Bartosz Jekiel's vision of Institute Benjamenta

Bartosz Jekiel, one of the founding members of Treslettres and Taking A Line, asks you a question:

You may be wondering what are all these drawings about?

About three months ago I saw a movie called Institute Benjamenta by the Quay Brothers; 

it struck me how much beauty is in this picture. 24 perfect frames per second.

I felt a sudden urge to create my version of a movie poster for Institute; theatre and movie posters are kind of a big deal for me.

I was then in the middle of working on Treslettres' next project called initially Forbidden Cities.

I got some positive feedback from my peers and it encouraged me to go further. 

We are pacing it slowly, so I've decided to shift my focus slightly to this newly found love.

I continued creating graphics based on the stills from the movie;

it gives me such a rush! 

My approach is based on free flowing drawing, 

an improvised manner where I don't do initial sketches, 

but get the watercolour pad on my lap,

get the ink on the paper using a Pilot Parallel Pen (2,4 mm).

You can either go forward or scrap the drawing;

there is no try. 

Using a simple tool is very important for the speed and spontaneity

(although sometimes I do play a bit in Photoshop once the drawing is done).

I've accumulated a number of these drawings now;

it would be interesting to 'connect the dots' and put it all together

once there is enough material and create a narrative

where each panel is loaded with its own meaning

like in the case of Polish theatre posters

as in the likes of Wiktor Sadowski

Stasys Eidrigevicius,

Franciszek Starowieyski 

and others in the Polish movie and theatre poster artistic community.

I've been enjoying the journey enormously; let's see where it takes me.

Thank you Brothers for your imagination.

Bart

All images belong to Bartosz Jekiel

Satyrday - our contributions - part one

Our creatives were given the subject of Satyrday - a portmanteau of the words Saturday and Satyr (the mythical half man creature that the Greeks had given horse features and the Romans changed to goat features). What would they bring to the table? See below:

Giuseppe Lama shot the process of his Satyrday embellished "S" letter with the final shot below. 

This started the ball to roll and Bartosz combined his love of the Quay Brothers film

Instititute Benjamenta and satyrs.

Peter Elliott then created a rough working drawing of a chubby satyr.

Then Daniel Newbury, one of recent enrolled creatives, produced a hint of Twin Peaks.

Following with Tim Seelig's satyr profile. 

What does Saturday mean to you?

Our Chosen Instrument - #2 - Bartosz Jekiel

Another package has been received by another of co-operative creative - Bartosz Jekiel. This pencilsmith is also a co-founder of TresLettres. He and his co-founders, Jakub Chweieszczenik and Tomasz Wieja, released a book with three reimagined stories that haunt and stay with you. They worked with Kickstarter to aid the funding for the production and the publication of the book, it is still available through their website and Amazon. 

Bartosz is now working on illustrations based around the film Institute Benjamenta, the first feature length film by the Quay Brothers, have a look at his Facebook page.