Pre-production « Visual Wizardry & Exceptional Lollygagging

Archive for Pre-production

Fearful of kindness

October 19, 2007 at 6:54 am · Filed under Pictures, Pre-production, Works in progress

I don’t take bad pictures of my stuff on purpose, but since there is little feedback here (and really, not a problem — this is mostly for me anyway) I just can’t be bothered to strive for perfection. If you want to see better pictures let me know or come to my house and see them for yourself. I am showing you these in the smaller size, because honestly they look better that way.

This is exploring the idea that people are more trusting of pre-wrapped candies from great big corporate conglomerates than of home-baked goods. Every Halloween there are articles about people who found needles in apples or caramels, and an equal amount of articles about how needles in apples are a myth and are disproportionately reported for shock value. I have an abiding memory of seeing a news spot about it when I was about 5, and there was a shot of candy going through a kind of candy x-ray on a conveyor belt. It was ludicrous, and kind of creepy really. Why bother going trick-or-treating in the first place if you’re going to be all creeped out by strange people touching your candy?

The the apprehensive one is saying “syringe”, which doesn’t show up to well yet as it’s in pencil. After the initial blocking is done I’ll need to go back and re-terrify her, and re-gender both of them, give them hair, make the eyes less stark. Make the hands tangible.

The sketches. The final composition — quite divorced from this stuff — turned out fairly effective I think, although I really loved the image of the person cowering by the window. There was just not enough visual reason as to why. It was too general: they were just afraid of their neighbor. Putting it out on the stoop has a nice balance to it, although realistically a person afraid like this probably would see the person coming (as in the sketch) and then not answer the door. But hey, this is illustration people. You want realism, take a picture. A boring picture.

And really, she’s not anti-social, just paranoid about food.

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All you need is love?

August 8, 2007 at 1:48 pm · Filed under Pre-production

I have been toying with this for a long time. This is that style again, here examining the idea of how impossible it is to communicate things like “love”. And how one person’s idea of love may not be on par with someone else’s, and yet how important is it to be able to talk about the same exact things when talking about something so important as love?

This grew out of my irritation with people using the word love to each other in high school, but also with it’s liberal use in general. I think people tend to use the word love as a crutch where some kindness would have gone further, as a quick fix-it when long term surgery and therapy would have been more appropriate, as a flat and dusty verbal validation when actually showing it and living it would have been far more meaningful and beneficial.

It also grew from two exploding dog cartoons. This image has been rattling around in my head for a long time, and has shown up on many sketch books and day planners since I first saw it. This other one was also a huge catalyst for the idea. This positioning is actually used in one of the scenes I picked because it’s so heartbreakingly perfect.

I’ve narrowed it down to about four scenes at this point, and while I may tackle them individually for more depth later on, the initial approach is going to be a four-panel thing

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Steg v. Peace-head: pre-production

August 2, 2007 at 11:12 pm · Filed under Pre-production

Crazy Day, acrylic on canvas, 2005

I am in two places in this painting: I am celebrating a campfire (green person) and I am being fed a coffee of epic proportions as a stegosaurus (same green). I don’t know why I became a stegosaurus, but then who doesn’t have different “modes” around different people?

Ever since I painted this picture I’ve been toying with that stegosaurus, most recently:

from sketchbook

This is a big variation of the idea — whereas before I’ve been doing LOTS of stuff in this really expressive and bright look when I’m expressing/digesting/communicating stuff that’s actually happening, this particular thing got transferred to a mural on a wall (just left of the blue dancing box thing). It’s going to be twilight, and A Person will be walking hunch-shouldered briskly by.

It’s a little dissociative, a little less direct, but at the same time maybe that works better. Because sometimes the things that you see so clearly are being ignored by the people it involves. Or the people who are closest to it.

Helpful walls and buildings:

(though I want to be angled from above, not below/ground level).