Rusalachka/ La Sirenita (Little Mermaid) another Russian Animation (1968)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV6ZX4govdE&feature=player_detailpage

Once again. I saw something pretty and couldn't resist sharing.

I couldn't find any versions of this in English, but you don't really need it to know what’s going on. This piece is beautifully stylized, and the waves in particular are so simple and effective. The only problem I had with it was the lack of depth, between the waves and the ships mast, when it was sinking. But its still awesome! :)

"Seasons" Pretty Stop Motion by Ivan Ivanov-Vano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-FziMRum0&feature=player_detailpage

I've been thinking about a fairy-tale, winter scape setting for an animation lately- so you'll probably notice a theme in the stuff I've been looking at ;)  my favorite part is toward the end (at about 4.50) if you want to skip ahead.

This is a lovely old Russian stop motion animation (1969) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano, visually representing the music of Tchaikovsky's seasons.

Ivanov-Vano uses stop motion along side scrolling multi-planes, to moving through ethereally beautiful seasonal landscapes

Its a bit jumpy, and I couldn’t find a version with better quality, but the scenery is so beautiful! The beads, antique Russian lace, Viatsk toys and Tchaikovsky's  music combine perfectly. But unfortunately, while it looks aesthetically gorgeous, there isn’t really a narrative to speak of, and the doll characters seem a little too lifeless. All in all, though, it's still well worth a watch :)

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The three inventors (Les Trois Inventeurs) by Michel Ocelot (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r98ctMmolw&feature=player_detailpage

I love the idyllic atmosphere of pretty much all paper animation. The media is so delicate and crisp that its automatically beautiful! This is one of my favorites. From what I've heard, Ocelot hand cuts all these intricate patterns into embossed paper- if you dont find that impressive, you obviously havnt tried it ;)
Apart from it being lovely to look at, theres also just so many nice litte ideas in there. I havnt found a version with subtitles, but to be honest I dont really think it needs it.
Now, I don't want you to think im just raving about how awsome this is- so i'll add some criticism- i don't really like the superimposed birds over the hot air baloon, but it is cool that he experiments with difforent media becase I really like the way he uses fire at the end.

P.S If you like this, you should also check out- well his other work obviously :p
theres also the work of Su Blackwell. She mostly does still pieces but she has afew nice videos, and she had a beautiful feature in Vogue afew years back.

Thers also The Invention of Love (2010) While these two videos have a similar motife they also contrast nicely.
The first is a tragedy inwhich the charicters are persicuted for their efforts to improve the world with technology. The second, a tragedy about a world inwich mans efforts to improve on nature is his undoing... can't win i suppose :p 

but If anyone wants help finding more paper artists I have tone of names in my little book of artists so just ask :)

Hi :) i'v never really done a blog before so... here it goes!