Wednesday 13 October 2010

ITS NOT KIDS BOOKS BUT I LIKE IT

Ah well. A long time between posts and when one does come along it has nothing to do with the 3 books at all. My tour of the world is hurtling towards me and understandably there are oodles of things to sort out with that before we go. So the books unfortunately have taken a back seat. Which is a great shame because I wanted to have them done before I go. However my showreel, portfolio site are high up the list to be done before I go so I have nothing to worry about when I come back for getting back into working for a living. So where does that leave the kids books? Unfinished is a quick a simple answer to that. How far have you got with them though, are they close to being finished? Well, Sidney is Orange is so very close to being finished as a rough book I can sniff it. Then I would be looking to create 3 or so full colour finished pages. White Day is very very close too, and again, 3 or so full colour illustrations would be needed for that. Coolio is another story. Obviously. Its all a bit up in the air, undecided of style, layout, way of telling the story as well. A lot of work is done towards it though, so I would say I am kind of half way through. And again, 3 or so full colour illustrations for that would be needed. So quite a lot of work, and only 4 weeks left before we're due to leave. But that might and no doubt will change. So why not finish the close to being finished two and leave the other one till you get back? Well, because I just never imagined compromising, and if a thing is worth doing, its worth doing well, and the way you want to do it I say. And in this case it will be. Even if it means leaving it for a year. And, who keeps asking these questions? Erm...

Anyway, since I am creating work for my website/showreel/portfolio, the kids books will be in there, and I will need to get them to a certain level to include. So work will commence in some way on them soon I hope. I'm working on my showreel right now, and thought I would put up a bit of work I've been doing for an animation, kind of created a southern hic/gangster person who just happens to be a skull and crossbones. Not sure what he's going to do yet, but thought a before and after might be nice :O)


Wednesday 4 August 2010

LAST BIT OF WONKA


So, a final version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Far from perfect! A lot of the problem was the original drawing and its inaccuracies and then also not realising this would be a finished colouring eventually so cutting a few corners and rushing in at the start. Still, lessons learnt! Could do with some actual final shadows here and there to define everything and give it a bit more drama/interest. Hopefully get started on some of my finished artwork soon!

Saturday 31 July 2010

EVEN MORE WONKA

Good lord there's no stoppin' the lad! I've been soldiering on in spare moments on my 'Charlie and the Choc factory' front cover. Seems to be shaping up pretty well. Bits need attention and not sure whether the whole balance of shading is a little heavy handed but ho-hum. Its only supposed to be a try out at the whole 'digital painting' malarky. The main building is a bit floaty at the mo since I haven't grounded it with shadows etc. Plus there's only a light wash over on the building frontage.

Also you may have noticed the blog itself has had a spruce up and gone a little bit more colourful. Been meaning to do it for a while but never got round to it.

No news on the grannies I'm afraid, their feet remain slightly disjointed and their hands are missing arms. Apart from that they're doing well and send their love.


Wednesday 28 July 2010

A BIT MORE WONKA


At long last managed to update. Last night I got all creative [about time] and with the aid of my wacom [graphics tablet] set about having a go at 'colouring in' . I bought the wacom with the idea of trying out some styles for my finished artwork for the 3 books. It was great, really had some fun splodging about [digitally]. Below are the few stages I've got to so far of colouring in the Charlie and the Choc factory cover I drew a while back. I've gone for a painty, splodgy style for this one and will no doubt try out some other styles on the Charlie cover. I'll post those up here as well as the final artwork, or further stages of this version. Also I've been adding arms and legs to my E4 granny characters. Coolio and the Moose remains in limbo unfortunately. I will pick it back up again soon but for now, its on hold!

Also using blogger draft at the moment which promised to be easier to use. Its flippin worse! Awful picture uploading, really bad blog construction tools [ie. where to put stuff, and then how to add more text but somewhere else], ugh. Only good thing about it is real previews with out posting.

Saturday 12 June 2010

A NEW LAYOUT

Well now. I haven't just been twiddling my thumbs you know. Well I have, but only while looking out into the world and thinking of what to have for dinner. I've followed the course of my last two books originally thinking what order things would go in, and splitting text accordingly. Then making a dummy book in illustrator so I can see every page, and add roughs as I go along. I can also input the text on each page and it gives you an understanding of how it flows and whether I can chop text out or alter illustrations. It's worked a treat so far so why change now? SO below is an overview of Coolio so far, with all my rough scribblins plonked in. It's already thrown up oodles of problems and I have no idea of the answer to them at the moment. It has made me realise I want to mostly hand draw the text to blend it more into the drawings. Also I had originally thought this would be created on the computer after I had worked out layout in pencil/pen but I am really liking some of my drawings with my rotring art pen so maybe I'll stick to that. It does look a bit Quentin Blake though so maybe I won't!













click and it will get bigger [matron]

Wednesday 5 May 2010

A BRAND SPANKING NEW POST

Not a new post about spanking, in case you read that too quickly.

Huzzah! I've pulled my finger out, given myself a kick up the jacuzzi and blown the cobwebs off my blog. About time too. Hopefully this will be the first of many more [many more blog entries saying how I've updated at last and blown cobwebs off no doubt]. Anyway it better be or I'll give myself a good talking to and I wouldn't want to do that because, A. I don't like telling people off and B. I don't like being told off.

Well in all the time its been since I updated last I haven't just been laying about you know. No. I have been drawing, but they never seemed worth while to actually post. However they are very useful drawings. My character [moose] has changed quite a bit since the last post. I also have struggled a lot with how a moose looks like a moose without antlers and also viewed from the very front. So that was one of the reasons I changed the design. I still have those same problems, but i like the style I've gone for. It feels right now for the story. Which is silly, a little bit fringed with madness, but nice and sunny and fun. Here are a selection of my exploring/working drawings. And if this is your first time here, have a rummage about and look at some older posts! Or maybe even the very first post!

As always, click on a pic to make it bigger













Monday 15 February 2010

A NEW POST


Well here we are. This is more like it isn't it? I won't write much. Basically here is Coolio and the Moose to date. Small thumbnails so you can see it is progressing. Just not very quick right now. And also as a special treat there is Morph [or Mess] so far with one of my cats Sugar in the background wondering what I'm doing and expecting some kind of explanation.

Click either pic to make them bigger





A NEW POST

Well its been a fair while since I tapped away some drivel about something that I'm showing you. There are many reasons for this, which is bad I know.

The first thing it says in the article 'how to get a good following for your blog' is write blog entries. A simple one I grant you, but no one likes to check a blog out every day and find there is nothing new to read, see, explore. Shame on me. There are other things about writing interesting things, putting up interesting points of view, and showing the world something amazing and vibrant and special. I seem to have failed slightly on most of these things but failed properly and against my will on the regular updates. I can't even show you a creative side line project I've done/started/completed either, because the last Christmas present from last year which was creative that I have to make is a 'make your own Morph' which as you can imagine is a splendid thing, but once half way through making my own Morph [or my own Mess] I realised I've tried to make Morphs several times through my life. When I was young and watched him religiously every week. I didn't do very well then either. And once when I was an animation student. This also didn't go very well, but then I made my own character out of the Mess. Anyway, my Morph is still a bit of a Mess so I didn't think showing it would be a good idea. Much more smoothing down and shifting of weight. Peter Lord does a short piece to camera telling us how to make Morph after he tells us he's been making Morph for about 80 years or something. ie. he's got it down pretty good now. Then the footage speeds up and we're supposed to be able to keep up! THEN it dissolves through into making the hands and you realise the Morph he has in his hands is one he made much earlier. About thirty minutes earlier but only 23 seconds have passed. Swines. I digress.

Actually I don't. I just wanted to break in here and scrawl something out. Make a noise, have a little dust. Build up to some posts. I guess I could shove what I have to date on Coolio and the Moose but its not very much. It retracing what I've done already but actually making shapes that make sense, and not general scribbles that are shorthands for detail and form and storytelling. If this is your first time to my blog then I am SO SORRY that this is the first thing you read. No doubt it will get deleted when I have something worthwhile on here. Actually damn it all to hell. Where my camera, where are my drawings, where is Morph. Lets make a damned post shall we! YEH! and this one will have a title!

Thursday 14 January 2010

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY


Yezzza! Finally I have done something constructive this New Year, well towards this blog anyway. Not that what I'm posting here has anything much to do with 'my' books. More to do with a a front cover I've created for someone else's book. As you will remember I got a design your own cover Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book for christmas last year and have only just finished the drawing! I hope to colour this up in photoshop as well as maybe have a go at watercolour and also good old fashioned pencil crayon too :O)

Hopefully I'll pull my finger out and get some Coolio and the Moose done soon. Illness permitting of course.


















click the pic to make it bigger