Trying My Hand At Acting...

Thursday, November 8, 2007

So here it is! My art is in the opening scenes of this movie, starring Sissy Spacek and Alfre Woodard. Hollis (Jodelle Ferland) does her voice-over as the camera pans through the two landscapes I created. The film is a movie adaptation of the Newbery Honor book, Pictures of Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff.

What made this project so intriguing was the necessity for me to DRAW-ACT. In other words, I had to remember what it was like to be a 12 year old artist, as my drawings are supposed to depict her own creations at the time. I was sent footage before the movie was mixed from the studio. Then, I played around with Prismacolor pencils on thicker comic board. I chose this paper so that the pencil did NOT blend well, and would be hard to push the pigment around so white space would be left to create the look of effort, and untrained hands. It was so fun to let loose and forget some training for a stint, to draw buildings wherever I wanted, even if they physically could never exist the way they do.

That is what art is about to me anyway, it is representation. This time it was through a girl's eyes who had not yet encountered perspective class or Tom Barrett's Advanced Illustration Techniques class at AIB (chuckle to the colleagues). It was very different working within the guidelines of film rather than print or publishing. It was a blast to draw act! I loved it.

So hopefully it will air Dec. 2 as scheduled. Check it out if you'd like. It is quite cozy.

2 comments:

Annie Patterson said...

This is so cool! I'm definately going to watch. A thousand congrats!!!

Jackie Parker said...

It's such a great book. I'm excited to see your interpretation. Your Anne Shirley illustrations captured exactly what my mind always saw, so it will be fun to see you do that again. I just wish I had TIVO or something so I could slow it down at watch it again in slow motion!