Printmaking Animation

This is going to be a year long project.. I can only progress rather slowly in between the rest of work, family, brain-rest. But there’s no rush, really I’m sure. In an ideal world I’d love to work soley on one thing at a time – though possibly I’d find that frustrating. Though perhaps these are all excuses and I could try a bit harder to focus?

I’ve now done 4 out of 5 sessions at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery. Visitors to the exhibition come in to see what I’m up too. The first visitor last week, pulled up a chair, sat close next to me and said ‘I’ve sorted out the carparking for the day’.

– my work is the ‘run boy run’ series of monotype drawings I am going to animate one day. It may take me all year. I’m going to be persistent. it will take some tenacity and discipline. Spoke to a guy, George today, an animator and designer and he said he would help me with the final bit. Just need to get the 600 frames together. That’s for 2 minutes of animation, working in ‘twoeses’? i.e. each frame repeated twice. That’s something to do with the speed of film versus the speed of animation? 600 frames seems do-able? that’s 600 separate little drawings. I’ve done about 50. They’re not from a storyboard so probably about 10 only are usable – but its a start.

He gave me a couple of tips. After spending all last night watching online tutorials (mmm, not so helpful) it was great to talk to someone real. In photoshop a way of re-sizing and sorting out the levels etc for a bunch of images at the same time – and also – the rather crucial element of the paper being on two spokes to keep the drawings in the right place.

I’ve enjoyed chatting to the visitors coming into the Thelma Hulbert Gallery. Finding out what they get up to.. I’ve met a research scientist, students from secondary school in Lyme, a jigsaw-maker…

I’m trying not to get discouraged with my very slow progress in making an animation. Not so much slow in the literal sense of making stuff. More, in my slow progress of understanding how to do it. I figured that knowing the priniciples of animation, and through experiementation, with photoshop/i stop motion to help me along, I could get to the stage where I can make something.

Its very hard. There’s a lot of commitment required.

i am really enjoying making lots of small drawings. Montype drawings they are. I have drawn maybe 50 or so. I have ideas about how they could form sculptural work. I want to sew them together. Digitally though, its going to take me a-very-long-time to get to a point where it forms a viewable animation. mmm.

I’ve been playing with photoshop this morning on some digital images taken from the negative remaining on the plate after the monotype drawing has been taken away. There could be something there.

I really want to work in a really intuitive way with this. Possibly I mean – lazy – without all the workings out necessary.