Merrrrry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 2016 from Carla Veldman on Vimeo.

cafe drawings

chickens!

Life Drawing @ the Ben Navee Gallery
& a life drawer

 

gestures

A Hallowe'en-themed costuming session á la Butts & Conté. The werewolf connection was a bit dubious but I thought the socks were a nice touch.

Life drawing @The Gladstone

ones, fives, ten

I've been getting back into more regular life drawing again lately. Hadn't realized just how much I missed and enjoy it. Above are a few from a session at the Ben Navee gallery.

story sketches

summer fields

It's almost the end of fly season here.
#endisnigh

Vancouver

I've recently returned from a little west coast trip. Starting in Vancouver and working my way down through Seattle, Portland, L.A. and San Jose, I visited family and friends along the coast. It was very good. Reconnected with old friends, made new ones, saw God behind-the-scenes in L.A., got a chance to marvel at His wonderful creation. Mountains and ocean and beauty amidst brokenness.

Uncle Antlers festival updates!

Some happy festival updates:

Very pleased to announce that Uncle Antlers will be screening at the International Children's film festival Filem'On in Brussels October 30 - November 6, the Festival Internazionale del Cinema d'Arte in Italy October 5 - 8, the Fimucinema Festival Internacional de Música de Cine de Tenerife (Fimucité) festival in Spain September 23 - October 1 (this festival has its focus on the music scores of films - Sarah Davignon & Andrew Patten of The Most Loyal did an amazing job on the music for Uncle Antlers and I am thrilled that the festival will put an emphasis on their lovely work), as well as the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, October 28 - November 6.

Uncle Antlers also screened at the Facade Video Festival in Russia this past week, the Autumn Shorts Film Festival in Kentucky for which it received the nomination of Best In Show, and the Trenton International Film Festival back in June.

featuring The Wigglies!!

Toronto Sidewalk Offerings

It also had the number of a local rug cleaner.

(fun with markers!)

currants

Wedding Illustration

I had the privilege of witnessing one of my cousins get married at the end of April and did some wedding illustrations as a gift (beats giving gift cards any day). 

The roster includes (as follows): the married couple, both sets of parents, the bride's brother, her father's mother/my Oma, her birth mother's and mother's mothers, the bride and her birth mother (an earlier sketch from the bridal shower), and the wedding party's post-ceremony smoking pit (which elicited an "Oh, that's a big part of it!" comment from the groom). 

Uncle Antlers: character development and preliminary boarding

At some point in the early portion of the character and story development stage of Uncle Antlers, I played around with the idea of switching out one of the characters - the boy - with a separate character I had kicking around at the time, a girl. Myrtle. I had previously done a graduate film centering around a boy and his grandmother, and wanted to try something different this time, switch up the dynamics a bit. Myrtle also had a more distinct character and style that I thought would make an interesting contrast with the melancholy and sombre Uncle A. I think it worked quite beautifully.

 

early boarding, pre-Myrtle

the magnificent Myrtle

the two, together

 

an early concept that made it into one of the final scenes

I storyboarded the film several times, over the course of two or so years - picking it up and working on it, putting it down and letting it percolate, returning to it, reworking it and repeat. Within that time frame I also ran it by a few trusted people with fresh eyes for feedback, implemented suggestions,  and continued shaping it). By the end of 2013 the story was at a point of being finished; I worked towards the deadline of film grant applications. I must mention that I am very thankful to live in a country that has a number of grant programs available for artists to create their own projects outside of the commercial sphere.

A sample of the boards I compiled for grants:

'Uncle Antlers' at Photophobia!

Hey folks! Uncle Antlers will be screening at this year's Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival in Hamilton, June 4th and 23rd, in partnership with the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Hamilton Artists Inc. I'll be in attendance at the first screening - you can check out more info on their facebook page here.

Uncle Antlers: origins & early sketches

Sometime shortly after graduating in 2010, this mental image popped in my head. I sketched it out. 

Two characters, walking in the rain; one being a child and the other an odd deer-head creature holding an umbrella.

 

From there came exploratory drawings; 

who the characters were, and what their relation to each other was.

How did they meet?

 

How did they interact? 

What were their personalities like?