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Dutch Light
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that Lou Romano made available the color script of Pixar’s UP movie in his blog.
It was interesting to look at the movie like this. Most of the time we are so caught up on the story that we seldom notice the variations of color, presented to us during the various stages of the story, after all we may go to the movies to unwind, be entertained, be distracted and even be informed as the case might be.
While having lunch with Dice Tsutsumi, and asking him about his role in Pixar, he mentioned that he was an Art Director and dealt with Light, like Lou Romano.
The color script and Dice’s conversation got me thinking about light, up until recently I was preoccupied only with getting it right when sketching, in terms of form, then realized I was striving to make it too perfect (I know, I know – its a sketch not a drawing). I read somewhere If you want it perfect, take a picture… in summary I have come to understand that a sketch is about capturing quickly the feeling of the view before oneself.
While reviewing the art from artists unknown to me as well as those that I admire, I came to realize that in an odd way I may have been on a path to the inclusion of light into my watercolors except that I thought it was a mistake. The watercolor below was one of my first, and strangely enough every time I share my small moleskine watercolor booklet with people they seem to stop at this one (while I explain that the water was never intended to be purple).
While I have been paying attention to everything around me a lot more since I started sketching (and also participating in SketchCrawl), I have now started to pay attention to the contrast of the various tones of light. It’s not that I didn’t pay attention before It is just that I had not conscientiously identified what I was looking at.
This brings me to Dutch Light, while researching lighting I came across a great DVD called Dutch Light
If I recall correctly at one point in the DVD it is mentioned that artists would travel to Holland seeking the Dutch Light that some other artist may have painted… the comment being made was that an artist may seek a location used by another in order to achieve a specific feeling, not realizing that the first may have copied it from yet another artist and/or from somewhere else.
Enjoy!
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Pixar UP
We got the chance to see Pixar’s UP movie around the time it was released. This was our first 3D experience with the new technology, and while initially we were expecting to see the typical depth the technology provides, we were pleasantly surprised it was not overused. What Pixar did was use 3D as part of the story, they used it to aid the storytelling, I thought that was great, also as a result we didn’t experience the typical discomfort that sometimes those movies generate (perhaps the new technology has something to do with it as well).
I still want to see the movie one more time, this time in 2D to see how it looks… you know, there were two parts of the movie where the water just looked real, not 3d at all, the first one where Carl Fredricksen and Russell are crossing the creek and the second one when some of the dogs fall down into the river down below.
If you still have not seen it, don’t wait any longer.
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Totoro Forest Project Auction at PIXAR
In case you are wondering if the Totoro Forest Project Benefit Auction at PIXAR was an evening to remember, let me tell you… it was!!!!
Both my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the event and it was a great opportunity to view in person all the wonderful art that was donated. I spend a lot of time looking at the 200+ pieces of art that I didn’t have much time to socialize or meet artists that I admire and may have been present there.
Wow, what an amazing experience, as I have mentioned to some people my wife and I are recent Studio Ghibli admirers. I came across the name Hayao Miyazaki while researching / reading artists blogs. Many many artist talk about him being an influence (the donated art is proof of that). The first movie I rented via Netflix was My Neighbor Totoro.
It was such a great innocent story, with a very positive message… I couldn’t help to love the background images as well as the various characters of the film, then I came across this book Master of Japanese Animation
Does this happen to you? you saw cartoons when you were a kid and now after many years you bump into the movie / clips on a rental store or online and then you decide to watch the whole story again, because you dont remember it or you missed the beginning or never knew how the story ended? lol.
I am in that situation, I dont fully remember the story of Heidi, nor how it began or ended, just got to see a couple of minutes of the beginning a week or so ago. Another Japanese program I used to watch was Ultraman, which I did have the opportunity to rent via Netflix about a year ago, got the opportunity to watch Ultraman fight Godzilla once more 🙂 yeah back then those were cool spaceships, now they look so silly.
Anyways, getting back on topic, it was an evening / night to remember, absolutely loved the art.. wish I had had more time to talk to the artists about their pieces (will have to do it online). Live auction was great, a lot of money was raised that night (close to $200 K so I hear).
My thanks to Enrico Casarosa and Dice Tsutsumi for the invite to help them with website maintenance and allowing me to be participate and donate my time for this historical event, can’t wait to hear what may be next 😉
Oh, by the way.. the date for the 20th SketchCrawl event has been selected, it will be on October 25th.
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Totoro Forest Project
What is the Totoro Forest Project?
It is an international fundraising exhibition/auction event to support the non-profit Totoro no Furusato Foundation (Home of Totoro) established by Hayao Miyazaki.
What is exactly the Totoro no Furusato Foundation?
Well, it is a non-profit foundation as mentioned above created with the purpose to preserve the beautiful natural habitat of Sayama Hills which is located about 24 miles from the Tokyo Japan metropolitan area. Sayama Hills is the location that inspired Hayao Miyazaki to write/create “Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)” in 1988. If you have not seen this movie, you must see it.
The Auction / Exhibition
Over 200 top international artists that work in different mediums have donated work specially created for this event.
The benefit auction will be held at Pixar Animation Studios on September 6th, 2008, a book will be available at this event as well that contains all the work that was donated. There will also be a special exhibition of selected artwork from the auction at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California from September 20th to December 7th 2008.
I already spotted a couple of pieces that would be nice to have in my room, who knows maybe I will get to own a piece of artwork, or maybe I wont be so lucky and will have to just donate some money to the cause.
Please share this info with everyone you know, and if you live locally maybe we will run into each other at one of these events.
More information found at: Totoro Forest Project and Enrico Casarosa’s blog announcement.
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PIXAR WALL-E Excellent Movie
Well we got the chance to go see WALL-E, but not until around 2:45pm due to issues that came up.
How was it? It was Excellent!!!, but don’t take my word go see for yourself. Love the graphics, the story, etc. Sometimes you see movies and you can tell what will happen next, at least for me that was not the case, the story hook me and at some point I even forgot I was watching an animated film. Not many animated films do that for me, actually now that I think about it I don’t think it has ever happened. Each character was animated beautiful. I can’t wait to see it again, I think it would be really cool if there was an Imax theater close to home.
The widget below is pretty cool, it allows you to view the trailer without leaving the page 😉 The vignette’s are pretty cool as well, more animation to enjoy.
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