NY croquis

I'm definitely really bad at portraying people I know.

5:18am

Ah, dear Jet Lag, reminding me I'm not in the place and the time I'd like to be.

Here are some drawings based on souvenirs of places I liked, places I lived on, places I worked on, places I felt good and all home-sweet-home like.

It's not melancholic, I'm not missing these places as I could cry for them or anything.

It was more about to put on paper what I actually remembered from them, and what my mind has transformed. How my feelings and my memory influence my relation to the space. Without pictures of the actual places besides my drawings, it might be totally irrelevant for the viewers, even more the ones who don't know these places.

Anyway, do the differences between reality and my mind really matter?

 Behind the CalArts, on Tournament road, there's some kind of sand quarry in front of wild mountains.

Red in summer, green in winter.

Woodglen Venture Apartments. There wasn't a wooden floor, but I felt like the floor was too empty in my drawing without it.
There was a lot of available space, but it wasn't empty.

Cubicle n°34. I know that I made up some details, but I couldn't remember what was on my desk.
Everything was always moving. The details don't matter, it's just about the quantity.

Second home in Cali. At some point, one of the biggest room has been transformed in a stop-motion set.
This made me feel like the place was a lot smaller, but even warmer and comfy.

The Indian

This is a sand and light animation under camera I made in two days at CalArts.

First, I chose the music.
An extract from The Indian by Alexis Ciesla, with the Doumka Clarinet Ensemble.
I already worked on one of their pieces for one of my first animation at ENSAD.

I would like to work with them for my graduation film...
I would like to work with them for a LOT of different projects, actually.

The lonely mountain lion

I heard a Mountain Lion is living in the Griffith Park.
I hope I'll meet him at some point, even if I guess he must be really depressed.

The house and the night

In CalArts, I took Masha Vasilkovsky's class, "Drawn Techniques".

Every week or every two weeks, we had to make an animation test with the technique and the sound we wanted even if sometimes she suggested us some things to try, as sand or paint animation. She gave us freedom, but she never let us get lost.

She helped me to remind myself why I wanted to animate and create films, and she showed me that I didn't have to suffer so much for it. She also helped me to define better the way I think about animation.

This is one of the little animations I made for Masha's class. The ocean beach is one of them too.

One day I'll have enought courage to make an animation with colors. One day.

Sand Waves

A little sand animation under camera,
made from the souvenir I have from the ocean beach in San Francisco.

Two Helen

Chicago.
Public transportations are the best way to know a lot about unknown people's life.
They always tell you their name the second before they leave you forever.
They tell you so much personal things, but it doesn't matter because you'll never see them again.
Names are optional.

 

Then, museums museums museums.

 

Making of the Corbeau

So, during my five months at CalArts, I took Stephen Chiodo's class, "Stop-motion puppet design".

Basically, he gives to his students all the rules, methods, (magic) tricks, awesome advices and all the assistance and the help required to make a puppet from the beginning to the end like a pro.

One of the most amazing class I ever had.

I decided, after reading again Le Corbeau by E. A. Poe, to make a raven, really nervous, almost hysterical (... Like every birds after all). Yes, ravens have black beaks and black legs, so now he looks more like a blackbird...

The armature.
The thickness and the strength of the wire depends on the weight and the mouvements the body parts will have to support. The head is made with magic sculpt.

The beak has been pretty hard to make. I tried wood, different kind of plasticine... The answer was simply magic sculpt. For the articulation: a strong wire glued in a little hole in the head and in the beak.

When the armature is completely done, we use an old piece of foam as a kind of sponge to recover with balloon rubber the foam that will define the real shape of the puppet. Thanks to the balloon rubber, the foam sticks to itself, takes every forms you want, and stays really flexible.

To give the foam this black color, I mixed a little bit of balloon rubber and black acrylic, then I only put a thin layer of it. The feet and the legs are covered with a wool yarn glued with a lot of patience...