Time Flies: The Doll Catches Up

What a difference a month makes. And where have I been? Not on a luxury cruise. Not in a remote corner of the Far East. I have been at home. Not sleeping, staring at the rain and feeling anxious.
But now (ta-da fanfare) the sun is shining. And here I am.

Why am I anxious? You ask. I grow old, I reply. And I don't like the way the world is going. Enough!

I am still reviewing crime fiction. Yes, me: The Doll, Mrs D (aka Lynn Harvey) -- ils sont tout moi. And you will find my review of Antti Tuomainen's "The Mine" over at the Euro crime blog. 
I am a fan of Finnish writer Tuomainen's crime books. Each different (so far) and each written from a fresh point of view. I am trying to catch up on the ones I have missed. So the next on my list is "The Man Who Died".

I am also still exploring dramatised fiction podcasts and hope to recommend some more series to you. Although I remain addicted to "Tanis" and find it difficult, frankly, to find something else that matches up ... but I have a few in mind to try.

As for Mrs D? It is hard to pry her/me away from her animation efforts. I/she ... am/is really excited about the possibilities of GIFs or animation loops. She says "At last something where I don't get bogged down in the narrative but can stay with the image... more like a poem or a painting than a film". (And no ... I am not including the chopped up videos of celebrity bloopers or gestures here). So the Mrs D part of me is embarking on a GIF series over at Syb & Me. It's based on imagery that started out as lino cuts that I made years ago. A childhood theme featuring a character I like to call Queenie. Please take a look.

And at the same time? The swallows are back and the sun is shining. My potatoes and broad beans are up in the garden... and I'm trying not to be anxious.
No. Don't mention Trump ...Brexit ... Climate Change ... the UK Government. Don't mention the Health Service... Social Care....
Don't mention any of it do you understand?

Animated Goings On and Smartphone Obsessions: PicsArt Animator

I have become so obsessed with my smartphone as a mini computer that I am getting warning notices from my supplier that I am exceeding "my bundle usage". Truth is, being an old ginner and new to this area of consumption, I don't know what such people are talking about. Except that up to now this sin has only cost me an extra 50p. I blame Tanis (see previous post) for my abused bundle. But I don't care and will continue to download this podcast with devotion.

I have installed an animation app: PicsArt Animator. (Maybe this exhausts my poor little old bundle?) It is fun ... as advertised. Although the animations you produce are watermarked "PicsArt". I tried FlipaClip which is pretty good too. But it also watermarks your animation. So for now I will stay with PicsArt ... it being the devil I know. As an animation app PicsArt Animator seems geared to creating GIFs but it does a lot for its size. Its instructions are cryptic to non-existent, so good luck with that.
(I seem to spend my days battling with cryptic instructions. Of course, this could mean the onset of dementia ... the bugaboo that is driving all of us old ginners into the corner from fear. Hey! Want to exercise your brain? Try mastering a smartphone with no phone-savvy people by your side I say.)



Perhaps I am the only idiot trying to make animations by pawing at their smartphone with fingers like bananas ... but do you know what? I just treat it like a sketchbook. Which is very helpful. AND it has reintroduced me to GIFs. Which I first tried to make in the 1990s...

DOLL:"Well, hello stranger."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "I see you are all kitted out as hot stuff now."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "Well who would have thunk it."
GIF: (Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink .......)

Animated Discussions: Loving Vincent

I'm looking out for "Loving Vincent" - a film produced by Polish animator Dorota Kobiela and film director Hugh Welchman (who also worked on the 2006 animation "Peter and the Wolf"). They just got an Oscar nomination and the European Film Academy gave it their 2017 European Animated Feature Film Award.
The project was Kobiela's labour of love which everyone said could not be done: a film about Vincent Van Gogh animated with frames individually painted in the style of the man himself. "CGI it": they said. "No": said the team whose dream it was.

From a test run in 2012 they managed to tackle problems such as frame size vs varying canvas size of source paintings; film timeline vs depicted seasons in chosen image; varying styles of the painter (Van Gogh) himself... you name it.

And with a team of 80+ painters (including Helford-based artist Sarah Wimperis) and a method involving rotoscoping live-action filming ... They did it.

Take time, if you can, to watch the "making of" video at the end of Ashley Lo Russo's  Review of "Loving Vincent" on the Canadian Animation Blog.

Animated Discussions: Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda

I am not so much of a wolf ... as I am a rabbit. But you know that I love my cartoons and that I love Japanese cartoons particularly.
Yesterday I watched "Wolf Children" -  Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 film release, very reminiscent of the Ghibli tradition of fantasy family tales for all ages.

Its story is about student Hana who falls in love with a mysterious young man she sees at her college lectures. But his dark secret is that he is a werewolf, a race long thought to have died out in Japan. Their love affair continues and he and Hana go on to have two young children: a girl, Yuki (Snow), and a boy, Ame (Rain). Fate forces Hana to lose her lover and soon the intrusions of modern urban life prove too much for Hana and her tiny human-wolf children. Hana moves to a rural community and the film follows the family as the children grow towards adulthood. How can Hana raise them as a human on her own? And how will they live? As wolves or humans?

I enjoyed the film very much but somehow it missed something that I find in the Ghibli classics. It's not so much the visuals, I think, as in the story-telling. Ghibli or rather Miyazaki's characters can be subtly drawn in terms of ambiguity or gender "type". In Hosoda's film it seems that boys are expected to be "tough" wolves and girls to be more human "tender" and perhaps woe betide if they do not conform that easily. Mmmnn! (She do say stroking her old-lady chin thoughtfully.) But it's a great story which involved me and The Old Man easily on a wintry evening.

And I wouldn't mind getting hold of a copy of the the next Hosoda: "The Boy And The Beast".

Short Trip - Alexander Perrin

Well me and The Old Man are off on yet another short trip.

So let me point you to Australian technical artist Alexander Perrin's  interactive illustration "Short Trip".

There you can while away your time, idly traveling a graphite, cat-populated train journey via your keyboard's arrows and spacer key. With its peaceful soundtrack I find the journey reminiscent of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Or perhaps that's just me because I am a little obsessed with Miyazaki.

Warning: not an experience for gamers perhaps.

With thanks to Brian D Butler's blog "Travel Between The Pages".

Animated Goings On: Mrs D Rotoscopes A Clockwork Mouse

Mrs D has been playing around with her beloved with TVPaint animation software.
She says: "My very first rotoscope. A clockwork mouse. Cute ... and another work in progress."

Animated Discussions: Bitz by James Pollitt

Some of us like a dog.
Some of us would like to animate a dog.
Animator James Pollitt is already doing so with his creation, the whippet Bitz.

I favour the buzz of creating only from what is to hand, which is the challenge which James set himself in creating a critter from a selection of random bits and pieces. Voila - Bitz exists.

James has a kickstarter project going for creating more Bitz.
But meanwhile, for dog - and in particular whippet - lovers everywhere ... just click the arrow and behold the wonders and setbacks of animating Bitz.



BITZ- The whippet made from random stuff... from James Pollitt on Vimeo.

Animated Goings On - Mrs D's Work In Progress

Mrs D is still sat, for hours a day, drawing her animation...

This is all still part of a work in progress, Mrs D assures me. As is her knowledge of TVPaint. But here's a clip.

I seem to remember those red shoes, flamenco ones from Barcelona. At least they are getting an airing ... and what an airing.



Blown Away from Mrs D on Vimeo.
"Wind" sound effect - by Mark diAngelo.

Mrs D's Current Obsession ... with Animating

Night and day Mrs D sits at her desk: monitor on; pc on; graphics tablet all lit up and nibs for the stylus worn down to stumps and strewn about the place.

What is she animating? Your guess is as good as mine ... or hers. You can see her Mood Board over at Pinterest. There certainly seems to be a lot of stuff flying about.

Will she succeed in making a short cartoon? Alors! Me and Chunky the dog don't know. But here are a few frames for you to wonder about.

Artistic Obsessions: Adrian Piqueras Sanchez as an "Animaholic"

Still snacking, dozing and discussing creative obsessions, Mrs D is herself rather preoccupied with the notion of buying a fountain pen (after watching Mattias Adolfsson's video about pens).
Whilst considering creative obsession she fell upon this confession of Madrid-born Adrian Piqueras Sanchez on his own consuming addiction. Mrs D do quote from his website  (original is in Spanish of course but ... here's to the glories or otherwise of Google translate.). 

"The first time a painting came to my hands, I heard a voice in my head that said ... Draw! But since I still could not speak, I ate it. That day I learned 2 things: that it is not food does not mean that it does not feed, and that life can be seen in many ways. Since then I do nothing more than draw everything that goes through my head, creating impossible beings with everything I encounter and encouraging everything that is supposed to be inert. 
And yes ... I do keep hearing voices."

Aaah! Passion! says Mrs D. Oh ... by the way, references to "the dragon" in this film are likely to refer to an addiction to the animation software Dragonframe and not another substance... ahem.


ANIMAHOLIC from Adrian Piqueras Sánchez on Vimeo.

Animated Discussions: Eva Cvijanović and "Seasick"

One of The Doll's previous posts was about Kati Hiekkepelto's "The Exiled" - a crime thriller set in Serbia.

OK, this is a ropy link but I'm continuing the theme of exile with this lovely animation featured by Chris Robinson in his blog "Pictures from the Brainbox: a weekly dose of Indie Animation" on the Animation World Network site.

Canadian resident and "Seasick" creator - Sarajevo-born animator Eva Cvijanović - told Robinson that “Making this film was my way of fighting Canadian winter by immersing myself in memories of swimming in the Adriatic Sea by the Croatian coast.”

... It's a very different view of seasickness ... and a tender, beautifully-made, short film.

You can read an interview with Eva on the Skwigly here.



SEASICK from eva cvijanovic on Vimeo.

Animated Discussions: Bath House by Niki Lindroth von Bahr

For fans of Nordic Noir ... or "slow film" as in Roy Andersson  ... Bahr's award-winning "Bath House" is a meticulous stop motion film set in a Swedish public swimming bath.
If you think you've had a bad day at work take pity on this shift manager. I think it's funny in a bleak way but then I love the aforementioned Andersson and I adored the Icelandic comedy series set in an all-night garage -The Night Shift.

The film is in Swedish with English subtitles. If you don't get the subtitles, click on the CC button at bottom right on video bar.

Bath House from Niki Lindroth von Bahr on Vimeo.

A New Day - A New Doll

Let me introduce myself ... Grey Doll calls me Bike Girl. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. But those who follow this blog may have seen me before: perhaps on my bike or with my trusty Dog. Often I'll be sharing a bottle of red with The Doll ... like in Mrs D's film "Seating the Guests". Remember that? How could you forget.

So why am I here? Frankly, I told The Doll and The Old Man that if they are reduced to telling the world which flavour of ice cream they last ate... they may as well go to Instagram and get on with it. Besides which, The Doll's foot fell off whilst she was attempting to pose for a photo.

Time for you both to take a break, I said. Let's face it. You are old and tired. Go away and see if you can recuperate. Leave the blog to me for a while. 

So here I am. One hundred percent.

Mrs D Cooks Up A Cartoon

Well... what do you know! Mrs D has managed to cook up a cartoon after all. It has only taken her about five months. But people say that the latest thing is "slow-cooking" and Mrs D is the Mistress of Slow.

I should perhaps explain that she has changed technique and is trying out hand-drawn animation instead of traditional stop-motion. As she has no dedicated 2D drawn-animation software, she has tried out a process based on her ancient graphics software program and her stop motion animation software. I could explain how she did it but unfortunately I fell asleep whilst she was explaining it all to me - so I'll spare you the details.

Find the cartoon on her Syb & Me project. It's called "All Change" and involves Syb, Mrs D and a cat. It's very short but it makes The Old Man laugh so press its arrow button and play.

Dream Time: A Woman's Work....

I often dream I am in my home. Except that, although it is familiar, in waking life I have never lived in it. This one is dark, rather old but full of rooms and... for a change... people, although maybe not people I know from waking life.

Anyhoo, I be muddling along quite happily when I do realise that it is almost suppertime and I have not yet started to make the dough for the meal. For some reason... fried onions seem to figure large too. I panic a little but start anyway, confident I will manage somehow. Then I wake up.

Not very profound, is it.
But I wonder... How many men have anxiety dreams about cooking? Do any men have such dreams?

Then maybe also... I do share Mrs D's anxiety that she has left it all too late to cook up some art. She draws and draws her cartoon frames of Syb and Her and Cats even. But there is always something else to draw, or record or edit.

Hmmm. Going to stop pontificating on dreaming life now, shape that dough... and turn it into something.

William Kentridge: No It Is!

Continuing my ongoing obsession with the work of South African artist William Kentridge.

Here is an Institut fur Kunstdokumentation video from his exhibition at the Walter-Gropius-Bau, Berlin  earlier this year.


.... Everything in a sweetie jar as far as I'm concerned. Animation, drawing, film, machines, theatre... what's not to like.

William Kentridge: A Film About His Process

I only found out about South African artist William Kentridge a short time ago (clutch hand to forehead and roll eyes) and then, only in the context of animation. Now I find out he is also a theatre and opera director. And I wish I could see his upcoming Metropolitan Opera production of Berg's "Lulu" at English National Opera. I will in some manner.

Meanwhile I start by sharing this short video from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in which he explains and demonstrates his extraordinary animation technique based on making a drawing in charcoal.

Animated Goings On : More Sample Frames

Mrs D is working hard (well ... kind of) practicing drawing again and making frame after frame for her cartoon. She is contemplating making a series called "A Few Short Pieces About Love". (Pause to raise eyebrows.)

But let it be known that, quite cheerfully for her, she spends hours making images then bins the lot and starts again ... which do keep her quiet.

Here are a couple of the latest. I have no idea what is going on here.

Animated Goings On: Mrs D 's Latest Rushes

 Latest version of Mrs D's trial run at 2D drawn animation for her "Syb & Me" project. No sound yet, mind.

Animated Discussions: Lea Vidakovic: Trailer for "Porcelain Stories"

A trailer for an award-winning film "Porcelain Stories" by Serbian born artist, installation artist and animator Lea Vidakovic. I found it thanks to a post on the Dragonframe blog. (Dragonframe is a stopmotion animation software.)

There is a flavour of the Quay Brothers ... in its slow pace and intricate, detailed shots of tiny objects. Perhaps that's an Eastern European thing? It's got a "breathing pace" which I don't mind but may not be for impatient caffeine-freaks.