Paul Hess and Doodlebugs!

I said I'd report back about the Paul Hess talk so here I be!

It was very interesting learning about what life as a freelance illustrator is like, how he sets up his day, where he gets inspiration and also the advice he gave us that will be very helpful once leaving college, such as how to get an agent and various ways to organise your ideas so that you have time for everything. It was a really interesting talk.

We also had a look at some of the books he had illustrated. One that Ashleigh and I looked through was written in a different language and so we had a good time trying to tell what the story could be through the illustrations. It was quite a bizarre story though and I think we came up with the conclusion that the man was battling a drug addiction, the cottage he went to was rehab and he's completely curde after drinking soup with nails in it and wearing a crown. I assume that's not the real story though but that's the conclusion we came to.

I also had the chance to talk to Hess a little bit, show him this blog and ask for advice. He seemed to like what I was showing him and had very helpful advice, such as considering giving different characters different shapes for variety. Funny he said that because I'd been having that thought for a while now and have now sketched characters with varied body shapes. But we'll come to that in a moment.
He also suggested that rather than look at an obvious reference to start looking at random things that could be duplicated in our work, such as how castles look or how different trees are. It's given me something to think about and I'll definitely think more outside the box when it comes to illustrating.

Here is a link to his website: http://www.paulhessillustration.com/

Now, onto the sketches! There are some pigeons, come chibis and a bit of Ruby with two unintroduced characters Rita and Janey.

They... don't like each other and Ruby's contemplating how to separate the two without somehow winding up in the crossfire. Good luck with that.

Ginger chibi

Ruby chibi

Character design for Socks: cat character
in Crumbs

Pink and Blue. Hey look, he kissed her on the pecker!
... no, wait, that doesn't work.

Uncoloured story concept for comic. Blue feels the need to
protect Tweak against this newcomer...

Flying pigeon. I had Blue in mind when I sketched it but it could
be either her or Pink.

"Hey sis!" Pink and Lilac. Before Pink lost
his foot.

Til next time, folks!