Emily Nelson Art Blog

Underwater Love

2012-01-27T17:56:00.009+10:00

I got my underwater pictures from my Stradbroke Island holiday developed today. It has inspired an underwater themed post!

1. Start off by listening to Underwater Love by Smoke City to get you in the underwater mood:

2. I would love to visit the Enoshima Aquarium one day for a sleep over and relaxation treatment with the jellyfish.

3. Beautiful pictures of Russian scientist Natalia Avseenko swimming naked with the beluga whales in the freezing arctic!

4. I'm dying to get one of the new Nikon CoolPix AW100 Cameras! They are waterproof up to 10m, freeze-proof up to -10degrees and shock-proof up to 1.5m! They also have an inbuilt GPS and map, HD Video, image stabilisation etc... etc... It seems like an indestructible camera to me - I would love one as I'm sick of being so precious with my good lens on my Cannon EOS 500D and yet a lot more pro than an underwater disposable camera used on my Stradbroke Island holiday! (AND I love the camouflage design).

5. This is one of my favourite photos taken by my wonderful and talented friend Alex Grigg. I love it so much, that he gave me a print and I have framed it on my bookshelf.

6. Remember this? One of my favourite animation's, by Lois van Baarle.

7. Here are a few of my photos from Stradbroke Island taken with a disposable underwater camera. I love the surprise when the film is developed and so many interesting photos come out of it!

8. I would like to leave you with the beautiful Esther Williams - doing an underwater ballet... I think she is an actual live mermaid. AND this funny underwater clip I came across whilst watching lots of Esther Williams footage.

Things that I like this January

2012-01-22T13:40:00.006+10:00

At the moment this is what I am enjoying and lusting over...

1. These gorgeous hand made leather boots from Golden Ponies on Etsy.

2. I would have so much fun in the bath with this!

3. Françoise Hardy - so Frenchy Chic it makes me swoon!

4. This cushion by Donna Wilson looks excellent on my couch!

5. Taking polaroids...

6. Some cheeky & lovely valentine's day cards.

7. Collecting shells AND my beautiful Japanese dish from Shibui Homewares in West End.

8. Drinking lemon tea from my surprise owl tea-cup from my good friend Rhianna. (The owl is enjoying a nice lemon bath)

9. I can't wait for the new Wes Anderson movie - Moonrise Kingdom:

10. Stradbroke Island Holidays

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-22T10:38:00.020+10:00

This year is a fresh new start for me, having just finished my Masters in Digital Design, it feels like I'm back to square one. Once again I'm facing the daunting task of finding a job and getting my life into order. Studying again has been a great way to excuse myself from achieving some 'normal' life necessities such as - getting a drivers licence, starting my career and doing my tax...

I still feel like I'm 14. My sister is 14 this year and I feel like she is more together and much more hip than I. Where did the 11 years go? When was I not 14 anymore?

As I sit in only my open dressing gown on a Sunday at 11am drinking tea from my surprise owl cup - I am feeling much too lazy to tackle such difficult and boring life endeavours. And I have no excuse - the fact is I care not for tax or driving or working full time! I would just like to create and live by the sea and spend my days naked and listening to soul and jazz.

My 2012 Resolutions/Plans:

1. Learn to save and manage money and business

2. Grow an edible garden

3. Learn Spanish

4. Decorate my home in ways that inspire me

5. Lead a more active outdoors lifestyle

6. Save for a holiday to Cuba

7. Learn to Screen Print

8. Develop a regular work schedule for freelance work/personal projects on my days off.

9. Actively promote my art

10. Find a creative job

Have a happy Sunday!

It's my Birthday!

2011-10-11T08:44:00.002+10:00

A Skulk of Foxes antler earrings from my lover!

Bocce balls! I am so excited about reaching my summer holidays - having a Corona and a BBQ in my back yard and playing some Bocce!!

Today I am also having a Birthday Special! I will be posting birthday drawings on my Facebook Page - If you share them on your wall you can win a FREE print of one of my artworks! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emily-Nelson-Art/151941871500030

As well as that! I am having a SALE! on my online shop with Free Shipping all day today until midnight! http://emilynelsonart.bigcartel.com
I will keep some birthday pics coming!! Hope you all enjoy today as well! xo

Zanzibar and Jade

2011-08-20T12:59:00.005+10:00

I am having trouble getting motivated today! Unfortunately there is a lot of uni work to be done and lots of cleaning too! I'm going to buy a new chest of drawers...so that my clothes can move from the floor into drawers.

I'm listening to 'Raphael Saadiq - The way I see it' to get my day started!
I was also naughty and bought some Tom's shoes online. Hopefully I got the right size!

I love keeping plants in my studio! This is my Zanzibar - he has recently started sprouting some different plants in the same pot! I'm trying to grow them...
On my way home from work on Thursday I bought Zanzibar a friend - a Jade tree/Money tree. (Hopefully this means I can retire early as my growing income develops). Turtle is enjoying the shade from Jade when the morning sun comes in.

I am also enjoying this blog thread of Fantasy Holidays: http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/search/label/travel%20fantasy from the "Cup of Jo" blog by Joanna Goddard.

I have been busy in the kitchen!

2011-08-20T12:32:00.007+10:00

So I have been busily drawing what I cook lately...

And I discovered - there are some great illustrators out there drawing what they cook too!
I am loving the illustrations of Dawn Tan at the moment! I have taken some inspiration from her style in my latest food drawings. I think I need to think about composition a little more though! I have a long way to go until I'm at this standard though!!!

Check out this beautiful illustration by Dawn Tan below:
You can also see her blog http://hand-made-love.blogspot.com/

Post Exhibition

2011-08-08T22:43:00.010+10:00

I had such a great time at the exhibition opening on Friday night. A massive thanks to everyone that came along. I hope those that take home a little creature /artwork give it a good home and have many happy times ahead!

Here is all of my new work being prepped for the exhibition:

And this is how it looked on the night! The photos are a bit blury, as I was excited on the night.

I have put up a lot more photos on my Facebook Page

Chicken zucchini lasagne and healthy muffins...

2011-08-04T07:30:00.000+10:00

Upcoming Exhibition...

2011-07-29T00:41:00.002+10:00

I will be featuring some art work in an exhibition soon! I have been secretly working very hard and have some never before seen art to reveal to the world!!!
So - I would love to invite every one to come along to the opening Friday 5th August. 5-10pm at Bleeding Heart Gallery (Located on Ann St between the train station and King George Square).

Here is some more info below about the Hearts of Gold (6) exhibition:

Bleeding Heart are proud to present Hearts of Gold [6], a collaboration with local emerging artists, where all of opening night profits will be donated to Brisbane’s own Pyjama Foundation.
Hearts of Gold is a series of art exhibitions run by Bleeding Heart Gallery to showcase exciting local emerging talent whilst raising money for Brisbane based charities. The Pyjama foundation who will be the beneficiary for HOG[6], support and mentor children in foster and alternative care through a Love of Learning Program delivered by volunteer Pyjama Angels.

For the second instalment Hearts of Gold for 2011, 9 of Brisbane’s finest emerging artist come together to display their latest works, showing a diverse range from photography to installation. Artists include, Emily Nelson, Anna Oh, Laura Brown, Meaghan Bailey, Donna Malone, Sam walker and Erin Dunne, Brodie Edwards and Luke Darlington. Art enthusiasts will also be treated to displays of new works from these up and coming Brisbane Artists.

This exhibition will show from the 3rd of August until the Tuesday the 9th of August, with an opening night reception on Friday the 5th of August from 5pm

Bleeding Heart is an art gallery, event space, cafe and artisan retail hub located at 166 Ann Street in the Brisbane CBD. Bleeding Heart is a profit for purpose business which means 100% of profit goes back to the community. For more information, please visit www.bleedingheart.com.au

delicious, dreaming and drawing ...

2011-07-22T21:13:00.007+10:00

Some daggy rough sketches from my sketch diary! Here is what I've been up to:

Menu Tuesday night:
Pork chops and roast veges
Put veges and pork chops in baking tray - rub with salt and oil. Cook around 20 mins - take pork out to avoid toughness if veges need more cooking!
Then when you are ready for the last 10 mins of cooking add turkish bread pieces, a tomato, some cranberry sauce and any greens you wish to add (and pork if you took it out) mix around and bake for another 10 mins. Can add a little red wine vinegar when done... or eat as it is with more cranberry sauce. I vary this depending on what meat or veges I have available... and I used cherry berry jam this time because I had no cranberry sauce... it was still ok. :S
Menu Wednesday night:
Tuna Pasta - I didn't draw this because it was so boring...

Dream Wednesday night:
I was doing an obstacle course/ race / treasure hunt. I had thrown out my paper plate which had the treasure hunt map on it, so I was struggling to find the clues.
I was climbing up scaffolding and jumping onto dangerous building ledges and swinging from scaffolding, climbing up old stair cases with red velvet carpet in a run down/construction site building. I woke up before I found the treasure.

Menu Thursday night:
Mandarin Juice, soda water and tequila cocktails
Deepfried dumplings
Rose and Vanilla tea
Hot Chocolate
Dream Thursday night:
I had a very bizarre experience where I was dreaming / walking to the bathroom at the same time. It was like a semi-conscious sleep walking experience.
I had all of these colours flashing past my face/as if I was walking into fast moving colours and objects in an outdoors foresty sort of setting. It was a massive head spin! But I made it to the bathroom and back to bed and it took me a really long time to come out of the dream properly!

Tonight:I am drinking night time tea - lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, etc...
Listening to the solo jazz piano bliss of Cyrus Chestnut
and drawing leaves... (You will see soon!)
For the upcoming exhibition in August I am thinking about:
relationships, sexuality, camouflage, masks, warriors and spirit animals.
Opening night Friday August 5th at Bleeding Heart Gallery in the city! Keep this night free!

New Recipes

2011-07-17T21:04:00.004+10:00

New Recipes: Pumpkin, Leek and Bacon Pasta
and
Blondies with white chocolate, pecans and cranberries

Brown Bacon, Leek and garlic. Add microwaved pumpkin pieces, chicken stock, water, thyme and cinnamon. Cook until liquid reduces. Stir together with pasta!

Melt butter and mix with brown sugar until dissolved. Whisk in 1 egg and vanilla essence. Mix in flour. Add chopped white chocolate, pecans and cranberries. (Or any choice of chocolate and nuts or fruit). Bake for 20-30min 180degrees. (Best when warm and chocolate is still gooey).

Drawing Diary

2011-07-09T17:47:00.002+10:00

I am trying to get myself into more of a regular drawing routine and have been trying a few things... Kind of like a visual diary.

1. Draw everything I buy :
I got this idea from Daniella Germain (illustrator) who did this to try and keep an eye on her spendings
2. Draw everything I make to eat/ or draw my recipes and ingredients
( I really like the idea of illustrating my own recipe book)
3. Draw what I wore for the day : I got this idea from Gemma Correll who made a competition for a book she is hoping to make!
4. Draw a thought of the day! I really enjoy the thoughts posted on Design is Mine - mostly typography based... I'd like to explore that a little more too!

So - this is my start! So far I have been mostly drawing pretty rough sketches... but it's a start!

Portrait

2011-07-04T11:22:00.003+10:00

A portrait I did for my 100th Facebook Like-r! You can visit my Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emily-Nelson-Art/151941871500030

Strutten Launch/Exhibition tomorrow night!

2011-06-16T08:44:00.003+10:00

Brisbane crew Strutten are having a launch party/ exhibition this Friday night for the webzine! (And some of my art work will be in the exhibit)
Bleeding Heart Gallery at 166 Ann St in the city from 6-10pm on June 17

I have interviewed Strutten contributor Noelle Smith to find out about their webzine and their launch this Friday night:

1. What is Strutten?Strutten is a Brisbane based webzine that focuses on highlighting what is fun, exciting and interesting to us that’s happening around Brisbane (and elsewhere).
Our content will always relate back to creative people or projects because we want to showcase the talent within Brisbane (and elsewhere) that continues to impress and inspire us.
The contributors (us, yippee!) are good friends, which I think is a very important aspect of Strutten.

2. How did you come up with the name Strutten?
Steve did! We were thinking of names for a cool blog, and he drew all these names out and I told him my favourite, and it was Strutten! It sounded so sexy!
3. How do all of the members of Strutten know each other and what is your role in Strutten?I ultimately know pretty much everyone 'cos of Sim.. Met Steve at uni with Sim & bboying, Amy through Claire who Sim were buddies with, Narnia through Nat who... Sim met at a gig........ Thanks Sim! ♥
I don't know if any of us really have a role as such, but I love the social media aspect of the crew, as well as thinking of marketing material to promote Strutten, and researching creatives. I REALLY love interviewing people, so I'm trying to get over my shyness so I can do it a lot more :)

I think I mostly like posting most about fashion, style, photography and that whole side of that industry.. even though I work in the Graphic/Digital Design field, I think that fashion and photography, and even fashion illustration is the funnest to write about! And - Anything Japanese
4. Tell me about the launch party this Friday night?
The launch party doubles up as an exhibition for 12 local artists that we've chosen ourselves! It's to celebrate creativity and inspirational people as well as tell people all about our webzine, which hopes to be the go-to place for all things and events inspirational and creative.

5. What events do you have planned for Friday night?HEAPS OF THINGS! I'm sooooo excited!!!!! We have such gorgeous art, live music, give aways, FOOOOOOOOOOD, little packs, and hopefully a Steve-BBOY performance....if we get him drunk enough :)

6. What is the Strutten motto?
"we ♥ what we like"!We simply want to write about things we like, and not be categorized into a certain type of webzine. We hope to have readers that appreciate us for us, and the things we love and maybe learn about things we find inspiring that people may not know about, as well as share it amongst ourselves :) Claire, Sim and Noelle

7. Is there anything else you would like to let me know?
I love you ♥

8. Are you hipsters?
Hahaha - I never know what that means... I keep thinking Hippies. I'm pretty out of the loop with names and titles of things and people and... stereotypes... Kinda dorky of me... but I'm just plodding along being myself and liking things and showing people....things.. I guess if I'd be any.... name of.. thing.. I'd be a gamer :D Though totally not related to Strutten, I'll still try and squeeze some gamer related things in... maybe.. one day ;D

Thanks Noell for telling me all about Strutten! See Noelle in this promo video below for the Strutten launch... where things get very messy!

Launch Teaser | Strutten.com from strutten on Vimeo.

Strutten interview

2011-06-15T07:22:00.002+10:00

I was recently invited to do an interview with Simon Tapson from Strutten:
http://strutten.com/i-events-what-i-like/we-emily-nelson/

They are having a launch party this Friday for their web zine Strutten! Check out http://strutten.com or stay tuned for more details soon!

Dreamy rainy night

2011-05-22T00:27:00.004+10:00

I'm dreaming of grassy hills in my canoe pod again...

I often like to imagine that I am in a warm safe cocoon/ seed pod /canoe boat. I am all tucked in, with my arms by my side, warm and snuggly in my pod boat. My pod boat is rolling, sliding and gliding over big grassy hills. Its windy and the long grass is making that rustling sound. My pod boat glides down the hills and dips and then rises over the next hill and so on...
It's a really nice relaxing thought... I think about it fairly often.

Well anyway the rain is making me very drowsy while I am trying to write my assignments/research and make tutorials. I would like to sink into a big soft squishy doona.
Here is a little drawing I did a while ago based on my grassy hills...
I just dont think it illustrates it my daydream properly and I will have to make a new one soon! I more imagine laying down in more of a pod and not paddling...

New Website for Hannah Macklin

2011-05-14T10:20:00.004+10:00

I have just finished making a new website for Hannah Macklin & The Maxwells. Hannah wanted to go with a bit of a super hero theme and had an idea for the navigation as a clothes line/washing scene with animated super hero costume items hanging from it. At first this boggled my mind! Then I talked to a friend who suggested putting in a flash banner for the buttons in the header. (I have put in a some little links down the bottom too just incase the users flash capabilities are crap or something)

I wanted to go with a Wordpress website so that Hannah could update her content easily without having to know much about html. I also got a great theme with great gallery capabilities and image slider on the home page. I edited the theme a fair bit. I found that Firebug was a really great resource as I could play around with the html and see what it would look like before actually putting it in and creating a disaster.

Anyway I would like to thank Paul Lalo, Steve Smith, Kat, Noelle Smith, Blue Host chat, firebug and a zillion forums for helping me work out how to put this website together!

I went to Hannah's album launch last night and it was a nice closure to the website - seeing them together launching their debut album! It was also my first day off in ages so I enjoyed a few beers, had a date with my lover and had lots of fun.

Here is the new website: http://www.hannahmacklin.com

Let me know if it takes too long to load or doesn't work well for you!

May markets - new work!

2011-05-11T15:19:00.005+10:00

I have created some new work for the markets! I had a busy weekend at Winn Lane Markets and Suitcase Rummage Markets.
(I also sold some of my boyfriends t-shirts that he was going to get rid of... and maybe a little disappointed to say that it was a race between the t-shirts and my art work... and maybe the t-shirts won... haha)

I had some new wooden circles cut! and I would LOVE to get some more wooden shapes done. They are Queensland maple and Tasmanian pine. I'm really happy with them as opposed to my craft store bought bag of wooden love hearts that I usually use. I have sold a fair few different coloured birds, foods and fruit before taking the photos unfortunately.

I have 3 new greeting cards:
Cupcake man - based on a card I made for my friends birthday recently,
Sad clouds - I think this could make a nice "im sorry" or "get well" or "cheer up" card... , Celebration Warrior - a strange creature that could be a cat or bear or rabbit or seal... and is good for any occasion of celebration and happiness! I have also made this one into an A4 print and framed print!

And finally introducing my 2 new water colours:
Mysterious bird in disguise - water colour owl with pink feather mask, is it an eccentric lady? or is it just a flamboyant gentleman? or is it even a bird... it's at least a very mysterious creature!
Fox - he is in his den resting and pondering

You can also check out some of my new stuff at my online Shop! http://emilynelsonart.bigcartel.com/

Well i had lots of fun making all of my new work!
Now back to the grind of assignments!

Markets Sat 7th, Sun 8th May

2011-05-06T23:37:00.002+10:00

I will be showing off my new greeting cards, brooches and artwork this weekend at:

The Winn Lane Markets, in Fortitude Valley. (in the alley way behind the Zoo, off Ann st)
9-2pm. I am excited about this one!!

Suitcase Rummage markets, Brisbane city. (in the space outside the library and Casino)
12-5pm. Hopefully it is a lovely sunny day.

Hope to see you there!! I am very excited about the new work I have created... photos to come soon! But not until after the markets!

University Assignment

2011-04-25T11:58:00.003+10:00

Hi bloggers, I am doing a research report for uni - its actually about research methods and I need to do a bit of quantitative and qualitative analysis. I have made a little survey on my research topic (Facebook as a marketing tool.

If you have the time, would you kindly fill out this survey for me? It would be greatly appreciated!!!

Here is the link: Click here to take survey

Thank you very much for your help!
Here is a Spoonbill that I did recently for my dads birthday!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T18:12:00.003+10:00

A couple of Easter cards I whipped up with water colour today. :)

Interview with Emily Nelson

2011-03-30T12:45:00.005+10:00

Check out this interview I did with local artist Holly Leonardson, (or otherwise known for her label Pannikin) on the Pannikin Blog: http://pannikinlabel.blogspot.com/

Here are a few pics that I dug up for the interview...

This is a pic of me when I was little - Painting up a storm

This is my studio - currently in a messy state!
Here is a pic taken of me at the Laneway Festival!

Mermaids... mermaids...

2011-03-12T15:43:00.003+10:00

Here are a few mermaids I have been working on! The photos look a little darker - the paper is more of a creamy colour. I hope you like them!

Valentines Day Cards

2011-02-07T07:19:00.003+10:00

Hello!
I had a really busy week this week! I worked Monday - Saturday at my reception job (am covering until they find a new one to share the week). Then in the evenings I was busily drawing, photoshopping, wacom tableting, cutting, gluing, varnishing, painting and brain storming away on new work for the markets! I was extremely lucky to have the help of my wonderful boyfriend Shane: who took my designs in to the printer on Monday and helped me so much this week. And also a big thanks to mum who picked up my prints for me and also drove me from work to the markets!

On Friday afternoon I had a little market stall at the Laneway Festival! It was such an epic day - I was a lather of sweat in the blazing sun until about 5pm when the shade covered our stalls and then a big crowd of drunk and sweaty festival goers decided it was time to have dinner and sit in front of all of our stalls. I am really glad I got to experience the day and hang out at the festival - but it was a tough day for sales and also physically demanding! I was STUFFED! I also enjoyed making some new friends with some of the other stall holders.

Saturday night I made a massive batch of cookies in preparation for the Suitcase Rummage markets on Sunday. I made heart shaped cookies and drew decorations on them in pink icings!

Sunday I had a good day at the markets! I had new Valentines Day cards that were a real hit! Some new badges, some new framed drawings and some A3 prints!

I have had a big week and am very sore all over, sun burnt and super sleepy! Looking forward to getting home from work tonight and crashing!

My Valentines Day Cards are online!! Don't forget to purchase one before Thursday so that I can post it to you on time! :)
http://www.emilynelsonart.bigcartel.com/product/valentines-day-cards

New Illustrations and Badges

2010-12-08T21:41:00.010+10:00

I have some new Badges!! Small badges, Medium round and heart badges and Large heart badges. They will be up on my store soon!

Wooden badges

Warrior dance, spirit animals

Owl man

The bull

Bunny lady

Mr Laneous

Beer with me and dolphin by the sea.

Good morning bird

Hope you like the new stuff! Water colours, pens and textured paper! had lots of fun making them! :)

Suitcase Rummage Markets Today!!

2010-12-05T08:08:00.010+10:00

Suitcase Rummage Markets

When: Today, Sunday 5th December. 12-5pm
Where: King George Square, (It will be under cover above and around the Groove Train)
Why: I am selling Christmas Cards, earrings, postcards, paintings, NEW framed illustrations, NEW badges.

http://suitcase-rummage.blogspot.com/

I would love to see you there!

Christmas Markets - This Sunday 5th December

2010-11-30T11:22:00.003+10:00

Hopefully I get some more produce ready for this coming markets!

Suitcase Rummage

2010-10-05T22:32:00.004+10:00

Erin and I have been sharing a suitcase at the markets and here is my little range of products. At the moment I just have hand made badges, earrings and postcards... I am hoping to get a better range together and some prints of my artwork to sell! :)
I have put some of my work up on my online shop which you can find at my website! http://emilynelsonart.com

New website and artworks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-02T11:35:00.005+10:00

Hi! I have been working hard on my portfolio lately! pushing out as many illustrations as possible! and made my new website and big cartel shop, gave the old blog a new look to match the new website too!Also, here is some recent work of mine... I am playing around with a few different styles... using lots of layers, textures, patterns, colours!You may also notice - that my website address has slightly changed! (emilynelsonsart.com is now emilynelsonart.com without the 's') This is because it is alot cheaper to buy a new web domain then retrieve your expired one on godaddy! AND I think it is easier to remember. emily nelson art...http://emilynelsonart.com

http://emilynelsonart.bigcartel.com

Here are the recent drawings...

website

2010-08-04T03:07:00.004+10:00

Hey guys,

I just finished creating this website for Shane. x
shanehannan.com

It's pretty simple - but I learn't a fair bit making it!
Still alot to learn though! haha!
I mostly used Dreamweaver. I can edit some code - but I can't yet build code from scratch!
Hope you like it!

New works...

2010-08-02T17:43:00.002+10:00

Ok, I think these are finished...
I'm sure I'll look at them again and find something to change

It's been a while...

2010-07-24T17:06:00.005+10:00

Mr Laneous:

Two works in progress... Taken from my sketchbook. Above is a drawing based on Brisbane/Melbourne musician Lachlan Mitchell. I'm not sure if this will turn into a tropical afternoon strum or a moonlight serenade...

Below - based on a sketch done at the Fat Cat jazz club in New York - this barry sax player was very stylish as well as talented. His name is Jason Marshall. I still need to work on a few things - I have already made a lot of changes to the sax since saving this jpeg.

Fatcat Barry:

Holiday Blog

2010-06-15T03:40:00.002+10:00

Hello... the holiday blog will be back in action again...

see in "my websites" links...

masthead

2010-04-20T16:35:00.003+10:00

Hey guys...
Something I worked on today for a potential Website masthead...

world adventurers

2010-03-05T10:24:00.002+10:00

I want to go on adventures to exotic lands with my soulmate. Discovering the earth together. Helping each other take another step forward into the unknown. United and invinsible...

I am inspired today by a friend - Sophie. I think she has a heart of gold and an amazing spirit!!!
What a lady! She has been travelling africa and south america with her bf and it looks like they have all the time in the world... I dont think Sophie would have a bad bone in her body...
It looks like they trek (up and down mountains) and camp everywhere, stay in couch surfing places, small towns...

Anyway this particular photo was taken by her bf... and I love it.

Diana F+ (new batch)

2010-02-27T10:18:00.003+10:00

Hi, I got some film developed yesterday! The photos are from 2 beach trips - Emu Park with Shane and Burleigh Heads boogie boarding with Shane and Lucinda.

I also bought a Canon 500D Digital SLR camera yesterday... but at the moment there are too many instructions and I am afraid to touch it incase I break it! So some more photos should be coming your way once I work it all out!

Works in Progress

2010-02-07T21:12:00.006+10:00

2 works in progress at the moment.

1. Nightbird.
This is a concept for a little story I wrote based on a postcard I drew that is stuck to my computer. The story is about a night bird that flies over the houses at night, checking children are asleep and whispering sweet dreams to everyone as it flies over. I have lots of little sketches and verses for the story but nothing there ready to post. So here are two little initial concept sketches.
Also I have been checking out some of Geninne's work and gathering some inspiration from her. She does some beautiful little postcards and artwork with birds. Everything birds... But what I have been really enjoying look at today is how she decorates her space. She uses wooden shelves and book cases and frames. She collects so much and pins it all around her. She has material canvases with postcards and papers etc pinned to them. I just really like how she makes her space!
http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geninne/page3/ (This link shows her "spaces")

2. Warrior Princess.
I have also been continuing to work on my warrior princesses... Doing lots of wacom tablet sketches! I am happy with how this one is coming along so far! (Work in progress!) I have mainly worked on her head so far.
I have been really enjoying Meg Hunt's illustration and have tried to look at how she uses her style and apply it to my own work.
http://www.meghunt.com/

I want I want I want

2010-02-04T07:30:00.002+10:00

I want to get this:
https://www.canoeonline.net/shop/index.php?id=1941

I also want to get more singing lessons - I want to develop a strong voice and really stretch myself! I want to buy a cheap keyboard off Amazon so I can play some chords and write some music even if it is only for myself.

I want to buy a laptop for my webdesign / digital design masters at uni. I want a macbook pro.
Then I want to get my home computer set up really nice - totally wipe everything off it except for programs so it's really fast, set it up with my power etc. Then I want to have lots of TB external Hard Drives to put any of my work onto. And label them.
And because I will have that set up I want to have a process where I write little stories, draw sketches, do some really nice final illustrations on Wacom tablet, make them into childrens books, animate the story/illustrations and make an animation from it. AND just because I'm crazy I want to make a song about it too. (that part might sound lame but I think cute little stories would make a nice song.) Maybe I can make some cute tote bags and greeting cards of the illustrations too.
Then eventually I want to buy a really nice Digital SLR Cannon camera that shoots HD I think it is the 500D? or 50D... www.somemyspacecodes.com">
And then I can get some more stop motion animation happening and a bit of film and really make some good little music videos and cute little personal animations.
Then if I have a beautiful camera I can take some band photos cause I go to so many gigs and Shane's gigs and maybe other bands will get me to take some promotional photos for them. I took some great pictures at their new years gig - but with a good camera itd be excellent! AND then with my web design skills from my masters I want to make a few good websites and I can advertise my own little shop and also some promotional band photography and things.
Anyway I was telling all of this to simon last night at dinner and I realised I had plans all along... swimming around in my head and maybe thats why I cant sleep at night and wake up at 5.30 every morning and practically spring out of bed full of this restless energy. Maybe I need to go for a run or something to calm down!
I want to go to the west end markets and buy more lovely foods and breads and cheap clothes.
I want to be healthy and have so much fun!
I want to make some money and travel and save up for all of these dreams... so I'm going to work today!!!!

And this is what I want at the moment. Please tell me what YOU want.

(Will add some more illustrations later tonight)

Catch me on a good day...

2010-01-20T13:56:00.003+10:00

Today I woke up and I meditated. Then I did some stretches. Then I went for a walk to the bridge that crosses to St Lucia. It was a very hot morning and I was feeling very bothered about the house mess. I sat on a bench on the bridge and it was a very cool spot. I finally did some drawing. It was the perfect peaceful place; in the shade with the cool breeze blowing off the river. I did some sketches of strong women. (in early sketch stages so far... would like to do a finished of wacom version).

Warrior women. I have been thinking alot of warrior princesses lately. I have been looking at lots of women in tribal costume. Who are some other warrior princess women ?

Princess Mononoke
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Some inspirational googling below:

I love women who are strong and adventurous. They have a strong mind, stand by their opinions and know what they want. There are a few women I know in my life who impress me so much because they follow their passions and dreams and adventures BUT still manage to raise a family?! What amazing women!

As you know I have been thinking alot lately... and I am starting to think that all of the thinking was worth while after alll...
People I admire:
I have made a little list of people that I know and admire and why I admire them. I am trying to incorportate some of these aspects/goals/morals into my every day life.

What my room would be like if it had a projector to screen films onto my blind: (Another thought)

After all of the sketching and thoughts. I made some muffins. Banana lemon muffins and Zucchini cinnamon muffins. So far... a morning well spent!

Oh also a few jazz Bigband sketches from Shane's gig Sunday night.

Hmmm thought 2 of the day...

2010-01-16T14:01:00.003+10:00

To stop thinking... is inspiration?

List of visual images related to "artists block" and lack of inspiration:

icebergs
ice blocks
blank wall
a big closed door
a winding river with a mountain ahead but no view of where the wind goes to...
a pedistal fan
mechanical objects
a bicycle wheel
a pedistal fan with streamers blowing out from it
a blank white blind covering a window
square and rectangular shapes
muddy colours
face melting onto a desk
a blank canvas

List of beautiful places:

aquarium
beach
underwater in pool
high on a hill with a view of surrounding hills or the ocean
...

Dear bloggers, add to my list of ways to stop thinking:
(These are the only ways to my knowledge - please enlighten me - what helps YOU to stop thinking/clear your mind?)

'I heart Huckabees' style - bashing head with a soft ball?
Meditation
Listening to waves at the beach
Driving in heavy traffic
have a long shower
play with puppy dogs
(suggestion by Katie Wighton) go somewhere beautiful
...
...

Plan B: Tribal thought burning Ritual>

Materials Needed:

feathers
face paint
a fire drum
jangling bells and chains
pineapples
beatiful note paper
incense
a crowd of whooping and dancing "tribes people"
some tropical birds... maybe toucans and macaws?

Method:
Yet to be determined...

Please call the ambulance...

2010-01-16T11:32:00.001+10:00

I have a dislocated shoulder and a collapsed lung sometimes...

floating around...

2009-11-18T20:36:00.003+10:00

Hello... still floating around in limbo.
I have had artists-block for quite a while.
Have been trying different activities to encourage some creativity again.
I would like some creative direction. A theme, a project, a goal... and having alot of trouble finding that.

So I am posting 3 tablet drawings... Have been trying to work a bit more with the wacom tablet lately.
Would like to get some more brushes and textures and learn about different techniques. I'm not sure where to start except for experimenting and watching how my friends tackle it!

SO the first two are "art jams"... basically I just listen and draw to music and see what comes out in the end. However, more searching for a visual narative/story within the music while I draw. A little bit like my previous post where they use the "tagtool" to draw and animate live to music.

This last drawing is just a play around I had tonight based on a birthday card I drew for my mum today. It was a little sketch of a pomeranian cloud in the sky with stars and other clouds...

I am also brainstorming words and animals and scenes that seem to have meaning/inspiration to me lately. hehe
So here they are: icebergs, pomeranian clouds, tropcial - (jewels, blue, hawaiin, lemons, blue-green-yellow, palm trees), sunglasses, lobsters, crabs, swimming in jello, jelly, hilltops, forests, stars, summer, red-nose, The Mouse, translucent, floating, engulfed in a water bubble...
Think think think...

Thoughts...

2009-11-10T12:33:00.007+10:00

I am in a weird place at the moment. Pondering the meaning of life alot. Swimming alot. Dreaming of running away and living at the beach alot too.
Thinking alot about direction.
Where do I want to go?
What do I want to be?
What do I need to do to get there?
What do I enjoy doing?
What am I passionate about...?
I have a mix of things to share with you.

Firstly I have applied to do a Master of Digital Design next year. I want to do it part time. Hopefully I will get in and it will be all that I want it to be.
It seems to be related to web design and presenting digital media like animation and film on the web etc...

2nd. I am very impressed at Lauren Carney's work in merchandising her artwork!
http://www.laurencarneyart.com/about.html
Check out her "shop"
I think it is very inspiring to me and I would love to make Calico tote bags and greeting cards!
Which also leads me to THIS great website:
http://www.qispackaging.com.au
Where you can buy calico bags in bulk and have them printed on! As well as 400 packs of paint markers for $9 ... and alot of other great bulk stuff...
I would like to look into some organic materials/papers for printing on...
Maybe even pencil cases.
BUT OF COURSE... I need to work on some great designs first.

3rd. Something that I think would GREATLY benefit my own endevour to collaborate with musicians is a Tagtool. Maybe it's nothing new to you. But I think it is fantastic. http://www.tagtool.org/wp/about
Here is a little preview of what it does... but on the above link you can go to more "art jams"

Illuminating York Preview from makimono on Vimeo.

Anyway I WANT one... but think I would have to be great at spontaneous drawings... and perhaps it would work best collaboratively ... with a group of my fantastic artistic animation friends playing drawing games together.

4th note...
A big thankyou to Alex who introduced me to Yay!everyday. My new favourite website.
Some fave videos that have inspired me:

Skhizein (Jérémy Clapin,2008) from Behemoth on Vimeo.

Super 8 - 1974 from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Anyway just browse through: http://yayeveryday.com/popular

And here is a drawing from me... which isnt too new... you have probably seen it on my facebook. Something about letting your guard down. Not being afraid to be loved. Before it's too late lay down your armour.

Also a few pics here from the Diana F+ that I got from Makoto for my birthday! Thankyou! I will have to take a photo of him soon with it to post. I am obviously terrible at it so far... but I took alot of photos this week at the beach so hopefully they turned out alot better. I am very snap happy because I'm so used to having a digital. These are the best four from my first roll of film... they were alll way too dark and I have alot to learn about the settings!

OH! and I will also post this!
What an amazing and inspiring young woman. http://loish.net/ I had seen and loved one of her animations before but hadnt realised she was so young and female and had so much other amazing work! <3
Oh my gosh... AND she has the same birthday as me. Spirit sisters!

That is all for now... Hopefully will have some more drawings of my own to put up soon. THere is alot I want to do but need to work out how to do it!
x E

Zoo Gig - Animation for Hannah Macklin and the Teapotter party

2009-07-29T18:44:00.011+10:00

Hi Blog, Here is an update about how the animation ended up going!!
There were alot of sleepless nights and about 38 hours of rendering by the time it made it to DVD...
I spent alot of time before the sound check directing the technition dude on how I wanted the projection!! hehe It was over the drummers head a little bit - but that was ok. I was so nervous pacing back and forward... and all I had to do was press PLAY!... In the rehearsal the first run through didnt sync so well. I think the band were trying to watch the animation too much and the first animated verse I somehow made a little slow. Once they kept an eye on the count in I think they collaborated really well! The last section of the song was a little different to the recording I was given also. I liked how the animation fit with the ending of the old recording better but I also got good feedback - as the audience had no comparison it was fine!
Everything seemed to go smoothly and synced well and the band seemed happy with their characters and the animation! :) It was a good night and I was finnallly able to let my hair down after and had a great night drinking and dancing!! :)
Anyway, I have included a few stills you wont have seen yet. 2 clips from the Zoo concert (keeping in mind the sound quality on my Camera isnt that great) and the animation itself. I have not been able to add music to it yet.
ALSO! please NOTE: I only had 2 months to make this... aaand I realise the animation is quite limited. There are lots of little changes I would like to make, little subtleties etc... One thing that bothered me particularly was waiting 30 hours for it to render completely - only to notice little mistakes and not be able to fix them in time for the concert...

Fisheyepirate_preview from Emily Nelson on Vimeo.

zoo concert prt 1 from Emily Nelson on Vimeo.

zoo animation prt 2 from Emily Nelson on Vimeo.

Update Fisheye Pirate

2009-06-16T18:19:00.008+10:00

Just a note... I havent played around with the colour of the sea layers yet...

First scene boat sails in from right and then satellite dish aims down towards water and lets out radio signals
Then the fish jump out of the water with rainbow colours

Scene 2 - close up of fish crew and then pan to dress sails

Dress sails blow in the breeze (will use a mask)

Pirate singer looks through the telescope

Scene 3 - all of the fish wake up and jump excitedly around

Scene 4 - CHORUS Boat sails from the left this time out of the screen

Boat sails in from right on ceiling

"Do you wanna go swimming" couple fall out of the boat and into water

Scene 5 - pair pop out and bob around in water

Scene 6 "Do you wanna come aboard my pirate boat..." pirate singer sails in from right

Scene 7 - flag raises and blows in breeze (mask again)

Scene 8 - Dragon serges out of the water and the water rises/boat sways around alot - as pirate singer clings to the mast.

Scene 9 - Close up boat bobbing, then it tilts to one side.

Zoom out to reveal pirate singer/ boat in a bottle as the fishman drinks

Hey friends... so a little update on what's going on in my life... I have been trying to look for a new job! As life modelling has not been consistent and I'm not getting enough work to get my by at the moment. Ideally I want an animation job!! but I need something reliable at the moment. I am also happy to be working on my own stuff!
So... I was struggling a bit... but then I got some help doing up my resume! So at the moment I have a Saturday job 9-4 doing reception for a women's councelling place! so... that's a start! I had my first shift last saturday and it went really well. I have also been getting some interviews for other places which is good...
Anyway... lots of job hunting... and I feel as though every time I get a spare day to do some work I get sick!!! I had a cold last week and then had a full day off today and have been to the dr and in bed sick again all day!

so I thought I should give an update on what I have been up to in the animation world. I have been putting all of the scenes together in After effects with all of my cut out shapes so that I can go back into each scene and animate them. I am trying to work on the chorus first so that it looks the most finished - as it is repeated the most... Anyway I will post the stills for now - so you can see what will happen! (still need to work on the last few versus... I'm really worried about the time limit (about a month to go) but I think it should be ok!!! ... the animation might be just a bit more limited in its movements.

new project

2009-05-30T22:00:00.005+10:00

So at the moment I am working towards doing some animation for local band in just under 2 months. The animation will play in the background at the live concert (if I finish in time hehe).
It will also be a way for me to build up some new work for my demoreel and give me the motivation/deadline to do it! It is a pretty short time limit so I am hoping I can find a balance between quality in animation and... completed project!
Anyway I have been desiging all of the elements to go in the cutout style animation. so... feel free to comment... but also be gentle remembering there isnt TOO much I can make big changes to as there is a short time limit!

website

2009-05-28T22:28:00.002+10:00

Hey guys... I'll keep this short and sweet! For those of you who havent seen it yet...
Here is my new website!
http://www.emilynelsonsart.com

so please check it out... let me know if u find anything that doesnt work... or if it takes too long to load etc... or if you just generally dont like it! It took quite a while but I think I have fixed all the probs!

Best wishes, Emily

Exhibition recap

2009-04-04T13:36:00.007+10:00

(Keep in mind these are all ranging in size from 20x20cm to 30x40cm so they are smallish)

Hi there, for anyone who didnt get a chance to see the exhibition I will add some pictures for you! The exhibition went ok... I think it was a fairly successful opening night. It was well organised, there was lots of free food and drink, everyone was in good spirits, the set up looked good, there was such a nice variety of work and we got alot of good feedback!
A few things I would think about for next time (as it was our first exhibition I think we did pretty well)...
1. If we had another exhibition at uni - organising a technition early on to set up the directional lighting, I think it would have been much more professional minus the fluros.
2. ADVERTISING and SIGNAGE - was our biggest fault. I think there were so many missed opportunities for people to see our work. Alot of people complained it was hard to find the place. Not to mention that anyone who didnt know about it, wouldnt know to come in.
I advertised in the courier mail, Brisbane News Magazine and the Artworkers Alliance news letter ( plus some more papers/mags that didnt get back to me). But it wasnt enough. I think we needed something to draw peoples attention... We also needed free postcards/posters at the event with the event details on them so that people could take them and show them to other people. We needed a few big signs - 1 on grey st just outside QCA courtyard, 1 on the southbank walk way leading up to the university and 1 on level 4 outside the room letting people know to come this way and come in. We needed up to date posters around the uni (we only had ones for the opening night). On the weekend there were TONNES of people at the southbank markets, people having a lazy weekend like looking at stuff... !!! NO one came to my sunday morning gallery watch... I handed out a few flyers to people at the markets and they went to the exhibition... but were upset that it was so hard to find.
3. Clientel. Whilst the opening was a great success... there were too many students and not enough people who are interested in buying art. We were very happy to show our work... but we also wanted to sell some. I also think the times would not suit the sort of person interested in purchasing art... if its open from 9am - 5pm then that is when people are working!!! we needed an extra weekend. I'm not sure how to attract potential buyers... but I also suppose there are tough financial times at the moment.
4. Pricing of work. This was a hard one... how can you put a price on your work? It was only a student exhibition. You want to be modest - BUT you dont want to sell yourself short. I think it is important to research art sales in Brisbane... have a look at some other exhibitions and art shops... compare prices! Think about the amount of time you spent on your work. Think about costs of printing, materials, framing, maintaining your computer and software (if you are a digital artist) etc etc etc... I think alot of people didnt give themselves enough credit... you dont need to sell your artwork for THOUSANDS or even hundreds... but selling works for $20/$50 is too cheap in my opinion. If they spent a few hours on their works its like working for $5 an hour... It also made other works with more reasonable prices look OVERpriced... Alot of people came and told me I was too steep or were trying to convince me to lower the price of my works... and I think this was unfair...

Anyway these are my 4 gripes about the exhibition... oh that and it would have been good if it was in a more open space...
But... I was really excited and happy to produce an amount of work and complete it and exhibit it! I got positive feedback and it seemed like everyone had a different favourite character. Dad bought one of my paintings because he was worried it would be sold! so I was lucky he wanted it so much... but I would have liked if some one not related to me bought one hehe.
I was really happy and interested by the variety of the collection of work.
(by the way all images copyright 2009)

exhibition approaching

2009-03-08T15:40:00.004+10:00

It is coming near exhibition time...
I want to post some of my progress but then I'd be giving everything away! Instead, I will just vent some of my frustration at this point.

I have a bit of pressure to finish off the last few paintings... and its not going so well... I feel like im mashing the paint brush on the canvas with agressive energy... that isnt helpful energy.
i feel alot like im rushing! and im too impatient for fine brushwork and anything that's a bit fiddly! I have to have about 17 paintings ready by 18th march. (9 for qca) (7 or 8 for bar soma)
I had some postcards made up with my artwork on them and have written inviations on the backs (this has put me out of pocket a bit) i'm also starting to care and worry about people buying my paintings... which I know doesnt matter but I think I will be disappointed if I dont sell even 1. plus i have work all of this week... garh!H ( i need the money too)
ANywya this is an online freakout.

Here are the exhibition details:
'Art by Animators'
20-27 March
Opening Night, 6pm - 9pm
Sat-Fri, 9am - 5pm
Whitebox Gallery, Grey st Studios 4.18
Queensland College of Art, 226 Grey St, SouthBank

Also... my abstract work will be on display at Bar Soma for 1 month from March 18.
Open wed-sun, 6pm - late. 4/22 Constance St, Fortitude Valley.

SOoo... for now I'm swamped in paintings, working nude to make money and trying to get my tax done so Kevin Rudd can send me some money. As I dont have any paintings to leave you with - I will leave you with some of my hair art! I have a new haircut... and here is also my work on lucinda trying to make her look like Marie Antoinette for her posh old fashioned themed murder mystery party!

Life Drawing

2009-02-24T09:39:00.005+10:00

Hey there, I went and did some life drawing last night... I have a new book that is around a4 size... but kind of square-ish... and its sooo nice to be a bit looser when drawing. Normally I am using small sketch books and I think my sketches get really tight... I also have a few sketches from the Clarence corner jazz jam night... they are very quick

2min poses

2mins (touched up a little with wacom tablet using white to rub out)

5mins

5 or 10 mins... I cant remember
this is a 20 min pose but I just did a few quick sketches - top one is a different anglet tried out some water colour with brush pen

quick sketches at the jazz jam night... they were moving alot...

Bar Soma Screening

2009-02-19T14:04:00.005+10:00

Well... here is the next update on my progress. Painting slowed down a bit whilst I was sick... but I was also focusing alot more on putting together some animation. Last night was the launch night of the Soma Space at bar soma where myself and some other artists exhibited their work... So there were some photographers and grafiti artists displaying canvas etc... And I had 3 animations on loop to project. At first I was unhappy with how it was displayed... as I thought it was going to be on the brick walls or somethign...and it was just on a little projector screen. but I am pretty happy now because it is right next to the stage and is right in the open and anyone who comes in cant miss it. And my bio is right next to it. I saw lots of people watching my animations so that was good! I also got a free champagne cocktail... and listened to jazz and sat back watching people watch my animations with Shane. It was lovely. So... my work will be displayed at bar soma for a month and you can pop in any time and have a look at it! (here is my blurb about the films) I have chosen to show 3 experimental films at Bar Soma. These works will suit the space as the audience and music can interact with the abstract mediums. Originally gathering inspiration from the Joshua Light Shows in the 60s, I have tried to imitate the psychedelic style. Keep your mind open and let the images and feelings emerge from the animation with the music. SO yes the past few weeks I have been working hard to get one new experimental animation up and running for bar soma... the other 2 are my final year film and another film I created for an assignment. I had HEAPS of old inky footage that I did not even use for my film so I spent alot of time editing in after effects (to make it look like ink blotches or kaleidoscope) and it turned out really well!

Also... here are some paintings I've been working on. Some days go better than others... and some days I get a wet cloth and rub out everything I've worked on.
pineapple lady has gone to shit for now... my pineapple is dead.

pondering bear man

2009-02-06T23:29:00.002+10:00

pondering bear man is dazzled in the orange of the supernova - crappiest movie on tv.

heartache

2009-02-06T22:49:00.000+10:00

Hiatus

2009-02-04T22:48:00.003+10:00

Dear bloggers,
I'm sick... I have been for a few days... production is having hiatus and I am back to watching the Ellen show and laying around with my pommy. The day gets even more pathetic when I get to Ready Steady Cook... and when I watch that gameshow at night thats like a dating one and the women all play for a date with different men. Then I know it's all gone to crap. I've watched the first 3 episodes of the new season of Flight of the Conchords though. I'm enjoying it.
I cleaned my room massively to kill all germs... disinfected everything. Made some chocolate biscuits. Painted this kind of crap painting of frogs in water. My pineapple is dying. I bought some t-shirts on threadless to cheer myself up. I'll show you when they arrive. Anyway I have work tomorrow... So I probably wont paint. Maybe Friday. Does anyone know the name of a good burning program... where you make an animation into a DVD? Does your computer need special capabilities? Mine can make cds with nero...
ok well... that's all... feeling a bit miserable but will start up again on the weekend hopefully.
All the best to everyone.

Mind mush from Mrs Prussian Blue

2009-02-01T01:55:00.004+10:00

Need to work on Mr Lion's hair shadow around ear and fix his face shadow.. bit dark.. but I'm much happier with the mane this time... compared to last time I was trying to do Mr Lion... last year...

Thought Id work on an abstract to clear my mind mush a bit... (still under construction) It is called " I wanna be with you"

Another new one... I'm good at starting paintings... not good at finishing them!

This is getting worse and worse!!!!! since this photo I have pretty much restarted on the pineapple... and fixed the nose... Every time I touch it i screw it up more...

NOT MY PINEAPPLE>.... but I wish it was...

Im feeling a bit blocked. I'm scared to touch my paintings cause every time I touch them I think I make them worse! my pineapple is screwed... I found a great blog today though that had a GREAT pineapple... what does this guy see that I dont?! (above)

Hard Yaka

2009-01-28T15:24:00.003+10:00

Work work work...
Well I'm back on the Mr Lion again... he was looking pretty sad... his face needed a make over... and now he looks a bit like the character alan shore on Boston Legal... haha
but I think he looks proud... which is good. I will just have to try and attack the hair all over again... ahk I dont want to leave him incomplete anyway, needs some resolution. This is a new one painted on an old one... still under construction. Called Blue in Green. It's a Miles Davis song.
I'm feeling like this creature is reasonably completed unless u have some criticism or you think something isnt too readable...
Still working on pomeranians, peonies and pineapples... its all feeling a bit retarded... and its hard to know how far to take a picture sometimes. anyway still under construction. It's not really based on me but I dont have a model so the picture of me and pineapple are for a bit of shadow and fingers referencing. The lips are looking a bit high, however want to avoid making the character look too much like myself. Might need a model!
You might notice how interesting the form of pineapples are... they have these grids all over them. The bottom squares wind around the pineapple in both directions... and so do the leaves... very interesting...

Delicious Camera

2009-01-28T10:04:00.008+10:00

Dear Blog readers... I have found the camera that I want to save up for...! It is the Canon PowerShot SX1IS It is a 10 megapixel camera with HD movie capture. mmmm PowerShot SX1 IS Overview The PowerShot SX1 IS delivers superior image quality and is the first compact camera to inherit a 10.0 megapixels CMOS sensor delivering fast shooting, superior image quality and full High Definition movie recording. An impressive wide 20x optical zoom lens and High Definition movie recording (1920x1080) in an ergonomic design make the PowerShot SX1 IS an ideal travel companion and great for capturing fast moving scenes at sports events. Available from December 2008.
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Features
• 20x wide-angle (28mm, f/2.8) optical zoom with optical Image Stabilizer
• 10.0 Megapixel resolution
• Canon CMOS sensor for full resolution continuous 4fps shooting
• Full HD (1080p, 30fps) movies plus HDMI output
• DIGIC 4 for outstanding images and fast response times
• Shooting modes include full manual control
• Face Detection AF/AE/FE/WB plus Face Select & Track and FaceSelf-Timer
• Targets blur with High ISO Auto, optical Image Stabilizer, Motion Detection and Servo AF
• Auto Red-Eye Correction in shooting and playback
• i-Contrast boosts brightness and retains detail in dark areas
• 2.8” widescreen vari-angle LCD II with wide viewing angle
• Multi Control Dial and customizable My Menu
Anyway I wont bore you too much... go and read more about it if you are interested

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/20036/canon-powershot-sx1-is/

Working Days

2009-01-24T18:39:00.004+10:00

ok I am trying to get myself together a bit. During the week I will be working when I am at home. Getting up at 8am and starting on either some painting or animation... or job searching/resume writing etc. Finish work at around 4ish (mostly later). I limit myself to 1 facebook/email check and 3 vimeo videos per day! (weekends are free). I need some goals to work towards. At the moment I am preparing some paintings for some exhibition space in March.
1. with the GAS group (Griffith Animation Society). They have a space available in March and we are putting together a collection of artwork from animators... with a bit of an animation theme to it. SO I want to paint a series of characters... (its pretty free... but just not abstract free).
2. Bar Soma have a space available to artists every couple of weeks showcasing new brisbane artists... I recently saw a girl I went to school with exhibit her stuff there and she had only really just taken up painting recently... so i was like what the hell... am i doing with my life... and rang them... I got a phone call back saying there was a space in march... so id like to create some interesting things for this... possibly even some animation - loops and things I think would be cool in a club...
Anyway hopefully both of these things come through... for me it doesnt really matter if it does or not or if i sell anything or not... the main thing is that I have somehting to work towards and I will be doing alot of painting and hopefully be getting better at painting!
So here are two things I have been working on below... through their different stages...
also note my pineapple references ( dad got me one with the top chopped off... and Im like but I wanted to PAINT it... ) and Alexs creature from Japan watching over me... I had a pomeranian handy too...

Pomeranians, pineapples and peonies.

ALso... I just made a Vimeo account for my demoreel and finalyear film... and have been enjoying watching a couple of new ones every day... they are very inspiring. http://www.vimeo.com/2867028

tablet photoshop

2008-12-29T17:05:00.003+10:00

Hey guys,
These aren't spectacular... but I just want to show you I'm doing some work...
I FINALLY set up my new wacom tablet that I got for my birthday which was in OCTOBER... and am wondering what the **BE*W was wrong with me... It's very fun and I've been an absolute loser for a few months in a very dry period of art... it makes me feel like drawing all the time and even makes me feel like doing more drawing in sketchbooks too...
Also... my friend Alex came over the other day on his scooter and slapped me repeatedly until I learnt how to animate in photoshop cs3 and set up my tablet... so thankyou... scooter knight in shining bubble helmet... you have officially motivated me.
anyway here are some silly doodles... I look forward to playing with some brushes and things like that... have also been making silly animations for fun...but at least its SOMETHING... rather than blank page, blank mind, blank life.

Life Drawing

2008-12-08T18:24:00.007+10:00

Well... I have not been doing much art at ALLLLLL since I got back from my trip... So feeling a bit dry - I went to the GAS group for some life drawing with the animators. I just experimented a bit... they are a bit scratchy... but I had fun and it was inspiring.
Brett was the model for the night!
I wont even show you my quicker ones ... they are really shocking...

nude reclining postcard!

Travel Diary

2008-12-08T16:22:00.009+10:00

Dear bloggers...
I have not posted anything in quite a while...
I travelled overseas to Japan and Europe for 4 months on the 1st of June...
Anyway I kept a travel diary and did a few sketches here and there... so here are some of them... they are all just short sketches...
so below is a page of sketches in Tokyo, Ueno park
This is in Hiroshima (hence the dome)

Finland in the park

Prague (did my most sketches here) Really nice buildings and statues and ornamentation on chairs, window sills etc...

This is in Prague - I sat on the grass hills in the cherry trees and read some Kafka and did some drawing

Here I was in the Wencless square, Prague and there was a man sleeping on a bench and then the police came and told him to go away (quick action sketch) so yeh the story goes from right to left incase you havent worked it out... :P

I was too poor and spent my days budget to go anywhere... so I sat out side a cafe, ate my mueslie bar and listened to some jazz...

Statues, violinist... prague...

Jazz bar in Prague

more jazz bar

jazzers

Kutna hora... the ossuary... bone church! using different human bones to decorate the interior of church... like the chandelier there was made of jaws and hips and leg bones etc etc

Austria (Salzburg on left), (Lara's kitchen in Vienna on right)

crappy drawing of rose garden vienna

Ritchie cooking dinner and smoking, Vienna

Smoking

Istanbul - mosques from bridge cafe

Cappadocia, Turkey - phallic rock formations and view of town from hostel

Karlzplatz, Vienna again

Paris - eiffle tower (note couples everywhere...) and train station

Japan again... faces on the train

stormy night

2008-05-22T12:22:00.002+10:00

So I was a little "Blu" graffiti artist inspired (by his wall animations) for those who havent watched it yet ... http://www.vimeo.com/993998
And yeah... then I painted my bedroom wall... (over my previous red and white wall painting) It's obviously not as awesome! ... it was pretty quick... It's very hard to work in such a large scale... Anyway he is sitting crouched in my room behind the canvases...I moved them a bit so you can see...but his head and hands peep over the top of them normally. He is right beside the door so he guards my room! My grandma will be staying in my room while I'm overseas... I dont think she will like him very much!
This is a continuation on a work I started a while ago... again its pretty large scale... and now that I'm seeing it this size I realise I dont really get to stand back from it enough. Its a bit of a van gough appropriation (hence the stars and the scissors cutting off both my ears) Still alot of work to do I think... with the body and makingthe ear, hands and scissors more readable. I want the blood to pour down her shoulders a bit like a veil... like she is a maiden. She is giving up her ears for love... and kind of not wanting to hear the truth/ the music that reminds her of her heart. So she is getting rid of the problem. yeh maiden in the night sky, bleeding her heart out... no longer wanting to hear the music. dramatic yes? It's a little gorey looking... I'd like to tone it down more.

mmm and the other paintings... just waiting... for me to play with them... stupid lion man... has several hundred faces... and hair doos... I just cant capture what I want... Icebergs havent really done much... one above is just a very rough idea... want to paint some grassy hills...
and one next to it is based on an earlier drawing.... rough outline of girl walking with a ghost attached to her heart... etc... :P need more painting time!! but only 2 weeks till I go away... I guess the paintings will go on a bit of a hiatus... jazz fight... dooba deeboo doooo... BOB>.. etc (home movies reference)

final invitations

2008-05-13T21:03:00.002+10:00

Here are my final invitations... it was a shame I had to squeeze the other details on... but anwyay
They chose this one below as their invitation ...
HOwever this one below is my favourite!!!
and this one i think is pretty crap... but i wanted to just show u anyway...

more horror

2008-05-05T23:20:00.005+10:00

I dont know why...but for some reason my cake eater pictures have been colour inverted when I uploaded them on here... maybe they are cmyk... but I thought alot of my other images were too.... DONT KNOW!!! anyway the blood is supposed to be red... and the shadows and body like a dark black/green colour...

it has done something weird to the colouring in this one too... should look like one below... I think maybe its a pfd/cymk sort of thing blogger doesnt like...

horror concepts

2008-04-27T22:47:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone... well past couple of days I have been working on some invites for a relatives 21st.
His parents emailed me a while ago and I was a bit slack about it... and a few days ago they gave me a kick along... The 21st Party is Horror themed... I thought it would be fine...but when I got to it freaked out and realised my usual subject matter is not really gore and manly many monsters etc... sci-fi... not my usual thing!
ANyway I did alot of research and actualyl started to have heaps of fun...bit selfconcious about my images...but enjoyed it heaps ... The ideas they wanted was kind of kitche 50s horror movie sort of stuff... or like nightmare before christmas/ edward scissorhands kind of thing...
so the below pen sketches are my first finalised thumbnails... and then the pencil on grey paper r my final sketches (however have no text or colour in photoshop... i think when and if i do ad more colour and shadow it will be pretty simplistic)
The day he turned 21...!!!

swamp cyclops, xray man, severed head party...

cake eater!

on the way to modelling train trips

2008-04-19T00:56:00.003+10:00

Some More train pictures... these ones are mixed... I like the comp of the first one... even though i didnt like it at first...

below is the nundah tea shop... i had a raspberry black tea and Billie Holiday chugged away in the background... it was very nice...
I travelled out to Ipswich the other day for modelling... so naturally... (below) I had ALOT of time for drawing... I wish this old man would keep his head to the side... but I think he knes I was drawing him...

ok thats all... probably wont see many more of these style pics cause my pen is busted... as you can see in the very last three sketches ( I added them today to the ipswich pages) So either getting a new pen... or experimenting with a new medium... should colour some of these up on the computer... I want a new graphics tablet... anyway ... love emily

skater boy

2008-04-12T20:03:00.002+10:00

Just a few train sketches... I liked this guy waiting at the train station and then got into drawing people that were peeping behind other people or walls or pillars or chairs etc... the last pic I just included cause I liked the guy in the middles facial expression I see him on the train alot with his bike.

gig sketches

2008-04-12T19:49:00.003+10:00

Hey ho! These are some sketches from Shanes gig... the first one was when I started sketching more again! just with biro in a tiny book... it was a jazz duo of trombone and guitar... at the pizza cafe UQ so it was a very nice sunday arvo sitting back and sketching and eating pizza...

This next lot of sketches are from a more recent gig at the press club with Descarga... Shane can yell at me if I've spelt this wrong! a latiny jazzy band... I think they should be called the Berrets because all of them expect the bassist just happened to wear a berret by coinsidence... hehehe
I had fun drawing the horn section whislt drinking a tall tomato juice with lemon!

hair do's OR dont's? :P

2008-04-07T22:41:00.002+10:00

Hahahahahah... ahhhhh
hmm... kind of viney wall paper... to be worked on... i dunno... sigh... think the mane is getting better (even though you may not think so) it is maybe more in the style it needs to be... a little too girly... polished before... i think maybe this speaks more for the lion man... unless i could pull off the fur photograph... but i suck. i dunno im kind of liking this... but am fucking around too much right now... need to just lay back and look at it but not touch it for a while...

mr lion and the ghosts of the past

2008-04-02T00:53:00.005+10:00

Some Lion Progress... working on the mane... I mucked around with the face a bit! and lost his look... tried to recapture it... kind of getting there again... I wish I could make the mane alot softer and furrier... I'm so shit at fur! I just cant get it in my head how to create it... anyway above are some pics I took when I made changes...

I want the fur to look like this! (below)

Today I also sat at the 3 monkeys doing some sketches and drinking coffee whilst waiting for my modelling job across the road. The 3 Monkeys had a nice atmosphere for letting my creative thoughts flow :P These drawings are kind of about holding onto your ghosts... "I cant let go of my ghosts... finger tips attached to mine, that I hold to my heart. They whisper in my ears in their strangle hold - I get choked up... etc" kind of about not letting go of your past and your memories and letting them haunt you and hover over you... as though they are precious to you, you keep them with you... but they dont really exist... memories of people ... mmm do you get my drift? I like the first drawing I did the most... top left. a white or black transparent figure shape with its hands reaching into the hands/heart/chest/body... the person treads delicately on bare feet... not looking ahead... hmmm ramble ramble...

Kind of Blue sketches

2008-03-28T16:09:00.002+10:00

Hey... these are some sketchy diary concepts for a painting...
I have been listening to a bit of Miles Davis lately... hes kind of calming and moody and mysterious and thoughtful... hmmm
I've been feeling a bit low and listening to his album "Kind of Blue" I like the play on words...
Like the other painting I did based on his "Birth of the Cool"
I havent played the trumpet in a long time either... so this figure is kind of grasping at the air as though they are playing an imaginary trumpet... I want it to be sad... lonely blue figure... with deep dark blue eyes... but I also want it to be cool like miles and kind of mysterious... I think his music is quite lonely and searching... and I want the character to portray this... Emerging from the darkness... yet laying back... waiting... solitary... hmmm...
Anyway these were my two pages of ideas on the train whilst listening to Miles - Kind of Blue - will keep you updated with the painting... hahah and the OTHER paintings...
From Follow through Nelson... (this also has a few meanings...)

new green pen

2008-03-28T16:03:00.001+10:00

Here is like a concepty sketch of my iceberg painting idea Also in thinking about riding in my canoe/seed bod/coocoon over rolling grassy hills... soft grass blowing in the wind... I'm not sure if anyone has ever been out in some pastures and its really windy and watched teh way the wind blows over all of the grass like waves.... anyway this is my idea of absolute heaven riding the grassy waves rising up and down sleeping soundly in my safe cocoon! and the canoe in the icy water is similar... safe in my canoe edging through the creaking icebergs... gliding... searching... looming... etc... just some random thought words that come to mind about the idea haha...

2008-03-26T13:14:00.001+10:00

You guys suck... I wrote 3 new blogs... and no one has commented me! How is that supposed to motivate me to keep this blog going... I'm just going to end up returning to my myspace blog... you know that!! sucky suck suck... ohh not too motivated to do more art at the moment either... miserable... emily....

Current Projects

2008-03-18T18:42:00.002+10:00

I had a dream about lions mane while I was in Townsville. (When my grandad passed away) I was stroking a mans hair and his hair was a lions mane. It was kind of spikey at the front and had a blue racing stripe down the middle. The hair was really soft. I was probably asleep with my fingers tangled up in my hair... but anyway haha I just remember the soft silky feel of it. It was a very bold haircut, proud, powerful and distingquished - but also a bit wild, it had a kind of dangerous edge to it. Since then I have wanted to create a series of lion themed paintings - portraits of men with different lions mane hair styles - the spikey one in the dream, long soft curly locks etc... I want to do one with a foresty/jungly green wall paper in the background, plus the 3 part jungle lion series in my last blog. This picture below is of the first one I have been working on... I started it around Christmas and then it has been on hiatus for a while... mainly because the strands of hair are a challenge (currently its basic thick strokes blocking in the sections) and I'm having trouble approaching the hair... sigh... I think it will be alot of detail. Also another painting I have been working on is this one - again based on a dream! In the dream I was in a boat with my family travelling down an icy deep green river, the river had big smooth swelling waves and we were edging dangerously past icebergs - the boat capsized and I had to save my family. I was really angry in the dream that no one seemed to care about making sure everyone was alright - I rescued my father and he turned into my grandfather (his father) and he was dying again. Anyway the dream had alot of meanings - but the coldness and the icebergs are symbolic (in the dream dictionary hahaaha) for a block in creativity (which is what I have been having!) so I think the idea of painting icebergs when I have a creativity block is kind of ironic and funny... anyway... Maybe myself going through the icebergs in a canoe or ice in my mind... or just the icebergs - this is what I have done so far anyway...

Oh aswell... in the background is half a painting I'm doing that is kind of a van gough appropriation hahah it is a portrait of me with scissors cutting my ear off - blood trickles down from both my ears like a veil or long hair and there are van gough stars in the sky - it is in blue at the moment and is about heart break - meaning I cant hear any more music without your love in my life - all of my music reminds me of you - i cant stand to hear again - so i give you my ears... etc sort of vein anwyay... I designed it on my way to Japan... still thinking about it...
I WILL FINISH THESE!!!

underwater jungle lions

2008-03-18T18:22:00.005+10:00

First Lion

Abstract version

Oh here are some paintings I did just at the start of the year...

2008-03-18T18:17:00.003+10:00

Hey bloggers! I'm making myself get back into it! today I bought some new pencils and pens to try: A cream marker with a soft brush tip end and a wide marker end, a greeny blue pen the same, a black marker with a wide end and a thin end, a china-graph pen - which is kind of like a waxy soft crayon that you can smudge a bit... The cream pen works really well over pen and pencil cause you can almost use it like a water colour brush and smudge the pen or pencil with it...

compositing

2007-11-06T02:39:00.000+10:00

Compositing is taking alot longer then I thought.
Just organising all of the stop motion files alone has taken ages! I have made projects for each scene and each project has about 10 compositions inside it with all of the compiled frames.
Also am having trouble finishing off little bits and pieces. For example the ants... I have alot of paths already but the files are getting so big that it is too slow to work with. I have been making smaller compositions with only a few ant paths in them and then adding the compositions together... I am trying to fill the whole page with ants!
The "hairs" scene... has all of the wiggling hairs in it, but I have not completed them growing or then crawling down the back, which I will have to make new hair sequences for and export them onto the backs again.
There is so much detailed work to get through!
Also there is so much playing around to do... and it is hard to watch scenes with the music because After Effects doesnt handle music files very well and you have to wait to ram render sections out!! ahh!!

ON a slightly better note...
I have got the ghost walkcycle/dance happening I used the cc light burst on them and it gives a different look to the "hot prickling" scene... it makes them look really shadow like and gives them a feathery edge!! they look very effective overlayed on the curtain.
the faces are looking pretty good scanned in too, I used the cc light burst effect that I used in the "hot prickling" section... and that has given the faces a 3D look and saved alot of work trying to colour them with the cintiq!! I also think it makes them look pretty ghostly! which is good!!
I have also got all of the "flashes" imported and in order, whcih takes up a big chunk of the animatioN! I have played around with a little bit of overlaying here aswell, reusing and overlaying shadow footage.
Slowly chipping away at the animation!!

organised

2007-10-01T18:06:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note... I've been going really nuts all day trying to organise all of my work. Everything is on different computers, after effects had lost heaps of files etc... SOOOo Alex made me organise everything onto my external hard drive.
I have a Film folder with folders for "frames" containing all my footage, "after effects composites" containing all my compositions (which I had to relink to all of the footage!!), "test renders", "final renders", and "music. This so far is working very well! as I can move from computer to computer without having to transfer my stuff everywhere and it doesnt matter if my computer has been taken! Genius!!

extra days

2007-09-30T01:13:00.000+10:00

I was really worried I was not going to get enough time to work on the experimental!! I had planned to start my compositing stage now... but because I was sick it has put me behind! Luckily all of this went really well and I have gotten alot more done then expected! I only really had to fill the scene with about 1000 frames of inks in water... but I got over 5000 frames of footage to play around with and composite layers together!! whoo!! I played around with heaps of different materials for the inks! I had a few different coloured food dyes, aswell as some old ones that were passed their expirey...and made weird effects, vinegar, bicarb soda, crackling medium, water and retarder, glitter and some black, blue and silver pen inks. I tried in a fairly shallow tank which worked well for some areas, but I also used a deeper styrophoam tank which worked better to get the water currents flowing and get different movements with the ink. In the shallow water I got some really nice effects with the inks and crackle medium... which spread out a white circle in the water and then reacted with the paint and water and went all wrinkly! When I put bicarb soda in (even without the vinegar) it would make the inks spread out like flowers or explosions! These two techniques worked really well.
To get a spacey kind of look I played around with swirling the water with black ink in it and then pouring the silver shiny ink in... and the swirls looked like stars.

sob sob

2007-09-28T20:32:00.000+10:00

I have been really sick for the past few days :(
I'm still in my holiday and was going to try and do alot of work in the stop motion lab seeing as I have no classes. I was working on Tuesday night and started feeling really ill, mum picked me up from uni and I wasnt allowed to stay home because the floors have been varnished. So I stayed at mums house and I started feeling alot worse, really hot and week and a sore throat. I think Ive been working too late and not getting enough sleep :( and not eating healthy either. ANywya Wednesday morning I woke up really sick with a really big headache and swollen sore glands, I couldnt even get up and I had to cancel my waitressing work. ANwyay! so the past 3 days I have been in bed and extremely stressed out and sick, but you need alot of energy for the stop mo room! Also on Thursday I had to do some life modelling work that I couldnt cancel, which was absolute torture... It felt like a bad dream, at one stage the instructor made me hop in a body sock.
Anyway I havent been able to keep anything down, but I was feeling a little better today so I went to uni for a bit in the afternoon to do some work and finished off the ear section!! I'm really stressing because I only really have the weekend now to get into the stop motion lab before Marks classes start in there for their assignment!! ARHH!HH!

stop motion mad

2007-09-23T22:22:00.000+10:00

Have been working on a lot of stop motion this week and last week. I spent ages working on the painted walk cycle... I just couldn't get it right!!! First day didn't go so well and I just had a really slow start. Next day I got back in there and got a heap of work done on the ghosts walk and finished off that section. I used acrylic purple paint mixed with black and sliver and retarder to keep it from drying. So here are a few screen shots below:
This week I have had another 4 stop motion lab sessions. I finished off the "ghost dance" section. I've been really annoyed at one of the auto settings on the camera that seems to change the colour of different sections depending on how much light/dark there is in the image etc... so hopefully I'll be able to edit this later on! Also Ive worked on the skin texture to go under the ants - I mixed a cream coloured paint and mixed in some thickener to give the paint a heavier, more textured look.
I have been working on the "flashes". The shadows have worked out really well using the paint on glass technique as opposed to the cintiq drawings I did! I made the paint really runny with alot of retarder and silver paint. This worked really well on glass because I could make it a little bit transparent to create a really good shadow effect. The sections that I used white on black (for example the hand knocking on the door) turned out a little differently then I thought, they are alot messier. However I think they work fairly well too, I used the white paint thinly to build up layers and create shadow on the hand ! I'm not very happy with how the room and door images have worked out, and a little unsure about the eye. but I think as they are only shot shots it will work out ok. I'm lacking in a few areas...
Anyway here are a few progress pics!

Today and yesterday I have worked on the heart beat using red food dye on glass and a water dropper, also red dye in a thin layer of water. These worked out pretty well. Then I also worked on "big breath" ink circles, I did a series of separate ink circles using food dye and a thin layer of water on glass and I took a number of frame shots for each ink drop according to the x-sheet. I did them separately so I can composite them over each other later on.
I feel like I've gotten alot of frames done this week... but I haven't started the "ears" or any of the experimental animation yet!!! ahH!

museum excursion

2007-09-19T10:25:00.000+10:00

Went to the museum today for life drawing to draw animals! I really enjoyed it... I'd love to go to the museum more often to practise drawing...
AlsO I got to try out my new ink/water colours pen, it is sooo convenient and I recommend everyone get one! its compact you can do water colour on the train! no fuss!! (yes im the new spokes person)
Here are some drawings from today:

week 8 ant paths in after effects etc...

2007-09-10T21:14:00.000+10:00

Have Finally got the faces done, but have to do a bit more scanning.
Today I had a pretty productive day and worked out how to fix the ant problem!
I have learnt in after effects how to attach a composition to a path and follow it. This has been extremely useful as I can make more variety, changing the sizes and where the ants walk, they follow the paths really smoothly.
Paths turorial:
From the very cool after effects book: "After effects apprentice" (Trish and Chris Meyer)
Step 1. Click on the composition/object you want to follow the path
2. in the top right hand corner is an option that says "workspace:" Change the workspace to "animation"
3. Then a Motion Sketch panel will come up. Make sure there is a tick in the "Wireframe" box and the "background" box. Click "Capture" to start.
4. Draw your path from starting point to end, the speed you drag your mouse will determin the speed of the path.
5. click on the composition or object you made the path for and press "P" tp view the position keyframes in the timeline.
6. To simplify the number of key frames you can go to the "smoother" panel. move the "tolerance" to determine how smooth you want it (10 is a good number)
7. To get the object to follow the path type (Ctrl Alt O) to open Auto-orientation box - then select orient along path and click ok
8. Rotate your object to face in the direction you want it to move along the path
9. to preview your object moving (especially if it is with sound) go to RAM preview.

The only problem with the paths is that they take up alot of memory, so after alot of paths it starts to get slow, I tried making anew composition and adding the ants together later so I could work a bit faster!

I have lots of stop motion bookings for next week!! and one for tomorrow so have been working on some x-sheets

OK at the moment the ants are too big to post a picture of, but its all coming together

re-styling

2007-09-05T23:45:00.000+10:00

update alert! SERIOUS cut-backs on cintiq work and hand drawn work!
Original plans vs time limit:
flashes to be still images - they look too still when played with the other animated sections, this is looking more like it will be done in stop motion now
Big Breath - this section was going to be similar to a past animation I have done with a figure taking a deep breath out of water, However I think the image is too literal to the words and I am looking to do a more spacey scene here combining layers of stars etc done in photoshop and then to create a 3D space in after effects.
Ears - I'm still tossing up whether for the ears I will hand draw them and paint them with the cintiq, I'm thinking about limited animation in this section aswell as some looped parts.
faces were supposed to be hand animated, then scanned into photo shop for cintiq colouring - the faces are taking ALOT longer to animate and in order to keep up with the rest of production there wont be any time to paint them... so in the last two weeks in the editing stages if there is time I will try and paint them. I have been working really hard on this section mostly, and am having alot of hand cramps from drawing so much!!! I'm aiming to get the faces line tested and put into the animatic by next week.
I'm a little stressed right now... am going to have to book alot more dates in the Stop motion lab!
That's all for now, I dont really have any updated pictures... still drawing faces...

2007-09-02T10:39:00.000+10:00

Dear blog... just wanting to show a few paintings! it has been ages since I have been able to do any painting... it was fathers day recently and on my way home from the train to paint dad something I was watching the train. I really love watching the train from a distance at night... the little lights are a bit mysterious :P and the shadows of the trees and the hill and the outline of the train were really nice. So watching that inspired my painting.

ALso here is a painting I did a few months ago for my mum for mothers day... she likes nudes, I painted it over a painting of my backyard... but the colours showed through really nicely...

hot prickling, ants, hairs and shadows

2007-08-30T06:25:00.000+10:00

Getting a little bit panicked about the time I have left to get all of these frames done on the film!!
the hot prickling section is going ok I did some treatments and have finished animating. The music here is really whispery so I wanted to get just a fine light to represent the figures. I have inverted the animation and used a cc light burst tool in after effects... This makes the light rays splay out from a radius point in all of the white sections... giving it a bit of a 3D look and making it look like light rays.!

Have made the hairs section... I went back to my test version and didnt really like the style of a back - to fit with the style of the film it needed to be a bit more grainy... so I made a few backs in photoshop using the cintiq and made a little back sequence loop in after effects. I also drew the hairs sequence in photoshop and then imported them into flash as graphic clips and placed them all over a test dummy back and then exported all the hairs and imported them into after effects.

However, bit worried about the time limit I have to get everything done... Ive done the line tests and it fits with the msuic the scanning was really crappy because it put a smudged line across the tops of each page. Thought I could get the ants and shadows section done alot quicker. The ant section I made a movie clip of an ant walk cycle and made all the ants follow paths in photoshop and then will export as PNGs... however This isnt going as well... so will make a composition in after affects and work out how to make paths (as I bought a very cool book on after effects!)

also been working on the shadows section... i have done all of the still images for that (have not tested it with the music/animation yet)

(This is the basic look of them all)

ok... stress stress stress!!! back to my schedule

Trying to make better use

2007-08-09T00:00:00.000+10:00

Trying to make better use of the blog in 2nd Semester... as first semester most of my ideas did not make it online!
Over the holidays I have been pretty busy! At the start of the holidays visited Melbourne to the animation festival! and the other half of the holidays I went with my bigband on tour! We toured to Weipa, Innisfail, Babinda and I played trumpet and drank beer every day.
However, I did get a little bit of work done!
I was very excited to hear that the music for my film had progressed and was in the recording stages! I went to Tom Green's (the composer) house! and I got to listen to the music so far... which was really exciting! I was really happy that I had gotten a musician/composers perspective on my ideas because I wanted a fresh take on the music. As a composer Tom did alot of clever things and worked alot of symbolism into the music that I would not have been able to do! The music was a little faster then I had imagined, but again I was really happy to hear his perspective from all of my ideas and the images I had sent him! Also Clint Allen had recorded so I got to hear a sample of the trumpet part Tom wrote for Clint and also got to listen to a bit of the trumpet solo!
Tom and I then worked on the voice recording. As we had talked previously, Tom had said that it wouldnt matter about my tone of voice etc because he would change alot of it once in the computer, so I did the voice recording myself. Tom talked to me about how to talk into the microphone and got me to read my poem in a few different ways: spoken normally, yelled and whispered and then Tom got me to make a whole heap of different sounds like sighs, laughs, gasps etc that he would use as beats in the music. At this stage Tom was still putting alot of it together so I only got a bit of an idea about it!
But then I got a CD of the music mailed to me and have been working on x-sheeting and fitting a better story board to the music. The initial storyboard I gave Tom was just a rough idea of the images I might use and then the music helped me to come up with the new version.

Below is the new story board based on the ideas from Toms music and the x-sheet.

2007-05-24T16:25:00.000+10:00

Dear Blog... I am so sorry I am not really keeping you well... You should have regular updates of my art like I said... However, I'm kinda embarrassed about some of my drawings and ideas... they are too much in the early stages of production...

This week I had 3 life modelling jobs... 2 of which didnt go so well! Tuesday night it was freezing and they had no heaters!!! and Wednesday night... they forgot to let me know they had cancelled because of State of Origin! However, I had a nice job Tuesday morning at a nice art studio in west end and there was a great collection of art books on the shelves there!! So because I had arrived early I pulled down a great book called "1000 tin toys" There were some hilarious tin robots and toys in it that I thought were great characters and I did some little sketches of them. Also last Thursday I had a modelling job at Eckersleys in the city and whilst I was there I found their amazing range of pens!!! so I got two brush pens and have been playing with them a bit...

Up to date...

2007-05-17T00:16:00.000+10:00

Hi bloggers... just keep you up to date...

I'd rather you all read my myspace blogs... this one is tiresome... and kind of lonely... and i feel like im repeating myself...
but ok whinge over... ill try do more professional stuff in here i guess...
but for now just a few little drawings of mine ...

the one to the left was on a quiet night where i got in the zone and was doing alot of uni work... the lights were low and my room was still and peaceful for a change... and i played coltrane all night... so this is called "coltrane plays my blues away"

The picture below is just a little sketch that I coloured up roughly in photoshop the other night... "I'm wearing pink goggles wherever I look"
I guess they were little jokes at myself and the "seam to the sternum" was how I was feeling at the time... I guess it means a few things!

So I think these blogs might be more explainations of my work and progress rather then like the little poems on my myspace... how about that?? Just a basic log of my progress and artwork? That's what I might try... so I don't repeat myself... This blog is just break-downs of my work.. not necessarily arty exhibitions... yes... and waffling paragraphs too by the looks of it!

Shhh...

2007-04-07T19:00:00.000+10:00

I am starting to slip and slide on cold, dark green, thick grass. It slopes down into a dark pit. A dusty, dirty, brown pit where if you sit at the bottom you look up at a patch of skylight, but it seems very far away. Procrastinating endlessly… no shovel that digs up! I’m a little nervous mole. I’ve found my way back into my hole where instead of actually acting on my goals and tasks… I just dream about them. It’s very quiet again… and my little mole ears quiver, listening and waiting and wondering when something might happen.

Semi-permanent Design Conference

2007-04-02T15:39:00.000+10:00

(I normally blog in my myspace... but seeing as this is art related I think I will also post the blog here...)

Here is just a little online photo journal of my trip to Sydney with alex to the Semi-permanent design conference...

It's really nice to escape Bribane for a while... for a few reasons... I'm getting a bit sick of the scene, I've been in desperate need of a break and I think that placing yourself in a new situation/city/routine... really helps you get a fresh perspective on things... sometimes I feel like my art mind dries up a bit if I'm in Brisbane too long... and I'm too busy working to step back and take a look at things...

I enjoyed Sydney on two levels... the conference and then just getting to go out and enjoy the night life!

I reallly really loved the design conference!!!
Mainly I was just sitting and listening to people in the industry talk all day on stage...getting a perspective from someone who has actually made it somewhere... getting to see how they developed, the process, amd presentations of their work...
It was awesome to see people I admire up close, hear their thoughts and feelings, their criticism of their art even... Listening to everyone talk was like a real support system... it was really comforting and inspiring also... it has made me want to work harder towards my goals and really focus in on my skill... I think they work very hard and getting to view their ideas was like an explosion of ideas in my head! The only thing I need now is to find time!... Maybe a secretary/house made wholl keep my room and assignemtns/work clean and organised! hehe

I really loved:
Tiffany Bozic's work
James Jean
Motion Theory
Method Studios
Dave Kinsey
Si Scott....
(look these names up!)

after conference hours...
were shouted a very delicious, expensive dinner from my aunty and her new boyfriend... at a portugal restaurant... stuffed squid in a tomatoey sauce, lamb with ratatue and pesto... the eggplant soaked up all the yummy sauce!! and we were shouted tonnnes of wine, shots, cocktails and scotch!
we ventured into KingsCross... where a man had been bashed on the head (bleeding and knocked out) and a crowd of stupid people around him trying to help him... all whilst a very big man with a sparkling red sequined dress hails down a car and hops in with a business man!

Semi permanent after party... which was run by MTV...was very bizarre... kind of 90's style... all steel and metal industrial basement kind of thing... just like u'd see in one of those corny movies... with leather jackets and jeans and high shorts... (which was pretty much what everyone was wearing) Then there was some oldschool music.. oldschool keyboard and drumbeat... hehe and then! Arrested Development played live... I was thinking they were kind of daggy and oldschool hiphop! and didnt realise who they were until I heard their 90s hit..."I amm every day people..." the whole gang was there... rapping and dancing... was pretty weird.. but cool! Alex and I had alot to drink...
We also went on a bit of a pub crawl and pretended we were from a fashion/street magazine (semi-permanent inspired by magazine Marmalade I thinK!) and we got peoples names and took photos of them and they posed for us... I might have to post this series of photos in a different blog! haha

Beginnings...

2007-03-12T21:40:00.000+10:00

Sniffle sniffle, says Emily through a runny cold nose...
Blows nose on a soggy hanky,
Hunches at computer in the dark,
Begins a new blog.

Dearest followers... Here is my new blog... spot. .
I will update it from time to time... especially when I am feeling better and don't have a cold! I may put up some silly little stories... I may also put up some artwork... and I may also need to use this... spot ( . ) for university activities. So bear with me for that... and welcome lecturers...

ok... weird blog out. *sniff*