BAGATELLE #3

Spotted in Newcastle's Travelling Man by my lovely friend Cru Fox

You can now buy Bagatelle Issue 3 from Travelling Man Leeds and Newcastle!

I also have 6 copies to sell to anyone interested.

It's a lovely piece of work, made up of several short comic strip/graphic novel-esque tales, by a collaboration of various writers and artists.

And I'm in it.

For £3.50 it can be yours.

J. x

Graduate Exhibition '11

The Graduate Exhibition at the University of Cumbria ended two weeks ago, but it feels like years!

The Exhibition Preview Night:  Me (black dress, no glasses) with my class and a few of their friends and family

I completed three of the four images I had planned, making the fourth my concept sketches.  One of the three I completely re-started and did it in the two days before the hand in.  It was a bit of a mad decision but I pulled it off with very little sleep, encouragement from friends and a lot of relief.

It was really satisfying having my work put in frames and hung up for all to see, but I was doing my usual thing of telling myself "you can do better".  Which is true with every piece of work.  I think that's why I love drawing so much, it's addictive, each attempt I make at it is always different and hopefully better than the last.

  

I've just got a CGSociety account and I uploaded my original images on their if you'd like to see them!
J. x

Sneaky Peek

No one outside of class has seen any of my exhibition work - and not everyone in the class has seen it.
So, as the exhibition is looming, I've decided to give you all a glimpse as to what my work is looking like.
To jog your memory: 'The Pied Piper of Hamlin'.  I adapted the story so it's set on another planet and in space to be developed as a feature animation film.  I selected four scenes from my story to digitally paint mock animation cels.

Click image to see it in glorious full resolution!

Let me know what you think!  What vibes do you get?  What does it remind you of?  What can be improved?   Though from this small crop it's hard to get a good idea - the original images are A2 sized and look like widescreen film stills.

When it's all over and done with I'll most probably put up all four of my images.  Until then!

Hello, caffeine, my old friend...

J. x

...Though I May Collapse

I made a long overdue To-Do List when I realised my brain didn't have the capacity to remember everything I need to do at any one time.
I since regret doing this...
I only made it half an hour ago.

Someone else needs to do my life for me - just for a few of days?  That'd be great, thank you!

My plan tonight is to tick a couple of boxes.

J. x

I'm Not Dead

Bloody hell, I've not posted for ages!  And I have had so much I've wanted to share!
After Easter it's all been work work work, and when I get home I want to do anything but.

Firstly, before I left for Easter, I got an exciting e-mail telling me that my work and the work of three others' on my course had been chosen to advertise our graduate exhibition in GamesTM magazine!  I'm subscribed to the publication so to be told you're going to be in it in some way was really exciting.
The issue (109) is out now and you'll find us advertised at the back!
It's a really weird thing seeing work that's so familiar to me in something that can be seen by anyone around the country.  The ad is a decent size, which was a worry we had.  I'm definitely keeping the magazine forever.

Secondly, Ian Wharton, a graduate from the University of Cumbria, visited us last Friday.  He has already had a highly successful career only a few years after graduation.  He gave us an amazing presentation, full of confidence, honesty and inspiration.  Afterwards he spent time with each of us looking over our work, answer any queries we may have.  I was lucky to have been given fantastically positive feedback on my exhibition work, encouragement to stick with my idea for next year's project, and overall a message to really go for it.

Me with Ian Wharton

The University did this press release and took a sneaky picture of me with Ian.  I'm not happy!  I was dressed for a rainy day, not photos!  But it was definitely a moment to remember.  He made me feel (and I'm sure many others) like employment is more than a possibility.

If you want to find more about Ian...
www.ianwharton.com
Twitter: @ianwharton


Thirdly, the week before Ian Wharton, we had two guys from Ubisoft give a presentation and work feedback - Darren Yeomans, an artistic manager/visual developer, and Peter Cochrane, another graduate and an environment artist.  I didn't know what work to show them but Yeoman saw the exhibition piece I was working on and actually said (hold your breath):
"I would consider you as a concept artist"
This was based on how I had digitally painted an environment.

To say the least I'm on a high after all of this!

Fourthly: I will - I WILL - post up the images I've done over the past month.  I've kept up with the One Hour Weekly Challenge (though I've probably missed a couple...) it's just not evident online yet.  I bought a nice set of watercolour pencils in the holiday that I want to use more, mixed with ProMarkers.
And if you're fed up of silly drawings I've uploaded a few new photos on to my Flickr that I recently got developed.
All this hard work is really hard work.
Good job I find it so much fun!

J. x

Feedback

I wrote this as a reply to comments on my posts, but I figured doing it as a full blog post would be a good idea too.


I've paid a lot of attention to all the feedback I've been getting - a big thanks to everyone.
It's come from friends, acquaintances, professionals and complete strangers!  I highly value all of it.
When you tell me what you think I seriously consider your thoughts.  I feel more motivated and encouraged knowing that the little things that I do can make someone smile, give them an idea of their own, or just waste a few minutes of their time on the internet.


The new blog layout has been a definite positive!
On my work; unusual expressions, poses and angles are the way forward it seems!


My work on The Jam Factory music event logo is almost over.  I think my client and I had a mutual understanding about what we wanted, which is always a relief, but like most work I do, I can always do better.
There's been no recent news on the Bagatelle comic front as yet - I believe they want to release the website at the same time as the printed issue.  I really hope it's sorted soon, it's been too long of a wait for everyone involved.
Facebook Fan Page and Twitter are finally getting going.  They're a great way to connect instantly with people!
I haven't posted my latest One Hour Weekly Challenge as it didn't work out due to several interruptions.
I really need to give it a full and focused hour, no matter the outcome, for me to learn from it.
I'll be doing two more, one tonight and one tomorrow, to make amends.

Also, I'll be going home for a week so I won't be posting until I'm back!


Thank you guys for taking the time to not only look around but also to write your thoughts.
It's all really appreciated.


Take care,
Happy Easter!

J. x

1 Hour Week 2

A very delayed post...
My challenge last week was to do a self-portrait in which I exaggerated the colours and characteristics:

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

There are still a lot of areas that are left undefined/-refined since I have such little time...  I think I should have gone for a better angle of myself too.  It's hard to look down, keeping the same pose each time, then look up at the screen to replicate it, so I don't think it looks too much like me.  Also, as I'm not particularly haggard for an ancient 21-year-old, or have any especially odd features, I found it really hard to make myself into a caricature.  Honestly, though I sound like I berate myself all the time, I'm really pleased with what I came out with in the time I had, especially as I've never done a portrait digitally, only cartoons.
I do love the colour tones that I chose!

My next one is tomorrow.

J. x