I totally thought I could have this either done, or mostly done by now, since I wanted to have this storyboarded for my animated short. But, a number of things popped up. First I realized I needed to have a working character design for the little wild fox character, which I still haven't nailed down yet, but it definitely reachable.
A BIG one is my confidence, since I'm so frustrated with my drawing skills. my anatomy, proportions, etc. are just NOT up to the level I want. SO, not big deal, just do the Life Drawing stuff, or Croquis Cafe... but, I'm almost out of paper.... so, I'm guessing that's a cause for anxiety in the back of my mind... I also got sick. My lungs are infected right now, but at least I can see now.
I guess I'm trying to be as honest as I can with myself. I actually WOULD like this short to be a short, showcase of WHAT I'm capable of... however, I still need to rebuild and regrow back what I lost, and then go from there.
Then, I when I sat down several times to try and do some rough thumbnails for storyboards, I realized my vision of Lively look in this wasn't actually set... I usually have her more sleek, or sporty, even tho' she can also be VERY whimsical, and fantasy.
When I sat down for the first rough thumbnail this was what came out:
So, there she is, entering the savanna, but she's in a more sporty sleek look, which does tend to be typical of her that's skin tight. I haven't decided on the final look for her satchel/bag yet.
But, I'm definitely keeping the Thigh High "Pretty Woman" early 1990s boots! They will be flat tho', and EARTHY BROWN.
But, as a I sat down to work on another sketch for the Seven Days of Artworks Challenge THIS came out:
So, the old early 1990s poet blouse look kinda came back. This is what I called "the Hedroll look" since Lively originally used to be 2 girls in the early 90s.
I'm torn between the 2 looks... the Poet Blouse will actually be a LOT more work, even if kept simplified. It would require layers of animation. However, it WILL make it look & feel better....
I did get to do some sketching practice once in a while, whenever I wasn't doing something UMASS related or hospital related, because my kid could've bled to death, and still has this issue ongoing.
Djehkäujaa was especially on my mind for most of November. I would very much like her singing voice to be someone like the late Melanie Thornton (La Bouche), who's anniversary passing just occurred. It was interesting because I'd totally forgotten it was that time, and my art practicing with Djehkäujaa was way surpassing my expectations out of no where, and I kept thinking about Melanie. I know I'm such a baby over it, but it stings.
Miss u Melanie!
Here's the sketches as I got them going last month:
If you want to see the full version on DeviantART of Djehkäujaa's nude sketch it's HERE but u need to be logged in because it's censored due to nudity.
I still want to continue practicing sketching, human anatomy, and continuing working on developing & refining the characters for "Zenith", but as things come to me, sometimes I need to take advantage of what is happening and go with it to make the most of my times. I definitely still plan on developing more with Djehkäujaa and Ao Xingtao, but I really want to try to push through these storyboards before February.
I'm not sure exactly how this this little wild fox character will turn out yet, since I just started last night by sketching from wild life photos on Google of foxes, but I need way more practice.
It's a VERY short animated short concept. So, I want the characters to look n feel exactly right. I am thinking about keeping Lively much the same, or similar to, way she is in the charcoal piece.
As you can see, the little wild fox is crouching beneath Lively, freaking out over the throng of flying horses landing in the savannah.
As I think about it now, I think I might've actually chosen BLUE charcoal paper due to Erasure's song "Blue Savannah". At the age when I worked on this concept, I owned a moderate stack Erasure CDs (and some tapes) and when I worked on the charcoal picture at home I was playing mostly Erasure's "I Say I Say I Say" album, along with Disney music probably Aladdin, as well as music by Real McCoy, and Fun Factory. I also listened to Soho's "No Hippy Chick", and tracks by Stereo MC.
I'm thinking I probably want to may the fox's paws & legs as black, or dark brown. But, I think probably black. The ears with probably be black. I'm not exactly sure what color i want the fox to be. I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be a brown fox, or a typical red fox. Or, should I go off the wall n make it cherry red?
A photo posted by Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman 任思麒 (@blackunigryphon) on
Anyways, I've consulted my daughter to come up with some concepts & designs herself also for the wild fox. I like a lot of the designs she comes up with. So, I want input from her.
I want the shape & form of the fox to have more geometrical shapes to it. I don't know how to explain this. I want it to be pretty and somewhat cute, but not TOO cute. Not too round like a baby face, and not doofy. I also want it to dart around, and be streamlined.
This could take me some time.
The bulk of my time for now is finishing my film at UMASS this month. Also, today I have VIP tickets to watch The Moscow Ballet perform The Nutcracker in Boston w my daughter thanx to Yelp Elite (because I'm Yelp Elite 2016).
I want to Storyboard this short story and all the scenes in sequence, hopefully in a decent quality of the story I came up with when I was in Middle School in the 90s.
This Charcoal Illustration was exhibited in Congress ("Eyewitness") when I was 15 years old, and it's my most beloved piece from that time period. It's weeks worth of work EVERY DAY.
The story is STILL very clear inside my mind, altho' even tho' I made this on pale cyan blue paper, I think I would probably go with a warmer tone.
I also have a whole sequence in mind for the little fox with Lively. The fox is freaking out from shock & awe of giant flying creatures coming out of the sky, and cowering beneath Lively's legs.
Even tho' I'm so critical, and so frustrated with 3D animation, this is something I would LOVE to do a hybrid using 3D modeling but with semi rhodoscoping over top in traditional animation.
It would NOT be long at all. It would be a very short story.
I've been mulling it over in my mind, and I'm divided on whether I would like this with electronic music, or more of a symphony, or a hybrid of both. If i went with an orchestra score I would want it to be similar in style to the film score by Klaus Doldinger and Giorgio Moroder (which DOES actually have small bits of electronic synthesizer fusion in it) for "The Neverending Story" but I could just as easily see/hear something just as nice done electronically like Erasure's "I SAY I SAY I SAY" album or their self titled album following that one. I am also fond of the hybrid sound in the 2 albums by "Akara".
THIS:
I just LOVE the energy in that! The strings and the horns!
I also like a bit of the old Dune soundtrack by TOTO but, probably NOT that.
I suppose I could stortyboard this one also, but I don't want it to be a total rip-off of the first one.
I'm hoping that once my semester is over by end of December, I can work on trying to come up with the roughs and thumbnails for the animated short. I do not know whether the short would, or could, actually EVER be produced, but it is my dream to do so hopefully before I die.
I started classes at UMASS, but it was HELL. I had a number of medical issues which hampered everything, until I had to drop out of nearly everything. But, I kept the video class and my Work Study job.
Then, to make matters more absurd, my daughter had a life threatening condition and had to get a double blood transfusion, so we spent the entire weekend and most of Monday at The Tufts Floating Hospital in Boston.
I almost took her to the emergency room on Friday night, and she was slowly bleeding out to oblivion.... So, in order to cope with the entire nerve wracking situation despite the nerve wracking month of anxiety, insomnia, and severe depression I grabbed my sketchbook.
And this Mori sketch decided to sketch its self out onto my paper... it changed a number of times before it became this. I tried to keep it simple... I actually lost a lot of interest in it about halfway through, but Instagram seemed to like it somewhat.
But, Id already been on a SciFi futuristic kick the past few weeks, and as I was almost halfway doen with this sketch, I was already yearning for futuristic SciFi n Cyber Punk stuff, which was strange because I had been REALLY feeling this when I'd started it.
I could easily see this as an "Eyewitness" short from my other series revolving around mostly Lively. I could probably go several different directions with this, but especially if I had the right song or music.
However, I'm not so sure it;s really "fresh" or new, and probably is too similar to other things... I'm guessing... afew things come to mind...
if I were to get "Eyewitness" off the ground the way I want it to be, and perhaps is a fan-base liked this concept enough, I might actually create this as something...
I've finally scanned these old vintage storyboards I did. I did these back when i was in college. the scene ideas had already been in my mind since about 1998, but they really started to become something in 1999 when I was in college in Philadelphia full time.
I learned a lot from an animation teacher, Sam, whom got fired.
Unfortunately, they don't actually "flow" "correctly" the way storyboards are supposed to... So, there's sort of fragmented... if anything, they seem to "cut" much like a music video style of editing would....
But, I want this piece to flow just right. Its especially meaningful to me. Also, this scene is crucial to other plot pivoting points in the story line.
Here is the rough acrylic painting version I just recently did:
I will eventually need to redo them.... however, I don't have the music for it composed. I feel that I will NEED that music in order to create the piece effectively. I want a whole song/musical part.
I want a song that is similar to this style, but I want to have something totally new composed:
I want this scene to convey the free spirited fun-loving personality of Djehkäujaa, my dragon character. However, she sneaks away form the pack/flock of the other dragons, whom have become fundamentalist isolationists, whom would frown upon her inter-species relationships/friendships with "silly creatures".
Djehkäujaa's openness in playing with dolphins and other fun-loving playful creatures plays an important part in the story much later on in the story...
There's a reason why the dragons are so rigid and isolationist... but, their stubborn rigidness will backfire... there's a lot of backfiring in this story...
It'd definitely not my best painting work. But, I'm so entirely out of practice. My spouse also threw away decades worth of paint brushes, vintage irreplaceable brushes, and vintage paints/pigments.
I'm also not a fan of painting on rough canvas, I like smoother ones, or illustration board... but, for landscape paintings I think either canvas paper, or canvas pages are good.
Here's the first try:
But, I really hated it. I went through hours upon hours for days worth of researching references.
I also was frustrated with my crappy quality brushes, paints/pigments, and my spouse's annoying compulsive need to feel in control over everything just killed and/or "interrupted my creative flow".
I wish art worked like a clock... but, it doesn't... not ur real art(the stuff ur not employed to do which had a different motive in being created).
When it comes to PAINTING I like to have a nice set up, that's all set up, free, and open, secure, and stable to flow... if that makes sense to you, GOOD. If not, don't know what else to tell you...
The act of setting up, and putting away, is cumbersome, annoying, meticulous, and drains me... so, I'll either get obsessed with every friggin detail of that, or get FED UP with all of that, that I become reckless, irritable, irritated, and drained from doing that, that it bothers my process.
As an artist, my spouse is the exact polar opposite, and I HATE IT.
So, I finally went back to try fixing up and repainting it after checking who knows how many styles of painting techniques FOR JUST CLOUDS, 2 days later...
The constant pestering me to PAINT PAINT PAINT "ARE YOU GONNA PINT?" or "WHEN ARE YOU GONNA PAINT?" was just so unbearably irritating and pressurizing, plus the fact that I ALSO STILL HAVE A LUNG INFECTION, and I WANT TO GO BACK TO THE GYM which I paid out big dollars to get a membership to, have massive panic over getting diabetes since I'm getting older, and him PESTERING THE SHIT out of my to GO TO THE GYM that I don't understand WHY HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND! Also, in his mind, he thinks he's being helpful, supportive, etc...
When i first GOT my gym membership I was SO HAPPY! I was pestering HIM to drive me EVERY DAY, then I GOT SOME VIRUS, and just when I was recovering from it, I got sick again even worse 3 days later!
I'm so FED UP with poverty. It's like poverty is a disease its self!
AND, since OI was sick, I couldn't apply for jobs, because I had no voice, and had puss coming out of me, and coughing. HOW long do u need to be married to a person to finally "get it" that I HEAL SLOW when it comes to respiratory illnesses???? Plus, add onto that the INSANE weather, the blizzards, and the perpetual cold, arctic winds, and deep freezes we just had! I can;t even go outside! The windchill is too cold! I'm an asthmatic. But, he will reak the fuck out when the kid has a toy that MIGHT agitate her asthma, or get up early in the morning to warm up the car, so she might not get an asthma problem... WTF?
Anyways, I went back 2 days later, and reworked it... this time I just fell back on some color theory... I couldn;t really get the painting to look like I wanted in my mind, but when I tried working with the colors based on the limited palet I have, and went with the color theory, it looked/felt a bit batter.
Since he was being such a snit over my paints being set up at the table, and I'm guessing it offended his ego's extended sense of control perceptions of his reality... I dunno... I just don't friggin' feel like fighting... because if I start fighting, I'm bringing the house down... and it's not worth it.
Also, my university application had some hick-ups which he also wants to be micro manager of, like I'm some helpless idiot child...
So, I moved it to the corner of the room where my daughter's computer used to be.
But, it's such an awkward spot, that I can't feel myself always wanting to go there...
I started another painting... then let it dry... But, I kinda "lost my vision" and lost my mojo...
Strangely, I actually felt the urge to work on it tonight... but, he kept saying he wanted to work in that corner tonight... 4-5 hours have already passed as I write this and he still hasn't...
I wanted to practice some clouds, or try some different ideas... but, I can't see them anymore...
I was wanting to do some scenes from my old concept storyboards.
But, my story concepts are kind of evolving... the fantasy aspect of it, is actually going a bit further now in my mind...
And, I think I want perhaps a Binary solar system, and extra satellites (moons) in the skies.
I keep seeing it in my mind that way.... and, it looks prettier each time I see it.
I need/want more "weird" and kind of strange, but beautiful....
Here's some weird inspirational references:
I went through a lot of stuff on DeviantART and put some stuff in 1 of my folder in my Favorites.
I also have a lot of stuff I found, and put into my FAVORITES on Flickr, including clouds, aerial, wide angle, dawn and dusk.
I pretty much know the gist of what I want, and sometimes its very clear, and other times its vague. Trying to get it just right, or getting it more well planned and thought out is a process I'm still trying to work out. I also don't have the music I want.
Some weird old 90s stuff from my teenage-hood:
I like this... its kinda old and dated, but I still like it. But, I don't want my story/film to look like this. I have my own ideas. Not interested in a beach scene. Nope. But, it has that "weird" and beautiful aspect I like.
Also, even tho' I utterly LOVE this song, it's not the music style I want for this scene either.
This is closer to what style I want, but I want to create a new original musical piece (BTW also 90s):
I've been trying to find an old vintage cable TV commercial for the Sci-Fi Channel from the '90s with the geese and the weird planets in the sky... But, I can never, ever find it. :(
I.) I am the wind, The wind that flows freely, I am the wind that blows me to you. I am the wind. Trees and grasses sway, Song birds sing and play, Letting go, To and Fro, As leaves in the wind, I let go. I submit to the breeze.... Bend me to your will like a reed in the wind, Now the wind and I are one.... Free.... Just be.... I am the wind.....
********************* II.) Reprise It is the wind, Which has brought me here. It is the wind, That blows me to you. Softly and sweetly, Boldly and breezy. I am here now..... Fertile as the Earth, Beneath my feet, Stable as the ground, And stretching streets. Flowing like a river, Vast as oceans and seas, Rushing like a dam, That just broke free. Alive and warm, As flickering flame, Etched in my heart, Is forever your name. The light within fills my eyes, And, everything becomes the sky. We are one with the wind....
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I think this piece might actually be for Lively.
It has 2 parts, and could probably have more parts if I decided to write them.
I'm not exactly, nor entirely, sure of how I want this one to go.... It's still vague inside of my mind.
Keep on going.... (echoes) Keep on going.... (echoes) Keep on going.... (echoes) Keep me going.... (echoes) Keep on running.... (echoes) Keep on running.... (echoes) Keep on running.... (echoes) Keep me running.... (echoes)
Keep on flying.... (echoes) Keep on flying.... (echoes) Keep on flying.... (echoes) I keep on flying.... (echoes)
Keep on going.... (echoes) Keep on running.... (echoes) Keep on flying.... (echoes) I keep on flying.... (echoes) Keep on going........ (echoes)
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The version published on DeviantART is found HERE.
This one is still another song/lyrics for Djehkäujaa, but it might be inter-cut with Lively. Lively is definitely in this project/story.
This is another simple piece. It's meant to be more music than vocals. the lyrics are a pattern with variations.
I want this one to be 90s Euro trance style but with some strings like guitars and/or dulcimers or zithers, but very strong synthesizers with ambient and melody parts. It will mostly be down tempo, but still a 4/4 beat is very likely. A lot of reverberation and echoing. It will have a slow intro, and tempo changes in different parts... I want to have a balance of bass or notes lower on the scale, with higher pitch as well.
I am not sure whether I want the vocals to be male or female, but I do not want a deep voice for it.
