Where the Green Things Grow

Oh look, I'm posting twice in a twenty four hour period.

This is the other drawing I finished last week at work and wanted to paint this weekend.

I actually drew this one at least five times-- It started with a page of sketch poses as I tried to figure out how to set this one up, I picked a pose, I drew it, and I liked it, except for the fact that Suka was this itty bitty big headed doodle crammed into a four inch space on my paper. I took out a new sheet of paper, and I drew it again, but Suka looked obscenely tall; for some reason. Not one to be thwarted, I figured I'd give it another go. And another. And another.

I finally wound up with this one, and to be perfectly honest, I liked the original drawing more. Over all consensus of my co-workers, but mostly my room mate convinced me to ink and finish this one instead, so I did.

After finishing Tinette yesterday, I was looking forward to doing some more painting, but I wanted to try some things. I've always loved the contrast of a gorgeously painted background against cell shaded characters, and I've always wanted to give it a go myself- But I'm always far too lazy when it comes to making my nice, water coloured background, and then drawing the characters, and then painting the characters separately and then super imposing them together.

After Tinette, and a friend telling me that my character and my background looked like they were from different universes, it came to me. "Well, that's kinda what I want--"

So, I took my lineart, scanned it in, removed my red lines, and started painting green viney abstract things, the same way I went about painting Tinettes curtains on Friday. I originally had the vines inked, but as I worked, the constraints of my line art were frustrating me, so I just erased them. Plus, I wanted the soft looking painterly background, the lines were sort of defeating the purpose. After a couple of hours, I had my vines as finished as I wanted them, so I made a new layer and I laid down the flats of my character.

Two of my room mates pointed out that Suka had darker hair and a tan, so I'll take a second to explain; this isn't my usual Suka. I've started a new RP in a totally different world, and I brought Suka along with me. Things changed, and she's technically not even human any more. So yes, her skin is darker, her hair is darker, and she looks pretty much exactly the same as Kara with a big nose.

So there, soft painterly background, and a hard cell shaded character. This one also only took about three or four hours, unlike Tina, who took me the better part of two days.

I designed this specifically with the new RP in mind, because I wanted it for her profile picture. The only problem is, now Alan's profile picture, which is just him standing there on a white background.. is boring; and now I have to repaint it with some sort of background in mind.

Gives me something to do, eh?

Annie

2:43

Shed Some Light

Tada! I drew this picture some time last week, and I finally got a chance to colour it this weekend.

I started work a couple of weeks ago, and I was so excited to be working at Trafalgar, being my own campus and with my own kind of people. You know, fellow artists?

Turns out it was probably the most depressing thing to happen to me all summer (Yeah, that whole two weeks of it). I'm having a lot of problems lately just feeling generally confident in my art.

I'm confused, because I like what I draw, I like how it looks, and I'm not being a cocky brat in saying it looks nice and interesting and generally on the whole, it looks accurate. So why, can't anybody ever say anything about it?

I feel like when people ask to see my sketch book, and they look, they're like.. disappointed or something, and I get the courtesy, "Oh, oh yeah, nice," and I feel like I'm being regarded as a child who's proudly trying to show off scribbles.

I mean, when people look at my friends art, All they can do is go on and on about how amazing their particular style is, or how cute their particular style is, or how well they draw this, or how well they draw that, and then they look at mine.. and what's the best comment I can get...? "You got to be careful with anime."

Talk about a kick to the face.

Well anyways, for feeling literally ashamed when I draw pictures now, I did my best to ignore all of that and really work on painting for this one.

After seven hours and up of just painting curtains, I've gotten really tired of curtains.

I took a lot of screen shots while I was working on this one, so you can take a look at the screen shot reel here; it's pretty small, but you get the idea. I finally got up the courage to ask one of my art idols on DA what his process was, and even though I didn't really get the look I was going to try for, I had a lot of fun painting it and from his brief run down of his working process, this is what I wound up with. I thought it looked pretty spiffy.

I used about three layers, the background was all on one, and the character colours were all on one, and the lines were on their own.

I cheated a couple of times, used Photoshops brightness/contrast option to help me get a bit of an edge on things; but hey, that's what it's there for. I have one other picture I'd like to paint, possibly tomorrow, but past that, I'm all idea'd out, and the way things are going, I don't know when I'll get any more creative urges.

Annie

11:40

Open windows and Fans!

It's the time of year where things start to warm up, and people start to regret not having air conditioning.

Not that I'm overly bothered, I haven't had air conditioning in at least four years.

That's what fans are for!

I changed my shirt because it was too warm, and now I'm chilly.

I started this picture last thursday (not the one that just passed, the one before) Because I missed drawing my baby. I've been planning this picture for a long time, as I imagine the two of them wouldn't get on very well. Mostly because Yukio is out to destroy anything that moves and Ninja isn't afraid of anything.

Where's her brother, you ask? I don't know. I did some world splicing, and now Ninja is without her guardian angel. I was going to draw the background, and I went through a lot of options in my head... Originally, I was going to have it out in the forest, where Ninja's mother lives, but Yukio wouldn't make any sense in a scene like that. I then figured, well fine, I'll go for an older, more victorian feel, to match Yukio's clothing. Well, I couldn't get the right feel out of that either. So the entire week, I didn't have any clue what I was going to do for the background, until I got home, and it hit me.

If I wanted the background to fit both characters, it was going to have to be a grungier, darker, setting. Ninja is from a much more futuristic era, lots of metallic and unexplained neon glowing lights. I also wanted something Yukio would be used to, but I really didn't want to draw a victorian house.

Ah, what about a victorian cellar? Like the really freaky one in my house?

Alright, I wound up not having so much a victorian cellar as.. some kind of creepy dungeon, but it does seem like a likely place these two characters would run into each other. Spent the better half of today working on this, and it was a lot of fun. For once I didn't give up on a background forty minutes in; I kept working at it. And I like the results, I think. It looks a bit crappier full sized, but hey, it's an improvement, I'm working on it.

Annie

6:41

Winding Down

Yup, it's that time of year again. The time of year that involves a lot of "Holy crap, that's due THIS week?! How am I going to finish everything in time?!"

In other words, it's the end of the year.

I'm taking a break from watching Sherlock Holmes for the fourth or fifth time to post a couple drawings I made earlier today.

Today I didn't have anything to do; I woke up at seven to participate in a critique, and I hung around at school to show some sketches and prove to my teacher that I did actually do preemptive work for my InDesign portfolio project.

I was in a very rotten mood by the time I finally got let out of digital class, but I'm feeling much better now. Had something to eat, had some juice, and now I'm relaxing watching a movie.

To the drawings! The top drawing is again, a slightly older Suka, who I felt like drawing today. I'm not sure why. Below that, I figured after drawing a not so happy Suka picture, I should draw a happy one! Which led me to draw the younger version of Suka. I didn't like this one too much, I drew her eye too high in her face, and I messed up her lips-- but that's what happens when you draw in ballpoint! Ah, but it's so much fun. The bottom image is Tinette, of course, which I drew because Chelsea was drawing Tina in my sketchbook for me. I like this one, except the under drawing I changed makes her hand look like some sort of claw, instead of a hand.. but oh well.

Tomorrow, two more assignments, a little gallery on friday, and that's it, visual and creative arts is behind me forever! And I can start working. And then after work, I can start animation!

I am going to return to my movie now.

Annie

7:11

It's a Brand New Day

And the sun is high, all the angels sing, because you're gonna die.

I have to stop starting my blog posts with whatever random thought is in my head.

Guess what? I've finally got a design for my character Eli that I'm actually happy with.

I've tried for so long, because when everything started way back when, he was just a demon, very generic. He looked generic, the most badass thing I could come up with was a bunch of unnecessary belts and an upside down cross earring. I was so cool.

I later redesigned him with the same basic clothes, only I chopped off all his hair and added heeled boots. Cause you know, nothing says bad ass like a pair of heeled boots.

From that point on, I've been staggering my way through designs and rejecting each of them. At first I just took the original design and ditched it totally, trying to come up with something else. I came up with a very tall, very thin blue guy with a tail, messy hair, and what was supposed to be tusks protruding from his lower jaw and growing up through the skin.

It didn't hold. My second design was just me taking the original, original, years and years old drawing I'd found, and trying to redraw it completely. I liked it, I developed a massive nose for him, as well as giving him back his long flowy white hair.

As writing went on, I stopped liking it. The design was still to generic, there wasn't enough to be afraid of, and he was too human. Sure, I CALLED him a demon, but what difference did that make?

And so, the third character redesign was rejected. Last night while at home, I decided it was time to try again.

I'd been playing with this idea for a while, the idea of rocks and rocky protrusions from his entire body, making him stronger, more invincible, and hopefully scarier. At first, I thought Eli could be some sort of rock gollum; the only problem with that idea is that gollums are normally created by a master to serve the masters purpose. They aren't very intelligent, and are basicly the equivalent of a moving potato sack.

Eli is incredibly intelligent, so that idea wouldn't work. But the idea of being a mash up between a human life form, and a rock, stuck with me. I'd tried it multiple times before, but the only success I had was in making Eli look like a teenager with a horrible bad case of acne, or small pox.

Last night, just doodling at home in ballpoint, I came up with this.

I liked it! Granted, he was naked, and I had no idea what I was supposed to give him as a costume, that didn't matter, because I'd come up with a basic character design that I actually liked, after pretty much five years worth of work.

Oooo.

I cut his hair from the original design (it was down to his ass) and I trimmed up his limbs. Though I wanted him to seem scarier by covering him in rocks and protrusions, I still wanted him to look like he could be beaten in a fight, so as to be deceptive.

I failed, I've been informed Eli looks like he could kick Alan's ass.

Oh well, I still made him very girly, and was horrified when my brother stepped up to inform me, "You should give him a rock junk".

I was so horrified I had to leave the room and laugh till I cried.

SO, this is Eli, incredibly simple costume to balance out the ridiculous amount of line work I need to put into his character.

This is also the guy who takes an unhealthy interest in my protagonist.

Oh no!

Annie

9:23

Happy Birthday Little Bro!!

Something a little different from what I normally post. Today is my younger brother's sixteenth birthday; To celebrate, my mom suggested I make him one of my.. "Wonderful trading cards" (groan).

It was pretty fun, actually, after I realized I had no idea what my brother looked like, because his face is always hidden under a mountain of hair.

Very long mountains of hair.

Ignore the fact that I made him a humpback and didn't bother to adjust my scan so the colours are absurdly bright.

THIS, is probably one of the most accurate caricatures I've ever drawn; seeing as I'm crap at drawing anybody real except me, cause I draw me all the time. Prisma colour markers on bristol board!

I was in one of the most foul moods (again) today, and I don't really have a good excuse for it. Came home and napped for a few hours, and woke up feeling much better. Tomorrow morning my mom is going to pick me up from the school and take me home, we're going to have birthday dinner, and I'll be back Saturday sometime.

Hooray, I get to see my family. Who I'm going to be seeing the week after next anyways, but hey, birthdays are important.

Oh and yes, my head still brutally hurts; Its been migrating around my skull for the past few days, from behind close to my neck, to burning behind my right eye, to sitting and stabbing me in the face from the left, and then back to festering behind my right eye.

I wish I could afford to look into some of the techniques my doctor suggested, but really-- I can't keep living with this, it's gotten worse this past year, and I just want them to stop.

On the upside.. CHELSEA DESIGNED ME A DRAGON!!! His name is currently Greggor, and he resembles a boar. Being my favourite animal, that is an AWESOME idea.

I love my dragon, and when she finalizes the design, I want to make a plush version of it!

Annie

10:06

Alan is the Magic Man!

AND the dinosaur man!

Apparently I don't know anything about my characters, because I was trying to figure out what Alan's last name was. And I was going through name generator sites trying to come up with a name.

When I remembered, "Oh wait, he's the adoptive son of Booster and Jem. THEIR surname is Grant. So clearly, he'd have the same last name as his adoptive parents!"

Holy crap, my characters name is Alan Grant.

THAT IS SO BLOODY AWESOME I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

Also, he apparently can use magic. Not really, but Andrea thought it would be funny, so I indulged her.

I was too busy feeling awesome for inadvertently naming my character after Dr. Grant from Jurassic park.

I'm so hyper tonight, hahaha. So much energy; Tomorrow, I finish my sculpture in class! I'm so excited.

Very short post tonight.

Annie

10:55

The Final Product

I haven't been drawing much these past few days.

Actually, that's a lie, but everything I've been working on is a private project I don't want to show anybody at this point in time.

Maybe one day.

I'm making this post to post (to post to post to post) the contents of my portfolio for animation this year. One of my class mates was asking if she could see it, so she had something to compare to, but I'd given the hard copy of my portfolio to my mother, as she wanted to keep it.

In the following list of hyperlinks you will find scaled down images of everything I put in, with little comments from yours truly!

First up! The life drawing section.

Three accurate observations of the nude figure.

Set One
Set Two
Three
Four
Five

I clearly went above and beyond what they asked for-- but I'm also pretty certain it was a good idea to show I had strengths in different cuts of time.

Two accurate observations of an animal figure.

Set One
Set Two

Again I went above and over; I didn't have any strong observational animals that could fill an entire page, so I took the best from my trip to the royal winter fair and collaged them on two sheets of paper.

Two accurate observations of a hand, one anticipating an action, one carrying out the action.

Anticipating
Carrying Out

I re-did these a few dozen times and kept handing them off to my room mate to tell me if I snapped any fingers off. Which I did, and had to fix.

Character Design section!

Five Point Character Rotation (If you follow me, you've seen this already)
Expression Sheet, angry, neutral, happy, sad and shocked (Let it be known, I hate these)

Two action poses

Pose One
Pose Two

Story boarding! A four panel story board depicting a character finding a box, examining the box, trying to open the box, and reacting to the open box.

Adam the Child

My teacher suggested the age old joke of a boxing glove on a spring; I quite enjoyed drawing these.

Composition! Showing household objects resembling a sphere, cylinder, rectangle and cone in a space and then reacting to a particular event.

Before said event
After said event

I enjoyed drawing this, again getting a lot of suggestions of fun tidbits to hide in the second composition. It wasn't so bad once I let loose and just got creative with it.

Layout section! First a drawing of a character sitting or standing inside a space, then a drawing of that space from the characters point of view.

Character in space This, I reused from last year and just fine tuned a lot of the line work.
Characters POV THIS... I needed so much help on it wasn't even funny. Thank you to my room mate, who saved my life because I was drowning.

Five Personal Artworks

Really only has one box on the entire score sheet: "Creativity" But maybe that one mark could make or break it, I don't know.

Digital Painting 1
Digital Painting 2
Digital Painting 3
Water Colour Painting
Sketch Page 1
Sketch Page 2

I went ahead and included a bunch of sketches on one page and submitted it as a piece. They really like the red lines, a lot. They show a lot of thought and structure, so my teacher told me to make sure I included a lot of those, because the final, painted image? Doesn't impress as much as the work that went into it.

So, through the process of my portfolio I went to a main cluster of four people... My 2D design teacher, a third year animation teacher who agreed to meet with me, and my two room mates Sarah and Leah. I also got a lot of help from Chelsea, who kept me sane during the two weeks I was home alone working. I redid everything three or four times, but it got me a passing score.

Woo!

Annie

9:51