Self Portrait

It feels like it's been ages since I've posted anything online anywhere.  I suppose it has!  I'm not feeling bad about it, as there's a lot going on at the moment without the Internet being in my life too much.  It's also necessary for me to focus more inwardly on my work at times rather than putting it out online for all to see, as my way of approaching ideas can tend to turn towards crowd-pleasing, which isn't ever my aim.

For the past couple of weeks I've been in the process of designing a video game poster, and after a lot of pencil sketches, research and messing around I got into a rut.  Final layout is sorted, final character design is decided, but then the style...  My line work wasn't clicking with weak and wonky geometry and blah blah blah, so I took a step back to focus my artistic energy in another aspect towards the poster: skin tones.

I've never really stretched myself in varying light sources in my work or defined them strongly.  I knew that this would be fun but also important.  I took a few reference photos of myself with a strong upward light and set about a quick-ish painting practise.  

Completed entirely in Photoshop, my image was A5 page size at 300dpi.  I started of with a layer of the base skin tone with a layer on top of that for the background and began to carve out the figure out of the dark tones to reveal the skin tone. I slowly built layers of details and tonal values on individual layers from there.  I was pleasantly surprised with my translation of the photo to painting; despite using very different techniques and mediums it turned into a similar style to my pencil sketches for the poster.

The more I've practised and researched and practised some more I have begun to get to know myself and find my own style rather than attempting to imitate someone else's - which I enjoy doing!  And I never outright copy a style, but pick up bits here and there.  However, this time I've been relying solely on my own judgements when I get stuck for a moment.  I'm looking forward to applying all that I'm learning into one large piece of work.

J.x

Andi Expressions

Fabric of Andona

Hi everyone,

Have you had a good Easter weekend?

I've barely begun eating my chocolate!

For the last couple of weeks I've started to really get back into my Andona project, which was my second year project at University (see here and here).

I didn't feel I had done enough thorough character designs and haven't dedicated my work to finer details.

To begin costume designs for the people of the planet Andona I created textile samples.

I really enjoy creating patterns, something I only realised a year ago.  There's something quite therapeutic about creating them.

I've already sketched a page of characters ready to use these patterns on them.  It creates a very quick and easy way to make variables for each character design.

So, I'm getting ready to leave for Paris tomorrow morning for 6 nights with L.H.!

I'm very excited to make some artistic discoveries!  But, like the art geek/workaholic that I am, I'll miss working on my projects.  I'm taking obligatory moleskins and camera, of course :)

Au revoir for now.

J.x

Andi Again

I looked over my graduating project from last year to remind myself of how I can and have improved.

 
Andi, the young one-handed miner of my Pied-Piper-in-space Andona story acted as a sort of psychological mascot throughout the whole process, keeping me amused and affection for the project high.  So, one night, I started to redraw her to solidify her in my mind:

I'd like to practise more gesture drawings of her.
I'll probably continue to draw her for years!  She's pure fun and sweetness.

J. x

Catching up on Andona

I was meant to post this a couple of weeks ago!  Yikes.  Time is just slipping away...

So, I had to present all the final major project work I had so far to my class and lecturer, in an effort to pitch my planned exhibition pieces.  It has been well received, and I got some good grades which is big a bonus!

After trying to imagine every aspect of the world I'd created, and writing the whole story, it all boils down to four images.  The four pieces I'm creating will (hopefully) look as if they're stills taken from an animated feature film.  I'll try to present each image on multiple layers of acetate to give the illusion of being from a cel animation, or a single print out on photo quality paper, A2 size.  It's a lot harder than I imagined it would be!

Finalising Andi

Piper Design

Visualising the Princess of Andona

Andonian Housing

Concepts for my final exhibition pieces

Developing the throne room scene

Designs for the palace guards and handmaids

Piper capturing the rodents on Andona

Andi dragging an unconscious Piper post-explosion

Drafting the scene on the Odd-Job Space Station.
The crew have just got the Andonian children on board

No doubt I'll put up images when they're done.
I'm excited to see mine and my class' work framed and displayed!
The exhibition will run from June 1st to 8th.

J. x

Pop Ya Colour*

I recently saw a great piece of work by Potato Farm Girl of Josie and the Pussycats.  The colours really popped, so I went off to play with my pencils and markers to see what happened.

I came out with this:

Character Design for Animation: 'Andi' (Prismacolour pencils, Promarker pens)

I often use orange and blue coloured pencil to draft out for cartoon images, but using green contrasted against the warm browns and yellows making my images glow.  What do you think?

Not only is it refreshing to do something different but it mentally refreshes - it's like seeing your work through new eyes.

J. x


*Yeeeah, that's a shameless Usher song title pun...

'Andi'

So, this week hasn't been a complete waste!  I have missed all my classes and been a big snotty lump on the couch for the past four days... But I got some drawing done!  And, surprisingly, it's exactly what I had wanted to create all project long.

Maybe my brain is fuddled from lack of sleep, but I actually prefer the character pictures I've done this week to all the ones I've drawn while in good health.  That's why I feel comfortable posting these up online:

    

[Pencil drawings.  Dodge and Burn Tool in Photoshop to shade and strengthen lines]

This is the orphan that Piper will meet on Andona and can't get rid of.  She doesn't have a name, so he comes up with one for her from 'Andona', settling on 'Andi'.

You might have noticed that I've taken away her left hand - the cruelty!  It's all a part of her back story and will tie in with how the story plays out.  Not only that, but I got fed up of looking at how gorgeously perfect female and child protagonists are in animations - either looks or personality, if not both.  I wanted a sense of realism, and what's more real than admitting life can be cruel and unfair?

I'm toying with a few ideas at the minute; making her a boy, less cute, short hair....

What do you think?

J. x

"Less Disney, More Grimm"

The Games Design course I'm on has given me the liberty of deciding what I personally want to do for the year's final project, which is fantastic as I'm already growing weary of 3D modelling.  I think self-directed projects are the easiest to motivate yourself for, it's what you want to do.  I'd say if you're not finding it easy to be enthusiastic over it, then don't be afraid to change direction.

My proposal is to create pre-production work for a would-be animation, then storyboard several sections.  I will finally produce four final images, taken from the storyboards, to look like film stills.

I instantly wanted to adapt a fairy tale or children's story, as if it were going to be a feature film in the vein of Dreamworks and Disney - a classic 2D animation!  I looked at the usual suspects; Hans Christian Andersen, Brother's Grimm, and classic children's literature.  I knew I didn't want to do anything that has already been famously adapted, even if I were to put my own spin on it.  It took a lot of strength to step away from the original Little Mermaid story!

I finally decided on The Pied Piper of Hamlin.  When I told people this it was greeted with mixed reactions, from, 'oh, how boring' to, 'wow, how creepy!'.  This actually made me convinced I was on the right track.  The Piper tale is so vague, the ending so mysterious, and the amount of historical theories over what really happened makes it easy to work with.  Furthermore, I'm not adapting it precisely.  The end of the original story is not the end of mine.  If anything it's the central event.

So far it's been a lot of fun!  Researching, deciding on settings, costumes, characters, and writing it all.  I've completely made a new story, a new world, set in space, with Hamelin becoming the planet Andona and the Piper a space traveller looking for work wherever he can find it in the galaxy.

Planet Andona Concept

Here's a brief idea of what I've got so far:

Synopsis

Piper, a part-time pest controller, part-time musician, comes across the desert planet Andona infested with an alien vermin.  The Andonian Princess employs him for the job of ridding the planet of the infestation, promising a large sum.  During his work he sees the poverty of the Andonians and begins to doubt the Princess' word.  Along the way, Piper meets an orphan who he can’t shake off.  Job finished, he returns to the palace where the Princess refuses to pay Piper for his work and is escorted back to his spaceship where the orphan has secretly stowed away.

Piper flies back to the Odd-Job space station where he resides with all manner of characters.  Piper tells of his misfortune and his want for vengeance.  The Andonian orphan reveals herself giving Piper the idea that people will pay anything to get their children back.  Together, with the orphan’s knowledge of the planet’s people and the help of the Odd-Job space crew, Piper comes up with the idea to hold the Andonian children hostage until the Princess pays up - but not all will go to plan…

I've been working on it for about 4 weeks now, and I think my enthusiasm blinded me from just how much I have/want to do.  Designing each location, costume, vehicle, animal, character...  EXHAUSTING!  But exciting and really enjoyable.  The story's world has become more in-depth than I had ever hoped, and possibly not what anyone would expect.  Less Disney, more Grimm.

I'll post visual work soon.

J. x

P.S. Happy birthday, mum :) x

Shadowline

I recently purchased 'Shadowline: The Art of Iain McCaig', and I can tell you now, it is beautiful.  Stunning.  GORGEOUS!

Every page is filled with his art.  Work from Star Wars to Harry Potter, storyboards to illustrations.
Not only that, it has mini-drawing classes inserted in booklet form inside.
It is a book that is both fiction and a presentation of-- baaaah!
Let him show and tell you himself!

Iain McCaig on Shadowline


I'm not a particularly big Star Wars fan nor am I much of a fan of the Harry Potter films, but you don't need to be to admire these works of art.

Buy it!  You will not be disappointed!

J. x