Thursday 29 December 2011

Pen Drawings – 1

Last post of the year I think, so I thought I'd post up something new and a bit different.
Recently I bought some Fine Liner pens. I’ve done sketches using thicker ‘ProMarker’ pens, but I wanted more detail. The sketches are a continuation of my life drawing and concentrating on portraits and faces. They are colour studies and merely experiments. Some of the sketches work better than others, but I wanted to move away from Pastels and I would like to do more traditional illustration in the future. These pens should give me a bit more freedom in this.




Friday 23 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 12

This will be my last post before Christmas. I didn't have time to do a Christmas sketch but here are some more life drawing sketches, this time concentrating on faces.
Enjoy!! And Merry Christmas!!!!!




Wednesday 21 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 11

Some more sketches from my life drawing class at the Duncan of Jordanson Art College.




Monday 19 December 2011

Current Projects – Part 3

Project 3– Webcomic – Poetry Comics

To take a break from the Art I am looking to start another webcomic. After having a couple of guest strips on the Somnambulations site (and hopefully a few others up next year) I’ve decided to start my own webcomic.
This comic will combine poetry and comics and not have an overriding narrative. Each comic will be standalone and be fairly experimental. I am currently looking for artists to collaborate with and a posted a few help wanted adds on some forums. No luck so far, but I do plan to illustrate a few comics myself to get started.
I plan to write about 12 comics and post them up 2 a week for 6 weeks. So far I’ve written 10 and planned out the other 2. The comics are between 1 and 5 pages long.
This project stemmed from the fact that I had a strip accepted for the Murky Depths sci-fi anthology, which unfortunately got canceled. This strip was a poem comics and I’ve decided to carry on the idea as a webcomic.
So far the only set back is finding an artist but a bit more perseverance and more hounding of forums might help in this.

Friday 16 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 10

I've been doing a life drawing class recently at the Duncan of Jordanson Art College. Here are some of the sketches – they may appear a bit ‘off’ as they are not scans, but images taken with my camera.
Most of the sketches are in charcoal and some are in pastel and oil Pastel. Still got loads more to post up so they’ll come as soon as I get round to photographing them.




Wednesday 14 December 2011

Polaroid Picture Illustration - 7

I am postingabout one a month now which is what I intended. Actually I created this one back in August but was far too busy to post it.
This one is pretty cool keeping a sketchy feel as opposed to an illustration. Never the less I think it works. 7 of these Polaroid’s have been created now plus 2 images created for the Live Project. 9 in total.
The idea was to do one a month and I think I am on schedule.

Monday 12 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 9

Just some sketches from my sketchbook. These sketches were for practicing foreshortened poses.





Friday 9 December 2011

Walking and Running – After Effects Test

As mentioned earlier I was due to have an animation screened at the Neon Digital Arts Festival in Dundee back in November. This screening did not happen, but I’ve uploaded the video here for people to view it. It is not a great piece of work and was just to test as I’ve been learning to use After Effects as an animation tool. This is a precursor to a longer (and hopefully better) animation I plan to start early 2012.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 8

Even more sketches. A series of hands and feet, just practice sketches from my sketchbook.


Disappointments

Unfortunately I’ve had a few disappointments over the past few weeks.
One major disappointment was that the animation that was due to be screened at the Neon Digital Arts Festival was cut from the programme at the last minute. I got an email the day before the screening to say that there was not enough time to screen it.
I was disappointed but can understand why they would want to screen an experimental piece. I personally think this animation would work better in a gallery rather than the big screen. Never the less it was still annoying considering they accepted the animation on the first hand.

The second disappointment was the fact that the Comic Book anthology Murky Depths has stopped publishing their anthology. I had a script accepted to this publication and it was waiting for an artist to complete it before publication. Murky Depths is a well respected anthology and having m work published in there would have been a major coup. I also enjoy reading it. So another missed opportunity, considering Wasted Magazine went into liquidation earlier this year and they were due to publish another 2 of my comics.

At the moment I have a script waiting for an artist at another publisher. They have had the script for about a year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
These set backs happen and I’m getting use to it now. The work that was due to be printed in Wasted Magazine, has found its way as a webcomic at Somnambulations. I also plan to release my Murky Depths comics as webcomic, but more on this later – this is one of my new projects that I will blog about later.


Sunday 4 December 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 7

Some More sketches. A few from my day job in developing anatomy artwork and animation and some from my sketchbook.




Thursday 1 December 2011

Current Projects – Part 2

This is the second major project I am working on and it is fairly big. I have designed 50 stickers all based on a single generic design. I have customised the design so there are 50 different characters from the initial design.
I have printed the characters onto sticker paper, cut them out and will stick the stickers on interesting locations.
I will stick one sticker onto an interesting location per week for 50 weeks. Each week I will take a photograph of the sticker and post it up to a dedicated blog.
The project is still to have a name and I will start the project early next year. A new blog will be created to present the project, although I will post about it on here as well. The image below is of one of the stickers, but there are 50 in total.
There is text under each of the designs. These are short poems and found poems - an extension of my 3D poetry and writing work.

The project is to make sure I get away from the computer and take photographs, while learning about composition, lighting etc, which will inform my work in general. Along with my Lomography I should hopefully have several projects that allow me to get up and get out. I am also looking to buy a DSLR camera in the next few weeks – Probably after Christmas.


Wednesday 30 November 2011

Current Projects – Part 1

Project 1- After Effects Animation – Shadow Puppet

A few posts back I mentioned that I would list what I am currently working on and the projects I am either trying to get off the ground or about to begin. I’ve decided to separate this post into sections – one for each of my 3 new projects and a reminder of the projects that are still ongoing.


I’ve been learning to use the After Effects animation software. Instead of just following tutorials I decided to create a short film for the Neon Digital Arts Festival. This will be uploaded to my Youtube channel next week. I’ve also created some animated logos and titles – I’ll upload these later as well. Basically I’m trying to incorporate this to my work and use the character animation tools of the software. I’ve used Flash and Maya for several years now and it is time I expanded my horizons. I plan to complete a short character animation by early next year. The progress of which will be uploaded here.
A screen shot of the character design is below. After loads of sketches this is the design a came up with (the image was created in Adobe Illustrator and will be exported to After Effects). It is based on Indonesian Shadow Puppetry. In the New Year I will begin to Storyboard the animation and get started with the animation itself.

Friday 25 November 2011

Polaroid Picture Illustration - 6

Don't think this is one for the portfolio, but I created this a while ago and forgot about it. Another image as part of my Polaroid Picture Project. There is now actually quite a few of these so maybe a separate website - multimedia presentation thingy might be created to present these after all.


Wednesday 23 November 2011

Life drawing and anatomy sketches 6

I haven’t posted up any of my life drawing sketches in a while, even though I’ve done loads. Here are some below.


Wednesday 16 November 2011

360 Narratives this weekend.

This weekend (19th and 20th of November 2011) I will be attending a workshop from Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. The event is in Stirling and is called 360 Narratives. The point of the workshop is for individuals to ‘Challenge, Collaborate and Create’.
The purpose is to create teams to develop ideas in different media, mainly Graphic Novels, books, games, film, animation and new media.

I’m looking forward to this. The list of attendees is impressive with most people having more experience than me. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet some new people and develop something substantial. There is a week long residency in March 2012 for successful ideas. I am registered as a graphic novelist and I am looking to develop a cross platform idea making use of interactivity. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to meet people to collaborate with and generate some new ideas. This is a great opportunity and the workshop is free as well!!
I hope my experience in comics and animation will help and I’ll blog about how 360 Narratives goes next week.

Monday 14 November 2011

Abandoned Projects

Several months ago I decided that I was going to stop customising Vinyl Toys. I had some success in getting my customised toys in galleries. As a replacement for this I thought about creating a different kind of toy – a Flat Pack Toy.
Basically a cut out and keep toy that people can print off. I designed the toy and sketched it up in Adobe Illustrator. I printed off the design on glossy paper and then cut it out and stuck it together. And it looks crap. So the whole thing doesn’t go to waste I thought I’d post it up here. I’m definitely not doing another one.

However this project got me thinking about other projects I’ve done and what value they have. This blog in general is a project. My approach to it has been not to give a commentary or an opinion but just post up work. The only exception was when I gave my opinion on the Dare to Be Digital video game design competition thing I did a few years ago.

I think I’m going to change the approach of this blog a bit and talk about what I’m up to. For example just last week I attended a few events in the Neon Digital Arts festival in Dundee. In the future if I attend an event like this I’ll post up photos and give a bit commentary. I’ll also do a bit more to promote this blog. The main reason is to promote my work a bit more but also so I don’t go around abandoning projects again – even if they do look crap.

Next week I’ll post up about the projects I’m working on at the moment and give my opinion on how they are going. I’ve pretty much got 3 things which I working on. One is learning After Effects animation, the other is a webcomic which I am currently writing (and struggling to find a collaborator on) and the final project involves photography. This will entail starting another blog on the side, but more on this soon.

Anyway enjoy the flat pack toy photos and print off sheet below.




Wednesday 9 November 2011

Cartoon Cinema

I’ve created a new interactive application to present my new Flash Animations. This is on my Portfolio website and shows 3 animations. The Dog walking, Dog Falling and the man throwing the ball. These were just animation tests, but I thought this was a good way to present them. I’m going to do some more Flash Animation over the up and coming months so I’m going to create more Cartoon Cinemas.
Please see my portfolio to view the cinema.


Thursday 3 November 2011

Animation Screening at Neon Digital Arts Festival

I am screening a short experimental animation as part of the Emerging Artists screening at the Neon Digital Arts Festival in Dundee. The screening is at 2pm on Saturday 12th November 2011 at the Dundee Backpackers – 71 High Street Dundee.
More info on the event here. Tickets are free but need to be booked in advance from here.

The animation is a very short experimental piece and it is called Walking and Running. I’ve been learning to use After Effects and the animation is the results of what I’ve been doing. I’ll post up the animation to my youtube channel after the screening. I’ll also post a link to this on my blog.

Monday 31 October 2011

Polaroid Picture Illustration - 5

I mentioned a while back that I had created a Polaroid Picture and not posted it. Here it is. This is the fifth Polaroid Image in the series. I'm not sure if I'll do any more. The plan was to create a website to present the images (similar to what I done with the Live Project). Not sure when I’ll get the time but that is still the plan. Either way the images are on my Portfolio and on this blog.

Thursday 27 October 2011

New Showreel - Winter 2011

I've just updated my showreel and uploaded it to Youtube.
It's about a minute less than my last one so I've taken a lot out edited a few clips and added some new stuff. The reel is viewable below. Eventually the link will be unusable when I upload anew showreel and take this one down. My plan is to update my showreel every 3 months. So an update should be due in January 2012.

Monday 24 October 2011

Flash Animation - Throw Ball

Another Flash Animation, this one shows someone throwing a ball. Just an animation test, but I've added it to my Showreel and the Cartoon Cinema. The image below shows the drawings that make up the animation.

Thursday 20 October 2011

Flash Animation - Dog Walk

Been doing a lot of Flash Animation recently. It's been a while since I've done a four legged walk cycle so I thought I'd give it a go with a dog. The animation is on my showreel and is being presented as part of my Cartoon Cinema, which is on my Portfolio website. More on the Cartoon Cinema later. The image below shows the walk Cycle.

Monday 17 October 2011

A Thousand Cranes – Published Poem

I have a poem published in a new anthology. The collection is called A Thousand Cranes – Scottish Writers For Japan. All the funds raised from sales go to the Japanese Red Cross and will help with the relief efforts for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
My poem is called ‘The Positives’. The book is available from Cargo Publishing and can be bought here.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Polaroid Picture Illustration - 4

Haven't posted one of these since July.
I was going to post one Polaroid image a month but I've been so busy recently. I completed this one back in July and have another image to post up, which I will do soon.
Basically these are illustrated images that mimic Polaroid pictures.

Friday 7 October 2011

Flash Animation - Dog Fall

Now the I’ve pretty much wrapped up the live project, I’ve concentrated my attention on doing some Flash based animation (in my spare time I am mainly writing - I’ll blog about this later). The image below shows the sequence I’ve recently completed for a cartoon dog. It’s mainly just a practice but I think it looks good.
The final animation will likely make my portfolio.
The animation itself is short and I am about to complete a background for the sequence. I’ll post the final piece up here when I add to my portfolio and I also post up the another flash animations when I get around to finishing them.