Acting Reference

It was clear very soon, that acting reference was key for creating Vaiva’s performance. So many expression nuances were hard to capture solely in storyboards or pre-vizes. The images represent stills of the reference footage.

 

With the help of time code and the grid over the footage, I’m comfortable to attempt constructing accurately timed and well spaced performance.

Reference Sketches

Anatomy and Animal References

Burne Hogarth's books Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Hands are some best systematisation's of human anatomy. Sculptural drawings leave no gap for imagining the shapes in 3D. My thoughts were to study and use his interpretations of human anatomy instead of photo-realistic ones, as Hogarth's drawings follow anatomy and have this exaggeration/stylisation and well, dynamicism, which is inspiring .

A collection of some references on body parts and female body :

The other artist  is Andrew Loomis. I'm following couple of his books Figure drawing and Drawing the Head and Hands  for tips how to 'build' convincing poses, shapes . I'm already using his advice and I found it is much easier to visualize human body.

Animal references include mainly chickens , but also Dragonflies, cats as these animnals were all linked to Baltic pixie (Laume) in one way or the other. For chickens I've explored a variety of Belgium chicken breeds.

I'll give a day or to for studying references/redrawing them , as an approach for character design suggested by Iain Mccaig.

VIsual Inspiration: Style

This time it is exploration of visual style. First half of it are classical Baltic painters and the second part is a selection of  contemporary artists.


M. K. Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian painter and composer. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau.

Kazys Šimonis cubist, expressionist. Stylized, falling in many different directions and beam lines to form fantastic images. His tendency was to to divide things into geometric segments.

 
V Dobuzinskis, an urban  painter.
 

 
S. Usinskas work is exclusively sculptural. Paintings have three dimensional feel and bold composition.
 

 
 
Other references include a Selection of Contemporary artists in various disciplines, such as photography, painting and illustration.
 

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design 2 and Fashion Illustration

I'm continuing to explore visual inspirations. UCA's fashion design student have directed me to numerous fashion designers, illustrators and so on. I'm showcasing here the ones I found most amazing.

More importantly, these examples are teaching ways of approaching design , creatin stricking costumes, it is helping to open up the mind when I'll be designing Queen of Pixies.

Garret Pugh

Style.com describes Gareth Pugh as the "latest addition to a long tradition of fashion-as-performance-art. Garret Pugh describes his designs as being about the struggle between lightness and darkness."
Pugh's collections are autobiographical rather than referential, and draw inspiration from Britain's extreme club scene. Pugh's trademark is his experimentation with form and volume, nonsensically shaped wearable sculptures distort the human body almost beyond recognition. He uses materials including mink, parachute silk, electrically charged plastics in his clothing.

Hussein Chalayan

chalayan is an internationally regarded fashion designer who is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitude to new technology. He was educated both in Cyprus and London's Central St Martins college of art and design. Chalayan is inspired by architectural theories, science and technology

Issey Miyake , a Japanese fashion designer, known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.

Kenzo Takada

Japanese fashion designer has always worked towards a multicultural world, a world of colors and beauty, with nature as a vibrant, inexhaustible source of inspiration. Kenzo’s designs are based on values of life, energy, and a deep-rooted equilibrium.

Felicity Brown

An English-born fashion designer. The fashion magazine Vogue Italia noted: Raw yet refined, her design shows the amazing attention for detail and fantastic creative talent that have marked her career to date.

Another advice from fashion design student was to look at equally amazing and inspiring works of fashion illustrators. I was also looking for ways how designers comunicate their ideas. Often the drawings are not as descriptive, but rather boldly convey the feel of the costume. These is the handfull of fashion illustrators whose drawings didn't lack of character itself:

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design

Fashion is one of the sourcees for inspiration for  Baltic Pixie's (laume) character .

Lee Alexander McQueen a British fashion designer and couturier, known for his tailoring. His works are juxtapositions of strength and are infused with emotional power and raw energy, making it a provocative fashion.

Scuba diving was A. McQueen’s hobby and a source of inspiration for the his Spring Summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection. It is one of his great fashion shows, exhibiting highly varied designs.

His work is fascinating for the designs  are very distinct from each other with types of material, chroma and tone values, shapes but at the same clearly fall under single theme for they evoke a particular feeling , that similar to what one experience surrounded by underwater life: cold underwater  holds unfamiliar alternate life forms yet fascinating and gorgeous.

I was looking at most of other McQueen's collections too and selected most inspiring examples to me personally. I use these examples to inform and inspire how clothing can contribute to sculptural form and add loads of character. I'll quickly discuss some examples.

in these images I found neckline and shoulders very interesting.

 these hold some great ideas of how texturing could be solved or what kind of elements can accompany the design

I am sure it will take some smart thinking what it comes to solving the scirt so it is both sueted to the desing purpose but doesn't get in the way when it comes to animating the character.

These images reminde of smart referencing to traditional folc clothing. Sort of reinterpretted and suited to the character. For example the heavy-looking traditional costume perhaps would need tweaking to suit playful and irrational Baltic Pixie (laume).

These Costume Designs hold fantastic ideas, it really frees up the thinking of how impactfull can a costume be.

Dragonflies are reference to Baltic Pixies as in baltic languages Dragonflie is called Pixie-horse (laum-zirgis). It seems that a. McQueen was incorporating some flies or peacock, for example, into his costumes.

I'd imagine Pixie's legs wouldn't be covered heavily with a skirt or heavy clothing in general, for I'd like to emphasise how morphed she is with chicken ( has chickens/roosters legs) . These images offer ways to emphasise legs.

A. McQueen  fascinating and very sculptural designs accompanied with feeling make them a very striking and memorable works.

Another source of inspiration, the amazing paper works of Nikki Salk And Amy Furry . Their work seems to defy the attributes of a regular paper, but at the same time it gives its elegance and fragility  to the aesthetics of the work . These wig designs simply teach how a character's hair can contribute dramatically. Thanks to tutor Phil for posting these .

I'm intending to post some more visual inspiration, looking at some classic painters and contemporary illustrators.