Animation Experiments - Part A Arts Award

Animation Experiments - Part A Arts Award

Walk Cycle Animation Experiments

•  I am trying to learn and improve my skills about animating walk cycles in humanoid creatures 

• I experimented with animal walk cycles without much reference for fun and seeing if I could do it. I was fairly pleased with it. But the cat I was animating looked like it was limping. So I found a blog that had the frames of a walk cycle animation for two and four legged animals, which I found very helpful for reference. 

• Here is the link to the blog. 

http://jecamartinez.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/walkrungallopjump-cycles.html

I used this picture while animating (For the walk cycle I did I used the top one called "Walk")

Walk Cycle Animation Lesson Sheet

This is my finished animation (Click picture below) 

Echo Walk Cycle by ~Echo-Art-Portfolio on deviantART

• I like the lesson sheet because it shows me all the frames instead of just a few which does make it easier to make the animation smoother and less jumpy.
• I also like that it shows more than one variation of walking/skipping/jumping sequences which I am hoping to try out next.

Echo

How to Write- Part A Take Part Art Awards Bronze

How to Write - Part A Take Part Art Awards Bronze

I watched a program on how to write creative writing, some famous writers and poets including Caroline Bird, Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo show their writers secrets .
My personal favourite of these was Caroline Bird, she had this randomness and spontaneous-ness about her. And her method of writing poetry was very effective to me. Also extremly enjoyable.

Caroline Bird reading aloud.
She to me is one of those people you'd want to have a ten hour talk with.

Another one of the writers mentioned in the video was Philip Pullman author of "The Golden Compass" and "His Dark Materials". I myself have only watched the movie but i would like to read the books because often the books are different to the movies. .
He said that writing fiction books (As he does) is lazy because he can't be bothered to do the research for real life themed books. I honestly found this quite amusing.

Philip Pullman during the video read half a page of "His Dark Materials"I honestly never imagened he looked like this, mind you i had no idea what he looked like. I really loved the reading and the story and wanted to find out what had happened before the page he started reading. He said writing what you want not what the last best seller was all about would be quite beneficial if you were planning on selling because that's what will come most true to you.

Michael Morpurgo the author of "Private Peaceful" and "The War Horse" (I'm wanting to watch "The War horse" because of this video)had some awesome advice and he was probably the one i found most beneficial to my own writing.
He said that you should throw out all your ideas not regard for spelling just get to idea down.

Michael Morpurgo explaining his way of writing.Before i watched this video i had never heard of this man and only briefly of his book "The War Horse", but now i really want to read or watch it now. I'm not so sure about Private Peaceful though, I don't really like stories about the first or second world war.

Art Field Trip - Zoology Grant Museum London

 Art Field Trip - Zoology Grant Museum London

~ Creating an Art Portfolio whilst studying for the Arts Award Bronze Level


GORE WARNING !!!!!

Grant Museum of Zoology Field Trip to London

We planned:
We had planned to go to the Grant Museum of Zoology in London to study some of the animal anatomy, especially different types of wings on different species of animals.


What we did : 

We met up with our artists friend Judy and went to the Grant Museum of Zoology together.  

When we did it:
17th October, 2012


Where we did it:
Euston Square, Grant Museum of Zoology , at the UCL London


Why we did it : 

Judy suggested that the Grant Museum might be a good place to find inspiration for animal anatomy and we all thought that was a good idea.


Who did it:
Me, my Mum and our Artist Friend Judy



What I saw today :

Me and Judy looking at an interesting specimen in a cabinet.

One of the top 10 weirdest and most desirable things to se in the Grant Museum according to their leaflet is a jar of moles. 

" Case 12, shelf 3 , near the museum door,one of the most bizarre objects in the museums collection is a large jar crammed full of whole preserved moles" 

source Grant Museum UCL Leaflet

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• Several exhibits of Mammals , a baby deer, a loris and a cat. 

exhibit of a baby deer fawn preserved in formaldehyde 

exhibit of a loris

exhibit of a pet cat named " Little Nicky" 

This cat is a cloned cat from the original pet called " Nicky" . A lady paid quite a sum of money to have her cat cloned after the death of her beloved pet.

my drawing sketches 

I found the deer so pure and cute I just had to draw it. Also it was good anatomy practice as you can barely ever see fawns in the wild. I was pleased with the way the legs turned out. It was difficult to figure out where the top of the body was as it was crammed into its jar.

The loris I drew because I had never seen one or drawn a primate before. I did not want to draw the intestines because they creeped me because it was a little baby.

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• This is a  taxidermy cuckoo . I chose it because it was one of the only birds that I could see which had the feathers still on and a clear view of anything but the bone structure.

exhibit of a cuckoo bird

my drawing sketches of the cuckoo, I did not finish the drawing as my view was cut off from where i was standing.

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•  We asked the curator whether we could get one of the dragonflies out of the cabinet so we could get a closer look for sketching. Our artist friend Judy was very excited because she loves drawing and painting dragonflies. 

me and Mama sketching the dragonfly

exhibit of dragonfly close up

my sketch of a dragonfly

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• This is a particoloured bat on the right hand side. I find bats interesting because they are the only mammal that can in fact fly. That intrigues me. 

exhibit of particoloured bat

My  drawing sketch of the particoloured bat which I was extremely pleased with. 

I thought it looked lifelike which is what I am hoping to improve on.

picture of me sketching the particoloured bat

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• some other interesting stuff I saw and heard on the day

 A lady was showing me baby baboon calls and what they meant. 

She was a researcher explaining things to the people visiting. 

another bat exhibit

a butterfly exhibit 

a bird skeleton exhibit

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REVIEW Of My Day

What I liked/found interesting:

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I found the whole visit exceptionally interesting because I love looking at dead animals and studying from them. My favourite exhibit was the baby deer/ fawn because it was so adorable  . Also it was a challenge to draw because of the positions the animals were in but I learned a lot by being able to look closely. In nature animals usually don't stay still for very long and this gave me an opportunity to study in more detail.

What I learned:

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I learned a lot by looking at the way mama and Judy were drawing the exhibits and compare it to my way of drawing. I did learn a lot about animal anatomy and the way wings function.

What I disliked:

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I did not like looking at the intestines of the loris. 

What I hope to try out in my artwork:

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 I'd like to try actually giving some of my animal characters a bone structure so that they actually look like realistic-ish animals. I am trying to get proportions right on my cartoon animals.

How I applied what inspired me today 

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 I have made sketches  of the various exhibits and taken photographs for later reference and inspiration to apply to my artwork.

Art Portfolio Inspiration Log

Art Portfolio Inspiration Log

• Inspiration Log for My Arts Portfolio ( keeping records of things that inspire me along my arts award art journey)

• add art stuff ( what I see, art I experience, things I read, artistic stuff I noticed, art  I like and  don't like)

• keep a record of random art inspiration ( for future reference )

Trip to the Roman Section on the Museum of London

Field trip to the Roman Section on the Museum of London

entrance to the Museum of London

We planned:
-To go and find birds and wings inspiration


What we did : 
We studied the wings and birds we found in Roman art.


When we did it:
15th October 2012


Where we did it:
Roman Section at the Museum of London 


Why we did it : 
Because I want to hone my skills at drawing and study wing anatomy


Who did it:
Me and my Mum



What I saw today :

• I saw a bird on a hair pin, used by roman women to pin their hair up, the bird was abstracted and really cute

Roman Bird Pin

Here is the drawing sketch I did based on it

• A picture with mythical animals, most of them had wings.I learned that this type of art is called a mural when its painted directly onto a wall.

It was to hard for me to take a picture because it was high up and bad lighting.

 But i have a drawing i did of some of the different types of wings

Drawing of the wings from wall mural

• in the next room I saw a small bird on wall paper in a roman-english living room re-make.

                                            Part of a reconstruction of a Roman-English living room. 

A close up of the Roman bird drawing

Here is the drawing i did based on this

I noticed the basic shape of the bird was a line with a half circle not quite reaching the bottom end of the line.

I liked the way they abstracted it and found a way to make a bird into two simple lines. 

• In a cabinet i saw a small clay statue of a dove. I drew it first with incorrect lining 

Due to not paying attention to how some of the wing and tail lines connected

To the far left is the clay dove.

Here are the drawing sketches .  

The one to the left is the first one and the one to the right is the improved second.
I think the second bird looks a lot more like the statue. I had also drawn the beak wrong in the first picture and improved on that in the second. 

Here is me sketching the above picture.

• A bronze swan statue, it may have been used like those lions feet on footstools only this one is a swan. That's what the people who found it thought anyway. This was one of my favourite birds we found because to me it looked majestic. 

 a picture of the bronze statue ..it is quite small

Here is a drawing sketch i did based on it

• An abstracted wooden carving of a bird by a boy.

• This was at an art exhibition outside the Roman Gallery 
  • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • .

. Some people would look at it thinking or saying it was a bad child's carving that has been smoothed by an adult. I would say to this: if you people can enjoy a huge canvas painted solely red then you might want to take back what you said.
I like this because its so simple, it portraits the basic shape of a bird without going into detail. 

• • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • • • 1. • • • 1. • • 1. • 1. • 
                                                                                                                                                                                                            

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REVIEW Of My Day

What I liked/found interesting: 
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-I loved everything about the birds and animals I saw. I found the uses and histories of all of the objects/paintings/drawings interesting. They all had some meaning.

What I learned:
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- I learned to see the simple shapes in the abstract birds and started learning by observation how to abstract. And some wing anatomy.


What I disliked:
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-I loved all the art. Wait I wish I had had a little more time to study them all..
Oh well hopefully I'll get more time next time.


What I hope to try out in my artwork:
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- The abstracting techniques I saw.. And the symbolic drawing. 


How I applied what inspired me today 
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My taking a picture of a tissue shaped like a bird we found

Here is the tissue that looks like an abstract bird

Abstract Bird- Found Art

I liked this because it was so random to find a bird shaped tissue just lying around on the street.
It was kinda ironic because we had been studying birds that day.