Abby Walouke - "The Ghost at The Inn"

About the Artist:

Hi My name is Abby Walouke.  I am from both Columbus and Cincinnati Ohio.  I currently work for the Buckeyes creating illustrations and animations for the scoreboards and social media.  In my free time, I love to go to my nearest coffee house and draw bystanders.  Thank you for checking out my work!

www.abigailwalouke.wixsite.com/abbimation

Instagram: @abbimation

Twitter: @AbigailWalouke

 


 

The Ghost at The Inn

Mixed Media, 2020, 1 min 33 sec

Walouke The Ghost at The Inn Cover Page

 

Bouncy House Color Study 

Gouache, 2019, 5 x 7inches

 

Visualizing a story from scratch is the first goal in creating an animated film. Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, and many other studios collectively create works of art related to their chosen tale before the animation process begins.  This process, known as Visual Development, empowers the artists to dive deep into their story and develop a close “friendship” with their project for about 3-5 years. After the studio has a strong sense that their tale has been visualized to its fullest, they start animating.

I am developing a friendship with my story, The Ghost at The Inn, practicing every element of Visual Development.  I am combining everything I have learned from my years at The Ohio State University (OSU) and Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD): color theory, storyboarding, painting, figure drawing, 2D animation, and various storytelling techniques.  Researching the history of this tale, The Ghost at the Inn, lead me to important questions of interpretation and respect for the culture that this tale originates from, Sweden.  Further research into Nordic lore and Swedish history inspired themes and visualization for The Ghost at the Inn.

I love color and gesture!  Those are two strengths that I have built in my years as an artist.  At CCAD, I took a class in café sketching, a practice of quickly drawing those around you in less than 10 minutes, sometimes less than 30 seconds.  The flow of line and mark making was both meditative and challenging at the same time.  While at OSU, we practiced café sketching except in the form of painting.  One of my most memorable moments of my art practice was when I painted a bouncy house on one of OSU’s grass fields.  I saw my love for color and gesture drive my art in the little five by seven-inch color sketch, Bouncy House Color Study.

Color and lighting were the largest factors that I wanted to drive the visual development for The Ghost at the Inn story.  Contrasting the normalcy of the main character’s life, the Widow, I used neutral browns and reds versus the bold chromatic blues and bright colors that represent the Ghost in his physical appearance and his weary past.  In the beginning of the story, the scenes contrast between the Widow and the Ghost, but as the story comes to an end, the blues and reds harmonize with one another.  Their pursuit to protect one another from hurt is shown through purples.

During my years at Ohio State, I took an interest in fairytales and folktales through my classes in various departments from Grimm’s Fairytales to Appalachian campfire stories.  My childhood inspirations included my annual trips to Disney World with my grandmother, my family’s deep love for one another, and our traditions of oral storytelling that are due to our Irish roots.

My love for storytelling, color, and gesture led me to Ghost at The Inn, and drove me to visualize the narrative created by an unknown author in Nordic lore.  My friendship with the story will develop as I continue to animate the story.  A fully animated short film will debut in the BFA exhibition in Winter 2020.