Drawing

Greetings internet!

Before I start, I'd like to say that my honours film is now online. There's a link on the side of this page, just click on Viola. Burn the Witch was my third year film, feel free to check that out also.

I've been getting so much done lately! I'm currently without work and instead of wasting my time, I am using it so, so well. How am I using it well? You ask. By drawing all day. Oh yeah!

I've mostly been working on my graphic novel. It all gets inked by hand on A3 pages, then scanned and altered in Photoshop. That's wear I put in the red. Check out a page:

I don't have a scanner big enough for A3, but I found on Facebook a free creative space for the young people of Brisbane, called Visible Ink. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/visibleink It's a pretty great place and I had a rather enjoyable afternoon drawing there.

I've also been working on some pre production for an idea that I have for a short animation. I'm pursuing funding for this, because I really want to make it.

Check out the main characters, Faye in the stripes and Marina with the long hair.

To colour the outlines I followed a tutorial by one of my favourite artists, Katie Hanahan. Check out the tutorial: http://ktshy.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d3aaii7 and her blog: http://ktshy.blogspot.com/

ALSO. I got a kindle and it is the best thing ever. EVER.

Well, it's time for some 'breakfast' and drawing.

Lex

Arts and Music

Oh man, I have been neglecting my blog! I am pretty lame that way.

I have been kinda busy though, working at Liquid Animation again. It's been fun! I quite enjoyed the project, which involved cut out 2d animation and hand rawn animation, which I love. I certainly know ToonBoom pretty intimately now, a lot better than I knew it before. Also, working on a Cintiq was SO GOOD. I should really get one, I would do a lot more digital art if I had one.

But my contract is about to end and I'm not sure if there is enough 2d work to keep me there for the moment. But it's not all bad! I had started learning 3d before I was working there again, so I'm going to continue with that. As well as doing my own art, of course. Because I am feeling pretty damn inspired lately!

This weekend will (hopefully) be a weekend dedicated to working on my graphic novel. I inked up the first page and it is looking might fine. I need a bigger scanner though, so that I can scan it in and fix it up. I'm going to be making Polina's hair red in Photoshop, rather than during the inking stage.

My scanner may not be big enough, but here are a couple of photos to give you a peek:

(My apologies, I really am the worst photographer.)

And here are a couple of train sketches from my trip home today:

(I really need to draw from life more often.)

And a work in progress picture inspired by my new favourite thing to listen to:

The album is Nighty Night by 8in8. Download it here for only a dollar (or more): http://music.amandapalmer.net/releases

It's Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman (he actually sings on this), Ben Folds and Damian Kulash. Their goal was to create eight songs in eight hours. They made six in twelve, which is still incredible and they sound AMAZING. Seriously, pay the dollar, listen to the shit and you won't regret it.

Anyway, I have things to do, so I shall go off and do them!

Also, I have an idea for a short animation...more to come on that later...

Giant Comic Update

Oh man, BIGGEST POST EVER. This is what you get when I'm too lazy to update on my comic regularly enough.

Okay, so the script is done, has been for a little while now. So I've started storyboarding everything so I can get a sense of panel variation, colours, poses, etc. So here's the first part of the rough draft.

I want the whole thing done with brush and ink, with the only colours being black, white and red. Maybe with gray shading down with diluted ink, maybe with the shading shown through line work, I'm not sure yet.











Here's some character design stuff.

This is Anna, her mother and her grandmother. I don't know whether I want the grandmother with an eye patch or not. I do want her to look just like Anna, but old. She'll also be much shorter and stout with age. And her eyes are the same colour as Polina's.

I tried to make Anna's mother, Vla, look more like Polina, but with Anna's hair and Anna's eye colour. She would be as tall as Anna too, if she stood straight. Polina's eyes keep getting bigger and bigger. Vla's eyes will be the same size, this picture does not do them justice.



Here's Anna and Polina, showing their contrasting body types and personalities. I wanted Anna to be fatter...I hate super skinny cartoon women. But being slender suits her pointy personality, just like Elphaba from Wicked.



I briefly thought of giving Anna big eyes like her sister. After drawing this I decided to stick with her tiny eyes.



Sketches! Just me doodling around with body shapes.



And lastly, boat sketches. These are sketches of Anna's boat, the Pink Pearl. Hehehe. Her grandmother, Yona, was captain of the ship, the Surly Mermaid.

Anyway, Anna and Vla are too few people to woman a ship, so I gave them a boat instead.



Hope you enjoyed my giant blog post! And if you're reading this, I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate it when people take the time to look at my art. :)

Lex

My Sister's Voice

Lots of art today! I've been drawing and writing and whatnot, so here are some of the fruits of my labour. :)

I've also sent my script to friends who volounteered to give me feedback and I can't wait for their critiques! I tried working on a second draft the other day and not too many changes were made, I think some feedback would really help.

Ok, so I did some expression exploration with Anna. I tried to keep her happy faces for subdued and her unhappy faces more pronounced, she's a taciturn sort of character. The flirty and drunk expressions got me thinking the most. Anna doesn't want to date anyone ever, so it was hard to imagine her flirting. So I tried to make her look uncomfortable and unsure, looking back over her shoulder, turned away and ready to flee. And when she's drunk, she's just depressed. :P So she doesn't drink much, it just leads to bad poetry.



These are just some super scribbly sketches of everyone, kinda looking at facial features and who shares which ones. Like, who has the same nose, the same shaped face, etc. And mostly I was exploring Polina's face and the possibilities. I think I prefer my first design of her, but I'll keep playing.

I would like Yona and Anna to be very physically alike, as they are very alike in personality as well. I'll look at that some more later.



Just looking at potential bodytypes and the sort of swimwear these two might wear. Those stripey trunks are there to stay.



Lighthouse sketches! I realised the other day that the characters of my feminist novel all live in a big ol' phallic symbol. But they spend more time at sea. Perhaps they just needed to get out of the phallus.



I was bored and wasted a lot of ink in my pen by drawing up a wave. :) I'm not too sure yet on how I want to treat the water in this story.



So yeah, getting some stuff done. Picking up momentum I hope! I'd love to start working on the actual pages next month, it's so hard not to just rush to that stage and get started on them now.

Oh, also, the working title for this story is, 'My Sister's Voice'.

Lex