AoC RSS Feed

Mousie

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-19T11:38:12+01:00

At the end of the animation there is no happy-ever-after: the sneaky bad mouse steals the tasty hunk of cheese and 'the innocent mouse dies of hunger.

Expo Plymouth

Kayla Parker — 2007-06-22T18:33:01+01:00

Household gods: Dingles' window display.

Interchange

Kayla Parker — 2007-06-15T21:26:20+01:00

We follow the number 27 cycle path beneath the dual carriageway, over the bridge by the Speedway track, then back under the flyover and along the river Plym as it curls round to Saltram woods and becomes an estuary.

Trees like ghosts

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-18T18:14:25+00:00

The streets around Hyde Park were closed off for the parade and the way through choked by giant 4 wheel drives with blacked-out windows.

Game on

Kayla Parker — 2007-06-01T19:02:28+01:00

The installation outside the Civic Centre opened on 22 May with Anna reading stories from a selection of the 140 newspapers from different ports around Britain.

Faces, places

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-21T20:50:47+01:00

Two toothyface stickers hiding out low down on a parking notice, Regent Street just outside the art college:

Bridgwater

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-17T18:40:59+01:00

After lunch we recycle old 35mm art history slides (donated by Dave T at PCAD) using physical manipulation techniques, and the students record their image sequences using a digital camera.

Big Bang

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-18T17:32:22+01:00

Baby pictures

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-16T22:23:44+00:00

Bit of weird one this... drew it when I was watching TV.

Non-stop

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-12T22:07:24+01:00

She flicks her hair, waves her arms, jiggles her charms, all the while doing her weird Hannah-dance from camera to camera, making a connection with the after-midnight audience.

A juicy lemur banquet

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-16T22:02:23+00:00

Some drawings of lemurs from the telly: Lemurs of Madagascar BBC2.

Sec lives

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-12T21:11:50+01:00

Following another tip from Lord Lipson, I am pleased to discover that other people too like the emotional dalek with the weird Medusa hairdo - enough to want a face mask of Sec with hybrid voice box.

Show, don't tell

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-04T20:46:47+01:00

The stripped-down visuals metamorphose from time to time, but it's a minimal performance - there's little interaction between audio, character and sketchy, linear background.

Favourites

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-14T20:02:24+01:00

The Trade Marks and the Designs may not be published, copied, reproduced, transmitted, distributed or otherwise used in any manner whatsoever other than as expressly authorised in writing by Sainsbury's Bank Plc.

Facial recognition

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-21T19:54:36+00:00

Portrait of Minerva in the pub window half way up Looe Street: the goddess of wisdom, Minerva's festival was celebrated in ancient Rome from 19 to 23 March.

Make way for Pan's people

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-18T19:43:54+00:00

Article on page 3 of today's Observer newspaper: Disney to bring out a new brand of 6 Fairies, designed to appeal 'to older, sassier girls'.

Princess potency

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-12T19:37:46+00:00

Launched in 2000, there are 8 prinesses, with The Frog Princess - starring Disney Studio's first black princess, in production for 2009.

Timeshift

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-21T19:25:48+01:00

The Face of Boe (large and rubbery, preserved in a giant glass bowl of holy smoke) and Novice Hame, the cat who's also a nun - in the last series she was a badcat nun who experimented on humans, now she's gone good under the benevolent gaze of big old boy Boe.

Naming things

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-18T19:07:00+01:00

For some reason I was so moved by this appeal that I brought Pokahontas with me to school the next day and gave her away - because she was my favourite doll whom I loved, and I wanted to make the girl who was given her feel happy - a kind of love transfer.

Celebrity character

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-20T18:56:03+01:00

“Bugs had transcended his status as a cartoon character, and in doing so, made invisible both his author and the production process that created him.”

Dog/man

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-22T18:52:12+01:00

Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999) has Forest Whitaker as an African-American hit man who lives in a rootop shack and is guided by the philosophy and code of a samurai warrior.

Birdie

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-12T18:43:33+01:00

Following a tip from Lord Lipson I went up to Freedom Fields after college yesterday and took a photo of a bird painted on the side of an old hut by the road - it's by the same artist as the one in the Embankment Road subway, but they've had more time to finish off this one.

Jelly Boy

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-11T17:44:02+01:00

People brought in stuff - a DVD, a few figurines - some finely articulated so you could manipulate their limbs and sit them on a shelf, a Tshirt, packs of cards and my Shrek 2 plastic face bubble-blower, which was a free gift in a box of sugary breakfast cereal.

Animation is...

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-02T16:52:51+01:00

a way for those who have trouble expressing themselves verbally to express themselves visually

Gift of life

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-27T16:29:53+01:00

The movement of the 'inanimate' objects - the clocks, the wind-up toys and Pinocchio as a wooden puppet, gives a very different impression to that of the 'living' characters - Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Figaro, Cleo, The Blue Fairy and Pinocchio when he has been given 'the gift of life'.

Pop the Q

Kayla Parker — 2007-05-06T21:57:57+01:00

It's after midnight and they're back onscreen...

Badness

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-29T16:13:52+01:00

In last night's Dr Who the over-achieving businessman melded with uber-dalek Sec became a sad/bad character as the remaing daleks ordered him to be ex-ter-min-ate-ted for being too human.

Strictly no pink

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-17T19:57:22+01:00

Late night BBC2 programme Return of the Hero about the reinvention of the adventure-book in the 21st century and how 'books for boys' are best-sellers again.

Characters round here

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-15T19:10:02+01:00

Barberman, part of Mike's window display at Lawrence hairdressers on Regent Street, and marble Aristotle, a philosophical bust over in the country park at Mount Edgcumbe.

Man and dog

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-18T20:21:47+01:00

Up towards the wreck of the Ocean Maid there's a white-haired man sitting on the path, combing the hair of his sheepdog with long silky strokes.

Iconic Images revisited

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-12T20:11:56+01:00

Writers' portraits: Doris Lessing 25 February 1992 an imperial presence in Mary Poppins' misty rooftop world, chimney stacks behind her.

What is animation?

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-23T17:21:13+01:00

The ring donut is an interesting visual and oral metaphor: a Krispy Creme exterior shaped by an absence, the empty space between; the zero, the nothing, that is the heart of all animation - the missing bit in between the frames, or how all moving image works.

Character design tips

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-23T17:11:17+00:00

write a short biography - who they are, where they come from, what they like/dislike, what they eat for breakfast etc - you need to do this to create a convincing character on-screen that will appeal to an audience

Model sheets

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-23T17:06:41+00:00

A model sheet should illustrate a selection of poses showing the character from several angles and positions - such as front, back, three-quarters, and profile or side view.

Case study: Mr Brush

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-23T17:01:00+00:00

The brief from the client was to devise and design an animated sequence as a step-by-step guide to illustrate the correct technical procedure for cleaning a dirty paint brush advised by health and safety legislation.

The uniforms we put on to become who we want to be

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-09T13:18:27+00:00

For example, a photo of a female portrayed against a stone wall in a plain grey dress with a high neck, and her hair covered by a wimple was identified by her style of dress and lack of ornamentation as a nun.

Kids' stuff

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-17T12:52:43+01:00

Anthropomorphism: as a small child did I imagine inanimate things to be 'alive' as part of my developing mental abilities and relationship with the world as I grew up, or was it in response to prompts by others - children and adults?

Mount Edgcumbe

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-15T12:47:29+01:00

By the lake a couple chuck an orange ball and a pink ball for a yapping little terrier to chase and return, a yachting family throw chopped-up bread to the ducks.

Monkey snatcher faces jail

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-24T12:12:14+00:00

When he was rescued, Spongebob had to be sent to Battersea zoo 'for his own safety' as the other monkeys didn't want him back because 'he smelled different'.

Good companions

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-17T12:02:43+00:00

In the Ancient Egyptian religion gods and goddesses were represented as being part human and part animal: Horus the sky god had the body of a man and the head of a hawk.

The beast in all of us

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-16T11:39:44+00:00

I see animals everywhere that could inspire me to design a character: street art examples include a drugged-up, badass brown butterfly on a concrete ramp under the A38, a sticker on the window round the back of the Good Companions pub...

Identify me

Kayla Parker — 2007-04-27T16:37:33+01:00

I told them that I wanted to include each of their names in an alphabetical list of 'thanks to' in the final project report - as I would do for a project outside an academic context, but that in order to acknowledge their contribution to Art of Conversation I'd need permission from the university's Ethics Committee.

What makes character?

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-20T22:20:19+00:00

To be a character a figure also has to contain at least one element of human-ness and must be capable of autonomous existence or independent life.

Random pictures

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-03T21:59:40+00:00

Few women in these 60s Art Scene portraits: Elsi, Barbara Hepworth, Prunella Clough (1999 Jerwood Prize for Painting), painter Helen Lessore, and the silhouette of Jack Smith's wife Susan with a kettle.

Facial geography

Kayla Parker — 2007-03-03T21:08:16+00:00

In yesterday's session - the first for the character module, I asked the students to work in pairs, taking turns to sit for and draw the 'likeness' of the other as a head and shoulders portrait, and to swap roles after 20 minutes.