TOBY PICTURE AMEND

Well you've got to love photoshop. Here I am waiting for a render and spell checking my blog [should really have done that a while back] and then looked again at the image below and thought, god what it is about the way Toby looks which makes you think, 'Oh the poor child, I wonder what his parents must look like if they made that'. Then I noticed, not only are his eyes slightly wonky, but he is supposed to be looking off to our left [his right] towards the noises Jeffrey is making on the stairs. But his nose is pointing in totally the opposite direction! Poor lad. Broken nose and he's only 6. Anyway, download the image from my blog, shove it in photoshop, bit of a tweak and Bob's your Auntie's Uncle Trevor and he looks loads better.

Well I think. You keep your opinions to yourself. Of course now his hair is too high up his forehead. Oh goodness.

BIT OF A BREAK

Well, I know I haven't posted anything recently, but there is a good reason why I haven't. I ain't done nothing! Well I have, but daytime work is a bit stressful at the mo, and night time has night time work as well which is also stressful. So the giant will have to wait just a little longer to have his washing hung out [oooh but it might smell!] so he might need to wash it again and then hang it up. I did mention to him that he needs to get a tumble dryer but he said he had lent it to Edgar the Moose who was trying to get his antlers dry quickly before his ma and pa come home. An in joke that I don't think even I get. Anyway, enough rambling I'm only trying to put off even longer the work i have to do, its a sunday at 11.30 and i've already been at it an hour and a half! BOOOOOOOOOOO....

GIANT'S PANTS 2

Over the past I don't know how long I've been having a quick think on paper about the giant and his pants. Take that statement as you like, but what it means is, I've been trying to think of how it would look several times over a longish period of time. Most of the sketches looking back are quite similar, because I see a vague bit of something in my mind's eye, but it won't quite gel right on paper. Here are most of the sketches shoved together so you can see. The image marked with a grey dot is the rough which finally made me go AHA! And the green dotted image is the start of the final illustration which i shall hopefully show building up over time. Notice the freaky sketch of a stumpy creature on the right of the middle top image? Well I decided that maybe the giant wouldn't be a normally proportioned man after all, but maybe more like the hunchback of notre dame, or a big shoulder brut. I decided against that about one second after making that appalling sketch. :OP






click on the image to make it bigger

GIANT's PANTS

Gadzoooooooks! I've nearly been a month between updates. That's not the attitude for getting this whole project completed now is it? No, it's not. I've been a bit naughty and spent time on other things. Which I know is bad, but see it as a major case of procrastination. Major. These are the things which have dampened my 3books fire:

1. Struggling on the illustration of the giant's underpants. Many factors are a problem, how much giant to show, what angle to show it all from, and when I managed to get that right how the chuff the washing line angles through the picture. Difficult stuff. After all a picture of a giant hanging his smalls out to dry should be pretty funny and interesting to look at. And thus far I don't think my sketches are.

2. E4 have an E4 sting competition every year and I thought of several ideas quite a long time ago for the competition. I've been creating characters for that, and as yet haven't finished them let alone storyboard the sequence or animated it. So I won't meet that deadline and can return to giant's pants.


Click on the images to make these two old dears bigger.
Characters half way through design for E4 sting competition.

3. Illness. I've been a poorly. No stop that, no violins please.

Anyway, normal service will resume. Because the clock is ticking, and also because I really, REALLY want to get on with the next and final book, Coolio and the Moose. Sketches for the giant's underpants will start to pop up here over the next few days.

Well here we go, at long last the MWTTWO's desk is all done. Several lunchtimes of sketching and shading. The wallpaper is made in photoshop using a pattern I drew from a 70s wallpaper. Just seems right he would have a dated jumbled room. Of course when I came to fit the pic in the mock book layouts so far it didn't fit properly. No surprise there, but then I scaled it up and it looked better. Only problem being there's no where to put the text now. Argh. And not only that but a lot of illustrations I've done so far have funny white blocks on them and look a bit weird levels wise, annoying. Some tweaking in the future before they get sent off for sure! Right I'm waffling, and its late. Goodnight.










to see the picture larger, give it a click!

I've been merrily beavering away this week drawing each lunchtime at work. I make sure I have my full hour and also make sure its productive. Why is it that within an hour of getting to work I feel the only thing I want to do is drawing for my books. And when I get home at night it seems like the last thing I might want to do. Well almost, there is some painting to do. Even when I have a long undisturbed weekend I still managed to procrastinate myself into a corner and can't escape. Ho hum. Anyway, lunchtime drawing is actually great. I love it. Break from moving a mouse several inches north, south, east and west. And it gets my books closer to completion. Since the last few posts I've been tackling the subject of the title. We need to see the empty office of the man who... blah blah so I have done some rough sketches of what I wanted it to look like and started to draw it up. I could see it in my mind straight away, so there was no arguing with myself. Just straight to it, the only thing that needs decisions is items and clutter in the office.

I must remember that I wanted to draw a nice seventies style wallpaper in the background. Also, you see there's an empty shelf on the right hand side. What do you think should go on there? Any suggestions email me or message via facebook.

Anyway, sketches and drawing so far below, excuse being able to see through the rough onto the rough rough. Does that make sense?










click on the images to see larger versions

THE POOR MAN 5

Blogger is annoying me. Each time I upload an image it represents it in this editing window as a bunch of code! Oh, ah, actually I just see why. DOH! Thats better now I can see whats going on and alter my text sizes and everything. So anyway, this is I guess I'm going to say the finished man who turns the world on in the morning illustration. I drew a larger dragon who just got in the way, and this one, well I don't really know where it should go, I never drew it specifically to go anywhere, but it will stay there think for now. I don't think its going to be a deal breaker for an agent or publisher, at least I hope not. So there she shall stay. I'm fairly happy with it, I don't think its as animated as I would like, the feeling of peril isn't too high for the guy in the car even though when you look he's just avoided driving into a dragon's egg after having to plough through very deep snow and then lean out of his car window to actually see where he's going because of exploding marshmallows on his windscreen and we also see he has a giant's pants to avoid as well. Tough going really, and you thought the M25 was bad in the mornings. I don't think the feeling of peril is strong even though in words it sounds pretty bad. Again, its not something that would necessarily be a deal breaker I hope, things can be changed, tweaked. And in any case, its not a pivotal part of the story at all. Right, giant's hanging out washing and empty desks to draw. And I think, crossed fingers thats pretty much white day sorted. I hope so!

SLEEPY HEAD

Wow. Another post! I know. Wait two weeks and then suddenly.. yadda yadda, you know the rest. Anyway, this is one of the last drawings at the end of the book where toby is very happy with himself. He worked out why the world was white at 4am. Its missing his cat curled up next to him on the rug.



click on the image to see it bigger

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

What the heck is wrong with blogger today? I know I haven't posted for about two weeks, but come on! Anyway, you didn't come here for a rant did you. No, you didn't. An upload for the first time in two weeks... I know, lazy! Well not lazy but other things have got in the way [as well as laziness]. This pic has been drawn for a while but I had some shading to do to bring it up to the other roughs. ie. not as rough as it was. Anyway, jeffrey the cat is creeping up the stairs and where as most kids might be scared of the creeks, toby knows its jeffrey. Not a lot more to say about this one, and there are plenty more to come!


click on the image to see it larger

HAVING A SNIFF

Three posts in one day, ARE YOU MAD? Possibly. Aren't you? This is a drawing I had done quite a while ago, well two drawings, one of the room and one of toby in it. I really like this drawing because I had the idea of Toby hanging out of the window to sniff the air being across two pages suddenly one day. So the detailed existing full colour room is on one page with Toby's feet in it, and the other page is just white, with Toby's head in it sniffing. Simple but effective I think. Anyway, I had thought this was done, but found it in a pile of 'TO BE SHADED' drawings. So in the nice dazzling sunshine on Sunday I ventured outside and shaded it in. I couldn't see a damned thing faced with a near white page in 84 degrees of sunshine. But I soldiered on and got it done. Got a nice tan too, so now I'm slightly shaded in too.

I've just noticed I haven't filled the picture in over Toby's bed. I think I have a drawing for it [a train I think?] so that will have to get sorted sometime soon!

As ever click on the image to see it larger.

POOR MAN 4

I don't know if I'm tempting fate but, when making the title for this particular post I created 5, 6 and 7 as well just to save time. Hmm... was that foolish? Only time will tell as the singer in this clip once said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGc_tzGaL7M

As you will recall I had a few bits to add to the illustrator which is almost at the end of 'The Day the World Turned White'. A dragon swooping through the sky and the actual man who turns the world on every day. Unfortunately the dragon doesn't fit as it is into the illustration, and other things prevent me from finishing it off proper like. So I've posted the dragon and the man anyway. The man works, more or less, well as well as he needs to for a rough of the illustration, but the dragon as yet remains unsolved. Not far to go I don't think. I think I might only of needed to create part 5.

SACRIFICE

Yes that does say what you think it says. Some of you [male] will weep openly. Some of you [female] will say 'What is it?'. Some of you [female] will tut openly. I know, am I showing dedication or what? I found myself giving myself treats of games of Call Of Duty well in advance of actually earning them. My productivity has risen by well, quite a bit. Not getting anything done? Constantly thinking of the best place to put a claymore and perfected cooking a grenade to within nano seconds, but have not progressed anywhere near as much as you should have with your personal projects and goals? Have no personal projects or goals? Maybe you should do the same. I will reinstall. But for now, RIP Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Multiplayer. You shall be missed.

POOR MAN 3 [almost there]

Yes I know I've been a very lazy boy. Well kind of. Gradually pieceing together this tricky illustration. I managed to get the basic layout right quite a while back but then have been hung up on details. I've gradually created extra bits to go on the main bit you saw before. Lots of bits. Two top illustrations show the bits on their own. The ALMOST THERE illustration at the bottom shows the bits added and shading here and there to make bits stand out which otherwise would be much more obvious in colour.

Of course there are still two things missing! The actual man who turns the world on in the morning, and also the tail/body of the dragon who has dropped the egg. There will probably be some tweaks to shading here and there but not many as this is supposed to only be a rough! As ever click on the images to see them bigger!

POOR MAN 2

So yes, busy busy busy. So many things to do, all mostly to do with the day job. But now, aha! Some progress, a trip to the pub yesterday was pretty fruitful. Well I say that, fruit coming in the form of pear cider mainly. Not a bad place to sit and potter, only problem is the fact it was a bank holiday weekend it turned out very noisey towards the end. I think I was there from just before 5 to gone midnight. Not drawing the whole time but a lot of it. Alas concentration wained here and there so good job I had my rubber with me. And as yet I haven't looked at what I had done. Mainly shading a half finished sketch of the final thing.


Things to add:

- Man that turns world on in car
- Dragons tail + claws
- Aeroplane
- Giant's pants and socks strewn about

some of these bits will be drawn seperately and then comped in later in photoshop some will be added to the drawing with a bit of rubbing out. Getting there, hopefully a final update for this one next week...

TILING AND WORK AND SLEEPING

Yes well, now then, I have worked a much more detailed rough together to use for the final piece of artwork [which I think I'm going to work on at a smaller scale, ie. not two A3s stuck together [some of you might call that A2] but just A3 size, see how I get on] but alas overtime and tiling and grouting and sleeping and not drawing whatsoeversohelpmegod has got in the way. I know I'm naughty, there's no need to rub it in. Back shortly, honest!

THE POOR MAN

Poor old fella, just trying to get into work and the entire contents of a child's imagination is being hurled and unleashed at you. Well that's what I'm trying to represent with this illustration anyway.

The strip of pictures shows my rough sketches working up into the startings of a finished drawing, then applying the brakes to get more roughs done. There's a lot to represent in this picture, and it's blummin difficult to fit it all in, especially in that over complicated detailed exciting way that it needs. As you can see the top rough was a splurge. Then I had a vision in my head which I thought was put there by a book cover for a Tom Sharpe book, but I must be wrong. I had a good look for it and it didn't show up, but there is one with a car whizzing on the front, so that might have been it. Anyone know of a cartoon of a car coming over a hill with a frazzled looking driver behind the wheel with his tongue hanging out, then give me a shout! Anyway, the second drawing [notice I've usefully numbered the frames but you can't read them unless you click on the image but that takes you to another page which means you can't read this text. Hmmm. What a dilemma? Personally I would open the image in another browser window and then you can see both, I can't find a way of getting blogger to do that, but if you know a way, let me know! Wow, homework.] is my rough of that vision, which I think came out of my brain without too much trauma. The second one is just tidying that up, I folded one half of the layout paper over the top of the original to make that one, you might be able to see bits of the other one through. Also notice on 3 theres a small thumbnail where I wondered if I had started going down the wrong route and whether actually like my original rough I saw the car flying through the sky vertically towards us. I may well return to that if this one doesn't work out! The fourth sketch is a straight trace of 3 with the 'stuff' added. Dragon's feet dangling down, lazers coming out of labs, marshmallows over head, giant socks int he road and a big load of snow covering the car. Phew. Happy with that sketch I started to draw it up neat, look see, number 5! Nah, I wasn't ready so that got abandoned and 6 came about. I did wonder about having the egg in the middle of the road and our snap shot illustration shows fractions of a second after the car has smashed through the egg. I kinda thought that actually puts the egg a bit too much in the centre of stage. So seeing the egg in the distance with a either a hole in it, or as I've drawn on the same pic [6] the egg smashed on the road but with skid marks by the edge of it where the car has skidded off road to avoid it. The marshmallow factory is annoyingly in exactly the same place as the marshmallow illustration which obviously is a NO NO, so this will probably swap places with the lab. Then however the marshmallows won't be coming over the car but across it, which I'm not happy with. How picky am I? Maybe I could flip the scene so the car is coming over the hill to the left, oh no, NO NO NO... I don't know, but you'll see the decisions in the next few days.

The image on its own at the bottom is the latest sketch, its traced from image 6 on the strip. I've expanded the area for the illustration to closer to the correct dimensions so I can fit everything in!

click on the image to see it bigger

TOBY AND A VERY LARGE EGG

Toby and a very large egg. Enough said really. I've started to use a brush pen to make a very quick bold sketch of an illustration then overlay layout paper, redraw it with any tweaks or changes I have then retrace that and refine a final time with the finished drawing. Seems to work well because then I don't get into any details early on just if the shapes work. Then when I can see they do I flesh it out. Simple but effective! Just like me.




click on the image to view a bigger one

I'VE ONLY GONE & CAUGHT UP

There are about 6 more illustrations to be created for 'White Day' which I've started to think about and make loose sketches towards, they are much more current where as much of what you have seen to date has been created over quite a bit of time. I have actually caught up, and this is where the fun/work starts. Creating the out standing drawings for 'White Day' and then moving on to 'Coolio and the Moose'. So things will probably slow down but thicken up as there is more stuff added as and when. So more sketches, more work in progress, just more. Hopefully! 'Coolio and the Moose' is actually quite heavily planned out which is nice and is going to be much more free to do. There are no repetitive locations, no planning of 'place'. The two characters are already designed. So it should be a breeze! Haha. Yes well, cough cough. With 6 roughs to do, tidying up and all the books, one book to totally draw and then possibly up to 9 finished illustrations to do I have quite a lot of work to cram in to however many days it is now till my deadline. Not to mention all the typography and final tarting about with the mock books. Yikes. Enough, I have to get on!

Maybe one game of Call of Duty before then...

A STAR IS BORN

Well ok maybe that's a bit over the top and dramatic. Maybe it isn't. Below are 3 sets of images, collections of the initial first sketches and then the second round sketches and then the final tidied up and cleaned up finals to make their way into the mock up book. Look at the original 'Designing Toby' post to see him in his earliest stages: http://the3books.blogspot.com/2009/03/designing-toby.html

There were all kinds of problems along the way some major most tiny and all forgotten now. I endured a lengthy photo session in my living room where I dressed in stripey colgate PJs enacted all the situations and facial expressions Toby went through. Much to the amusement of Rhian I hasten to add. My pleas of it's all for art were falling on deaf ears as I clambered behind the TV [the only thing high enough to be used as a window ledge in Toby's bedroom] and stubbed my toes on scart leads and adaptors. Ah well. Those pictures you won't be seeing!

THE DROPPED DRAGON'S EGG

I really am spoiling you aren't I? Look how much effort I'm putting into titles now. More than I am putting into actually doing my drawings. Uh-oh. Not only have I put some effort into the title design but also you get a movie. YES YOU READ RIGHT, A MOVIE! I know. Towards the end of the movie you'll notice I changed my mind about the dragon's neck. It all seemed a bit cliche having a long curled up neck. It had been annoying me for a little while and then I decided to get rid of it and then redraw it.


Hopefully you can see how the dragon illustration was constructed. I think I rendered out about five maquette angles and finally decided on this angle at the last minute.

As the top picture of these 3 grouped pics shows, there were LOTS of false starts and working drawings for this illustration. I still don't think I've truely nailed it but it's a lot closer than any of those drawings were. The second picture shows the sketch which had me thinking EUREKA! I've found it. Then the third shows another false start where the nuances of the eureka sketch were completely lost and the dragon looks old and predictable, where as the eureka one looks motherly, sad, gentle, much more what I was after. Anyway, then we come to all the pictures you've seen in the movie. Last and by no means least is the final pic. Unfortunately I mounted the illustration on some board as it was getting tatty and it wrinkled up badly which shows on the scan :O( You still get the general idea.

click on the image to see it larger

ONE OF THE HARDEST CHALLENGES

One of the hardest challenges for keeping going and drawing after work, or at weekends is procrastination. I mean, blimey I have to be one of the kings of procrastination. Well I thought I was until reading 'How I write' in Time Out magazine [which is basically an interview with various writers asking them how they go about writing] in which I found nearly all of them do pretty much everything there is to do other than the actual writing and come to that either at the bitter end, or do it for an hour and then do loads more stuff and possibly maybe if they can be bothered do a little later. Trying to keep going is hard, and to be honest I've been doing this for sometime. That's kind of where this blog comes in, it's to help me keep going. It's just as well I have got this blog to keep me going since my cats seem to do everything they can to get me to not do my drawings to either A) play with them or B) feed them. They know which ones they are.

THE AMAZING FLYING HOUSE

A flying house. That conjoures up so many great images in my brain it was difficult to lock it down to just the one. What would you do? No actually, I don't want to know because it might be better than mine. Anyway, this is how I approached it. Clouds, ground from above, planes. I had to know what they actually looked like so I can get the look right. I know something like google earth or maps shows you the earth from above, but it doesn't look quite like it does from out of a plane window. So I had to scoot about for pictures actually taken from a plane window, and make sure it was more in keeping with the surrounds of the house I had created. I think I also used a reference picture of my house/surrounds for some of the details seen through the clouds. Can you see me waving? Don't be silly, I'm not in the picture.

The angle again was worked out with my maquette and this time I downloaded a freebie model of a jumbo to put into the picture to work that bit out as well. A few alterations to the plane to make it more 'White Day' in style and I was off. One more thing is the outline style I had been rendering off my maquette at didnt do any favours for the plane since the details on that come from a texture. So I had to render two off one for the house and one for the plane.

You see a smaller version of the finished piece second from bottom. Now then, I got some feedback, and not necessarily the sort of feedback you want either especially since the plane is supposed to be in the sky and flying. The feedback was this: 'It doesn't look like it's in the sky and flying'. Bugger. So revision of this was, break the clouds by the edge of the house so you can see there is nothing beneath, add wings and a propeller to the house, as if some inspector gadget way it had been tranformed. The final version at the bottom still doesn't quite work it could be argued [other people might argue, I think it does!] but I think that will come out in the final artwork. When I come to do final finished colour artwork, that may well be one of the ones which gets done. I think the colour artwork will be an opportunity to right slight wrongs in a few illustrations. However I can feel myself 'wanting' to create full colour artwork for my favourite sketches. We shall see!

click on the image to see the large version