Last week in my workspace it was week 1 of semester 3 of Sketchbook Skool. One of our homework assignments for the week was to illustrate a 'how to do or make' image. When deciding on what I would illustrate I thought of some doodles I had made several years ago of our cat Tang Tang in various yoga positions. I had drawn them after observing one of his daily stretches with the idea that one day it might be cool to make a yoga picture book featuring Tang. I never got around to making that book and only thought of the drawings again last week when our homework assignment came up. So I dug them out and decided why not make a little stop motion film of Tang demonstrating a Simple Suryanamaskar or Sun Salutation.
Here are the original drawings.
I first drew and painted a 'background' in my sketchbook. I wanted it to be as colourful as possible as Tang Tang was a flame point siamese and was mostly white/cream coloured so he needed to stand out while doing his poses. Then I hit the stationary store for some of those groovy little fasteners that would allow Tang to bend and move. Next, I drew out the words that would explain the various positions.
Throughout the week my workspace moved from my art room, to the couch to the living room table.
With all the art work finished it was time to turn it into a little film. All I needed was my iPhone and a 'set up'. A couple of board games, a rubber bin, a large ruler and a rubber band became my tripod. Sometimes I think figuring out how to film it can be as fun as the artwork part. I rolled back the living room carpet and set up where I could take advantage of some natural light. Getting the right light was a challenge because of it being a partly cloudy day. The sun would come and go so I found myself in a bit of a hurry.
The final workspace was the living room floor.
I've always loved silly little homemade stop motion films so I was especially delighted when I found out I could make these kinds of films very easily with just an app on my phone. Here's my homework...How to do a Simple Suryanamaskar (Sun Salutation) featuring Tang Tang Spooky Longclaws.
Here is the final video.