Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Jónsi Project Production Diary, Part 5

Here's the next work: based on Track 9, Hengilás. I also based it on the original Hans Christian Andersen version of the Little Mermaid, where she dives into the sea and turns into foam.


Visually it has more in common with Kolniður, which I'm told means 'pitch black' or 'deep dark blackness'. But I love the slow, sweet sound of Hengilás, and the fact that it's the last track makes it feel like an ending.

Again I used Quink for the water, with bleach (see my messy setup above). I used coffee for the background, leaving out the Mermaid's body to make it glow. I used Higgins for the night sky; may sprinkle some stars on it later. I used a cup of bleach and a paintbrush to make a more directed spatter rather than the more-or-less even spray I've been using so far, to create the effect of dissolving in foam.

(Warning: do not use a paintbrush you like for this kind of job. Use a cheap nylon or hog's-hair one that you don't mind getting damaged. Because it will be. And wash the brush, and the cup, and your hands, thoroughly with soap right after doing this. Bleach is not a nice material. It eats things, especially soft things like brush bristles and your flesh.)

Close-up below. A lucky stain made it look like she was crying. I wanted her to forget the heartache she had over the Prince (worthless bastard) and just remember dancing. It was the only way she had to express herself, and even with the knifelike pain in her feet she loved to dance.

So in the dark water she can feel herself going, but the patterns of the foam are beautiful and there's no more pain. She moves her legs with perfect grace and rolls with the ocean current and watches the bubbles trail away from her limbs. Her last tears are for joy.

Painting the Mermaid next, watch this space.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Jonsi Project Production Diary, Part 2



Part 1

This post has nudity, so I'm putting it under a cut. I know, the last post did too, but it was very sketchy. This one has bright watercolour female nudity, so behind the jump-cut curtain it goes!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Jonsi Project Production Diary, part 1

I have begun a project which is extremely personal and dear to my heart (and other bits, possibly) that I am currently calling The Jónsi Project. It's going to be a series of 9 paintings, based on the music from the album Go, the new solo album by Jónsi Birgisson, lead singer of Sígur Rós.

I'm fully documenting the process as a journaling experiment, for various reasons. Here's the first painting, which I was working on today.

It only occurs to me now that I should have taken a photo for every step of the process. But I was so hung up on not having a computer with which to scan my work, that it never occurred to me. Hopefully this hindsight helps me become more solution-oriented!

Fortunately now I've borrowed a computer, so I have some visual aids for my notes. This is going to be long and image-heavy, so I've put it behind a cut. Read on if you're curious about the process.

Monday, February 22, 2010

silvertoes


For some reason I've been feeling like Silvertoes all this week. Don't ask me why.

Parokya ni Edgar - Silvertoes...
Transcription and translation by my friend Lyra
Wag ka nang magalala
Hinding, hindi ako inlab sayo
Bakit ba pakiramdam mo pa yata
Lahat kami ay naaakit mo
Don't worry

We're really not in love with you

Why do you feel that

You're charming us all?


Miss, miss, pakitigil lang please
Ang iyong pagpapantasya
Hindi ka na nakakatuwa
Ipapagulpi na kita sa gwardyang may batuta
Miss, miss please stop

Your delusions

You're not funny anymore

I'm gonna have you beaten up by a guard with a bat

AAaaaa...yay yay yah.....

Hindi ko talaga ma-gets kung bakit ka ganyan
Ang feeling mo ay sabik sa iyo ang lahat nang kalalakihan
Sorry, pagpasensyahan mo na
Mali talaga ang iyong inaakala
Lahat kami ay nandidiri sa iyo
Ikaskas mo na sana ang mukha mo sa semento
I don't really get why you're like that
You feel like all the men are panting for you

Sorry, I beg your pardon

What you assume is wrong

We're all disgusted with you

I wish you'd grind your face against the cement
(!!!)

Di kami na-tuturn on sa kutis mong kulay champurado
Di kami naaakit sa labi mong garabucho...
O please naman, pakitanggap mo na lang ang katotohanan
Na ganyan ka 'pinanganak
Wag ka nang magpapanggap na ikaw ay isang dalagang ubod ng ganda
Kahit na alam naman natin na ang karakas mo ay ubod ng sama
We're not turned on by your chocolate rice pudding skin
(?!?)
We're not attracted to your dung shovel lips
(?!?!!!!!!!!)
Please face the truth

That you're just born that way

Don't pretend that you're a staggeringly beautiful maiden

We all know that your appeal is nasty


Siguro nga naman ay may mga mas pangit pa sa yo
Pero at least hindi sila nagpapakyut katulad mo
Nakaka-bad-trip ka, nakakairita tuwing kita'y nakikita
Di ko alam ba't ang laki ng ulo mo
Magingat-ingat ka, baka ikaw ay sagasaan ko
I'm sure there are those uglier than you
But at least they don't pretend to be cute like you do

You are so annoying. You put me in a foul mood when I see you

I don't know why you're head is so swelled up

You better be careful, I might just run you over

Huh. When I look at it in English, it's even more horrible.

Monday, February 15, 2010

more alchemical reactions

I don't know how Tori Amos manages to put her finger on exactly how it is I'm feeling when I'm feeling it, but she does. She put out 'The Beekeeper' a few years ago just when I needed it, and the opening song is one of my favourites of all time. The lyrics are almost painfully apt, and the melody is just lovely.

I've been listening to it quite often again over the past week, and I suddenly remembered that another favourite artist of mine--a Japanese illustrator named Aya Kato--did the art for the video. So here it is.



I've also decided to upload a few pages from The Alchemy, the text of which I've been carrying around in my journal. Text doesn't really convey the feeling of the page though. So here's the one about Positive Doing.

More soon.