Happy Hallowleen!

Here's just a little something I whipped up in a couple of hours on my day off. (Click the image to enlarge!)


Happy Halloween everyone! 


Have fun and stay safe :) 

Illustration Friday - Boundaries

This is the first Illustration Friday topic I've been able to do something for since finishing my university work. Unfortunately, I have also been catching up with my friends and rebuilding a social life which has meant I was unable to finish it in time for last Friday - whoops! 


Anyway, here it is. I've gone for a literal take on the topic - Boundaries, the focus on this piece was more one of experimentation. Doing these exercises I really want to push myself and work outside of my comfort zone. So I went for a different camera angle than I would usually chose and some strong exposure. I enjoyed playing around with the exposure and using it to create atmosphere, without blowing it out too much and losing the colour palette I was working with. Overall i'm happy with the outcome and looking forward to starting on this week's topic - Mesmerized.

Canadian Geese

This afternoon I have been mostly; drawing geese. Here are a selection of sketches I added some quick colour to. I really enjoyed playing around with different styles, it's definitely something I want to do more of in the future. 

Domestic Goddess

I begin this new spate of artwork with a little thank you to a person who has helped contribute to it. My lovely friend Lexie was my first visitor to come and congratulate me after completing my Ma and came bearing a card and presents of a new sketchbook, pencils, rubber and sharpener... She knows me too well. Anyway, here is the coloured version of the first sketch in my new sketch book - a portrait of Lexie. She has recently moved into a new house, with her partner, and I loved hearing how she is becoming quite the domestic goddess!

Blog Relaunch!

Wow, I knew I hadn't been great at maintaining my blog but I had no idea it had been neglected for seven months! Over the past year I have been completing my Masters degree and general life has had to be put on hold. There has been very little evidence of a social life and even less existence of sleep. However on Wednesday 7th September I handed in my final degree project and my formal education was over after eighteen years! I'm officially in the big wide world now, scary and exciting. 


So back to the blog; things are going to change- firstly a new look. I also aim to  update this blog at least twice a week with some new artwork. Ironically, even though I've been doing a MA in Animation I've had very little time to draw in the last three months due to the production of my short film (Trionfi). I've also had absolutely no time for personal work. Now I have a lot more time I really want to develop and grow as an artist and spend a whole lot more time on short exercises in different styles and subjects. 


Here we go! 

Christmas Gift Illustrations

These were done as a gift for my partner's mum and given as a Christmas present. They were put into 5" x 7" blue wood frames with the intention of them being hung in her naurtical themed bathroom. (She appeared to like them very much!) They were created through a combination of 2D and 3D techniques.

And a photo of the frames prints -

MA - Homage Project

he brief of my first project is; 'Homage, Genre Subversion and Remediation'. 

When I started thinking about the idea of 'homage' lots of things came to mind, I decided it would be a cool idea to maybe do a homage to an artistic style and also to a different content, by combining the two I could make an effective homage to both subjects but also develop them in a way neither had done before. 

The most obvoius influence i'd want to pay homage to, as an apiring animator, is the Walt Disney company. I think any professional animator would say their work has influenced them in some way and it certainly did with me. However because of this it's a rather obvious choice. This is when I started thinking about using the content but staying away from the Disney style and go in a different direction with that. I have admired the style of the Comfort conditioner adverts for a few years now and throughout my BA I always wanted to do something similar but never had the opportunity to do anything that paid homage to this. 

I liked the idea of taking some Disney content and producing it in 3D but using the everything-is-made-out-of-fabric style of the Comfort ads.

Here's an example of the Comfort adverts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYOtfK7bees

Below are four pieces of concept art which I did over the course of the week to experiment with how different character would work in this style.

In the end I went with Maleficent, below are a few renders after making her in 3D. This was a lot harder than I thought, converting a 2D character into 3D.

Fabric textures are a combination from these sets: 

http://fudgegraphics.deviantart.com/art/Fabric-Textures-Pack-95442514?q=boost%3Apopular%20fabric%20textures&qo=2

http://ormanclark.deviantart.com/art/High-Res-Fabric-Textures-182315104?q=boost%3Apopular%20fabric%20textures&qo=20

www.CGtextures.com

Made with help from this great set of stitch brushes:

http://aneesah.deviantart.com/art/Stitches-Photoshop-Brush-11268440?q=boost%3Apopular%20stitch%20brush&qo=4

Spare time doodles

I've recently had a rare week of spare time between semesters to do a few little private projects.(Click image for larger size)

This first piece was for the profile challege over at Design a Character on Deviant art. They have some great challenges over there, I always avoid looking at what other people produce until after i've finished mine. It's always nice to see all the different ideas that people come up with! The idea is they provide you with the solid black outline of the shape and you have to fill them in with a character. 

Another challenge from Design a Character. This time it was to design a character based on a description they provided (Inlcuded in the picture).

Got the idea for drawing this creature when I came across this blog a few weeks ago: [link]

It's described on the blog as -
"The Angha is a Persian monster also known as the Simurgh (and other variations of this spelling)

The Angha is said to have the front head and body of a dog, the wings and tail of a peacock and the claws of a lion. This monstrous mesh is often said to be gigantic enough to fly off with an elephant or a whale clasped in its talons. Showing up in Iranian art and literature, the huge dog-bird is a dangerous beast with a varied history. Benevolent in nature the Angha always lives near water, and one of the most famous myths surrounded a particular Angha (a female) claiming it as a protector of the tree of life. It protects the tree from people looking to steal it's wisdom without first earning it. In some legends the Angha can actually purify water from poisons and encourage fertility"

Obviously this is only my brief interpretation, I had to cut short the time I spent on it as i'm back at university now. If possible i'd love to continue with this challenge.

This is just a quick little something I did today in photoshop while rendering my current 3D project (it's not the easiest thing in the world to do - let me tell you!).

A little valentine gift for my bf- the worlds biggest owl fan. He had a bouquet of two dozen red roses delivered to my door, and he received this. I think you can tell who (or hooo -lulz) got the raw end of this deal.

Spare time - Playground

I had a spare day between projects and knocked this up in 3Dsmax over the course of a day, a children's playground. I liked the idea of modelling and texturing the playground in 3D and populating it with 2D children drawn over the top of a render, unfortunately I've had to since put this on hold for the forseeable future while I concentrate on MA work.

Task 04 - Dissolution

As task 03 (Nostalgia) didn't get beyond an animatic during the week time limit I shall post a bit later about how I developed it for one of my main projects. 

Task 04 - Dissolution was a tricky one for me. I decided to go with trying to portray different definitions of the word 'dissolution' in a quite literal way. The art style was based on Marc Davis' great portraits from The Haunted Mansion ride at Walt Disney World, a portrait that would appear to depict a normal situation until the room (and thus the pictures frame) stretches to reveal a more sinister image. 

Here is a coloured concept of the scientific definition of dissolution. Based on a body disoving into acid (cheery stuff!) The first image appears to show a woman lying quite happily in the bath but as the frame stretches the true nature of the image is revealed. 

Task 02 - Light and Colour

This was my second weekly task. I wanted to see if I could use only colour and light to change the mood/feeling of an image as opposed to the characters poses and expression. As this was done at the end of October the Halloween one was an added seasonal piece. (It's also my favourite of the three!)

Task 01 - Red Chases Blue concepts

Below are some of the concpet pieces I created for my 'Red Chases Blue' project. Done on and off over the course of a week. (Click image for larger size)