A Tale in 3 Gifs
(Development)

The starting point for this gif project was to study a still life arrangement from all angles, trying a different style of drawing each time. I always value these kinds of exercises as I soon shake up my usual method of illustration. My default appraoch is just to go for 'correct' colours and accurate details, when a more abstract or unusual style might be much more appealing.

Choosing my tale

The brief for this project asks for a reinterpretation of a classic tale in the form of three looping animated gifs at roughly 5 seconds long each. I listed as many well-known fairy tales as I could find, and considered several - I may well return to classic stories in the future on a different project.

For the purposes of the looping gif though, I needed to think of specific moments that could loop around seamlessly. One rejected idea I liked was the wolf huffing, puffing and blowing. I realise how much I am drawn to strong character action and performance above all else.

Usually I hope to come up with a completely original idea, but in sketching out ideas for a classic story, I have realised how much it reveals about myself. If a story has been told countless times, all that there is left to make new is exactly what the fresh storyteller is bringing to it. It makes it clearer to me that what I seek is mainly a sense of humour through the acting of the characters. Even when I am free to choose any method of illustration and any story, I choose silly.

The Tortoise and the Hare

I settled on Aesop's classic fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, as I could imagine three looping moments of contrasting performances. I see it as an opportunity to hopefully put into practice some of the animation principles I have learnt about but not fully explored.

Ray Harryhausen's 'The Story of The Tortoise & the Hare' (started in 1952, finished in 2002)

Themes of the story:

The story of The Tortoise and the Hare teaches many valuable lessons. It demonstrates the effectiveness of persistence, the counter-intuitive notion that we should 'hasten slowly' to win in the end; 'slow and steady wins the race'. It is also a cautionary tale warning of the dangers of hubris, with the hare often portrayed as mocking and arrogant when faced with the tortoise's proposal for a race.

The fable appeals to me as I feel like I need to learn how to moderately pace my life to achieve realistic goals, much like the tortoise. I regularly burn out and fail to finish things, always hoping to dazzle with exceptional and ambitious work. Ultimately I fall short of the finishing line for most of the projects I have worked on in my free time. As I get older, I am noticing how much more I get done when I don't force results and instead set very modest goals and consistently meet them.

In the original story, the hare takes a nap because he is so confident of his head-start. I think I will suggest instead that he exhausts himself from sprinting, when a measured walking pace would suit him better in the long-run. I like to find autobiographical lessons in what I make - it helps to get into character, and write from a genuine place of frustration or wisdom.

Moodboard 1: The Tortoise and the Hare, various takes on the tale

Moodboard 2: Art style inspirations

The intention here was to mix up my usual animation style, following on from the earlier still life session. I liked the raw continuous line and unconventional colour that came from that session, so I carried that into this moodboard. I want to remain open to new possibilities and develop a fresh approach through investigative sketching.

I usually clean up my lines when animating digitally, but this time I want to find a much looser, spontaneous look.

Featured here in no particular order:

Bill Plympton/Joanna Quinn/Glen Keane ('Dear Basketball')/Curtis Holder (coloured pencil portraits)/

John McNaught (graphic novels, limited colour palette)/Ralph Steadman/Egon Schiele/John Burningham/Raymond Briggs/Milt Kahl/

Sketchbook