Showing posts with label dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dragon. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Musical Moods For A Dragon

There's quite a good chunk of music from the mid-late 1990s that I feel very much fits the moods I'm going for... however, I want the music to be new and original, yet within those old styles...

The majority is electronic, but I also like some Tribal Fusion....


There is an album by Scooter called "Wicked" which really inspires a lot of the stuff for me... (among a number of other marvelous albums from that time period)  but, I don't want my project/product to be a Scooter project. I want it to be Kandice's project.

Scooter is also 3 men, and yet my project is feminine.

I also like the music by Yoko Kanno in Macross Plus, which is unlike the music in any other Macross projects/films/series.








Yoko Kanno is very diverse in her music styles that I am often supersized to find a song I like only to find out later that it was by her. Her music is so diverse and eclectic.


I like a LOT of German stuff. This is one of those bands/groups that was really innovative at the time, and at 1 point did a whole album in classical music.













I do also like Blümchen (Jasmin Wagner) whom was my ultimate favorite in the 90s! But, I feel much of her music is more of a mood for Lively than for Djehkäujaa:
















There's also a 90s album by Sarah Brightman that is quite lovely, and I also like the moods in it as well.


I also like the newer take on stuff, like Tribal Fusion. I really like Stellamara, and their Devotional Musical styles as well as their remixes, altho' they aren't 90s.





I am quite enamored with this lovely device: Roland Bassline 303 vintage (no longer in production). When it first released it was about $400 and now if you can get one, even a broken one, it costs THOUSANDS! Nothing else quite has THAT SOUND.






And...... I always wanted one of these KORG KAOSS Pads!



Old Vintage Rough Sketches n Doodles of Djehkäujaa 002

Here are some very old vintage 1999 sketches I did when I was at AIPH in Philadelphia.

I feel like Djehkäujaa is probably my most proudest character I've ever created. She's dynamic in many ways, physically, mentally, emotionally, metaphorically, and figuratively... So, if my project ever becomes anything, like a film or video series of shorts, I want it to be worthy and befitting of her.

Some of this stuff I actually don't like anymore...  or, it's not very good... oh well...














The Owl Motif

Unfortunately, the majority of my old concept work with owl motifs are pretty much lost forever... I often liked to work with symbolism, and motifs, when I was younger, and since I first started developing this story & characters, I kept incorporating owls... In the King James version of the Bible (which I did read in various parts as a kid) there's a verse that goes:

King James Job 39:29 

"I am brother to dragons and companion to owls."

There are, however, so many other translations of this verse now, that I've seen it written all different ways... and not even as "dragons" or even "owls"...
As it turns out, the Bible doesn't actually say whatever you previously thought it did... there's much better translations out there now, and different original manuscripts also...

So, I feminized it and changed it to:

I am sister to dragons and familiar to owls....
or various other versions I scribbled out in other lost sketchbooks...

So, here's the only thing I could find, so far, of anything with the owl motifs:


At the end of the year (2015) in December I started to notice OWLS, but by New Year it was EVERY DAY... It was kinda freaking me out, actually.... But, literally, at least 1 random owl will show up throughout the day, online, on TV, radio commercials....  it's generally way more than that. Usually about 3 per day...

Back in January it kept happening so frequently than even my family began noticing owls also.

I kept wondering why... I'm not really New Age anymore.... but, I kept recalling that in my old Dragon film project (this one) that I often incorporated owls into everything with the dragon character... Now, here I am, scanning my dragon drawings....















Through the helped of a very wonderful friend of mine, I managed to get the new Free Open Source version of OpenToonz by Studio Gibli. I'm very grateful also.

I manged to get the thing to work...

I think perhaps after I am done scanning my stuff, eventually, I might play around with it...

I know which scenes I would like to experiment with.... but, I don'[t know how to create and arrange music to be exactly what I want....






Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Old Vintage Rough Sketches n Doodles of Djehkäujaa 001

Let's be very clear about this: There are not 2 Djehkäujaas, there is 1! 

Djehkäujaa is a DRAGON! 

See? She's a DRAGON!!!! 

But, then she screws up REALLY BAD... and THEN she's a Humanoid!


Actually, she looks just like a human, and smells very much like one, and there's actually a number of VERY FUNNY indirect things because of that!

Even tho' I DO NOT intend this to be a comedy, there's several FUNNY bits in the story, all about her!

For one, her name is Djehkäujaa... but, most people can't pronounce her name correctly!

So, not only does she hate being a human, and looks so much like a human, but the humans can;t pronounce her name! She gets REALLY MAD!

OK, for English speaking people It sounds like "Jeh-koy-yaa"

See the double "aa" at the end of her name? That is a Looooong held vowel.

But, for many Germanic language speaking people, they can ALL pronounce her name correctly! ^_^

If you've EVER taken basic lessons in standard High German (Hoch Deutsch) then you WILL be able to pronounce the name, ;P

It's kind of a parody of my own name (Kandice) since people often mispronounce it when I'm in other countries, or in America, people often my write my name and spell it some other way. In Germany, NO ONE AT ALL could pronounce my name, not in Nederland! SO I had to write my name like this: Kändiß or Kändiss... but, even when I wrote it THAT WAY the "i" as they pronounce it would become "ee" like Kandeess... or they would call me "Ken-diss".

Literally, my brother, father, and grand father are named Ken! WTF!?


And, in China, kandice becomes "Kan de si" which means "Able To Hack To Death".
Oh, great! :-/

Then, that was changed to "Kai di se" which kinda means something like "Hey! Fetch me some silk, yo!" or something...  But, I don't like THAT because in German "Kai" is a MAN'S NAME!!!!!

After reading a number of Chinese novels, and watching untold numbers of Kung Fu movies, and Chinese daytime & prime time soap operas... I was like Screw this!

I need a Chinese name. the Ming Zi standard kind. Not this dumb creepy or dorky foreigner sounding name.

So, my ACTUAL Chinese name is 任思麒 Ren SiQi.  There's a whole long story about that also....
AND, I'm SURE u can't pronounce it either!  LOL! XD

It's also a name I can use in other parts of South Asia, including Japan, Korea, and Indonesian areas where they use written Chinese, but all pronounced totally differently.


Another funny thing is her wings and tail...

Well.... she doesn't always have them..... she also doesn't know why.... (I do, tho')

When she first becomes a humanoid, she still has them, but they "burn away" like acid... Poof!

She's, of course, devastated & traumatized by this.... BECAUSE SHE'S A DRAGON.

But, then, they randomly can come back, painfully, and just pop right up... often at THE WORST MOMENTS... so, there's some comedy in there...




When Djekäujaa is a dragon, she's so free spirited that she's reckless and careless. But, as a Humanoid she's SO EMO, glum, depressed, or stern, because she's SO DEVASTATED, regretful, humiliated, and lost. Like grief within grief.

Also, she was never supposed to be among humans, and was originally very curious about them, but being stuck as a humanoid form is so revolting to her, because she thought so highly of herself as a DRAGON. And, she will tell you: I AM A DRAGON!

However, being stuck as a human form, means she must adapt... and, altho' she resents it at first, knowing dragons SHE LIKES SHINY THINGS! ....oh... and SHE Starts to get a MAJOR SHOE COLLECTING FETISH!

So, more and more, she starts to take on a lot of characteristics of a human woman, like going CRAZY for SHOES!















Saturday, March 26, 2016

Dragon Scans (So Far)


Scanning old vintage sketches, character design, and concept art...


I've torn apart my house looking for my old sketches of Djehkäujaa.

In case you haven't noticed yet, she's a dragon. But, she also has a humanoid form, and there's a reason for that.

Unfortunately, trying to find all my of best work of her is very difficult, and have serious trouble trying to find them!

Luckily, I found some of her character design head sketches. 


I've scanned a number of the sketches in high resolution, and I've been cleaning up some, and publishing them to my DeviantArt gallery.













In honor of post the sketches of her her, I'd like to include this song by the German band "Scooter" called "The First Time" which if you listen to the song, the mood is very much an inspiration to this concept work, and her. The mood very much captures some of what I want for my project, in 1 part. Actually, I feel a number of vintage 1990s (Eurodance, techno, trance, electronica) European music (some Japanese inspiration also) inspires me intensely in the creation of this, where as my "Eyewitness" project is more of a UK synth pop music inspiration and some modern fusion stuff from California.

I really loved the old vintage Scooter music, even tho' I believe all of it is good over the years. Their band members have changed a number of times. Usually, their music has the vocals of HP Baxter, but this one does not.

Even tho' I generally have a major major dislike for "Drum N Bass" styles of garage music, this one is more of a Euro Trance style. the mood it has, keeping the composition simple but with layers of sound effects in the arrangement effectively expresses the mood. Also, the female vocal with a foreign accent adds to that haunting & strange yet beautiful mood feeling...

I would also recommend that  if you are not sober, to be careful when listening to this song, because it's a very moving experience that you will not experience while sober.

However, I felt I wanted, and the project its self wanted, to have and make an entirely new and original song in a slightly similar style, but totally new and original. I would prefer my new version to probably be either a 2-step rhythm (dub step) instead of drum n base, or just Psy Trance style with 4/4 beats....

Also, I feel I might like a slight touch of Eastern fusion into it...Scooter had a down tempo single "She's The Sun" which had some Eastern fusion in it... but, a totally different style. t.A.t.U. has a slight bit of that Eastern fusion vibe in the song "Stars"
If you like Eastern Fusion music, you might like Stellamara or their remixes, or Temple Step Project, or Beats Antique. However, I feel this old Scooter track style and mood fit it better than those which are either too hard, too soft, or a different mood altogether.


If the song and the sketches don't seem to make any sense to you, or seem unrelated, or you don;t understand it. let me put it to you this way:

Imagine you were a dragon all of your life, and then you screwed up really bad, and found yourself totally alone in the desolate wilderness like the plains of Mongolia, far away from anything and anyone familiar to you....  bewildered, lost and confused, and even you were not the same.... your body is not the same.... and, you look down into pond of water and see your face, as not your face.... as a different face that you didn't recognize... 

No one to help you, no one to recognize you, and nothing will ever be the same ever again.... not even you. 




Here are the High Resolution Scans that I somewhat cleaned-up.





These sketches here aren't very good. they're very terrible rough doodles, and they also didn't scan very well either, nor clean-up very well for that matter...

























Blue Fairy World Melody (demo) MUSIC


The Story of This Melody/Song:

The basic story is this:

When I was 6 years old, in the 1980s, my family had moved to a new house in Mount Laurel NJ (from Willingboro NJ to Levit Town PA, then to Mt. Laurel) . That summer our neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Blue has a summer party. It was sometime either the end of June or Early July, and they often invited tons of their relatives that I can recall. they were about 80-90 years old. I don't specifically recall.

During that party I went inside the house and was playing with the kids, and then I think it was a man, asked me if I wanted to play on the piano. I actually didn't know how to play. But, when I looked at the piano it was like a magical moment, and I felt as tho' the piano was calling to me. So, I immediately went over to the piano and sat down.

I had a VERY wild imagination as a child, that it was REALLY A HUGE PROBLEM in school, and when I was very very little I thought I could see fairies. But, when I was 6 I did not. I knew the difference between pretend and real, but I could still get VERY caught up inside my imagination, that real life was just something that I would override in my my mind. This, summer party, however, was different. It was very similar to when I would get caught up in my art and drawings. I also did not take my drawings very seriously, because I thought everyone could do that, and also did not think of myself as an artist. It was just a silly or fun thing I did.

In that moment, I sat at the piano, and began to improvisationally play the piano. I did not know how to do this, nor that I could. But, I began to play patterns that repeated themselves or vary on the keys. I just thought I should do that, and I liked the way it sounded.

Then, I felt as tho' I was in another world -a world of fairies! And, fairies all around me!

Time seemed to stop, or speed up.... I don't know... but, I felt like I was somewhere else, and I liked it.

I knew there were other people in the room, and the house, and they eventually became quieter, and even stopped to listen to me play.

But, before I knew it, hours had passed and it was night time. That was a very strange and unusual experience...

But, as I was experiencing this sort of inspired moment that felt magical, and as tho' I was in another world, with fairies everywhere, and all around me.... like something out of Grimm's Fairy Tales, or Elves & the Shoe Maker.... I created this melody.

This is the melody I made.

I was told later, that kids weren't allowed to use the piano, because it was an antique, and because they were too rough with it, but when they heard me playing they thought I was well behaved and respected the instrument.  Strange that I was actually invited to even play it personally...

Not long after I made the melody my grandparents from Lancaster PA came to our house and gave me a very old electric organ.

I remembered the melody and often played it on my electric organ.

I actually collected several kinds of instruments as a child. In the mid 1980s Casio keyboards were very popular with children as a Christmas gift. So, I got one! I played on it so much that some of the keys didn't always work by the 90s.

So, that is the story of the origins of this song....

As for my musical training, I learned to play a recorder in the 3rd grade which I absolutely LOVED! Then, my little brother & I would figure out how to play tunes and melodies by ear, like songs from The Little Mermaid, or Aladdin.

I also formally played violin with my little brother when I was in 5th grade. I kept getting invited to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra, but I thought I wasn't good enough, and my mom didn't want to drive there.

Recently:

This music has been in my head! It's been driving me crazy.

I kept resisting it, but it was as tho' the music wanted to become something.

So, I kept taking walks on warm days this month, and it kept coming out of my mouth and throat. I thought perhaps I was going mad, or mentally ill! I was really worried! But, the more I protested & resisted the worse it got, like something out of a Sci-Fi TV show episode!
But, once I stopped resisting, and let it out I felt better.

It was as tho' the music was experimenting with its self....

On 1 walk, I was out on the sidewalk near the woods, and I felt terribly paranoid that somebody would walk by me and think I was a crazy lady! This is not a rational thing! So, when the music started coming out of my mouth/throat it was awkward and terrible... but, then I was like: Fine! Whatever! I guess I'm a crazy lady walking by the woods! F@#$ it! And, I just let my voice go...
But, it sounded fine.... and I also felt pretty good....

Perhaps it's just something buried deep in my subconscious or unconscious mind wanting out...

But, the music persisted so much this month that I ended up downloading a piano app to my iPhone and recording it in different tempos.

Then, as the month went on, it became words... the words/lyrics have changed several times...

There seems to be 2 versions of the melody. The fairy version(s) are for my character Lively, and the Dragon version(s) are for my character Djehkäujaa.

Rough Recordings:




Some Possible Working Lyrics So Far:



I The World Of Blue Fairies (Basic Version)

In the world of blue fairies,
In the world of blue fairies,
In the world of blue fairies,
Melodie for dragons!


Dragon Version

Soaring dragons through the sky,
Open your wings and you'll fly,
One with the wind, I soar high,
Liberty for dragons.


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Poem Lyrics: Keep On Going

Keep On Going
By Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman (Black UniGryphon)
©2016 All Rights Reserved 
Draft Lyrics/Poetry


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) 




**********************************

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.

Poem Lyrics: I Take It Higher

I Take It Higher
By Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman (Black UniGryphon)
©2016 All Rights Reserved 
Draft Lyrics/Poetry



Gotta reach!
A little further!
Gonna reach!
A little farther!


For myself,
Make a conscious choice!
Come on! 
Make some noise!


Jump-jump!
I jump some more!
Jump-jump! 
Jump off the floor! 

A little higher!
Gonna make it! 
A little higher! 
Time to soar! 

I take it higher!
I make it higher!

*********

Go forth! 
A little Further! 
Reach forth! 
A little farther! 

For myself,
Spun it 'round! 
Come on!
A glorious sound! 

Jump-jump!
I jumped some more! 
Jump-jump! 
Launched off the floor! 

A little higher! 
Gonna make it! 
A little higher!
And now I soar! 

I take it higher!
I made it higher!

It's also published here on DeviantART.


This one is meant to be more percussion/rhythm based. 
I'm not entirely positive about what I want to do with it... but, I have some ideas...

This one is also for my character Djehkäujaa, but probably in her original dragon form. very highly likely as her original dragon form.

Poem Lyrics: The First Time Seeing

The First Time Seeing
(working title)
By Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman (Black UniGryphon)
©2016 All Rights Reserved 
Rough Draft Lyrics/Poetry






The first time........... (echoes)
               -though these eyes......... (echoes)
                                 I ever witnessed this place........ (echoes)

The first time........... (echoes)
               -through these eyes........ (echoes)
                                 I ever saw this face............ (echoes)

The first time........... (echoes)
               -through these eyes.......... (echoes)
                                 Ever seeing this place.......... (echoes)

The first time........... (echoes)
               -through these eyes.......... (echoes)
                                Ever seeing your face........... (echoes)


Your face........ (echoes)

                     The first time........ (echoes)
                                        The first time......... (echoes)

My face........... (echoes)
                ...........The first time......... (echoes)




You can also find this poem/lyrics published to my DeviantART gallery.


Well, these lyrics here would probably not make much sense without the visuals. the emphasis is on the "FACE". "Face" its self has a lot of meaning.... but, also this is another song for Djehkäujaa, my dragon character but this is when she unfortunately becomes a humanoid form, much to her horror, and her own stupidity & comeuppance that she will regret for the rest of her life.

This song is meant to be Djehkäujaa's voice, but she will not be actually lip-sync singing this one. It will be like a voice-over, but as a song.

The lyrics are just a simple pattern with variation and reverb, to be to-the-point simple yet effective.

It is almost "garage house" sounding with a lot of echo & reverberations.

It will mostly rely on conveying the mood by some echoing piano and layered repercussions, as well as some sound effects, bass, perhaps wobble bass. I'm not sure if I will use a 2-step beat or not. Altho' I want this to be a very heavily European sounding style, I also want some eastern vibes/elements to it also...

Think of it this way: imagine she is in a desolate wide open prairie or savannah landscape, I was thinking more like the planes in Mongolia... but, my story will be an entirely other world. And, Djehkäujaa is literally grounded. No more flying. Her wings fall off, and burn away like acid and steaming clouds of fumes.

And, she looks at her own face, not the face knew herself to be...
A different face. Shock, despair, trauma...

That's what this is....