Drawing experiment with masking fluid - stage 1

Drawing experiment

Drawing experiment

Ongoing marginendeavour work in construction

Experimental collage

The latest marginendeavour work in progress

Attempting to draw the feeling in my abdomen

The beginning of the next work by marginendeavour

Ongoing studio experiments

Ongoing studio experiments

Ongoing studio experiments

Ongoing studio experiments

Inverted lined paper

Ongoing studio experiments - month to view

I have been experimenting with using pre-existing patterns and structures to provide me with a basic framework to work with.

I used a sheet from my month to view calendar as the basis for this watercolour. 

Ongoing studio experiments - dotted paper

I have been experimenting with using pre-existing patterns and structures to provide me with a basic framework to work with.

I used a sheet of dotted paper to as the basis for this watercolour. 

Ongoing studio experiments

I have been experimenting with using pre-existing patterns and structures to provide me with a basic framework to work with.

I used a sheet of gridded paper to as the basis for this watercolour. I left the gridded lines unpainted.

marginendeavour work in progress

Testing projections at The Word

On Friday I visited The Word to do some technical research in preparation towards my forthcoming exhibition in the Story World area of The Word.

Story World is a white space with four slightly curved walls and four projectors that project onto each of the four walls to create an immersive environment.

I had prepared a number of videos and still images with different aspect ratios and wanted to establish which format would be the best for the room, and whether I would need to create masks in order to avoid any of the projections bleeding onto the wall or floor.

The image above was an animation made on clear 16mm film stock. The colours were not as vibrant as I had expected, possibly because the room is not totally dark. There was some bleed on the floor, and when the projection went to the ceiling, the projector shadow was visible.

I also noticed that the edges of the shapes in the animation did not seem as crisp as they appear on the original film, but this will be because of the amount that the image has been enlarged by.

The image below shows a projection of an animation that I made using the black 16mm film strip.

The image above shows a panoramic view of the 3 walls with the same projection on.

In these images, the projections with the hexagonal patterns have been applied with a template so that the top part of the wall is not projected on. This eliminates the shadow from the projector from being in sight. The other wall with the black film image still has the bleed on the floor, but the image goes all the way to the top of the wall.

These show the projection with the template applied reducing bleed to the ceiling and floor.

My mission now is to decide what I prefer and create an appropriate template for my footage prior to creating the video file to be projected. Wish me luck!

Creating my own typeface

At the moment I am experimenting with creating my own typeface. I am working on a wall drawing, part of which will be text, and I want the font to be something I have designed to be integrated into the image as a whole.

Testing projecting the spinning video

Having done a bit of editing to the newly filmed footage of me spinning, I wanted to test it out in the studio and assess the light levels, the size of the image and get a sense of where to position the work in the room.

Over the past week Irene and I have been helping each other experiment with the green screen; both in terms of recording the footage and then learning how to edit the footage. Irene needed to increase the size of the green screen, so she bought a new one. This new screen comes with a specialist stand. I was immediately drawn to the stand, and think it could be very useful to enable me to try out projecting onto different materials at different heights.

Initially I set up the projection onto a large piece of table cloth. The material was far too transparent and the surface was not good for the projected image. Although I got the size of the character spinning to be the same size as me, the image looked small because the tablecloth was too narrow. It looked insignificant in comparison to the huge length of green material behind.

I then tried projecting the footage onto a white screen in the centre of the room. I used Irene's stand to hold the material. I think this works well. The screen has a presence and the scale works well in the room. I also like the way that the screen blocks part of the room so that you cannot see everything from the door. This prompts people to enter the room as opposed to staying by the door.

As I want a life sized projection on both sides of the screen, I need the projectors to be as far away from the screen as possible. I have therefore positioned the projectors facing each other in two diagonal corners. Set up in this way, it is possible to project my image life size.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Welcome to my studio (currently a film set!)

Over the past week I have been experimenting with filming in front of a green screen and a black background. This has been in order to be able to project my image against a surface so that it appears as if my image is in the space itself.

It has taken a lot of testing with different lighting conditions, camera settings, materials, and the continual adjusting of the distance between the figure and the background. Thank goodness that the room is big!

At the weekend I managed to shoot some good footage in decent lighting conditions, so now I am ready to commence with editing the animation.