Inspiration for stop motion in paper arts

I have been brewing on the style direction for this summer's stop motion animation classes. I will let each child create his/her unique "thinking outside the box" sequence with a fold up box, clay and other mixed media materials. This will be part of either the opening or closing sequence. But the rest of the animation will be in a cut paper style that will fit well with the Pacific Northwest legend of the Crow and the Seagull. I found these two artists so inspirational for what I want to do with the children. First, I found this blog, Sakura Snow, really inspiring, especially this posting. What Suzanne has created is so suited to set design for stop motion (even the lighting) that I will adapt a lesson plan for the kids to make landscape sets that slide apart and together using this cut paper style. Please check out her site. Here is the posting I was inspired by and two images of Suzanne Norris's work below: http://sakurasnow.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/wintry-dioramas/
I am so grateful for all the amazing artists who post their work on the web. Inspiration at the touch of the keypad!














Images above and below courtesy of Sakura Snow.




















The British artist, Su Blackwell, is the second mixed media paper artist who I was totally wowed by. She has done some animation work. Here is her site. Please check it out: http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/index.php

I have been dreaming about her work. Yep, it's that inspiring!
Below are two images of hers. I love the lighting in both and like the limited color palette. A limited color palette will work well with the Pacific Northwest imagery we will work with. I will be experimenting a lot with the kids this summer to really create mood lighting. I would love to have areas of the set fade into black to create depth and mood. More on lighting in my next blog entry.

































Su Blackwell's art above two images.

The final artist I would like to mention here in my inspiration blog is not a paper artist but a fantastic stop motion animator. Suzie Templeton created the Academy Award winning "Peter and The Wolf" animation. Here is her site: http://www.suzietempleton.com/pages/films/peter/watchclips2.html

She took a musical piece that has been depicted so many times in a very sugary way and created a dark, moody and moving animation that takes place in a depressed contemporary Russian setting.