The Draughtsmans five (bad) habits.

This was (kind of) an assignment that got thrown my way... We had seen some fun illustrations in the form of edutainment. I got this pass and I tried to do my best with it.

I’m not sure if these are bad habits, but they are all true!

Paper and pencil nearby
I think I’ve written about this before, as of now I’ve got sketch books laying in strategic positions in my apartment, so that I always got a sketch book nearby, so I can write down that idea or do a quick sketch.

Yearning to draw
Actually I heard this from a friend, that said that sometimes she couldn’t stop herself from drawing someones nose, if that had an interesting shape...

A sound relationship to pencils
This is definitely true for me, and I also saw this in a documentary where an artist dropped one of his paintbrushes in a manhole, so sad and so fun at the same time! If you have a favorite pencil then you want to use it, and when it breaks... let’s not go there...

Difficulty to get payed
This is very true and very sad, just because it is an illustration or something creative people expect you to work for free, more or less. A personal memory comes to mind... I had painted this watercolor that got some interest from a very small magazine. They wanted to publish it, and I told them my prize (I had looked it up what I could charge), and then the editor said to me that he had a friend that could do that for free! Although it was a very small magazine, with a very tight budget, I still think they could have offered me something... this was many years ago, for now I don’t really mind to do work for free if I get some compensation or if I think that the idea is especially good. I think you have to go to yourself, if you are okay with it or not. I mean for every assignment you do, you get experience that you can use for the next one.

Close to inspiration
I’ve written about this before, about the elusive inspiration. Yet another personal memory comes to mind... I was in a middle of this project and my time was limited and I didn’t know what to do. So I took a shower and all of a sudden I got this brilliant idea of how I could proceed with the project.

So is it done then? Well...sort of, I’m done with it for now, if I want to tweak it a little I can do that, but for now, it’s done! It’s a low rendition.

Take care!

The real and the not so real.

A couple of days ago I saw the film Mademoiselle Chambon (1). While watching it I began to think why it appeared to be so real, or believable.

In my latest course we have discussed photography and that the staged photograph can be as strong a messenger as the more documentary photography can be. Even though the staged photograph might not be as real as the documentary one, the message might be better transmitted with a staged photograph.

In literature there is almost always a mix of true events and fantasy that is mixed together into something new. For literature to be successful it needs to connect to the reader, somehow. Because we do not read something that we don’t like to read, if we do not need to... The writer must get the right mixture of the real and the un-real and transform that into something believable. It’s easier to buy it, if it’s believable.

One of my favorite films is An american in Paris (2). The film is so good that it needs to get its own post... so I might return to it!
I’m fascinated by it because the only shots of actual Paris in the movie is the very first shots of the film which are taken from newsreels or travel journals of some sort. Directly when we get to Gene Kellys characters’ building where he lives, we have left the real Paris for a Hollywood soundstage. The film is staged in Paris, but is recorded in Hollywood. This is not something new in the film business, but I’m fascinated by it none the less.

A city like Paris that has been written about and painted and photographed over the years, might be a bit difficult to get a handle on. Because the image you get from reading, and watching films and looking at paintings might not be what you encounter when you actually get there. The image and the real collide. The same can be said for New York or any other city that is featured in books, or TV or films.
There is no wonder that the image and the real collide when one is actually real and the other might be a total fantasy. I’m really in for a surprise if I’m going to Paris and hoping that my stay there will be like the film An American in Paris... I’m not saying that it might not be like that, lets just say that the odds are against it...!

In conclusion, believability is based on actual facts, and fantasy mixed together into something new. The mixture is then read or watched and connects to the reader/viewer, where an image is formed. I think that the film Mademoiselle Chambon contains a great mixture of believability, of facts and fantasy that connects to the viewer, at least to me. And also great performances from the actors, that probably draws from their own lives, when portraying their characters.

Take care!


1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285246/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)
2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043278/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (Accessed 11 June 2014)