[CENSORED]

I've felt for a while that modern media aimed at children is overly censored.  Where are the curse words?  The sexual innuendos?  The violence?  The villains that make you never want to watch again and by next week ask your parents to put it on?  It's why I love Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park!  The childhood memories of entertaining fear and adventure while in the comfort of the sofa.

This is what I considered before I started to create my 'Pied Piper' adaptation and why I decided to take little Andi's hand away.

Kids aren't stupid, they know what goes on in life no matter how much you try to protect them, and they can handle a lot more than we'd like to think.

I want parents to stop being afraid of their children being afraid.

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

When you queue up for a roller coaster you dread it, but you stay in the queue, don't you? After all the screaming you get off laughing and often want to go again.  And not because you're not scared any more, you are, but you know that afterwards you'll be alright.

J. x

Bollywood, The Works!

In Britain we have an amazing little high street chain called The Works which has some great discounted books and art equipment.  I went in on Tuesday to meet a friend, and spotted this for £2.99:

I saw it and got very excited!

I love the sumptuous colours and designs of Indian film and culture.

I had the excuse of needing change for the shopping trolley and cheekily bought it.

It's filled to the brim with colour page spreads and a concise history of Bollywood, broken down into film genres...

Posters for the film Jodhaa Akbar - one of my favourite films!

About 216 pages 'with 225 colour illustrations', it's well worth trying to find!

Next year I might incorporate elements of Eastern/Indian culture into my graduate project.

Post-Holiday Blues Meets Pre-Holiday Bliss

Happy new year, I hope you had a good holiday season.

I've not posted for a while due to the aforementioned 'holiday' where I didn't do much that can be considered post-worthy.
Plus, I was ill - again!  From Boxing Day for a week.  With flu!!
I hope this isn't a new fortnightly sickly habit I'm developing...
I have to admit, being so ill really shook my confidence.  It's taken me a while to feel capable of doing anything and my work has piled up.
I've been in the all too familiar place of feeling not worthy to even consider myself amongst 'the art crowd', but it's a matter of telling myself I will continue to improve and learn for the rest of my life.
It also helps when one of your heroes gives you a few words of advice....

On the 6th of January, Iain McCaig - the genius that is - had a web chat on his blog around 6pm Pacific time. It was midnight for me and I held on until 4am.  It was totally worth it!
People that were online asked him questions which McCaig answered with the wisdom of experience and such humility I was taken by surprise and love him all the more for it.
Someone asked for his opinion on how we are able to draw exactly what we picture in our mind's eye, and why we are so UN-able to do it.  This was his response:

"You're probably finding it hard because you also want it to be good"

A light bulb went off in my mind.  I felt pressure lifting from my shoulders.
Stop trying so hard, Jess...

But this was by far the best thing he wrote to we budding unemployed trying to make it:

"We are the industry.  The industry is formed by what we do, our visions.
It is the job of an artist to express to the world who they are and how they see and feel about things - in other words, their TRUTH.  My truth is no more valid than yours.  So you and I are equals.
There will never ever be a better you.  So if you learn to show that to the world, your art will be every inch as good as mine, just different."

Wow.  I was speechless.
Not that I was asking him anything anyway, I had only been staring at the screen in awe.
After four hours of his time, Iain signed off with:

"May the Muse be with you.  Always."

So yeah, I guess I was finally inspired to get down to my work for the semester.  I have a lot of it!
Currently I'm modelling a humanoid witch doctor/Zulu type character in 3Ds Max, which is fun but completely new for me.  If it looks any good I'll post a couple of renders.
Outside of class I'm honoured to be illustrating a comic script written by a fellow student to be printed in 'Bagatelle', a small comic and literary anthology.
I'll tell you more about it when it's completed and on sale!

My Pied Piper project lasts until April/May, but I have to give a presentation on what my final piece will be for the end of year exhibition.  Eep!
  
I'm very grateful that I have a lecturer who understood how much being sick took out of me, and I've been fortunately granted a couple of extensions.

Worried about being behind, I decided to forego the class trip to Paris in March.
I refused to continue feeling sorry for myself....
So, in July, I'll be going to MOROCCO!
I couldn't be more excited!  I expect to have so many photos I break my computer.
It will be my personal pay off for finishing this year, hopefully with work to be proud of.

Sorry if the length of this post put you off so you jumped straight to this last bit!
My next one will have pictures - even if they're not mine - promise.
Thanks for reading guys.
J. x

'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

Redesigning. Recuperating.

I've finally been struck down with whatever horror has been doing the rounds!  There's nothing more deadly to your artistic energy than illness.  And maybe television.  Which is what I only have the energy for at the minute!

To feel like I'm capable of something creative I made the banner above.  What do you think?

I hope I feel better soon - I've been wanting to draw so much all day.
I'm prescribing myself a good dosage of children's films.

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

Exciting Times!

After a lot of contemplation, lasting over a year, I've decided to leave my BA Illustration course. Everything seems to be right in its timing for this to be my final decision.

I went through the whole of my first year feeling unsatisfied, constantly trying to please tutors and failing, all the while letting my own happiness be sacrificed. I started the second year filled with more optimism after getting to grips with my time management and work load, but then the work I was given wasn't right for what I wanted to be doing. Project after project I felt I was trying to be another person in my work, nothing came naturally anymore, and the briefs that were set weren't with the clients I had had in mind. I am a story teller, a character creator, and here I was trying to be a graphic designer, event promoter, typographer...
Once I realised this, I knew I needed to take some sort of action. With great encouragement from my loved ones I searched around for some advice.
I contacted a Senior Concept Artist, asking how he got his career and what could I do to get there one day, despite my soon-to-be shortcomings in qualifications. The reply I received was much more than a wishing of good luck, it was real aid. Not only did he ask to see work I had done already but he also set me work to do. Soon I was following the Conceptual Artist course he runs. Then there was a downside to this optimism.

Still being on the Illustration course, starting the second semester, I didn't have the time I wanted to be doing this work on the side. I was letting myself down. What point was there sacrificing my ambitions and dreams for the sake of a few good marks in work that I didn't even enjoy? I would end my degree, feebly, with a portfolio demonstrating what I'm only decent at, which would then possiblyjustmaybe get me work in areas of design I would resent and feel like a complete fraud. That was that.

I spoke to a tutor about my first semester (where three of my projects in a row were marked 3rds) and confessed I wasn't happy, haven't been for a long time, and I'm heading in the wrong direction. Contrary to my fear of being told I'm a failure or have to stick it out anyway, I was advised to speak to another member of staff about my possibilities. After much discussion and bureaucracy change may be about to occur.

 I am currently sat in the Graphics and Illustration studio hoping this will be the last time I need to be here. I am waiting to meet with my possible future tutor, to see how soon I can join the first year of The Art Of Games Design course. On it I will continue Life Drawing classes, learn 3D programming and design, and, most exciting of all, conceptual art work for games; characters, environments, weapons, vehicles... Even better, this design work does not confine me solely to games but can be used for animation, film, and TV. Finally I will be given the specific learning requirements I want yet the broad stroke to approach projects for different media.

Despite how much I resented the Illustration course there is still a lot I have taken with me. My work ethic, time management, awareness of presentation, use of design programs, and of course html coding and my very own bit of cyberspace.

I am feeling much happier and hopeful, which I haven't done for a very long time.

J. x