Creative Chronicles…an unorthodox name for a vlog.
I love imagining stories in my music and like all things creative, sometimes we need to step outside of our comfort zones. Performing, yes, that’s frightening, but for people like me who feel they were born in a different era, before the age of social media and the internet, speaking and posting videos is even more terrifying!
However, instead of avoiding it, I thought I’d use the opportunity to share what goes into creating these magical tales. I'm creating a four week YouTube series, setting myself some intentions, and along the way I’ll be searching for everyday magic. Although this is a video log, I won’t be calling it a vlog. The individualist in me is rebelling against that term. Instead, I’ll be calling it… Creative Chronicles. Pleasingly alliterative, and it reminds me of Narnia.
Creative Chronicle number 1 - Illustrations.
The penultimate week of 2024. I’ve always loved the word penultimate. The second to last, or in musical terms, the chord that signals we’re about to arrive at the end. That satisfying tonic that arrives after a musical adventure, that could have taken us anywhere. Almost every piece of music finishes on the tonic chord, even the more complex and meandering ones. And what better time to find harmony than at Christmas?
My jobs this week are to finish photographing, videoing and setting up some new printable items on my website shop. I had hoped to get this done in time for Christmas, but I didn’t quite get there. Nevermind, I’m now super organised for next year. This took a while, but I had a lovely time listening to Italian music inspired by the Riviera. In this week’s video, I’m taking you behind the scenes into my process for creating the illustrations for the books, some Christmassy gift ideas and the animated videos for Pierrette’s adventure.
I also have some orders to pack and deliver. Seeing these books arrive for the first time is super exciting. I discovered the covers didn’t quite line up on the jacket, so I contacted everyone and they all were happy to receive the slightly out of line first edition jackets…Unique items that will never be found ever again! That’s kind of magical when you think about it. If everything was perfect, these oddly positioned jackets wouldn’t have a chance to stand out. Nevertheless, I am going to chat to a local printer to see if I can have another go at lining them up properly. I’m also curious to know if that’s an option in the future as I order these books from the mainland, and some are shipped from England.
I’m so glad Christmas coincided with the arrival of these packages. The timing is perfect for the little Christmas gift tags I made, and I found lots of magic on my way to do local deliveries. Roses. How beautiful are they in full bloom? I also love the transformation as they crisp and crumble into potpouree, and those fine lines appear in the petals like thumbprints. A sunshower of rain, sprinkling down in sparkling streamers, and patterns of dark emerald sea-weed in azure oceans.
Oh, I mustn't forget the sea-gull who can imitate humans. If you listen carefully—with a hint of imagination—you will hear what I mean.
We had a Christmas party—a great occasion for jingly earrings and I enjoyed all kinds of Christmassy things. Decorating with candels and baking is quite magical don’t you think? How can something crumbly and doughy hold its shape?
If you’re on the look out for magic, you can’t really ignore it at Christmastime.
I have some videos for Pierrette’s adventure that still need filming. This last one for the Paganini theme reprised I need to draw, edit and animate. One of the questions I often get asked is which program I use to draw? I use Adobe Fresco as it’s free on my ipad, and now that I use so many other other programs like Indesign and photoshop, they all integrate. You can see a little of how I move things around in this week's video. There's a flying cow and a jumping camel, a flying water sprite and Paganini waving his bow on the Eifell Tower...to name a few. I’m not an illustrator as you can probably tell, but it’s much easier for me to do all the illustrations and things for Violetta myself. That way when I get inspired to create animated musical videos I can! I kind of like that they aren’t perfect and quite 2D. With all the AI things popping up, it’s pretty obvious that they’ve been made by a human.
My little bookshelf is also a lot tidier. However, I discovered an escapee from the Castle of Creativity. Funnily it had been wriggling itself loose all year, but now it's gone completely. I like to think it's now sunning itself on a beach in Italy. I posted some Christmassy craft blogs, hung up my couple of prints and I'm getting set for the music week this week. The final Pierrette animated video is almost done. I decided I want to change the music, so that has effected the final product, but we'll get there.
Whoah! That’s quite a bit for one week. When I looked back on my year this year, I realised I’d done so much that I hadn’t really celebrated. Therefore, another component of the creative chronicles is celebrating. It's Sunday as I write this, and I'm committing to posting something on YouTube every week this year. I know...but even this first post is an enormous achievement for this introvert with tutle tendencies.
What better way is there to celebrate than with Christmassy biscuits? Yum!
Comentarios