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AMAZING.

Very exciting and inspiring to me as a designer. Furthermore exciting because I'm currently involved in a FILM project at UNCSA- a western called Bloodline. Fellow comrade in arms John Bowhers and I will be undertaking the co-production design. Basically this involves renovating this awesome cabin in the woods to look circa 1890. I will be sure to post more and tell you about it as it goes, but here's a sneak peak:

Medea

My idea for this Medea is that Medea is actually sort of a voodoo priestess who practices some undefined form of witchcraft. Not only is she upset about the whole Jason business, but she is tired of having to deal with all these white people who don't understand her culture...








Jason is a Creeper...



With the flash on so you can see everything....

Antigone

My inspiration for this version of Antigone came from a picture of these limestone columns on cliff against a stormy sky. I kind of liked them being at the foot (literally) of this huge statue, which, in my mind, was the Goddess of Justice with her head having fallen off due to the severity of the preceding war.

In a real, dream production, I would love there to be actual rain on stage and a storm in progress throughout the entire show. The storm would have ebbs and flows as it does in nature that would echo the dramatic moments of the play. When Antigone is giving her last lament, there would be the uneasy calm before the storm, and as soon as she is dragged away there would be thunder and lightening and all hell breaking loose.

Basically, I have a trend in my designs of being tied to nature and the environment having a personality that interacts with the drama, as if some mystical higher force is making itself known.

This here be the model...






Shut UP Creon!


And later today you'll get Medea...

stuffz

Today I got Vectorworks 2009 in the mail and YESTERDAY I got my Genius G-Pen 450 tablet so I'm about to have some good ol Scene Design FUN.

The tablet I got for under $50 via Amazon and the Vectorworks was free because I'm a student. Plus I'm just really getting into making sure I have all my bases covered. It's great to be a good hand-drafter- I don't think I'm half bad. I ain't no Howard Jones but I ain't too horrible either. I do think that I should be up with the industry standards and have some means of transporting Computer-drafted material when I end up working away from the director/ TD.

And I am going to play around with copying the techniques of several professional designers as far as rendering goes. Bill, the Costume Design teacher, was teaching the costumers to figure out their own rendering technique by first forcing them to copy renderings by famous designers. What happens as you do such as thing is that your mind begins to figure out the way these designers THINK. And after you've copied a few people, you go to do your own thing and you make it something completely different.

So I would like to do a Franco-inspired rendering as well as a Jose.

I know it' going to be very time consuming and especially difficult- it takes a little less time to draw a person than it does to get the perspective on a scenic rendering. At least for me.

Then my other project idea is to create a model piece from my book on building better model scenery.

And my OTHER other project of course is to read as many of the shows we're doing next year as possible in order to prepare for whatever they might give me.

I pretty much have my work cut out for me.

Israel Darling

Is a new slightly "Arcade Fire"-ish indie band from Greensboro NC and the band of a friend of a friend of my sister...


Israel Darling

Please go support them and give them a listen!!!

In other news, I cannot upload anything interesting because I don't have a scanner in my access... YET. But I have designed several more tattoo ideas for myself. I might be having this tattoo before the end of the summer ::fingers crossed:. But it's basically a Phoenix curled around itself in a swirl and will be approx. 1'' X 1 1/2'' big.


I've re-downloaded Sketchup. I had deleted it with the idea that it was a "lesser" tool to have in my repertoire. I think that is, in fact, a silly notion to begin with. Even the "silliest" tools will at some point prove valuable. The last time I used it, I hadn't even learned to be moderately proficient at Photoshop or Vectorworks yet. Trying it out now, it's like riding a bike.

I think it's a good tool to have for getting the idea of a space and creating the basis for a rendering. I have an idea that I would like to use it to get perspective right as a shortcut through drop-point perspective. You could use the Sketchup drawing (printed out in scale) as a skeleton for a rendering, transfer the lines onto your watercolor paper and paint on top of it.

I know there is a lot of value in knowing how to do drop-point perspective. But in the interest of time, sometimes these shortcuts are valuable.

Anyway, I promise many more things when I'm actually back in Winston!!! For now, I leave you with good music. <3 <3 <3

-moretti

yeay for columns!

I really enjoy the line of columns and the field behind where we live... especially at night when they get lit up! But I think every other UVA student is sick of them from what I've heard...

So!

I have to apologize for not being a very good blogger this week. The fact is, there hasn't been any work I've wanted to post. We haven't done anything really "pretty" or super artistic... or at least nothing that I've been head on. Mostly a lot of fast stuff. So I will wait until we have some awesome Little Shop drops done. Next week is going to be killer- I will be doing some overnights (possibly 2pm to 2am if we need it) and otherwise rocking face ;).


But yes I will get on this.. I have some photos and many obsessions to post.... but g2g to work for the meantime.

ciao ciao ciao!

Overview of projects at Heritage

The following photos take you from my most recent projects to the oldest ones. Lately I've been doing a TON of woodgraining for Moonlight and Magnolias and On Golden Pond.



Here is the transluscency again- after we've added some more leaves. Now it looks a little less graphic and a tad more true to the actual screen still.
Here is the OLIVER! set as complete. I painted on various aspects of the set...
My first project being the columns. As you can see, the designer was taking the set in a very painterly/ collage sort of direction. The columns are actually 3 D but not round. Funny enough, they now look almost completely 2 dimensional! It's kind of weird but cool.
Here is the SR Apron wall that I basically charged... (Virginia is doing some touch-ups on the windows :) ).
Here it is in process... This was one of the fastest things I've ever done. As you can see, I am still working on the fence in this picture which is just supposed to be this simple raught iron thing. Well... I didn't cartoon it at all because we had no time. So I just lined it by eying where it was supposed to go.... It only had one little wave in the middle where it got about a half inch too tall but it stayed pretty vertical and was therefore good enough.
That's it for paint stuff for a little while I think! Back to working on the website...

A link and such

Here is the other link I met to include before: Beautiful Decay


I have a ton of Oliver! photos to post as well as a more finished drop photo on the way.

I've been working on revamping my regular design website but it's going to be slow - don't think it will get done until I'm back in Winston where I have regular access to my scanner. But so far I've had fun making exciting roll-over images...



They are pretty random but I'm doing some designs for each page that they lead to that incorporate these themes... I hope I can figure out how to make them functional! I think I have a lot of reading to do about how to take a background image and make aspects of the image become links. I have an idea but I can see that getting complicated...

Anywho that's a lot of tech talk. If I have more pretties, I will show...

<3 Jess

Artsy Fartsy

Click!!!!

Dan Olson

Clickity Click click...

Art Forum

and commmon...

Bowie Art

mwahahaha

Transluscent Drop Process

My first transluscency!!! I mean the first one that I've charged... the first DROP that I've charged... EVER. I'm pretty happy with it considering
A) We cartooned and painted it in four days.
B) For 90% of it, it was just me and one other girl.
C) Everyone else on the paint deck is less experienced with me in knowledge about transluscencies (their words, not mine).
D) I'm doing this on a PAINT FRAME for God's sakes... which I've never worked on before this summer.
E) We had to be FAST- barely any time for planning.

So all in all I'm pretty proud and pleased and I guess I'm not as scared of charging as I used to be. There are a lot of problems I have with the drop because it is NOT really true to the picture in some senses... but in theatre, the 2 of 3 rule applies (money, speed and quality... you can have it fast and look good but it'll be expensive... you can have it cheap and fast but it'll look crappy, etc.)

Mostly I'm going to have to ignore the fact that we had to just OPAQUE as fast as possible without leaving some spaces for leaves to have light shine through... and some of the clouds are not as detailed. Fortunately, the designer wanted it fuzzy. So we have some allowance for lost of detail.

Anyway, I'm glad to have had this experience and I believe I will put it in my portfolio... all we have to see now is how it looks with backlight!! ::fingers crossed:: But it shouldn't be too bad because it's just tree and the sky... the ground row is going to be sketchy (the landscape) because I'm not certain of the density of the pigment used and it was really hard to do tests in the time given. If worst comes to worst, we can opaque it in the space.

Anyways, off to shop! <3

HP the musical

Just supportin U of M!!! I mean it's hysterical anyway...

The Pierces

This singing duo of sisters has definitely got me dancing around to their "Sticks and Stones". The video is a little creeper but just sit back, enjoy and ignore their over-acting...

First Paint Charge Project!

So I'm actually heading up my first real drop ever at Heritage Rep. Fortunately for me, it's going to be a BEAUTIFUL movie still from Gone with the Wind for "Moonlight and Magnolias". I've decided to document the process as it moves through each stage.

Here are pictures of the pictures my charge received:



I'm really excited! The big challenge is that this is my first time working on a drop on a paint frame, so all of the spray work is going to be tricky if we don't want drips. However, I'm mad stoked and know it can be done...