Now Enter The Professor
“Welcome to the Starkers Academy!”
Starkers Academy XIII, Vee’s voiceover, painting The Professor, and a dynamic figure painting workshop all made January a busy month for the Nude Triumphant team.
Kicking off the New Year, Jo Calderwood brought the Professor to life. After many months of character development, she took to the stage in all her glory, wit and charm on 7 January for Starkers Academy XIII at the Arcola Theatre Bar. The Professor entertained with her humour and artistry - who else can draw as adeptly with her toes as they can upside down?! Jo, through the Professor, explored a fresh comic rhythm, catapulting the character from concept to reality. The energy was palpable. A huge thanks to our amazing videographer, Angelika Winnett, for capturing the spirit of the night on film.
The Starkers Academy has been, and always will be, the place where first-time life models come to shine and be celebrated by drawers of all abilities. It is the platform whereby Nude Triumphant’s central character, Jay, discovers himself; the place where Time herself (The Professor), holds court and inspires. In January, we welcomed Zuzanna to the stage, an exceptional natural life model who became an artists’ subject for the first time. And like the Professor, her performance inspired.
In the audience, was Aaron Jacob Jones, the painter and animator who’ll be bringing the Professor to life in Nude Triumphant. As well as painting her in action on the night, Aaron and Jo came together later in the month for a day’s intensive painting session at Minerva Workshop to capture every aspect of the Professor, from gestures and expressions to blinking eyes and mouth shapes for lip synch... the quirks that make her tick (tock). The video below captures some of that process with an initial music concept by Andrew Hayes, which will be developed into a score for the animation.
And while the Professor has been taking shape, Haemin Ko has been pulling together Jay’s character, creating the watercolour test shots and production images that will animate him throughout the film. We also met with Valentina Rock, the inspiration for and voice of the character of Vee. Valentina and Leo rehearsed and recorded her voiceover and captured Vee’s first pose in watercolour. Matthew Oghene also paid us a visit to discuss his character Mat and the Starkers Academy Ball performance on 17 May.
Some of the content for the film will come from the public, a celebration of the collaborative ethos of this project. Paintings will be drawn from a series of events over the life of the production period. On 26 January, we hosted a free public workshop at GreatArt, Dynamic Figure Painting, in which watercolour works were created of Roy, Nude Triumphant’s Jay, in quick dynamic poses. We now add many of these to the image store, and set to work planning further workshops to engage more with the talented public.
