Happy Halloween

My halloween pumpkin for this year:

Okay, so last year, I carved my very first pumpkin. I found a picture of Ruby Gloom and told my skeptical beau that I was going to recreate it, pumpkin style. I didn't do too bad a job, either.

So this year, I carved Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer onto a pumpkin. Because I love them so damn much and they've both inspired me and brought SO much joy into my life. That, and I really like the promotional art for 'An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer', and I thought it would be perfect to carve onto a pumpkin.

I even bought some proper tools this year! Last year I just used a kitchen knife and a screwdriver. :P

I posted a photo to Amanda Palmer's wall and Neil Gaiman's wall. On Neil Gaiman's wall, it was in the section made up of fan posts. Then he put it up in the section made up of his posts. And more than a thousand people like it. O_O

Wow. Seriously. I am so amazed and thrilled that so many people like it. Best of all, Neil Gaiman likes it! I hope Amanda Palmer likes it too. :)

(I cannot simply refer to them as 'Neil' or 'Amanda', even if I were to write their names a million times over in this post. They are simply too awesome.)

Anyway, it really made my day, I am so happy! :D

Lex

P.S. Last year's pumpkin:

Bats and Birds

Oh man, it has been far too long since I updated my blog. I fail at blogging.

My excuse is that I've been busy working. Really, I've just been neglectful. :P I went and worked at Mighty Nice in Sydney, then I've been back at Liquid again. But my contract is about to run out, so I'll have all the time in the world to blog. Well, until I find another job.

Mighty Nice was pretty great! I had a really good time working there, I'd love to do some more work with them. Although I did get pretty homesick. But it was only for five weeks, so not too bad.

Check out this animatic I made in 2009? 2010?
Click here!

Also! I got another tattoo! :D

The design is based off work by William Morris. I love love love bats and have since I was about seven, I think. Long time. This took about two and a half, three hours and really hurt. :P Although not as much as my back tattoo. We ran out of time to finish it, so it'll be getting coloured in two weeks from now. I can't wait! My beau came with me, held my hand and read Harry Potter to me the whole time. <3

Okay, that's all for now, I'll update with some art soon!

Lex

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...

Paintings and a Shoe

It's been a while since I updated...oops!

So here are some paintings I created for Queeriosity:

They're meant to hang from left to right, not from top to bottom like this. But oh well! Anyway, Queeriosity was a festival that a friend of mine was helping to organise, and he suggested that I submit some art. So I created some new paintings and also submitted a really big mixed media/oil pastel drawing that I created in highschool.

These paintings are each based on fairy tales. Can you guess which ones?

I also made an entry for the Footlocker Art Prize:

Click on the link and have a look!

Bats! By: alexisdraws

Also, I've been coating my quillings and they are on the verge of being sell-able! So close! Soon you will be able to buy them on Etsy. :D

Also again, I have a job again (as an animator, hurrah!) so I am really going to have to be more disceplined with my spare time, so that I can keep making my art and witchcrafts. Here's hoping I use my time well!

Okay, that's all for now.

Lex

More Quillings

Hello internet people!

I should really do some drawing or painting, this latest batch of art is all quilling. But fear not, once I'm done typing today's blogpost I'm going to paint!

So here's a suggestion from my friend Karlyne:

It's Disney's Stitch! He looks a lot like a bulldog, but I think I like it.

I wanted to quill the CatBus from Totoro, but I didn't have anymore dark brown paper. So instead I quilled a whole bunch of little cute things. My favourites are the apple and the teapot.

Also, this Friday (when I get money again) I'm going to get my hands on some resin and test some of these out. Well, I'll make a throw away test first before risking any of my nice quillings. The point is, these all might be wearable soon! And once they are, they'll be for sale. I'm thinking that I'll sell them as pendants and the people who buy them can supply their own necklace. That way it's cheaper and easier for everyone. :)

Hm, what else do I have to say? Well, I just finished listening to every episode (so far) of the podcast Kiss and Tell. It is so damn good. And it kinda makes me want to do a podcast. Although I don't know who I'd do it with or what we would talk about.

-Lex

Dr Sketchys and Whatnot

Dr Sketchy's was tonight! I wish it was on more often, it's so damn good. I should find another life drawing class as well...Hm, I think I say that every time I go to Dr Sketchy's.

Anyway, check it! Arts.

I got there early, so this first one is just a doodle I did while I was waiting for Dr Sketchy's to begin, a little bit of art therapy. I really like how it turned out, I should explore it further and turn it into a finished piece rather than just a doodle.

And here are the better sketches that I did tonight:

I managed to do some nice drawings tonight. As well as some pretty awful ones. But hey, that's how life drawing goes.

Aaaand here's some quilling.

The Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Such a pain in the ass to create! But he came out so well.

And Cinderella. A much easier design.

I can't wait to get my hands on some resin and see how it goes protecting these babies. I want to wear one around my neck.

And here's a little concept image for My Sister's Voice. (The graphic novel I'm working on.) I have been neglecting it too much this last week. Time to get on that shit!

Well, I'm off to bed...or off to prepare some canvases...

-Lex

PS. I get to sing a solo at choir. I'm pretty excited about it. :)

Super Nova and Other Such Things

Well, for someone who doesn't have a job, I've been pretty busy this week! Mostly I've been doing social sorts of things, meeting new people and all that. And it's been pretty great! I must do more of these things.

Choir practise, QUT Queer Collective screening of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, parent time, Sprinkl (a creative networking group) and Super Nova were all the highlighting events of this week. And tomorrow I'm going to see 'A Cat in Paris', a feature length french animation. Joy!

Super Nova was pretty damn great, I came away with about a million billion business cards and flyers of a lot of things that I'd like to check out. As well as some amazing art by Ben Templesmith. Seriously though, so many things and artists to check out now! There's some pretty great local talent in Brisbane. And I definitely want to check out the Brisbane Quidditch Group. :D

Also, next year I totally want to share a table with someone at Super Nova. So friends, I'm putting it out there, it's just an idea right now, but let's Super Nova it up next year!

Speaking of friends, it was so great to see so many friends at Super Nova! It was just lovely to catch up with people, especially people that I hadn't seen in a while/ages.

Although while I was at Super Nova, I did manage to make myself ill in some way. I blame the sun. I was standing outside in the sun for quite a while in order to get in and when I made it in it was pretty hot and crowded. Combine that with no lunch or water and you get a Lex who very nearly passes out. x_x Or perhaps my friend Jarrod is so manly he made me swoon.

Well, that's enough talk! Time for some art:

It's Snow White! I quilled her using paper and I really want to turn her into a necklace. I'm going to coat her with resin, get a metal loop to attach her to a necklace and test her out. If she's sturdy enough I'm going to quill more necklaces and put them in my Etsy. :)

And here's Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. :) She shall also become a necklace!

That's all for now, I need some more rest, that sunlight sure takes it out of me.
-Lex

Chest Hares

Hey there Blog-peeps,

My shirt design 'Chest Hares' made it onto Threadless!

I would be so grateful to you all if you were to vote. I'd love to see my art as a Threadless tee and it's such a great opportunity to get my art out there and make some MUCH needed money.

You don't even need a threadless account to vote, you can use your facebook account!

Go vote here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/332073/Chest_Hares

Thank you all in advance!
-Lex

Old Sketchbook Pictures

So lately I've just been working on the rough draft of my graphic novel. Well, it's more of a storyboard version than a rough draft. Calling it a rough draft implies that I could ink over is and use it. But anyway. It's going well, although I wish I was going faster. I feel a little stagnent right now and I'm not sure if I'm using my time as wisely as I should be. Perhaps I'm just having a slow week. I shall strive to be better!

So I have been doing things, artisticly, I just don't want to share them here. Because I want to try and get this comic published when it's done, so I don't want to spoil the storyline by putting it all up here. Snippets, yes. Full thing, no.

Instead I have some old sketchbook pictures! These are from last year...from around September, I think, but I'm not sure.

This first one I drew from some facebook photo. A friend of a friend, I've no idea who. She was jumping on a bed and I liked the movement of her hair, so I drew this from it.

And this is just my love of swirlies. :) I'm thinking of drawing the ocean like this in my comic...

In other news, a friend of mine started a choir a couple of weeks ago. I've been wanting to join one for aaaages. I just never got off my butt and got around to it. Plus a lot of the already established choirs want you to read music when you audition, which I can't really do. I mean, if the music is playing, I can follow it on the sheet, but I can't figure out how it sounds just by looking at the notes.

Anyway, when my friend said, "Hey, I'm starting a choir, wanna join?" how could I say no? :) It's only been two weeks so far, but I really like it. Although it makes it very hard to go to sleep, because I just lie there, still singing in my head. :P

Okay, I must go work on my comic! Perhaps I should do some turn arounds, those I'd be happy to upload here.

-Lex

Finger Puppets

Just a teeny post today about teeny things that I've made. :)

I've posted all these photos on Facebook, so now doubt the people who read this have seen my finger puppets.

Finn and Jake! Jake was super easy, Finn was a bit more fiddly.

Catbus! This little guy was a pain to make. :P So fiddly!

Totoro! Well, TWOtoro. I lost the first one I made for myself at Christmas. :( I like to think some child found the first one and gave it a good home.

Anyway, Totoro is much easier to make than the others, and possibly my favourite.

I've started putting things like this onto Etsy, as you might have guessed by the link on the side of this blog. I'm putting quilling up there too.

Lex

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