Long time no see

Well, well, well... It has been a while since I posted on here, but now I am back! In full effect.

Got some little sketches from my first Coffe Shop experience in Pret with the animation crew. I enjoyed my capuccino :)

Was linkjumping from Hans Bacher's blog (seriously, he has SO many links, it's insane), see what I could see, and came across this guy, David Hong. His digital work has such a painterly quality to it, I love it (he does also paint with traditional media); while I understand how you'd do that with real paint, I couldn't get my head around how you achieve it in Photoshop. It never had the same sort of ergonomic sense that physically putting more paint on your brush had.

So. My brother told me to play around with the different brushes in PS. So I did. And there we go, a bunch of scribbles turned out to be a tree in a field somewhere. Who'da thunk?

I'm going to investigate downloading custom brushes for PS - seems you can get all sorts: spray can runs, ones that emulate watercolour, paint splats, curly victorian-esque decorative bits... I'll post up here any that I find; and if anyone knows of any good sites already, let me know :)

Life's A Be-ach

Did some more drawings on the beach last time I was there with the girls. Lol @ the boys and their boat... good times! Hau-ies!!

Totally Film!

Aaaaaaaaaahhhh I so want to see this! It's coming out in France the 22nd of July, so maybe it'll make it's way over here too!! Even if I go by myself, I want to see it on the big screen. I spent many of my teenage years glued to the tv when it was on, and would plead with my parents to allow me to tape Totally Spies Days on Jetix (or back then, Fox Kids)... I haven't watched it on tv for ages, but now, I could say I'm watching it for reference, its educational value, blah blah blah... Or maybe, secretly, I do still love it.

Who's up for a trip to the cine?

http://totallyspies-lefilm.com/www/

Bit O' Inspiration

Bit of eye candy for ya...

Gen13 by Kelsey Shannon

See it on his Deviant Art here.

Yah, I know.

First things first, how unreal* are those colours??? HOW does ANYONE think of those colours, AND make them work?? SO awesome. It just astounds me how people can see colour in such a way, and understand about light and shadow and how they work together, how light is thrown, reflected light, colour of shadows... I mean, the shadows here are practically magenta. And the clouds are yellow and orange. And the palm trees are purple. And the smoke is purple.

Gaahhhhh my brain just goes into meltdown trying to fathom this. See, I reckon some people (like Kelsey) must just be born with some crazy ability with colour and understanding how it works, how to use it. I don't think I'm one of them. Though I wish I could be. Do you reckon it can be learnt?

I don't really know what else I'm trying to say about it, except wow. But I wish I could do it. And learn how to do that sort of purple gradient shading thing with the shadows and the glowy stuff round some of the flames (I need to learn Photoshop better). And just learn to draw in perspective like that.

Only comes through trial and practise, I guess.

This week... I'm gunna try it.


Possibly.

(We all know what I'm like.)

*I mean unreal in the good sense

New Theme!

Iiiiiiit's Sunday night, and you all know what that means!!!! Time for the New Weekly Theme!! Woo! This week, the theme is...

Fresh Eyes.

A little cryptic, perhaps, but interpret it how you want. HOWEVER you want. Jumping off points might be 'looking at things with fresh eyes', new perspectives, different angles, fresh outlook on life... Be as deep and meaningful or shallow and I-only-had-five-minutes as you like :)

You have until the following Sunday night to upload everything you've done to your blog (which is the 5th of July... and my birthday, by the way).

Happy creating.

Mr Gary's Tote Bag

Realised I never actually got round to putting up my response to Gary's theme! So here it is, in all its glory. They're not that amazing lol, but you get the idea (there were supposed to be several designs reflecting different positive personality traits, so people could choose one they liked best).

Berol, Biro, Boats and Beach

I bought a brand spankin' new sketchbook in town on Monday, and ended up christening it on the beach. It was such a clear day, and the sun was hot, with a cool seasidey breeze... The sea was the most gorgeous bluey-green colour, and the sky was so blue. It was beautiful.

Where I was, I was just down the way from the launch for boat tours of the cliffs, so could see that boat pootling about, taking people to see the cliffs and the lighthouse and back. In the distance, a small collection of sailing boats and a couple of speed boats. Was a nice day for it!

Kinda looks like a pirate ship!

Rocking the Berol and the biro again. :)

Train Journeys

A little while back I was travelling back home by train and tried to draw at least one person from each station we stopped at. I think I'm beginning to get to the stage where I just don't care about being inconspicuous with my drawing, though being sat on a train, at your own table, and drawing people out the window is fairly safe lol.

One from Uncle Sam's (shout out to Claire (left) and Kim (right) and the HH4A Friday night crew!)

I'm enjoying drawing with one of those Berol fine felt-tip pens - I always remembered using them in school during wet play when you'd be stuck in the classroom drawing away for ages. They're actually really good pens; nice line weight and good flow. And quite cheap!

I'm back!

Eesh, I haven't posted for a while... Hopefully that'll change though - I've nearly finished unpacking so should be able to sit down and actually do some stuff. I'll be posting up my response to Mr Gary's last brief (with the eco tote bags), possibly think of a new theme for the week, and there's some animating that I want to do (now I've got my lightbox back)! I'm thinking something for the Solent Tent at the Glade Festival and this month's 11 Second Club.

Recently I've been listening to Clay Kaytis' Animation Podcast. If you haven't listened to it yet, I'd really reccommend it; there's a whole backlog of interviews with various people in the animation industry - Eric Goldberg, Ron and John, Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, James Baxter... Total goldmine. You can either listen from the website - http://animationpodcast.com/ - or find it under the Podcast Directory on iTunes. I'm trying to find some other animation-related podcasts on iTunes, so will post those up when I've found some more :)

I've posted now, ok David??

I wanted to embed this in the post, but for some reason it won't copy all the code, have to just stick with a plain ole link. David said I must do something to my blog today, so there. I have appeased David. Enjoy.
I'm loving it. Hahaha, makes me smile...
ba-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-da-ba-da-da-baaaaaaaa, wo jiu xi huan :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ovu7rdEcE

Naw, I do really have something else planned to put on here, just haven't got round to it yet, and can't do it right now as I am eating very very salty pasta. Why is it so salty?? I didn't add any salt! Maybe it was in the freezer for too long. Hmmm....

Thursday's Batman

Been working on this digital Batman for a little while now (from my earlier pencil version). I feel it needs something more, but I can't tell what it is, so I'll leave it as it is. Enjoy.

24-hour comic: Pages 17-20

Here are the last few pages of the 24h comic! I have exceeded my personal best (14 pages), which is great! though I am leaving page 20 as an unofficial ending; in theory, we still have 6 hours to go (and I only have 4 pages to go), but I'm unable to give anymore time to it, aaaaand can't face drawing anymore!! So, while I may finish it eventually, it looks like page 20 is where it's at for the timebeing. You can at least make up your own ending. See! It's interactive! (the cabal of zombies was a feature in each of our comics, something we each had to include somehow)

I got to see the third years' final films today in a proper cinema! Was awesome; so, so good! BIG congrats to everyone! And every success in whatever you all go onto from here! Got me thinking about when I'll be in their shoes. It seems so close, and yet so far away... My gosh, I'm gunna be in the second year in October. Hardly seems possible. Mental.


Top to bottom: 17, 18, 19, 20

24-hour comic: Pages 11-16

Top to bottom: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

24-hour comic: Pages 6-10

Top to bottom: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

24-hour comic: Pages 1-5

Top to bottom: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Thought I'd upload my comic so far... Done 16 pages, and got 8 hours to go. Don't reckon I'll manage to ink it all in time (unless I resort to stick men!), but I quite like the pencil, so I'll go with the that's-the-way-it's-supposed-to-look excuse lol. I'll upload the rest once I've completed it.