“The eyes are the mirror of the soul”
~Yiddish Proverb

This post could have just as easily been titled, The Eyes Have It. For Jason Walker, the eye has been a large part of his artistic endeavors for many years, both in his painting, in which his images are incredibly life-like, and in the stop-motion animation film, Madame Tutli Putli, which we will discuss later.

Jason Walker was kind enough to answer some interview questions. Interspersed throughout will be images of his art and later images from Madame Tutli Putli. Let’s get to it.

(Rose)

But first, a little background information. Jason Walker started drawing at the ripe old age of 4 in his hometown of Nairn, Scotland. His continued artistic endeavors were encouraged by his mother and a childhood of dedication eventually led to his graduating with highest honors from Aberdeen College.

In 1990 Jason Walker moved to Canada and became a professional portrait painter. In 1998 he won an American Society of Portrait Artist’s Award and he had the honor of painting the portrait of Wayne Gretzky for his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In addition to painting, Jason Walker is an animator, a designer, and a digital compositor. He has won three North American Broadcast Design Awards for his work for national television.

And now, for my inaugural Friday Favorites interview: Jason Walker.

(Wayne Gretzky. Click for larger image)

First let’s talk about your painting:
1. When did you first know that you wanted to be a painter?

There really isn’t a starting point. Not that I can remember. I never made a conscious decision to be a painter, it was just the way it was. I would draw as a child, and was offered my first portrait commission at age 6, from the teacher I had at age 5, so I’ve always enjoyed drawing and my Mother encouraged me by enrolling me in night classes after school.. I may have used paint for the first time when I was about 10 years old. Oil paint at 20.

(James Clarke. Click image for more detail.)

2. Who are your artistic influences?

When I was younger I would enjoy the work of Lucien Freud, Scottish painters, and some of the old masters.

Eventually I decided that most of it was a distraction from what I wanted to do. I don’t really follow what anyone else is doing. It’s a journey of my own.

(Stewart. Click image for more detail.)

3. Who, or what, inspires you outside of the fine art world?

I am very interested in the Sciences. Alternative energy particularly. Scientists such as John Hutchison in BC, Steorn, Antoine Priore, and Tesla. The accepted Theory of Physics is incomplete and needs to be updated.

4. Your work looks very layered and textured in close ups, how long does it take you from start to finish for an average painting? Do you sketch out an idea first or go straight to painting?

No rules really. Whatever works. Sometimes I’ll draw it out, sometimes not. A small piece may take several days. A large piece, a few months. I usually work on about 10 pieces at any one time.

5. I saw mention of the great Wayne Gretsky on your site. What other celebrities have you done portraits of/for?

I’ve painted quite a few people related to sports such as Cal Ripken Jr., Michael Jordan, and Mario Lemieux.

6. What kind of commissions do you get asked to paint and what types of paintings do you enjoy the most?

I quite often work as a commissioned portrait painter for families,doctors, lawyers etc., and also sell my personal work through my gallery (Galerie De Belleffieulle) in Montreal.

I enjoy painting anything that has some soul……..to me!

6b. Are there things you paint for yourself vs. paintings that are your job?

Always.

7. One goal in creating art is, obviously, just to create art. Are there other goals that you have with your painting? Anything you are striving to achieve and/or any venues you want your art to branch out into?

No, I don’t really have any other goals with my painting other than just to learn and grow with it. It’s always been there. There are ways of making money with it, which is fine, but the heart of it is a private journey.

8. Besides painting, are there any other mediums that you work in? Any that you want to or hope to work in someday?

I’ve used most painting materials. Whatever is needed. I would like to try more sculpture.

I’ve always dabbled in computer software for animation work, which is how I came up with the eye technique for Madame Tutli-Putli. With today’s software you can try anything, even sculpture. I’d like to try many new techniques.

(You may click on all the following Madame Tutli-Putli images for larger versions)

Allow me to break in here and talk briefly about the amazing-looking short stop-motion film, Madame Tutli-Putli. From the website description:

Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past.

She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers. As day descends into dark, she finds herself caught up in a desperate metaphysical adventure. Adrift between real and imagined worlds, Madame Tutli-Putli confronts her demons and is drawn into an undertow of mystery and suspense.

The National Film Board of Canada presents a stunning, stop-motion animated film that takes the viewer on an exhilarating existential journey. The film introduces groundbreaking visual techniques and is supported by a haunting and original score. Painstaking care and craftsmanship in form and detail bring to life a fully imagined, tactile world unlike any you have seen.

Jungian thriller? Hitchcockian suspense? Artistic tour de force? The night train awaits you.

Madame Tutli-Putli is the the work of a talented team of film makers including Clyde Henry Productions and photographer/artist Laurie Maher and, of course, Jason Walker.

Jason’s input into this process is what makes this stop-motion animation film unique: the process of adding human eyes to stop-motion puppets. Let’s continue the interview:

9. I am a huge fan of stop-motion animation. Can you talk to me a little about Madame Tutli-Putli? What was your involvement in it (its all about the eyes, if I’m reading correctly)?

Yes, I created the eyes for the film.

There are many other little things that I did in the film (as we all did, we only had four people), but for the most part my contribution was giving all the characters human eyes. We didn’t have any staff.

I composited the eyes of six characters, also using Chris and Macieks eyes for the Chess Players in the movie. I would take the original stop-motion puppet footage which had no eyes, only small black dots for tracking later. I would break the puppets movements down into individual steps, and then create a timeline showing the moves, lights and shadow passes, as colours on a bar. I called this a ‘Wunderbar’, and one was created for every scene.

After applying make-up to their eyes I would then rehearse these moves with the actors in question, mostly Laurie Maher who played Tutli. After the moves were close (they can never be perfect) I would finalize how the lights would be positioned to match the puppet scene.

The filming of the eyes would involve all of us (Chris, Maciek, myself, and sometimes our wonderful compositer Peter George would lend a hand) to make sure that shadows and flashes happened in the correct order, using the same lights and gels that were used to film the puppets months earlier. Chris and Maciek would then direct Laurie’s acting while I would monitor to keep the head movements in position and coordinate the lighting and timing.

Laurie Maher was quite remarkable at learning her moves and acting at the same time.

We would take about 15 to 20 takes, with a range of acting performances that Chris and Maciek could choose from for context. Next I would bring the chosen take into Adobe After Effects and see if the angles were workable, if not we would choose another take. Once I had the take, I would then start the long process of making them fit the puppet footage in every way! First problem is the timing. For a puppet take that lasts 90 frames, I would have an eye take that may last 500 frames, so the process would involve taking only selected frames, and re-biuld the acting in the eyes much like traditional animation. A bit like picking only diamonds from a deck of shuffled cards. Assuring that a blink still plays like a blink, and the quality of the acting is retained.

The eyes were positioned individually for every frame. There is no software in the world that can iron out the subtlety of the movements that human eyes make. It has to be animated by hand. Pieces (patches) were painted in Photoshop and animated to the facial structure of the puppet, which fade in and out over frames.
Light flashes and shadow passes were re-timed to match the chaotic lighting in the interior of Tutli’s train. The eye composits would take between 2 to 10 days per scene to achieve a seemless join.

10. When did you come in on the process?

Actually we (myself and The Clyde Henry’s) have worked on Projects for quite a few years prior to Tutli. I have done most of the post production for Clyde Henry Productions for the last 6 years or more. We have done animations for the Space channel, Mystery channel, and Bell Canada. Most can be viewed on The Clyde Henry website.

Before Tutli we had created an animation which required tracking a human mouth, singing, to a box of popcorn. We used Maciek’s mouth moving only two positions from A to B, and back again. Quite simple, and it worked very well.

In early 2003 the three of us got together to try and find something that could be used to give Tutli-Putli a ‘new look’. Something that was new to Stop-motion. We had the tracked mouth idea fresh in our heads and so automatically wondered if adding eyes to a puppet may be possible. We all knew it had never been done seemlessly before. If the effect is seemless then it’s a thousand times more effective. Almost unnerving. I’d had a thought after compositing the mouth that re-timing would be a major solution to this effect, so I suggested we film Laurie Maher moving like the puppet, and try a test.

The test took me about 2 or three months to come up with a system that would be solid, and could be used for multiple moves, under a wide range of conditions. After the test was presented, we knew we had a way of presenting Tutli in a much more human way than we had seen before. The technique evolved rapidly over the following four years to resolve about every obstacle that came my way. The secret to this eye technique is that there is no secret. It’s simply about working at something again, and again, and again, and not stopping until it looks right. For a human eye effect, you cannot drop the ball for a single frame or the effect is lost.

11. Is this your first foray into film-making?

I also work as an animator of motion graphics, but no, my film experience is mostly connected with Madame Tutli-Putli.

12. Are you currently working on any other films?

No, I’ve decided to concentrate on painting for a while. Four years of positioning eyes by the pixel on a frame for frame basis is enough for a bit. I do have some plans for the future however.

13. When can we hope to see Madame Tulti-Putli? It looks like it is touring the film circuits now, will it be released on DVD for those of us who are itching to see it?

The National Film Board of Canada will ultimately decide where Tutli is seen, but now that she has done so well at Cannes, it’s safe to expect that she will travel around the world in the next year. I would be very surprised if Tutli didn’t come out on DVD before too long. The National Film Board of Canada often post their films free on their site after it has played in festivals. It is a wonderful service.

14. Where do you hope your art takes you in the next 5 years?

I would like to try some new effects. I have some new tricks that I’d love to put to use, but I’m happy painting so they can evolve for a bit until a use is found.

In painting, I would like to work on a large portrait (my largest yet at 9′ x 5′) of two people in my Hometown of Nairn, Scotalnd, and donate it to the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.

15. How much of what you do was learned vs. innate natural talent?

Everyting I do is self taught. From Painting to animation to computer software. I have a strong belief that your creative abilities, whatever they are, can be found within.

A lot of training can also be damaging.

I really appreciate you taking the time. Are there websites besides yours that feature your work?

Only the Galerie de Bellefiuelle website.

As you can see, and read, for yourselves, Jason Walker is an amazingly talented individual in mutliple artistic arenas. His painted work is so detailed, so real, and so lifelike that I am in complete awe looking at it. And yet it is not a simple static copy of actual life. There is an amazing depth and texture to his work both in technique and in the emotions each piece evokes. Go back and check out the detailed close-ups, especially of the very first image of eyes that started this post. They layers of paint and the texture excites me and makes me wish I could see more artist’s work in person.

I also appreciate his sense of fun. The painting of the cowboy and indian toys and the balding man are two examples and there are more on Jason’s site.

His work on Madame Tutli-Putli epitomizes the type of dedication that makers of stop-motion films have. As many of you know, stop-motion films are among my favorites. A large part of that is the commitment to make those kind of films and the level of detail and texture that results from creating sets, costumes, props, etc. for puppets and filming them in a three dimensional environment. I love it and I love seeing how they are made.

This is the first time I have interviewed an artist that I have featured on Friday Favorites and it has been a fantastic experience. I am so thankful to you, Jason Walker, for allowing us this access into you and your work. I am very grateful.

For incredible pictures of the process used to add real eyes to stop-motion animation, I highly encourage you to check out this page on Jason’s site.

Also, head over to the Madame Tutli-Putli website and check out the trailer for the film. I am excited that this may be offered online free sometime in the future and am even more hopeful that an extras-laden DVD will be available in the future.

Thanks again, Jason! And Happy Friday everyone.

UPDATE: I am excited to announce that Jason Walker just emailed me that he will be adding film clips to his site and he has sent me one to show here. It may take a bit to download, so please be patient. It isn’t very long, but it is freaky cool!!!

UPDATE, THE SECOND: Jason sent two more small clips, here and here.