Male Character Concepts.

Male characters (shock horror!! I rarely draw males...) on brown paper with mechanical pencil & gel pen.

Further Brown Paper Experiments... Pastel is involved...

Some experiments with white pastel on brown paper with some pencil & charcoal thrown in.

Deep - Corridor Change of Perspective

The corridor needed to be viewed from a slightly lower angle in the shot to reduce certain elements of the animation - the legs moving in this case... Which I actually found quite difficult. I couldn't quite seem to grasp how the whole perspective thing works for a little while & had to look at several references.

There's also the addition of Greek elements in the form of statues & further detail added to the ceiling as more of it is visible.

Deep - Store Room Development.

The beginnings of the concept for the store room in the 101 Dalmations style scene. Playing around with ideas for the wall with the main detail at first to develop later.

Below is the initial concept for the store room, with inspiration from some of the 101 Dalmations shots.

However after discussion with the director it was said that it should be less destroyed in it's appearance... so a little clean is required...

The design below is the second design for the store room wall, revised to be less destroyed & with the addition of Greek references in the form of the statue. Also slightly modernised with a hoover included...

Pre Production - Concept Development.

A concept piece for pre production.

Initial idea is of a female mermaid who's world is ruined by an oil spill, her journey to discover what is the source leads to devastating results & the damnation of herself.

Also first attempt at a real digital painting... I think I need more practice...

Pre Production - Anti Gravity Development.

Concept based on the idea of anti gravity & the contrasts of the worlds people would choose & how things would change.

Hand Drawn Typography.

Hand drawn typography of something my grandfather said.

Deep - Corridor Concepts & Colour.

I developed this concept from the previous layout page, but adapting the perspective.

As oppose to looking from above the characters, I have attempted to make it appear as though it's from around knee height... which was a struggle. 

I am not so keen on the water colour in this design, but without a reference I found it difficult to envision the lighting. However another member of the group working on this scene is also developing this design in digital colour. 

I feel more defined shadows are required! & maybe some pencil to define certain areas & add slight more detail. Although I think I may have gone a little overboard on the cracks etc.

But we shall see how the director feels & what direction he would like me to go in!

DEEP - Corridor Concepts & Layout.

The Deep scene I'm working on is the 101 Dalmations style corridor & store room.

Decided to go for a slightly more technical approach as oppose to going slap bam into the whole design & essentially looked at each wall & played around with designs for each wall. Whilst looking at details such as the chandeliers & drawing from reference.

Messing Around with Colour.

As someone who hasn't really used so much colour in the past & doesn't feel quite as proficient as I probably should using colour, I thought I should do more...

So above is a picture of lots of boobies in lots of different line art styles & lots of different colour experiments. I played with the use of pencil, copic style markers & a little water colour.

Below is a slightly more detailed water colour - with less boob, sorry - combined with ink & some coloured pencil. Inspired by Helen Green, who is pretty famous for painting Lady Gaga, using a more blended style.

Below; rough Photoshop digital paint of a lotus girl.

In The Style Of... Art Of Alvin.

Previously posted about an art I was interested in who on the internet is known by 'Art Of Alvin'.

So I started attempting to recreate his style as I thought it would help me be looser & less crisp & clean in my drawing, as well as a lot quicker!

Everything seems to look better on brown paper...

Oh & I started using white gel pen as opposed to white pastel type pencil...

Pre Production - Anti Gravity Concepts & Ideas.

So, the pre production project this semester is again about developing about ideas & a production bible.

An initial starting point was the idea of anti gravity. So to the left is a little brain storm... first about anti gravity & then a 'what if'...?! I went for 'what if you woke up & your world was turned upside down...?!?!' Literally, not figuratively. You woke up & literally your bedroom was upside & you were face first on your ceiling...

I did a little storyboard based on this idea. A guy wakes up, pretty oblivious to the situation of his upside down world at first & then lo & behold he is in a heap on his ceiling floor...

After realising what on earth has happened, panic & shock horror ensues. Leading to comedic running around in confusion, hanging from swinging curtains & holding onto to walls horrified...

Brief character sketch/concept... barely developed...

& below is a brief concept of an anti gravity idea of people living in tree houses & in trees as they are able to walk up trees & hang from branches with ease. Ideal frankly!!

DEEP - 101 Dalmations Style & Copies.

The dominant style of the Deep scene I'm working on is 101 Dalmations - references in a previous post! - so I attempted to copy some of the images from the mansion.

I am not so great at painting... but this style allows me to practice my water colour skills in a less photo realistic style! The design is more to do with texture & lined shadows as opposed to blended colours & shadows.

There is also some visibility of lines & paint strokes which I also had some fun 'attempting' to create the appearance of texture & such.

I also played with using marker pens but I failed a bit & it just looks a bit rubbish due to the tones of colour & the lack of blending in the colours...

But in getting into the style has definitely helped, particularly with the colour scheme & how the lighting works. Also found I preferred the fine liner look as opposed to paint or pencil as it allowed for more detail...

Crocodile Tears - The Beginning....

The first shots I cleaned up & coloured for the third year project Crocodile Tears!

I chose to work on this animation for the crew project as it is an interesting storyline & it is a 2D project which is what I have been most interested in working in so far through the course.

My main learning curve at the initial stages of being part of the animating team was the amount of guidelines in place in order to ensure continuity. I had to ensure each stage of the clean up were exactly as demonstrated in the guidelines & the model sheets, which also illustrated to me how I would need to emulate this in the third year myself in order create the same continuity.

New Project - Deep!!

So this semester we are working on the film Deep, created by very own course leader Derek Hayes.

As a film with the concept of celebrating physical film - the long spools of plastic which are practically non existent now - it's pretty exciting to work on, particularly to the massive array of interesting styles within each section of the film.

My role at the moment is to work on the backgrounds - a store room & corridor - in the scene with a 101 Dalmations inspired style to it. Which I'm excited to take further & I think will be a challenge for me! Especially as part of this will require modelling in 3D as details, such as the door, need to move. So this would be easier to created in 3D.

So I've researched the 101 Dalmations interiors for a bit of inspiration & looked at the artists Walt Peregoy & Ernie Nordli. & I will obviously also watch the film to gain more inspiration & insight!! (Watching films as research... love.)

Random Sketches...

A few random sketches of 2014! Mainly line art & trying out a few different styles inspired by illustrators such as Liz Clements & Gabriel Moreno.

My favourite puppy!!!

Lyrical Interpretations.

After a recent four hour drive home & a lot of music playing to keep me from boredom, I had many images popping in my head inspired by the lyrics & these are a few I had engrained after the journey & had to get down on pairs.

The Kills - Damned If She Do.

Biffy Clyro - 9/15ths

The Kills - Hook & Line

Halestorm - Love Bites.

Character & 'Fashion' sketches.

Playing around with character ideas... some chunkier characters & some steampunk inspired characters!

Attempting to dabble in fashion illustration... & playing with coloured pencils!

Brown Paper Sketches.

Experimenting with sketches on brown paper.

Which I thoroughly enjoy as I'm able to be less controlled & the end result seems to still look good...