Outreach Arts

For the past year I've been involved in the National Saturday Art and Design Programme, which gives kids and teens across the country an opportunity to get involved in the arts and learn skills in masterclasses that they wouldn't necessarily get to sample until degree level. Today was just a normal Saturday craft session in which we made pages for a collective pop-up book.

I brought in examples of artists' books and simple folded envelopes, as well as my research file from the artists' book module last year to give them a bit of inspiration. We set them each a letter so our book would form an A-Z style collection when combined. Our group is lovely, really inventive and supportive of each other. Maybe they are always like this... (just a mellow, liberal, cool group of teens) but I feel as though Saturday Club is a space for them to be themselves and feel confident, because it's a creative environment where no ideas are bad ideas.

Today we had pop ups on every topic imaginable... football, nature, exorcism, ghosts, gay pride, wrestling, music, memes, single-parent feminist dad octopi...!

PROJECTS! MUSIC! FUN THINGS!

Soooooo I should be focusing on my own projects probably, but this small-scale thing was just too cool and exciting to turn down...

I've got some freelance work on an exciting project this month with Antony Barkworth-Knight for a 6 minute music video. I'll just be working on a bit of rotoscoping of people dancing and walking, some abstract mark-making and hopefully (if we can sort it out) a bit of 16mm film for the animation. I'm filling the role of animation assistant I guess with Antony taking the creative lead.

It's such a funky little tune and Antony's vision for the video is really cool and draws on lots of art and animation history, like this animating gem from Len Lye (the absolute god of the music/animation combo), some old school RCA animations like Carnival by Susan Young, and the works of Henri Matisse. Antony's always very keen to hear my ideas though too, and give me a bit of free reign with the drawn elements. We'll be working with a painter too, who will do a bit of character design for me to then animate in the style of. All very collaborative and professional!

It'll hopefully have a lovely, playful vibe about it, and I'm certain that the rotoscoping will be useful practice for my Claire House animation as well.

Gifs Galore

Been messing around with more gifs for both my Irrational Fears project, and to accompany my dissertation presentation. I'm hoping that a bit of comedy will help to keep everyone engaged in what I'm saying...

Animating slump

what if... 

Irrational Fears by RaeRae

A while ago I started collecting people's irrational fears and illustrating them. I've begun making them into little 10 second films and gifs now. Here are a few...

Moth and the Rainforest

Moth collective continue to be the coolest animation company I've discovered this academic year. Not only do they create lovely animations for the New York Times Modern Love Coloumn (something I devour every Thursday when there's a new essay to read), but they also work for various good causes and charitable foundations. Their latest is about the environment. How very apt considering the RSA brief I've just picked up.
It's not really a coincidence though, as artists have been drawn to social commentary and issues ad infinitum, and climate change is the one of the bigguns. As social issues go, you can't get more globally valid than our poor, sick earth needing a major dose of calpol to lower it's temperature.
While I wasn't so keen on this digital style at first in other animations they've produced, I've grown to appreciate more and more the nods to screen print style. I love the quick image cycle in the middle of this animation that shows the production line and products; it really gives the message a bit more energy and oomph! I'm not so sure about the texture on top though, I think it looks a bit too 'placed' at the end of the animation. Maybe a bit more subtlty in that area, or perhaps no texture at all as the printed feel holds true without it.
The sound design for this is wonderful though. The message is clear and the voice actor does a great job. I like the rainforest sounds at the end too, they don't sound like soundbites taken from samples (even if they might be) because they are layered up so naturally.
As always, good jaaaab Moth!

You can watch the full video here! > https://vimeo.com/147451691

Also, I love the CNN gifs they've been making and posting on their blog of the biggest stories of 2015. Keeping up with social goings on there again.

Instagram

I've been receiving some really nice feedback from the climate change sketches/illustrations I've been posting on Instagram over the last couple of days. During the ideas process it's actually quite useful to pop some sketches on this app and see whether people respond favourably or not. It seems that people are both interested in the issues AND appreciate the style and aesthetic of my sketches so I'm on the right track I think for capturing people's imagination and interest.

I'll be trialling a few animated gifs on here as well soon.

https://www.instagram.com/raeraeillustrations/

Education (R)Evolution

The other RSA SDA talk by Debra Kidd on educational reform starts off with a lovely little description of her as a child, cutting out stuff from her mum's catalogues. This idea of scrapbooking and montaging resonated with me and I thought how lovely it would be to incorporate that into my designs for the animation. It was nice to consider a different material approach to my other animations as well by thinking about stop-motion and paper cut out animation techniques. I liked the idea of combining a Monty Python style haphazardness and humour, with hand-drawn/painted elements for nice contrast of textures.

This image was a sketch for a possible 'hero image', but I think I'll take it into photoshop and play around with colour more. Part of me feels that the photo should be greyscaled and the doodles should be vibrant and fun.