Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Snooping Little Cub



I'm not a speed painter. I like taking my time, futzing and fitzing and getting things right. Recently I was asked to contribute to a local flute and piano duo's program combining images and music by illustrating a few pieces. Rather than just provide a final image for the audience to view, I provided a video showing my work, and telling a short story (maybe the shortest). The piece is only 3 minutes long, which is too short for me to draw anything nice, so I set the timer for 6 minutes (which is still too short for me to draw anything nice) and sped up the video 2x. After I figured out what to draw, I did several practice rounds, figured out where I needed to be at what time to end up with something that looked finished, opened up all my digital tools I would need for quick access, and got to it.
There's something amazingly difficult about recording yourself performing. It's one thing to draw or play an instrument by yourself in a little room, but performing in front of others is a different skill, and something you get better at by practicing. After a few pitiful tries I got the hang of it. What I ended up with is not perfect, and part of me can't stand that, but at the same time I'm also really happy with how it turned out.
The video above is sped up to only a minute.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, it's really fun to see the process like that, even sped up!
    Also, cutest bear cub ever ;)

    ReplyDelete