More Sketching Ponies

Project: TO.

Format: Silent accordion picture book.

Type: Personal/experimental.

State: Dummy layout and storyboard complete. Line work 3/4 complete.

Work Progress:

The line work for TO is now 3/4 complete with only a misplaced reference image delaying further progress. Tomorrow I shall have to drive to the factory and print out some new copies (the printer there is far superior to the one in the house). 

I have also begun to cut down the drawings. The layout is constructed of tape and recycled record covers because, when cut in half along the edges, record covers measure about 30 x 30cm. Artist's linoleum is conveniently cut to this size as a purchase standard. 

Other Work Progress:

Preparation work and research for a couple upcoming meetings.

Other General:

The usual two hours of horse riding, this time followed by a forty minute run with Pan. Pre-college appointments.

Sketching Ponies

Project: TO.

Format: Silent accordion picture book.

Type: Personal/experimental.

State: Dummy layout and storyboard complete. Line work 1/3 complete.

Work Progress:

Yesterday and today worked on the line work for TO. An example can be seen above, which is hosted on my Instagram page under the username: DenLScheer. This section of the layout measures approximately 60cm x 60cm.

Other Work Progress:

Emails. Appointments. Started some lighting reference sculptures. 

Other General:

The usual sunset ride, tonight in the subdivision. 

Mr Charisma has improved, so the vet was not needed and both horses have started on a precautionary course of psyllium husk. You know that stuff in weight loss shakes that swells up in your stomach to stop you eating? We give it to the horses to flush out their gut and stop them getting sick. 

Tomorrow should be a more productive day of work with only one appointment to slow progress. I'd like to get at least half of the layout line work complete. 

Printing Ponies

Project: TO.

Format: Silent accordion picture book.

Type: Personal/experimental.

State: Dummy layout and storyboard complete.

Work Progress:

Printed a copy of The Shattering (wt) end pages ready to glue into the dummy book and drew a quarter of the line work for another personal book project called TO for short. 

I have had nothing to do these university holidays except work on book concepts because my parents are lovely. So far I have designed two foldout accordion books and finished the layout draft of one, completed the layout drafts of two other picture books (one thirty-ish pages and the other sixty-ish) and have edited about half of my six year old novel project, which is approx. sixty thousand words from memory and is half illustrated.

It has been a productive six weeks.

Other Work Related:

Booked two advisory meetings for personal book projects. 

Other General: 

Rode Mr Charisma along the train line. He's been a bit sluggish lately and acting out of character under saddle. If he doesn't improve in the next two days I'll have to take to the vet to have his stomach checked. 

Ran with Pan up the hill and was very proud to do a lap of the block without stopping. The hill is so steep that the construction trucks avoid driving up it and I was just about dragging the dog to the top. 

The pain will be worth it when I get to the beach in two weeks.

Watercolour Paper Pads CAN Be Cheaper Than Coffee.

One of the things that can make any physical art producer precious about paper is its cost. As a student, this is a special point of concern. A few weeks ago I was shopping at Kmart with a friend and was pleasantly surprised by the back to school stock available, including watercolour paper that is cheaper than a cup of coffee.

To cut to the point, amongst Kmart's back to school supplies I found a TWENTY FOUR PAGE 150gsm, A3 watercolour pad for $5. As a point of comparison, at Jackson's Drawing Supplies one of the cheapest A3 watercolour pads you can buy has TEN PAGES at 185gsm for $58.15 at the time of posting this blog.

To make a point: 

Kmart- A3, 24 pages, 150gsm = $5 or approx. $0.21 per page.

Jackson's- A3, 10 pages, 185gsm = $58.15 or approx. $5.80 per page.

This nonsense is why artists and illustrators are poor. 

As cheap as the Kmart paper is, in my opinion it is only good for draft illustrations and not for final art pieces. The paper is fluffy, as though the fibres haven't blended properly. In consequence, this cheaper paper will be eaten by erasers and is very easy to tear, especially if it has been folded. Other than these issues, it is typical of light gsm paper in that it absorbs water quickly and limits plasticity. It is good for drafting because it is so cheap and I have found myself going through several pads for sculptural book format tests. It is very relieving to know that you can destroy half a pad of watercolour paper to create a test book format or dummy book to test illustration layouts for the cost of a cup of coffee. 

If you do find the paper tearing more than desired, skip past scotch or cello tape and go straight to cheaper gaffe tape from Bunnings or hardware outlets as a remedy. Buying gaffe tape from a hardware outlet is cheaper than an art supplies shop, especially if bought on bulk. Because of how fluffy the paper is, scotch and cello tape can be pulled very easily from the paper surface with little effort and even masking tape doesn't adhere as well as I'd like. Regardless of what tape you use, expect to take the top layer of the paper to be adhere to the tape if you remove it. 

I have had a few weeks to experiment with this paper due to work on The Shattering (working title) layout for a competition. I used a total of fifteen pages for the project dummies or draft pages that were folded, drawn in graphite and then painted with watercolour. I have also made two accordion book format tests with the paper, hence my issues with paper tearing. 

Overall I would recommend using Kmart 150gsm A3 watercolour paper pads as a cheaper alternative to student and artist quality paper for testing and drafting purposes only. The paper is not durable enough for a finalised art piece, but is good enough for use in sculptural book tests. 

Process: End Pages for The Shattering (wt).

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I had forgotten to draw the end pages to go along with a layout draft of a new personal project, The Shattering (working title). The purpose of this post is to show the working process and a list of materials used. 

Like the other dummy illustrations of the book, this picture was drawn with watercolour and graphite pencil, watercolour paint and china graph pencils on 150gsm watercolour paper. 

One half of the end page illustration is visible above. It was sketched with green watercolour pencil before a graphite outline and a wash of watercolour was applied. I used a Staedler china graph pencil to return the highlights to the hatching. 

The picture took about two hours to complete including drying time (forty degrees is good for something after all) with most time consumed by the hatching.

Shattered End Pages

Project: The Shattering (working title).

Format: Silent picture book.

Type: Personal/competition.

State: Dummy layout and storyboard complete. 

Work Progress: 

Finished drawing and colouring the end page dummy for The Shattering. After compiling the storyboard of the other finished draft illustrations, I realised that I had forgotten to design this part of the project. It was frustrating to discover, though, that the layout cannot compete in the competition it was designed for because the images are full colour drafts and not finished pieces. 

'But wouldn't that information be in the terms and conditions section of the competition?' you may be asking.

It was, under the guise of 'layout'. The distinction between 'draft' and 'final' was available not on the official website and not on the contact page the refused to load, but on the competition's Facebook page under an acknowledgement of closing announcement. 

As a side note, good grammar does not exist in angry ranting. 

Other Work Related: 

Moved my drafting board into my studio/bedroom and prepped for work tomorrow. The format I will be working with involves a lot of tape tabbing. Actually, the entire thing is held together by tape.

Other General: 

Recovered from a friend of a friend's twenty first birthday party in the hills then drove home, which engulfed the morning. I witnessed the sunset from the back of my roan pony as we galloped along the train line and relaxed to half an episode of BBC Sherlock.

Only half and episode. I am afraid that if I begin watching whole episodes of Sherlock that I will like it and watch it and therefore not get any work done before university starts up again and orientation week ruins my liver. 

 

New Blog Format

While Youtubing for white noise, I stumbled upon the Sword and Lasers show on Geek and Sundry. Through an author interview I found Cherie Priest's blog which has since become a template to my own new blog format. 

The Sword and Laser show can be found on the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel. It is like an online book club with its own Good Reads forum, calendar of book release dates and established author interviews. The show specialises in the fantasy and science fiction genres. The Sword and Laser website can be found here: swordandlaser.com 

Cherie Priest's website hosts her blog and can be found here: www.cheriepriest.com. Priest blogs regularly about her daily work exploits including progressive word counts, event information and anything interesting that has happened during her day. It is an interesting read for anyone interested in how a word count can progress on a day to day basis.

 It would be nice to adapt this format into a reflective process that is suitable not only for my university study, but also for any of my students that are interested in my working process. 

During last year (my second year at university) reflection was drilled into us as a part of our working process. Third year students commonly blog about their ideas, reference artists and texts and research for this reason. Some of these blogs were recommend to us as points of study for particular units.

This year is my third and final year of my BA Fine Art degree and we now have larger core units to deal with that are almost exclusively run by the students. It is your responsibility as the student to decide what you what to study, who you want to reference and what you want to make. There is no checklist as to what to produce. You could present for marking an entirely conceptual portfolio or a fully realised selection of final art pieces. Not only that, but you'd need to consider what to make and present in the Grad show. 

Now would be a good time to establish the blogging habits that I'll need for university but I'd also like to extend the habit to YouTube. I'd like to upload stop animations of my working process. These can not only contribute towards my university portfolio, but also to the classes that I tutor. Video logs may be a useful tool for reflection, too. 

When I take books on tour, I am often asked to lecture and or demonstrate the working process of the book. My first book, In the Beech Forest, used a reductive drawing process with graphite that could take over forty hours a picture. It is not possible to properly explain or demonstrate this process live but it is possible to show a two or three minute video, and verbally explain the process to students. If my students want to do more research once my workshop is complete, they have access to the YouTube files.

I have found that I am more conscious of time economy when being filmed. You don't seem to procrastinate or hesitate as much as you usually would. You are always conscious of the fact that the more you don't work during a stop animation filming, the more empty frames you need to find and delete during the editing process which is a hassle when even some small A4 film tests I've completed consist in excess of four thousand frames.

Next the issues will be finding the old video camera and figuring out how that thing works, although I do have my GoPro available for emergencies. Internet access is another problem too. My house in the country has limited internet at best, non existent at worst. We've gone through three modems in the last two months because they just won't connect inside the house and our mobile phones work in only two places on our acreage. The internet at college is great, so there should be no issues there. 

Well, onwards to more work then!