drawing The Art of Dying | the Gojira project

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! 

Gojira - a study in linework

I've been working on a series of line studies showing my synesthetic interpretation of the evolution of Gojira's sound over the albums The Link, From Mars to Sirius and the Way of all Flesh.

Above left: The death of me. Center: Backbone. Right: Toxic Garbage Island.

These studies were intended as a way to develop techniques for layering lines using a variety of materials: india ink, charcoal, oil, watercolor and colored pencils, watercolor inks, black liners, and tria markers.

I also wanted to compare the way that Gojira's sound has changed from The Link to The Way of all Flesh.

 

Kyuss in Milan, March 23, 2011

I really love making lomo videos of concert experiences. I often go right in the middle of the pit with my camera wrapped around my wrist, not focused on anything in particular, just capturing the energy of the music kinesthetically (like this clip from Down at Gods of Metal 2009). 

So when I went to see Kyuss, cult stoner band from the early 90's, in Milan on March 23, 2011 with my American friend E., I went prepared.  

We were right up against the barrier at the front of the stage. My camera was just dangling off my wrist and I kept forgetting to turn it off, and ended up recording by mistake the light reflections on the barrier! 

 

 

This concert experience was quite exceptional for me, synesthetically, because the bass was just so strong. The photisms I saw while hearing and feeling the music were quite incredible: these tendrils wrapping themselves around my legs, and the vibrations looked like black splotches with lots of tiny, horizontal shimmering white lines.

I liked these video sequences because they really reminded me of the intensity of the sound and its physical effet. (I over-exposed the segments to accentuate the light effects.) 

 

These guys put on a great show to a sold-out house, by the way!

Gojira, The Art of Dying project update > color tests

I've been working on the first color tests for the Gojira project, working with Tria markers in about a dozen shades of cool gray. They are quite easy to blend, and it's fun creating shading in the shapes and giving them texture. It feels like the drawing is starting to come to life.

The main difficulty I'm having now is finding the right way to fill in the background. I'm currently working on a series of different tests to find the right technique for this.

Gojira, The Art of Dying > project update

And the Gojira Project is really coming along - I am hard at work inking the drawing!

The next step will be adding the color textures - the background will be a sort of graduated anthracite gray to black, and the loops colored in with nuances of gray. I have to admit, I am especially looking forward to that.

In other news, Gojira were announced on the billing for the Sonisphere France festival this summer. I'm looking forward to seeing them live again!!

Gojira - The Art of Dying project: how a loop takes shape

When I'm drawing the different sequences in the the Gojira / The Art of Dying project, I use a lot of loops. I see the sound construction of the song as very circular.

During the drawing process, these loops go through many steps. The loop I've drawn here is a very small fill from the last sequence of the Art of Dying (minute 6:05).

Step 1: a basic, short-hand version of the loop.

Step 2: fleshing out the basic shapes of the loop and the thick thin contrast.  

Step 3: correcting the loop dynamics for rhythmn and movement.

 

And here is the finished loop-shape placed within the composition. 

Once I've finished drawing all the loops, I'll begin the coloring process. The entire composition will be against a black background, and the loops filled in with textured linework in blacks and greys, as in this example: 

 

Gojira - The Art of Dying project: how the paper sculpture works

Yesterday I posted several photos of the protoype paper sculpture structure for the Gojira-Art of Dying project. I put together this video to better explain how the paper sculpture works. It's a bit long (because the song is so long!). As the song plays, each corresponding loop of the paper sculpture is highlighted.

Gojira - The Art of Dying, paper sculpture from RPB on Vimeo.

First of all, I divided the song up into sequences according to how I visualize it. Each of these sequences works like a loop that circles around and around on itself, until you move onto the next loop. 

Now these sequences don't necessarily correspond to a proper musicological analysis of the song or even to the sections indicated in the sheet music. But that wasn't my intention either: I wanted to break the song down into the different sequences that I see synesthetically. 

One of the difficulties was working within the constraint of the 50-page moleskine format. This meant dividing up the sequences in a way that made sense, and also that worked out mathematically. 

The other constraint was developing a looping structure that functioned and that respected the layout of the different sequences. 

One of the really important points for me was to give enough importance to the chorus. These sequences are so powerful, and are really the central pivot within the song. 

I also decided to fill the entire reverse side of the japanese-fold album with one short sequence (sequence 11) that repeats itself over and over, in order to really emphasize the hypnotic quality of this passage. 

So once you've gone all the way to the end of the 50-page accordion fold, turned it over and came all the way back, you end up back at the beginning again. The entire project consists of loops, from its initial form, to the breakdown in sequences, to the drawing of each sequence - in which the sound itself is in loops... it all breaks down to the cycle of life and death. 

the art of dying: paper sculpture of the song structure

One of the primary ideas behind the Art of Dying project is that the booklet can be folded together into a paper sculpture through a system of short cuts in the paper folds. 

So you have the Moleskine-size notebook with 50 accordion-fold pages, which then loop over each other to show the structure of the song. Each loop corresponds to a sequence in the song, and the placement of the loop is determined by its relationship to other loops. 

 

This idea has proved to be quite complex to work out, and my first few prototypes didn't function properly - the pages kept tearing because the cut placement wasn't properly thought-out. But I've finally managed to get the cuts placed in the right spots, so that they work and are the least intrusive possible. 

And so I've finally put together a prototype that works.