BACK to SCHOOL

PERSPECTIVE

I've gotten away from presenting some of the teaching aids i use at school. At the moment , i am teaching in three places: Sheridan, teaching the Second year there in layout and design, as well as mentoring some of the Fourth year grad students, an online course in 2D layout for the Academy of Art University in San Fran and a short 7 week course in Drawing at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.

At all of these, I am constantly doing demos of various things, perspective, light and shadow , structural drawing, composition.

here's a few images from some of the recent classes:

TWO WORDS:

BLACK NARCISSUS

Still basking in the afterglow of the technicolor hues of this masterpiece film, just shown by Maury White, as the final film in the Friday night screenings at Sheridan.

Great one to go out on. I beat the drum during the week for this, exhorting all the students to come see the is: definitely one on the bucket list, one of the films to see before you die.

Directed by the Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, designed by Alfred Jung, shot by Jack Cardiff. One of the high point of English cinema.

Moments: David Farrar, all hairy legs and roguish charm, "You're sure there's nothing else you wanted to talk to me about?" ...the young native boy, speaking the names of the objects on the blackboard to the children in the classroom, while sister Ruth looks jealously at the Farrar and Deborah Kerr through the pierced screen of the window in the convent-cum-seraglio; the boy knows something is up but doesn't let on...Kerr, keeping vigil for the missing Ruth, framed by the archway in the rising light of dawn on the far mountains...the various shots of the convent situated high up on a precipice, with the buildings silhouetted against the mountains beyond, miracles of the studio process....too many to list!

Thanks to all those who came out! Hoped to have a few more fourth years, to try and put some finishing touches on their education before they leave, but film projects and the deadline for this week's screening were too much, I guess.

What can you do; I only hope they see it at some point in the future and think as well of it as I do.

The film has been raved about many places before now, so I will not go on at length, except to say, the Blu ray version was absolutely sumptuous. Some scenes were beyond breathtaking, they were complex yet subtle: the colours were extremely complex, esp. those of the the nuns in the first sequence. They looked like paintings of the time:

It was shown earlier in mid march at the TIFF lightbox, as part of a week long program to commemorate Cardiff.

Always one of my absolute favourites, for its visuals, but also its story of cultures clashing, of love of many kinds, of the themes of temptation and inner unresolved conflict.