Sunday 17 January 2016

Adaptation Part B: ideas

After a kind nudge away from my initial idea, Phil suggested this musical piece to see what I can come up with. I was listening to it on a loop for a couple of hours while painting. This is the music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwzrpuMt9Hw
 and this is the result:

Let me know what you think.

6 comments:

  1. Vlad - I'm so confused :( The suggested piece of music (and it is only a suggestion after all) has an existing world of its own; in other words, if you were seeking to adapt a piece of classical music about a cavalcade of insects, then surely your mission is to deal imaginative with that 'cavalcade of insects' - not draw a wolf...

    The piece of music is divided into a series of parts: so

    Part One

    Prélude
    Entrée des fourmis (entrance of the ants)
    Entrée des Bousiers (entrance of the dung-beetles)
    Danse du Papillon (dance of the butterfly)
    Danse de l'araignée (dance of the spider)
    Ronde des fourmis (you translate the rest)
    Combat des mantes
    Danse de l'araignée
    Eclosion et danse de l'Éphémère

    Part Two

    Danse de l'Éphémère et des vers de fruit
    Mort de l'Éphémère
    Agonie de l'araignée
    Funérailles de Éphémère

    Vlad - this project is predicated upon your ability to ADAPT and existing source; the challenge is to anchor our creativity in the world and work of some other art form or source... not simply 'paint' decoratively... you have to work with someone in this way, not work against them. Does that make sense? This isn't just about you Vlad, it's about the art form and discipline of adapting somebody else's work, with a sensitivity for the core values of that piece of work... Does that make sense? In this context, your resulting painting above doesn't.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Phil, thanks for the quick feedback. I see what you mean, but the paintint isn't really about a wolf, it's more of a mood I got from the sounds, and I didn't want to take the name of the piece so literally as well and think about bugs, I was focusing more on the sounds, my bad :)
      Another thing was that I thought the adaptation project is a bit more open and personal and a chance to pick something we would like to do?
      If it's confusing though it really didn't serve it's purpose and as you know I'm not particularly precious about my work so if this isn't working there isn't a problem for me to leave it alone and work on something else, it seems easier to paint though as the feedback can be more precise then.
      Aaanyways, thanks again, I will try to come up with something fresh :)

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  2. I'm confused too - because I thought you were looking for a platform for character design/creature design/fantasy art - in other words, you're looking for an adaptation source that gives you 'what you want to do'. This piece, as an example, offers you the chance to design and paint and model fantasy creatures - but they're fantasy creatures requiring to you to think about this combination of references: yes, insects, but also 'theatre costume' and also 'ballet' and also 'dancers'; you get a time period to think about (early 1900s) etc. In other words, while you a) get the opportunity for designing the sorts of characters that you like (and wasn't it you trying to turn a story about humans into a story about 'bug-like humans'!? for no other reason than because you 'wanted to'?) and b) you get a framework of the existing source material from which to derive influence and some conceptual 'surprise' - i.e. you're not just drawing decoratively from your head, but in response to a brief? You need a win/win - but you do need to accept the core challenge of this brief, which is the adaptation of someone else's material as 'adapting someone else's material' is a big part of what happens 'out there'...

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  3. I agree with you completely Phil, and I need to be clear about something - I spent a couple of hours on a painting which doesn't mean that I'm definitely going for this style/mood/narrative, but it did give us a good starting point on what to do or not to do.
    I'll try and be more verbal in the future instead of being all decorative right at the start :)

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  4. Start with some research, Vlad - find a thing, research it, respond to it...

    BUT - in a few weeks time, I'll be launching that project about the Young Person's Guide to The Orchestra as a sort of big 'Game of Thrones' inspired animation (remember the briefing with the lady from France last term? You are in my sights, Mr Yankov, as an important contributor, and I'll want LOTS of painting from you in response to the music... Watch this space! :)

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