Night

Colour concept number 3: Night time!

This is the same sketch used for the Dusk concept but rendered for night.

Dusk

Colour concept number 2: Dusk on the Bayou.

This has become less of a colour concept and more of a full blown illustration... I knew I'd get too carried away! But I've found swampy Bayou trees as much fun to draw and my trademark forest Fir trees!

Also for your viewing pleasure, the original sketch! I actually scanned this one in, rather than photographing the pages, to be able to render it properly in Photoshop. It took 3 scans and 2 joins to piece this double page spread together!!

I should invest in an A3 scanner...

I'll use this sketch again for the next colour concept which shall be set at night.

Fireflies

The first of a few colour concepts for Bayou Arcana!!

Plus the original sketch thrown in...

Bayou Arcana

Along with The Varmint from Vermont, my other very exciting project is Bayou Arcana!

Bayou Arcana will be an Anthology collecting short issue comics from a variety of writers and illustrators. The basic concept is the creation of one man; James Pearson, but the writers and artists involved can take his Arcana universe and shape it to anything they like within their short stories!!

When Matt Gibbs approached me with an idea of teaming up to create a story within this project I made no hesitation in getting involved! So While Matt is writing up the first draft of the script I'm exploring with what I can do with our portion of the Arcana River and it's inhabitants.

I started off sketching from images sourced from google, anything and everything I could find that resembled a swamp or bayou. I made sure to keep these sketches quick, loose and free, spending about 30 - 45 mins on each. Oh and apologies for the quality of the photos, although the sketchbook I'm using is very very lovely it's slightly too big for the scanner..

Here I've started to tighten up a bit and think more about the gnarled shapes of the trees and the Ferry that features in our story.

I'll be working up some coloured sketches next, so stay posted!

Also to visit Matt's Blog, Click here!: http://mattgibbs.blogspot.com/

Octopus E Sting, UPDATE. (It's been a while!!)

Okay it's been absolutely aaaaaaaaaaaages since anything has been heard about the 2010 E Stings competition. Evidently as it is now January 2011 there was no 2010 competition despite the responses to my emails.

I've postponed the finalization of the Octopus animation for the launch of the competition. It is pretty much done, all that is left to do is add transparencies to certain layers and edit in the sound (but any backing music/jingle will have to wait till E4 launch and make available any usable sounds).

So I thought I'd email them again expressing my disappointment at receiving misleading information and the lack of any news on the website, despite continued interest from other people who comment on the site.

This was the reply I got:

Dear Sara,

Thank you for your email regarding E-STINGS on Channel4.com.

I can confirm that there will be another E-STINGS competition in 2011, but unfortunately there are no confirmed dates as yet. We would advise for you to keep an eye on the website for further details.

We apologise for any disappointment.

Again still rather vague on the details, and you can be sure that if nothing goes ahead I'll be having some strong words. I would rather wait till the competition launches to reveal my finished animation, but if worst comes to worst then I will not be able to wait any longer to share it with you all!

So please, don't think I've given up on the 'ol Octopus! He WILL get his debut in the near future!!

The Varmint from Vermont

I've been at the new flat for over a month now and have gotten to know my Landlords pretty well, their a lovely old couple who have been very kind and helpful towards my boyfriend and I, what with this flat being our first n'all.

I graduated on Nov 16th,and they were very keen to hear about my course when I told them I'd studied Illustration.

It just so happens that Don (the husband), is in the book business and has written a series of 6 children's books and needed an illustrator! Of course I offered my talents at once!

So here are the first few designs for a character that is known as the Varmint!

The Fruits of Labour - On set photos!!

It's been a while since I've had any come back from the Fruits of Labour shoot, things on set must have been pretty darn hectic. But here are a couple of photos that I've been sent showing my illustrations and how they were used in the film!

Once the film has been finalized in the editing process and is ready for public viewing I shall be able to see my work in it's full glory and obtain my own copy on DVD, and with permission take screen shots featuring my work in full!