drawing The Art of Dying | the Gojira project

color proofs

The biggest challenges with the Gojira project have been technical issues, mainly dealing with scanning and printing the illustrations. I am planning to have 10 copies of the project printed and bound, as limited-edition artist books. The books are approx 90mm X 140mm, and contain 31 pages in an accordion-fold.

After quite a bit of searching, I was able to find a printer willing to take on this project, Les Arts Graphiques here in Nice. Megapom', a local photoengraver, will be scanning and treating the drawings. And finally, a local artist has agreed to hand-bind the books once they are printed and assembled. 

We did 6 tests, in quadrichromie and in bichromie. The best process appears to be quadrichromie with a layer of Pantone process black. This makes the outlines denser. Using quadri (instead of bichromie) also helps bring out the depth of the illustrations, by capturing the fine naunces of grey in the coloring.

What makes this project complicated is that the accordion-fold is very long (about 2.7 m). The accordion-fold will have to be printed out in 4 separate pieces, which I will then fold and assemble together. So we will really have to make sure the printing is even, and that there are no strong color variations between the different segments. 

The scanning process will take place in 2 steps: first, we'll scan the outlines, and then, after shading and texturing those outlines, I will have the full illustrations scanned a second time.

Then the 2 scans will be superimposed in Photoshop, which will help make the outlines very dense.

So I have quite a bit of work set out for me! I aim to have completed the outlines by the beginning of August, and begin working on the colors later during that month. Sometimes I wonder how many sets of copic liners and Tria markers I will need to finish this all!  

Huun-Huur-Tu - Mongolian throat singing

I recently came across an excellent recording of Mongolian throat singing by the ensemble Huun-Huur-Tu. You can hear bits of mongolian throat singing in Gojira's The Art of Dying, especially in the introductory sequences. I found it extremely interesting to watch such high-quality performance - the sounds Huun-Huur-Tu create are incredible, absolutely mesmerizing.

side project : drawing Excision & Datsik's Deviance

Surprise! I decided to draw a dubstep track! hehe. 

I responded to a media request from the UK Synesthesia Association, for a student who is putting together an ipad app about synesthetic experiences with electronic music. She sent me a number of very interesting tracks, and I chose to illustrate my synesthetic experience with Excision & Datsik's Deviance.

 

My illustration corresponds approximately to 0:26 - 0:50. 

I found those heavy sounds very thick and interesting. They resonate right at the back of my jaw, at the spot where my wisdom teeth once were. I get a similar reaction from the frequencies in songs like Megadeth's Holy Wars, Down's Bury me in Smoke, Pantera's Cowboys from Hell.

On first listens, these sounds almost looked like gruyère cheese - very dense and full of air bubbles. Then I listened more closely, and could see how the sound was actually very "hairy" and layered, nuanced. The rhythmns make it very flashy and cut-apart - kind of like watching a badly animated clip.

The sound is very blue / grey (I've actually found that much electronic music has a similar color palette for me, interestingly).

So I took textured paper, layered on color pencils, scratched away the color with an opened-up paperclip, layered on color again. Then I cut the paper into strips, rubbed the edges with sandpaper and glued them onto a piece of heavy paperboard, and sandpapered everything some more.

I really enjoyed this challenge, because I don't usually listen to music like this. All I can say is, it's all about the sound!

 

Gojira in the studio

I'm really loving the videos that Gojira have been posting of their work in the studio - especially the one of Mario drumming on the door. I'm really interested to hear what this experimental work will bring in the next album.

When I first heard Gojira signed to Roadrunner, I wasn't sure what to think - I had really liked the fact that they were really underground. But since their move, we've been getting a lot more interviews and communication from the band. I'm not yet used to seeing them marketed so much, but it's been interesting hear what they've got to say. I'm hoping this move will prove to be really positive for them.

The art of dying > i won't bring no...

Over the past few weeks, I've drawing the first chorus sequence in the Art of Dying. This is one of the central sequence within the song, it's quite heavily textured and absolutely mind-blowing.

 

Here's my original outline of the sequence:

 

The next step was filling in the forground and background, giving texture to the outline.

 

And then I began shading, using Tria markers in 12 shades of gray, to bring out the depth. 

I realized that the lettering has to been done separately and then added in with Photoshop, because the letters are quite fine and really interfer with drawing the hairline textures in the loops - the letters make it difficult to draw the textures in one continuous movement.

You can hear this sequence - which I've labelled sequence #7 - from 4:16 - 4:45 in the video below. 

Mechanical heartbeat

The Gojira project is moving right along - I feel like the past few weeks have been a bit more productive! In any case, it sure is difficult to balance a huge personal project like this one with my full-time day job doing graphic design.

I've been working a lot lately on the 1st verse of The Art of Dying. I've been refering to this section as "sequence 4," which you can hear from 2:17 in the video at the end of this post.

It's been a challenge, especially developing the background loops.

For this sequence, I wanted the foreground loops to be a little less present, and make the background loops a more important part of the composition - reflecting the balance between vocals and accompaniment.

The condensed, sans serif is to emphasize the linearity of the vocals, not to directly spell out the vocal line. I used some overlapping in the composition along with some extended ascenders and descenders to suggest the vocal texture and rhythmn.

Gojira in the studio

The guys from Gojira recently posted a lovely little photo and an update on their facebook page.

It's great to hear the new album is coming along, but I was especially happy to see the photo. Very cool to see the charts and how they work on their songs.

Photo Credit: Gabrielle Duplantier

A lot happened since our last message so we wanted to give you some news today and let you know we are still alive! We know you are all eagerly awaiting the Sea Sheperd EP release. We are sorry for the delay. Some of the material was on a hard drive that crashed but we are nearing the end of a long and difficult recovery process. Now the Good news: the new Album is ready! All the music and lyrics are waiting to be recorded. Joe is already in NY to check out the Studio and make sure everything is sorted so we can begin to record next month. A new website is being built and we are working on ways to improve the communication between the band and our fans. You guys fucking rule! Thanks!

the Gojira project > the process

Process has been an extremely important part of executing the Gojira / Art of Dying project. Since the project is so huge, I've tried to be a methodological as possible - asking myself, what is the best way to get the right type of results.

After working out the general structure and contour for the entire piece, I worked on finding the best techniques and materials to render the texture. This involved testing dozens of different pens, pencils, inks, markers and paper. 

These trial-and-error sessions helped me determine the right materials: tria markers in 12 shades of gray, and Copic multiliner pens in about 10 different thicknesses, on Inuit Ultra paper in blanc glacier.

I initially began the project by simply drawing in the Moleskine japanese-fold album. But this ended up being a problem: the tria markers and copic liners bleed through, making it impossible to work directly on both sides of the pages.

I then began working on separate sheets, which will be scanned and printed out in the same format as the japanese fold album. 

This has required a lot of tracing, and I had to adapt my working surfaces accordingly. I first was working on an Ikea table with a small lightboard... and the project quickly outgrew the table. I recently got a new table with a full glass top - which has become a huge lightboard, basically. It's a lot less cramped and I can get much smoother curves.

I'm wondering how many meters long the project will end up being... and sometimes I wonder what I've got myself into! :)

Gojira, The Art of Dying project update > background

Getting the right background has been one of the biggest difficulties for me with the Gojira project. 

I've tried quite a number of effects, from watercolor to silver ink to india ink black to light gray lines, and none of these really captured the intensity of the sound while making the foreground stand out. 

I finally realized that the background needed to be fully textured, with sineously layered lines echoing the linework in the foreground shapes. This brings out the full force of "The art of dying", giving emphasis to the reverberation and repetition of the sound.  

Things are gradually coming along!

back home again!

I just got back after a nice little vacation in the US and the How Design conference in Chicago. It was a great experience, and I really enjoyed the sessions with Armin Vit, Cami Travis-Groves and Jessica Hische. And I especially appreciated talking with Cami at the portfolio review, her comments were really encouraging and motivating. Thanks a ton, Cami!

I'll be off gallivanting Italy for a couple days (the Big four in Milan -- Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer & Anthrax, yay!) and then it's back to work next week!