Animation Paint Tests!

Well after many months of having my animation project sat in a folder, in a dark dark corner, lurking in the back of my mind. It’s out again. Finally got my Amazon order – a long firewire cable essential for actually shooting the animation, amongst other things.

So tomorrow I begin. I am terrified. The clock is ticking. Tonight I did some paint tests, working out colours and reacquainting myself with oils. Manage to snap a palette knife in the process? A metal one too… what on earth. I absolutely love oils, I am looking forward to the summer when I can just paint for the hell of it [this is fun too, but the pressure makes me nervous].

So without further ado, the paint tests!

 

I’m going to go with the earthier colours, like the Greek vases I spent far too long photographing months back. I think a limited palette is going to be even more essential than usual. I’ve got to head to the art shop tomorrow morning to buy some large tubes of oils; Yellow ochre [this colour wins me over every time…], white, burnt sienna and paynes grey. Paynes Grey mainly to save myself the pain of mixing my own ‘black’, I hate black out of the tube.

Oh and a new small palette knife.

So apart from the paint and the guts to start, I’m ready. The glass is prepared with a base coat of white, the easel and camcorder are set up and aligned, I did a silly run through with an oil pastel to make sure I knew exactly how I was going to shoot and then sequence the animation [Animator DV Simple+ followed by Adobe After Effects]. I’m going to allow myself two days to do the bulk of the animation, one day to sequence and edit, and a final day to do any further animation that’s required and finalise the sequence. Sleep will be lacking, but that’s been part of what I’ve found so exciting about animation before. Spending so many hours really involved with it, it’s exhausting but so strangely enjoyable. I think I’m a masochist.

My body won’t be too happy with it, latest blood tests claim I have a low RBC count. Damn, surely they couldn’t have missed that all these years I’ve been struggling with fatigue?