NAIDOC WEEK

We are celebrating NAIDOC WEEK, a time to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture! Let’s continue recognising, experiencing, valuing and learning from the undeniable contribution and vital presence of indigenous people all over the world! Here I’m sharing with you one of the animated illustrations created for the lovely ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA project. 😄 🌿

Painting leaves

Inspired by Rosie’s painting. 😄 She first started with green lines. Then she painted smaller, uniform marks: blue, purple and yellow. And then she swapped her paintbrush for a thin stick and began adding bright dots to each plant, like morning dew, intensifying their uniqueness. I thought about her when I was drawing the stems and petals, it felt like meditating, like knitting… “one by one… all is fine… we are connected”. 🌿

Australian plants pattern

Another piece for the ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA project. I enjoyed designing the plants and thinking about the colours in relation to the work created by the aboriginal artists. I definitely love working with silhouettes and exploring shapes! 😄🌿

Aboriginal painting inspiration

I’d like to share with you the image inspired in Margaret’s painting. She talked about the Therrpeyt (bush medicine) and how you can boil it, drink it and it makes you better if you have a cold. What I love about the ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA project is that you are given the time to contemplate a painting being made and you feel connected to the artist and the person. When I saw her canvas I noticed a little stream, a vibrant blue line, a landmark in the middle of a pattern. I knew she had visited this place many times and although its shape was abstract and minimal in her painting, it felt real… her story is real… the wisdom behind her words are real. That was my inspiration. 🌿

Medicinal bush plants painting

Another piece for the ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA project. Here is Lily boiling some medicinal plants in water. The colour palette was inspired by her own work and the shirt she was wearing when @laradamiani shot the documentary. @karukaru.studio animated the painting and hopefully  we’ll be sharing a few moving pieces with you soon! 😄🌿

Australian Desert

“People used to hunt in the olden days and showed the young ones where to go to get food.” This is what Kathleen says while painting her beautiful desert. She’s a traveller like me, and her work and story inspired this image. 🌿

...

Wavy plants for Ampilatwatja

This was one of my paintings interpreting Edie’s work :)
She talked about Ntang (edible seeds) that aboriginal children used to eat.
I loved how the leaves of each plant are wavy in her painting, giving a reddish underwater feeling.
The ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA short series is about to be completed! Can’t wait to see it @laradamiani & @karukaru.studio !
^_^🌿

Animated painting for Ampilatwatja

Illustration of Daisy, an aboriginal woman, whose fascinating painting process has been documented in ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA. She rhythmically added the coloured dots to the canvas. Her own painting is about the Kwenkart turkey bush, a medicinal plant used by her people for healing. This image was animated by @karukaru.studio as part of the lovely factual short series filmed by @laradamiani ^_^🌿

...

Colour palettes for Ampilatwatja

Colour palettes & thumbs of paintings I did for @karukaru.studio & @laradamiani. ARTISTS OF AMPILATWATJA is a beautiful factual short series showing the painting process of aboriginal women in Australia, can’t wait to share more with you 😄🌿

...

Monet: another study :)

Thoughts while painting this other piece by Claude Monet:

- I realised that I like intense saturated colours.

- White is never just white. In this painting I tried to be conscious about the colours behind the colour, and I was so aware that they became protagonists. I would love to be as subtle and efective as Monet! So much to learn ;)

- The forest is much more abstract and dynamic in my painting, maybe because I wanted to work fast so I wouldn’t over-work some areas more than others, maybe because I was excited :)

- The lady in Monet’s painting is more grounded, still, and made of “the same substance” as the world she inhabits. The lady of my painting seems to be adjusting, less rigid but also less secure. They seem to have different personalities. This is SO interesting!

- Working on someone else’s painting makes me feel connected to the artist, I definitely want to read more about Monet’s life! ^_^

Painting a Claude Monet's piece

Thoughts:
- because I'm in love with the brushstrokes I lost sight of the main purpose: study colour relationships.
- the "white" of the canvas is warmer.
- next time with impressionism: paint at 100% opacity to avoid blending.
- maybe muddiness can be avoided by applying pure colours.
- an initial tonal value study is useful.
- to concentrate in colour relationships, work with stains or bigger brushes.
- try to simplify the image into zones.
- identify the colours that are dominant, subdominant, subordinates and accents.
- Monet was one of the greatest!

Painting a frame of Sleeping beauty

What I noticed:
- more details and textures in the foreground.
- less volumes in the backgrounds.
- colours change when placed next to each other.
- do a sketch first! remember relationships to the picture-plane.
- found the horse's tongue to be too bright, it's the first thing I see.
- characters tend to be simpler, easier to read, cleaner.
- a branch has many colours and saturations, the sun touches parts of it.
- work with intention: if I'm analysing colours, then shapes or textures are secondary.
- Eyvind Earle's work is AMAZING!

Comic: Esperando / Waiting

I wait and wait for the rain to cease

And the buses roar

... I'm not the only one

 
Abrazo,
Ana
...

anamaria-art.com

From KaruKaru Studio: My Little Sumo: Concept art 1

Here's a concept art I did for KaruKaru Studio.
Enjoyed the process very much and gave me a few ideas on the colour palette I was going to use, and the relationship these two characters had.
A little bit about it on KaruKaru's blog :)

The Little Prince illustration

“Si vienes, por ejemplo, a las cuatro de la tarde, a partir de las tres empezaré a ser feliz. A medida que se acerque la hora me sentiré más feliz. Y a las cuatro, me agitaré y me inquietaré; ¡descubriré el precio de la felicidad! Pero si vienes en cualquier momento, no sabré nunca a qué hora vestirme el corazón... Los ritos son necesarios”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, El principito.

Dedicado a todos los seres domesticados, incluyéndome.
Con amor, Ana


 "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites"
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Dedicated to all tamed creatures, including myself.
With love, Ana

...

Gratitude SASA 2016

We're so thrilled!

Thanks to Screen Australia for making this possible thanks to their funding and support. Thanks to our beautiful team for putting in their talent and passion. Thank you so much to our lead digital painter, Mawarini and lead animator, Alex Graham, who shined and shimmered! We'd also like to thank the lovely people at the Media Resource Centre for their constant support.

As the production designer of My Little Sumo, I would also like to thank Charlie and Daisy for inviting me to imagine their world :)

And finally, I'd like to dedicate this award to my family: my husband and best friend, and our daughter full of wonder and curiosity. Their love and support nurture my spirit every day.

...

window tree

Trying to keep on practising digital painting. The tree outside our studio's window is letting its leaves go yellow and fall.
Practicando pintura digital. El árbol que se ve desde la ventana de nuestro estudio está pintándose las hojas de amarillo y dejándolas caer.
...

My Little Sumo in Germany!

Our KaruKaru team can finally escape the pile of work we've been under and share the joy of having My Little Sumo screened at Suttgart Festival of Animated Film 2016!!
...

Miniambra: mini-episode 01: BALANCE

BALANCE 
Who am I outside of my shell?
Each short episode is like a sentence in a book and will generate new meanings when put together with the graphic novel pages, image-thoughts and other episodes.

Your feedback is always welcome! ;)

BALANCE
Quién soy yo por fuera de mi cáscara?
Cada mini episodio es como una frase de un libro y generará nuevos significados al ponerse en contexto con las páginas de la novela gráfica, los pensamientos-imagen y los demás episodios.

Sus comentarios son más que bienvenidos! ;)

~ Ana
...

Other dancing frames ~ Otros fotogramas bailando

And these are other fragments for the Danzar Mundos' magazine project.

I tried to play with textures and patterns, but more importantly with rhythm :)

Y estos son otros fragmentos del proyecto para la revista Danzar Mundos.
Traté de jugar con texturas y patrones, pero sobre todo con ritmo :)

Writing from the studio with LOTS of work for our animation,
Escribiéndoles desde el estudio con MUCHO trabajo para nuestra animación,
Ana
...