Statues, Poems and Tragedy: Inspiration from the Uninspired

My plan for this weekly art was a simple practice, I had plenty of things going on and I really did not want to obsess for days. I saw plenty of great references yet could not find inspiration to even try. So I spoke to myself and asked, 'What do you really want?' and I was not very sure, but I felt I really wanted to create something mine, original, authentic.

Like, if I die tomorrow, I'll be proud of what I plan to create today? Hard to tell, too much pressure will kill the work. So I just thought that telling a very simple and relatable story would be good enough, at least for a start. I remembered a few days ago I really wanted to make something related to a statue, perhaps a tragic story or something along those lines.

Every time I'm looking for inspiration on how to be an authentic artist, I look at the work of great legends like Hayao Miyazaki. I remember he created a poem called To My Sister, a very short story made of frames, beautiful. I've never seen something like that. The first time I saw this poem, it hit me so hard that I was literally crying. I don't know why, but it was very powerful, so I decided to go along those lines, create a poem and maybe make three or four frames, with the little time I had.

I thought it would be great to make it about the struggle I was having, but represented by a statue, like a child building its father to help him overcome something, or an old man building his younger version, perhaps to remember something he forgot a long time ago.

Eventually, the idea of making one single frame for presenting different parts of the poem was what really nailed this idea. I was so inspired that I did not even care about spending days on this, just to get that narrative or story perfectly told. I wish I could be that inspired frequently. I guess some days I'm very lucky to find such a strong connection to my duty. I feel grateful for those days and I hope to see more of them soon.

About the technical approach, I wanted to make it like a comic with panels, but I felt the 'animation' style would be more interesting, so I did a weird mix between both, adding a few extra layers of filters to get that nostalgic vibe old productions have. Anyways, I have to go now. We are making hallacas with the family today. What a great time to be alive. Check the process video and let me know your comments! Thank you for your support.