Twisted Tales – Dorothy

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It’s an early post this week, and I have some really exciting news! No, it’s not House of Odd coming out in 2 week’s time, though that is plenty exciting in itself. It’s the first, full-length music video of Dorothy, the first single of Yunyu‘s Music-Manga-Animation collaboration: Twisted Tales. I previously wrote about the trailer here, but now I can show you the full video, beautifully animated by the talented Thai animators The Commonists!

 

 

Dorothy is available on iTunes and Bandcamp:

 

What is Twisted Tales?

Twisted Tales is the name of Yunyu’s music album, but it’s not that simple. The story is about what happens when fairy tales come to live in our world (along with the various issues that living in our world has), but it’s not just a music album. Below, Yunyu and I talk about Twisted Tales in our introduction video:

 

 

As a manga artist (and a long-time friend of Yunyu), I had the biggest hand in shaping the visual side of Twisted Tales – it’s quite unlike any other project I’ve worked on, and I had some great fun with the material, some of which was quite unexpected. For example, I didn’t expect to do any photo-shopping of Yunyu’s photos for this album, but in terms of publicity shots, it kinda fell within the territory. Below is a shot I photoshopped for the release of Dorothy. I discovered a previously unknown talent for this sort of thing! It was fun to indulge too!

 

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Click to enlarge. I will be posting a step-by-step tutorial for how I photoshopped this picture later on.


 

The Art of Twisted Tales

I designed the character of Dorothy, which the animators The Commonists then brought to life. Apart from that, my job was to design the covers for the CDs and DVDs, which unfortunately is only available as part of a press kit. The idea is that people are no longer buying CDs, so at least for a while, you won’t be able to buy the CD covers and CD I designed for Dorothy. But that doesn’t mean I won’t show you all that nice art! Here’s a pic of it below:

 
dorothy-covers
 

As for the actual art style, I settled on it a long time ago. It’s rather bright and colourful, but I feel that for a story about twisted fairy tales, that cheeriness works fine as a counterpoint to the dark subject matter. I would cite South Park as inspiration – childlike-graphics, but with mature content. It’s incongruous, like a subversion of childhood imagery, which I liked very much. Dorothy itself is a rather dark song, and the sequence of events that happen in this 6-panel story of Dorothy’s journey through space reflects that. The cutesy art brings that out even more so.

Since the theme of both Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz was travel, I decided to use airmail letters/parcels/stamps as part of the jacket design. The 5 stamps show Dorothy travelling along the yellow star road, meeting the scarecrow (Planet Brain), the tin man (a spaceship), and the lion (constellation of Leo) before she meets the giant blue star – aka the Wizard of Oz. The wizard turned out to be a disappointment, as he was in the original – in this case, the wizard is Death itself. You find out Dorothy’s fate in the final panel, which not coincidently is also the CD itself.

 

Dorothy-CD-jacket

Click to enlarge.


 
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I created a separate cover for the DVD version. Originally this wasn’t meant to exist since the discs were meant to be 2-in-1 or something, but people got confused. So this was whipped up at the last minute, so people can see they’re a DVD and a song on a CD.

 

Dorothy-DVD-jacket

Click to enlarge.


 

That’s it from me, for Dorothy. The next song in the album will be coming down the pike in a few month’s time, so stay tuned!

Melissa Cameron – In Geometry I Trust

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Hi all, my laptop is still at the fixers so I don’t have most of my programs available, but I’ve been keeping busy with an iPhone game and Microsoft Excel (that’s a story for another post). While I wait, I went to the Gallery open of my friend Melissa Cameron, a jewellery designer. Her exhibition is called “In Geometry I Trust”, and it’s currently on show at a chic, trendy Waterloo gallery, one of many art galleries at the 2 Danks St Galleries.
 
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What: Contemporary Jewllery Exhibition
By: Melissa Cameron – “In Geometry I Trust”
Who: Studio 20/17
Where: 6B/2 Danks St, Waterloo NSW 2017
When: 28th – 17th March, from 11am – 6pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays

Melissa is a friend of mine from Melbourne, and her jewellery designs are quite distinct. Her inspiration is from architecture and the ideas of geometry that comes within that discipline, so her work looks very detailed and delicate. However, Melissa’s not a “typical” jewellery deisgner – her work is all hand-made, and straddles jewellery design and fine art, so not all of her work is wearable. The work that is meant to be wearable, fragile and complex as they may look, are actually quite durable.

 

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Here's a necklace from one her exhibition, which is for sale there.


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Here is more work from her line, which shows of her style quite well.


 

I don’t wear jewellery much, but I find Melissa’s work a breath of fresh air. She has a style that is quite unique to her, and since Studio 20/17 is a gallery that showcases a number of contemporary jewellery designers, you can see a wide range of jewellery designs here. Comparing and contrasting the different styles, ideas and motivations behind each of the jewellery designers is a lot of fun. Since nearly all of the jewellery designs are for sale, jewellery enthusiasts can also go shopping-mad there.

 

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Outside Studio 20/17. There are other small art galleries all around.


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Some of the other jewellery design works. There were heaps of work by other designers there.


 

You can see more of Melissa’s work at her website. There’s many works of hers that aren’t on display at this gallery, and my favourites are always the intricate non-wearable ones like the ones below. I imagine I’d like to hang one of these on my wall!

 

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The Sieve, from 2010


The Fishes, 2011. Antique 800 silver platter, stainless steel. 25 x 100 x 40mm


 

Anyway, the rest of the gallery was also quite interesting. There’s many, many galleries in the 2 Danks St complex, and since we arrived early to the exhibition, we wandered around looking at the other galleries and the artists on showcase. We saw some really wonderful and innovative artwork there! All-in-all, it was the first time I’ve beem to 2 Danks St, and it was a super-fun experience!

 

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Melissa at her Artist's Talk yesterday


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Melissa talks more about her work again.


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Melissa's necklace from an earlier line in action!

Grey Totoro – Free Crochet Pattern

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Hi folks. This week my laptop is in the repair shop, so I’m sitting at a borrowed laptop while trying to plug the latest music single release from my friend Yunyu. It’s Dorothy (I wrote about the teaser trailer here), the first single from her Twisted Tales album, which is a music-manga collaboration between Yunyu and myself.

The official release date for Dorothy is 2nd March, 2012, but pop-culture sites Madman Entertainment, CoolShite and ToneDeaf has had an exclusive, early look at the full music video. You can click on the links I just wrote up, or you can wait until next Friday, when I do my full post on this project.

This week, as promised, I give you the grey Totoro pattern I had from 2 weeks ago. I have the blue and white Totoro patterns here, and given the way this is going, I guess I’ll have to create a new page for “free patterns” very soon.

 
All Totoro head


 

Grey Totoro Pattern

Here’s a list of what I used to make this crochet. It’s not a definite list, so feel free to use whatever you have, as long as it’s appropriate. It’s crocheted in the round, like most amigurumi, so only basic crochet skills are required.

NB. This pattern is created by me, so please give a link back to me if you want to use it or if you want to sell your crochet. Please give credit where it’s due. I should also that I don’t own the copyright to these characters – obviously Studio Ghibli does.

  • White, black and blue 8 ply yarn
  • 4mm crochet hook
  • Two pairs of 3mm black safety eyes – 6060 from Etsy is a good place to buy these
  • Large sewing needle, to sew the bits and pieces together

 

Crochet Abbreviations

Here are a list of the abbreviations I use, and what they mean. These are pretty standard, so if you know how to crochet, this won’t be hard to decipher:

  • ch – chain
  • sc – single chain
  • dec – decrease
  • * – beginning/end of a repeating part of the pattern

 
 
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Grey Totoro Body (Make 1, grey)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch*, repeat 6 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 5 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 3*, repeat 3 times (30 stitches)
Rnd 6 – 10 – sc (30 stitches)
Rnd 11 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 6, 2 sc in next stitch, sc 7*, repeat 2 times (34 stitches)
Rnd 12 – sc (34 stitches)
Rnd 13 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 8, 2 sc in next stitch, sc 7*, repeat 2 times (38 stitches)
Rnd 14 – 23 – sc (38 stitches)
Rnd 24 – *dec 1, sc3*, repeat 8 times (30 stitches)

Stuff the body now, and add 3 mm safety eyes
Rnd 25 – *dec 1 in back loops ONLY*, repeat 15 times (15 stitches)
Rnd 26 – *dec 1*, repeat 8 times (6 stitches)

Bind off, and thread the yarn through the top of the Totoro (if you can), so you can flatten the base. Using a sewing needle, sew a few white yarn stitches around the safety eyes. Then using black yarn, sew the nose on in-between the eyes, then sew the dot mouth on.

 
 
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Grey Totoro Belly (Make 1, white)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch*, repeat 6 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 5 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 3*, repeat 6 times (30 stitches)
Rnd 6 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 4*, repeat 6 times (36 stitches)

Bind off, and sew the white belly onto the bottom front of the Totoro. Using blue yarn, sew seven “arrows” on its chest.

 
 
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Grey Totoro Ears (Make 2, grey)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 2 times (6 stitches)
Rnd 3 – 6 – sc (6 stitches)

Bind off, and sew onto the top of the head.

 
 
greytotoro4
 

Grey Totoro Arms and Tail (Make 3, grey)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 1*, repeat 3 times (9 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next stitch, sc 2*, repeat 3 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 4 – 7 – sc (12 stitches)
Rnd 8 – *dec 1, sc1*, repeat 4 times (8 stitches)

Bind off, and stuff lightly for the arms. For the tail, stuff heavily. Sew onto the sides and back of the body.

 

And here we have another 2 pics of the three Totoros!

 
 
alltotoro_walk
alltotoro_line
 

Recommendation: Tuesdays With Morrie

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Hi folks. This week I managed to get an iPhone 4S, which was replete with battery problems, until it turned out that it wasn’t the fault of the iPhone. No sooner have I gotten it fixed, then I had problems with my new laptop overheating… I am just plagued with tech problems all this week! Somehow I managed to finish pencilling Chapter 3 of Small Shen, as well as some of Chapter 4, so it’s not all bad news. I hope to finish the Chapter 4 pencils by early March, so I can get started on the inks and onto the middle of the book.

Apart from that, this week I was also fully into… Linsanity!! Somehow, even with all the tech problems, I still managed to watch all the videos of Jeremy Lin’s game-winning streak on Youtube. I was tempted to recommend Linsanity for this week’s recommendation, but pulled back because I’m hardly an expert on the NBA – everything I learned about basketball I learned from Slam Dunk. I may not feel confident discussing basketball, but everyone is getting behind his inspirational story, and the flood of feel-good vibes is leading me to recommend a pretty famous self-help book: Tuesdays with Morrie.

 
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Tuesdays With Morrie
(2002, Mitch Albom)

You may already have heard of this book – it was a massive bestseller back in the day, and a friend of mine recommended it to me. It’s one of those books that isn’t hard to read, is accessible, and most of all, is such a quick and uplifting read that you absolutely cannot say no to it.

 

Plot
Tuesdays With Morrie is a non-fiction book written by Mitch Albom, a former sports journalist who has fond memories of one of his university professors, the titular Morrie. Mitch’s life and career was just coasting along when he heard that his former professor was in the grips of a terminal illness, and only had a few months to live. Morrie taught Mitch (and many other students) a lot about life when he was younger, so he decides to visit Morrie regularly in his last month, to document the man’s ideas, beliefs and teachings. What resulted from these trips was the best-selling, life-affirming, “self-help” book Tuesdays With Morrie.

 

 

Why I Recommend this Book
I hesitate to call this book a “self-help” book, because while I like self-help books, this one goes a little bit further than this. It hasn’t got any bullet-point checklists, any motivational mantras or any “life plans”. It is written in the simple manner of a story, where the writer (Mitch Albom) explains his brief-but-memorable history with Morrie, discovers years later that his professor dying of a terminal illness, and then goes off to chat with Morrie every Tuesday until his death. That’s it. It’s not written in a way that’s meant to be bombastic or emotional. It’s simply the words of a very wise man, who has lived a great life and inspired many people.

It’s also not a particularly long book, which can only be a good thing. These days, if you recommend a “great and inspiring” book to someone and it happens to be more than an inch thick, people will sigh and look like they’re on the verge of being hit on the head with the likes of War and Peace. It seems that people want inspiring things to read, but don’t want to work too hard to absorb those words of wisdom, even though 30 years ago they may have wanted to. It seems that a few things have changed since then, but what hasn’t changed is that everyone still wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die. Well, reading Tuesdays With Morrie won’t kill you or even kill much of your time, but it may certainly offer a few pearls of wisdom, if not an inspirational story along the lines of Linsanity.

There’s not much more that I can say about this book, except for an anecdote from a few years back. An acquaintance of mine once asked me for a book recommendaton, saying that she wanted to read something “meaningful”. I asked her to be specific, and she said “no fiction”. I pressed her on her interests, and she said she didn’t want to read anything about history, religion, spirituality, sociology, psychology, science, philosophy, anthropology, or anything that ends with a -logy. But, she wanted to read something “meaningful”. Well, guess what I recommended? Tuesdays With Morrie is a book that manages to fill that tiny void beautifully.