I have been asked to pick a couple of artists who are currently influential to my practice in order to consider and compare problems they have faced and solutions to those problems.
The first artist I have chosen I came across by chance when searching for ‘drawn stop motion animation’ on YouTube.
Em Cooper
Em Cooper graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2010 and is an animation artist. She uses oil paint on glass and film to create her animations. She combines the animation with live film. Em is an example of an artist whose technique I am influenced by, rather than her intent in her work.
A set of stills by Em Cooper
Em uses a traditional oil-painted animation technique. Each frame is painted on acetate or glass, before taking a photograph from above using a rotoscope. The frame is then repainted for the next shot. It is laborious and slow (but the finished effect makes the labourious nature of this technique worthwhile).
It is the way she combines real film with animation that I find most interesting. Perhaps something to explore in the future. I’m not sure how she does this.
Oil paint on glass
This time-lapse video shows her at work. I was actually quite surprised how small the image she is working on is. When I made an oil painting on perspex animation, I worked on an easel rather than on a flat horizontal surface. I also had a much bigger painting surface, approx A2 size.
Jordan L. Rodgers
The second artist who I am looking at at the moment is one of the artists exhibiting currently in the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Jordan graduated from Lancaster University in 2012.
As with Em Cooper, Jordan is an artist whose technique rather than his subject matter interests me. He uses an iPad to create drawn animations. He states on his website that his aim is to ‘bridge the gap between traditional drawing and drawing on the iPad’.
A still from the piece in the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition
In an interview with Aesthetica Magazine Jordan also stated ‘As I use the iPad to draw, I hope to push the boundaries of drawing through utilising enhancements in modern technology to offer a new perspective in contemporary visual arts practice.’ This intrigues me because I’ve always been quite sceptical about the iPad as a drawing tool but I am now slowly changing my mind. Since I’ve started using the iPad to draw with I see that it has potential.
I am intrigued in how he shifts the perspective on the iPad as seen in the Jerwood Prize animation, Virtual derive. I can’t find any information about what application he uses for his animation.
He also draws (as well as animates) on iPad
His animations can be found on his website. The quality of the drawing gives me reason to believe that iPad animation is a technique worth further experimentation and exploration.
References
Em Cooper’s website. Available at www.emcooper.com [last accessed 16 March 2014]
Jordan L. Rodger’s website. Available at: http://www.jordanlrodgers.com/ [last accessed 16 March 2014]
Bell, S., Aesthetica Magazine blog, ‘Interview with Aesethetica Art Prize Artist Jordan L. Rodger’. Available at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/interview-aesthetica-art-prize-artist-jordan-l-rodgers/ [last accessed 16 March 2014]