I was originally going to call this “Sojourners” but that seemed pretty obscure (not that “The Gleaners” is going to win any popularity contests). This image was inspired by a passage in Deuteronomy about orphans, widows, and aliens (or sojourners). Then I remembered the OT laws about over-harvesting fields and making sure to leave the second and third pass to those less fortunate than you. A subject that gets overlooked in these days of economic downturns and fiscal responsibility. I’ll be entering a print of this in my alumnus show in Boston this January.
It also reminded me of a great documentary by Agnes Vargas called “The Gleaners and I” about people learning to live modestly in a society drunk on abundance. You can see excerpts from it herehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKgjjEJvMbM
Here’s a very early sketch of the digital woodcut I’ll be posting next. I really liked this image so I was pretty nervous about actually doing anything with it. I think the final retained the warmth and dignity that I’m getting from the sketch.
A friend of mine just pointed out that I hadn’t posted any of the sand animation I was doing a few years ago. Thanks for the reminder Martha. One of these days I’ll have to pick this medium up again. I really love the immediacy of the process. More like performing live than any other work I’ve done. The following clip is a montage of a lot of smaller pieces I was doing for my MFA. I was creating one short animation a day for about three weeks running. I left a lot out but trust me… there’s a whole lot you don’t want to see. Enjoy.
I really have been working though my lack of postings may lead you to believe otherwise.
I’ve been focusing mainly on storyboards over the past couple of weeks and I’m still not sure how to go about posting the progress on them (and there has been some really good progress). For the time being I’ll post this image of a border scroll that I’m working on. Working this small really keeps the images simple and somewhat primitive. A look I hope I can hold onto as the film develops.
I really like how the Mermaid has taken shape and how the plant itself complements her form. Part of me thinks this could get way more detailed and the other part wants to get it out there and live with it a while. I’ll leave that question up to you. More detail?? or leave her surrounded in murky blackness? Either way I would love some input and in the meantime I’ll try to figure out how I want to start posting some of the rough storyboards.
This is a short animation I did with a handful of highschool students at summer Bible camp. We only had a few hours set aside that week to work on it but they gave up their free time to finish it up.
Special thanks to Kirsten, Jesikah, Ashley, Jake, Peter and special props to Andrew whose drawn animation skills held this together.
This image is from a story panel early on in the first act of the Fishbone story. He’s just thrown his hook in the water and is now settling back for a relaxing smoke. Lots of new challenges with different textures and surfaces. The water not being the least of them. I’m finding that using three values (dark, medium, and light instead of just dark and light) changes the work considerably.
Here are six of the steps along the way to the Fisherman Woodcut. I wish I could say it was as organized as it appears. Honestly it’s still pretty messy as I’m experimenting with all sorts of techniques to find a result I’m happy with. I especially like the way the waves turned out.
Still going after that illusive woodcut look. This one is a bit sketchier but I like how the image is holding together. It’s from a story panel early on in the Fishbones story.
The sermon yesterday was the Passover story… you know, 12 plagues on Egypt culminating in the death the firstborn. A dramatic story to say the least with all sorts of complicated issues. The image that came immediately to mind was that of Pharaoh weeping over his firstborn. I didn’t realize until afterward that I had drawn my own version of the Pieta (Mary weeping over the dead Jesus) only substituting Pharaoh for Mary. Heath spent a good deal of time talking about Isaac’s sacrifice as a comparison to the passover lamb…a fitting and powerful comparison, but the comparison of Paroah to the grieving Mother of Jesus has some intriguing implications. I’ve posted the raw sketch below along with an image of the most famous Pieta by Michael Angelo. Hopefully I can build on top of the sketch without totally loosing the moment.
BTW you can download any of the 509 sermons from http://509community.com/audio/audiolist.php?category=0. Unfortunately this one won’t be up for a while.
This one started out as a woodcut attempt but I realized I had too many questions about lighting…light source, shadows, mid tones, etc. So I decided to paint it in gray tones to see what I would get. I suppose at some point I’ll get around to doing the wood cut but in the meantime I’m really happy with how this turned out.
