Looking at swans ( as I will have a swan within my film)..I decided I wanted to have a drawn image. ...I have been working on swan sketches ...tried pencil...charcoal..pastel...and liked the pastel image best...I tried a variety of techniques and material but pastel seems to be the consistant material of choice for me. Going back to Kentridge and Dudock DeWit ...looking at their film work...and reading about their rationale and process..I am now sure this is the right choice. Even with figure sketches now I prefer the feel and look of pastel and have sourced some lovely pastel pencils which will also give me finer line and still allow for the charcoal technique ...rubbing out and drawing the next 'frame'.....at points if I decide to do this.
I also feel happy with the light brown paper as a backdrop...not quite sepia but in the same tone range...this would help me to find some constant of colour theme I think.This is my version of the swan 'taking off 'which I am happy with at this stage. Crucially for me I think I have captured the movement within the drawing.
I have been looking at developing a transformation from dancer to swan towards the end of my film.I worked with Zoe on some ideas. ... here are a few stills from the work we have done . I feel some look like a swan already
I am looking for movements which have a bird like quality.....that moment of take off...and how fabric..might suggest wings and feathers.
Zoe has an amazing stature...we discussed the swan idea when I first met her and it is the idea which she felt she could most identify with. She is amazingly tall and elegant...but I have also an image of her in my mind as a real tomboy when she was young...must ask her about it!!!!!!
Zoe also has a wonderful face...and I realised when we last met that she is my face in the sky....McLaren's La Haut Sur Ces Montagnes has an angelic face in the sky above the hills....Zoe is that face!!!!! It is hard to explain , but Zoe has a really classical face ..and I see the face in McLaren's sky has having that same quality...so when I saw her dance i immediately thought of Mclaren's film. I have recently seen a little written note to this image about a skier returning from a day on the slopes to a place near Quebec where French traditional songs have been kept alive.. so the likeness to a traditional face does not surprise me.
Really feather -like texture in her skirt here...very similar to some of the images I have of swans wings!! 
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