The Spinner's Cave- Final Project

The begining and the end

Here they are, Clotho and Atropos. Two down, one more to go...

The head is just like my other stop motion puppets: detachable and can be moved around. I thought being the last and most sinister of the spiners Atropos had to have a little more manouverabliity.

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Atropos-nearly done

 Just need to finish and make the head...

some full view photos:

The Third Spinner: Atropos

Skiping ahead to the last spinner. I was in poundland I was able to find a pair of scissors, cheap and super low quality; in other words, perfect...

Once carving up the scissors a bit It's of course time to start with the sculpey again...

And it doesn't matter the colour. I plan to paint over it.

Clotho, the First Spinner

I didn't have a camera during the first parts of the making of Clotho. It's basically a plasic garden stick with a sculpey upper body. I didn't have that clearly defined an idea of what I wanted like the other designs so it was very much made up as it went along. I wanted something vaguely sinister so she would fit in a little more with the other two which are quite grotesque. I do actually wish I had a camera before since I found the plain unpainted white was far more unsettling than the painted version. It's something to with how the depth appears a little distorted and affects the stare.

Begining to sculpt the second spinner. Decided to jump back to clotho and finish her.

Inspiration for a more ancent Greek look for the first spinner turned up this.  Images of youths aren't as common so this carved relief on the tombstone of a young girl (c450–440 B.C) is perfect. Image and interesting information Courtesy of the Met Museum.

derp

I'm actually quite tempted to leave her bald. Like a newborn baby which would fit since she represents the begining and the handing out of the thread...

She stilllikes to chase after feet...

Starting to add the sheep whool.

I have a ton of pins. Seemed like a fitting touch though, they're unfortunately not the most visible...

Now with some yarn wrapped around we're all done!

Digital practice

Trying to get better with photoshop...

Wayang Kulit and Wayang Golek

Wayang is the name given to the art of theatre in Indonesia from live to masked theatre to puppetry. Wayang Golek is the name given to the art of a certain kind of puppet theatre while the Wayang Kulit deals with a form of shadow puppetry. They are particularly popular art forms in Bali and Java.

Wayang Kulit
The puppets of these puppets are traditionally made from the hide and horn of buffalo, the buffalo horn used for the rods that manipulate the movements of the puppets body and arms which is what the hide is used for. It is a very old form of puppetry dating back to the 800's.

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Wayang Golek
Hand carved from wood and exquisitely decorated are the puppets of the Wayang Goleck. I actually got to see some of these at my old high school (la Chat). They were always on display along the hall to the theatre department which I now realise just how fitting that was. I do hope they are still there now.

Jatayus
 King of the vultures (dated c1970)

there's a fantastic gallery of images that briefly explains some of the traditional puppets and characters you can find here.

As well as a good guide on how they make the puppets here. At the beginning of the following video you can see a little of how the leather is carved:

Lotte Reiniger

Shadow Puppetry

Surf Twilight Sensations

Released: September 2009
Advertiser: Unilever
Brand name: Surf Twilight Sensations
Agency: BBH London
Country: United Kingdom

Credits:

Agency: BBH, London
Creative Director: Marc Hatfield
Creative Team: Kimberley Gill, Mareka Carter
Illustrator: Kam Tang
Typography: Alison Carmichael
Agency Producer: Ruben Mercadal

Production Company: Sonny, London
Director: Guy Manwaring
DP: Bruno Delbonnel
Post-Production: Glassworks
Editor: Mark Edinoff
Sound: Factory Sound Studios
Music: Squeak E Clean, Los Angeles

The Queen's Throne

Rough concept for a throne room set. It also doubles as the room where the magic mirror is used when the curtain would be open.

final throne. Made from greyboard, cheep crushed velvet from a shirt that was on sale for a pound, and stuffing. Then painting over in white acrylic.

Cute Little Theatre Model

I was searching for fairytale related set designs on google and came across this lovely set:

It's funny because I was actually thinking of doing a few similar things with the forest and Dwarves house, although I was thinking of using real branches. This is meant to be for a 'Midsummer Night's Dream' set. Check out Mary's Merryland where there's more pictures and other crafts like puppets by her. I do hope she did save it and made it into a coffee table. What a great idea!

Dreams from the Woods

I was just browsing for music when I came across this unexpected gem:

Although the puppetry is relatively simple, it's still stunning (esp with the music). You can clearly see how the film was made and there is no attempt to hide the methods it used but in the end the beauty of this short is that it really doesn't have to.

'Dreams From the Woods' was made by Swedish artist Johannes Nyholm for and with the Swedish band 'Little Dragon'. It was used for the music video 'Twice'. You can check out his website here and his youtube channel here.

Looking a Theatre Sets

So I've started to look a set designs and there have been quite a few relating to fairytales and in particular Snow White. I immediately came across the set designs for the pantomimes by QDOS which were designed by Ian Westbrook. I'm a little nervous about posting any of their images on my blog but you can find images on the QDOS site here and on Ian Westbrook's site here.

Picture of cast members taken from Birmingham Post

Another production of Snow White by 'First Family Entertainment' featured set designs by Terry Parsons. Again images can be seen here. There's a trailer which shows apparently shows Warwick Davis was in it. I already knew he featured in a Snow White theatre production at some point, so now I know which one.

I must say there's a lot to take away from looking at the production of these pantomimes but funnily enough, aside from the beautiful costume and set designs, the thing that strikes me the most is how much they remind me of my experiences working with GAOS. Honestly, even though they're much, much bigger productions (ie: they're of a proffessional standard) the vibe I get from it is uncanny...

Back to Storyboards

So, finally got round to finishing with the storyboards. They're very roughly painted and I mostly did what I felt was right at the time and went with it. I think I really got into an interesting combination of geometric design and surrealisim not usual of my work.

Moirai

The white red and black of Snow White has so far been the element that influenced me the most, that I've found the most facinating. I was wondering about whether there were similar themes in lore and then I remembered the ancient greek myths of the three fates, the Moirai.

Design for the symbolic nature of the colour red equivalent to the second spinner Lachesis

Fairest

So, by now I'm sure you've noticed the new blog cover layout...although that would imply there was actually someone looking at my blog in the first place (joking) ;)

Art critique: boy do I have a lot to say. In many ways this is my first actual (finished) digital painting and I'm afraid it shows my inexperience in the most glaringly obvious way, esp along the bottom of the apple and that horrible stem (*shudder*). I've always struggled with digital medium so I was originally going to use ink and watercolour but it was pretty clear I wasn't going to get what I wanted with that medium. And I fiddled around a bit with that 't' in 'the' and it still doesn't quite fit. Oh well, odd sort of love hate with this cover.

Odin's Throne

It's a pretty sweet design, no? Very showy, modern and obviously from a Hollywood budget but it's also actually really simple too when you really look at it. I'm mostly talking about the chamber layout.

Image taken from the film 'Thor' (2011)

Sets

So, I believe if I was to do an animation I could limit the story to 3-4 sets:
1 the castle/a throne room
2 the forest
3 the dwarves cottage
4 (maybe) for a vision sequence when snowhite is dead/asleep

The one I'm having the most trouble visualizing is definetly the castle. I have a rough idea of what I want and what I'd need but I'm having trouble finding a way to bring it together in a satisfying and seamless way.

Puppets Clothing

More or less finished now. Much of the credit goes to Tor. She made the Snow White dress and came up with how the Queen's silver and black dress could be done.

Puppet wigs

Final wig: didn't come out quite so well unfortunately. The wool itself is a great idea but I decided to try and dye it myself instead of buying it already coloured. It was meant to be a very deep burgundy...but I simply couldn't get the dye to stick. Luckily with these wigs I can try more than once.

Close-up of face...

Wig can easily be taken off and on

Snow is in the wig making stage so you can see how it was done. Basically the plastic bag is wrapped around really tightly, covered in the glue and har (in ths case not sheep wool...real hair...) and it keeps the shape when is comes off.

Still not finished...

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