Jason Bard Yarmosky

Jason Bard Yarmosky is an american painter, who dedicates all his effort in the exploration of the life cycle. His work focuses on the juxtaposition between young and old. I love his paitings because he explores both physical and psychological aging, also because his work is playful, yet sincere. In addition, Yarmoskys impeccable portraits are detailed so incredibly, they seem photo-realistic. Apparently most of his work features his own 85 year old grandparent.
In a nutshell I adore this work because it pays a homage to the idea that age is not a deterrent to living fully, but rather a venture for exploration. And It's just aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Two reasons why I watch Top Gear

Top Gear (U.K.) is a TV series about motor vehicles, mainly cars. It is also the most watched factual programme in the world. This might seem strange that I am blogging about this, but bear with me, because it is relevant to my work. And yes, I like to watch Top Gear every once in a while, even though I don't have that much interest in cars. The real reason I watch this show, first of all, is the adventures the presenters take part in. The show has developed this humorous and quirky style, that keeps it very amusing. Though it is hard to tell if some things that happen in the show are intended or not, because ridiculous situation that happen to the presenters are sometimes beyond belief.

The second and the main reason I keep watching the show the brilliant montages of cars being reviewed. The way they present cars is just art. They manage to find a unique angle to every car, that captures its shape perfectly, they brilliantly manipulate filters, camera angles, lighting to create the perfect perception of any car. It just makes you appreciate how sophisticated car design has become both in exterior and interior. I honestly think the a Top Gear review is the best advert for a car,

Therese Larsson and Silly Beast

About a year ago, when I started sending out my portfolios and applications to universities, it hit me that needed to improve my character design skills, because all of my previously drawn characters were really boring and lacked dynamic features. So I started looking into character design artists, illustrators and such. That's when I found There Larsson and her magnificent work.
Therese Larsson is a freelance Illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden. She is also the founder of Silly beast Illustration. She is a very versatile artist, she does not only illustration, but concept art, storyboards, character design, sketch work.
What captured my attention ,though, is her characters are full of life, and most of the time caught in a very dynamic moment. She manages to captivate these astonishing moments in nature and make them as charming as possible. Also her character design is sort of Disney-like but still manages to maintain some of her personal style. Also her work demonstrated how by exaggerating one or the other feature of a character add more charm. Most of her illustrations are made on Photoshop and she actually does Photoshop tutorials online.
But overall, her work is just amazing and inspired me to make this-

And here is some of her work-

Premier induction

All right, so we recently had an Adobe Premier induction. We were introduced to the programme, how to put together image sequences, add effects, how to use layers, how to work with sound. In a nutshell- the basics.
It was one of the most fun inductions we had, because not only did we lear how to put together footage but we managed to make some cool videos. Here's my masterpiece-

All The Same

Tous Les Memes (All The Same) is a song by a belgian singer Stromae. But I want to focus not on the song, but on the video. The music video was directed by Henry Scholfield and it focuses on the different male and female perspectives. The main character (in this case the singer Stromae himself) is split into two personalities- male and female in order to show that the two sexes are actually alike even though they wouldn't like to admit it. The reason I love this video so much is the artistic solutions to the idea execution: The characters face is split in half, the lighting changes alongside the characters sex and the choreography is genius. Also, I always love it when there's the combination of green and pink is in the mix, because I believe that this colour combination is very current and trending in the video industry. Also what seem very interesting to me is the changing backgrounds, the camera angles and the montage creates this sort of continuos flow, this feeling that the action doesn't stop. Though the part in the beginning, in the bed, is very apparent that the bed is vertically situated, but I am not completely sure why. But I really like the transition between the scenes, because (again) they give this continuity and flow.

The Office: breaking the fourth wall like a boss.

The Office is an american TV series that originated from a British comedy with the same name. The series revolve around a mundane office and its childish and problematic boss. But the thing is, even though it's script driven, it has a distinct documentary style. When I first saw it I thought it was a real life Truman show-sort of project. Apparently  it's just brilliantly made.
The Office is unconventional in the way that the characters talk straight to the audience, therefore the so called fourth wall is practically non-existent. Some characters like Jim often times have this connection with the audience by looking at them with that look "I am the only one who saw this?"
So the TV series is mainly a writers show, all the awws and ohhs are scripted. Even the characters expressions and the camera angles are written. Actually there is so much work put into it, to look natural and unrehearsed, whereas in reality even the operators movements and angles are choreographed. Comedy wise it is really unique as well because mainly the funniest situations are  "that awkward moment when..." driven. I personally love the show because it manages to beautifully capture those insane life moments in an everyday environment and make them very relevant to the audience. The whole show keeps you wandering that this might happen to you, because there is nothing unrealistic about it.
Also it's really funny.

Get the kids out of the room: We're talking about TWODICKS

Okay, so I was meaning to blog about this for a while but wasn't sure if the content would be appropriate, but since it is expected of us to talk about what we like, then I will do so.
So TWODICKS... There's only a few actual facts I can provide about them as they aren't very informative in their social media pages, I'm not even sure how they define themselves as- group of artists, a brand or a studio, but they're work speaks for them. And it is pretty difficult to find out what kind of masterminds are behind this, or as matter of fact how many of them. All I know is that they are situated in Vilnius, Lithuania (of course). Mainly, TWODICKS profile consists of photography, but there are a range of videos, promos and music clips they've done as well.
To be fair, I'm not that much bothered about the individuals behind this. All I know is they produce really great and raw work.

(A 2011 promo for the festival SATTA Outside)

The reason my attention is brought to they're work is because it represents the unpolished, uncensored, irresponsible and impure youth of today. Let's face it- it is pretty close to the truth. Nowadays youth is more exposed to the sexual, raw and violent nature of these glorified animals that we like to call humans. Maybe TWODICKS might not take it that far, but they certainly overstep the boundaries in exploring the 21st century youth. I am pretty certain that the conveyed subject by TWODICKS is relevant not only to the Eastern Europe region, but judging from what I've seen here in the U.K. it suits the peers here as well. What I like the most in they're work is the unconventional approach to image whether it's moving or not. They're pretty consistent with their color palette and style. Event though most of they're work is a bit hectic they still manage to bring this unique aesthetic to the table.

Some promotional work for Jagermeister

 Sugar Bassin promotional work

 And just random stuff

Copyright

We recently had a lecture about copyright and its importance to an artist and it is really beneficial to know straight ahead how important it is to maintain your intellectual property and what you can get away with.
In the UK the duration of copyright is for a lifetime and 70 years after the artist has passed away. For music however it is 70 years from the recording date
Apparently in the UK copyright is automatic, but to whom the copyright may belong, well that depends if the artist in question was paid by someone to do it or not. If an individual person creates a movie, drawing, music and such, the copyright automatically belong to him, however if he works for a company/director that pays him to create it, the copyright is owned by the company/director. There is also the option of selling/buying copyright from others.
In order to use someones work for your own reasons, you should ask permission of whoever owns the copyright, but if it is for educational purpose you may use it without permission. If for instance I were to take a trending animation character and make some sort of merchandise with it just so I would make some money off it, would get me into trouble, but if I were to make an animated short and put someones music on it so I could put it up for evaluation in college, that's alright. So I guess the reason is really important in this case.
All in all it is important to protect your work from plagiarism and such, so it is useful to know the ins and out of copyright laws for your own benefit.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

Today during PPP we had the chance to watch a documentary about Walt Disney Feature Animation, its downfall and what some may call the the Disney Renaissance that followed afterwards. Personally I haven't come across this documentary before, so it came as a bit a surprise for me.  Apart from the informative coverage of one of the most difficult times in history of Disney, the documentary offers a great deal of insight to an animators profession and its place in the industry. Actually, it was mentioned in the movie that Disney animators can't even have a family life because of the ridiculous amount of time they spend working in the studio. But in all fairness the studio work atmosphere that was captured in the movie seemed really appealing- great creative and artistic minds working next to each other and feed off each others creativity, spontaneity and energy. That was the part that really caught my attention (for obvious reasons). It made me certain of the professional path I am taking and as I was watching the movie in my mind I kept repeating to myself "yup, this is what I wanna do". As for the historical side of the documentary, it showed one of the best comeback stories in business. In the 80's animation was considered to be a dead art form with the target audience of only children, as a result, Disney hit a creative wall. The Black Cauldron (1985) was beat out of the box office by the Care Bear movie, that was a serious blow to the animators in the studio and it created a great financial dent. Something needed to happen quick. In 1988 Disney released Who Framed Rodger Rabbit that received great critical acclaim. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis (who, may I point out, is of a Lithuanian heritage), the executive producer was Steven Spielberg and the animation director was the author of Animators Survival kit- Richard Williams. The movie was a great success that broke the creative wall for Disney and started the Renaissance for Disney animation and general revival of the animation industry.
In general, this documentary provided some really great insight in the animation industry and helped me realize that even though its nature is artistic it is after all a business. Anyway, just watch it- it's really good.

Who am I? Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

I chose to study animation. And I made this decision several years ago. In general, drawing and understanding of art runs in my family and as to why specifically animation, well I started making short animations on Flash a couple of years ago and never got bored of it. So I decided to stick to it.

My understanding of the animation creative process is greatly flawed that's why throughout this course I'm hoping to learn how to work in a well structured and timely matter. Also I'm looking forward to trying out new techniques, drawing styles and just trying to become as versatile as possible.

I believe one of my few strengths is drawing. 6 years in an art gymnasium will make you learn a thing or two about drawing weather you like it or not. I am also fairly good at flash animation, I'm really organised and good at memorizing things, and have a fair understanding of design in general.

Though I need to improve on a lot of areas, like my creativity, character design, animation skills, blogging (because this not as easy as I though it would be) and of course English language. 

I will evaluate myself by comparing my previous projects with current ones. And as for my English... well as long as I won't struggle with speaking publicly, I'll be alright.