experiment I basically just took a photo every 2 seconds (roughly) while walking along a short part of the trail leading up to the second tunnel.

I had a good idea of what the footage should look like when played back as an animation sequence; but because I was photographing while walking (and without a flash) I had no idea whether or not it would turn out any good... To be honest I expected that the footage would be all blurry and randomly jump all over the place, but I think it has turned out surprisingly readable. You can judge for yourself by watching it in the video below:

And to conclude, here are some other photos from the day...

(This final photo is more or less what you see without a torch - and that's relatively near the entrance!)

Project Onomatopee: "Culture" (August 2010)

2010-09-13T17:04:00.004+01:00

Project Onomatopee's theme for August was "Culture", and below is my submission.

This image was more-or-less made at the last-minute, and if I had spent a bit more time on it then I'd probably have made the layout more minimalist in order to make the message clearer. But you learn from your mistakes I suppose...

From the moment the theme was announced (at the beginning of August) I always planned on doing something about the death of culture by making something like:
- a collage of corporate logos;
- a picture of the solar system with a massive McDonald's sign sticking out from Earth;
- a photoshopped picture of people from less-developed countries fighting over second-hand designer clothing;
- or simply a text-based poster saying something like "Kill Culture - Just Do It" to portray how big corporations and the rise of the Internet have made almost everything seem local in the 21st Century.

Despite all those ideas, I never felt entirely happy about what the finished image might look like, so I constantly delayed the project until the last couple of days - at which point I felt as though I just had to get something, anything, done.

At that late stage I decided to see what a Google Image Search made of the term "culture"... The results seemed very random and not at all like I had expected, which actually turned out to be quite useful!

It seems as though Google, for the past decade or so, has had the answer to anything you could ever think to ask: But if an Image Search for "culture" didn't produce the results I had expected then perhaps I was correct to think that culture is dead (or at the least is dying).

From this I remembered about the infamous Racist Google picture that appeared last year showing a Google search result for "White People Stole My Car" returning the query "Did you mean: Black People Stole My Car?"

I decided that for my Project Onomatopee submission about culture I could create a similar Google picture, whereby a search result for "What is culture?" asks if you meant "What WAS culture?"... The theory being that my "culture is dead" statement from earlier would now be 'proven' by an omniscient Google that doesn't recognize the present tense of the question "What is culture?" because culture has been dead for a long time and would therefore be correctly asked in the past tense of "What WAS culture?".

I probably prefer that final idea to any of my earlier concepts, however my rushed execution of the imagery has resulted in a poor final product - one where the message gets lost within a bunch of random images from the Google search result.
Were I being boldly artistic, I would have made my submission a plain white page with only the Google logo, the search box (containing the phrase "What is culture?"), and the Google query ("Did you mean: What WAS culture?"). However as usually happens, I was not brave enough to stick with that bold image, and ended up keeping the realistic image of the full (albeit cropped) screenshot from my Google search.

Demoreel from "Dancing In The Dark"

2010-09-03T14:42:00.006+01:00

I've just uploaded onto YouTube a short demoreel of my camerawork from the music video Dancing In The Dark by Lady Miss Emma.

It is the first live-action music video that I've worked on, and was produced by YMCA Multimedia in Perth - who I started working with towards the end of July.
The full music video, directed by David Forsyth, can be viewed by clicking here.

We filmed from the top of Kinnoull Hill (Perth, Scotland) during the sunrise of Friday 13 August, between the hours of 4am and 7am. Below are some photos from that day:

The first footage we shot (at around 4:30am) was in darkness.

Dawn began at around 5am.

And here's the full sunrise at around 7am.

You can watch more of my videos on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AndyMacInBlack

You can listen to more music by Lady Miss Emma at:

http://www.myspace.com/LadyMissEmmaMusic

And you can watch more Lady Miss Emma music videos at:

http://www.youtube.com/LadyMissEmma

Project Onomatopee: "Summer" (July 2010)

2010-08-18T20:21:00.011+01:00

Here is what I submitted to Project Onomatopee for July's theme of "Summer".

Having kinda mocked England and its World Cup hopes for my June submission, I thought it only fair that I mock the stereotypical summer weather in my home country of Scotland. Therefore the caption (which I decided to write in Dutch because Project Onomatopee is from the Netherlands) translates as: "In Scotland even the sun goes away for a summer holiday".

The image that I've drawn is a portrayal of Edinburgh, looking from Waverley Station towards the National Gallery (with the Royal Mile on the left hand side and the Castle in the background). But unusually for me I composed the entire image from my mind/memory, while using reference material only for the green Waverley Station pillar. As a result all the buildings look a bit wonky, but I expect that they are still recognisable saying as that part of Edinburgh is full of rather unique architecture.

I had originally planned on painting the image with Photoshop to continue developing my digital painting skills, but due to being short of time I decided just to whip out the trusty old watercolours. Unfortunately the painted colours did not turn out as I had intended: Although they're not too dreadful...

After submitting the painted image at the end of July I found myself with a lot more free time, so I've spent a fair bit of this month working on an alternative version of the image within Photoshop (below).

I'm much happier with the darkness of the sky (as caused by an absent sun) in this version than that which I achieved with my watercolour version; and Photoshop worked a charm for creating the lighting effects as caused by the lamp atop the Waverely Station pillar: Overall the Photoshop version is just a much more atmospheric image, which I'm chuffed with!

Filmmaker Looking For Bands (& Other Folks)

2010-08-17T01:22:00.011+01:00

If you are (or you know someone who is) a musician, actor, comedian, or sportsperson; and would like to have professionally-created footage for demo reels, promo material, DVDs, and/or websites, please get in touch with me and we’ll sort everything out.

I’m a Filmmaker and Artist from Kinross, who gained a BA (Hons) degree in Animation from the world-renowned Edinburgh College of Art in July 2009. I’ve worked on many film productions (both live-action and animated) over the past 5 years, and amongst my 20-odd credits are several films that have screened at international film festivals and won prestigious awards.
My own YouTube videos have received over 53,000 views and some of them have been:
- featured on the Max Power [car magazine] website (D1 Drifting At Knockhill);
- invited to be shown on MTV Europe (Die Skateboard);
- commissioned for a professional theatre production starring Abi Titmuss (Macbeth Vision 4);
- and included as a Bonus Feature on all UK-release Paranormal Activity DVDs and Blu-rays (Pigment of Imagination).

Following these achievements I’d like to begin working on a wide variety of projects that will help to both develop my creative skills and promote local talents.

Whether this involves recording you live; in practice/rehearsals; or taking part in a narrative-based video / documentary / promo / or something more experimental: I am willing to work with you to create original and exciting material at a professional standard.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer not to appear in the video footage, but would like to have your material sampled and/or featured as a soundtrack to demo reels and short films please let me know and I will see what we can do.

I live in Kinross but have my own car, so if you are in Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, Perthshire, or Dundee, you are perfectly placed to work with me.

I own a Sony Handycam camcorder; digital stills cameras; a laptop with audio, visual, & video editing software (Audacity, SoundForge, Photoshop, Vegas Movie Studio HD); and DVD publishing/printing equipment. So I can deliver top-notch work as long as you are willing to participate in one form or another…

If you are interested in this opportunity please get in contact with me, or if you know someone else that may be interested in it please send this message to them.

You can view a sample of my work on:
- Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ArtOfAndyRMacpherson
- YouTube at: www.youtube.com/AndyMacInBlack
- My blog/website at: www.AndyMacArt.co.uk

And you can contact me by e-mailing: AndyRMacpherson (AT) gmail (DOT) com

Inception: Caricatures & review

2010-07-30T23:38:00.015+01:00

Here are a couple of caricatures that I made earlier this month during the hype for Christopher Nolan's new blockbuster Inception:

I was really intrigued by the concept of an epic heist movie set within an illusionary dreamworld of stunning visual effects (as showcased in the Inception trailers): So I was inspired to see Inception in the cinema (which very few trailers do for me). While the epic visual effects did not disappoint on the big screen, there were several things throughout the film that bothered me: Ultimately the storytelling, which by the end provides very little payoff once the complex storytelling gives way to little more than a basic plot and offers the audience some apathetic questions.

I do have to praise Inception for being much bolder than most Hollywood films of recent years - which audiences around the world are also welcoming. Yet Inception actually feels rather conventional by the standard of other Christopher Nolan films (Memento, The Dark Knight), and disappointing in comparison with similar "complex" films (such as Vanilla Sky, Pulp Fiction, and A Scanner Darkly).
It's not a case that Inception doesn't work, it's more that the crime the whole film revolves around [planting an idea into someone's mind for corporate benefits] isn't as high-stake as the theft of a physical object (such as diamonds, money, or art - like in A Fish Called Wanda, Ocean's 11, or How To Steal A Million), so it's a struggle to relate emotionally with the threat that the characters face during their heist.
Compounding this matter, the film severely lacks character development, therefore the target in the aforementioned heist is someone that the audience barely knows and/or cares for: Meaning that the audience doesn't care for his sake whether the crime succeeds or fails.
It's the same situation for the protagonists: They all get introduced to the audience in one way or another, but only Leonardo DiCaprio [Dom Cobb] and Marion Cotillard [Mal] have characters with any sort of backstory. I actually felt that all of the supporting cast from within DiCaprio's gang (Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, etc) were using their real-life personalities [as popular film stars in films like Juno and 500 Days of Summer] to conjure an emotional relationship with the audience in lieu of explaining a narrative backstory for their characters. While this unintentional technique has worked well in other films, I don't think it works for Inception due to all the different levels that the plot operates on:
- There is the "real life" in the film itself,
- There is the first level [and subsequent levels] of the dream world,
- There are possible dream worlds for all the characters in the film,
- There is Limbo,
- Plus flashbacks regarding Dom & Mal are heavily explored.

Without emotional investment the plot of Inception may as well be any standard Hollywood action film with it's Good Guy vs Bad Guy battle, extensive chases, and explosions. Indeed the film does feel exactly like that at a couple of points during its two and a half hour running time - although to be fair to it, the film does contain enough intriguing story concepts and original visual ideas to mitigate that issue... I certainly don't ever recall seeing James Bond on an M.C Escher-style staircase or in an illusionary world built at such an epic scale!

In aesthetic terms the film has done a grand job of creating believable dream worlds and executing ridiculous effects with apparent ease. Even as someone who usually dislikes CGI effects, I was readily willing to allow for them during Inception due to the nature of the plot, and I did in fact find some scenes breathtaking! The scene of the Parisian landscape folding-in on itself was beyond words, and almost worth the ticket value alone.
As amazing as I think the visual effects in the film are, I don't think they will translate too well from the massive cinema screen to the home TV screen: For example I always enjoyed watching the Paris folding scene in TV trailers, but at the cinema I was genuinely stunned and excited by what I was experiencing up there on the cinema screen. The scale of it just overwhelmed my eyes, and as the landscape folded beyond 90 degrees toward its full 180 degrees I got a real sense of it closing down and trapping me within this odd little space.
On the large cinema screen it feels very fitting and like a natural environment before the eyes, yet a home TV screen is just too small to provoke the same response. For this reason I have to say that the film must be seen on the cinema screen, because unless your TV is the size of a cinema screen then you won't ever understand how impressive those visual effects are.

Regarding the complexity of the plot: Many people have remarked that it requires you to pay a lot of attention and leaves you asking lots of questions about it all. While this is not a lie, I actually found the film quite straightforward to follow (whereas I had been led to believe that it is really difficult).
This isn't some kind of weird David Lynch film where things seem to make perfect sense and then suddenly "WTF"?! Everything in Inception follows rules that are relatively normal and easy to understand, so you won't feel out of your depth. And despite the plot taking place on various intertwining dream levels at the same time (which gets quite tricky to keep up with), you at least know what the protagonists are aiming to achieve, so things seem to make sense even when you don't know where exactly those things are happening.
Ultimately there are a lot of things to question and a lot to look back on or enjoy during repeat viewings, but at the end of your first viewing I don't think these will really affect your understanding of the film.

Repeat viewings is something that I'm intrigued by more than anything else about the film. I always suspected that Inception would be a film I would want to see more than once (even if only for the visual effects). However having seen it once so far and not getting much enjoyment out of the story, I feel as though I'm being guilted into wanting to watch it again and again until I enjoy it and am raving about it like everyone else! But I'm certainly interested to see whether or not the things I've heard about since watching the film will affect how I experience the film on a second viewing.

Another thing, apart from the visuals, that I greatly enjoyed was the musical scoring by Hans Zimmer. In typical Zimmer fashion the muscial score perfectly conveys the sense of emotion during each part of the plot without distracting from what happens on screen. It is also refreshing in the 21st Century to see an action film that doesn't make much use out of selling out to the commercial world: There are a few minor "drink this, use that" moments, but you won't find corporate logos and popular music tracks littering this film as you might in a modern James Bond.

I fancy Zimmer/Inception to win Best Score at the Oscars, even if only because I enjoyed it and haven't heard any other film scores for this year apart from Toy Story 3.
If hype and audience figures are anything to go by then you'd have to be daft to not bet on Inception winning Best Picture too.
But the one Oscar award that I think is surely guaranteed for Inception will be Best Actress, or Supporting Actress, (I can't figure out what role her character plays in the film) for Marion Cotillard.

On the one hand Cotillard seems to be a supporting actress because the plot tends to focus on the professional relationship that develops between DiCaprio & Ellen Page during the heist while Cotillard is in the background; yet on the other hand I think that it's the flashbacks and haunting memories of the relationship between DiCaprio and Cotillard that are central to the plot and provide it with the motivation for everything that happens. Therefore in my opinion Cotillard is the main actress - even if Ellen Page appears more often as DiCaprio's assistant - and I'd actually go so far as to say that Cotillard is more pivotal to the film than DiCaprio's character!

In recent years Marion Cotillard has proven herself time and again as a star capable of playing very diverse roles. Since featuring in her first American film (Big Fish. Directed by: Tim Burton, 2003) she has played roles including:
- a César award-winning performance as a prostitute seeking vengeance for her murdered husband in A Very Long Engagement (Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004);
- an utterly enchanting French cafe owner in A Good Year (Directed by: Ridley Scott, 2006);
- an Oscar winning performance as chanteuse Edith Piaf in the French biopic La Vie En Rose (Directed by: Oliver Dahan, 2007);
- the love interest of notorious 1930s bank robber John Dillinger in Public Enemies (Directed by: Michael Mann, 2009);
- and a Golden Globe nominated performance as the wife of an uninspired Italian filmmaker in Nine (Directed by: Rob Marshall, 2009).

Although Cotillard's natural Gallic charm regularly shines through her roles, she is capable of transforming herself in dramatic fashion (as evident from her multi award-winning role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose), and she has managed it again with her latest role.

In Inception Marion Cotillard plays Mal (the dead wife of Leondardo DiCaprio's character, Dom Cobb), whose ghostly presence haunts his mind and drives the plot. There are rare occasions when Mal seems to be a loving wife with Marion Cotillard's natural charisma and beauty, but for the most part she convincingly appears as a cold-hearted character with little appeal, which is a transformation I think rivals that of La Vie En Rose.

Coincidently the song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, sung by Edith Piaf and used in La Vie En Rose, was also used as the all-important timer song throughout Inception. Further to this, Hans Zimmer wrote the score for Inception based upon the rhythm of Piaf's song so that the film score subtly imitates the timer song: This is demonstrated by a video called Inception Music Comparison, which can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here.
The use of Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and its re-interpretation by Zimmer worked well in the film, but I don't think the use of that particular song was vital to it. As such I found the song quite annoying while watching Inception because I felt as though it was being used as a blatant reference to La Vie En Rose (due to the fact that Cotillard had acted in both films).
I don't usually mind references in film, but in this instance it was frustrating because the reference constantly made me think of Cotillard's character in La Vie En Rose, which was little more than an unnecessary distraction from the stories within Inception.
Apparently Christopher Nolan had chosen to use that particular song within Inception long before Cotillard was cast as Mal - so in that regard the song isn't really a reference to La Vie En Rose - however I do think that it would have been wise to choose a different song once Cotillard joined the cast in order to avoid this issue.
But then again, with Inception being so full of complex writing and burning questions, perhaps this is little more than a minor issue amongst many more for myself...

Commission: Andy Murray caricature

2010-07-26T23:41:00.005+01:00

A couple of months ago I was commissioned to create a little caricature of Scottish tennis star Andy Murray for someone's birthday gift.

The image above was my second attempt at caricaturing Andy Murray because I felt that my first attempt [below] had a questionable likeness to the international tennis player, and I wanted to improve it...

...The first attempt was a nice enough image, but in my opinion the resemblance to Andy Murray was just a little too vague: At least the second attempt [top] is wilder and more like his on-court personality (complete with trademark reaction).

2010 FIFA World Cup caricatures

2010-07-25T14:59:00.006+01:00

Here's a few wee caricatures that I made during the FIFA Football World Cup earlier this month...

My pre-tournament caricature of the England World Cup squad [for Project Onomatopee].

Landon Donovan (USA footballer).

Diego Maradona (Argentina manager).

James Cordon (TV personality).

Fabio Capello (England manager).

Notes:

- The caricature of the England World Cup squad was based upon English media reports that suggested England would win the tournament.

- James Cordon may not be a footballer, but for the entire month of the tournament he was on ITV1 and ITV4 hosting his World Cup Live nonsense and showcasing his "comedy" (if you'd call it that...)

- Fabio Capello was drawn as his doppleganger, Carl Fredricksen, from the DVD cover of Disney/Pixar's UP (2009). The text reads "If Fabio disnae fix'er he'll be hanged up" in relation to the terrible performances by his England squad at the World Cup. "Disnae Fix'er" is written as a pun on "Disney Pixar" meaning "doesn't fix her", implying that the England fans will seek vengeance on Fabio if he doesn't improve the team after getting a stay of execution.

Project Onomatopee: "Nightmare" (June 2010)

2010-07-08T17:27:00.045+01:00

To expand upon my previous post about Project Onomatopee, I'm now gonna write about the production process for my submission to the "Nightmare" theme from June.

Looking at the drawing above, do I hear you asking what the English Media and the World Cup have to do with Nightmares?
No!? In that case I guess you must have seen how much of a laughing stock the team were at the World Cup, and therefore think you understand this drawing completely - but you are wrong!

- I came up with this idea long before the England team arrived in South Africa;
- Had drawn David James as the goalkeeper several days before Robert Green became America's favourite English comedian;
- And had began the digital colouring process way before sections of the English media began subjecting Germany to even more unwarranted racial hatred.

From those statements it is hopefully clear that I had no intention of insulting the English people (if they take my drawing that way), and that I began this project with no knowledge that England would play so poorly... The actual intention of this drawing was to take a light-hearted dig at the England-based media that for many weeks has been suffocating the entire United Kingdom with its non-targeted, overhyped output about the chances of the England team this summer.
There's nothing wrong with the media getting behind its team, but broadcasting its hysteria so regularly not only isolates the non-English population of the UK; it puts us off their products; becomes very repetitive; and ultimately frustrates us even more than when we see our own teams fail to qualify for major tournaments as a result of last-minute cheating by the opposition. (Here's looking at you France! And Italy...)

In the weeks leading up to the World Cup (the same time that the "Nightmare" theme for June was announced) it seemed as though every English newspaper and every advert on British TV was united with England in the belief that they could win the 2010 World Cup: And certainly with the team having had such a strong qualifying campaign they had every right to believe they could be potential winners again. But what I found frustrating about it was that they wouldn't stop referring to Bobby Robson; 1966; THAT goal; Geoff Hurst; this being the last chance for the golden age of English international football (which I think was at least 4 years ago!); and their group stage being full of really easy opponents!
As such, the media seemed certain that England were going to be unstoppable in storming through the tournament to collect the trophy - and this is what inspired my "Nightmare" drawing for Project Onomatopee. (My nightmare being the hysterical media rather than the prospect of England winning the tournament!)

If the media was to be believed at the start of June, then it was guaranteed that Gerrard et al. would become national heroes just like Hurst and his gang 44 years ago. I therefore thought it would be apt to portray the 2010 England World Cup squad in a picture that imitates the 1966 squad: But for a bit of artistic freedom I decided to try caricaturing the players.

I started drawing the caricatures as an initial sketch on cheap printer paper (expecting to require several attempts at getting the caricatures half decent). But after partially rendering most of the characters with pencil I realised that tracing the initial drawing onto good quality paper (in order to paint it using watercolours) would be too time consuming - so I stuck with the initial drawing and altered my plans for the colouring stage.

I had to rule out traditional painting techniques as a means of colouring my drawing because I feared the printer paper would just crumple and distort when paint/water touched it. However I was intrigued by the prospect of attempting some serious digital painting for the first time (previously I've only ever done flat digital colouring for animation), so I scanned my drawing into the computer and got cracking with Photoshop.

After testing a selection of base coats [above] to give a rough idea of the colour schemes, I decided to scour the internet for some relevant digital artist research/influences/resources. My first port of call was to Charlie Parker's excellent Lines & Colors blog where, amongst many other types of artists and art forms, I've discovered a lot of interesting digital artists, notably:
- Francois Baranger
- Tuomas Korpi
- Jason Seiler
- Michael Kutsche
- David Jon Kassan (painting from life on an ipad).

I downloaded a number of digital brush sets for Photoshop from Brusheezy.com, which was easy to use and very useful. And Finnish artist Tuomas Korpi [listed above] has made his extensive Photoshop brush set openly downloadable from his website (on the sketches page), which I've appreciated using so far.

As this was my first attempt at digital painting I was quite content to simply test out different brushes and use a rather basic 5-tone colouring technique so as to not get caught up in realism or little details.
After laying down a mid-tone red colour for the England kit that all the players are wearing, I worked my way through the painting process in little stages:
1) Starting with Steven Gerrard (the central character who holds the trophy aloft), I filled in his skin & hair using personalized mid-tone colours, before working my way outwards to all the other players. (A minor note of interest here is that each player in the drawing has his own individual colour scheme based upon my photographic research).
2) After laying down all the base coats, I went back through every player and coloured relevant areas with a dark tone of each base colour.
3) After the dark tones were down, I again went back through all the players, this time colouring relevant areas with a light tone of each base colour.
4) Once I was happy with the range of tones in my digital painting I went back through it all and added in-between tones wherever necessary.
For the whole painting process I used a relatively small selection of brushes (always at varying sizes), and I usually had the opacity set to about 20%-50% in order to build up subtle layers of colour that would help add to the overall tonal quality of the image. I was also painting entirely with my computer mouse because I don't have access to a tablet pen.

When I was happy with the colouring on all of the footballers I turned my attention to the stadium in the background.
Working on a separate Photoshop layer from the footballers I initially scribbled various patches of colour to reflect the real colours of the Soccer City stadium (host of the World Cup Final on July 11). However this looked rather garish and troublesome, so I desaturated the stadium layer (to turn it greyscale), and as a replacement added an orange filter of varying strengths over the whole image [the experimental images below].

After I had chosen my favoured image (from the four above) I considered the drawing/painting to be finished and ready to submit to Project Onomatopee... But having forgotten that images need to be in the portrait format rather than landscape format, I added the black surround and golden-coloured text [as seen at the top of the blog post] to make my artwork compatible with the submission guidelines.

...Then days later England got knocked out of the tournament, and the potential reaction to this image completely changed!

NOTE:
You can see all the submissions for the "Nightmare" (June) theme of Project Onomatopee by clicking here.

Project Onomatopee

2010-07-05T20:41:00.010+01:00

Project Onomatopee is an online monthly drawing project created earlier this year by Nicole Volbeda.

The project was set-up to provide artistic inspiration and encourage regular drawing, which is achieved by offering participants a themed project every month. For example at the start of June the theme of "Nightmare" was announced and participating artists had the remainder of the month to interpret that theme in any visual manner they desired. At the end of the month all the submitted drawings were uploaded to the Project Onomatopee website, where participants could also discover the new theme for July.

The Project Onomatopee website (written in both Dutch and English) displays all the drawings from the most recent theme/month on the homepage, which allows visitors to instantly sample an entire theme without having to trawl through numerous links to get to the good stuff. And to view drawings from older themes/months, the relevant links are easily accessed from the top of the navigation bar on the right-hand-side of the webpage (under the header that says "Inzendingen / Contributions")... Previous themes include: Best Invention, Heroes, Sex Education, and Honey.

Visiting the website can be a rewarding artistic experience because the participating artists come from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, meaning that the art on display is guaranteed to portray a broad spectrum of influences and technical approaches.

Originally the project was entirely in Dutch, but it was later developed for the English language as well, which has increased the international appeal of the website. In June several UK-based artists (including myself) were invited to join the roster of Project Onomatopee artists, which demonstrates Nicole's interest in developing the project further - and as the expansion continues, the visual appeal of the website will undoubtedly grow further.

If you'd like further information about the project, or are interested in joining, please visit the Info page on the Project Onomatopee website (if you can't read Dutch, you'll need to scroll halfway down the page for the English version).

Commission: Rumbling Bridge

2010-07-01T18:04:00.010+01:00

This is my most recent painting commission, completed last month. I'm pleasantly surprised with how well it turned out considering that it's the first 'normal' painting I've done in several months!

The painting portrays a local landscape, called Rumbling Bridge, that I've enjoyed visiting since childhood. Located about 7 miles west of Kinross, it is a two-tier stone bridge dating from the 1700s, which spans above an impressive 120ft gorge.

Due to the surroundings of Rumbling Bridge, trying to get a good vantage point from where to take photos of it is awkward at best. For example, through a camera viewfinder the bridge often looks either way too close (it doesn't fit enough of the structure into the picture to convey its size), or too distant (it seems lost within a mass of leaves, branches, and trees, making it look insignificant).
I'm including a photo and video as examples:

Commission: West Coast Seascape

2010-06-03T17:24:00.002+01:00

Here's another commission I did a number of months ago: somewhere along the West Coast of Scotland.

Commission: Gem the dog

2010-06-01T23:17:00.004+01:00

Here's a commission that I did many months ago: Don't know how it has taken so long for me to upload it to the blog...

2010 UK General Election caricatures

2010-04-22T22:26:00.005+01:00

With the UK General Election two weeks away, it seems like a good time to attempt some political caricatures:

'Pigment of Imagination' on UK-edition DVDs & Blu-rays of horror hit "Paranormal Activity"!

2010-03-22T00:01:00.018Z

Pigment of Imagination, the short animated film that I made during my final year at Edinburgh College of Art, was last month shortlisted in an online film contest hosted by Icon Film Distribution (the company co-founded in 1989 by Mel Gibson); and it will now be appearing as a Bonus Feature on all the UK-release DVDs & Blu-rays of hit horror film Paranormal Activity, which is released today!

The contest, called Film Your Own Paranormal Activity, was run on Icon Film Distribution's PrepareToBeScared YouTube profile for several months until the end of January, and allowed UK residents to create & submit their own 3-minute horror films made in the style of Paranormal Activity.

I don't personally consider Pigment of Imagination to be a horror film (it's more a suspense film), however its setting within a derelict house does perhaps evoke a spooky sense of mystery and darkness similar to the classic horror films that helped inspire it such as: The Haunting (1963), The Innocents (1961), and Dracula (1931).
With that opinion about the genre of my film I didn't expect it to do too well in the YouTube contest, but then again, its success perhaps shouldn't have been such a great surprise...

...The only reason I submitted Pigment of Imagination to the contest was because I got informed about it by the promoters (via a YouTube message) who said they really liked my film. They asked me if I would like to re-edit the film down to a regulation duration of under 3 minutes, then add the edited film to their YouTube playlist of contest entires for the public to watch prior to the closing date.
The original cut of my film (as shown at the Edinburgh College of Art 2009 Degree Show) had a duration of 3:48, which was at least 48 seconds over the regulation play length for the contest. If I was going to enter the contest I really didn't want to cut anything from the story because the story was already running very bare in the original version: but luckily those last 50 seconds were end credits for the Degree Show premiere at the Filmhouse cinema last June - and because I already had the main credits featured at the start of the film I could simply cut the end credits to conform to the regulations while keeping the original story of the film intact.

Throughout the contest my film was displayed on the PrepareToBeScared YouTube profile along with more than 130 other short films. In the two weeks prior to the submission deadline my film had attracted little over 100 views (which was one of the lowest view counts of all the films), and an average rating from two people of 2.5 stars out of 5, which didn't look promising. However my film managed to get shortlisted to the top 50 at the end of January, and then a week later I was informed by e-mail that my film had been selected as one of the final 10 films and would be appearing on the UK-release DVDs and Blu-rays of Paranormal Activity!
If getting shortlisted into the last 50 was surprising for me, being told that Pigment of Imagination will be appearing on all the DVDs & Blu-rays was even more shocking because it had been my understanding upon entering the contest that only the one winning film would be featured!
Thereafter I had to e-mail a digital file of my film to Icon, sign official release forms, post the forms back, and then wait for over a month to publicly release this news today (the secrecy wasn't an official part of the contest regulations - I just wanted to do it that way - but it's felt like a really long month)!

The Final 10 films have been publicly available on the PrepareToBeScared YouTube profile for several weeks: Indeed the contest has already been reviewed (a couple of weeks ago) by Pete Stanton at Moviefone UK, who gave outstanding praise to both my Pigment of Imagination, and to Killer Flies From Mexico by Ollie Bostock & Johnny Eveson.

Stanton wrote that my film is:

A beautiful animation that shows more flair and imagination than Paranormal Activity and Heebie Jeebies [the overall contest winner] put together.

You can read the full review here. And you can click here to head straight over to the PrepareToBeScared YouTube profile and watch all 10 shortlisted films (as will appear on all the UK-release DVDs and Blu-rays of Paranormal Activity from Monday 22 March 2010).

I'd like to take this opportunity to again thank everyone that helped me with the film:
- Darryl Ryznar, Actress - sorry the day of filming didn't go entirely to plan.
- Chris Bathgate, Sound Designer - thanks for doing an awesome job with all the audio in such a short space of time!
- Annalise Wimmer, Filming of Snoopy the Beagle in Budapest - thanks for taking time out of your Christmas holiday to film all that reference material for me.
- Claudia Menting, Filming of myself as the Artist - Cheers for providing your camera & time.
- Alan Mason, Tutor - Thanks for providing all those film references, DVDs, Friday Film Sessions, and helping with the refinement of my script.
- Marianne Gallagher, Studio Assistant / friend - Thanks for providing support, and encouraging me to get the film finished!
- Ewan Green, animation classmate - Thanks for always being so cheery, knowledgeable, and for providing so many good suggestions over the years.
- All the students that I helped with their films prior to making my own - thanks for all the experience & tips.
- My parents - "for providing me with food and shelter; and for putting up with my all my equipment taking over the living room (for the past 12 months!)" - as it said in the end credits.

Portrait painting 4

2010-03-18T16:42:00.011Z

I just realised that I have never posted this portrait painting onto my blog, so I'm doing it now at long last. (It's been on the facebook fan page for ages!)

It's a watercolour painting from back in October 2009, and is a portrait of my artist friend Nicole Volbeda.

Nicole came over from the Netherlands in 2008 to study on the MA Animation course at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in 2008/09, which was the same time that I was in the final year of my BA Animation course.
We met online in the months leading-up to the start of her new course, so we kinda new each other before she even got here; and around that time she started a new blog to document her adventures in Edinburgh and keep friends back home up to date. In relation to that information, this painting was based on a photograph from her first "pre-move" visit to Edinburgh in the summer of 2008 (as published in one of the earliest entries on that blog).

While she was at ECA, Nicole developed a proposal to create a new children's TV series called Lilly Knows It All, which would have a bunch of short episodes (roughly 2 minutes each) starring a cheeky 5 year old girl & her strict mother, with the plot for each episode being a fun interpretation of traditional sayings being put into conflict: For example, one episode might focus on a conflict between the sayings "silence is golden" and "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"; while another episode (like the one Nicole animated at ECA) is about Lilly's strict mum ("know your enemy") being forced to buy a puppy because Lilly - in protest at not being allowed to get a dog - chooses to cause more trouble around the house than a dog would ever cause ("if you can't beat them join them").

Towards the end of my academic year (June 2009), I spent a few days helping Nicole with the digital colouring of that Lilly Knows It All episode using TVPaint on PC and a bit of Michael Jackson music blaring out through the otherwise empty studio (cos we started working together in the morning after MJ's sudden death)...
You can watch an "in-progress draft" of the full episode featuring some of my colouring by clicking on this link to the relevant post on Nicole's Lilly Knows It All blog.
You can watch a 1-minute introduction/sample of the fully finished episode on YouTube by clicking here.
And you can read all about the concept and development of the series on the Lilly Knows It All blog at: http://improvelilly.blogspot.com.

Nicole has now moved back to the Netherlands, having graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in November 2009, but you can check out her latest artworks (drawing/painting/animation) and other wonderful creations (knitting/sewing) on her new blog at: http://nvolbeda.blogspot.com/

12fp(s) - painting 20

2010-03-13T20:10:00.007Z

This is the most recent piece from my series of Film-inspired Paintings, created in February 2010, a month or so after my exhibition at the Filmhouse last year.

The original film source has a stunning vitality to its aesthetic, with strong colours and bold lighting - it's a perfect example of the 1950s Film Noir style reincarnated in the 21st Century. And it was this wonderful visual style that attracted me to painting the image in the first place.

While working on the painting I knew that using colours alone would look horrible. So after laying down all the colours and letting the paints dry, I went over the painting with black outlines and texture (in a process similar to some of my favourite paintings from recent months) in order to improve the visual depth of the image and make the finished piece come to life.

Film/TV caricatures

2010-03-12T14:21:00.007Z

...And finally for just now [regarding all the posts about my caricature work], here are some Film & TV caricatures that I made since the end of the Winter Olympics.

Quentin Tarantino (Film director)

Carey Mulligan (Actress)

Bradley Cooper (Actor)

Rab C Nesbitt (TV character)

I'll get back to posting some 'proper' artwork tomorrow...

Winter Olympics caricatures

2010-03-11T00:44:00.007Z

Here are the other Athlete caricatures that I created while watching coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics:

Lindsey Vonn (Skiier)

Wayne Gretzky (Ice Hockey)

Jarome Iginla (Ice Hockey)

Amy Williams (Skeleton)

Curling Caricatures

2010-03-10T22:17:00.011Z

Throughout the 2010 Winter Olympics I found myself glued to the TV for way too many hours (I was watching Curling or Snowboarding during the afternoon/evening, and Ice Hockey through the night). As a result I found myself spending very little time on my artworks, but at the same time, the short breaks in live sports coverage did inspire me to start trying some caricatures.

With a near-empty sketchbook, a big pile of old newspapers (full of pictures), and nothing else to be doing during the two 15 minute intervals of every Ice Hockey game, I realised that it would be the perfect opportunity to experiment with some caricature work... If nothing else, it would prevent my drawing and painting techniques from getting rusty!
Over the past three weeks I've made about 20-or-so caricatures in my little sketchbook, but to keep everything in this blog post related, I'm only posting a couple of my Curling caricatures just now - Scottish team members & Team GB Olympic stars: Jackie Lockhart [above] & Kelly Wood [below].

My caricatures have been a bit hit-and-miss so far, but I've been enjoying the learning/development process.

Shortlisted in film contest!

2010-02-22T00:29:00.012Z

My animated graduation film, Pigment of Imagination (2009), has been shortlisted to the final 10 of an online film contest; and as long as no issues arise over the coming days, then I should have some VERY exciting news to announce soon!

But in the meantime: Yay!

The Astronomer's Sun - a new stopmotion film

2010-02-12T01:28:00.024Z

Jessica Cope & Simon Cartwright - two friends I met at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) - have recently completed their new short animated film, The Astronomer's Sun; and if you're in the UK there is every chance that you can watch it at a cinema near you over the coming weeks as part of the British Animation Awards 'Public Choice' screenings.

Jess & Si both graduated from ECA in 2008 after producing their graduation films: The Owl House and Splendid Isolation respectively.
The Owl House was screened at the Flip Festival in Wolverhampton at the beginning of November 2008, was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award in March 2009, and went on to get screened in the McLaren Animation Awards programme at the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

A short time later Jess & Si won a commission from 4Mations Digital Shorts to create one of 13 "ambitious, original and thought-provoking animated short films from new and emerging animators" with backing from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, Channel 4, and Screen Yorkshire.
The resulting film is The Astronomer's Sun - a 6 minute stopmotion film in the wonderful trademark style of Jessica Cope, about "a young man who visits an abandoned observatory to confront memories of his past and follow his father on a journey into the unknown".
Stills, production photos, and further information about the film can be found on its production blog at: http://theastronomerssun.blogspot.com

Their film is showing in Programme 3 of the British Animation Awards, where the audience will get to vote for the best piece of animation in various categories. And after the votes from all 27 screenings across the UK are counted, the most popular piece from each category will be declared the winner at the British Animation Awards ceremony later this year.
Interestingly, each winner receives as their trophy an original piece of sheep-inspired artwork* created by notable artists from the animation industry: Previous contributing artists include, amongst many others, Nick Park and Tim Burton!
You can see all the previous trophies in the Awards Gallery of the British Animation Awards website here.
*("Sheep-inspired trophies" are due to the fact that the initials of British Animation Awards is "BAA" - which is commonly known as the sound of a sheep's bleating).

Amongst the other nominated animations are:
The 2009 OSCAR-nominated This Way Up (Smith & Faulkes, Nexus),
Simon's Cat - 'TV Dinners' (Simon Tofield, Tandem Films),
Codswollop (The Brothers McLeod),
Fields of Vision (Rob Zywietz),
The Black Dog's Progress (Stephen Irwin, Animate Projects),
Coldplay's Strawberry Swings music video (Shynola, RSA Films),
several Cadbury's Creme Egg adverts (Chris Cairns, Partizan),
and the CompareTheMarket.com Jingle advert [AKA: the original "Compare The Meerkat" advert] (Darren Walsh, Passion Pictures).

To see a full list of all the animations that are showing in each of the three British Animation Awards programmes over the coming weeks, please visit: http://www.britishanimationawards.com/public_choice2010.htm

The Astronomer's Sun will be screened as part of Programme 3, which is screening at the Filmhouse cinema, Edinburgh on Wednesday 24th February. Tickets for this screening will be available to buy online from the Filmhouse website here.

The other 26 national screenings will take place at the following locations:
Belfast, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Dundee, Exeter, Falmouth, Farnham, Glasgow, Harrow, Lincolnshire, London, Liverpool, Maidstone, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Norwich, Ormskirk, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Staffordshire, Totnes, and Wolverhampton.
To read the full list of Dates & Venues for each programme screening, please visit: http://www.britishanimationawards.com/Venues_playdates.htm

If you're interested in this, please try to attend one of the screenings, and then help out Jess & Si by voting for The Astronomer's Sun.

Images copyright of: The Astronomer's Sun, 2010.
Images used with permission from Jessica Cope.

UPDATE - 9 October 2010:

The Astronomer's Sun was broadcast by Channel 4 for the first time on Thursday 7 October, and for the next month it can be viewed on Channel 4's 4OD (4 On Demand) internet screening service by clicking here.

Fool Moon (animated graduation film, 2008)

2010-01-29T21:50:00.009Z

Here's Aaron Johnston's fun short animated graduation film Fool Moon, which I worked on as Colouring Assistant during my 3rd Year at ECA in 2007/2008.

It's a comedy about a football-mad boy and his pet monkey searching for a ball-shaped object to use as a football on their native desert island, but after various mishaps they set their sights on capturing the moon.

This is one of the six animated graduation films that I was credited for working on during 2008, and is the first to make a full appearance on the Internet.

Testimonial from John Hales - Director of 'Macbeth' (Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft - November 2009)

2010-01-12T19:41:00.009Z

Back in October I was commissioned to produce 4 animation sequences to be screened as part of John Hales' modern-dress theatre production of Macbeth, starring Abi Titmuss, at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft.

The production - complete with my animation - toured Norwich for numerous dates throughout November, and now that it is all over, I've recently received this testimonial from John Hales [who both directed the production and played the part of Macbeth]:

Dear Andy,

Hello there. So, the dust has finally settled after Christmas and Macbeth enough for me to write to say thank you SO much (caps intended) for your amazing work animating the fourth apparition.

It was always an ambitious production and we’d already pulled off a bit of a coup with Abi Titmuss as Lady Macbeth and some of the filming, but you and the other animators you sourced for us to bring the visions to life were just first class.

I’ve Directed for film and TV as well as theatre over the past 18 years and I was painfully aware of the mountain I was asking you all to climb in terms of schedule and the detail of the work and you not only met the challenge head on, but exceeded all my hopes and expectations of how powerful the visions could be in the hands of talented, committed and original animators like yourself and your colleagues.
It was a real pleasure to work with you on a creative level too – you have real flair but are also aware of telling the story effectively, a perfect blend which became apparent at our regular updates and each new instalment of the work. Add that all this was achieved without us even meeting once in person. I think it speaks volumes for the clarity with which you approach a project, really connecting with the brief and then working with me and the ideas to make them even better. And, on top of that, you even delivered the work early!

Cast, audience and reviewers alike were unanimous in the praise for your work Andy. I’d recommend you without a moment’s hesitation - I really hope the future brings you the success you deserve.

Thanks for everything,

With the very best wishes

John Hales
Director
Seagull Rep
www.theseagull.co.uk

Below is my 54-second animation sequence, portraying the Fourth Vision from Act 4, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, as screened during the theatre production:

To discover more about all my work for the production please visit this earlier blog post.

12fp(s) - painting 19

2010-01-09T22:41:00.007Z

This is the most recent Film-inspired painting that I have produced, and as such was the final painting to appear at my exhibition last month.
It is based on one of my favourite films, however this particular still wasn't my first choice to paint (for such a stylish and culturally significant film, it seems to have surprisingly few unedited film stills available on the Internet).

The film, starring Warren Beatty & Faye Dunaway, re-tells a notorious American crime story, and was directed by Arthur Penn in what critics consider a ground-breaking style that merged the big-budget world of Hollywood with the joie-de-vivre of Nouvelle Vague [French New Wave] films. As a matter of fact, the first choice director was acclaimed Nouvelle Vague critic/director Francois Truffaut (Jules et Jim, 400 Blows), and when he dropped out in order to direct Fahrenheit 451 (starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie) the producers approached Jean-Luc Godard (A Bout de Souffle, Bande a Part) - who today is widely considered the most influential of all the Nouvelle Vague directors.
The film is Bonnie & Clyde (1967).

The film is a romanticised version of the couple's real-life story as they rob banks and go on the run with their gang. It has plenty of great action sequences mixed with enough intimate moments between the gang for it to feel like a complete story rather than just a hollow action-heavy blockbuster like we're used to from Hollywood today.
As such there were numerous scenes from this film that I had in mind for making this painting, however I was unable to source any of them as still images on the Internet, and so decided to settle on this still image portraying Bonnie Parker holding up a bank instead.

The actual film was shot in colour, however I decided to paint this a single reddish colour similar to my earlier Bande a Part painting because that style worked well in the past. I'm not so keen on it here though, mainly because this particular pigment [similar but not identical to the one used in the Bande a Part painting] didn't offer the kind of strong tonal variation that I think would have made this painting come to life.
By using that particular colour I had hoped that it would create an appealing vintage aesthetic, however once I started painting I discovered that the colour was more like an off salmon-pink, which I don't find appealing: Had the paint been a bolder pink colour it may have worked better, or (ideally) had it been more of a brown/sepia colour, I think it would have been near-perfect.

12fp(s) - painting 18

2010-01-08T20:48:00.007Z

This was the final painting that I created during a flurry of creativity at the beginning of December after learning that the exhibition of my Film-inspired Painting Series at the Filmhouse was getting extended for an extra month.

There were a significant number of still images from this film that I was interested in painting for the series, however I eventually settled on this one because I liked the dark ambience and intriguing mood that is gripping the attention of the two protagonists.
The other stills that I had considered for this painting felt too focused on Grace Kelly's character, and as paintings would therefore have looked too much like a traditional fashion plate or a portrait painting rather than a Film still - which would have been out-of-place within the rest of this painting series.

I'm not entirely sure what I think of this finished painting...
I like the overall aesthetic, but particularly the atmosphere and colouring: There's a nice tonal variation, which I think gives the painting a good sense of depth and effectively translates the sense of tension from the film itself.

However I think the painting also looks quite [unintentionally] comical because it seems like an illustration from a cheap pulp fiction novel, which I admire but can't really take seriously. Also, the painting of Grace Kelly's character looks like it came from another source and has just been glued onto this painting: For example her fashionable clothing and brightly-lit figure seem entirely juxtaposed with the rest of the image. You could argue that this juxtaposition was enforced by the film itself, however I'd suggest that the painting style of Grace Kelly's character differs subtly from the rest of the painting, which does nothing but intensify the issue further.

Influences part 24: Gil Elvgren

2010-01-07T23:31:00.014Z

Gil Elvgren (1914 - 1980) was an American painter and illustrator, best known for some of the 500 pin-up paintings that he produced during a 40 year career; however he also produced adverts for a range of clients including Coca-Cola (for 25 years) and the Good Housekeeping magazine.
In his excellent book Gil Elvgren: The Complete Collection (2008), co-author Charles G. Martignette describes Elvgren as "the Norman Rockwell of the pin-up genre of American Illustration" before going on to say that he also had the high skills of a classical artist. Indeed I would go so far as to suggest that Elvgren's work demonstrates [although often restrained in his commercial work] a superb understanding of form, composition, lighting, and colour that is comparable with Great Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Even if you don't already know him by name, you may be familiar with Elvgren's visual style. For example, the style of his pin-up paintings influenced the look of The Saturday's 'Just Can't Get Enough' music video for Comic Relief 2009.

Gil Elvgren is often considered the greatest pin-up artist of all time, and has influenced a great number of artists.
I can't recall how I became familiar with his work, but I suspect it was either name-checked from research conducted during my final year at Edinburgh College of Art, or else he was probably mentioned by a tattoo artist on Miami Ink (as pin-up girls have often been a source of inspiration for many traditional tattoos).
Regardless of this, Elvgren's first notable influence on my own work came soon after I graduated (July 2009), and is most obvious in my portrait painting of actress Ava Gardner as seen here.
Although in my previous blog post I mentioned that I considered the style of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings as a relevant painting technique for interpreting the cool 60s style of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie into a painting of my own.

RELATED GIL ELVGREN LINKS:
- www.gilelvgren.com
- www.ElvgrenPinUp.com An extensive fan site.
- Gil Elvgren at The Pin-Up Files.
- Pin-Up Page: A big collection of Elvgren pin-up paintings.
- Interview with the director of The Saturday's Just Can't Get Enough music video - created in the style of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings.

CAUTION: Some of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings below display vintage Pretty Girls with underwear and/or mild nudity, which may not be suitable for viewing in public places (ie: at work, school, library, etc).
If using a public computer, please consider those around you and observe any codes-of-conduct before proceeding to the paintings below. (I don't think the images are distasteful or bad, but who knows - some people may take offense to them)...

12fp(s) - painting 17

2010-01-07T00:55:00.012Z

The second of the three paintings I created at the beginning of December was from Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964).
It was actually one of the very first film stills that I had planned to paint for my Film-inspired Painting Series (way back in July/August), however I had put it off for such a long time because I always harboured strong reservations about how well the film still would translate into a painting.

The main reason for that reservation was because I loved the 60s style inherent in the film (particularly in relation to Diane Baker's character), and although I imagined her style adapting well into a portrait painting technically similar to Gil Elvgren's pin-up illustrations, I did not want to adopt that painting style for this series.

By the time December came around (at least four months after I had initially watched the film and planned to paint a still image from it), my admiration for the visual style of the film was no longer at the front of my mind and I finally felt free enough to try interpreting the style of the film into a painting.

I decided to go with quite a minimalist painting style in the hope that this would allow the fashion/style of the characters to stand out as the main focus of the image instead of the painting style/technique: This is similar to a watercolour portrait painting that I did back in 2007 and still really admire.
Just like in 2007, I think the minimalist painting style worked well for highlighting the stylish fashion of the female, however I really dislike what it has done to the portrait of Sean Connery - it just looks bizarre.

Although it's effective for highlighting the characters, I'm not too keen on the background either (although I can't think of what else would have worked better).
In the original film still the background is part of an interior shot but it looked rather ambiguous, so if I tried to literally translate that ambiguous background with paint then it would look even more abstract, which I think would detract from the subjects of the painting. Also, the original background (as seen in the film) was a brownish colour, however I felt that there was already too much orange/brown colours in the faces and that using more of those colours in the background would make the overall painting too flat and unappealing.
I therefore decided to use what I thought would be complimentary - a green colour - for the background.
I'm still in two minds about whether that was the right decision to make because in some ways the green colour is really ghastly while the bizarre shapes and tonal variations of the background don't really tell us anything; yet at the same time I can't help but feel as though the green background is exciting because it makes the audiences eyes jump constantly between the foreground and background in a never-ending duel to maintain your attention.

Despite all this though, I kinda think that for the painting to be most effective I should just cut it in two and show only Diane Baker's character - cos I think that side of the painting looks fine... (?)

12fp(s) - painting 16

2010-01-06T00:12:00.012Z

When I was asked to extend my painting exhibition at the Filmhouse for an extra month (until the end of 2009), I decided to create some new Film-inspired Paintings for the display.

There were three film stills at that moment that I was particularly keen to paint, and in a flurry of creativity, I kinda ended up working on all three of them simultaneously; however the first of my three new paintings was a still from Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).
I have not yet seen the film, but I was aware of this particular still, and really liked its colourful composition of Penelope Cruz' character posing against what looks like a graffitied garage door.

The painting itself looks more like a portrait than a film still (so it doesn't seem to easily fit with the rest of my Film-inspired Painting Series), and in my opinion there are weaknesses regarding the quality of the portrait: For example the image looks rather two-dimensional, yet the texture of the paint is a bit blotchy, which I find to distract from the subject of the painting.
Despite that issue, I still enjoy this painting simply for its softness and the almost pastel-like colour palette. It doesn't try to shout out or draw attention to itself, it just sits peacefully in the background.

12fp(s) - painting 15

2010-01-05T00:30:00.008Z

After two months, the exhibition of my Film-inspired Painting Series came to a close this evening, which means that I can finally upload the following painting (cos I had forgotten to scan it before putting it on display at the Filmhouse!)

This was a strange little painting that I was inspired to do at the beginning of November thanks to Halloween.
I really liked the original film still: it had a vintage aesthetic to it, and in a kind of Beauty And The Beast moment, the interaction between Frankenstein's monster and the little girl illustrates the tenderness that hides underneath his grotesque appearance.

The painting would probably have looked more appealing if painted in the same Burnt Umber [brown] colour as my Bande a Part painting, however I wanted to do something a bit different from both that painting and my Hamlet Goes Business painting (which used blue), so green seemed like an intriguing choice...

I now think the green and white aesthetic looks too cold to convey the warmth of the relationship between the two characters, however it was an interesting challenge to work on.

12fp(s) - painting 14 [SOLD]

2010-01-04T01:58:00.015Z

This was the first of many 'new' Film-inspired Paintings that I created as potential replacements for any paintings that sold during my solo exhibition (which ran from November 5th 2009 until January 4th 2010) at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh.

I had been fascinated by the cinematography in Jean-Luc Godard's La Mepris [Contempt] for quite some time, and there were several stills featuring Brigitte Bardot that I thought would make interesting paintings (the still below for example).

...However I wasn't keen on using those stills for this painting series because, as with Painting 2 (from Aki Kaurismäki's Shadows In Paradise), I didn't like how those kinds of stills looked more like a portrait than a still image from a film. But after a bit of time researching I eventually found a pleasant Mediterranean-based film still that had an intriguing composition vaguely similar to my North By Northwest painting, and which loosely evoked a mood similar to the paintings of Edward Hopper, who is one of my favourite painters.

This was the first painting I had done in a few weeks, and I wasn't entirely sure what kind of aesthetic I wanted to achieve with it. I was changing my mind about various aspects of the painting as I went along, and I kept rushing things unnecessarily, which is rarely a good idea.
In the end I wasn't too pleased with the quality of the finished painting, however the addition of some dark ink over Bardot's character helped to draw attention away from the blotchy background (which had been really bugging me); and I think the strong aesthetic of the source film still also helped to mitigate any other issues I had.

It may not have been one of my stronger paintings (in my opinion), but apparently you learn from every mistake...

Pigment of Imagination: film now online in full!

2009-12-15T14:53:00.021Z

BEFORE WATCHING: Please use headphones to get the best audio experience (built-in laptop speakers will not play any of the important low frequency bass & synth sounds, which ruins the atmosphere of the film!)

Pigment of Imagination is my short animated graduation film, which premiered on Monday 15 June 2009.
It is a 3 minute suspense story inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, along with an eclectic range of other influences in order to try and create something new and interesting that doesn't conform to the usual animation storylines and commercial restraints.

CREDITS:
- Written & Animated by: Andy Macpherson
- Script consultation by: Alan Mason
- Sound Design by: Chris Bathgate
- Woman performed by: Darryl Ryznar
- Woman filmed in Edinburgh by: Andy Macpherson
- Woman's voice by: Moira Paton
- Painter performed by: Andy Macpherson
- Painter filmed in Edinburgh by: Klodya Menting
- Dog performed by: Snoopy
- Dog (Snoopy the beagle) filmed in Budapest by: Annalise Wimmer
- Dog noises by: Sofi
- Thanks to ECA staff: Alan Mason, Marianne Gallagher, Morten Jonmark, Neil Kempsell, Madevi Dailly, Donald Holwill.
- Thanks to: Julia Petitperrin, Alison Cross, Aaron Johnston, Jessica Cope, Natasha Harrison, Lora Jensen, Ewan Green, Owen Rixon, Paul Morris, Chris Gough, Michael Oliver.
- ..."And Thanks to my parents for providing me with food and shelter; and for putting up with my equipment taking over the living room (for the past 12 months!)"
- Special Thanks to: Erica Weiste, Marianne Gallagher, Johanna Wagner.
- Edinburgh College of Art, MCMIX

Lots more information about the development of the film is available by clicking here and then scrolling down the page to access older articles about the development of the film].

The full film can be watched by anyone from my profiles on both Vimeo and YouTube

12fp(s) - painting 13 [SOLD]

2009-12-11T14:09:00.022Z

When I first got the idea for my 12fp(s) Film-inspired Painting Series I aimed to create 12 paintings based upon films I found influential while producing my short animated graduation film [called Pigment of Imagination - click here to watch the trailer] at Edinburgh College of Art last year. However I soon found myself painting stills from films I had not yet seen (for example Gun Crazy and Belle de Jour), or painting stills from films that I didn't enjoy too much (like The Match Factory Girl) just because the still looked like an interesting challenge.

A month after creating my first Film-inspired watercolour painting (from Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout de Souffle) I found myself with the full series of 12 Film-inspired paintings; and a lot of spare time...
Having enjoyed working on this series (that merged my interests in Film and Painting) I decided to create some more Film-inspired paintings, and in mid-October I had created the 13th painting - as seen at the top of this blog post, which is taken from Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars.

While working on this piece I was given my first solo painting exhibition at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh for the month of November.
The exhibition (of this series) has since been extended until the end of 2009, so if you've not seen it yet there are another 3 weeks remaining - the Filmhouse is open everyday except December 25th.
Click here to read my blog post with more information about the Filmhouse and my exhibition).

The exhibition has been surprisingly popular, so I decided to create more Film-inspired paintings that would replace the old ones as they get sold... To date I've painted new stills from:
- Contempt
- Frankenstein
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Marnie
- Rear Window

Contempt and Frankenstein have been exhibited at the Filmhouse since week 2 in mid-November (replacing Bande a Part and Vivre Sa Vie), but are not featured on my blog yet. If you want to see them you will need to visit my exhibition for a preview.
The three other new paintings will be exhibited at the Filmhouse some time soon (hopefully before Wednesday 16th), when they will replace Fistful of Dollars [at the top of this post], North By Northwest, and another one that is yet-to-be-decided...

Influences part 23: Thomas Allen

2009-12-07T21:26:00.024Z

Yesterday a newspaper advert for National Book Tokens reminded me of the awesome trick photography of Thomas Allen, whose work influenced some research for my animated graduation film last year - so I've decided to promote his work on my blog.

Thomas Allen is an American photographer who, over the past decade, has developed a trademark portfolio of work by using modified pulp fiction books as his main subject.

As you'll see from the images featured in this blog post, Thomas Allen creates these highly intriguing photographs by using his mastery of composition and lighting in an otherwise simple process, as I will outline below...

- Starting off with standard pulp fiction novels (as popular in the 1950s), the artist searches for character illustrations that will serve his needs for effectively creating a single photograph to tell an intriguing new story.
- Having settled on particular characters and the composition for arranging the modified book/characters, the artist uses a scalpel to carefully cut free most of the illustrated character - although in many cases parts of the illustrated character will remain attached to the rest of the book cover so that the character can hinge and pop-up/out from the rest of the book (creating part of the 3D effect that you see in the final photographs).
- With the books modified and the characters popping-out, the artist arranges the book(s) in his desired composition, adjusts the lighting to create the desired aesthetic, and then sets-up his camera with a suitable depth-of-field (usually so that only a small section of the overall composition is in focus, while the rest of the image looks blurry) and then takes his photographs.
- The end result should now show the original book in a near-normal condition, except that the illustrated characters now seem to be alive and jumping out from the book itself (with the depth-of-field further enhancing this illusion).

The process that I've just described sounds really simple, and while it is not too complex to understand the basics of; from my experience of the technique last year, it does take a bit of time and persistence to get to grips with before you can start progressing it in your own way...
I reckon it took me about 2 hours to get used to my brothers digital SLR camera and to set-up a basic 3D-effect with modified books before I could even begin taking decent photos in the style of Thomas Allen. Even after those 2 hours of getting used to everything, I spent roughly a further 3 hours experimenting with everything and taking over 400 photos - only to end up with about 15 photos that I was genuinely happy with when viewed on the computer!

Allen's style has a really rare kind of aesthetic that many people appreciate as soon as they see it. In many ways I would compare it to the stereoscopic (3D glasses) effect that is currently sweeping through Hollywood cinema.
Allen's photography is simply a delightful little illusion that seems to appeal to everyone, in much the same way that everyone used to gasp with delight when an object leapt out from the cinema screen.
If you've not seen his work before, I hope you enjoy the small sample of work displayed here, and I'd urge you to look through the links listed below for more...

Related links:
- Thomas Allen's blog

- Thomas Allen's work at: www.mnartists.org

- Thomas Allen's work on The Foley Gallery website

- Robert Ayers in conversation with Thomas Allen

- Thomas Allen: Uncovered - Book of photographs for sale at Amazon.co.uk

Filmhouse exhibition update

2009-12-05T00:48:00.016Z

Because the exhibition of my Film-inspired Painting Series at the Filmhouse cinema has been extended for an extra month (until the end of the year), I've decided to create some new paintings to display during the remaining few weeks....

I had already created two new paintings before the exhibition opened, which have been on display at the Filmhouse since week 2 in mid-November. Those were:
- Le Mepris [Contempt] (1963). Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard,
- Frankenstein (1931). Directed by: James Whale.

But some of the new Film-inspired paintings I've created this past week include:
- Rear Window (1954). Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock,
- Marnie (1964). Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock,
- and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Directed by: Woody Allen.

I haven't decided when these new paintings will go on display, but it is likely to be some time next week...

Exhibition continues...

2009-11-29T21:16:00.017Z

The lovely people at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh have extended the exhibition of my Film-inspired Painting Series until the end of the year!

My exhibition is in the narrow, white-walled corridor located along the left hand side of the cafe/bar area (which is behind the box office, and open from 10am-11:30pm seven days a week).

So if you've not had a chance to see my exhibition over the past 3 weeks, you've now got another 4 weeks to enjoy it: Why not pop-in while you're doing some Christmas shopping in the Scottish capital?

Address:
Filmhouse
88 Lothian Road
Edinburgh
EH3 9BZ

Click here for the Google Map of Edinburgh (pin-pointing the location of the Filmhouse)

'Film-inspired Painting Series' 2010 wall calendars

2009-11-22T14:45:00.006Z

Would anyone be interested in purchasing a professionally-printed, limited-edition, "Film-inspired Painting Series" wall calendar for 2010?

Each month will feature a high-quality 'print' of a different Film-inspired Painting (as seen at my Filmhouse exhibition, which closes on Sunday 29th); and the calendar will be with you in time for Christmas & New Year (which would of course be very useful...)

The calendars will cost £7 each (which - if my maths is correct - works out at an average price of less than 60p per painting print from within the calendar); and if you're in the Edinburgh/Fife/Perthshire areas, I may even be able to deliver it to you for free (but if you're not in an area near me then you will need to pay for P&P).

If you're interested in buying one of the calendars, please let me know (commitment-free at this stage) prior to Friday 27th November, so that I can check whether or not it's feasible for me to go ahead with printing...

Thanks,

Andy

Macbeth theatre/animation project

2009-11-20T15:27:00.020Z

For the past month or so, I've been busy producing a 50-second animation sequence along with some stills and miniature portraits for John Hales' modern-dress theatre production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Abi Titmuss, taking place at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft, England.

That project is all complete now, and the debut performance commenced at 19:30 on Wednesday, 18 November 2009. There will be a few more performances at the Seagull before the show begins touring other theater's in the Norwich region from 24 November until 4 December - check the Seagull Theatre events calender for details.

If like me, you're an 8-hour/£170 train trip away from Lowestoft [I thought the government wanted to encourage public transport?!], you probably won't get to see the whole performance; but thanks to the Internet, you can watch two (of the four) short animation sequences that were commissioned to portray the Visions of Act 4, Scene 1...

Below is my sequence for the last Vision:

It has quite a minimalist/sketchy aesthetic, and uses an almost storyboard-animatic animation technique, which looks a bit unfinished compared to commercial animation; but I decided that this loose aesthetic would look more exciting than if I were to clean it all up with perfect lines and full colour (which I think would paradoxically become really empty and stale)... But regardless, I am actually rather fond of this unusual style, and found it all surprisingly fun to work on!

As well as making my piece of animation, I volunteered to create some still images of portraits and mock newspapers that would appear on stage during the theatre performance. Below are a few of them:

As I stated in an earlier blog post, I was originally commissioned to produce all four Visions, and although I accepted the work, I knew that the theatre would get better results if I shared the workload with other animators so that each Vision got equal focus and dedication. Thankfully Grace Chan and Calum MacAskill stepped up to my challenge, while the director found a fourth animator to create Vision 2.
To view Vision 1, created by Grace, please visit: http://vimeo.com/7598347

Relevant Press coverage (found online so far):
OneSuffolk.co.uk
Lowestoft Journal

Exhibition opens tomorrow

2009-11-04T21:52:00.014Z

My debut painting exhibition opens at the Filmhouse cinema (Lothian Road, Edinburgh) from 3pm tomorrow. Please go along and have a look...

Until November 29th [UPDATE: Closing date has been extended until the end of 2009! - See this blog post], I will be exhibiting my 12fp(s) Film-inspired Painting Series in the corridor beside the cafe that leads towards cinema screens 2 & 3. For those not familiar with the Filmhouse, the corridor exhibiting my paintings is located on the left hand side of the building, diagonally behind the front box office and running alongside the cafe/bar area.

I'm planning to exhibit the 12 original Film-inspired paintings (which will all be available to buy) and as seen on my blog here, but as they get sold I plan to replace them with brand new Film-inspired paintings that will be premiering at the Filmhouse (they have not even been shown online yet!)...

The exhibition is free to view 7 days a week [Filmhouse opening hours are 10am-11pm]; but Scotland's leading independent cinema has much more to offer including:
- An exhibition of posters by Franciszek Starowieyski (pseudonym Jan Byk) in the cafe/bar area;
- The "food for a fiver" offer is available in the cafe/bar every day 3pm-5pm, but a great selection of fresh and affordable food is also available every day until 10pm.
- The shop beside the box office has a vast selection of DVDs for sale, as well as various postcards and cards.
- "The best, busiest and probably trickiest film quiz in the country" takes place in the cafe/bar area at 9pm on Sunday 13th December. It's free to enter, and you can have a team of up to 8 people!
- And throughout the month of November, various Film Seasons are focusing on the work of [NOTE: the following links will take you directly to the relevant Filmhouse page about each season]: Orson Welles, Jacques Tati, Polish filmmaker Wojciech Has, The Best of Czech Cinema (1999-2009), and the Filmhouse' own French Film Festival 2009.

Address:
Filmhouse
88 Lothian Road
Edinburgh
EH3 9BZ

Click here for the Google Map of Edinburgh (pin-pointing the location of the Filmhouse)

Landscape 04 - Majorca 2

2009-10-21T21:58:00.006+01:00

A quick little painting I did on Sunday:

Exciting news (piece 2 of 2 - but another 2 to come!)

2009-10-17T23:00:00.012+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to produce a series of short animation sequences for a theatre production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, starring Abi Titmuss, taking place in Lowestoft next month.
This is my first professional animation commission since I graduated in July, and it comes complete with a really tight deadline, so I'm excited to see how it will go...

I was asked to produce short animated sequences to illustrate the 4 Visions that occur during Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth; these will then get projected onto a screen above the thespians as they perform their roles on the theatre stage. It is a really interesting scenario, which I think will work well for strongly distinguishing between the reality and 'mythology' (if you'd call it that) of the Scene and add a different dimension to the theatre production.

In order to ensure that all 4 Visions (potentially up to 2 minutes worth of animation) are completed by the deadline, I've enlisted the services of professional animators Grace Chan and Calum MacAskill, who are animating Visions 1 and 3 respectively.
According to John Hales (director), my team has been producing great work so far, and by sharing the workload it has also helped to ensure that each Vision has its own unique style - which was part of the original brief... But for now you'll have to wait until at least mid-November to see how it all turned out!

I've also got ANOTHER 2 bits of exciting news to come soon!
(The small details for one of these are getting sorted out but will be ready by the end of the month; and the other piece of news has been rumoured for several months but finally ready to become reality after this Macbeth project...) Stay tuned!

Exciting news (piece 1 of 2)

2009-10-13T16:36:00.003+01:00

I said in my holiday post last week that "I could potentially have some exciting news next week", so... I'll give you the little news today, and delay the release of my much bigger news until later on in the project!

Little news:

Remember my painting for The Topher Holland Band?

Well their website (www.thband.co.uk), has had a complete renovation, and is now wearing (with my permission) that painting as the header image.

Go and check it out!

Landscape 03 - Majorca 1

2009-10-13T16:15:00.002+01:00

Having returned from my holiday in Majorca on Sunday, I wasted little time getting back into my art. Here's my first painting based on a Majorcan landscape/sunset that I did within a few hours yesterday afternoon:

Misc art links:

2009-10-13T15:13:00.013+01:00

Other Artists:

Thomas Allen (at www.mnartists.org)

Thomas Allen's blog (on Wordpress)

Markus Thorsen photography

Art Resources:

It's Nice That

Lines & Colors

WebUrbanist

Misc links:

Edinburgh College of Art

Filmhouse cinema, Edinburgh.

Illustration related links

2009-10-13T15:06:00.009+01:00

Illustrator websites:

Opera78 - Fiodor Sumkin

Jason Seiler (caricature blog)

Julian Opie

Libby Walker

Neil Kemspell caricatures

Nigel Peake

Sebastian Kruger caricatures

Tim Sale

Illustration resources:

ArtPassions.net (Vintage images by Rackham, Dulac, Dore, Morris...)

Painting related links

2009-10-13T15:02:00.010+01:00

Painter websites:

Banksy

Don Coker's Painting A Day blog

MaryCassatt.org (The Complete Works)

Sarah Larnach (blog)

Sarah Larnach (myspace profile)

Painting resources:

Art Inconnu

Impressionism-art.org

Women Painting Women

Film related links

2009-10-13T14:57:00.008+01:00

ECA-educated Filmmakers:

Marianne Gallagher

oooi Films

Van Heemstra Pictures

Film review websites:

HollywoodJesus.com

TrailersFromHell.com

Film resources:

1000 Frames of Hitchcock

British Film Institute

Filmsnoir.net

FilmSound.org

FindAnyFilm.org

Senses of Cinema

SoundDesign.org.uk

Animation related links

2009-10-13T14:43:00.014+01:00

ECA-educated animators:

David Ross

Ewan Green

Grace Chan

Hazel Leszczynska

Jessica Cope & Simon Cartwright's blog for The Astronomer's Sun

Jiamin Liu

Louis Hudson

Michael K Oliver

Mårten Jönmark

Nicole Volbeda

Owen Rixon

Paul Morris

Selina Wagner

Animator websites:

Aleksandra Korejwo

Caroline Leaf

Lizzy Hobbs

Michael Dudok de Wit

Paul Bush

Animation company websites:

ACME Filmworks

Am Bocsa

Axis

Django Films

Igloo Animations

Ink Digital

KoLik Films

Nexus Productions

Once Were Farmers

Partizan Lab

Pascal Blais studios

Red Kite Animations

Animation research & news:

Animation World Network

ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive

Cartoon Brew

Mark Mayerson

Michael Barrier

Michael Sporn

Scottish Animation Group

Animation resources:

Animation Backgrounds

AnimationBlog.org (reviews by Ian Lumsden)

Animation Tips & Tricks (by AnimationMentor.com)

Animatsiya in English (for Russian animations)

AWN Famous Animator Gallery Series

Gene Deitch: How To Succeed In Animation

Iota Center

Pencil test Depot

Web links

2009-10-13T14:16:00.011+01:00

Here's a collection of web links, sorted into artistic disciplines below. Clicking on any of the disciplines below will load a list of links related to that topic, arranged into sections covering amongst other things: artists, news, resources, and more...
Hopefully you will find some useful things in here.

Animation related links

Film related links

Painting related links

Illustration related links

Misc art links

random update

2009-10-06T21:08:00.002+01:00

I'm currently on holiday in Majorca...

...and could potentially have some exciting news next week!

Portrait painting 3

2009-09-29T22:11:00.011+01:00

I've done this painting by special request for Topher Holland of Zool Films, after he saw my previous painting in this style.

As well as making films, Topher is a musician, and he is planning to tour the UK with his band in the near future. Nothing has been announced yet, but stay tuned to their website for the latest news...

Landscape 02 - Ochils from Muckhart G.C.

2009-09-25T23:15:00.009+01:00

Here's a 5 hour fingerpainting portraying a view of the Ochils from Muckhart Golf Club in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.

Note: The colours in this photo are really muddy, which doesn't look too good, but I couldn't get a better quality photo. (The blues and reds are actually a lot stronger, the yellows are weaker, and the green colours are darker).

The Discovery of Spain: From Goya to Picasso

2009-09-23T23:38:00.021+01:00

This afternoon I went to the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, and saw some great stuff.

They're currently showing an exhibition about the influence of Spain on British art called The Discovery of Spain: From Goya to Picasso.
The exhibition consists of a large array of paintings from British art collections related to Spain; and as well as British artists who worked in Spain, the exhibition also includes several high-profile paintings by the likes of Velazquez, Picasso, and El Greco.

I was unfamiliar with most of the paintings in the exhibition, and although there are many paintings I'd like to bring to your attention, I can only remember the names for a small series of work by El Greco.
I didn't know much of his work before visiting this exhibition, but it certainly held my attention the most. There is a wonderful - almost Old Master or Romantic - sense of lighting and contrast that makes these appealing paintings really stand out.

A massive copy of Lady In A Fur Wrap [above] was used as the poster image at the top of the staircase, which looked really impressive from a distance, however the small scale of the original is much more intimate and captivating.
The contrast between her light skin and the dark background is really strong, which makes this image cry out for attention before her big brown eyes seduce your attention away from the other four El Greco paintings aligned around it.
There are few other paintings that have captivated me like this one, but as much as I really admire it, it is the El Greco painting called An Allegory (hanging right beside it) that had a stronger impact on me.

An Allegory [below] is darker and has a much cruder painting style than Lady In A Fur Wrap, but by utilising a single light source it has much stronger visual impact...

This digital image is terrible for conveying the actual lighting and colouring of the original painting, but it held me in awe.

Landscape 01 - Doral, Florida

2009-09-22T15:29:00.010+01:00

For a potential gallery exhibition in the New Year, I'm creating a series of colourful landscape paintings, and although I've known about it for over a month, I've only just got around to starting the series...
So here's Landscape Painting 01, based on a photograph from my 2007 summer holiday in Florida, USA:

This is another one of my acrylic fingerpaintings, and although the sky works well, I'm not too fond of the texture in the lake area along the bottom section of the image.
In my opinion, the contrasting textures almost make it seem like two seperate paintings stuck together, however I think the colouring mitigates this to some extent and kinda unifies it as a whole - and the colour is my main priority, so it doesn't bother me too much... But I'd be interested in hearing what other people think of it.

"Bonnie's Tale" - seal animation

2009-09-21T15:00:00.041+01:00

Everyone loves seals don't they?

You know what I'm taking about: those funny animals like what appeared in the Marx Brothers film Copacabana (1947), and occassionally in Tom & Jerry cartoons like the episode titled Little Runaway (1952) below.

Well apparently not everyone: and that's the reason for a new short animated film called Bonnie's Tale [below] animated by Edinburgh College of Art graduate Selina Wagner, with narration by Richard Briers (the voice of Fiver in the 1978 animated film Watership Down)...

The film was commissioned by Advocates For Animals as part of the Look Out For Seals campaign to highlight the need for a reform of Scotland's Conservation of Seals Act 1970.

After watching Selina's lovely new animation, please clicky here and enter your details to sign their online petition urging the Scottish government to review the Conservation of Seals Act, and help protect a beautiful, but endangered, species.

Some background information:
Scotland is home to about 45% of the world's grey seal population, but shockingly, there is no law to protect seals from being hunted in Scotland, which means that they are becoming a "conservation priority species in the UK and Europe". In some parts of Scotland, the seal population has declined by 40% within the last 5 years alone!
Seals are getting shot by fishermen and fish farmers who think of seals as a competitor because they both hunt fish - however fish are not the main food source for seals, and indeed fishermen, other fish, and sea birds all kill more fish than seals!
The Conservation of Seals Act 1970 was supposed to protect seals, yet major loopholes mean that fishermen can shoot seals all year round (even during breeding season) if they come within "the vicinity" of fisheries and equipment - however there is no definition of "vicinity" within this law, and an Arbroath fisherman escaped penalty in 2006 for shooting seals half a mile from his fishing nets!
Also during 2006 close season, four pregnant grey seals were found shot dead with gunshot injuries to the head at the Point of Vastray in Orkney. The police investigated it, and although the area was found covered in blood, nobody was charged. What makes it worse, is that seals only produce one pup each year, which effectively means that up to 4 unborn seals were also killed. Within the last 40 years there has only been only been one successful prosecution under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970!

penciltestdepot.com

2009-09-20T13:55:00.014+01:00

Is a great blog (put together by Jamaal Bradley) that collects and displays a range of animation pencil tests in all their glory. It's well worth a look if you're at all interested in animation... http://www.penciltestdepot.com/

What's an animation pencil test, you ask?

An animation pencil test is basically a video clip made from the animation drawings (called "frames") that, when shown at 25 frames per second on PAL TV systems, create the illusion of movement... BUT unlike the final piece of animation (as you'd see it in the cinema or on TV), the pencil test only shows the animation as simple line drawings (without the inking, colouring, and other effects that get added later in the production process to create the finished piece of animation).
A lot of people enjoy pencil tests because they often display a vitality that goes missing after it's been inked and coloured. In some cases the pencil test will also show the animator's thinking process, changes, and other notes, which provide a further insight into how the frame-by-frame animation was created.

To demonstrate what a pencil test is, here's a 5 second video from one of my old 1st Year animations dated circa April 2006.

(But obviously PencilTestDepot.com has animations of a much better quality! So go check it out).

Influences part 22: J.D. Fergusson

2009-09-16T19:37:00.016+01:00

To compliment yesterday's post about my visit to The Fergusson Gallery in Perth, here's a short post showcasing a sample of the artwork by John Duncan Fergusson.
Fergusson spent a lot of time in France where he created many colourful landscape paintings alongside several French Impressionist and Fauve artists; however I have a preference for his portraiture works, which exhibit a greater sense of artistic freedom and personal experimentation - as I hope is evident from the images below.

Related links:
- Yesterday's blog post about The Fergusson Gallery, Perth.
- The Fergusson Gallery website
- Fergusson's work at the Hunterian Art Gallery online database
- J.D. Fergusson at the Portland Gallery
- J.D. Fergusson at the Art Inconnu blog

The Fergusson Gallery, Perth

2009-09-15T23:13:00.035+01:00

I visited The Fergusson Gallery in Perth this afternoon, which was quite an eye-opening experience for several reasons.

Despite being an art student for the last 4 years in Edinburgh (which has many big art galleries), I've rarely visited galleries in my life - in fact I can only recall 2 previous visits to big-name galleries: the Picasso museum in Malaga, Spain (April 2005) and two of the Edinburgh galleries during my induction week at Edinburgh College of Art (September 2005).
Most of the art I experience is through books and the Internet, so to see a bunch of genuine paintings by a famous artist right in front of me felt quite surreal. These were all oil paintings from the early 1900s painted on a big scale that overwhelmed me (because I tend to work on a small scale - hardly ever bigger than A3, and usually smaller than A4), yet in this gallery there were several full-body portraits about 5 foot tall!

One of the first things I noticed in the upstairs gallery (my favourite section) was that the paint surface of several stunning paintings were cracked and aged... Perhaps this would not bother people that visit galleries more often than myself, but I found it quite disappointing - before quickly realising that the cracked surfaces make the paintings feel alive and more hand-made (something I don't sense from viewing art online). This living quality of the painting surfaces also helped me to imagine the artist standing in my place working on that very surface 100 years ago. (It was pretty cool!)

Most of the art in the gallery was by Scottish artist James Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), whom the museum is named after, but there is also a small selection of impressive artworks by his Scottish Colourist companions like Francis Cadell and Samuel Peploe.
I have never felt much of an influence from my native Scottish art history or culture, but I really enjoyed most of this Scottish exhibition - I suppose mainly because these artists took strong influence themselves from French Impressionist and Fauvist artists (such as Cezanne, Manet, and Matisse) whom I greatly admire... However I don't think these Scottish paintings need the Impressionist name to help sell them - they are easily capable of standing alone on their own merit.

There are 3 gallery rooms within the little Fergusson Gallery (which is located in a renovated Water Works building at Marshall Place near the South Inch), and undoubtedly Gallery 3 (upstairs) is my favourite section. This is because it contains several stunning 5-foot tall paintings, a lot of wonderful portraits in various beguiling styles that I found really inspiring, some Impressionistic landscapes, and a series of paintings by Fergusson's fellow Scottish Colourists - of which there are two paintings that I am especially fond of.

I was trying to find some images online to illustrate this blog post, but I've been unable to locate any images of the paintings that particularly impressed me. (So I might go back some day to try taking photos because they really were awesome! But it's a free gallery, so if you're in the region I would highly recommend popping-in for a quick look).

I found some amazing paintings by Scottish artists this afternoon, and I also discovered a number of impressive artworks by alumni from my former college (such as William George Gillies, Anne Redpath, and Sir William MacTaggart), which has given me a greater appreciation for the reputation of Edinburgh College of Art than I have recently had! (Prior to this afternoon I was only really familiar with the work of sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi and painter John Bellany - neither of whom I am too keen on)...
Today's gallery visit definitely helped me to get a greater appreciation of Scottish art, and even inspired me to get back to my current painting (which I've not touched for several days now)! But the most awe-inspiring moment today was when I looked up from a glass display case of Fergusson's sketchbooks and other personal items to discover the only Fergusson painting that I already knew: Christmas in the South of France (1922).

This is a painting that I had quickly copied from a book onto A6 sized card for research during my final year at High School, but had never seen in reality (or on a bigger scale than my A6 version).
Before entering the museum I hadn't even thought of Fergusson's work, so to suddenly notice that painting in it's genuine physical form on about A3 scale was unbelievable.

Gallery Info:
The Fergusson Gallery
Marshall Place,
Perth,
PH2 8NS,
Scotland.

Open from Monday - Saturday
10:00am - 5:00pm.
Free admission.

Related websites:
- The J.D. Fergusson Gallery website (hosted by Perth & Kinross Council).
- J.D. Fergusson at the Portland Gallery
- J.D. Fergusson at the Art Inconnu blog (lots of artworks)

Development of a Portrait: 2

2009-09-09T19:53:00.013+01:00

Here's a portrait that I did last week, which is kind of a spin-off from my previous portrait painting.
My previous portrait painting was supposed to look similar to the illustrations of Arthur Rackham but ended up looking more like the illustrations of Rene Gruau; so with this new portrait I tried again to make it like the work of Rackham, and this time I have achieved what I originally wanted...

I'm really fond of this overall aesthetic. The colours are a bit pale in comparison to the black lines, but I think it provides a nice subtle sense of depth. There are a couple of little things I could nag about - but no, I like this painting too much to complain about those tiny issues.

And to display something a little different, here's the painting before I added the black lines and tones:
I was really enjoying the bright, carefree Colourist style of the painting at this mid-way point, and although the black paintwork really enhanced the final image, I would like to do more work in this Colourist style at some point in the future...

12fp(s) - summary

2009-09-01T21:58:00.025+01:00

Now that my 12 Film-inspired paintings are done, here's a blog post to bring them all together:

Painting 4 (below) has been sold:

Painting 6 (below) has been sold:

Painting 8 (below) has been sold:

Painting 9 (below) has been sold:

Painting 10 (below) has been sold:

The films featured in each of my paintings are:

Painting 1) A Bout de Souffle / Breathless. (1960) Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. France, Les Productions Georges de Beauregard.

Painting 2) Varjoja Paratiisissa / Shadows In Paradise. (1986) Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki. Finland, Villealfa Filmproduction Oy.

Painting 3) Gun Crazy. (1950) Directed by: Joseph H. Lewis. USA, King Brothers Productions.

Painting 4) Vivre Sa Vie. (1962) Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. France, Les Films de la Pléiade. [SOLD].

Painting 5) Hamlet Liikemaailmassa / Hamlet Goes Business. (1987) Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki. Finland, Villealfa Filmproduction Oy.

Painting 6) North by Northwest (1959) Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock. USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). [SOLD].

Painting 7) Une Femme Est Une Femme / A Woman Is a Woman. (1961) Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. France, Euro International Film (EIA).

Painting 8) The Shawshank Redemption. (1994) Directed by: Frank Darabont. USA, Castle Rock Entertainment. [SOLD].

Painting 9) Belle de Jour / Beauty of the Day. (1967) Directed by: Luis Buñuel. France/Italy, Robert et Raymond Hakim. [SOLD].

Painting 10) Bande à Part / Band of Outsiders. (1964) Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. France, Anouchka Films. [SOLD].

Painting 11) Edward Scissorhands. (1990) Directed by: Tim Burton. USA, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

Painting 12) Tulitikkutehtaan Tyttö / The Match Factory Girl. (1990) Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki. Finland, Esselte Video.

12fp(s) - painting 12

2009-08-31T21:15:00.017+01:00

Here we are, finally, at Painting 12 of the 12fp(s) Film-inspired painting series.

This 'final' image is considerably different from the rest of the series due to the addition of ink, and although it does look odd in comparison to the rest, I think the ink has improved the overall aesthetic appeal.

I started-off by trying to create this image entirely from watercolours (like the rest of the series), but the painting looked flat and the colouring was garishly bright, which looked really odd given the setting and mood of the original film still.
I had considered giving up on this painting because I just couldn't fix the tones and colouring to a satisfactory standard:
- I tried using several brown washes to weaken the purple and blue hues on the left hand side;
- I tried strengthening the weak hues in order to level everything out so that the garish colours are not as bold;
- I had even considered utilising an abstract painting style like Wassily Kandinsky in the hope that the abstract style would mask the problems. (Minor evidence of this abstraction remains on the girl's jumper in the bottom left corner, where the paint is a lot patchier than the rest of the painting).
But my solution came in the form of a writing pen...

The pen hasn't 'fixed' the painting, but it has certainly detracted from the garishness of the original colouring while adding a darker mood to the overall image that kind of reminds me of gothic etchings and vintage illustrations.
This may not be the best painting in the series, but I think it is an interesting change and could lead to more pictures getting made in this style...

Development of a Portrait: 1

2009-08-30T21:24:00.022+01:00

I recently attempted to paint the portrait of a female friend, inspired by the style of Arthur Rackham whose work we both admire. But before I made a finished painting that I felt reflected the beauty of my source photo I had to make several developments and photocopy tests, and although my final painting is not at all like the work of Rackham, I've decided to share some images that reflect the working process for this project and write about what was happening...

I started off by looking at a lot of the Arthur Rackham illustrations saved on my computer [3 examples below] that I had originally sourced here from artpassions.net
I do this kind of initial artists/influences research for many of my projects, which I'd like to think helps me keep things fresh and prevents my artwork from looking the same time after time...

From that initial research into the visual style of Rackham (whose work I was aiming to imitate for my friend), I drew out her portrait with pencil onto card. I was surprisingly happy with how well the portrait worked as a simple pencil 'outline' drawing, but as I wasn't planning to write a blog post about it at that time I don't have a good quality image of the pencil drawing to illustrate - I did however take a low-resolution photo using my laptop's webcam so that I could quickly test a possible colour scheme within Photoshop. [Below is an image showing both the initial sketch on the left, and the Photoshop colour test on the right].

From the Photoshop colouring test, I laid down a yellowish base coat everywhere bar the main part of her hair, which I wanted to keep clear/white. And from there I just added some tonal variation as I felt necessary.
Originally it was all painted with Yellow Ochre (avoiding the use of really dark tones like in the Photoshop test), but I eventually decided to make use of some Burnt Umber too so that I could get more variation in the tonal depths.
The painting worked fine without the darker Umber tones, but it just felt a little too plain/flat, and now with the aid of a second colour, the painting does seem to have more 'pop'.
I was unsure about the darker tones at first (especially the rough texture on the jumper), which was quite messy and didn't have any sense of form, but I now think that the texture of the jumper has helped to make the texture on her face look smoother while the darker tone of the jumper has mitigated the dark washiness around her eye.
This is how I have left that painting, but I think there is still room to further heighten the tonal depth, and perhaps using darker/bolder outlines (like in the work of Rackham), would help to make it further stand out...

As I am quite happy with the painting the way it is [above right], and because I had strong reservations about what bolder outlines would do to the overall aesthetic, I decided to make a photocopy of my painting so that I could test a style more like Rackham's on my painting without potentially ruining my original.
I didn't fully commit to the relatively bold lines that are so common with Rackham; instead I just built-up the lines using a ballpoint pen, which I thought would create a more subtle effect. I wanted to keep the lines subtle because the source photograph worked wonderfully well with minimal texture and colour, and I was worried that using too many bold lines would distract from the minimalist beauty of the source photograph.
I think the ballpoint pen crosshatching works really well on her jumper by creating a texture that contrasts nicely with the rest of the image, while the outline down the profile of her face also works (although it should perhaps be made bolder?) The only area I'm not keen on the ballpoint pen is in her hair, because I think the lines are too heavy and create dark clusters, which I find really distracting.
The ballpoint pen inking above suggests that I could still develop the painting further and continue pushing the aesthetic closer towards the style of Arthur Rackham's work, but I decided that it was worth trying out something completely different with the image.

I was originally inspired to paint this particular image because it shows her beautiful side profile combined with hair in a really cool form. Despite this, I felt that my first painting(s) were not making best use of those qualities, so I decided to do a new painting in a simpler yet bolder visual style more inspired by the work of Rene Gruau [see my previous blog post] in order to achieve an aesthetic that placed a greater emphasis on the qualities that first attracted me to the source photo.

The new painting was much more illustrative: showing only the form of her cool hair along with a simple outline of the profile of her face.
The working process was just the same as the first painting, as can be seen in the image above showing my initial Photoshop test on the left, and the acrylic painting on the right.

I'm not 100% sure about the cropping - would it have been better to show the full head? But anyway, that's too late now...
The last thing I did was use Photoshop to adjust the levels of the photographed painting so that the white was purer (because the photograph made it look a dirty grey tone), and now, at long last, here is the final result:

Annoyingly however, when I was in Edinburgh last night (for the first time in over a month!) I kept seeing a Beauty & The Beast poster at the bus stops with the same visual style.
Last night is the first time I had ever seen that black and white poster (you can see a similar version of the poster here), but I'm concerned that if people now look at my black and white portrait painting above, they will think it was just a straight-up copy of the Beauty & The Beast poster...

Influences part 21: Rene Gruau

2009-08-27T23:56:00.029+01:00

I first mentioned the work of Rene Gruau as an influence when I published Painting 1 of my 12fp(s) film-inspired painting series.

Gruau is a graphic illustrator with a minimal yet very bold visual style that I find really appealing.
I think that to a great extent the quality of his work speaks for itself, so rather than write a whole load of text, here's a few samples of his work to do the same job much quicker:

I'm posting the work of Rene Gruau as an influence just now because I'm finding the simplicity of his work really inspiring while I work on a female portrait painting based on a beautiful photograph with soft texture and colour. I originally wanted to paint the portrait in a style closely influenced by the 100 year old illustrations of Arthur Rackham, and although this is still my intention, I think Rackham's style will be too rough and may spoil the simplicity of the portrait, hence why I am also looking at the work of Gruau...

Related links:
- www.renegruau.com
- Rene Gruau: Capturing the look of Parisian chic. Veronica Horwell, The Guardian newspaper, 15 April 2004.
- Rene Gruau images at CyanaTrendLand.com

12fp(s) - painting 11

2009-08-25T11:57:00.007+01:00

A very everyday/conventional looking scene from an American film director commonly associated with Expressionism, black comedy, and very odd characters...

I chose this particular shot over any of the more typical and Expressionistic shots from the film because I felt that this image had a faint sense of Edward Hopper about it (like several of my other paintings in this series), and I also thought that if my painting depicted a more recognisable scene from the film then its story would distract from my painted image.

12fp(s) - painting 10 [SOLD]

2009-08-24T22:37:00.008+01:00

This is a painting of one of my favourite films (released in 1964), directed by one of my favourite directors.
This iconic dance scene (where the three protagonists dance The Madison in a Paris cafe for almost 4 undisturbed minutes of film), is just one of many stunning set-pieces in this classic Nouvelle Vague film - and it later inspired the Jack Rabbit Slim's dance scene in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994).

While watching this film scene, I rarely ever notice the background or cafe setting because the dance is so fun and beguiling - so my attention is always on the three characters. To reflect this I wanted my painting to subtly describe the background while the three characters grab our focus.
Some people may consider this painting unfinished as a result of the unpainted background, but I think this simplified style is very graphic and illustrative, which makes the painting effective for achieving my aims. And anyway, painting shouldn't always be about strongly recreating reality - especially when film and photography to do it much quicker and better.

12fp(s) - painting 9 [SOLD]

2009-08-17T23:42:00.013+01:00

Going right back to basics [ie: 12fp(s) - Painting 1] with this painting: French film, 1960s, 2 characters, very similar colour scheme...
And it has, to a considerable extent, worked.

There are a few little things I could complain about, but for once I'm just going to accept the painting as it is and be happy with it!

Influences part 20: Zina Saunders

2009-08-17T19:51:00.018+01:00

The latest post over on the Lines & Colours blog highlights the new issue of Illo magazine and features a sample of work by four illustrators; but Zina Saunders was the featured artist that immediately caught my attention.

I would describe Saunders' style as having a loosely realist drawing style mixed with a controlled Expressionist colouring scheme. Although this is a contrast to my usual art preferences, Saunders makes it work to great effect, which really captivated me and inspired me to do some further research on it beyond the Lines and Colours blog post.
It states on Saunders website that she has been a writer/illustrator for over 15 years, and as well as general illustrations she also does political satire, woodcut-inspired works, and 'reportage illustration' that fuses her illustrations with her interviews and other writings.

Saying as I only just found Saunders work earlier today I don't know whether I'd call her an influence right now [note that this blog post is called Influences...], but I certainly have a great admiration for the work featured on her website, and I can also sense a vague similarity between some of her works and my current painting series (mainly the realism and my keen interest in colour) - so why not include her here?

I like the realism used on the key areas in each of her works (such as the faces), and although I'm not so keen on the loose/vibrant line work used in other parts of her works (like bits of the background - see image below), for me it is the Expressionist colouring that dominates the image and grabs attention (because I love colour!)

I can't tell yet whether the work of Zina Saunders will have any notable influence on my work in the future, but hopefully it will help me to loosen my strong grasp on realism - as is noticeable in my current painting series 12fp(s).

12fp(s) - painting 8 [SOLD]

2009-08-16T23:20:00.012+01:00

I think it's time I change subject matter because these paintings just seem to be getting less and less appealing.

After yesterdays painting when I couldn't stick to a specific painting style to use, I made the decision with this painting to just make it quite loose from the very beginning.

The washy non-specific background works quite well, but because this style offers nothing to focus on, it puts the viewers entire attention onto the foreground characters. Although that is what I wanted to happen, the foreground characters lack detail (or any other point of interest), so the whole image is just a hazy/watery blur with nothing to maintain the viewers attention.

This painting seems to be also lacking depth. Originally the background was very pale, which reflected the source image, but it wasn't working as a painting so I put a darker wash over the background. I was unsure whether it would work, but after a few hours away from working on the painting I can now see that the darker background has improved the image - however I think it could be darker still...

Another thing that I've tried in order to compensate for the lack of depth in this painting is to again (like in Painting 3), digitally blur the background in order to decrease the depth of focus. This has successfully broken up the painting to help improve the depth, but while it is quite intriguing I don't think it is entirely convincing...

12fp(s) - painting 7

2009-08-15T23:29:00.009+01:00

I'm not happy with this one:

It was a bad drawing to begin with, and then once I was painting it I couldn't decide what to do with the brushstrokes, which has made the whole image a bit of a mess...
I should either have made the whole thing quite controlled and 'realist' so that the painting looks conventionally decent, or I should have gone with my instincts and let the brushstrokes run wild so that the image is more Impressionistic and interesting; but instead of doing either of those I've just got this monotonous painting that is kinda poor in all elements.