Adrian Shaughnessy

Looking forward to seeing Adrian Shaughnessy tonight in Manchester. Been looking into his stuff. There's a great interview about his book here with SpeakUp a division of Under Consideration.
The pic here shows his description as seen at AIGA.. (to save me having to type it all)

Authorial Practice Conference

I was lucky enough to attend a conference in Sheffield last week based around Authorial practice in context with commercial illustration. Authorial practice being the personal output of illustrators away from their work for clients, this include ventures into fine art and the production of 'zines and ornaments, animation and so on.
So we went up to Sheffield to see three main speakers namely Simon (in order of appearence) Spilsbury, Ben Cox and Andrew Foster. The day also included the official opening of Andrew Fosters' gallery exhibition at the nearby Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery entitled 'Precious In Thy Sight'.
The conference aimed to define how authorial practice affects commercial output and development, how online publishing has changed the role of the art director, designer and distributor etc. and lastly determining the role of the commissioner, director, artists agent in
furthering the contextual use of illustrative outcomes....apparently.


The speakers involved all had very different thing to say concerning the topics, first up Simon Spilsbury gave us an exciting talk through his career and how he chose illustration as a career and how he developed his style.
Saying that his dad was his art teacher, he took us through some of the work he completed at art school when he still didn't know what he really wanted to do. I guess he was saying that it was this sort of authorial practice that helped him develop a distinctive style. He went on to say that now he is not concerned about how his clients perceive him and is more than willing to draw things up spontaneously right on the spot for clients. Apparently the time he spent working at an ad agency gave him a good appreciation of quick turnover which has also helped him.

He talked quite a bit about the importance of context concerning his output and being aware of the critical factors in determining what suits a brief.
Simon also told us more about his personal attitude towards his work. Whilst he does not have a specific output other than his commercial work he constantly develops new ideas in and from his sketchbook that goes everywhere with him. This is where he will find many of his ideas but he also talked about being able to really look for the right answer to a question no mater how hard it might seem at first.
At the conclusion of his talk we were reminded that nowadays everything is considered media space.
Ben Cox from Central illustration (CIA) was next and he talked about the role of agencies and finding and matching the right client and illustrator together in order for the most mutually beneficial relationship. He explained to us the importance of personal experimentation and development being crucial to creating new styles and looks for clients to commission.
We were shown how one of their illustrators completed some personal work after completing a fairly well paid job but who was unhappy with the sort of thing they were being asked to do by clients. They decided they needed to show what they were capable of to their audience and so spent a couple of weeks working on something they preferred and submitted that to them (central). The agency liked it so much they used it as part of their own promotional material and the illustrator involved got more commissions along the lines of that sort of work.
We were reminded of the need to keep developing our work as over time it can start to look and feel stale.
Ben talked to us about various promotional exercises the agency had done with their (illustrator) clients. One of these was the Summer/Winter festival an event where the illustrators involved decorated the Royal Exchange in London and held a street party where prospective clients could see their work on display.
This was followed by an explanation of the Consequences show in Covent Garden, an event where each illustrator involved was given a piece that would sit in between the work of two others'. They were all given a horizon line to adhere to and the contact details were supplied to them of their respective neighbours.
The main point Ben seemed to want to make is that he saw authorial practice as a way of the artists he employs being happy in what they do.
I guess he did a pretty good job of promoting his agency as a place where good illustrators want to work and where the best clients will look. He showed us other examples of illustrators they had used to create promotional material for Central, playing us the video 'we like colour' (link to creative review), by Pirates, a creative group who were given a very open brief
Ben also took time to portray his agency's role in creating this sort of relationship whereby he says they will also try to bring client and practitioner together as soon as possible so that the creative involved can have as large an impact as possible on the output of the project. This he believes limits the amount of poor illustration and dummed down ideas that we see time and time again and hence must be good for the industry.



Andrew Foster has some of the strongest views on offer and by the time he took the stage we were all waiting t hear what he said.
There was a large focus was on -as we might have expected- the lines/boundaries between fine art and illustration.
He was very concerned about people doing things just for the sake of it and what he sees as a struggle within the industry for finding real talent and discerning that from the people who assume that just because do something means that you're automatically good at it.
He wanted us all to decide if we were interested, if we had anything to say.
He had a lot to say about practicing illustrators who rely on illustrations that they completed 'fifteen years ago'. He looked at examples of what he perceived as boring approaches to illustration with an example of a bag; he told us if something is 3d, why just draw something 2d on the front of it?
With such a large focus on integrity and responsibility he began to explain that he will loose 90% of his prospective commissions because of the content of his work. Client will be drawn towards his style and attitude but when it comes to the point they dont like wht he wants to do.
Such an uncompromising attitude has left him needing to find other outlets for his work and that is why his work has crossed the barrier into being fine art. Something that he has produced purely for himself, for 'therapy' as he calls it. It seems as a sort of cathartic exercise for him to exorcise his demons and push his creativity.


Following all this we had about an hour for a Q&A session.

All the speakers got together at the end with some of the staff from Sheffield university for the Q&A session where questions collected from members of the audience were put to the panel and discussed with also some input from the audience.
The debate shifted from the need for this sort of approach to illustration being perhaps a 'sticking plaster solution' for an industry producing too many graduates for the work producing answers such as;
There is now so much work out there with the internet and other forms of media that there is no excuse to not find work, or make some.

This sort of work is purely the result of unemployment.

There should be more of a focus on authorial practice in illustration courses.
This raised particularly heated debate with various camps being set up within the room, arguing over the neccessities of what an illustration graduate needs to know with regards to the industry and how to teach that. Some were adamant that the particulars of the commercial demands need not be taught to students as apparently they need to be creative and not get bogged down with that sort of thing. Some believed that authorial practice pretty much was covered on their courses and so the argument was mute.
Panelists particularly Andy Foster said that he felt students were short changed and to many people could get onto courses by virtue of the fact that they had a checkbook and a pulse. He wanted to see more realism and preparation for the real world of illustration.
It seemed to me that it was the usual case of people wanting to moan about something instead of being willing to accept something for what it is and accepting that it is you that has to change and not the world. If we want to be illustrators we must accept that there is a system there that works a certain way and if we are going to change any of it then we must play the game to some extent.
One good viewpoint on this was made I believe by Ben Cox that nothing is really going to substitute actually looking for a job anyway.

There seemed to be a lot of confusion on the floor when the subject of personal style came into discussion. Some believing it to be not important or that too much emphasis was put on students to produce something very particular to themselves with regard to style upon their graduation.
Panelists views included such things as, If you don't have a style you're not going to get anywhere. With someone from the audience pointing out the you might be able to do all the tricks under the sun but if your work doesn't hold together and isn't strong, that no-one will be interested.
It seems to me that the more you work at producing something that is your own the more the work you produce starts to hold together as your own. Whether you realise it or not, you will have particular tastes and patterns in your decisions and with things like the way you draw that are very much specific to you and so the only person you have to blame for not having a style is yourself.
It is your responsibilty to experiment with the things you want to experiment with and to come up with good illustrative ideas. No-one is going to do it for you.
And remember to keep experimenting and things will develop over time.
Rant over...

Oh and thanks to the staff at Sheffield uni we all thought it was a brilliant day. :)

Charles Hively Lecture -The Rise and Fall and Rise of American Illustration

I was lucky enough to attend Charles Hively’s lecture; ‘The Rise and fall and rise of American Illustration,’ at Sheffield University this week.

Hively is the producer of 3X3 a three times a year publication devoted solely to illustration. The format being that it features three illustrators written about by three of their illustrator friends. The aim of the magazine is probably best put on the magazine website;

1. “Our mission is to spotlight the best international artists working today and encourage a new focus on the use of illustration by the advertising and design communities.”

Being an ex-illustrator himself Hively started the magazine amongst a lot of negative advice from people telling him the magazine would never be successful, despite this, the magazine has gone from strength to strength since its first edition now reaching issue13.

It must be said that Hively is really all about promoting illustration as a valid method for communication compared to say, photography.

In his lecture he first explained how he got started in illustration, producing an illustration whilst under the influence of a bad cold, as well as the drugs which he had taken to subdue its effects. Producing a, ‘squewy, lined drawing’, of a local scene with a Christmas message, he was convinced that it would never see print. He was wrong of course and this was the launching board for more freelance work.

Launching an advertising agency and then becoming a creative director, he also became more involved in creating the layouts for the magazine he was involved with. This led to critical acclaim.

This gave him the opportunity to hire people that he really admired the work of and enjoy the relationship of working with people coming up with ideas. He really likes concepts and not just decoration.

This career led him to do photography, illustration and art direction, he also worked as an advertising head and this left him with a unique perspective when looking for the next thing and deciding to do 3x3 as a publisher.

Hively, as I have said is a strong believer in illustration going so far as to say that we; ‘have the power to change the cultural environment.’ Pointing out historical examples from American illustration of people wanting their hair lin the style perhaps of how a certain illustrator had drawn it or how everybody at one time could recognise, and know the name of, whoever had done a particular illustration, such was their notoriety.

The next section of the lecture contained what Hively saw as reasons for the ‘death’ of illustration. He named photography as art as one siting people like Steiglitz as art-photographers, suddenly making illustration look very dated. Photography was now capturing the environment in the way that illustration once had.

Another reason was art schools, coming up with abstract ideas representing things like emotions, that were before recognisable as an expression or action that the illustrator would draw now becoming strange shapes and smears of colour for example.

One that you might find surprising was the Apple Mac, whereby he talked about us no longer needing scrap files for resource and just googling everything for example.

Of course the lecture was not a bleak eulogy for illustration and Me Hively was of course dutifully bound to tell us of the resurrection of the illustration world and why his magazine is so successful.

He took us back to a day before computers and even photography (at least before it was used widely in print) and showed how art and illustration were almost the same thing. Moving on, he showed us how things moved on and illustration started to be used in advertising, with the obvious advantage that an illustrator can show an idea and not just a piece of art.

One problem he noted was that when he mentioned (recently) the idea that an illustrator could be hired to produce an idea to art directors that this came as a surprise to them. They had become so reliant upon photography that they were not even aware that they could hire somebody to think of and develop an idea for them. He stated that it was a problem amongst the industry that they would merely come up with an idea and then tell a photographer exactly what they wanted to see.

He stressed that this is something that us illustrators really need to take note of and that we should be pushing art directors, creative producers et-all to consider illustration as a practical and perhaps superior alternative to this sort of avenue. He also that they might be saving themselves some money by hiring just one person instead of the army of assistants and so on that the photographer needs. An illustrator will take an idea away and work on it and refine it and come up with new solutions. They have the ability to draw an idea straight from their heads onto the paper and develop it further. Also you would be buying something entirely more original, what with illustration being such a personal thing.

We were shown that a photographic style could be recreated by another photographer and you wouldn’t know who had taken the photo, but with illustration (at least good illustration) you would get that individual’s style. Interesting.

As well as this, we looked at the need for illustration to cross into the realms of art as both another source of income but also of course as a means of promotion. Hively tried to convince us that it would be pertinent to get a second job to support ourselves but also to always be looking at fresh ideas and working on our creativity, as the average illustrators career lasts maybe seven years. He suggested tactics such as having an alternate identity, a nom-de-plume, or having two or three recognisably different styles, which we can work in.

He pointed us to people such as Seymour Chwast, at Push Pin studios and animation as helping to once again breathe new life into the illustration industry.

Adding that even through digital manipulation not everyone could match the specific skills of the individual illustrator for producing ideas. ‘Not everyone can draw.’

As I have said he now enjoys promoting talented illustrators through his magazine 3x3. With his assistant Sarah they also now produce other sister magazines and they also now produce an annual for 3x3. This includes a competition contained in a section at the back of the annual.

He concluded by talking about the three things every illustrator needs to know and a list of do’s and don'ts for us all.

The three things we all need to know are;

1.

Illustration is a business.

You work for yourself -you have to be prepared to jump in head first, those that get to the edge and turn back are not going to make it.

This also means that you do your own accounts, you bill and collect (always stating; ‘net due upon receipt’). You do the filing and taxes.

2.

Websites are marketing tools.

Blogs are not, prospective clients need to see the work you are offering, not a long list of text and have to search around for the type of work you offer. You need your best work to be there straight away and not a bunch of flash animations and menus in the way.

3.

Be visible.

Don’t just print off 600 postcards; send them to the people that matter, the ones that you think will hire you. Be everywhere, a client needs to see you at least three times for you to be in their minds.

Enter every show and keep doing it. Put you work in directories (good ones) not just the ones that charge, 3x3 is a good one, people pay attention.

Show work in galleries, this will get your work to a wider audience and rovide alternate income.

Try to get your work in to memorable media, Times magazine or similar, better quality print, more memorable media, wider audience.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do be original-Don’t be a copy

Be professional-Not a prima-donna

Do try to see directors-Don’t dress like a slob

Do be outgoing-Don’t be recluse

Be assertive and positive-Don’t do jobs you can’t handle

Do get the second job and take time to promote yourself, denying work while you promote yourself gives clients the impression that you are busy, they will call again if they want you!

Do publicize-Don’t wait for the phone to ring.

Do join clubs-Don’t just join the AOI

Art directors will give you work, illustrators wont.

Do take AD’s to lunch.- Don’t just take illustrators. This will extend your career.

Support the community-Don’t just support yourself.

Do bid fairly- Don’t undercut a pro. This is just undermining the industry and will bring all commissions down, how will we make a living?

Do be prepared to barter, if a client names a price, ask for more.- Don’t just jump at the first figure out of the bag. Have an idea what the job should be worth beforehand if possible, ask the community.

Do research-Don’t just make something up.

Do lots of sketches-Don’t just use the first idea that you come up with.

Do be ruthless-Don’t show everything you’ve done, only the best or things that you are prepared to do again.

Do subscribe to print-Don’t just rely on the web.

That should give us all something to consider….

For a little more information there's a good interview with Charles here.

Damien Gasgoigne Lecture

Well, it’s taken me a while to post this one!.. My notes have been lying on my desk for weeks and I’ve been soo busy that I didn’t manage to get this typed up until now!..
Damien Gasgoinge is a teacher of animation t the royal college London. He started out as an illustrator and his work is all pen/pencil driven. After he made us laugh for about an hour he managed to give us a talk on his work and the methods and practices he is involved with at the school..
He works in the world of advertising and most of his work is driven towards these ends but his lecture focussed mainly on his technique and methods rather than explaining (or even showing) his commercial work.

During his talk he repeatedly referred to his need to be doing something creative all (or most!) of the time...He really loves his work, which was apparent in his tirelessness and seemingly boundless enthusiasm. He sees being so creative as a kind of madness and he is not ashamed to admit it. He stressed to us the need to have something to record what we see around us. He took us through some photos and sketchbook material and entertained us with the different stories he invented around this source material.
He has no qualms about stopping someone he sees making a pose or gesture he finds interesting to quickly draw them.
He usually uses a Chinese pen in ink to capture these images and they are usually on a small scale. This gives his pictures a kind of immediacy and they retain their character more easily this way.

He took a little time introducing us to some of his students, (not personally, he used photos!) explaining their personalities a little and the different things he enjoys to do with them.. Some are currently working with him to develop some 3d work, based very closely on his drawings.
Although he stated that probably about 90% of advertising animation is now digital Mr Gasgoigne has tried to avoid going down this avenue. Perhaps noting that the people that tend to work on PCs all the time are more akin to lifeless zombies than the animated fun guy he likes to perceive himself as...Can’t fault his logic really...my girlfriend will attest to this theory whole heartedly (I always thought I was such a fun guy)...He equated working in 3D to driving a Porsche in a chip shop. I guess for someone that enjoys the freedom and creativity generated in a loose, fast environment having to sit in-front of a pc with all its protocol and limitations must be very tiring indeed and I can see why he might be more than happy to leave it to someone else. I guess it has its pros and cons.

Tracy Kendall Lecture

Although not technically an illustration lecture the ebullient Tracy Kendall provided us all with a healthy insight into how a surface and pattern designer of such high standing as hers works in the industry today.
For a little background, Tracy attained her BA in fine art at Manchester and then proceeded to work for the next 18 years at the Royal College in London as a technical assistant.

Her career as a designer did not truly begin until 1996 when she approached Ilsa Crawford, of Elle magazine, whilst she was visiting the college with a design that had initially been created for her own home. This image of a blown up knife and fork is now one of her most iconic designs.
She says this moment of her launching her career was fortuitous because at the time many of the old companies associated with the type of work she produces were dying off and there were not many new ones starting out.

Following her work appearing in Elle she then began to be approached by other magazines. Among these was Marie Clare.
She could not stress enough throughout her lecture the importance of editorial pieces as a means of promotion for her designs, as she does not spend on advertising; this is a major avenue for getting her work noticed.
She does employ an agent in New York and has showroom pieces on display in a design house there to.

She spent a fair amount of time talking about the effort that goes into her trade show appearances.
We had explained to us the way that shows are approached with the need to do them differently where one show had dozens of Christmas firs suspended from the ceiling by wire. She showed different examples where small samples were hung in sections in various surroundings.
One thing she did stress that was of note, was the rate of success when plain, 'masculine', black & white images are used as compared to colour, due to the fact that, outdated as it may seem, most of the people with money at this sort of trade exhibition tend to be men.

This subject also led to her also her into talking about the importance of her designs being tactile to some degree as she explained that people always seem to need to touch her exhibits. Something she did note does not happen when they are shown as fine art.


For a while she talked about her methods as a designer and the need for an amount of trial and error in her work. The example she used was of a photocopy of a grass stem, which she stated was quite an immediate piece of imagery. The point of this being that although she would only need one piece of grass and even though it may be the first one she picked there was a need to test this by picking and testing, say, 100 such blades of grass to be sure she had the right one.

Another thing she talked about at some length, something crucial to her success, was her relationships with her trade sources and people like manufacturers. This she stressed is an ever-changing list and something she evidently works very hard to keep up with.
Things like having to re-source things due to manufacturers going out of business in the recent bad-climate, as well as tracing the manufacturers from source, thus cutting out the middle man, were put to us as examples of just how hard she has to work at the business end of things.

Besides then the printers and laser etchers and screen making people then that she employs it came as something of a surprise when she divulged that she only actually employs one girl in her workshop/studio. Somebody that came on the recommendation of a friend and helps her in the assembly of her pieces.

Tracy has just completed her MA over four years in London and talked about her relationship with her tutor(s) whilst also maintaining a professional output. During this time she completed various elements that went into editorial pieces and provided some good publicity for her work.
One in particular she remarked upon as what she had at first regarded to be a mistake by the editor, who had sent her a request to be part of a '50 famous designers' lineup.

This led to her again talking about the value of a good editorial review, something she regards as 'priceless', or even making sure that the photos she gets for her work are absolutely as good as she can make them by hiring pro-photographers, that may cost up in the region of £1000 a day (having good contacts and friends again being important, then they charge you a lot less). This is used to give her the chance of the respective photo being good enough to go on the cover of the publishment in question.
A good editorial means that for the phone; 'does not stop ringing'.
When she receives a favour from one of her contacts, she will in turn pass on details of her own contacts to them, as a favour in-kind.

Now-a-days she will get offers from different companies to work in conjunction with them to achieve goals because she is so respected within her field. She has gained contracts such as designing wall decorations for 25 rooms for a hotel in Paris. Both things which she stated were a bit of an exercise in self-confidence as she had to have the presence of mind to be able to say when something was wrong and to state what her influence on the design procedure was/is.
Other recent work was on the Frost French changing rooms.

Another thing of note was he different sorts of red tape she encounters in different countries with her designs. Where as one country will allow anything to be put on the wall. Different guidelines for safety will, for example in New York mean that she cant use certain things or (as in one case) the entire wall covering has to be coated with a flame retardent solution!
She noted that when the installation though is regarded as an art piece all the rules change again.


She is still experimenting with new designs, still sourcing out new materials to deal with and is currently appreciating the minimal aspect of her designs. She stated that it was only necessary for her to use maybe a 5cm strip of colour on a whole wall covering to have the kind of impact she desires.

Barcelona & Patrick Thomas

So, we returned from Barcelona a few weeks ago and this post is a little late in coming.

The visit at STUDIO LA VISTA to meet Patrick Thomas was an interesting insight into how an independent illustrator lives and works. I think I became more interesed in the surroundings than looking at the presentation he had prepared for us though. It was a intriguing to see how he will sometimes take the first thing that google brings up and pretty much use that to form his image. There was a heavy use of screen print in his work and he was eager to stress the amount of process that goes into the final production of his work. The images were kept very simple and there is little or no evidence of drawing in his work, most probably due to his beginnings in as a graphics student.

The Picasso Museum was awesome. Really giving me a much fuller appreciation of his talent and ability and his cause throughout his carreer. I found a little out about myself I think and was inspired by his ability to change his style and outlook and really too change the face of art as we know it. Truly he deserves the moniker of genius with which he was associated.

I thought it was important to write up some of the notes I gathered on the Miro museum we visited there (considering I managed to almost fill an entire notepad with notes!).
Not really having a lot of prior knowledge on the artist upon entering the museum let me really immerse myself in the place and approach it with an open view.
Inside we are exposed to a really wide array of artworks, from sculpture and (extremely large!) weaving, to carvings and of course the many paintings. I thought of him more as an illustrator of ideas and really began to appreciate the (somewhat cryptic) message of his work. While it took a lot of thinking about the semiotic references contained there when it bagan to filter in I was astounded by the sometimes vivid message towards the establishment which he despised. His feelings of disgust for the war and commentary on the other great themes are more than adaquately displayed within the exhibition.
It was interesting to read how he thought that his work; 'reduced life to a more simple time,'
and to observe how people would look at the scribblings comtained within the work and mockingly observe the reference to the male genitalia, deliciously unaware of the irony and their ignorance of the piece as a whole.
All in all he gave me more of an appreciation for the visual language he employed and as peer of Picasso provides an interesting juxtaposition as an artist that certainly never developed the degree of draftsmanship evident in picasso's earlier work, but did however communicate to anyone with an appreciation the newer ideas in art and some of those possibilities.
He explained himself that, 'I have always evaluated the poetic content according to the visual possibilities'.

Whilst in the city we also managed to visit the Segrada Familia, the project begun as the brainchild of Gaudi and then later adopted under Franco's regime and subsequently wrecked by introducing completely different design ideal. One has to wonder how it would have looked if Gaudi's design would have been allowed to come into fruition.

We also managed to visit the MACBA gallery. Here however I believe we reached saturation. Whilst there was some interesting commentary on the culture of spain and indeed the last 100 years or so, and some great spontanious shots captured within, we all decided to try to absorb the cuture more directly from here and went and explored the city on foot.

Tal Rosner lecture

Tal Rosner is another BAFTA winning film-maker. Recently we were lucky enough to recieve a lecture by him at our college on his work.

The focus was mainly on his work over the last four years or so...

He firstly completed a graphic design degree and then an MA at ST Martens studying the moving image pathway. During this time he learned the software (mainly after effects) by himself. Largely it seems, by trial and error.

The first part of the lecture consisted largely of clips of his films, first of which was DOPPELGANGER; This was his final piece for his Masters degree and he regards it as his 'true starting point, his first complete film'.
The film for the work was made by attaching the camera to a train that ran around the london docklands. The film has been edited in after effects and transformed into a piece of moving, mirrored mesh of pattern and mood set to an exciting techno soundtrack.
The screen would split off like a kaleidoscope into quarters as segmented parts of mirrored film dubbed to be in time with the music.

Following this he obtained what he had thought would be his dream job working within a larger crew on big projects. This he soon realised though would not be the opportunity he first thought and he became unhappy, wanting more time for his own smaller, personal projects.

After explaining this he showed us another film, a collaboration with a pair of female pianists playing music written for two pianos. The particular piece he made a film for was by STRAVYNSKI; This film again concentrates a lot on pattern and rythm, with the buildings becoming more abstracted throughout it's progress.
The screen is mainly split centrally and use of colour, speed and rythm as well as different types of scenery are all used as part of Tal's visual language throughout.
It's fun to think how different things might be employed and to note how green fields and passages of buildings, factories and industrial sections all move with different movements of the music. Or for example, how at one point the pointed mark of an unusual singular stab of a bass key which is out of sync with the rest of the music, is signified with the negative static image of a singular tree. A repeated motif.

This sort of synchronisation and pattern it seems is something Tal has tried to improve upon with his work, the next piece DEBUSSY BLANC ET NOIR showed even more experimentation with this sort of translation.
During this film different sort of mood was portrayed whilst footage of mainly coastal areas was displayed. Reversing the film, much use of statics and a lot of changes of the images using the strong manipulation techniques available with the Adobe suite it seems have been employed.

Much more compositing of images is used now and the effect is again interesting and different.

Off the back of the Stravinsky piece Tal says he managed then to secure a job producing a low budget title sequence on the E4 project that became SKINS. He showed us a film of the first title sequence of the series.
After explaining that this was final edit version number 72(!!! :0 ), he explained how some of the original ideas for had to be modified, like how originally they had planned nine different outros as well as the famous intros for each character.
This work has a much more commercial feel and but it definately feels in line with the rest of Tal's earlier work.

Another piece he showed us was very much a musical endeavor where he had worked with his friend Sophie Clements. He called this his first collabritive piece with a lot of analysis and communication of how the film should work.
The piece was made in time with a wind up piano and really just has to be seen to be appreciated. Follow the link.

He carried on to speak about his collaboration with the London Symphony orchestra on The seven days of Creation. A project that meant employing six screens being projected above the orchestra and synchronising his effects with the music.
We talked about some of the issues this raised technically, including how the conductor would be able to ensure that they stayed in synchronicity and how the images and footage were chosen, how much time was needed to be spent working so closely together.
It seems as though there was a lot of very close debate as to what would work when and how.

He went on to explain about a newer piece commissioned by Channel 4 as part of their annual animation schemes designed to challenge the boundaries of animation. This forced him to find new avenues of inspiration and he began by basing it around a circle around London that he had found interesting for various reasons.
The film, WITHOUT YOU was as much about the sounds that went with the footage as it had been filmed and the emotional impact of this.
He also explained the influence of the poetry of the artist Josef Albers which has helped to inspire the film. He as eager to point out the fact that few people realised that Albers had a collection of poetry as he is obviously more widely recognised as a visual artist.


He was asked afterwards about his personal influences and he named mainly work from the period of about 1905-35

He states that he tries to provoke an emotional response with his work.

He sees himself more as a sculptor of images. An intersting thought considering the amount he manipualtes the resource at his disposal.

Vera Neubauer @ the cornerhouse

Just got back from the cornerhouse, went to check out the drawing exhibit (the intertwining line, more about that later) and managed to catch another talk about contemporary animation (Tal Rosner was yesterday and again, more about that in another post...).

For those of you that are unaware Vera Neubauer is a two time BAFTA award winning film maker of more than 30 years.
Born in Chezchoslovakia, she moved to Germany to study applied art, then later on to printmaking at the royal college where she moved on to the moving image. Here, although it was not being officially taught in schools until about 1985, she began to study animation.

It is perhaps due to this unstructured, experimental, method whereby she was; "given a camera and told to go and find out how it worked herself", that her work is so loose and immediate.
The ink & brushwork she employs so often is intrinsic to the nature of her films, they convey a sense of immediacy and spontanaity and are a good tool for the process whereby, "the communication of the idea is more important than whether or not it is a fine, intricate, beautifuly crafted drawing..." In-fact she sees her drawings; "more as designs".

She was eager to stress throughout the interview that she felt it was more important to keep the energy up thoughout the creation of her films. That; "any loss of enthusiasm shows in the finished piece."

We saw a total of four examples of her films in the short time we were allocated, all incorporating the loose drawing style, we were infromed that these pieces fitted in more with the theme of the exhibition. They were;

"Cannon Fodder." c1971.
Her final piece for the Royal College, London.

"Lady Of The Lake." c1995.
A fairy tale type affair with that underlying moralistic theme, bewitching and clever.

"The Mummy's curse."c1987.
Of which we only saw five minutes, which was a shame ...It was only just getting started.

"I Dance." c1999.
Which is only about a minute long.

"Wheel of Life." c1996.
A biblical episode whereby the story of Adam and eve then Cain and Abel is told by use of a mix of stop frame animation using sand as the medium and film of the sea and other elements mixed together. She said that the story of the bible contained all of the elements she wanted to convey.

When asked who her influences were she became a little confused. She explained that we are bombarded by many, many things every day and to try to extrapolate only one or two influences from all of these things was foolish. She employs any medium which suits the purpose for her idea which in turn fuels her originality.
She did howerver (after some cajoling) mention Robert Breer.

I would say that there was a heavy influence of african style in much of her imagery.

Her films are an interesting mix of suggestions and visual metaphors and ideas that there is almost too much going on sometimes.
They are complex and yet simple they make a good representation of an emotional state, sometimes turmoil, sometimes joy, sometimes just plain awe. Any trick is employed to create the desired motion of the characters and elements and to portray their thoughts and feelings.
One moment the camera will shake back and forth to simulate a character sahking their head in hesitation, the next, the picture before us changes from a couple in coitus, then exploding into myraid shapes and forms.

She was a little perplexed that making one film with some adult themes in meant that all of a sudden she was percieved by the industry as somebody who only makes films purely for adults. She played down any mention of feminist angles in her films, although there was certainly a hint of freudian language.
It seemed to be a need for Vera to work in some isolation and out of the 'heirarchies and structure,' of animation studios, to retain her freedom and creative sense that she has ended up working this way. She takes her influences from things she sees around her and usually on quite a tight budget.

She has no immediate plans for the future, no comissions in the pipe line anyway. It seems that the peaks and troughs of demand for her type of work depand on the fickle nature of the fine art community.
And so it seems she has now earned herself a little 'play time'