Sneaky Peek

A section of Image 2 of 8 for my digital painting graduate project.

As her face is central to the piece, and now all-too-familiar to me, I'd really appreciate any constructive criticism and tips!

I'm going for a semi-realistic semi-cartoon colourful style.

(Just in case anyone thought I was delusional enough to attempt photorealism for this...)

So far it's all turning out a lot better than I had imagined!
I've never painted so much, as realistically and with so many details before!
A lot of effort and a good challenge :)
J.x

Image Unavailable

I don't know if anyone will have noticed my lack of blog posts, but I thought I'd quickly let people know what's been going on.

I've been sick for the past two months, which I've tried to quietly work through but it soon became a burden, and I've been waiting for some kind of diagnosis.  Then I've had the flu for the past two weeks - hooray!!  Then I'll be going home for Christmas and catching up on essays, so there'll be no great picture posts for quite some time sadly!

I've managed to do some painting for my Children of Lír project, which has turned out so much better than I imagined!  That's eased a lot of my worries.  I really want to show what I did but, aarrrgghh...  I said I wouldn't until the exhibition!  At least not this image as it's too near the end.  Though I'll probably give in soon enough.  And feedback would be good to hear for improvements, as I'll always need them! :)

All this time stuck in bed, incapable of getting anything done but watching the whole series of The Wire, has given me plenty of time to think - about University, my loved ones, my future, how fast time goes, how easily it can be wasted, on people who aren't worth it/doing nothing at all/forgetting your priorities, and how even more easily it can all be over.

I ended up writing a list of things I want to do (not before I die or anything!).
There are a few personal projects that are still incomplete: The Winter Coast, an animation, t-shirt designs, character portraits...
And new art projects I've been dying to do that I'm super excited to start: photo-shoots, costume designing and creating, illustrative pieces to sell and loads more!
Then there are places to travel to and placements to apply for.

It reassured me that, no matter how this year turns out and could go awry, or what gets put on my degree certificate, my plans post-uni are going to stay the same.  I have so many things planned out I can't wait to begin my life in June!

After being in the education system since I was 3 years old and leaving it as I turn 23 I think it calls for doing whatever I want for a little while before joining the rat race or stepping onto the first rung of a career ladder.  With so many things that I'm interested in, I want to try a bit of everything and say yes to any opportunities that come along without worrying "where will this lead me?".  I'm not going to think about a single path to tread but enjoy meeting the crossroads.
Portfolios, CVs and publicity are momentarily put aside.  It's going to be time to just DO for a sense of my own personal achievement and, most importantly, for enjoyment!  The rest will then follow more easily, by creating a body of work I will enjoy looking back on and can passionately talk about.

It's going to be time that I lived my life as creatively as I try to be with my work.

As long as I can afford a roof over my head, food to eat, stay healthy(!) and keep my family and friends close I will be emotionally free enough to embrace and achieve my many mini artistic dreams.

Right now, I can't wait to be home for Christmas and get back to work.

Have a good holiday everyone!
Be merry, get fat, embrace your loved ones and all that!
(Poetry is not on my to-do list.)

J. x

A Quick Favour!

If you've not seen this on Twitter or my Facebook...

Please can you fill in my short survey?
It's for my dissertation and really important I get as many responses as possible.
It's suitable for everyone and will only take 5 minutes.
If you could fill it in and share the link, I'd super-duper appreciate it!

http://www.kwiksurveys.com/?s=ONLENJ_f76f9d99

J. x

Fink Before I Act

As a part of my development for my graduate project I've been doing little studies of colour and anatomy.  This is one of the ones I did today to study complexion.  The others were very quick for personal understanding and not worth looking at.

Charlie Fink from Noah and the Whale

I should point out my final pieces won't be done in this style (or lack of style).

I've learnt that, without references, my head chooses colours very close together in hue and tone when trying to be realistic, whereas in actuality there's a much broader range; lips are more violet, yellows blues and oranges are bold in the skin's tone.
And teeth are a pain in the bum.

J. x

Until June 6!

Beginning Final Image 2/8

And people thought last year was stressful...

I was required to make a personal work schedule for my graduate project last week.  It suddenly hit me how little time I really have to do anything - the project, dissertation, personal work (oh, personal work! I miss you!), and I'll try to forget what a social life is.  Six months used to sound like such a long time, but now I've started on the final pieces (at A2 size, 150dpi) I realise just how much I've got to do and how quickly I need to do it.

Schedule for 12 November to 6 June's exhibition

I skipped ahead of my schedule just a little bit to reassure myself in terms of my ability for the final images.  Luckily, I've got off to a decent start, which eases some of my worry.  I do worry!  I shouldn't.  I should be filled with certainty and confidence!  The trickiest thing with drawing is seeing exactly what you want to achieve in your mind and managing to translate it to the page/screen, or, worse, if the image in your head isn't certain and transforms and morphs every time you think about it.

If I'm going to be a very good student today, I'll be doing sketches of the King's throne, the Queen's magic chest (now now, it's a wooden box!) and have a look at some boats...  Now I've begun a final image the excitement is kicking in once more, and I'm finding it hard to not keep working on it before I've finished this pre-production design work.  A good and a bad thing!  :)

Like my Queen, I need to keep my chin up, hide my looks of worry and not misdirect my anger on any children.

J. x

The End of the Beginning

This is the final composition ideation of image 2 of 8 for my Graduate Project Proposal this Friday (28th Oct).  The white space is where intricate patterns/symbols will be, representing the wedding between the King and his new Queen, general love and signs of it decaying.  Of course, after the presentation changes can be made to any of my images, but shouldn't be anything too drastic.
Instead of composing scene stills, I've decided upon a more illustrative/conceptual approach.  I feel much more comfortable with this.  I realised that I find the unnatural most natural.
At this stage I need to be filled with certainty with all of my design decisions so I don't waste any of my own time and can commence my final paintings as soon as I can.
...And find time for my dissertation, finish my Threadless t-shirt, a couple of illustration favours for friends, and continue my comic.....
Oo-errrr!
I'm definitely graduating this year!  =/
J. x

Costume Development

This has to be the bit I find the most fun!

Developing the costumes for my 'Children of Lír' project, so I know exactly who I'm creating in the final 8 digital paintings for my degree.  I love creating characters, and the clothes they wear put them across and tell stories without words.  Even though I chose specific design inspirations there are so many costume possibilities; sleeves/cuffs, layers, ties/ribbons, collars/off-shoulder, what type of material and how it drapes...  It's dizzying - I need to stop time!  But the possibilities keep up my motivation.  I've yet to really hone in on the male characters, but King Lír is to be kept simple and strong, and the Princes are pretty much decided.  The females though...  Well, we can never have too many clothes! ;)

I start with a rough line draft

Then on a new layer I finalise the  line drawing before the colour...

I have a lot more to show and even more to do!

So I'll be uploading all the project's work in to a set on Flickr, so I have it all together in one place for anyone to see but, most importantly, to see my progress and not lose sight of what I'm aiming to achieve for the June exhibition.
J. x