The Heat is burning and I retreated in my room with working air conditioning. It was brutal the past few days and some more to come, we’re all dreading and looking forward to some heavy rain to come.
June was a full month full of projects and trips, starting with a week at the Annecy Animation Festival. Let me give you an overview of what happened and if I can recommend it!
We drove by car through Switzerland and to the far East of France. It was a calm and steady ride without much happening, so I worked on my commissions on the way there. Our journey lasted for about 5 hours and immediately went to the camping space we rented. It was an easy feat to set up our camping gear and had some last moments under the sun to go on a stroll to the lake. It is a pretty region there, half of it is leading to the countryside and the other side of the lake is completely towered by the mountainside. The area just around the lake is very flat and easy to maneuver, fit perfectly for cycling, although we never took advantage of that as the car remained our main form of transport. I made myself some instant noodles with my gas cooker and we called it a day.
The following day, we rode to the heart of the Festival to claim our badges. Now let me explain how the festival works (that we did not know at the time): It is a super well visited event with several thousand attendees. The problem is that the events hosted don’t cover that many people. You have two options here: Either be lucky and have (in my case) up to 2 reservations for events that you are interested in… Or you can try your luck and queue up for an event. There was a soft-spoken rule: “Come 2 hours earlier + if there are more than 50 people in front of you, don’t bother” but we didn’t know that. We often times waited in line for over an hour and of course couldn’t get in. Additionally, most reservations for the events you wanted to enter, were already taken the moment they were open, you had to be lucky and wait for a slot to be canceled that you could then take. And even with a reservation, I managed to miss two events, one by coming later than 10 minutes prior to the event and one because the security noticed my glass bottle and directed me to deposit it at the locker service. This made the festival very frustrating, even in addition to how hard it was to organize your plans and interests beforehand. Of course now we are informed about it in hindsight and wouldn’t have such a hard time come a second time, but of course the impression stays and visiting a festival for a chance to see what you want to see… well isn’t very tempting to be honest. Actually waiting in line there was quite a breeze sometimes, as you are likely to get a neighbour who is as passionate about animation as you are.
I had a better time walking further off the festival centre and go to a cinema that played short films there. There usually was not as much of a big queue there and you could line up for the next screening right after. The downside – and this is another problem we encountered at Annecy, is that sometimes programs are screened with French as priority. Say, a film with Portuguese language has French subtitles, yes I get that, but French films have no subtitles whatsoever, which can be a frustrating discovery, when – under 6 films – you can only fully understand one of them. Still, one of my favourite films I’ve seen there, I didn’t understand the subtitles but was blown away by the visuals and the techniques they used. Which made me appreciate the craft as an artform even more… and also to celebrate films that don’t rely on dialogue.
The other side of the festival… had nothing to do with the festival at all. It’s to appreciate the city and the cozy lake vibes. It is a beautiful place with crystal clear water and lots of birds! We also took our time off not standing in line and ventured into the old-town to see the side alleys and markets where we frequently dined. I must say I really enjoyed the food there, even though I cannot see Baguettes and cheese anymore. Sadly, About halfway through the stay there, I had gotten sick, I can’t fairly say why, maybe the heat, it was probably the fondue the day prior, let’s face it, don’t eat too much fondue, it will kill you, I couldn’t eat the next day. And afterward, my social batteries were pretty much depleted for the rest of the stay.
So all in all, I did see some nice films at Annecy, but knowing the programme from the International Festival of Animated Films in Stuttgart, I don’t really think I need to come to Annecy to watch pretty films. To experience France and the city itself, yes I can recommend it but probably outside the festival times as prices everywhere just get inflated for festival goers.
Usually, I’m not in a festive mood during pride month, let me elaborate. I haven’t quite figured out my sexual identity yet and the whole topic has been rather confusing to me so I have been a silent supporter of pride month although I didn’t see myself as part of the community. I don’t know why now, but my way of thinking has changed. I started caring less about who I needed to be on the spectrum and moreso celebrating the freedom to live your true self and supporting movements where you can’t. I don’t wnat to have to figure myself out as much and just live my life and let things happen by themselves, even though knowing it could lead to difficult situations, it makes my life just more focused on what’s important to me.
And I wanted to express this feeling with this artwork, marking the first time that I openly celebrate pride month with a piece that I have done and wished to have done so sooner.
I’ve had a limited time at Christopher Street Days this year but my time was well spent and I’m happy to have friends who share the same ideals and support that I have grown to appreciate as well.
As stated in my last reflection, it was time to do another fruit hat piece. I’ve had this idea in my head for a year now and I’m happy that I wrote it down, otherwise it’d have lost my mind. The idea came from a photo of Stephen Spielberg laying in the mouth for his Jaws Shark prop and I just loved the idea of changing it to my li’l blahaj Norman ^)v(^ So yeah, I had to battle a little with the thought of not doing it digitally this year, simply because I started this tradition to make my style comparable and that worked best when having a consistent medium. But time wasn’t on my side and I was going out picnicking with friends the day I preplanned and sketched it. And I don’t regret my decision, because it will reflect my artistic journey much better because I ant myself to know in 10 year: Oh yeah, that’s the year I started doing these marker drawings. And heck, I enjoy them a lot! Even though it’s not as precise and flexible as my digital workspace, I am very happy exploring these new techniques, tools and limitations.
My last artwork this month was to finish one of my ongoing commissions. It’s from my friend Father Viktor again, who commissioned me several times before and is always happy with the result. He has great ideas and when he told me ‘My char as the new DOOM guy’ I was hooked instantly as I knew it would work so well!
And the art process worked out very well too! First, gathering references were a lot of fun, as I just had to replay a level from the game. And believe me when I say it is so well detailed! Just thinking of it makes me wanna play it again!
Then my first sketch already was lots of fun and worked out instantly. Lining the armor was fun and worked out like a charm, only with rendering did I have some trouble but was eased out quickly as time went on. I even did a little more for the background than what was agreed on because it was just too much fun not to include so many layers of scenic background.
All in all a very fun and engaging concept!
A last little shoutout goes to my most recent development. I finally got myself a sketch book (sort of) As of now, I never really had a sketch book because I liked being more flexible with loose A4 paper. The reason I have a sketchbook now is merely coincidence, I got one at a small job market, it is checkerboarded though, so I had the idea to make it my private sketch book, where I won’t post anything. I called it ‘my fuck it book’ to counter any doubts I might have when sketching. You don’t know what the next drawing should be? Fuck it! You don’t know if you’re good enough? Fuck it! I want it to be the answer to every question and when I let people draw into it, it is my go to sentence when they ask me ‘is it okay to draw…?’ – just let your mind free, don’t worry. And it’s been a very positive experience since. I want to have it filled up by the end of the year and hope I can make that goal and find a new small book like it soon after!
Now, I have a very busy month ahead of me. I just finished the audio part for my animation film for uni and the polishing has to be done next. I am doing designs for Tropical Furry Island again so I have to keep deadlines in mind. There are two more comms I want to have finished and not pile on. I need to design and order for my dealer’s den booth at Eurofurence. I want to do at least 3 Art Fight pieces this year (already got some ideas at least). Oh and I am moving back to my hometown at the end of the month… I still have to reach out to studios about my internship. And I need to prepare something for a special day at Uni to leave the semester with.
It is a lot and I’m halfway sure I forgot something. But I’ll try to do things one at a time to not to overwhelm myself.
So have a pleasant month of July, try to enjoy yourself and I’ll be back next month from home, still not sure how it’ll look like then…
Sincerely,
~Souvillaine
Very neat experience you’ve had (minus the food poisoning and heat), also pleasantly surprised that you don’t really prefer sketchbooks but that’s a preference thing anyways.
Nice artworks as usual and holy, Annecy really looks as pretty as you’ve described just from Google searches alone.
Oh hellooo again dear!
Sorry I took so long to reply, it’s been a super busy month as will be explained in my next post…
Yeah that ‘sketchbook’ grows slowly and I use it less for actual drawings and more as sort of diary for events I went to or dreams or what not.
Thank you very much for the compliment and yeah! Annecy is pretty, can recommend ^v^