Getting Practical,
or how to procrastonate…
The script for the graphic novel about Anna Blaman isn’t there yet, which gives me plenty of time for research, my favourite pass time. I’m always learning, studying, watching some tutorial, analysing great films & directors or reading some book(serie). Trying to get my head around it before I let my hands play. I’ve learned a lot from this way of procrastination, like the importance experimenting and relevance of actually using your hands to really get to the heart of the matter…
I enjoy learning anatomy (reading books and following along on www.proko.com), getting technical on perspective and binging youtubes on the brilliance of visual storytelling in movies. (I can highly recommend Every Frame a Painting and Channel Criswell!)
For this project I will try to combine this urge for theoretical exploration with necessity and joy pratical experiments. I have a plan….
First of all I will enhance and use my interest in facial anatomy and expression and project it on Anna. Looking for what makes her look and feel like her while enjoying Proko’s Charicature drawing course by Court Jones. And maybe revisiting parts of my favourite books on the expression and body language. Practising making the gained knowledge practical (there seems to be a huge gap between knowing how to do something and actually being able to do something… Has anyone else noticed that?)
10 minute Anna Blaman portrait using photo’s
and the Quick Poses Desktop-app
But this project is perfect to indulge on my interest in storytelling composition and urban sketching too. In daily life I rarely make time for urban sketching, while I really enjoy it! The sketch in this post is from a drawing vacation/ workshop with Inma Serrano in Seville. But now I’ve found this old little city guide (by Jan Oudenaarden and Rien Vroegindeweij) for a lovely walking route through my own neighbourhood focussing on the the history of the writers of Rotterdam among which Anna Blaman. It’s even called De Blamanroute! If you’re in the neighbourhood too, you’ll find me drawing along the way. Otherwise I’ll keep you posted via this blog.
So I will be roaming the city. Studying composition in real life and in story’s by master directors and graphic storytellers I admire or wonder about. I’ll be revisiting my thesis ‘The importance of seemingly meaningless details’ too, translating it and learning as much as I can on the storytelling powers of composition. So stay tuned if you’re interested…
