Feeling inspired by the masters

I've been thinking a lot about the backdrops for my scenes lately and can't stop coming back to the beautiful, hand-painted backgrounds seen in the earlier cel animations of Disney. Films like Bambi and Pocahontas are lovely examples of the delicate effect I want to go for. The latest Studio Ghibli/Disney collaboration has this beauty as well in the sky scenes, where clouds are delicately touched with colour from the sunset. They are actually very reminiscent of stage backdrops, as they don't move and are subtle enough to not distract from the action in the foreground.

I might start looking at the more abstract stage backdrops used in operas and musicals to get a bit more inspiration on this. For this method, a graphics tablet would probably be my best approach though so I may need to either invest or find a different, low-tech solution (perhaps working under the camera, as I am still drawn to the idea of shadow puppetry). For now, I just want to focus on getting this subtle, watercolour effect right though.

Saturday Shadow Puppet Workshop

As a student leader of Saturday Art Club sessions (a national organisation to help young people learn more about the different creative careers), I am sometimes asked to help lead specialist taster sessions. This week we set up a miniature fair, in which the Sat Clubbers could sample different crafts and skills in 10 minute sessions and then choose a speciality to learn more about in an afternoon session. My session was called The Papercut Theatre and it involved creating your own papercut backgrounds and characters and then filming the resultant story.

In the ten minute taster session I got the students to make one shadow puppet each, and we got everything from owls to octopi. Then in the afternoon session I had a group of 4 students making 2 films. One was called Bob the (baby) Owl, in which Bob falls from his nest but is rescued by Mummy Owl. The other was set in a circus and showed jugglers, unicyclists and ballerinas performing before the circus bear escapes and attacks the audience and themselves. I was amazed at the competency involved in the shadow puppets they made and they really listened when I was explaining about how to us the light source and strength of the shadows to their advantage.

Background sketches

I've been messing around with some water colour resists for the backgrounds of my Irish fairy animation. I want to keep the tones quite muted so there's a mysterious and slightly eerie quality to the scenes. I also didn't want them to be too realistic, just the hints of a landscape perhaps.

I really think the combination of the watery washes over a crayon resist and then topped off with darker lines for details such as the reeds or birds works really well. It's giving that gloomy, but slightly magical air I was after.

Special Collections

In an attempt to find some older visual representations of fairies I delved into the realm of Special Collections at MMU. They have an amazing array of children's literature so I had my pick of shelves of fairytales. They are beautiful books, carefully bound and embossed; however the illustrations were all a bit twee because they were created for children.

I want to go for something a little bit darker as the poem I chose is a cautionary tale. The fairies in Allingham's poem are not the midsummer night's dream kind.
The lettering in one of the Irish Fairy Tale books though was something I will consider using for the title sequence of the film as it was very intricate and inspired by celtic patterns, and had a lovely nostalgic, fairytale theme to it.

It also reminded me of the Book of Kells so I will research that a little more as well for some medieval pictorial references.

AWN celebreating the work of Lotte Reiniger

 

This article about Lotte Reiniger from the Animation World Network provides a great breakdown of her life, work and methods. A must read for anyone interested in the beautiful craft of papercuts and animation. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.3/articles/moritz1.3.html

Lotte Reiniger

After deciding that the shadow of my fairy man was more interesting than a straightforward viewpoint, I started to look at other artists and animators who play with light and shadows. Lotte Reiniger was a pioneer of animation in the 1920s and actually created the first feature length animation using shadow puppets, long before Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She is overlooked in this respect which seems reflective of the many stories of women in art, something we should be striving to change. Lotte's work carry subtle feminist messages in her portrayal of various princesses and female protagonists as strong, confident and able characters. I appreciate these characterisations as well as the delicacy of her papercuts and subtle layering for soft-edged backgrounds.

Technically, Lotte's work is stunning. This gif of a scene from Prince Achmed looks so contemporary and clean that I am astounded the image was made using traditional techniques and not through computer-generation. Through further research I've discovered that her papercut puppets are made using many different pieces to achieve a more fluid, realistic motion. Simply beautiful.

Shadows

When I made my wee green man and photographed him, I found that I preferred his shadow to using him as he is. His shadow seemed so much more magical and transient, which suits the fairy legend and their elusiveness. I think I also liked it because it then harks back to folk traditions of papercutting and shadow puppetry, which is probably how these stories would have been interpreted when they were part of an oral tradition of story-telling.
Whilst some details are lost in these shadow images, others are highlighted. His antennae and sprouting limbs are much more obvious in the shadow than in reality, but his features are lost which I think is useful because I didn't want my fairies to be too human-like and identifiable.

 
 

 

The Wee Green Man

I had a go at creating my own little fairy gent out of twigs, foliage, natural twine and twine made from stripped bark. The final outcome was rather better than I expected and he camouflaged himself well amongst the trees of my garden. Unfortunately, this model wouldn't work as a stop-mo character as he is rather static. The twigs I used to craft him have some give and bend to them but they won't hold a position and he definitely would not be able to stand without aid. He is entirely to fragile to be a stop-mo puppet.

It's possible that I could invest some time in crafting a wire armature and then covering this with foliage and natural elements to make him look like my first wee green man, but I am certain that this will detract from the look I am after as he needs to be willowy and brittle-looking. Covering an armature so that no wire could be seen would look to bulky. I may still try by not using natural elements, and instead painting him to look like he is made from twigs and leaves, but I am not certain I want to just film some stop-motion puppets in a real environment. An outdoor setting for a stop-motion prompts MANY technical and logistical challenges, such as weather conditions, lighting issues, wind levels, outside interferences from the public/excited dogs in the woods and limited timescales (Scenes would have to be shot in one day as equipment cannot be left in place). I am not sure I think the look I got from these few pictures of my fairy in his environment are exactly the look I even want for this animation, certain elements such as the northern lights scene would probably have to be achieved post-production which might cheapen the entire aesthetic of the film as a grounded, tactile animation.  
 
 
 

Fairy research

William Allingham's fairies are not your usual chiffon-skirted, winged visions of beauty made popular in the Victorian era. They are the 'Wee Folk' that you should be wary of pissing off. They are the tiny fiends who will steal a child away for 7 years. They are Mother Nature's little revengers against any human who disturbs the natural order for his own gain. They are everywhere...

Which means they must have damn good camouflage because we never see them!

I've been researching other interpretations of fairy-like creatures (things like bowtruckles and redcaps) as well as insects like beetles and mantis for some inspiration on the look of these interesting little characters for my animation. https://www.pinterest.com/rachelmcmahon10/beetles-bugs-and-faeries/

I figured that as these fairies are creatures who dwell in nature, they would have adapted themselves to their surroundings rather well - in a similar way to moths perhaps? And would therefore resemble insects or plants more than humans.

The Faeries

Up the airy mountain

Down the rushy glen,

We dare n't go a-hunting,

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather.

Down along the rocky shore

Some make their home,

They live on crispy pancakes

Of yellow tide-foam;

Some in the reeds

Of the black mountain-lake,

With frogs for their watch-dogs,

All night awake.

High on the hill-top

The old King sits;

He is now so old and gray

He's nigh lost his wits.

With a bridge of white mist

Columbkill he crosses,

On his stately journeys

From Slieveleague to Rosses;

Or going up with music,

On cold starry nights,

To sup with the Queen,

Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget

For seven years long;

When she came down again

Her friends were all gone.

They took her lightly back

Between the night and morrow;

They thought she was fast asleep,

But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since

Deep within the lake,

On a bed of flag leaves,

Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hill-side,

Through the mosses bare,

They have planted thorn trees

For pleasure here and there.

Is any man so daring

As dig them up in spite?

He shall find the thornies set

In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain

Down the rushy glen,

We dare n't go a-hunting,

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather.