Looking for a new home for my pictures, scribbles and stories. Can sometimes be found loitering on Twitter: twitter.com/eatmypixel
In the most difficult of times it is often hard to see the light, and standing up tall seems both physically and mentally impossible. It is in times like these where you must focus on the most important things in life to give you the strength to grit your teeth, push on past the pain, and back on track.
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=331487622507529402
Beautiful Boy
I pick up my little boy from kindergarten on our Muli Cargobike affectionatley named “Catbus.” I like the contrast between the “get there as fast as I can street riding” against the relaxed “family man, ride in the sun.”
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=325328681222276534
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=323433938657740591
Everyday I pick him up from kindergarden I have to take home at least 6 pieces of scrap paper with scribbles all over them.
My personal favourite are scribbles on tiny bits of paper that he has folded and then folded some more, then taped shut into tiny packages and placed inside a custom made paper envelope which of course he has scribbled on and then taped shut. He looks up at me with those ocean blue eyes and awaits eagerly as I am ordered to open each and every one of my “surprise presents.”
I have been given strict orders that these treasures are not thrown out, lost, stood on, or spoiled in any way. But in the same instance they are thrown on the floor, or left in a ever growing pile on his miniature desk from Ikea….Kids
Up until now these scribbles have been quite indecipherable. There was one that looked like a perfect drawing of a Butternut Squash. I proudly asked him if he meant to draw this Butternut Squash and he preceded to look at me in that “you know nothing Dad” look and corrected me:
It’s a plastic bottle filled with pee..
The other day as he handed me more of his drawings, this time on repurposed computer paper, I did a double take at a character drawn on top of green lines. Lined in red felt tip, was a square with two legs. Sitting on top of this was a semi-circular head with messy hair, big raisin eyes and an eager grin.
*Wow.. Did you draw this ??
*
Yes
*What is it? (Again he’s giving me that “you know nothing Dad” look)
*
It’s V from BTS Dad
*Lovely
*
If you don’t know BTS is one of the world’s biggest boybands, coming out of the K-Pop scene. Yep.. I didn’t know who they were either. A gift from his Mother that keeps on giving. She showed it to him on Youtube and now he is OBSESSED.
But that story is for another time.
With my son’s first ever character I couldn’t let it go to waste.
I love the work of Tom Curtis on his Instagram page Things that I have drawn. He takes his children’s drawings and creates photorealistic renderings of them in Photoshop. They are weird, they are funny and they are amazing!
I thought about coming up with something similar and questioned him about his drawing to give me more material to work with.
I love children’s imaginations. He described it in such a way that a static image could not do it justice. I decided to record him explaining what the drawing was and then make it come to life using After Effects.
My boy’s little face when he first saw his drawing moving. I wish I could have taken a photo, but I froze in the moment, wanting to take in every last second of that magical bewilderment.
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=323436346918045499
Previously in the series…
⇦ The Sketchbook Project Series: Snapshots of a Single Father Pt 1
Despite being unhappy with the way the first page turned out, I had gained some practice and a little confidence in the way to do things and was becoming and oiled illustrating machine.
I wait for the little one to fall asleep..
I made myself a tea
Sketched out the outline in pencil.
Grabbed another tea
Re-outlined the sketch and added detail with fine liner.
Another tea?.. sure why not
Rubbed out the remaining pencil.
Fancy a tea?... Of course
Colored in the illustration in with watercolor
Finished!.. Let’s celebrate with a tea then type up the accompanying text on the Olivetti.
Being locked up alone with a four year old for almost two months is enough to drive anyone crazy. Add a lack of sleep, general anxiety and paranoia about the corona virus and everything became a tax on my mind, even my name, well my name in regards to my son, “Daddy”
I remember as a baby when he first began to make coherent noises, I yearned for the day that he called me Daddy. I encouraged it daily. I must have said it a thousand times.
“Come to Daddy!”… “Daddy’s here”… “Watch Daddy do it!”
Now it has come back with a VENGEANCE
“DADDY.. DADDY.. DADDYYYYYY”
Sometimes he shouts it when I am standing right next to him, in the middle of a conversation, with HIM. I just give him that confused look of, I’m standing right next you, you don’t need to shout my name.
It can be quite overwhelming…
But then I think of the future, when I’m trembling old, banished to some old people’s home, barely able to see or hear. I will shout out his name.. again and again and have my vengeance.
..and such is the circle of life
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=323031144603846645
⇦ The Little Yellow Envelope – Introduction
⇦ The Sketchbook Project Series: Snapshots of a Single Father Pt 1
Following the little backstory of a boy and his camera please find the first batch of photos taken by my little monkey for Wordless Wednesday
⇦ Camera Obscura: Through the eyes of a child
How I Make my Morning Coffee
Presence of Mind
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=316676051700811738
When I take my first steps into the forest
All I can hear is the chatter of my mind.
I worry about the things going on with my
life. I worry about my past, I worry about
my future.
As each new step falls the chatter begins
to quieten. The worries and fears are soon
replaced by the appreciation of the birds
singing overhead, the sun rays warming my face
and the sounds of trickling water finding its
way into a nearby drain.
The rhythmic pulse of my footsteps on gravel
soon take center stage and the sounds of
nature around me fade into nothingness.
Eventually the sound of my footsteps
fades to black and all I’m left with
is my presence of mind
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=315488241836885203
Article Voiceover
I live in an apartment in the North West of Vienna in an “Altbau” which means old building. They are sought after because they usually come with vintage doors, parquet flooring and 3 meter high ceilings. Along with the charm and the history of an Altbau, you also get parts of the building which have not seen the light of day in decades.
I kind of live on the top floor of the building, I say kind of because there is an “Attic” in the loosest sense of the word above me. In the next twenty years or so I have no doubt they will one day turn this into a penthouse flat (hopefully I won’t be living under it when the construction works begin) but for now, it is desolate, dusty and horrible.
I need to mention that for some reason my flat came with a key to this attic. A huge prison like metal door painted white like the surrounding walls to camouflage its existence. I am not sure if I am allowed up there but I eagerly snuck in when I first moved in to take a peek.
There must be over 200m2 up there. There is a huge vintage (possibly WWII era Austrian flag) forgotten and stowed away in the rafters. There is access to the chimneys that the state come to inspect twice yearly, and there are what look like the remnants of washing lines: Perhaps back in the day this was a communal clothes drying area?
My first thoughts leaned towards building a secret man cave and expanding my meagre 75m2 below. Perhaps it could be my personal penthouse home gym? While I explored the lifeless expanse I started to cough, my lungs filled with dust. The noise of a gravelly scraping under the soles of my trainers revealed bird poo and pigeon feathers everywhere. Eurgh. I hurried out of there certain I had picked up some kind of lung disease never to return “upstairs” until yesterday.
Looking diagonally up out of my kitchen window I can see one of the windows from the attic, semi-boarded up, the darkness somehow inviting my return. With the knowledge that pigeons have most likely made a home up there, I would daydream whilst waiting for the kettle to boil or for my tea to brew, gazing up at that window. “When have I ever seen a baby Pigeon?” “Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?” Pigeons are EVERYWHERE and yet I have never seen a pigeon nest let alone a pigeon chick (a quick google reveals the word that I am looking for is “Squab” which somehow sounds like a racist insult)
On this occasion yesterday I sipped my tea whilst absentmindedly attic window watching through my rain stained window, but this time I saw something moving. A little wing ! I grabbed my phone to record the historic moment of seeing my first “Squab.” I zoomed in on the display of my phone trying to see in better detail what my eyes couldn’t, trying to make out what kind of bird it was.
The novelty of baby pigeon bird watching slowly began to wear off as the bird began hitting itself up against the window in what seemed like a desperate attempt to get through the window and out of the attic.
“Does it look in trouble?” I muttered to myself as it proceeded to frantically beat its wings against the window “…oh God.. hold on..”
I grabbed my keys, and made my way towards the metal door to the attic…
**To be continued.
**
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=315490078631658717
https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=313273710427505702
For coil subscribers I have narrated this article so you can grab a cup of coffee and listen to this without having to read. Or you can press play and read through the article and pretend I am narrating this in your head like in the movies :P
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Inspired by the Wordless Wednesday postings from the coil community I decided to upload pictures that my 4 year old has taken with his toy camera, but first a little context…
With the advancement of technology, most of us carry in our pockets everyday a device that only a few years ago, the specifications would have considered it to be a high end camera. The saying goes the best camera is the one you always have with you, and goodness me are we taking lots of pictures.
Living in the picturesque Vienna it’s not long after leaving your front door that you are stumbling over people taking pictures. Walking through Vienna’s iconic Naschmarkt is akin to a selfie stick gauntlet like something out of the TV Show Gladiators
https://media.giphy.com/media/3oeHLocZtM5phVT3z2/giphy.gif
With imitation being a major factor in the growth of our children, it is now an almost a development stage in itself when your child asks you if they can take a picture. God help us.
Rather than lead him down the path of generic portraits in front of landmarks, photos that have been taken a thousand times before.. or perish the thought half naked selfies, I decided to steer his interest in photography into a learning opportunity.
I bought a cheap children’s digital camera from Tyhbelle on Amazon
Something fun for him that he can carry around his neck when we go on photo missions or if we go for a ride on our bicycle. I have taught him how to turn it on and how to take a picture. I feel if I show him the extra features, or how to review his pictures this will distract him from the main goal: to take a picture. (Although he has since discovered that there is a rear facing selfie camera, leaving a series of grotesque face impressions)
Our first lesson or theme derived from something I learnt at University:
“punctum; for punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little hole – and also a cast of the dice. A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me” Roland Barthes – Camera Lucida
I have tried to put across to him that he should try and capture something that really interests him, something that jumps out at him, stings him.. also with a little help if I spot something that I think would achieve this I give him a little nudge, “Wouldn’t that be a really cool photograph?.”
In the beginning he went around taking pictures of his drawings, his toys, me, his favourite characters when they came on the screen, oh and his feet (so many pictures of his feet) but as he was left to his own devices he started to really capture things from his perspective, how he sees the world.
Looking through his photos I started to realise he had two factors which gives him a little edge in some of his photos.
He hasn’t learnt that taking pictures in certain situations is socially frowned upon, and if I find him in a situation where he is about to take a picture he shouldn’t, I gently stop him and tell him why, BUT, with this lack of fear there is no hesitation, and especially in regards to street photography it’s actually a real plus.
I also find that people are a lot more forgiving when a child is taking a picture of them. Either they think the camera is not real, or there are less fears of something bad becoming of that photo and they usually smile.
I remember listening to a Ted Talk from David Yarrow talking about his Nature Photography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKPEy7U2sGE
He talks about trying to keep the line of eyesight lower than the subject which helps capture character, creates intimacy, elicits interest and immersion.
Being 4 years old he naturally has a lower line of eyesight. Some of his pictures are taken from a vantage point looking upwards, where unless you were crouching down all the time you wouldn’t necessarily see quite often.
Anyway… context out of the way please find a few photos taken by the little maestro. I hope to post more of these (without words) every Wednesday.
⇨ Wordless Wednesday: Photos taken by a four year old #1
