Saturday 30 June 2012

Every breath you take

Well since I was already dressed up I thought I may as well make another video for you, as per usual I start laughing in the middle of it, but I still like it,, I'm terrible for remembering words to songs, even the ones I really like , and I do really like this song, even if it is rather 'stalkeresque' it's still beautiful.

A girl enchanted by books


I made this piece this morning. I must point out that my original idea was to film this, however I didn't have anyone to film for me.
 I will admit that once I have ideas in mind, I have to do it straight away and experiment, I am a very impatient girl where ideas and executing them is concearned. So with noone around to help
  I decided I would continue with the techniques I have been using and thought it would be quite charming to experiment with stop motion techniques on real life models,, or me as far as this is concearned. I think I actually prefer the look of this to what I might have ended up with if I had filmed it live. I like the jerkie quality and as I'd intended to speed this film up anyway to give the asthetics of a silent 20's film reel I feel that the speed of the movements within the stop motion have given this film a quirky yet somewhat '20's' macabre feel to it.

Again this is part of a larger project I am working on

Friday 29 June 2012

Experimenting with 3d characters

I made these short test films today, they are far from perfect but I made them to test out an idea I had of bringing my books to life and felt instead of making other characters I had all the books and characters I'd ever need right here in my room ( well all the characters I'd need for this particular project anyway)
   Again I don't want to give away too much of this idea and spoil all the fun of watching the end result.  But in short my idea involves me trying to portray what goes on in my little mind on a daily basis, and the influence books and the  characters within them have made upon me.

Thursday 28 June 2012

Dancing with myself


I've been working on this all day and have only just finished it.
I am extremly happy with it. There are however a few mistakes that I wasn't aware of when I was filming, but for the moment I feel they are quite minor. The picture does seem to appear quite jerky at times, I think this is due to the fact I did this all alone and occasionally knocked the tripod whilst i was moving my characters.
This been said i feel that for a second attempt at stop motion this is rather charming. I'm pleased with the contrast of the jive dance and the rather melancholic version of Billy Idol's 'Dancing with myself'
I did consider having something more up beat to match the jive dance but then thought that the juxtaposition of something sad along side something jolly and bright would work rather well. I think it represents my characer very well.

After working on this I feel extremly excited to explore animation techniques and also want to challange myself to perfect my stop motion skills.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Test dance 2

Another short test film. I thought I'd test my characters dancing skills before I let them be in the final piece, but having watched these moves, mini Charlotte has now been offered the leading role

My set development for the new animation


Just a short test film for my next animation


This is just a short test film i did moments ago. I am attempting a spinning motion for my character, although I'm not sure if I'm happy with it yet,, it isnt't bad but I think i may possibly need to make a side version of my puppet/doll, I'm not sure yet.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

So that's what I would look like made out of paper.







This collage version of myself and my cat Spider are the small beginning of an animation I am making over the summer. I have all of the background to make yet , but as you can see, the paper version of me is very happy with the way she turned out, that happy in fact that she is dancing right off the page.

It's a nice change for me to make something as colourful as myself for once and I must say , I do quite enjoy my personal approach to collage and am very happy with the results.

I will always continue to produce my melancholic ink drawings though as they shall always be a huge part of my personality as well as my unique skill set.

Monday 25 June 2012

Lots of new ideas

Last night whilst laying in bed I came up with , what I feel is a really good idea for a map. I'm not going to say too much about it as I want it to be a surprise, but what I will say is that the idea I have in mind I have never seen anywhere else before. All I shall say it that it involves story telling.

After my past frustrations involving maps I can safely say , I can't wait to start this one.

Sunday 17 June 2012

The Portrait of Charlotte Victoria Gray (test film)


I decided to make a short film with the images I made today. I would like to point out this is not my final film for the summer project, just part of an idea that I just had to do whilst it was swimming around inside my head.
I thought about how to represent myself in a series of images, and then, as usual turned to my books for inspiration. One of my favourite been the Picture of Dorian Gray. It's no secret that I adore the dark elements of art and story telling, so I thought it would be an interesting idea to portray myself in a portrait like Dorian Gray's, I also wanted to have flashes  of what kind of things go on in my head and the things which inspire me.
Obviously the debauchery and horror are showing up as wounds upon my 'portrait'

This is by no means perfect, but i decided to upload a short test film of my progression throughout this project. I'm pleased with the concept of this and also the makeup.
I'm not too sure about the quality of the pictures, as I did this on my own and so, had to take the photos of myself, resulting in some of the poses been slightly different, although when I look at the film I do like the uneven effect.

 Anyway I shall be uploading lots more of my work over the summer as I am brimming with ideas that are all fighting to jump out into the world and make people smile.


The music for this was inspired by a 1940's horror film named Carnival of souls. Its very dark and atmospheric featuring a young organ player who doesn't realise she is dead, to cut a long story short, this character has these 'trance' moments where her beautiful organ playing turns into something macabre, chaotic and frightening,, with this in mind and the imagery from the film of the carnival where the souls live I made up this 'music'
I think it fits in very well with the theme as when I hear it it sounds very chaotic and not melodic in any way, The sound of the repetitive notes along side the twinkle of the music box I feel make for a macabre carnival sound. Perhaps the carnival that goes on in my mind.

A sneak peak at one of my video ideas/process










I'm not going to post anything other than a few pictures of the process I've gone through today . The idea is taken from one of my favourite Oscar Wilde books. I am in the process of making a video depicting all of the dark visual influences but like Mr Gray I also have my sins deflected onto a portrait in my attic in a dark corner ,, this is the reason I still look so  youthful ! 

Friday 15 June 2012

(erwin olaf)



I love Olaf's photography. although there is no dialogue, when I look at them I have the sense that I am watching a macabre play. There is something very theatrical about his work, the majority of the work I have seen is very dark, but I am always intrigued and inspired by people who can balance a dark intellect with a pretty aesthetic quality.
The effects look as though they have been done digitally, and although I love the images I feel that because of this fact they seem to lose a little something,I still like them, but know that if i were to do anything like this part of the challenge for me is making the visual effect,, aside from all this I think the images are very imaginative and have a magical quality to them.

Jamie Reid at the Temple works leeds






I attended this wonderful exhibition last night. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. The venue itself is beautiful, and add an iconic artist such as Reid's work to this mix and you have a wonderful combination. There are original sex pistols screen prints and collages up along side new pieces, my favourite works were Reid's ink drawings, they were so different to his iconic punk rock collages and prints, they still had the same angst and meaning behind them as his early work, but visually were a great distance apart, i think the contrast was beautiful and worked very well.
I feel so privileged that I had the opportunity to see this collection of work and actually meet and be in the presence of such a visually influential man. When I think of punk rock I always associate the whole culture with Reid ( amongst others) and I'm sure that most people do, for one mans work to have such an influence , well i find it beautiful and something to aspire to.

I almost forgot to mention Reids tee pees , This is where I am on the photograph. inside were beds and sheets with iconic prints on them. I found it very kitch and cute (although I'm not sure that's a very punk rock thing to say , but that's what i thought, and I liked this)

The photographs were not taken by myself They are by my friend Elliot
http://www.facebook.com/charlotte.v.furness#!/oatjelly

Lastly I would just like to say if you like street art, the temple works is definitely the place to go. resident artists were there in force last night creating beautiful work before your very eyes!

Wednesday 13 June 2012

In the same bucket of ribbons




And I am most certain that if there were to find each other in the very same bucket of ribbons, they'd be sure to become friends and get up to all manner of shenanigans.

Doll parts



I imagine the same principle would apply for Olivia .

Everyone needs a smaller version of themselves!





I imagine that if I were to turn into a tiny doll made of pretty fabrics, ribbon and hair, I might look a little bit like this.

Friday 8 June 2012

It must be true


These images never fail to make me smile. I think that the only thing that keeps me going sometimes is the ability to laugh at the disastrous situations life tends to keep throwing at me. This one seemed very relevant and made me smile , for that simple reason I like it.