Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Drawing and Me

I have always been a doodler, a sketcher. I've covered school notebooks in stars and spirals, strange and funny caricatures of my teachers, odd cartoons, and girlish hearts. Still, I have never been one to formally sit down and realistically draw a still life or portrait. However, I have always been fascinated by drawing as a medium to communicate fundamental human emotion without the use of language. The potency of visual art is something without rival. Drawing is the most fundamental building block of visual art.

Drawing has also always been a way for me to calm my mind. It is almost a mediative process to have graphite scratching against the page or have ink slide across paper.


Why I Took this Class: Production Design
I am a generally creative person. I am passionate about all of the arts from architecture to dance to acting to painting to photography to music to, finally, drawing. As I have gotten older, I have started looking for potential jobs that combine all of my creative passions. Then I stumbled across Production Design for Film.

Production Designers design the visual landscape of a film. They are in charge of thinking of the visual themes the run through a movie and coordinate the set designer, costume designer, prop department, etc. They create new worlds for us to explore.

How does drawing relate to Production Design?
I facebook messaged Suzuki Ingerslev, the Production Designer for the television show True Blood. I was drawn to the shows unique aesthetic that runs a whole gambit of different genres but focuses on Southern Antebellum and Gothic. I additionally loved the work she did on the show Six Feet Under. I explained to Suzuki that I loved her work and then asked what I could do to prepare myself for such a career. She amazingly responded to my message. One of her many pieces of advice was that she stressed the importance of being able to communicate your ideas visually.

(a set designed by Suzuki)

Later, I approached Torry Bend, a faculty member in the Theater Department. She, too, stressed this idea and was a deep believer in learning how to draw (over the use of rendering technology).

Under Torry's direction I drew a number of theater sets and learned how to draw ground plans, however they still weren't quite what I wanted. My vision was still not being realized on the paper.

I think that drawing is an important skill for anyone to have, but I also took this class because I wanted to improve the skills that I initially started working on with Torry.

I have been doodling sets, costumes, and ideas in my notebook. This class has helped me translate the thoughts in my head into something tangible.

Some of examples of the translation of drawings into film:

Dante Ferreti - Gangs of New York
Dante Ferreti - Gangs of New York
Dante Ferreti - Sweeney Todd

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