Interview With Elizabeth Luce, Part 9
Elizabeth Luce is a graphic artist, illustrator and puppet designer. She has a Master of Fine Arts in costume and set design from UCLA and has worked on a variety of film, television and theatre productions. Elizabeth designed puppets for a Children's Fairyland production of The Wizard of Oz and Snapdragon Puppets' Emmy-winning video The Mousecracker. I asked her to share her thoughts on puppet design.
PJ: What suggestions would you give young artists interested in designing characters and puppets?
EL: Preston Blair's animation book is a brilliant starter guide to stylization, movement, the sculptural shapes that are the basis of a figure and more. For puppets -- both designing and building -- studying the work of 2D animators is really useful, particularly the older styles, like Disney. The Simpsons is a witty show, but the drawings aren't as dimensional -- the figures don't have as strong a sculptural basis.
Collect books with ideas and inspirational material, see movies and plays, check out other people's art, be alive visually. Take life drawing -- it's unbelievably good training for all types of illustration.
Associate with other artists of all kinds. Be excited about art and creation all around you. It's easy to do.
Always push yourself to be better, but be pleased with what you create, whatever level you are at. Every vision is unique, and when effort is put into a project, it almost always is of great interest to others.
Learn from the work of others, even mimic a style to get that into your designing and building vocabulary, but then move on and look to create your own unique vision. No more split heads!
PJ: What suggestions would you give young artists interested in designing characters and puppets?
EL: Preston Blair's animation book is a brilliant starter guide to stylization, movement, the sculptural shapes that are the basis of a figure and more. For puppets -- both designing and building -- studying the work of 2D animators is really useful, particularly the older styles, like Disney. The Simpsons is a witty show, but the drawings aren't as dimensional -- the figures don't have as strong a sculptural basis.
Collect books with ideas and inspirational material, see movies and plays, check out other people's art, be alive visually. Take life drawing -- it's unbelievably good training for all types of illustration.
Associate with other artists of all kinds. Be excited about art and creation all around you. It's easy to do.
Always push yourself to be better, but be pleased with what you create, whatever level you are at. Every vision is unique, and when effort is put into a project, it almost always is of great interest to others.
Learn from the work of others, even mimic a style to get that into your designing and building vocabulary, but then move on and look to create your own unique vision. No more split heads!
Labels: Elizabeth Luce, interview
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home