Last year DAiSY had a call-out for commissions for emerging disabled artists to develop their practice. Our commission in partnership with the Watts Gallery was awarded to animator and visual artist Sam Barrett. In his second blog Sam tells us about their experience developing his animated film ‘The Minotaur’s Strange Past’.
I focused first on drawing Poseidon and a Greek boat for the first scene.
I set up the background with my ‘Deluge’ drawing and had the sun rise.
Then placing the characters on the top and middle glass shelves I filmed using ‘Stop motion’ app on my iPad. Lily Ash Sakula, my animation mentor recommended using a rostrum. My Dad built me one out of wood.
The first scene was exciting to start on because the waves were bobbing up and down, Poseidon’s tentacles moved around when he talked to the Minotaur. It was lots of concentrating to turn the sun beams around.
My drawing of Poseidon without a mouth so I could use many mouths when animating
I am moving the waves up and down using the rostrum, it’s a box with 3 glass shelves and a hole at the top for the camera to take frames
This is the first scene I filmed, it has a background of the deluge sun, then waves and Poseidon and the Minotaur in the boat which is bobbing up and down
First scene with Poseidon talking to the Minotaur
I chose George F Watts ‘Parasite’ painting and did my own version. It’s a background for introducing King Minos.
My version of the Parasite two trees with an abstract background
George F Watts ‘Parasite’ painting, it’s a tree covered with lots of parasite leaves
This is a picture of me drawing using Windsor and Newton Pro markers, I am listening to an audio book at the same time
I drew my own versions of Greek myth creatures for example Pegasus. In one of the Greek stories Pegasus comes out of the killed Medusa and Pegasus’s father is Poseidon that is why I drew a fish on him.
This is Pegasus, in the animation the wings move up and down. He has a fish and a bird drawn on his body and the tail has multiple colours, his hooves have a star on them
I was fascinated by how G F Watts used body parts to help him draw characters instead of using real life people. I took pictures at Watts gallery and decided how to arrange them for a background scene.
A background scene using model body parts from Watts gallery
Lily recommended me to see a sand animation, Lily sent an email link. I had a play around animating with red, orange and yellow sand.
Lily and I looking at the animation on the computer
We decided to get an animation software called ‘dragon frame’ because we wanted to get a better way to take shots.
Me filming with the rostrum and using dragon frame software on my computer
Inspired by their time with the Watts Gallery, Sam created an animated film which you can watch on the DAiSY Youtube channel:
For more information you can get in touch with projects@daisyfest.co.uk