Monday, March 17, 2008

Three Minute Night


Time's tight, but I wanted to post some fresh work.
The challenge: listen to a song and draw it before it ends.
"Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues was on the radio.

As I've said elsewhere, I have mixed feelings about this song. I like the dreamy melody, but when he gets to the "I love you oh how I love you!" part he sounds like a nut. (At least he doesn't say "I wanna love you and squeeze you and call you George!")
I pictured him locked in an attic, gazing out the window at whomever (or whatever) he loves.

p.s. I turned off the radio when it got to the annoying poetry part.

19 comments:

Jesse said...

Aww, the bird looks sad!

What kind of bird is this? Is this some form of watercolor? :)

Anonymous said...

Love the green beak and the concept of illustrating a song while it's playing! It's fun to work while listening to music, really changes the whole mood of the work.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Jesse,
The bird is done Painter 8 on my tablet P.C. with the "acrylic" brush. I tried to make him look kinda sad. It was either that or go for the crazy obsessed look.
Sal,
I agree that music totally influences artwork. For example, the picture in the link below was designed while I listened to Duran Duran's "Notorious," which sounds (to me) like a freaked out craziness. In a fun way.
http://tailotherat.blogspot.com/2007/07/giraffes-gone-wild.html

walterworld said...

He's definately upset about something! Guess he doesn't like 'Nights in White Satin'.

Maybe you should have used 'Tuesday Afternoon' from the same album? :)

Take care!

Sally said...

I'm not sure the song in my head is the one you're mentioning, but it's an emotional image.

Sally said...

I just reread this post and realized you drew this in three minutes- oh my gosh that is astonishing. It's so soulful! excuse my inattention to details!

Jesse said...

Yes, it's the pretty! :)

I'm a philistine non-artist so I can't be properly impressed by the time constraints. All I know is if you told me you worked on this for a week I'd still like it.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Ha ha, Walterworld :)
Now I have Toooooooozdaaay Afternoon running in my head like a broken record.

Thanks Sally,
Now I'm wondering: If I spent more time on this if I would have blotted out the mood I somehow captured?

Thanks, Jesse,
The funny thing is that I posted it on a whim, since I didn't have any "real" artwork to post and didn't want the blog to go stale. Maybe I should do more quicky work. :)

Jesse said...

You would get my vote. You know the motto of the Open Source community is "Release Early, Release Often". :)

Linda Davick said...

I like the dreamy melody, but when he gets to the "I love you oh how I love you!" part he sounds like a nut.

Namowal, you kill me!! I love to sing parts like this over and over with an appropriate expression on my face.

I love the concept of illustrating a song while it's playing too,whatever you get down while it's still playing. This would be a fun game.

booda baby said...

What a great challenge!! I guess it helps to know the song ahead of time and, oh, pick a LONG one. :)

Have you tried Artrage? The guy who turned me on to it loves Painter, but RAVES about Artrage.

I just finished a challenge, too - 15 sec. animation in 1 day. Probably an ill-advised move, considering I'm not anything LIKE a professional motion graphics person, but it was also really invigorating and made me grab all the stuff floating around my head and focus.

It looks like you don't have a lot of time, but I wonder how much that would PUSH your Flash skills.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Linda,
I'm glad you like my take on the song.
This would be a fun song to "ham up," since it's so over the top.
Boodababy,
I haven't heard of Artrage, but I'll look into this. I'm impressed that you cranked out 15 secs of flash animation in a day. That's a lot of frames!

Anonymous said...

I always get the sappiest songs stuck in my head for weeks. Lately I can't stop merging two phrases by the Seekers: "There's a new world somewhere they call the promised land" and "We'll build a world of our own...." Oh, well, at least it signifies a good mood.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Sal,
There seems to be a direct portion to how sappy/inane/annoying a song is and how long it sticks in our head.

Jesse said...

/me begins pointlessly chanting after "air supply" ;)

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Air Supply!? Now you've up and gone and done it. I'll have their stuff stuck in my head all afternoon. I'd sketch one of their songs, but the result would look like Edvard Munch's "The Scream"

Jesse said...

You'll have to animate the scream so he sways slowly back and forth

Anonymous said...

I think as a kid I used to think about "knights" in white satin. Hey, I think you could do an entire show of these 3-5 minute song illustrations! What fun.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Ha ha, Stray G.
When I was a kid I thought the "nights" might be "knights" too. I wondered what they were doing in white satin. Didn't sound
like the best choice of armor.