Theme:
Play and Time
Method:
Design interesting backgrounds for animation, using physical materials. Exploring the different formations and aesthetics created from using shaving cream, food dye and acryllic paint.
Context:
There are so many different ways in which time can be generated or explored. Looking over the mindmap from the groups brainstorming session on what ‘Time’ was or is, a couple of words popped out to me for this weeks response - Future/Past, Moments, Anxiety/Stress and all the discussion around loops and how we can create interesting visuals and animation through applying looped cycles. Having explored time and nostalgia through music in the past, I was drawn to the idea of exploring and playing with time through a more visual sense and playing with a combination of physical seasons changing as we walk through life such as winter, spring, summer and autumn and cycles - and how we find ourselves sometimes stuck in a loop within our own lives as the seasons change and time passes by around us.
This project sits in the fields of texturing and storytelling through exploring and combing traditional storytelling techniques such as shadow puppetry with environment design, through playing with physical art to create interesting formations and aesthetics. Whether it is 2D or 3D design, the environment design is critical in communicating the story and evoking emotions. The environment is essentially a character itself within a story and transports the audience to another world through the combination of textures, structure and style. Sometimes abstract, sometimes realistic and other times a fusion of different artistic approaches, the environment is what helps to give a story visual identity.
Wanting to play with the combination of time and physical art in order to tell a story, I did a lot of research around different art techniques that are used for fun with children and stumbled across a method of painting called “Shaving Cream Marbling” which seemed like an interesting technique to play with. This form of art is where shaving cream is sprayed out in a tray, an eye dropper or syringe is used to sprinkle food dye or paint over the top of the cream, the cream is then swirled around with a stick to create interesting patterns and then a piece of paper is laid over the top and pressed down to then create an artwork.
My goal was to create a simple story concept with the formation of interesting backdrops playing with this shaving cream technique.
Response:
Ask a 5yr old which characters I should make to create puppets
Cut out a couple of characters to use for storytelling
Spray shaving cream onto tray
Mix different food dye colours and acryllic paints onto shaving cream
Swirl cream around with bamboo stick
Run characters over the top of outcome to create a setting
Wipe off and repeat process
Process Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTkoSVBP_U8&feature=youtu.be
Story Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMtqjS3RWrk
Reflection:
To view the final “story” and outcome playing with time visually, please click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMtqjS3RWrk
This week I had a lot of fun getting my hands dirty in some paint with a 5yr old. Being on a holiday back home and having limited resources on hand, it forced me into thinking about a playful solution to the weekly response for Time. In order to reflect the notion of time visually, I wanted to explore playful creative ways using art to form some sort of unique backdrop idea with 2D puppets. 3D environment art in abstract way. The method and tecnique itself that I found was relitively easy enough to play with, which allowed time to experiment with different colours. It wasn’t till I began wiping away all the cream from the second attempt with paper towel, that I realised the crazy patterns that were revealed from that particular part of the process. This added a lot of extra dynamics to the layout of the image and created more of an interesting scene - which was a happy accident. Even though painting the “setting” onto the cream was playful, it was still rigid and planned through it’s approach, where as wiping the cream away shifted and moved the paint into new directions, creating more dynamic scenes. Getting started, I tested the method loosely with Caspar to see if applying the whole method would work - but the marbling on the paper was very heavy or very light and I felt the raw cream on the board was more alive and interesting to leverage from, by taking overhead video footage of it, rather than photos of the marbled artwork on paper.
I came up with the idea of a person running across different landscapes and Caspar innocently suggested I made a dog to go with him. Then my entire concept shifted from not representing time in a visual sense by creating the different seasons using shaving cream, but an additional level of storytelling with the idea of this black dog chasing this person on a continuous loop in life as the seasons are changing around them - providing a short reflection on depression through the creative response. To assist with the seasons changing and being stuck in a cycle, I found some creative commons music to use which had a reflective/nostalgic feel through it’s pacing and classical nature.
Overall, it was a fun little experiement playing with this art technique. I feel as though there would be a lot of potential to use it further - perhaps applying 2D digital animation over the top could be fun to try out and with the understanding of the unique effects that can be created through the clean up process, there is a lot of scope for adventure and abstract animation.
By Amber Stacey
Email Amber Stacey
Published On: 23/03/2021