Merry Christmas, Goodbye 2013!

Living in a different country meant that returning home for Christmas with my family really felt as special and exciting as it was when I was little.

Ho ho ho! ... Merry Christmas folks! 

I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families and friends, eating and drinking everything in sight until you fell asleep in front of the TV... Like me. It's that time of year again and, although i'll refrain from a tiraid about how quick time is flying by, it really is staggering how swiftly his year has come and gone. 

I apologise for the lack of updates in the last couple of months. I had been doing so well until November! I had the adventure of a lifetime when myself and my partner went to California for 3 weeks for an incredible road trip that ended with us flying in a helicopter to the Grand Canyon and a stint in Vegas! It was our first trip to CTNX which was truly an amazing experience. It was invaluable to meet artists I have been friends with online for years, a couple for over a decade! I spent time laughing and learning from heroes, peers, teachers and strangers who became contacts and friends. We were fortunate enough to meet with our friends at Disney Feature Animation, Pixar and Disney Imagineering to show us around and give us a glimpse of the magic that really happens in these places. It's safe to say I absolutely fell in love with California, I have always strove to get over there but having now been there as a visitor it's really fanned the flames of a burning desire to get out there on a more permanent basis one day.

The end of the year is always time for reflection and as I sit here polishing off the last of a mountain of Christmas chocolate I can't help but marvel at what a crazy year it's been. If someone had told me at the beginning of 2013 (or even half way through!) that I would be ending the year living in a different country and working in another new country I would've laughed a lot and backed slowly away from you, careful not to break eye contact with the crazy person.

It's really thrown light onto the fact that you really don't know what's around the corner! This is an odd concept for me because, although I've always known this to be true, It's rare to be faced with something so immediately life changing. It's been difficult at times but I'm striving to embrace it and I do love a good challenge!

I didn't intend on this being a rambley end-of-year post but it's definitely turned into one! I wish everyone who has read this far and wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2014. Enjoy one more day of festive over indulgence before we all get our heads down, diet, detox (for January at least!) and draw like maniacs for another year.

Happy Halloween!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween! Halloween, Halloween. Halloween, Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm working on my portfolio like a crazed, mad woman in preparation for my first trip to California, and CTNX , so here's a little quickie to loosen up and celebrate the season.

Have a spooktacular night!

Madame Mim

Here's the result of my redesign of Madame Mim for my Polynesian take on 'Sword in the Stone'. She went through a lot of changes along the way but i'm happy with how she ended up. Working with such distinctive hair was quite the design challenge, I thought about reigning in the colour to something more natural (it would've made the over all palette easier to come up with) but I liked it and pushed through and didn't take the easy way out and substitute it for a dark brown. She's a bit more evil than the original and she definitely has more of a darker side but, at the same time, I wanted to make sure she didn't lose her great eccentricity.

Exercise in Spain

I've started trying to work out and do some exercise in Spain... Most of the time it actually feels like i'm physically melting in the heat. 

A Helping Hand

I saw the loveliest old couple together today on my lunch break. They got off the bus together and, even though the man was relying on a walking stick himself, he still held hands and helped his elderly wife step down from the bus door. It made my heart melt a little.

Soak it Up

A little, late night cool down sketch before bed. Trying to strip things back a bit and develop a clean, simple technique for more quick character pieces from life.

Sonia the Birthday Belle

This is a birthday gift for one of my favourite people in the world, my friend Sonia. Her favourite film is Beauty and the Beast so I drew her in Belle's dress. She absolutely loved it :)

...Sonia was 26 yesterday by the way ;)

Life Sketch - Barbie Girl

This was based on a young girl by the pool yesterday who, while her mum was sunbathing, took great joy in throwing her naked Barbies into the pool and then flinging them around and spraying cold water on the nearby adults.

Life Sketches - Moped Lady

Over the weekend Dan and I drove from London, UK through the whole of France and down through the whole of Spain until we reached my new apartment on the Costa Del Sol. Over the last five days I have seen so many great characters out and about. I'm going to try and use these characters as nice bite sized warm ups to get settled back into the groove of things after moving house (and country!). Here's a very large Spanish woman who was in front of me today on a ti
ny moped, it really was a wonder she kept her balance.

Adventure is out There

Hey everyone,

I've been terrible at keeping up with social media and updating my blog over the last month. I thoroughly intend to sort that out as soon as possible! Over the last few weeks my life has taken a dramatic, and unexpected turn; I was approached by a mobile and social games company, who loved my work but... they were based in Gibraltar. 

I pursued it (mostly out of curiosity) and did a few Skype interviews before getting invited out there to meet everyone in the studio and explore the country. It's really an amazing place, I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone to visit. It's like a Mediterranean Britain!

A very hard decision followed. Freelance work has been going really well over the last year, I have a long term boyfriend of nearly 6 years who has a fantastic job as a VFX supervisor in London, not to mention leaving everything I know and my friends and family. I weighed it all up; Dan and I decided we could make it work and could afford to fly back and forth to spend time together. My friends and family didn't take much convincing to come and stay in my Spanish apartment and my wages would be enough to allow me to fly back at least once a month so I wouldn't be disappearing full stop.

Very, VERY long story short; last week I accepted the job as an Interactive Designer with emphasis on Character Design. I will be flying my beloved London nest and moving to Spain tomorrow (!). Dan and I are embarking on an epic road trip across Europe, down through France and Spain to hopefully arrive at my new coastal apartment Sunday night. Obviously I will be offline for a while until I get the internet sorted and get settled over there, so this will be the last update for a week or two. Thank you for baring with me! 

This is all very crazy and I have no idea how it's got to this point but I have a good feeling about it all!

... Adventure is out there!

Lounging

Just a quick warm up for this Friday morning. I'm trying to strip things back a bit for these warm up exercises and not get too sucked into making them bigger pieces.

A King is Born

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates this month. Work has really picked up pace and although you'll never catch me complaining, it does mean I have had much less time to get some personal pieces done!

Unless you live on Mars (and let's be honest, you'd probably still have heard!) you will know that on the 22nd July Kate Middleton gave birth to her and Prince William's first Son, and our future King. The atmosphere in London has really been one of joy and excitement over the last few days. aside from anything else it really is lovely to just have a bit of good news on the TV and in the newspapers.

This is just a quick warm up painting to get back into the swing of things after a few days of in studio work.

Summer is Here

It's taken quite a few months but it seems Summer has finally arrived in London. This was just a quick  warm up (getit?!) doodle to get back into the swing of the week.

Summit Plummet iPhone Case

Unfortunately, a few weekends ago, after nearly three wonderful years together my beloved iPhone4 was stolen while I was in a bar in London :( Massive sad/frustrating/angry emotions gave way to the realisation that I needed a new phone. Off I went to my first ever trip to the Apple store where i walked out with a shiny new iPhone5 (that I will now be guarding with my life). I'm one of those people that won't take my phone out of the house without a bullet proof case and a perfectly positioned screen protector. Hence, my iPhone4 was in beautifully mint condition after nearly three years *cry*

The long and short of this anecdote was that I decided to illustrate a design that could be printed as my iPhone case. I wanted to make something that makes me smile, as i'll be looking at it a lot - as my phone's always on me. I also wanted to play on the longer, thinner shape of the iPhone5. All this culminated in Summit Plummet. If you have no idea what this is have a read here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/blizzard-beach/attractions/summit-plummet/

It's not spot on the reference as I wanted to adapt it for my purpose. It's also a more graphical style than I usually go for but I thought it'd work best :)

Here's some photos on it on my phone!

Dan's Birthday Cake

Lately, I love settling down for my lunch break with an episode of 'Cake Boss', Buddy is my new hero. Cakes have become a bit of a hobby for me recently. They're such good fun (and hard work!), it's always nice to share the results with friends and family and it keeps me away from the PC screen for a good chunk of hours.

So this is a birthday cake I created containing the eclectic collection of, my boyfriend, Dan's favourite critters! The cake is vanilla sponge with chocolate buttercream (and crushed up Crunchies mixed in) covered with vanilla frosting and fondant. Fondant animals and chocolate Rice Krispie trees mean everything on this cake is edible. Luckily he loved it, bonus: It tasted amazing! 

(Apologies for the iPhone photography!)

Tiki Match 3 Game

This was part of an art test for a social games company gig that unfortunately fell through. My aim for this was to produce a 'match 3' game board, background and six unique icons for a game that has mass market appeal for all ages and that isn't gender specific. I'm really quite happy with the results. Please excuse the large watermarks but I really don't want this to be taken and reused elsewhere.

Simba and Mufasa

When I was little, pretty much all I would draw would be terrible reproductions of these guys. In my opinion it's still the best film ever and I decided to revisit my favourite cinematic father and son combo, briefly, seeing as though it was Father's Day yesterday.

Ellie's Race for Life

A little something for my younger sister, Ellie. She completed the Cancer Research UK 'Race for Life' 5k in memory of our Dad, on Father's Day. He past away six years ago when I was 18 and she 14.

Her sponsorship page can be found here: https://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/eleanorscott2013

Bat

I'm a bat! Just a little warm up from today.

Merlin and Archimedes

This is an illustration, done as part of my portfolio project, showing Merlin and Archimedes together with their final designs. I've done a lot of development work with these two and I'm glad they seem to be working together. I'd like to think I've finally got these guys down now! Time to move on to the next task! :)

Antelope

A little warm up for the week to try and get over that Monday hump! I do love spindly legged antelopes.

Amy Pond Pin Up

This is really the first time I've ever attempted anything like this and it was a lot of fun! I'm hoping to do some more in the future. This was a little illustration for my other half who has had to put up with a full week of post Iron Man 3 swooning over Robert Downey Jr. This is one for all the Dr Who and Amy Pond fans out there!  

Bowling Couple

These two were part of a painting that, unfortunately, just wasn't working. I got to the point where I felt it was better to just scrap it and start over. I quite liked the characters though, hopefully they'll be developed and seen again.  

Happy St. George's Day

Today is St. George's day! Here's a little quickie to celebrate the patron Saint of England. To read more about him take a look here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George's_Day

Merlin's Hut

Here's some more design work for my portfolio project of a Polynesian re-imagining of The Sword in the Stone. I'm really much more of a character designer but I'm trying to develop my skills in other areas. The bottom image was done a few weeks before the final image (top) I wasn't happy with the relatively flat composition so I went back to doing a few thumbnails with more dynamic camera angles. I moved the hut back into the edge of the jungle to make it more integrated with the environment and also used a bolder technique which I prefer to the original image. Overall I'm much happier with the final piece! 

 Final Image

Thumbnails

Original Image

The Ice Gator

I love scrolling through the Fan Art Friday artwork that fills my Twitter timeline each week and decided, this week, I should give it a go. Now, I know it's Monday! The sketch was done on Friday and can be found over at my Twitter. It's always fun to draw well loved and known characters and I'm a big fan of Blizzard Beach, out in Disney World Florida. The weather in London has finally brightened up over the last few weeks (it was actually snowing last weekend)! Warm and sunny weather makes me long to be lounging in a water park and I think the only character who might understand the changeable UK weather would be the Ice Gator, who lost his slopes and snow capped peaks when Florida's first ski resort melted into Blizzard Beach.

Goth Girl

A quick sketch of a striking girl I was stood next to on the underground yesterday, scanned in and coloured digitally. I love coming across unique looking individuals, they're so much fun to draw!

Raccoon

This started of as a warm up sketch that I developed a little more. Consciously trying to push the shapes of my characters more.

Merlin Expressions

Some expressions for my redesign of Merlin as a tiki witchdoctor. I loved doing these! For more information have a look at this blog post. 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope the Easter Bunny bought you many chocolate eggs :)

Merlin the Witchdoctor

Warning: Barrage of words coming up! Scroll down for arty stuff :)

At the beginning of the year I embarked on a big personal project to work on in between freelance gigs, that in the process will hopefully form my new portfolio in time for CTNX. As part of my 'Audacious Accomplishment', that I'm completing with the guidance of Chris Oatley, I aim to produce a visual development portfolio and redesign an established film in a completely different world. 

After many film nights and reading around, I settled on ‘The Sword in the Stone’. A film I haven’t watched since I was tiny, I revisited it after reading up on my Arthurian tales and thinking ‘hey, old legends and stories would be a great basis for this project!’ I'm referring to the 1963 Disney version. I also watched ‘Excalibur’ but I found it a far more complex explanation of the story, i‘d like to keep things relatively simple (story wise) for this project. I don’t fancy having to tackle all of Merlin’s history! I'm going to set the story on a Polynesian island, Merlin is a witch doctor and the kingdom rules over a tropical island…much different to England. Archimedes will be a more exotic bird and Arthur will be a small tribal boy.

I don’t intend to change the story beyond very small details. I’m no writer; the sword is still a sword and it’s still stuck in a stone. I love the focus on Merlin’s journey with Arthur and his lessons. I think Archimedes is a brilliant character, he is perfect as an owl but I’d find it a fun challenge to redesign him. Merlin, the eccentric witch doctor would be great fun too. I really feel more could be made of Madame Mim, I’d be tempted to make her more of a darker villain character and really add some more drama to her duel with Merlin.

Onto some artwork! I won't post all of my development work here, just final designs. So here's Merlin - the eccentric witchdoctor.

A Girl at a Window

Last week I visited the National Museum in London, it's such a wonderful place and full of inspiration from the masters. One of my favourite paintings is; 'A Girl at a Window'. http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/louis-leopold-boilly-a-girl-at-a-window

I've had a bit of a mental block of late but seeing this painting really inspired me. So I set about on my own interpretation of it to get out of the funk! I don't really have much else to say on the whole thing, I love the original and this is not a patch on it - but it's not meant to be an emulation, just my version!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums out there! Here is the card I illustrated for the one, and only, Mummy Scott. A small thank you to her for always being there and supporting me. 

Self Portrait

A quick sketch of a rather flattering self portrait (I'm actually far more hideous in real life). Have a great weekend everyone! 

12 - Insanity

I haven't forgotten about theme number 11! I skipped ahead when this late night doodle developed. Number 12 - 'Insanity'.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! :)

Under the Weather

Today's warm up. I felt very under-the-weather yesterday, recovering now thanks to good old fashioned soup, a hot bath and plenty of daytime naps in front of the TV in a onesie.

An Owlish Warmup

Just a little owlish warm up to kick off today's work.

...I love owls. 

09. Drive

This was such a tough theme! I had so many ideas swimming around my head before this one came to the forefront and I settled on it. 

Snow Days

It's been snowing a lot in London over the last week, it's quite a novelty for everyone but especially my husky! Having a couple of days off to play with her in the snow and hook her up to a sled is one of the highlights of Winter.