Honors Study Update

Still life studies of objects of significance, getting a sense of the colours and shapes associated with a by-gone era.

Back at Uni

Another year of uni and another blog, find my Honours blog listed at the top of this page, on the Hons I will be discussing not only my animation project but also my research thesis and exegesis progress. Check it out here.

In other news, I've taken up a painting elective this semester to give me a 'release' from the stresses of computer and digital based art creation. Last weekend was our first painting weekend, did I mention the class was on Saturday? Yep it is, I suppose there could be worse ways to spend your Saturday morning. The disappointing aspect for me at the moment was learning that we will only be using acrylics, was hoping to learn watercolour or oils, oh well it will be good to have some formal training in that medium as well. Here was our lesson on tone:

An Animator mixing it up with the Fine Arts Students.

Painting still life of boxes working with Tone

Disney Coloured Pencil Illustrations

I first started these illustrations in 1995 after we travelled to Disneyland on a trip I won. Part of the prize was spending money at the Disney store and I bought 2 sketch books (amongst many other things).

The later sketches were done instead of doodling when at work in a call centre, I find that drawing helps me thing, odd huh? The sketch is done in lead pencil first and my coloured pencil brand of choice is Faber Castell.

Pocohontas

Simba from The Lion King

Radcliffe from Pocohontas

King John from Robin Hood

Narrator from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Esmarelda from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Centaur from Fantasia

Pocohontas

Pegasus from Hercules

Quasimodo from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Ariel from Little Mermaid

Buzz Lightyear from Toystory

Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland

Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland

Sully from Monsters Inc

Beast from Beauty and the Beast

Thumper from Bambi

Mulan

All characters remain copyright to Walt Disney Animation Pictures & Pixar

Vinylmation Completed

The vinylmation that I began to commemorate our 2009 trip to LA and Walt Disney Animation Studios at Burbank, has finally been completed.

Special Screening of Princess and the Frog at Walt Disney Animation Studio Lot 

TShirt Design

TShirt design competition for Deviant Art. Concept had to be based around the 1950s and 60s vision of the future and sci-fi. Here is my entry and work flow:

Learning a New Program

New Year, new program! Looking at doing something quite different for my Hons project, aesthetically different in terms of the animation styles that I have tried in the past. I think that the story I want to tell needs a more artistic authentic visual that looks as though it has been scratched into paper. Well that is where it is headed at the moment. I have started compiling a reference folder and have tried TVPaint for the very first time tonight. I quite like the idea of using it to obtain a painterly aesthetic whilst still using good ol Toon Boom Animate Pro for the bulk of the animation, this was a tip from film maker Simon Cottee who used it in his final year film.

TVPaint Interface- Gonna take some getting used to...

Mucking around with the interface and brushes.

I think that the style of render in TVPaint will suit my colouring style and at the moment I am toying with using it predominantly for the backgrounds with an almost pen and ink style for the animation and figures- just an idea, influenced by the Monk and the Fish aesthetic:

Character Commission- Dutazzi

To keep focus over the holidays and so that I can safely avoid working on my honours project which is at a standstill at the moment; I decided to complete a WoW commission I had been trying to get through during the madness of final assessments. Here is the progress on Dutazzi a lvl 85 Troll Hunter.

Finished product

Keeping the Creativity Flowing

One of the easiest things to do when on holiday from uni is to start seeing illustrating with a directive as work and to therefore avoid it. To overcome this, I search the net looking for competitions or open calls for illustrations so that I continue to practice working to a brief and deadline even when not at uni. The past few weeks have seen me design and complete a Christmas card for gaming company, Blizzard. The brief was that the card had to include characters from either Starcraft, Diablo and/or World of Warcraft; so I went with all of them on the one card.

SketchJam

Weekly sketchJam, the colours and theme are set each week and we have approximately an hour to complete the drawing. This week we had to draw a humanoid monster thing and as I've been sick all week mine ended up being a snot demon lol.