Newsletter 28 - Back Home
An unexpected encounter, painting with gouache and the animation update.
Hello!
Happy to see you here.
Yesterday I saw Dune, part 2 in the cinema. You know, that movie with those colossal sandworms! Well, you'll never guess what I encountered after seeing the movie. I biked to the cinema and noticed on the last part of the road, my bike acting differently. I had some suspicion, but parked my bike and went into the cinema.
After the movie, I directly checked my tire. And yes, flat as a… 1 cent coin? I have a little pump with me. On my way back, I had to pump it up 4 times. The last time, I was pumping at the crossroads in the middle of nowhere, an area between my district and that of the cinema. And who did I encounter there? I’ll let you know at the end.
First, in this weeks newsletter:
The Animation Project.
Drawing
Inspiration
Let’s go!
Part 1: The Animation Project
So, 3 weeks have gone by since the last newsletter.
What did I do?
I moved back to working in ‘home-office’ style and I hope to keep this productivity from the co-work time.
The word ‘deadline’ came up again, as this word haunts me ;). With this project, so many personal aims for finishing were set, ‘personal deadlines’. Every time I failed. Learning they were simply naive. Now, reading the book from Rick Rubin, I just came across the chapter about Momentum. Here it tells about setting a deadline.
So, here it goes (again):
June 15th, 2024.
How my process goes now, I will not make it. To open up more time and less distraction my plan is to do a reading deprivation, which includes content consuming.
No reading or watching anything until the deadline.
Now, here are some practical updates:
Shot 37: is still ongoing, see the last 3 newsletters.
Shot 28 ‘Hoija Flies’: Finished the in-betweens with the clean-up lines. I left out the colouring for now.
If you like to colour the ‘inbetweens’, contact me ;)
Shot 47 ‘Puppet Stuck between Teeth’: Finished the animation here. Although… I added some drool. Why!? I thought I would fit. So, this shot is actually not finished.
Shot 13A ‘Munchin stares at ducks’: Animating the head-turn here, but first he swallows the grass. In process.
And:
I updated the software OpenToonz 1.6 to 1.7.
Made a back up of the project (finally)
OpenToonz Tutorial, how to share files (for collaboration purposes).
That’s it! Phew, what an update. I am hiding under the table now saying my prayers to make this deadline.
Part 2: Gouache Painting Study
I picked up my Gouache set and added some brushes to my set :) After some first experiments, see below, I was ready to try out something I am inspired by.
I want to focus on the background art that is so beautifully done in the animation movies of Studio Ghibli. So, I found a tutorial and made a study painting. The materials, especially the drawing paper and the paint, are a bit different, but with Gouache, I can come pretty close to it.
A week ago, I joined the Portrait Drawing on Sunday session. That day, they played songs from ‘The Dubliners’ and more Irish Folk music. I like to listen to this music. In the break, one of my fellow drawers, with an alcohol-free beer in her hand, told me it was St. Patrick's Day today :)
Part 3: Inspiration
Yesterday, on the 31st of March, I did this gouache painting. It gives me an inspiration boost for my animation. I look forward to creating the backgrounds for the animation project in this way. Also, to make other paintings with gouache.
Back to my unexpected encounter. I parked my bike in the streetlights. And started pumping. There the sandworms' cousin, a millipede, passed by! To this worm-looking "thousand-legger", I am as huge as the sandworms in Dune are to the native people who ride them, the ‘Freman’. It was a funny encounter.
I pumped the tire for the last time and went back home.
That is it for this week.
Wish you an amazing week and if you have a flat tire, or some other transportation issue, just think about those sandworms!
See you soon!
M.