sculpture

Fiona; she gave me a ride home every week after class. She is wonderful! This was such a great class! Def taking it again next semester! :)

those pretty girls

Christmas models and a potluck, with a dog in there somewhere. Twas fun!

wrapping up the term

Winding down before I head home for the festive season. Interestingly, my friend and I were talking about how the "entertainment" method that is being taught for concept is actually not what satisfies the needs of the film and movie industry. I've been hearing that a lot by art direct0rs and pr0duction designers but the c0ncept people just don't seem to get it. My friend has worked in movies and is in the union as part of the art/set dec department, and has been steadily transitioning to art direct0r/ pr0duction designer, which means he pretty much gets to decide in the future what requirements the c0ncept people who work for him need to satisfy. He took a 'Sketc!ng for Env!ronment" class at a school where all these aspiring c0ncept people were training and he said "it's all shapes" that they were being taught, and said that "they're learning to design as though it were animation!" incredulously. He blatantly said "that is NOT how we work at all. It just can't work. We rely on the practicality of the set being built and the size of our space, materials we are working with, etc". It's a very very interesting divide and I wish that there was more talk back between departments because um, if you're an aspiring whatever and you're going to work for a lot of X kinds of people, shouldn't you WANT to know what X wants or looks for? It makes sense for me. The art d!rectors I've met care about DESIGN and FORM. All the texture and cool lighting in the world doesn't matter to them, especially if they can't see the form or the design. It has to make sense to them and also just be a good design that is practical. So I got into my classes for next semester, and just have to wrap up on my sculpt!ng class. I'll definitely be continuing that, along with two @rchitectural classes where I can build and design actual models and meeting with a theme park @rt director in the new year, as well continuing with pa!nting and a 3D digital printing class, and my CAD programme learning. Oh, these are some last drawings of hands we did on Saturday, and then a portrait with a hand. And then some Lego pieces people in class modelled (mine is the big semi circlish one that looks like a hat). My prof did the big arch one, as you can tell, as well as that triangular looking one. They're all done to scale.

WIP of my WIP

mad scientist WIP

So we had to do this assignment with a mad scientist blah blah blah show his room cluttered and the cliche was him surrounded by random junk like CRT tvs and all of that. That's kind of true if you're genius, actually; engineers who are very creative do tend to be messy). However, I wanted to have a different spin on it (even though, again, my teacher prob won't like it because he's more into animation). I was thinking of a man who was a merchant watchmaker when those were mechanical (I have a thing for really well made watches and horology in general from Sw!tzerland and Germ@ny because it satisfies the science part of my brain and the art part; they tend to be aesthetically beautiful but also really intricate and well made). The rest of the world has moved on and so he has overtaken an old foundry and transformed it into his idea of utopia. I included some of my process, wanting to keep it classical in terms of the arch!tecture, but also integrating different types of watchmaking into it; his general rest area is a clock, the furniture's legs are wristbands that sit as tripods; in one area you have to wait until the clock is at 6pm or you can't physically pass through it, etc. It's a WIP. I was thinking about this whole idea of time passing (especially as I've been into investing lately). I've always been intrigued by the concept of the world moving on and how time leaves us only with memories, and what that means to some people and the life they have built. My friend and I visited an old Bas!lica this past weekend. The priest who once was there had turned 300 the weekend before. My friend (that I went with to the Basilica) also has a past (I found out) that she sometimes refers to, but doesn't talk about much. It's clear that it was a passion of hers, and I stumbled upon some articles that even stated that she was a pioneer in that field, back in the 90s. It seems like it was a big deal at the time, with a lot of press and media. There were quiet moments during our trip on the way home and we had a lot of fun, but I wonder sometimes how our minds process these great times, knowing that they are behind us, because they replay in our memory over and over till the day we die. I haven't experienced a peak like that in my life, and I believe that it comes to everyone, but I wonder after that moment, what is on the other side. Growing older in age and with a bit of heartbreak, knowing that those times, that era is gone? M@rtha Graham spoke about this also, when she said it was painful to see younger dancers on stage doing a dance that she had performed many years ago. Anyways, enough heartbreak...

some drawings

From our last night with K@rl. I heart that man! I love his sentiment towards academia in art. I can relate to a lot of it, and I think that there is a need for people like him who teach in the way they do. I may take a trip this weekend but I'm not 100 percent sure yet. In any case, my next big trip is coming up. I also plan to (in the next five years) visit Rome, but I think that I should focus on getting as good as I can and learning about sculpture from my prof as much as I can before heading over there. I've known many people who have been to a place and have just breezed through, because they couldn't appreciate the culture and history of the place (what's the point then, right?). A few years ago, I went with a group to Morocco and they were just looking for a nice fancy hotel and C0ca C0la, which is unfortunate. If only they could appreciate the sacred nature and geometry of the mosques over there, which is tied to religion, culture, history. So I don't want to be like that, and I swore to myself that I would never travel like that ever again.

form not shape

Working with form and not shape. Also trying to think as though I were sculpting it. Can't wait for 2014 and hope I can get into all my classes. I know that about three are pretty definite. I'm happy to head in a more meaningful direction which will allow me to design more in a practical way, rather than to just illustrate. I think that it will be more fulfilling, and also provide something that sets me apart, while making use of the fact that I care about certain kinds of details (materials, scale, practicality, etc).

layout WIP and colour chart

Yes, "Colour" has a "U". :) A layout for a bar in a cave I'm working on. I decided to do an Art Dec0 themed one where the bartender has a waterfall behind him, you can swim with your tube and drink and the waittresses have to step from stone to stone to serve you drinks, and the bar sings in the background. Also, colour chart on the way. This is actually before I started working on the pie chart part, working on saturation (which I am working on now). Cherry-O.

more study sketches/ detail

Some of them are a little more Colonial-y than I wanted but oh well...And I did edit a bit.

study sketches; research

Did some research for an environment I am doing. It's essentially for an underwater club that is Art Dec0 themed where you can sit in a tube and drink (or party) in the water in a bikini or trunks (or if it gets really wild, in the nude LOL) and the waitresses have to step from one circular step surrounded by water (like a stone-lily pad) to get across the bar. There is a band, a central bar with a waterfall/ fountain behind the bar (a play on that wonderful painting with the mirror behind the waitress) and other tables and the tubes, and a second floor. I have it sketched out and am working on bringing a sense of reality and solid visual style for the Art Dec0 part (I'm an Art Dec0 freak, as well as a B@uh@us freak so this was a no-brainer. I've also been studying Isl@mic geometric architecture, which I have been sort of fascinated with since I visited Seneg@l in college.

My dream of Kal!

I have been working on a sculpture from Simon's class, which I only discovered this morning after watching a documentary last night and having a dream about it is a depiction of the hindu goddess K@li. I've been obsessed with her since my younger years, I guess, because my neighbourhood (people in America NEVER believe this about me because they will generally put me into a box like I can conveniently do to them on this blog..mwhahaha) is predominantly of East Indian descent, and there is a GIANT statue in the back of my neighbourhood of her. She is black and tall and it is terrifying, and people make offerings to her where I live. I should really visit her and the large H@numan in my neck of the woods to make my point clearer when I return to Trinidad. Anyways... She possessed my dreams last night and I have always found her fascinating, especially in comparison to the more widespread L@kshmi (since D!vali was just a few weeks ago). I read that to dream of K@li is to triumph over things in your life and to have victory, and it represents that she will help you and that it is a symbol of good luck (and she is also a goddess of wealth and fertility. Or maybe I am just really homesick, as I am (in my dreams) dreaming of being home soon.

Hawa!!an love

From drawing last night. It was fun and I invited my friend over to draw. She is in my Sunday class and attended arch!tecture school and LOVED it. Regardless of skill level (some people can draw or others can paint or sculpt really well), everyone there has an incredibly high sense of taste. Being there absolutely makes my week! I've been thinking about a lot of things and how I don't especially enjoy talking to other aspiring c0ncept guys/girls. But I seem to fit in very well with the @rt d!rectors and their interests and appreciation of art and culture and history and styles. It's very strange but we shall see where this all leads. Plus, I have also enjoyed building models sets for theatre and all that (haha stealing swatches from J0-Ann's LOL). I read a post recently about how you can 'teach' creativity. Yeah. I totally disagree on that end. I'm not especially fond of (if at all) the guy who wrote it (who works professionally as a c0ncept g@me artist) and thinks he has incredibly horrid, tacky taste LOL, but it's an interesting discussion. In my mind, can we teach the next Mich@el Jacks0n, Fredd!e Mercury, M!ck Jagger, R!ck B@ker, Steve J0bs, etc? I asked a coworker and he agreed with me and said "two words; Quent!n T@r@ntino. Sounds like that guy who made the statement is out to make money and disillusion a bunch of kids about how they can just 'do it'. I totally agree, and I hate to bust the bubble, but someone like Ed!th He@d was Ed!th He@d because she just had to learn how to draw and sew, but she had the taste to create amazing clothes for some of the best movies of that era. You can't make the next Syd Me@d. You can teach the aesthetics but the way someone designs or approaches something is based on their point of view, how they grew up, where they grew up, who influenced them, etc. It's part of the reason why, even though schools like H@rv@rd recruit the BEST, they can't seem to 'make' the next F@ceb00k guy or F0rbes 500 guy. I always remember the quote from one of my favourite movies, "W@ll Street", where he said that Fund m@nagers can't beat the S and P because they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered. That all the Ivy Leaguers don't add up to dog****, and give him guys that are poor, smart and hungry. You win a few, you lose a few but you keep on fighting. I absolutely agree with that. In fact, some of the most talented people I have ever met (and I've met a few since I grew up on an island where celebs and other types of people who have done well would hang out or own houses) are all quirkly and full of personality and THAT is why I enjoyed them so much. Somoeone from a book I'm currently reading, and the famous director F!ncher, says that you will NEVER find the next groundbreaker within the field they are working in/ studying. Typically, the person has to come from outside, because then their perspective is different. They don't come from a learned mindset that Y MUST be done this way because that's the way they learned it in a book or over decades of learning from an academy. Look at the way da V!nci approached drawing; half science, half art, with purpose based on an idea. Or P!casso. They were all incredibly memorable and have incredible charisma and energy. My friend worked on a M!ch@el Jackson 90s music video (back when they cost millions to make) and said her experience was the same; when they called "action" he TRANSFORMED, and he was ELECTRIC. The guy didn't come from T!nselt0wn; he came from Ind!ana. It's the kind of person who enters a room and tries out for a role (like M@rlon Brando, who came from a very troubled background) and everyone goes "who the HELL is this guy!?" You can't teach that in a book. You can identify the seed and polish it and watch it evolve and bloom over time. Anyways, that's enough of my rant for today. Till the later beans....have a wonderful day!

no drawings; just a note

My mind is perpetually blown by H0llyw00d. I'm really starting to understand this one teacher's mantra of technician vs designer. Maybe it will change over time but here is where I stand at the moment based on my personal experiences. He always says 'don't be a technician; be a designer' and has noted that many of his trained students do eventually become designers, not illustrators. I've been in quite a mix of classes/experiences (productions/post, etc) and whatnot and have noticed that the l!ghting guys will b!tch about 'why doesn't production give me another guy?', the drivers complain 'why are they always rushing our lunch breaks?', the concept guys talk about 'your perspective is off' or 'this doesn't look like metal' or 'compositionally does this work' and the matte painters talk about 'what's the new matte painting software we have to learn so this works/ looks real for four seconds on the screen?' and other assistants (c@mera, P@s, etc) on set will often brag about 'which job they just worked' (the importance is on the job/movie title, not the actual work they did). I don't know about some other departments in detail so I won't comment about those. I was actually convinced for a while that concept people did do the actual design (but always a bit confused by that), but I'm starting to rethink that. In fact, I've been learning that they are requested if need be, but not necessary to provide a design aesthetic for a movie; that's between the Pr0duction designer and the Art Direct0r (which is what I learned in f!lm school anyways!). It's very telling actually that a LOT of student c0ncept work contains NO visual style or historical/cultural focus or knowledge in terms of the design elements (you would think if they were really designing 'everything' that would be super, duper important, right?) A lot of students don't even think about class structure! Also, it's very telling that they're actually (in film) under the category "Illustrat0rs", and that there is no Ac@demy award for C0ncept Des!gn. I've sat in the company of every single one of these departments. Now sitting in a class full of art directors/producti0n designers, they actually talk about freaking DESIGN. Give them a period in time, and they can tell you what the architecture was like, the culture, the class system, in an intelligent and practical way. They may not always be the best draughtsmen (there are some who ARE though, and therefore their need for a c0ncept or illustration guy to detail out their idea or continue the vein of their visual style for the entire movie is minimized), but they can read and design a real location in their head, complete with references to pertinent visual and architectural styles. And often, they have (within their portfolios) a c0nceptual element that shows that they can draw what they see in their heads. I have in my idea that it's like a guy is building a giant mansion. There is the guy who will put up the money for it, the guy who actually designs it, and he hands off the detailing (given what the big picture should look like) to his other people to detail out the parts he can't do because he's busy doing other stuff (meetings with the money guy, the potential buyer of the mansion, etc). (This, incidentally, is where a small problem arises, because the people detailing out the parts start to believe that they designed the entire thing (which is partially true but not entirely; you were given a skeleton/ armature within which to construct something based on a coherent visual style that was pre-determined; you didn't just pull it out of a hat, and when it is pulled out of a hat, often, it's not usable by production to build physically, which presents a problem for EVERYONE) Then from those designs, the guy building the mansion sends it to the construction chief guy, who imparts the design information to the guys actually building the mansion. The people who are actually building it are working harder than usual and want another guy, but the guy who is buying the materials sees that it's getting done on time even though his guys (actually building it) are complaining about wanting another guy. In actuality, he never spends money on that other guy, because it will cost him extra that he can spend on materials or something else that will directly benefit him and his profit on a larger scale. It's all relative. I know that depending on where a person is in the scale of things they may be offended (I know I used to be when I was in one of the production department where we thought we 'ruled things' even though everyone else CLEARLY didn't think so) by this post but well, it helps to take a step back sometimes and think a bit differently.

separating the concept boys from the concept men LOL

I think that mentorship is an important part of learning in general. Over the past year plus or so I've always sort out the advice of professionals. As much as students do and can help you as your peers, they often can be so focused in a myopic way that you can lose sight of what is important. A few of my teachers or professionals have mentioned that the 'design' part is very important, and that a lot of the time we focus too much on the 'illustration' part. So what we end up with is a bunch of illustrators who claim that they are or want to be 'concept @rtists'. One teacher flat out said to a class 'you don't understand; you need to have an IDEA'. The drawing aspect is a way of visually communicating, but it is NOT the end in itself. Being able to render out metal and glass and leather may take you far, but not far enough. Designing solely by shape will only take you so far. Many have indicated that the great ones have a sense of how things work, how they fit together and are built in real life. Some of the best creature designers LOVE animals; I know of one who ONLY watches channels like Animal planet and the hist0ry channel. Some of the best veh!cle designers LOVE cars, and you'll find some of the best environment guys sitting on a given Sunday with easels outside in the C@ny0ns painting the vista in front of them. So anyways, I've been building a model to scale based on some plans we got in class by an actual film art direct0r. My class is filled with art direct0rs who can look at a flimsy concept right away and say "that won't work; it will tip over" or "it doesn't make ANY sense". Many of them come from industrial design, theatre, tv, film or architecture, and have a great sense of design and they can ALL read set plans (ground plans/elevations, etc). I actually enjoy doing this kind of stuff a lot, when it makes sense. The M@ya stuff I tend to not like as much because it's not as specific, and you can push and pull in unnatural ways; in this programme it is very accurate and to scale and water tight; so I could literally take it from here, generate set plans or take it straight to a 3D printer. Love it. And that's how many of the people in f!lm do it. Oh, I'm working on the steps and this is an initial render of some stuff.