It may or may not be germane to Halfland per se, but Paul found these two Korean dance clips on YouTube that are among the finest examples of dance as art I've seen. The first was from a couple years back of the stunning dancer Min Young Park and we love her entire presence throughout her piece, even the way she commands the stage as she walks onto it. All the way through.
The next is a sublime young male dancer named Sun-Chon HAN who, it seems, has been inspired by the previous performance and taken the genre/style higher still. He makes a leap at the 2:39 mark that, if one is at all in touch with their heart in that moment, will move the viewer to tears with its total ecstatic abandon.
There is something profound at work in these pieces. Something at the core of dance as an artform. They both seem to be not just merely dancing to music, nor performing it.
To dance is to become the music. Not to dance to it. Not to perform it. But in reality to become the vibratory expression itself. To be as God.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Character Round-up
Talented animator, Gustavo Arteaga was kind enough to ask whether I made my own characters for my projects. I said yes and collected a few sketches to give him the idea. I added a few more and put them here, in case anyone else might want to see the gang all together, and often in the all-together!
Yanu the Moth man sketch made from photo of his sculpt.
Bosq the sleeping cat puppet on the set
Rana, the Goat Woman (and main character) stand in puppet on set.
Tarn the Crow Woman sketch
the Time Frog sketch with the Time Flies (Musca Tempora)
The Koi of Enlightenment puppet seen in the pond. He rises up from the depths only for a moment.
Kyra, the black Mermaid sketch from photo of her large sculpt. Undersea she turns blue and the shells woven into her hair turn to pure gold.
Rana sketch, showing how she'll carry the small chocolate-skinned Kyra mermaid puppet while on their journey....
The Birds in Hats sketch, among their hat box nest and habadashery fighting to see themselves in the mirror.
The Writing Mouse small puppet and his tiny lens glasses.
The Hermit Crab sketch, eating his lemon crab cake, for the undersea scene
Monty's sketch, the little pink balloon blowfish who has no friends, for the undersea scene.
The Chicken Painter sketch, painting a landscape en plein air in the meadow yard. In a fowl mood today.
The Tailor Spider puppet, who lives in Rana's attic making cobwebs for her to wear on her clothes.
Yanu the Moth man sketch made from photo of his sculpt.
Bosq the sleeping cat puppet on the set
Rana, the Goat Woman (and main character) stand in puppet on set.
the Time Frog sketch with the Time Flies (Musca Tempora)
The Koi of Enlightenment puppet seen in the pond. He rises up from the depths only for a moment.
Rana sketch, showing how she'll carry the small chocolate-skinned Kyra mermaid puppet while on their journey....
The Birds in Hats sketch, among their hat box nest and habadashery fighting to see themselves in the mirror.
The Hermit Crab sketch, eating his lemon crab cake, for the undersea scene
Monty's sketch, the little pink balloon blowfish who has no friends, for the undersea scene.
The Chicken Painter sketch, painting a landscape en plein air in the meadow yard. In a fowl mood today.
The Tailor Spider puppet, who lives in Rana's attic making cobwebs for her to wear on her clothes.There are also marching ants and bugs dressed for a party, caterpillars, worms, a lizard (by Cirelle) and pretty butterflies (by Constance) as well...
To be continued...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Hand-crafted 3d illustration Win-- Miss Clara
Découvrez Miss Clara et ses merveilles en papier sur Culturebox !
Found via Annekata
A new heroine inspiration Miss Clara in France. I've long admired her 3D hand crafted illustrations and was so pleased to discover the woman behind the work.
I hope to craft illustrations for the Halfland story book, rendered from stills of the film with some of the charm and beauty Miss Clara's works have.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Patina Recipe: Pig Iron
Found a great patina recipe for simulating pig iron.
PIg Iron Patina:
•Slate grey acrylic paint on any base surface.
•Two rough coats of iron surfacer paint (iron particles in suspension).
•Allow to dry.
•Saturate with rusting solution (sold with iron surfacer; good info here).
•Allow to oxidize/rust over several hours or overnight.
• Hit high points of surface by lightly rubbing with iridescent grey chalk.
• Rub with soft cloth to burnish and fix.
Woo!
(This letter is from a necklace I'm nearly finished building.)
PIg Iron Patina:
•Slate grey acrylic paint on any base surface.
•Two rough coats of iron surfacer paint (iron particles in suspension).
•Allow to dry.
•Saturate with rusting solution (sold with iron surfacer; good info here).
•Allow to oxidize/rust over several hours or overnight.
• Hit high points of surface by lightly rubbing with iridescent grey chalk.
• Rub with soft cloth to burnish and fix.
Woo!
(This letter is from a necklace I'm nearly finished building.)
Friday, February 5, 2010
Cool Find: Shadow Play
I adore double imagery, things that look like one thing yet are in fact another. And use of shadow too. The interplay of an object's shadow. A trick of the eye. I really admire this artpieceUlla posted. The clip shows Hans Peter Feldmann's Shadowplay at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. September 12 - October 17, 2009.
"A simple, elegant sculptural installation of light, shadow, and found objects." Check out the review at artblogNY.com
And of course, there are the boggling pieces of junk casting realistic shadows of other than what they are made of by Tim Noble (no relation) and Sue Webster. Some are crude and unpleasant but all are ingenious.
Monday, December 7, 2009
What is Halfland?
It's my wholly original folk tale in the traditional vein. It's a fantasy on the surface, but really more of a visual allegory or metaphor in the sense of ancient myths. It's filled with symbols from deep within my own subconscious. It's a grand experiment to see if these incredible, truly, incredible new creative computer tools can empower everyone with basic modern means to be their own movie studio. But most of all, it's the most insane fun I've ever had or could ever imagine having.
It's actually simple animation for Halfland, I hope. No dialog at all, not much narrative, mainly uninvolved physical movement made in short bursts and strung together as a film, as if beads. The magic of it is in its detailed sets, puppets, and costumes, the world created.
Story/movie/play, in brief: It's the audience/camera pov following a mermaid from our shores, undersea to Halfland (Where everything is more clearly half of something else.)
We pick up a view of the mermaid swimming in a freshwater stream (presumably coming in from a delta) to a half tree/half house where a goat woman comes down the hill with a rain barrel to collect her visiting mermaid friend.
They share tea and soup and watch various insect goings on until nightfall, then turn in for the night in the ember glow and last lantern light.
In the middle of the night, the crow woman barges in, wounded, bleeding, desperate. Rana packs up the mermaid in the water-filled barrel and tucks the crow woman onto a sled, and off they go to get her the help she needs in the desert.
[That describes the action taking place in about 6 micro-episodes of approximately 6 seconds each. And is the end of Act 2.]
[Act 3 takes place in the desert]
The troop travels to find the Serpent Sage, he knows what to do for the crow, plays an instrument that causes flowers to grow from his head. This causes flowers to grow from her head too.
[End of Act 3 as well as the first complete series.]
Subsequent series involve the moth man, the writing mouse, how answers are discovered on the leaves of the trees.
It's actually simple animation for Halfland, I hope. No dialog at all, not much narrative, mainly uninvolved physical movement made in short bursts and strung together as a film, as if beads. The magic of it is in its detailed sets, puppets, and costumes, the world created.
Story/movie/play, in brief: It's the audience/camera pov following a mermaid from our shores, undersea to Halfland (Where everything is more clearly half of something else.)
We pick up a view of the mermaid swimming in a freshwater stream (presumably coming in from a delta) to a half tree/half house where a goat woman comes down the hill with a rain barrel to collect her visiting mermaid friend.
They share tea and soup and watch various insect goings on until nightfall, then turn in for the night in the ember glow and last lantern light.
In the middle of the night, the crow woman barges in, wounded, bleeding, desperate. Rana packs up the mermaid in the water-filled barrel and tucks the crow woman onto a sled, and off they go to get her the help she needs in the desert.
[That describes the action taking place in about 6 micro-episodes of approximately 6 seconds each. And is the end of Act 2.]
[Act 3 takes place in the desert]
The troop travels to find the Serpent Sage, he knows what to do for the crow, plays an instrument that causes flowers to grow from his head. This causes flowers to grow from her head too.
[End of Act 3 as well as the first complete series.]
Subsequent series involve the moth man, the writing mouse, how answers are discovered on the leaves of the trees.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Halfland Build Lists:
specific items that need doing
Interior/Exterior Cottage Building: rain gutter with bucket pulleys
Set Landscape Building: plant landscape; silk waters; distant hills; set foreground branch near camera on wide shots, Flowering Thoughts
Puppet Making: armatures; casting; hair; costuming; and finishing for; Tarn (38% done); Kyra large and small (50%); Yanu (50% done); Torhar; Urhu; Bird's in Hats (80% done)
Completed Set/Prop/Puppet Elements--DONE!-- kitchen curtains & rods/brackets; Entry window curtains, shade rods and brackets, desert palm tree; Moon Lantern, Bamboo Grove, Tea Cup Roses, glass Tudor windows, rose wallpapering; plant pond foliage; portion of fencing in foreground, gate in fence; Mouse House Exterior, weathervane, tree lanterns; coppola; shutters; porch; Urhu's desert tent; Mouse house interior; Writing Mouse's ink bottles, quills, scrolls; Urhu's snake-skinned musical instruments; roof joists; roof and shingles; Cabbage moth halo/crown; Butterfly wing tapestry loom, Chicken Painter's easel, brushes, and canvases, Four seasons of birch forest, lace spider webs
Finished Puppets--DONE!--RANA!! Writing Mouse; Bosq the snoring cat; small Pink Snail; Knitting Beetles, Herman! the Caterpillar, Catalina the Inchworm, Dust Bunnies, The Tailor Spider, Birds in Hats (so nearly), Pink Snail, Handicapped Butterflies, Time Flies; devil moth; Time Frog ; Caterpillow, Chicken Painter (by Deborah George); Mr. and Mrs. Smook OYsters, blue dragonfly, twigman, twig figures, Hermit Crab
Backdrop Sky Building--Again--Day and Night DONE!
Finished props--DONE!-- iron tea kettle, Bird's hats, door keys, floral arrangement, window boxes, strawberries, Fireside hearth andirons and kettle crane, Queen Bee paper hive, Queen bee's crown; Time Frog's lotus and lily pads, Chandelier AGAIN!; All Food Props
For possible future Halfland episodes:
Add'l Props: Torhar's saddle; Tarn's sled
Add'l Puppets: Butterflies that tango, and look like flowers, and are handicapped.
Add'l Minor Sets: underseascape (made from puppet packaging from all over earth from Notes readers)
Set Landscape Building: plant landscape; silk waters; distant hills; set foreground branch near camera on wide shots, Flowering Thoughts
Puppet Making: armatures; casting; hair; costuming; and finishing for; Tarn (38% done); Kyra large and small (50%); Yanu (50% done); Torhar; Urhu; Bird's in Hats (80% done)
[Table updated: April 2015]
Completed Set/Prop/Puppet Elements--DONE!-- kitchen curtains & rods/brackets; Entry window curtains, shade rods and brackets, desert palm tree; Moon Lantern, Bamboo Grove, Tea Cup Roses, glass Tudor windows, rose wallpapering; plant pond foliage; portion of fencing in foreground, gate in fence; Mouse House Exterior, weathervane, tree lanterns; coppola; shutters; porch; Urhu's desert tent; Mouse house interior; Writing Mouse's ink bottles, quills, scrolls; Urhu's snake-skinned musical instruments; roof joists; roof and shingles; Cabbage moth halo/crown; Butterfly wing tapestry loom, Chicken Painter's easel, brushes, and canvases, Four seasons of birch forest, lace spider webs
Finished Puppets--DONE!--RANA!! Writing Mouse; Bosq the snoring cat; small Pink Snail; Knitting Beetles, Herman! the Caterpillar, Catalina the Inchworm, Dust Bunnies, The Tailor Spider, Birds in Hats (so nearly), Pink Snail, Handicapped Butterflies, Time Flies; devil moth; Time Frog ; Caterpillow, Chicken Painter (by Deborah George); Mr. and Mrs. Smook OYsters, blue dragonfly, twigman, twig figures, Hermit Crab
Backdrop Sky Building--Again--Day and Night DONE!
Finished props--DONE!-- iron tea kettle, Bird's hats, door keys, floral arrangement, window boxes, strawberries, Fireside hearth andirons and kettle crane, Queen Bee paper hive, Queen bee's crown; Time Frog's lotus and lily pads, Chandelier AGAIN!; All Food Props
For possible future Halfland episodes:
Add'l Props: Torhar's saddle; Tarn's sled
Add'l Puppets: Butterflies that tango, and look like flowers, and are handicapped.
Add'l Minor Sets: underseascape (made from puppet packaging from all over earth from Notes readers)
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