Optometrists commission - Sketches

A while back now I mentioned that I was asked by my neighbors in Bristol, who recently bought a second property for their optician's practice, to design something to be painted onto the shutters covering the shop front.
Unsure as to how I would undertake this task as it is not the most typical form of illustration, I have decided to treat it as a a typical Illustration promoting the practice and then adapt it to the shutters.
This way, if Lynne and Gereard decide to, a decent print will also be available to place inside the shop (rather than a photo of the work) and I'll also have something more for my portfolio!

So here is my initial idea! (please click to enlarge!!)





Okay there is lot of smudgy pencil there... so, let me talk you through it!
I've selected four types of spectacles usually associated with certain types of people; so you have the small rectangular frames for the sleek businessman, big round frames for children, large frames (possibly bi-focals) for the elderly, and thick framed designer specks for those trendy people.
The locations behind each person reflect their personality, and are also Bristol landmarks!! The businessmen are at Temple Meads, behind the children and the old lady is the Suspension Bridge, and the young lady with her shopping bags is in Cabot Circus!

Now as you can see there are glasses drawn over the picture, the idea behind them is that your looking through the lenses at the people that they belong to. The areas outside of the glasses will be either blurred or mono-tone, and the areas where you'll be looking through at the world will be in full colour!

Here are some more rough sketches.































The next thing to consider will be exactly how well this idea can be adapted to metal shutters, and to research what materials would be best to use when painting on them!

Riverbank Walks

Another thing I miss when I'm in Bristol is my dog Monte!! I envision plenty more doodles featuring this lovely Lab!

Summer Doodles

Recently I have been rather relaxed in my approach to art making.. I blame the atmosphere at home with my family. It puts me in mind of days when I was at school and would put playing PS2 games, riding my bike and reading in front of anything pro-active curricular/career wise.
It's a habit I need to snap out of!
So to help me kick the habit I have decided to try and keep up a run of semi-daily doodles, these should help me warm up and get my creative juices flowing to allow me to get on with some of the many projects I have on the go!!

So to get the ball rolling I have 2 images for you! I spent no longer than roughly 45mins on each.
This first one is what I was up to on Monday 9th August. The title of the post says Summer Doodles, but y'know this pic here would be rather familiar to any British summer!
One thing I love about being here in my family's house is that it's out in the middle of the countryside... not great if your a teen with the need to socialize, but perfect if you need to get out and just ride on your bike to get away from it all! At Bristol, with the busy roads, it's difficult to enjoy a decent bike ride without the fear of cars and busses cutting you up!
So Monday I decided to get out and trace my old bike route through the village, though I really should have paid attention to the forecast.. needless to say I got a little wet...





















This second doodle was for today's antics, and just goes to show how... surprising a British summer can be! It really was a perfect day, and I found myself falling asleep while reading a book and sunbathing in the back garden. Oh, and to be sure a couple hours after this I defiantly made the most of today's better cycling weather!

A Blast from Animator's Past!!

It's officially summer for me now, no more uni and no work for 2 months!! So I've left the land of Bristol to stay with my parents for the remainder of the holiday, and whilst sorting out the dumping ground that my vacated room had become I encountered a blast from the past, a glimpse at where my bug to animate actually came from!

In the last year of the National Diploma in Fine Art course at college, I was able to write my own brief for the Final Major Project. I chose to Illustrate the Children's novel Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, and along with the series of illustrations for the book I decided to try my hand at animating one of the characters!
I took the centaur character; Foley, and researched Muybridge's series of photographs of a horse in motion and coupled it with his photos of a man running to create a run/gallop cycle for a centaur!




























Prior to this I had not animated anything more advanced than a simple flick book, and with no instruction on the basic principles of animation, I dived right in! Looking at this snippet now I can see PLENTY of faults in both movement and timing, but back then when seeing it in motion for the first time I remember getting this magical feeling of seeing a character I had created, that had previously been nothing more then a static drawing on a page, suddenly leap to life!
And I still get that feeling even now, with any animation I do! It is that feeling that got me hooked!

Sick Wax Album cover - Sketches

Last friday I attended this wedding and while listening to Sick Wax (the bride's son's band) play, I sat at one of the tables doodling on a scrap of paper. Afterwards I got chatting to Sam Wilson (guitarist/singer in the band and my boyfriend's cousin) and I half-jokingly said that I should do his album covers!

Sam it turns out was actually looking for someone to do just that and briefly told me about the idea he had for his next album. He envisioned it to have a Judge in full black robes with the long white wig, begging, with loads of homeless people carrying blue plastic bags walking on past.

So here I have sketched out a couple of ideas based around that description.

The Judge's pose from the first drawing is inspired by the very very end of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Judge is flat out begging with is wig out in front of him for money to be thrown in.

However it didn't think it was instantly obvious with this pose that it is a Judge who is begging, so I tried a different angle with the second drawing. The Judge sat holding a sign saying "Don't judge me!" and his court hammer, being viewed from between the legs of the passing homeless crowd.

Before taking these sketches any further I'll discuss them with Sam, see if he has any comments for improvement or things to add, etc. The style and colour will also need to be considered, I reckon it's important for the look of the illustration to reflect their style of music!

Another concern is the text, wether the band already has a logo for their name or if I'm free to work it into the illustration, also is there a name for the album to be placed on the front also....

Just for fun, here is a quick snapshot of the doodles I was doodling of the band as they were playing!

Keep posted for developments!!

Octopus E sting - Developed concepts

Finally, here are the finalised concepts for my E sting idea. I've had many a distraction from getting these concepts done, including two separate commissions within about as many days!

One is for the couple next-door who are opticians and have recently bought a second shop that needs some sprucing up. They have asked me to do an illustration for a print to hang in the reception and also to be adapted for the shutters on the shop front! I shall need to investigate the best materials to paint on metal and possibly get myself acquainted with spray paint, which will be interesting...

The other commission is from my boyfriend's cousin; Sam Wilson, who's band (Sick Wax) is looking for someone of a creative mind to design their album cover! I volunteered myself straight away and am working on sketching up the ideas that Sam had for the content of the cover. He said he hopes that the album will be ready to release in about 2 months so you shall see sketches for it on here very soon!

In light of all these new projects I have going on, I have made a new addition to this blog! You'll now find an 'About Me' page on the sidebar where you'll be able to browse through a whole list of projects currently in development, I'll be updating this page when projects are completed or new ones are added so all of you (and myself) can keep track of all my work in the real world!

Octopus E sting - Animation tests

After drawing up and scanning all the key frames for the Octopus as he slips on the soap, I realized how tricky it will be to actually animate this!

Co-ordinating the movement for 8 legs as the Octopus flips 360 in mid-air is really quite tricky. Accounting for each leg and how it moves in relation to the Octopuses body/head as it flips really confused me at times, I'd either loose one leg somewhere or mistake one for another and skew the motion up.

So, before developing the colour concepts any further I thought I'd tackle this tricky section, and here is how I managed it!

Stage One - Drawings: First I drew and scanned all the key positions for the Octopus as he slips on the soap.

Stage Two - Rough Guidelines: I then colour coded each tentacle so as to be able to track them individually as the Octopus flips.

The front three are red; these are the tentacles that have contact with the soap and so initiate the flipping motion.

The 4th and 5th tentacles either side of the front three are blue, and the remaining three tentacles at the back are green. The head is also marked in pink and the position of the Octopus' eyes are in orange.

I animated each colour coded section of tentacles separately so that I only had 2 or 3 legs visible at a time, this made things a little less confusing.

Stage Three - Fleshed out Guidelines: Next I fleshed out each tentacle to be able to see how they interact with one another; where one overlaps another, if their in the foreground or in the background, etc.

Similarly to before I tackled each colour coded section separately, but this time made regular checks to the positions of the other tentacles... it still looks a bit of a mess here though.

Oh I also added in the motion path of the soap to help with the timing.

Stage Four - Final Outlines: So with all the tentacles and the head in roughly their correct positions throughout the flipping motion, all that was left to do was basically trace over the fleshed out guidelines with a single outline.

This final clip will now become the reference for when I come to animate the real thing. Once I have developed up the colour concepts and have a clear idea of how the Octopus character will look (e.g: if he has an outline, texture, colour, markings, etc) I will be able to simply trace over this clip, frame by frame and concentrate on the aesthetic quality of the Octopus having already got the technical side of the animation pinned down!