hardy's art

art by loren hardy.

[lorenhardyart]

TALIESIN: as photographed by tom doona.

good thing the director & producer hired a proper photographer, because i certainly didn't remember to take any good photos of the finished puppets when i was done working on them! these are all the things i sculpted, built and/or papier mache'd, though the final paint touches were done by eleanor ferguson, who also made the other half of the puppets (not pictured) plus the set, costume, and a boatload of other props. they're a whiz!

the performer is ellie webster, who i happened to randomly meet one day at a clowning workshop, and after talking puppets for a bit as we left the venue, they invited me to come and make puppets for this project, and i very, very enthusiastically took 'em up on the offer. it's been a joy!

[reallyhardy]

instagram user transient_rat drew us some live sketches during the library debut of taliesin on saturday too! the absolute best feeling seeing not only the joy on kids faces but adults too 🥹💖🥳🤸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🎭📚🎨

[lorenhardyart]

also, under the cut are some design moodboards i put together before the project began:

[lorenhardyart]

and a bit more from taliesin - the ceinach, now with its papier-mache skin (and a proper neck)

i also completed the ci myself (adding hessian and a little paint) and created a wig for the ceridwen puppet, as well as braided just a ton of extra "hair" for a half-mask for ceridwen used in a different scene.

last - finally added a papier-mache skin to the eog, and then did a whole lot of brushing paint onto animal puppets, here a little bit of a blue-grey to match the shirt of the human character, gwion, who turns into all these animals.

[lorenhardyart]

beginning work on taliesin...

working on taliesin - a family theatre performance funded by the arts council as put on by a scrappy team wanting to share welsh mythology with manchester (and beyond, hopefully.)

we spent 5 days during the last week of march making these puppets at a place in mossley called the vale which was a lovely workspace but an incredibly long commute (two hours!) i worked alongside my sister who volunteered to help out, and another designer, eleanor ferguson, who would also be handling the set and costume for the performer.

these are the early stages of some puppets i worked on: i built the hare (ceinach), salmon (eog), and otter (dwrgi), plus did some work on the hound (ci) and the main 'villain', ceridwen.

[lorenhardyart]

[lorenhardyart]

making the tote bags

started by drawing out and cutting pieces for 2 sides of bag and straps. has to be 2 pieces for bag body because the print has a 'right side up'

with the pieces cut out, i joined the body pieces with a french seam.

first sewed wrong sides together, then flipped.

straps interfaced, folded, stitched, pressed, top stitched.

then attach straps. they had to go under the folded edge, stitched a square around the join.

then it was done! the straps are extra long to go over any shoulder easily, and the fabric is strong and hardy, like my name. lol

[lorenhardyart]

printable mini-zine

it is a digital purchase only, you print the file yourself. it comes with instructions, and is pay-what-you-want with a minimum of £1 (GBP.)

[buy on gumroad here] 

[lorenhardyart]

another example of my repeat pattern work, with a sticker sheet design made from the same drawings.

[lorenhardyart]

full body couples commissions by me.

[lorenhardyart]

a collection of my repeat patterns!!! all made by me, all infinitely tileable.

[hardysunitex]

“A PRINCE OF MONKEYS” - a puppetry/digital animation fusion by loren hardy and toby pritchard.

[lorenhardyart]

the prince of monkeys.

my 3rd year ‘Unit X’ project done in collaboration with my coursemate toby pritchard (his instagram can be be found here.) for this project i took on construction of the 3D elements (mask, monkey & demon puppets) as well as performance of the demon & monkey puppets. the animated effects and digitally painted backgrounds as well as assembly of the final film were done by toby pritchard.

[lorenhardyart]

keith.

3rd year ‘authorship’ project brief to create an animated short (any length, using any method we wanted) on a subject of our choosing. i chose to create a film about my own frankenstein’s monster character signing up to an online dating service. I created three small scale ‘love interest’ rod puppets and one large mask character (using fabric, papier mache and air drying clay.)

frames were digitally collaged/rotoscoped by myself, using wacom drawing tablet in paint tool SAI, final film assembled using imovie.

[lorenhardyart]

the scapegoat.

2nd year ‘Unit X’ project brief to create an animated short (any length, using any method we wanted) based on a piece of work in the permanent display galleries at the Manchester Art Gallery. I created three ‘sacrificial beast’ puppets as inspired by the painting ‘The Scapegoat’ by William Holman Hunt - made using papier mache, fabric and air drying clay.

footage filmed myself, rotoscoped embellishments drawn by myself, using wacom drawing tablet in paint tool SAI, final film assembled using imovie.

all student’s work was displayed for a one-night pop up exhibition in the Manchester Art Gallery, during which I brought my puppets to the gallery to allow people to get up close and interact with them.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Manchester Art Gallery (@mcrartgallery) on May 11, 2017 at 9:57am PDT

(video from @mcartgallery instagram account)

[lorenhardyart]

the such-and-such-a-beast.

2nd year ‘experimental project’ brief to create an animated short (any length, using any method we wanted) based on a short newspaper clipping. the one i chose was about two boys who travel from paris to le havre in search of a monster they wish to photograph.

frames draw by myself, using wacom drawing tablet in paint tool SAI, final film assembled using imovie.