Chinese Painting

So I've always wanted to learn how to do Chinese Landscape painting.
I did a piece in critical studies sophomore year, experimenting with the inks and paper and everything.

Self Portrait through landscape- 2007


But it's not the way that I was suppose to do it, I cut the mountains and then made another layer, (this is was intentional).

Anyway, so ling lao shi is a very, strong artist, he has made an animated feature film, has a studio, does design, sculpture, film, animation, everything, you name it. And of course Chinese landscape painting.

This is him and his painting that he is doing for someone:


And here he is doing the other half of that painting.





I am amazed. He says he will teach me, I think it would be amazing. <3

Animation is also exersise.

Does everyone remember what my school looks like? If not let me remind you.



Sooo, at MCAD we have the tiny, tiny, tiny animation studio where the capture stand is at your convenience, the light tables are there, and the MAC computers are huge and beautiful. We also have a elevator, though it is slow, sometimes it's nice to ride on it.

Here we have 2 #4 buildings (It's just the 2 animation buildings) to do animation, but only about 3 classrooms to do it all in. No one ever knows where the capture stand is and the hole punch along with the computers. Lol.

I work in the 3rd building on the 3rd floor with the interns and awesome professor wei. (soon it will be back on the 1st floor)

CAA doesn't have any elevators in the school, or at least in the buildings that I'm in because they are media based.

I have to run from the 3rd building on the 3rd floor and go up to the 4th building on the top floor which is the 5th floor and get the key to use the capture stand and run all the way down to the 2nd floor for probably a second or 2 of animation and run all the way back up the stairs and return the key. Lol. Then go back to my studio. Luckily today, I just used the one on the 5th floor.

They also use this program called CPT which is PC based, so I can't capture and keep my pencil tests because I have an apple computer.

So I have to use my memory to remember which frames are slow and what I need to change, etc, etc.

Now I am VERY thankful of MCAD even though I still think the animators get the shitty part of the deal at the school, I am very thankful that we have MACS, light tables, stop motion studio, blah blah blah. That is not scattered all over the place and have programs that I understand.

At the same time, it feels like a fucking boot camp art school, they have loud music to wake you up for class, and you have to go and exercise at 6 am (Thank god I'm an international student, otherwise I would have to participate in that), gates close at 11 and if you are out by that time you can't get in or vise versa.
I feel trained in animation that I would never even have imagined.

Basically, because I am not handed everything I want like I can get at MCAD, I have to use other ways of animating. It's sweet, kind of makes me feel like I can animate ALL THE TIME. Ahhh, who doesn't want that? Ha...

On the bright side, at least I'm getting a lot of exercise.
And perhaps appreciating MCAD a little more. <3

Animation in China is Frustrating.

"It is a lonely profession, at least it was when I worked on my pictures, but the loneliness, accompanied by much frustration and pain, was always outweighed by the excitement of seeing my creatures move in the same "reality" as humans. The thrill of breathing "life" into one's own creations and at the same time giving them individual personalities makes an animator's work uniquely exciting." -Ray Harryhausen

Today I went to class and once again, I told my story, however I redid ALL my boards to look better, the way I want them to look, I thought they were pretty fucking solid. I mean there are a few panels I really need to fix!
You can see, maybe I am wrong:












This is some of the stuff my mentor fixed, but was not shown during class because...He's not really my mentor, he's just another awesome teacher. But anyway continue:







(That last panel means "end" in Chinese.)
So I mean, there's obviously some shots that you can see that I to need work on, but once again, they told me the same exact thing is that, "I need to think about it more." COME ON IT'S THE 3RD FUCKING WEEK, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So I went up to one of the teachers after class and asked, "I can you tell me what I need to work on? What is it that I need to "think about." "
The teacher said, "Well, I mean if it is the newspaper you want people to see, then you have to hold the frame."
I said, "Yes, of course, but this is a storyboard not an animatic, so what is unclear to you that I should fix?"
He told me that basically the piece is too conceptual, people don't understand conceptual things and that I should keep thinking about it.

I like abstract, conceptual, contextual animations. I like people to THINK about what they are watching. Why am I leading your eye this way? Why is he doing that?

I gave the teacher one look that said, "I don't care anymore I'm going to do it."

I said nothing else, I didn't say thank you, I just left. I got so frustrated that I went up to the animation studio and started crying out of anger and frustration because I didn't understand what they wanted.

My mentor (Wai laosi) told me that I need to do it, I just need to start the animation and he could see my anger and frustration because he was the one helping me throughout the whole animation. He understood from the moment I told him the first version. He said a lot of animation teachers in China don't do conceptual pieces like that and only do animation in terms of "jokes" or kid animation.

So he told me not to listen to them and that I should start doing the animation regardless to what they are saying. Then show them the actual piece when I am done because that is the only way they will understand.

Usually I push the limits on a lot of things, I see how far I can get away with things in art. But here I am scared, I don't know what to expect. And they don't give good critiques. I feel I have pushed the limits anyway on accident, If you see on the 11th page there is a bowl with chopsticks in the middle of it. In Chinese superstition that means that you are feeding the dead. I used it as a foreshadow for whatever is coming up next, which involves death.
When I got to that page during class everyone started talking, and being really surprised that I put that in there.

I'm doing my animatic tomorrow, (apparently we don't have class tomorrow...to go and DRAW our storyboards.) we were suppose to have our storyboards today, the teacher gave everyone 3 days to do it and cut monday's class so they can finish it. No one did it except for me and this other kid who decided to do an animatic.

I'm trying really, really hard to understand the conservative ways of China, but coming from America it's really hard. I had so much freedom back in the states and now I have all these restrictions and no freedom to think. So far, no one has this idea that I have in my class. So I feel good about it.

Ahhh finally a lecture.

So today I decided to go to a sustainability lecture.
But I didn't find out until like after I got back from the grocery store and I think the Chinese kids thought it was an animation lecture and it wasn't. I was so happy for that.

I missed the first 10 minutes of the lecture so I didn't get to hear who he was, but I guess he is from Germany and teaches there as well. I think he curates shows because none of it was his work, they were all young designers, sculptures and furniture artists who worked with scientists to make their art workable and economically friendly, and help make the world a little better through their art.



The bees solidified the vase





This one was to help birds build nests or something similar to that.


I didn't really understand this one...It was about friendships and the way we smell each other and recognize them through that smell?





This one was my favorite, this artist figured out a way to make bubbles solid, so he made these awesome sculptures with these bubbles where they can float by themselves if there is the light in there to activate it.






I wish I knew the correct artists names because it was really hard to hear the guy speak in this huge space.

I realized that the people that I am currently hanging out with don't really care for contemporary art. Which really sucks because I am all about it. Lol. Not to mention China is huge in contemporary art nowadays so...I would like to see them while I'm here.

Storyboards

So yesterday I went in front of a class of about 30-35 students and told my story in Chinese. Not only did I feel like I've embarrassed myself but also a dumbass.
When I told it to them, I thought I did a pretty good job in explaining everything. Apparently not...After I had told them my story the only thing they told me was,

"You should think about it more."

What kind of a fucked up crit is that? They gave everyone else a decent fucking crit and then the only thing they say to me is that I need to think about it more. I was up there for 2 minutes.

I think it's because I'm not an "actual student" so they don't really care about me.

But, it's quite alright. I'm hanging out with a bunch of MFA's for animation and another teacher who is in a standard of Doctors degree in media arts. (or something like that.) And he's worked on many commercials, films, and animations. So, I am making him my mentor. He gave me a very good crit about my animation and told me suggestions and what not, along with the MFA's.

The story:
A man lives in his apartment alone and his apartment slightly alters reality.
So essentially he deludes himself of reality.
He wakes up and hears the alarm radio and it says, "today it will be sunny and bright!" just telling the weather.
The man gets up and turns off the radio and decides to make coffee, however the outside is raining, of course he doesn't notice and goes along with his day.
He makes coffee and decides to read the newspaper and the newspaper says "The economy is great" and from an outside view you see a whole mess of things, garbage on the street, ruined buildings and everything.

There is this last part i need to figure out which is why some of the boards are blank.

He then receives a letter saying his mother has died, a point of reality that has actually hit him.
He is in disbelief and throws the letter on the ground.
The letter then turns his whole apartment back into reality. Not depressing or anything, just a wake up call.

End.






This story isn't about the man, it's his surroundings.
Ah, i need some input...so if you have an idea that i should do for the last part (not conclusion) that would be awesome.
K fankz. <3

Wtf CAA

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a boot camp where really loud music wakes you up while you're sleeping and then shutting off the internet at certain times.
Learning how to cook with a rice cooker.
Hanging my clothes to dry which takes like many days. Lol.

It's really great. Except for the loud obnoxious music that plays over the intercom.
And the fact that they shut off the internet at a certain time. Lol.

But all in all it's been pretty great so far.

I haven't had a solid idea for my animation yet and it's due tomorrowwww. Oh my.

I'm gonna start posting my sketches and what not.

How Ironic

I'm here in a beautiful place with beautiful people and lots of inspiration.
However nothing is coming to me yet and we have to have a story for our 3-4 minute animation by Monday.
My class is like a philosophy, psychology and animation class put in one. So the first half of the class we analyze a bunch of animations and then the 2nd half of class we talk about philosophers and what not and trying to relate it to our animations.

I HAVE NO CLUE WTF TO DO GUYS. Ubahlaksdjf.

Well, here's some pictures I've been meaning to post. lol



There's a guy who brings his goats all the time to school so they can eat the grass and play. Cute.



This was at west lake, everyone here has umbrellas. No joke. You don't see someone without an umbrella...It's also kind of like a fashion statement here. Lol I caved and got an umbrella. It rains everyday in the winter.



Perhaps my good friend Tsingtao will give me some inspiration

omgg shit's crazy

Everything has been crazy since I got to "my part" of the school.
It's a lot more run down than the fine arts department, which i was very sad to leave it.

Here is the place I am staying for the next 5 months, I live by myself on the international floor (All the international students live by themselves):







This is my view from my porch. It's awesome:



And this is my actual school:









Yesss...Apparently there is 22 buildings here but uhm, I've only been to like 6 of them. Lol.
I haven't even stepped foot in the library yet! I gotta go do that tomorrow.

So, CAA is very much like MCAD. This place is in the middle of nowhere and all you have are markets and more markets. And it's work, work, work all the time.
I takes 40 minutes to get to the city by bus and I haven't taken it yet. Perhaps this weekend.

I had a very hard time adjusting, but I am starting to get use to it now. I have essentially one class for the semester. We meet everyday and it's the same 2 teachers teaching the class. I think it's an advanced animation course.
I have to produce a 3-4 minute animation 5 minutes is max.
The longest I've done is 3 minutes but that was working with 2 other people and it was stop motion.
MCAD said if my animation is up to par then they will give me 15 credits upon my return. WOOOOOooOooOo hopefully all goes well and I finish the damn thing huh?

Also, it's really easy to get lost in the school because it's so big. They don't have elevators...except for one building which I accidently went into and it was some other like design firm (like design works) and I ran into some other sculpture professor...kind of and he told me to sit down and drink tea with him. Lol.

Shit is crazy here but I like it. It's a new story and a new way of thinking.

I'll post more pictures soon. <333