Editing ROUND ROBIN 3

By Liz Thiers

ROUND ROBIN 3 represented a departure from ROUND ROBIN and ROUND ROBIN 2 since Dani, Jenn, and Katy were no longer working with stand-alone words, but sentences.  The trick was to create a narrative out of fifteen sentences composed by three alternating authors.  When I came into the process, Dani, Katy, and Jenn had created several different story lines.  Each story line started with one artist writing a sentence out of the blue, then all three took turns adding sentences, wildly exploring the possibilities of the new world...  The results were visually stimulating but not always compact nor consistent: most of the story lines didn't feature a strong arc or ending.

The first step was to decide which story to purse...  The thread about sheep walking tightropes was too exciting to pass up!  However this thread was not completed yet: I watched as Dani, Jenn, and Katy sat around Katy's kitchen table and finished the game.  Katy tried to guess where Dani was headed based on her sentence, but ultimately added her own sentence that contributed something unique and exciting to the story.  Jenn repeated the process, trying to guess Katy's intentions.  We ended up with three very different sheep, each of the artists weaving one of their tales after the sisters fell off their tightrope.

Though Dani brought Fuzzy to life on paper, she ended up illustrating Woolala's adventures.  As in ROUND ROBIN books 1 and 2, the artist was not allowed to work with words she contributed.  I thought the matchmaking was prophetic, since I saw much of the artist manifested in her assigned sheep.  I also think the story parallels the Robins' journey in delightful ways.  I'd never call Dani, Jenn, and Katy "snooty" or "tall" (well OK, maybe Dani), but they were certainly forced outside their comfort zone by this project, just like Fuzzy, Flounce, and Woolala.

But how to tie all three sheep's stories together again?  Of fifteen sentences, the first four were dedicated to setting the scene, describing the characters, and imparting the "inciting incident."  The next nine sentences detailed the fate of each sheep separately, creating three alternating character arcs.  Now that the sheep sisters were no longer dependent on each other, how could I resolve their separate stories in just 2 sentences?  They needed to collectively reject their old way of life in favor of their new one, and they needed to do so quickly...

I spent a few weeks drafting various versions of the last two lines.  I would only spend a half hour with the story at a time, tweaking the last two lines till I had several versions to show Dani, Jenn, and Katy.  They chose the variation they liked best and it was off to the races!

ROUND ROBIN exhibition at Galerie Arludik

In 2 weeks we're flying to Paris for our ROUND ROBIN exhibition at Galerie Arludik ! 

This exhibition consists of the 45 original paintings from all 3 ROUND ROBIN books, plus 30 original bookplate paintings. It will be the first and only time to see all 3 series of paintings displayed side-by-side, in the order of the word game. We hope the exhibition will spark your imagination!

Galerie Arludik is one of the first galleries dedicated to the art of animation, film, comics, and illustration...We're thrilled to partner with Diane and Jean-Jacques Launier to display 3 years worth of personal work. The gallery is located on Ile St Louis in the center of Paris:

12-14 rue Saint-Louis en l'Île 75004 PARIS - FRANCE

The exhibition will run from 5/29 to 6/9, opening with a reception on Thursday 5/31 from 18:30-21:30pm.

If you will be in Paris or in Europe that week, we hope to see you at the opening!  And if you can't make it to the show in person, all the artwork will be available on Galerie Arludik's website starting 5/29: please stay tuned !

To make the promo we've worked closely with many talented and brilliant people. Their expertise and generous help has made it all possible. We'd like to give credit to:

Editor and Original Music - Zach Johnston

Motion Graphics - Craig Foster | Zach Johnston

Camera - Tony Kaplan | James Robertson

Producer - Elizabeth Thiers

Rare Device gallery opening

THANK YOU to all who made the gallery opening at Rare Device a success! 

It was a beautiful afternoon in San Francisco this past Saturday, and a wonderful way to celebrate the launch of ROUND ROBIN 3.  We'd like to thank everyone who made it, and those who made it happen: our wonderful hosts Giselle & Phurba from Rare Device, Asaki, who once again constructed a gorgeous window display, our friend and collaborator Liz, who helped produce ROUND ROBIN 3 and the exhibition,  and James, for all his wise advice, not to mention nail and hammer expertise.  Also, a special shout out to our great local printer, Edition One Books in Berkeley, who once again made us a beautiful ROUND ROBIN book !

The exhibition will stay up till 6/1, and the ROUND ROBIN 3 book will also be available at Rare Device !

Stay tuned as we prepare for our next and greatest gallery show of all: 45 ROUND ROBIN original paintings at Galerie Arludik in Paris!  3 weeks and counting...  We can't wait, and hope to see you there soon !

Photos by James Robertson, Karen Chang, Ramya Srinivasan, and the Robins.

ROUND ROBIN Promo video !

We're very excited to announce that our ROUND ROBIN promo video is up !

For the past 3 months, we've been working hard on making this promo/making-of video for our new book, and the up-coming exhibitions with Galerie Arludik and Rare Device. We hope it will help introduce you to the ROUND ROBIN project and to our creative process. 

To make the promo we've worked closely with many talented and brilliant people. Their expertise and generous help has made it all possible. We'd like to give credit to:

Editor and Original Music - Zach Johnston

Motion Graphics - Craig Foster | Zach Johnston

Camera - Tony Kaplan | James Robertson

Producer - Elizabeth Thiers

A special thanks goes to the talented Zach Johnston, who not only edited the video and animated some of its charming motion graphics, but who also composed the original score! If you haven't seen his work, check out the beautiful animated Sketchtravel short, which he collaborated on with Dice Tsutsumi. 

ROUND ROBIN upcoming events:

Paris - 

ROUND ROBIN Exhibition at Galerie Arludik 

Exibition of all 45 original paintings from the three ROUND ROBIN books plus 30 bookplate paintings. Exhibition opens on 5/29, reception on Thursday, 5/31/2012, 18:30 ~ 21:30.

San Francisco -

ROUND ROBIN 3 booksigning and exhibition at Rare Device 

5/5 ~ 6/1, 2012, Exibition of bookplate paintings and Giclee prints from ROUND ROBIN 3.

Rare Device window display is up !

Yesterday, on a sunny Sunday morning, Asaki installed our ROUND ROBIN 3 window display at Rare Device ! Her design as always, clear, thoughtful, and beauftiful ! We're so fond of her lovely work, and hope you'll too ! Our Rare Device book signing and exhibition opening reception will be this Saturday 5/5,  3 ~ 6pm,  Hope you can come celebrate with us, and see the display in person !

*** We have an exciting update coming soon today ! Please stay tuned !

ROUND ROBIN 3 at Rare Device !

Finally, the exciting news ! ROUND ROBIN 3 will be out next Saturday, May 5th ! 

To celebrate the launch of the book, our wonderful local San Francisco host, Rare Device, is holding a ROUND ROBIN 3 book signing and gallery opening for us from 3~6pm. Please come join us then !

Along with the books, the gallery will be exhibiting our new 15 original bookplate paintings (4x6"), and 10 selected exclusive gilée prints (10x12") from ROUND ROBIN 3. The exhibition will be up from 5/5 to 6/1, 2012.

Rare Device has moved to its new location at 600 Divisadero St. at Hayes St. in San Francisco, the new space is lovely, full of sunlight, and as always, full of wonderful gems of design products, books, and art ! 

Also, once agian, our amazing display artist friend, Asaki Oda, is designing the all new window display for our exhibition, and it'll also be up at Rare Device on 04/30. Below are some sneak peaks, work in progress shots !

We hope to see you soon next Saturday, 5/5 !

Crash!

The story of Round Robin 3 follows the misadventures of three snooty sheep, Fuzzy, Flounce, and Woolala. The three sheep are separated as the story progresses and each artist was tasked with illustrating a sheep's particular storyline.

For Round Robin 3 I had to illustrate Flounce's story line. First I had to come up with a unique look for Flounce. I imagined her to have an athletic and stocky build, but also be quick and agile on her feet.


In the middle of the story, Flounce crashes through a warehouse ceiling into a wrestling ring. For Round Robin 3 I wanted to try a more graphic approach to the paintings. Instead of just illustrating Flounce landing in a wrestling ring, I chose to really emphasize Flounce's crash landing and tried to simplify the image to show just that with these simple thumbnails:


Although the thumbnails are simple, I still wanted the illustration to be fun and full of energy. I experimented with colored tissue paper and found I could create a really colorful and interesting texture to paint on.


After laying down the base of color tissue paper and sealing it with matte medium, I painted large, simple shapes on top with gouache. I also added some gold and silver paper on top because it felt like confetti, or pieces of glass from Flounce's fall.


Now that the base is set, I put Flounce into the painting. To help her stand out, her wooly fur is made of cotton rag paper.


The end result is a graphic and abstract representation of a sheep colliding with a festive wrestling ring:


Check in next week, we have an announcement to make about our upcoming show in San Francisco!