Photoshop coloring: Short listed costume 3

The snow flake costume coloring - work in progress:

Photoshop coloring: costume 2

The coloring of the clown sketch in Photoshop. Work in Progress.

Photoshop coloring: short listed costume 1

I did another training trying to develope my photoshop skills. For first time I worked on shadowing, skin drawing and coloring.

The Nutcracker - short listed costumes

Among the versions of The Nutcracker which I watched, these was the most interesting and unique one in terms of the costume designs. It is a modern version performed in Mariinsky theatre again, in 2007. Some of the costume are not really typical for ballet, the colors used are very bright. The characters look like they are taken from a fairy tale. I was really impressed by the creativity the designer has applied on the classic ballet and decided to use similar approach for my practical work.
I shotlisted 3 characters and their costumes from this performance - which were female woman bee costume, a clown male costume and a female snow flake costume. And I created 3 sketches to the costumes taken from this performance. My next work will be to choose one of this costumes and to create my own design of 2 different but very similar costumes of the same type. Then, I will actually create them using fabric and applying alternative materials on it. Here are the sketches:

The Nutcracker

I've decided as my final practical work to recreate 2 costumes from The Nutcracker.

Basic InformationThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet  performance. The story is an adaptation of the german writer Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann's book "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816). The premier of the performance is on 18 December, 1892, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St.Petersburg, Russia. Although the first performances weren't very successful, The Nutcracker became really popular during the second half of the 20th century. The information included relates to the first performance of The Nutcracker.

Choreography: Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music:  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 
Costume designer: Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Narration:
Main characters : 

• Ciara - the housewife who fall in love with The Nutcracker, 
• The Nutcracker - the Christmass gift which is brought to life, 
• Drossemayer - the misterious magician

Act I:
The first act represents an excerpt of the family preparations for Chrismass of Ciara, her brother Fritz, her parent and many other relatives. The magician Drosselmayer enters the scene to bring his gifts to everyone from the family. The gift for Ciara is The Nutcracker, a nutcracker toy with a look of a soldier. When all the family went to sleep exhausted from the celebrations, Ciara went goes to see her gift and then the family is attcked by evil meece sent by the Mouse King. The Nutcracker grows into the size of a real man and stars battling the meece with his army of ginger soldiers.

In the second scene the meece are defeated. Ciara and The Nutcracker are performing their moonlight dance surroundated by dancing snow flakes.

Act II::
Ciara and The Nutcracker go on a magic journey to the Land of the sweets on a nutshell driven by dolphins where The Nucracker is crowned into a prince because of his act of bravery. In his honor the Plum Fairy brings sweet gift from all around the world to celebrate the new prince. Each group of gifts perform a dance. Among the girst are chocolate from Spain and tea from China and the apoteosis is represented by a beehive of flying bees.

Roles:

The production is extremely large in terms of the number of performers depending on the variantion theatre choreographer, etc. Here are some of the roles which I found on the internet

• Dr. Stahlbaum
  • His wife
  • His children, including:
  • Clara, his daughter, sometimes known as Marie
  • Fritz, his son
  • Louise, his daughter
• Guests
• Parents dressed as incroyables
• Drosselmeyer
  • His nephew (in some versions) who resembles the Nutcracker Prince and is played by the same dancer
• Dolls (spring-activated, sometimes all three dancers instead):
  • Harlequin and Columbine, appearing out of a cabbage (1st gift)
  • Vivandière and a Soldier (2nd gift)
• Nutcracker (3rd gift, at first a normal-sized toy, then full-sized and "speaking", then a Prince)
• Owl (on clock, changing into Drosselmeyer)
• Mice
• Sentinel (speaking role)
• Hare-Drummers
• Soldiers (of the Nutcracker)
• Mouse King
• Snowflakes
• Angels
• Sugar Plum Fairy
• Clara
• Nutcracker Prince
• 12 Pages
• Eminent members of the court
• Spanish Hot Chocolate dancers
• Arabian Coffee dancers
• Chinese Tea dancers
• Russian Candy Cane dancers
• Danish Marzipan Shepherdesses dancers
• Mother Ginger
• Polichinelles
• Dewdrop
• Flowers
• Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier

Here are costumes sketches for the originals version in 1892 which I found throught the internet:

I chose The Nutcracker not only because it was part of the project briefs but it also provides a great different character some of them representing people, other animals and insects and also even not living items (such as the snowflakes). 

sources:
Anon., 2013. E.T.A. Hoffman [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._A._Hoffmann [Accessed 30/04/2014]
Anon, 2013. Ivan Vsevolozhsky [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vsevolozhsky [Accesed 30/04/2014]

Colouring in photoshop training: Strictly Come Dancing

Some Work in progress screen shot from my first attempts on outlining sketches and coloring them. For the dress I used a pensil drawing which I afterwards outline on photoshop and then colored it.

 For the male costume I decided to use another techniqe of coloring. First I outlined the paper sketch with marker and then colored it on facebook. I also trying to experiment with a bit more abstact style of illustrating the sketch.

Design Skills training: Strictly Come Dancing

In order to train my costume design skill I created a design for the Strictly come dancing project brief. The dance I chose was Passo Doble. My first model contained a long skirt, but then  I decided to change it. Although there are some very long dresses used, a interesing design approach is to reveal bigger part of the legs in order to show the movement of the dancers.  Looking throught images of different episodes of the show, I noticed there are two different approches to reveal the legs and the movement of the female dancer - first with two slips - one of each side(image 2) and one frontal slip (image 1), I chose the second option and used a big front asimetric slit which reveals the whole front side of the legs.

As I already mentioned in the research article of the dances, Paso Doble is a spanish dance which is related to the bull fights. As an inspiration to my sketch, I used the spanish painter Joan Miro who is most famous for using an element from one of his pictures to create the tourist logo of Spain. I referenced some of elements used in his painting to create one very Spanish designer which could represent the culture of the country among largest audience.

Here are the design sketches which I created:

Sources:
Guy Levi, 2012. n.d. [digital image]. Available at: http://livelaughlovetv.com/strictly-come-dancing-fern-britton-leaves-in-week-6/strictly-come-dancing-2012-25/ [Accessed 28/04/2014]
Anon, 2013. Susanna begins her Paso Doble. [digital image]. Available at: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s104/strictly-come-dancing/i630547-9/strictly-come-dancing-2013-live-show-9-susanna-begins-her-paso-doble.html#~oD1mePm0DZCxX6 [Accessed 01/05/2014]
Joan Miro, n.d. Obra de Joan Miro [digital image]. Avalable at: http://www.art.co.uk/products/p10285605-sa-i810252/joan-miro-obra-de-joan-miro.htm [Accessed 28/04/2014]
Joan Miro, n.d. Joan Miro Art Reproduction Oil Paintings [digital image]. Available at: http://www.artinternationalwholesale.com/artwholesale/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_50&products_id=1609&zenid=f5k18cg1bg68o2e2kbsnhucul3 [Accessed 28/04/2014]

Wider context - growing funding cuts

Thinking about the wider context of my project which had to be improved in my learning agreement I decided to follow the finanlcial crisis and its growing reflection on the Art Council of England. The first signs of the funding cuts leads it emergence 5 years ago when the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, infers the consequences of the financial crisis will reflect on arts sector as well as in any other. 

“In the pre-budget report, the chancellor indicated that further efficiencies would have to be secured in the third year of the spending review. So, all parts of government have to hear that message and live in the real world. Some people may not like it, but the arts has to live in the real world too. Nobody is immune from what is happening.”, Andy Burnham, culture secretary 2009.

Firstly exspected to be around 14 millions pounds, in the next year the cuts of the England’s Arts council are revealed to be a lot higher than explected reflecting on a broad number of venues and art spaces including theatres, galleries and their budgets.

“Arts Council England has been hit with £19 million of in-year cuts under Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s £6.2 billion savings drive.”, Alistair Smith, The Stage, 2010

There have been constant indications that the funding cuts in the English arts sector will be continuously growing in the next years and more venues funded by the England’s Arts Council will face serious finacial difficulties.

 “We do not yet know exactly what this means for arts and cultural funding. The Chancellor’s statement today signalled a £12 million cut to the DCMS budget in 2013/14 and a £22 million cut in 2014/15. There is as yet no indication how much, if any, of this cut will be passed on to the arts council and we await advice from the DCMS in this respect." Alan Davey, Arts Council England chief executive, 2012.

Moreover, some local governments have also included great arts funding cuts in their plans due to their grants from the central government.

The most drastic decision has been made by the Newcastle City Council which has approved a plan to remove 100% of their art funding by the year of 2016.

One of the venues affected by the funding crisis is also the local theatre Nottingham Playhouse (their budget was recently been cut with 100% by the Arts Council of England) which I contacted in order to understand a bit more about the consequences led by the cuts. I sent them a short interview which I’ll post as soon as I receive it.

 sources:

http://www.thestage.co.uk/2010/05/arts-council-england-hit-by-19-million-of-in-year-cuts/

http://www.thestage.co.uk/2012/12/arts-council-to-face-11-6m-of-further-cuts/

http://www.thestage.co.uk/2009/01/exclusive-arts-must-prepare-for-2010-funding-cuts-warns-burnham/

http://www.thestage.co.uk/2012/11/newcastle-council-plans-100-cuts-to-arts-funding/

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/30/local-government-cuts-poorest-areas

Carboard templates

I created 2 carboard templates - a male and a female one followng the fashion design rules for proportions. For my practical work I will use these templates to create the sketches. The standard proportions in terms of fashion and costume design are 8,5 head for a male figure and 8,5/9 heads for a female whether the model if on heels or not. ALthough these are the standart proportions, some desigers allow theirselves to draw the legs longer in order to point out the sillhouettes The essetial points of the body while creating a sketch are:

• Neck - starts from the second head
• Shoulders which start from 1/3 of the second head
• Opex - 3rd head
• Elbows - final 1/6 of the 3rd head
• Waist - 4th head
• Hips - 2/3 of the 4th head
• Groin - 5th head
• End of the straight wrist - 1/2 of the 5ht head
• Knees - 7th head
• Ankles - 8th head
• Feet without heels - 1/2 of the 9th head

Here are some photos from the templates which I first draw on a normal paper and then glue on a carboard base to me more comfortable for outlining afterwards. 

 

Project developement based on theoritical research

As my research aims, I want to apply some alternative materials in costume making for performance in order to shorter the amount of budget used. I’ve made a theoretical research on artists and designers. For the conclusions, I’m going to discuss how applicable could some of their techniques be.

Simple  

This group I can put Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Robin Barcus Slonina. Among their work often could be noticed precision in terms of silhouettes and details but mostly the impression on the work as a whole.

Robin Barcus Slonina is expressing her ideas in a symbolic way where the whole photo session represents a meaning and the dress is a tool of association refracted by the prism of the designer. Her work is extremely low budget as I discovered most of her costumes cost around a pound which a great inspirational in term of materials.

On the other hand, Marvin Chetwynd, which is also the only artist who is actually designing for performances, is working with fabrics and other often used materials but presenting an unusual point of view to the performing arts. Her art can be classified as destructive and chaotic but the way she is presenting the flaws as effects is really unique. Additionally, the budget for her creations is extremely low, as I calculated in my cased studios, some of her costumes cost around 5-6 pounds. Chetwynd’s is often using calico and muslin bases and adding on them other fabric pieces by sewing, gluing or painting them.

Intricate

The other second group relates to artists which are using more complex forms emphasizing the details.

Jennifer Henry and her work are presented mostly on photo sessions, red carpet events and fashion reviews. I was really surprise when I searched for the actual price of cellophane which is her favorite material. The prices for a 10 meter cellophane wrap vary from 2 pounds for a normal transparent one to 7-8 for different colorful ones which makes it a really suitable for my project.

The Patssi Valdez’s paper project also contains extremely intricate shapes. They represent the paper in a very interesting way. It’s hard to calcite an exact amount of budget used on this project but for sure the creations will affect my practical work. For me, one of the fascinating details were the etiquettes hanging from the hat.

Zoe Bradley and her work will also be influencing on my work. An interesting material to be used in my practical work can be the CD disks, which she is using for one of the dresses.

Most of the art works I’ve explored, excluding Chetwynd’s, aren't really applicable in an actual performance  because they won’t sustain the different movements and dances of a performer on stage and could also be worn out really quickly which is not advisable for a theatre performance which may be running for a week or longer period. For that reason, for my practical work I’ll be trying to create a collaboration of fabric (mostly calico or use some clothes bought from vintage or cheap shops) and some unconventional material for decorations or details. 

Zoe Bradley - installations, sculpture and fashion

Zoe Bradley is a contemporary British artist and fashion designer best known for the paper sculturing. She started her work with paper in 2005 while working in a collaboration with the japan fashion designer Michiko Kashino. The most often techniques in her work are folding, stitching and cutting. In her most recent work she also started using laser cutting to create even more complex sillhouettes.
Bradley's favourite material is paper, but her she is also experimenting with great variety of alternative materials such as recylcled plastics, wood, fabrics and mary more.

Zoe Bradley's work is very extraordinary. As the designer states and I discover it myself while experimenting with paper, it's a vry sensitive material which could easily fall apart but the other materials could a good inspiration for my practical work as the materials she is using (cds, straws,etc.). Zoe Bradley has also worked on variaty of art decorations and which seems applicable to an actual set design for performance.  And considering the fact that theatre has been one of the designer's mains inspirations that sort of experiment could add a new Arte Povero wave to contemporary performing arts. Here are some of the decorations made by her:

Showcase decoration fro Tiffany & Co

Zoe Bradley, n.d. n.d.[online] Available at: http://www.zoebradley.com/profile/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]

n.d, 2011. Zoe Bradley [online] Available at: http://supertacular.com/2011/05/zoe-bradley/ [Accessed 26/04/2014]

n.d.,n.d. n.d. [digital image]. Available at: http://supertacular.com/2011/05/zoe-bradley/

Arte Povera

Relating contemporary art form to budget limitation, I can't skip looking at this historical phenomen Arte Povera. It encompassed the 60s and 70s years of the previous century in France and was a movements also be called the art of poverty or th Poor Art.
Arte Povera was formed of artists decided to question the mainstream art (one of which was the Pop Art) of that time creating art pieces using alternative materials to create paintings, sculptures and installations. The name of this art movement was often considered wrong because the art wasn't entirely made of cheap object. Some of the art pieces also contain glass and silk, which were quite expensive at that time.
One of the most important aspect of this movement was that it represented the daily life as some special and artistic. For that reason, nature and live objects were also very often included in their creations. Artist weren't afraid to express this idea by bringing breathing animals and plants.

Venus of the Rags, 1967

Michelangelo Pistoletto was one of the most famous artists involved in this movement. The "Venus of the rags" sculpture presents a typical contraversial piece of "Art Pover". It puts an everyday object such as the pile of clothes next to a sacral symbol of the Western art building a collaboration of opposition lighting the idea is that every item is equally artistic. Rags have been a main object in his scultures which is definitely an interesting approach for clothes' usage.

Small Monument, 1968

Orchestra of Rags, 1968

Columns of Rag, 1968

Another noticable artist from the Arte Pover movement was Pierro Gilardi who was widely famous in the 60s. His most significant work were the installations made of molded and painted polyurethane in the shapes of plants, and other landscape forms covering floors and walls. He also organised and work on a broad variaty of street theatre performances and protests analysing the art and culture of these years in his essays.

Pierro Gilardi work for  an exhibition in Nottingham Contemporary  in 2013

The examples of styles and artists from Arte Povera I chose for this articles to another point of view presented into my project - using the objects out of their purpose which I'm actually going to try while creating the final practical work.

sources:

Michelangello Pistoletto, n.d. Arte Povera [online] Available at: http://www.pistoletto.it/eng/crono09.htm# [Accessed 25/04/2014]
Alice Sanger, 2009. Venus of Rags [online]. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pistoletto-venus-of-the-rags-t12200/text-summary [Accessed 25/04/2014]

David Ebony, n.d. Pierro Gilardi [online]. Available at:  http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/piero-gilardi/ [accessed 25/04/2014]

Patssi Valdez's paper fashion

Patssi Valdez's paper fashion project has been shown in Nottingham Contemporary in Oct 2013 as part of the ASCO performances. She is an American artist, mostly known for her fine art work and her performance.
Valdez is most famous for her contribution to the greative group Asco which started emergence in the 60s. Asco was a collaboration project of 4 artists - Patssi Valdez, Harry Gamboa, Gronk, and Willie Herron. The name of the group comes from spanish and means "disgust" and "impulse to vomit". All the artist were part of the Chicano society in America and relate their ideas to broad world happenings in the 60s and 70s, including political and economical issues. They used variety of art form such as installations, paitings, performances, etc. Their work is considered as avant-garde and extremely provocative.

The project of paper fashion which was released by Valdez last year in Nottingham Contemporary, was originally an idea of the other member of the group - Garry Gamboa who worked on a project of creating a fashion review made entirelt of paper. Unfortunately, I could find any photos and information if it had actually been released. However, for the recent project, Patssi Valdes in ta collaboration of local artist Nadim Chaundry have created 4 paper gowns.

The dresses are extremely interesting in terms of silhouettes, colors and details. They are avant garde and extraordinary. They carry the spirit of American's chicana art of the 70's but at the same time very local and related to the British culture. These art works can be perfectly related to my project's idea how the limitation, as it is to use just one material - paper, could serve as a great stimulation of creativity.

Another unique aspect of the work of Valdez is her determination to keep revealing the secrets of that art movement which is a great inspiration to contemporary artist which constanly use references from previous historical periods.

sources:
Anon., 2013. Asco (art collective). Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asco_(art_collective) [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Anon., 2014. Chicano. Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano
Jim Hinch, 2012. Walking Mural: Asco and the end of Chicano art [online]. Available at:http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/walking-mural-asco-and-the-ends-of-chicano-art [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Nottingham post, 2013. Asco's Patssi Valdez on her Nottingham Contemporary exhibition [online]. Available at: http://www.nottinghampost.com/Asco-s-Patssi-Valdez-Nottingham-Contemporary/story-19930867-detail/story.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Emma Zakaryan, 2013. Patssi Valdez: Asco and beyond [online]. Available at: http://chicanaart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/patssi-valdez-asco-and-beyond.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Eleonore Welles, n.d. Patssi Valdez [online] Available at: http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2000/Articles1200/PValdezA.html
https://www.frieze.com/issue/review/asco-elite-of-the-obscure/ [Accessed 23/04/2014]
Patssi Valdez, 2013. Nottingham Contemporary/paper fashions [digital image] Available at: http://www.patssivaldez.com/nottingham-contemporary-paper-fashions.html [Accessed 23/04/2014]