2009 Summer Camp Stop Motion

Monday is the start of a week long stop motion claymation animation workshop. I will be teaching a second workshop later in July as well. The children will be using black box stages made from cardboard boxes. Lights from IKEA are attached to ceiling of stage and to floor of stage. A dowel is hung from the ceiling so objects can be suspended across the stage. I have made two stages so that I can have two groups of three children filming at the same time.

1. They will be making shadow puppet set elements to attach behind the shadow screen.
   
2. They will created set elements for mid stage that can be fixed or slide on and off stage.
3. They will create elements that suspend from the ceiling
4. They will be able to place different colored celophanes to create different light effects.

SAMPLE SET LIGHTING AND PROPS (Created by my 5 year old)
The children will be able to play with different types of stage lighting to create different moods for their stories.
Front lit stage:


















Back lit stage:


















Front and back lit stage:


















If you want see some inspiring set design mock-ups check out these sites:
Erik Flatmo
John Lee Beatty
Han Feng she does costuming for opera (I had to include her...so inspiring)

The children will start with a blank set.
BLANK SET


















The back of the box was cut out of these to create a shadow screen that can be incorporated into the set design. White cotton muslin is the screen hot melted to the back edge of the box opening.


















Below: Tracks (painted chopsticks) in the floor and slots in the side of the box can be used to slide sets on and off the stage.




















Below: My stage design helpers.


















WORKSHOP SCHEDULE (sample inspiration animations will be viewed throughout day):
Monday: Storyboarding, Camera Angles and begin characters
Tuesday: Props and Figures, refine storyboard
Wednesday: Film
Thursday: Sound record voices and music. Field trip to De Anza College's Animation Department
Friday: Edit in Premiere Elements, create invite for screening and create take home shadow boxes for clay figures and set elements, end credits filming

Palo Alto Libraries Monoprint Teen Workshop

Colography is a fun type of monoprinting and a nice intro to printmaking. I conducted a workshop on Monday for the Palo Alto Libraries teen summer program. Here are some of the results. This is good project for all ages. Tip: remind students that if they include words they must be created backwards as the print will be a mirror image of the printing plate.

Below: Printing plate being inked:
























































Above Printing plate and print.

If you want to try it you will need:

1. glass plates with edges taped up (you can get scrap glass from a glass shop)
2. water based printing ink
   
3. rollers for inking and for pressing
4. paper for printing (I use Japanese calligraphy paper...cheap from Daiso)
5. card stock such as cereal boxes (to cut and glue down)
6. matt boards. These are the printing plates (You can get free from framing shops, just ask for scraps)
7. white glue
8. hot melt gun (to attach lace and other objects)
9. toothpicks (good for creating raised lines)
10. pencils
11. scissors
12. paper towels to lay plates on
13. small container of water (you may need to add drops of water to plates of glass if ink gets too thick)

Step One: Cut and tear pieces of cardstock paper (cereal boxes) and glue down on to mattboard with white glue.


















Step Two: Attach other elements such as lace and buttons. Attach these using a hot melt gun.


















Step Three: Squeeze some ink onto the glass (one color per glass plate). Using a roller spread the ink out so that you have an even layer on the roller. Roll over the printing plate. You can also use a brush to apply the paint to the printing plate.



















Step Four: Take a sheet of paper and place it over the inked printing plate. Roll over the paper with a clean roller or use your fingers to lightly but firmly press down on the paper to transfer the ink.

Step Five: Peel off sheet slowing and place it wet side up on a drying rack.























Below: This print was created with quick sweeps of an inked roller to the printing plate. I love the texture! It reminds me of old barns from my childhood memories of Ohio and Kentucky. This piece was created by one of the few boys in the class. The original sketch had a maze like pattern in it. I suggested that he add bits of toothpicks to create that pattern if he wanted it to be visible in the print. Instead he decided to brush on the ink and do a print. I am so glad that he did. It is a great piece.






















Below: This print was created by drawing patterns with the hot melt gun on the printing plate. A diagonal line was created from toothpicks. The student applied different colors to the printing plate before pulling her print. The result is really beautiful and I hope it was framed and displayed. The diagonal line anchors the busy swirls of the hot melt lines. The two dots in opposite corners also add balancing elements. There is tension and balance in this piece.
























Below: City scape of New York City. I think this teen was Russian. I like how the simple addition of lace on the printing plate resulted in the allusion of clouds above the buildings. It took a lot of patience to create all those windows and then glue them onto the buildings on the printing plate. I enjoy how the windows are staggered on the buildings in the foreground while the windows are arranged in an orderly grid on the back building to the right. This contrast makes me think the windows on the two building in the foreground are dancing or conversion with each other.

Palo Alto Libraries Monoprint Workshop Prep

Today I tested out a monoprint (colography) project with my children and a friend's children in preparation for a workshop I will be teaching on Monday for the Palo Alto Libraries. Here are some images of their printing plates being created from cardboard and mattboard.
























The children started off by cutting out bits of cardboard, ribbon, toothpicks and plastic sushi grass. The ribbon and sushi grass were attached with hot melt glue. On child used the hot melt gun to draw lines on his board as well.









































Below are the printing plates after each child had pulled several prints with different colors. Often these plates are just as interesting and framable as the final prints.




























































































During the printing process we discovered that one could apply paint to the boards with brushes, not just with the rollers. The lines of the brush hairs created nice textures in the prints. It was quite hot today so we were frequently adding drops of water to the paint to keep it moist enough on the glass inking plates. The paper we used was Japanese calligraphy paper.

The best way to create prints with this type of printing is to ink the board and then lay the paper onto of the wet board. With a clean, dry brayer, you roll and press the paper on the board. We also used our fingers to press in the hard to reach corners and over the ribbon areas. I highly recommend having a drying rack to store these prints as they dry.
Below are images of a few of the prints they created.

de Young Museum and Egyptian Themed Craft

I will be conducting a craft activity at the de Young Museum which ties into the theme of The King Tut exhibit. Here is the approved preliminary sketch concept. Visitors will create their own unique Egyptian headdresses with mirrored jewels, gold beads and bold Egyptian motifs (created in an Art Deco style in Illustrator). They will color and layer the images onto a gold headband. Simple and fun.























I really look forward to participating in this particular Friday Night event (not sure of the date yet). The de Young Museum has a wonderful FREE program every Friday night from 6:30 to 8:30; the event entails live music, performers, craft activities for adults and children and a bar. I have participated in four or so of these Friday Night Events and have brought my children to a few others as well. It has always been great fun. I especially enjoy the fact that the evening brings together an interesting mix of families, twenty somethings and the older museum going crowd.





















Above is a preliminary costume sketch for a dance performance concept proposal for another Friday Night event. I enjoyed brainstorming on it, but have to back away from participating in the proposal as I need to keep upcoming months relatively clear due to family health issues. A secondary aspect of the concept was to have Egyptian styled shadow puppets and a shadow puppet stage that the dancer would have interacted with from in front and from behind. I have conducted several shadow puppet workshops in elementary schools and was inspired by this amazing shadow puppet group, ShadowLight , in San Francisco. They breakdown one's notion of shadow puppetry as being for children only. They are gifted artists that bring together shadow puppet traditions and stories of the world. I was speechless and had shadow dreams for weeks after I saw their play Monkey King at Spider Cave three years ago. their plays mixed puppets with live actors.
Anyway, this dance concept is one I will save for another time.























Above: sketch for shadow puppet/dance concept

Pied Piper Costume Workshop at Montalvo Arts Center

Above: Sample of vinyl rat mask.
I will conduct two costuming workshop at The Montalvo Arts Center in a few weeks. These workshops are for children in the theater summer camp Pied Piper production. Below are preliminary sketches of the rat mask and the basic template for the rat mask created in Illustrator. I wanted to simulate the style of Italian leather carnival masks. Originally I thought the children would use colored construction paper or colored foam sheets. But after experimenting found that vinyl that looks like leather works really well. It involves a little stitching down the middle seam, in the ears and in the side tucks of the masks. I will be bringing in several wallpaper books for the kids to cut up for embellishments. I used this wallpaper material for the eyes. Silk tie scraps are used for the ears. I also found great plastic ties for the whiskers in the Montalvo Acts Center Barn. My workshops are kind of a filler activities between rehearsal times and we will be out on the veranda overlooking the beautiful central lawn area. It should be fun. The secondary projects will be Medieval hats and rat tails.























Below is a paper template created in Illustrator. The detail elements are to give the students an idea of how they might embellish their masks.






























I experimented with construction paper and foam. I initially thought foam would work the best for this project as it is sturdy and we will be gluing on recycled plastic bits (produce netting, plastic milk jug tops, marbles, etc.) But it is so clear that the below mask of foam is not sophisticated enough. Compare this yellow foam mask below to the sample vinyl sewn mask at the top of this blog. As obvious as this may seem, I have to admit that I didn't really realize how juvenile the mask below looked until the Education Program Manager raised this as a concern. I have never worked with this foam as a material in my classes. I realize now there is a reason for this. No matter what you do with this foam, it screams preschool craft! I decided to experiment with fake leather tonight as this would simulate the material of Medieval masks. I think this resolved the materials issue and the kids will be able to create sophisticated and durable masks. This process of designing this project is a perfect example of being too close to something to see it clearly. It is always good to have feedback from other artists or other arts educators to give one a fresh perspective. This is definitely a project I should have bounced off of a few artist friends before I submitted. Well, that's what this blog is about... the process of designing art and the lessons I learn.

Below: First prototype of foam.








































Below: Medieval hat sketches. Secondary project.

Clogged Currents Dance at Sub Zero Festival

Last Friday was the Sub Zero Festival in San Jose. I created three large banners that were displayed outside the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Visitors added elements to the banners throughout the evening and at 9:00pm and 10:00pm dancer Christina Braun danced to music created by composer Scott Perry. This is the second time that we three have worked together and Christina has named our collaboration efforts "Nectar".

The Sub Zero event was a lot of fun and later I was told that over 1,200 visitors entered the Quilt Museum. We were stationed outside so even more passed by. Below are images at the beginning of the evening. The event ran from 6 to midnight.














































Here are some images of the set up and the visitors beginning to come and participate in the visitor activity which was creating diatoms from recycled plastics and attaching them to the water banners. Rob Bell of Zomadic made these beautiful stands. For the craft activity I had the help of Susan Suriyapa, a grad student at San Jose State. She was really fantastic and full of energy(back to camera in black).























Below:Visitor elements beginning to be added.























I am glad that I got a chance early on to see what else was at the festival. I love this car. I had actually seen it in the Mission District of San Francisco a few weeks prior on Portrero and 26th.


















The ball below was one of two spinning around flashing lights and emitting music. I loved the way it looked with the scattered Jacaranda flowers that happened to have fallen from the trees lining the street. It looked like purple confetti and at first I thought the flowers were intended elements of the display.


















Below: Christina Braun before getting dressed for the performance. She was wonderful helping getting the lights and booth set up and she even made a diatom. I loved how relaxed and happy she was. I would have been totally stressed if I was about to perform!























Below: Scott Perry getting the music set up for the dance performance. He brought all his own equipment and the necessary black tape to hold the cables down. He, too, was super adaptable. He came expecting the performance to be inside (I had mentioned it might be inside if it rained), but was ready to set up outside and I am sure had to lug his equipment from a few blocks away at least as the streets were blocked off in the area of the festival.























I love this jellyfish like creation by a visitor. This is right before the first dance performance started at 9:00 pm. There was a large crowd around for both performances.























Christina showing Anna (Scott's girlfriend) how to use her camera before the performance.























Here is a description of the performance Clogged Currents:
Enveloped in plastic grocery bags and an illuminated diatom hat, San Francisco butoh artist Christina Braun will dance two performances centering on the water themed tapestries of Corinne Okada Takara. Her eerie and playful movements will reflect upon plastic bags clogging waterways and algae blooms flourishing in the stagnation. Contemporary music representing sludge, filth, and pollution in nature created by composer Scott Perry. Costuming will be elements which remove from Takara’s large water tapestries in front of The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.
The performance begins!














































Below: A short video snippet of early portion of dance performance.

































































A video snippet of a later portion of the performance:

Completed Water Dance Costume

I have completed the costuming based roughly on the design construction of a straw Japanese raincoat. Thanks to the students of Lynnbrook High School and Horace Cureton Elementary School, I had a great selection of plastic bags to select from. The rest of the bags will be used in the public participatory project tonight.


















Below: Completed Diatom Rain Hat (inspired on Japanese rice farmer rain hat and diatoms)