Drawing Blood, Drawing Poison, Drawing Fire - a pre-launch Q&A with the artist, Simon Grennan.
Funded by the Arts Council and led by artist Simon Grennan, ‘Drawing Blood’ is a new collaborative art project that creates a new online exhibition of twenty new, original animated artworks. Hosted by Gladstone’s Library, the online exhibition will also be available at Contemporary Art Space Chester and at Aura libraries in North Wales, including Broughton, Buckley, Mold, Deeside, Holywell, Connah’s Quay and Flint.
The new artworks are inspired by a book Simon found in the Gladstone’s Library collections. Dating from 1878, Gladstone from Judy’s Point of View collects cartoons satirising one of the hot topics of the period – liberal political opinion. As one of the major Liberal politicians, William Ewart Gladstone is often in the firing line of Judy’s cartoonists. In the tradition of political artists everywhere their pens puncture any political pomposity, drawing Gladstone (and others) not as respected statesman but as wobbly juggler, unstable acrobat, indecisive whirligig, pram-pushing lady, and many more.
Ahead of the exhibition’s launch, Simon gave us some exclusive insights into the production process. They’ll be posted on this blog each week: for a full list, please visit the project’s home page: https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/reading-rooms/digital-gladstone/drawing-blood-drawing-poison-drawing-fire
Were there any surprises during the animation process?
Making a new artwork always throws up new technical challenges. Sometimes these are unexpected. The craft of 2D animation is really laborious and requires meticulous attention to detail in preparation π and that’s just making the drawings, before the process of moving them around and transforming them begins. I’d forgotten just how long-winded the process of drawing for animation can be. Discovering that again was a bit of a shock!
Oedd yna unrhyw syrpreis yn ystod y broses animeiddio?
Mae creu gwaith celf newydd bob amser yn taflu heriau technegol newydd. Weithiau, mae’r rhain yn annisgwyl. Mae crefft animeiddio 2D yn llafurus iawn ac angen sylw manwl i fanylder wrth baratoi ac mae hynny’n cynnwys y lluniau yn unig, cyn mae’r broses o’u symud o gwmpas a’u trawsnewid yn dechrau. Roeddwn wedi anghofio pa mor hirwyntog oedd y broses o dynnu llun ar gyfer animeiddio yn gallu bod. Roedd canfod hynny eto yn ychydig o sioc!