Malia Tahca Ska by *JayelDraco

A Vision of the Future
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Malia: A Hawaiian name meaning calm and peaceful
Tahca: Is a Lakota word for Deer
Ska: Is a Lakota word for White
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Malia, the model for this piece, once told me that her father not so many years ago confided in her about a dream he had before she was born. Her parents where young and unsure when they became pregnant with her. They where not sure if they where going to keep their baby. One night he had a vision that his wife had given birth to a White Doe. He did not know what this meant, but he knew that he would keep this child, and so he did. She has grown up to become a well versed traveler, wise beyond her years, with a good sense of humor, a kind heart and a trumpeting spirit. When she told me the story of her fathers dream, I knew the image I would make and the story to go along with it.

There is a telling that spans many tongues of many native American Tribes. It is, the telling of the Rainbow Warriors in the time to come. Of the many Peoples who hold faith to this telling, It was a Lakota Medicine man who first told me many years ago, and so I will tell you the way I was told.

It is said:

“There will come a time when the earth is sick and the animals and plants begin to die.
Then the Native Americans will regain their spirit and gather people of all nations,
colors and beliefs to join together in the fight to save the Earth:
The Rainbow Warriors.”

- Ancient Native American prophecy -

~From – Warriors of the Rainbow~

Now this is the whole of the truth in it’s shortest summary. There were and still are many faith keepers, medicine men/women and prophets in their own right who speak of this. Of them many have had their own visions of how this would come to pass. Many have spoke of signs. The Prophet Ptesan Wi (the white buffalo Women) came to the Lakota. She left behind her teachings, and prophecy. In her prophecy she spoke of a sign of the times when these things would take root. “When the White Buffalo is born you will know the time has begun.”

In 1994 Miracle the White Buffalo was born on a farm in Janesville, Wisconsin. She was the first of her kind, an inexplicable genetic anomaly. More have been born in various places since. Other animals have also been born inexplicably white, not albino, white. Including Deer, Crows, Sparrows, and many others. The anomaly seems to be spanning the more common animal totems at an increasing rate. Many say the time is now, the time of empires is at an end, as the time of The Tribe is dawning.

With globalized communication at our fingertips, information readily available, and sweeping economic decline, It would seems that if not ready we are at least primed for such change. A change in our selves fortified by remembering the old while pre-tending the new. We learn more and more how to balance with every step as we move forward consciously.

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Model: Malia “Tahca Ska” Kulip

Concept, Costume, Directing: *JayelDraco

Photography: *JayelDraco & *Blackscarab333

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=SalsolaStock
http://fav.me/d1lqydz

~Sammykaye1sStamps

http://sammykaye1sstamps.deviantart.com/art/Fern-1-88010724

http://sammykaye1sstamps.deviantart.com/art/Grass-2-PNG-82781348

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Resources shot by *JayelDraco for this piece:

http://jayeldraco.deviantart.com/art/Malia-Tahca-Ska-Background-175802773

http://jayeldraco.deviantart.com/art/Malia-Tahca-Ska-Pose-01-175803190

http://jayeldraco.deviantart.com/art/Malia-Tahca-Ska-Pose-02-175803273

I chose to upload these three images to show as examples of my self shot resources as they are the prime image components. However, there where many other details from many other pictures that I have taken over the last few years used in this piece. For the sake of brevity I chose to omit them.
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TIP: For atmospheric perspective along with color palette homogenization, use several copies of a “Photo Filter Adjustment Layer” (ie. sepia or warming) at low opacity (try 10% or less). Place one copy in front of your Deepest background layer, one copy in front of your mid background layer, one copy in front of your character layer, and one copy in front of your foreground layer. The result will be a pleasing color palette homogenization with atmospheric perspective.

If your piece has much more layers (as mine usually do) use more copies of your chosen photo filter interspersed throughout your layers at an even lower opacity. This will give you an even subtle build up to the washout of your furthest background elements.

Descriptions:
Color Palette Homogenization: This refers to a consistency of colors within a piece. The appearance of any object is effected by the colors of objects around it as well as the color of the light source(s). When placing elements from various photos into one compositions, Often the color difference between objects can be disturbing to the analytical observer. (Ie: one object is warmly lit, while the one next to it is cool) Homogenization refers to making them appear to be effected by the same variables.

Atmospheric Perspective: in addition to Z axis perspective (Objects getting smaller as they get further away) Objects also have more atmosphere between you and them as they go further back in space. The color of an object is effected by photons from the light source(s) bouncing off of particles in the air as well as the color of the air-born particles them selves. So the further back an object is, the more it’s color is effected by the atmosphere until it totally blends in and disappears. (Ie: sky in front of a mountain, a distant mountain will appear to be translucent as if you are seeing the sky through it. When in fact, you are seeing the sky in front of it.)

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As always, I will thank you kindly for your much appreciated questions, comments and suggestions. . .
However, PLEASE RESPECT THE MODEL or you just might end up with an arrow stuck in your butt.
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The Universe does not take sides, it only upholds the balance.
If upholding the balance is your intent, the universe is on your side.
Mitakuye Oyasin (all things are related)

More…

A Dryads Hope by *JayelDraco on deviantART

The Dryad stands still and alone, watching over her forest. Unable to push or pull except with root, limb and time. She is ancient and wise, she has seen many things come to pass. She has seen many creature pass her by. Of these, her favorite was always the Wood Nymph.

The Wood Nymphs it seemed somehow could hear her and was more than glad to listen. Even if there was nothing to exchange, the company was always deeply cherished. The Dryad kept this in her mind, constantly, waiting for her next encounter with a humble, clairvoyant Wood Nymph.

One night, the Dryad had a dream that she step away from her roots and was in fact a Wood Nymph herself. She heard music through ears of flesh for the first time. The music echoed throughout the woods. Frantically she tracked it to it’s source. When she got there, she was delighted to see a soiree of Wood Nymphs dancing around a blazing fire singing merily as they did. They immediately noticed her, the Alpha female darted over. Looked her up and down, place one hand on her shoulder and asked “Can you dance?”. Before the Dryad could reply she was swept away, being pulled by her wrist to join in the festivities.

The next morning our Dryad awoke. Rooted right where she had always been. Her leaves wet with morning dew. She had not moved at all. “What a lovely dream” she thought to herself, “If only it where real”. She ran the dream through her mind beginning to end over and over again. “It was so vivid, how could it have just been a dream?” she wondered.

Her pondering was interrupted when she was startled by thrashing in some nearby bushes. A figure rose from the bramble, it was the Alpha Female Wood Nymph from her dream. The wood Nymph Cursed and spat while pulling thorns from her foot. She must’ve been distracted, it’s not like a wood Nymph to be so careless. After Pulling the last thorn, her attention darted over to the Dryad. She made her way over hastily and sat down at the base of the Dryads trunk. “Good Dancing Last Night” she said with a grin.

“It was real!” The Dryad would’ve fallen over where she not rooted deep into the ground. “How could it’ve been real?” She wanted so badly to lean over and ask, but of course, she was a tree, how could she. Then she noticed while thinking this that she was looking down at the Wood Nymph. Her head always looked to the sky, never down. “How could this be?” she thought as she leaned down. “I’m moving!” She screeched.

“Of course you are” the Wood Nymph spurted back, seemingly unimpressed.

“How is this possible?” That’s when it occurred to the Dryad that she was standing in her own shadow. She turned around and saw herself standing there as still as any other tree. She looked down at her hands while rubbing them together. She could feel them, but they where translucent. “What’s happening to me?” she asked timidly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, was that your first time?” The Wood Nymph Interrupted . “Congratulations, You’ll get used to it, It’s how we get around you know. I remember my first time. Threw me for quite a loop. I’m gonna go back to my roots, What do you say we meet up again tonight?” And with that, she had vanished.

by *JayelDraco

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I had an Idea to do a forest creature portrait of the Model, my friend Hope (~MsMeeyagee). Originally I was leaning toward Elven Sprite, she said Dryad. I love depicting Dryads, so I was totally down for that. Then as we where talking, she told me of her idea of a Dryad Astral Projecting. Which I thought was a brilliant notion in it of itself. It also led me to the thought that I could have the Dryads Astral body be an Elven Sprite creature. In all I’m really happy with how it turned out. The photoshoot itself was allot of fun. The model, Hope is great for conversation and extremely entertaining.
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Model, HMU: ~MsMeeyagee
Costume, Photomanipulation, Element Photography: Jayel Draco
Additional Photography: *Blackscarab333

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As always, I really enjoy your questions, comments and critiques,
but please be RESPECT THE MODEL or the Dryad will use you as fertilizer.
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Thanks for checking this out!
Keep Rockin. . .
=j=
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“She Will Eat You” – 3rd time golden map award nominee, Critically Acclaimed! “Short, Silly and Undead!” raves Jonathan Lourenco of the New York Paper “She Will Eat You” – A short impromtu video filmed during a zombie apocalypse themed photoshoot. After we got the photos we needed, AR Brookl Lynn conceived this character, the green screen was quickly thrown up last minute and the Cannon Digital Rebel was switch to video mode. The post video effects and editing by Jayel Draco, where mostly an after thought. Fun was had by all. Starring AR Brook Lynn Costume design and video effects by Jayel Draco Hair and Make up by Corinne Alexis Hall and Jayel Draco

I chose to use a particularly moody photo from a very light hearted and fun shoot for this manip.  Mary is an excellent dancer with a high metabolism. She has an intense spirit and I’m used to her radiating intense joy, creativity and fun. It was very interesting for me to explore seeing her in a light that she doesn’t often portray. Interestingly enough not long after this photo was taken she had knee surgery and had to take time off from dancing and spent allot of time in her room while recovering. Her description of how she felt, was eerily akin to the way I was synchronistically depicting her in this “Verse of MaryBlue”.

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This Second piece is a concept sketch for “How Doyou Nomi?”, a photoshoot that I’ve had in mind for a little while now. The composition and poses here are more or less insignificant to the piece as interaction with model tends to allow for a superior organic development. I illustrated this to send to the model to give here an idea of what we’ll be wearing/doing. Even though it’s just a concept sketch, I’m happy with the way it came out, so I decided to post it. The idea of the piece is a sort of Klaus Nomi reference in the form of a glamour/lingerie/burlesque photoshoot. It will end up being a photomanipulation piece. The costume is finished and the shoot is scheduled.

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Thanks for reading my blog!
keep rockin. . .
=j=

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhYf7MNS5Ow

Written, Directed Animated by
Jayel Draco -- www.jayeldraco.com

Co-Animated and Illustrated by
Corinne Alexis Hall -- www.corinnealexishall.com

Music by Jack Schell -
www.thesoundweaver.com

Jayel -- versus -- Akuma

*Note: I do realize that Akuma is absolutely badass. . .
If he were real, and I were to fight him for real, I probably would not fair quite as well. Thankfully, in this scenario, I was animating him, so he didn’t stand a chance.

Since my last blog update in September of 08, much has come to pass as I’m sure you can imagine. Lately I’ve been too busy to keep up with my blog, which means I’ve had allot of blog content brewing. I’ll do my best to fill you in while keeping it brief.

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Animated “Salar Inc. Software Demo” Premiere:

The Salar Inc. Demo project was a work for hire CGI demo animation. I did the graphics and animation solo from beginning to end on this project which is viewable on their website at, salarinc.com/demo.

Salar Inc. is a medical software design company which has transformed traditional paper clinical documentation into electronic “smart” paper. Their software allows physicians to make their documentation directly in electronic format which instantaneously communicates to all systems within the hospitals network greatly expediting communication required for patient care.  The purpose of this demo was to show potential clients (hospitals) how Salar’s software will improve the quality of their treatment,  staff work flow, and financial management by improving the efficiency of their documentation and inter-department communication.

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Animating “The Astonishing X-Men” motion comic:

Since my last blog update, I have been subcontracted by the renowned Comic Book Artist Neal Adams’ of Continuity Studios to work on “The Astonishing X-Men” motion Comic as an animator.
Below you can see the teaser.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jv6bg0ZVbU

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Zombie Fu Remastered 2008:

A remastered high quality HD render of “Zombie Fu” has been uploaded to both the video section of jayeldraco.com’s Video Section as well my Youtube Channel. Watch “Zombie Fu Remastered” below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBq_GznuvDs

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Music Video for Neal Halstead’s “Elevenses”:

The assignment for this video was commissioned in response to a treatment written by Director Christopher Piazza for 99dollarmusicvideos.com. Their practice consists of granting selected production teams a 99 dollar budget and 24 hours to make the best video they can. As you can imagine it’s quite a burly proposal requiring quick thinking, creative on-the-fly problem solving, and impeccable action from everyone on the production team.

My role on this production was diverse as where each of the three crew members roles. I was essentially a one man art department and special effects tech. I made the costume for the hero character. I played the hero character for part of the video, was an extra for another chunk of the video.  Supervised the shoot for post effects, and created the post-production special effects.

The Official Behind the Scenes footage is scheduled to premiere April 28th, and the video premiere is scheduled for April 30th at 99dollarmusicvideos.com. After the official premiere, the video will be added to my Video Section here, as well as Director Christopher Piazza’s website www.panopticonnyc.com, which I designed.

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Updates to websites designed by Jayel Draco:

Over the past few moths I’ve updated a few of the websites that I’ve designed including:

• www.jayeldraco.com
• www.thesoundweaver.com
  
• www.panopticonnyc.com
• www.nypilatesfitness.com
• www.gettingtonomi.com

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“Nomi Now!” off the back burner:

Production has recommenced on the “Nomi Now!” musical animation short project. “Nomi Now!” is an ambitious multimedia audio/visual collaborative project designed and engineered by Jayel Draco. The latest on this project has yet to be posted to the WIP website: www.gettingtonomi.com, however you can see past updates there if you haven’t already.

-The song tracks by Jigsaw Soul, Jack Schell, and Jeff Saphin, have all been recorded and are in queue for mastering by Matt Geldoff of  nysoundmixer.com. The Animatic is complete with much of the final animation almost complete.
-Once the audio is finalized, the lip sync animation by Corinne Alexis Hall of lovenico.net, will be added to the stop-motion animation.
-Video footage (which currently stands on an open schedule to be directed and shot by Christopher Piazza of www.panopticonnyc.com) will be added to the CGI which is being done by Christopher Covelli of kylevargas.net.

Aijel is still under construction and will be an ongoing project. Near future plans for Aijel include an interactive animated avatar, limited short term memory, and an expanded XML conversation breakdown library, which will all work together to enhance the user experience. In the meantime the primary focus of Aijel has been developing a personality for it which will canonize it’s response style.

When using Aijel keep in mind that I had only started it May 30th, with that said, the amount of questions that it will have an appropriate response for is still limited. If you ask Aijel a question that it does not have an answer for and you feel that it is a question that it should be able to answer, please send me a memo using the MailForm just above Aijel in the CONTACT section.

TIPS: Do not use capitalization, abbreviations or hyphenations when questioning Aijel. If Aijel does not have an answer for a question try stating it differently (concise and direct works best)

I look forward to your feedback!
Keep Rockin. . .
=j=

Please rate it, view it, post it, share it, blog it, bulletin it, anything your savvy and schedule can endure to help spread the word!

Keep Rockin. . .

=j=