Good to see my lack of creativity for title's still hasn't changed.
Yikes, it's been a little while since I last updated this blog. I remember when I did a couple of updates a week and kept it constantly fed. I'm a terrible blog mother. Then again, this blog must be about... blimey, 4 years old now. Where does the time go?
It's not without good reason, however. I aim to only really update when I have artwork to present and as most of my work has been based on either Crumbs (which is already hosted at its web page) and projects that are still in progress, I haven't been able to share anything as of yet. It's mainly been business planning, comic pages and illustration projects.
Speaking of the later, I'm hoping to be able to share something exciting with everyone in the next few weeks. I'm not entirely sure when but it'll be up ASAP once I get the green light. Only a very small handful of people know about it so far, which will hopefully change as I will be doing more work for this project. Sorry to be so vague at the moment.
On the Crumbs front, the comic is going well, still quite quiet and still only once a week. But I'm aiming to start uploading twice a week as I organise my work better and properly plan out a buffer. Tomorrow I will only be sharing a Halloween image on the site, which should bide me some time to create a collection of pages in the meantime.
Oh yeah, no surprise to anyone, there's a pug character in Crumbs. Her name is Tita. She's adorable. I'm gonna colour this eventually, I sketched this over a month ago.
Now, I don't know how many people will be aware of this picture. I saw it on tumblr earlier this week and I've had a number of people show it to me. Now, look at this and tell me it's not the most badass thing ever.
So naturally I had to completely recreate this picture using my own pigeon characters. It was kind of a no brainer, especially as it just seemed to fit the whole theme of Crumbs in a way. I could even decide what pigeons could go were pretty much instantly.
Its not finished just yet and it probably won't be for a while. I've already coloured all the pigeons and planned out a background but I need to do shading and textures and details still. And even once its finished, it probably won't be seen until I finish the first story arc. Maybe I'll do a poster design, depending on interest.
So yeah, thats all I can show so far. Fffff, I can't wait to talk about this illustration project, keeping cool things secret is the total pits. In the meantime, read Crumbs HERE!
Yep, you heard right, it's actually online RIGHT NOW! Friggin' finally.
If you remember correctly, the comic will update every day for a week. So don't forget to come back tomorrow for the next page! Not that I'd let you all forget. To keep on top of updates, follow me on twitter and follow the Crumbs site if you have a tumblr account.
Click on the picture below for the page. Hope this is worth the wait!
"Did she even share the original schedule on here?" "I doubt it, she's not that bright..."
OK, so I have quite a few things to discuss art wise.
I had been planning on uploading Crumbs three times a week on a mon/wed/fri schedule as it seemed, at the time, to be frequent enough without resulting in a burnout. However, circumstances have changed and I am now involved in two quite big projects. One is a short collaborated animation with Ashleigh and Rachel that requires quite a bit of time and learning new techniques, at least in my case. The other I'm not entirely sure if I can go into too terribly much detail about just yet but it's paid work and I'd be a numpty not to prioritise that. I will say this though, pigeon illustrations are involved. Stay tuned for an update on that!
Crumbs is basically a project for myself that, at the risk of sounding all la-di-dah, I am using to explore my artistic capabilities. It's also going to encourage me to stay focused and disciplined on my art work, provide me with a project that I am completely in charge of and allow me to experiment with character development and storytelling. Also I wanted to create something with pigeons because pigeons are boss. But it is essentially a side project I have for myself and, while I hope to spend much more time on it someday depending on how things turned out, I have to have the aforementioned projects take priority.
Which means that the upload schedule for Crumbs has to change.
Here's how it's gonna work: The first seven pages I will upload once a day from the 15th September. Then from page 8, which will upload on the following monday after that week, the comic will upload weekly instead. Turns out I suck at building up buffers and, while I have the pages planned out, they are not ready to upload on a three-times-a-week basis. Also these two projects have been taking up a lot of my time and there's still a while to go before they're complete.
One day in the future, I hope to have the mon/wed/fri schedule back on track but for now, it's just not realistic. Things could change though, we'll need to see how things go but alas I cannot promise anything.
To make up for my crappery, I have a few new drawings to share. They've been on my art/ask blog Where The Crumbs Are Scattered for a while now but Its been a while since I shared anything on this blog. I've been slipping on my blog updates here, blimey.
Some Scarlet and Hope character interaction/designs. I'm finally happy with how I draw Hope's fantail!
NEW CHARACTER Dusty the Squab... type... thing. Its complicated.
So yeah, long story short, I have a ton of stuff to do and Crumbs has to take a back seat for the time being. But it will still upload on a regular schedule, just not the one I had planned. Don't worry chums, I'm far from giving up on it!
Some overdue news because I've been super crazy busy with super crazy all sorts. I believe some of you have wanted to know this for a while...
That's right, this is actually going to be a thing. Crumbs will begin updating on the 15th September. Now I just need to keep on top of the buffer, I haven't managed to finish as many pages as I would have liked.
Well, that's it. Fd Animation and BA Hons Creative Practice graduate right here. I'm officially no longer a student.
Yesterday, I was asked what it felt like to be out of education and honestly, I didn't really have an answer. Well, I did but not really a definite non-rambly one. But for the time being, all I can think of is how weird it'll be to not have to attend school in September. For the longest time, I always had that consistency in my life, whether I enjoyed it or not. But I was familiar with it. Now it's just... gone. S'weird, man.
I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into this but it's kind of a lot to take in. I think it's because this year I've had a lot of big changes happen in my life and it gets a bit overwhelming. It's not that I want things to stay the same, far from it. I want to face new experiences and see where life takes me. But it's also quite a lot to take in and losing those things you were once familiar and comfortable with can be a bit daunting.
But at the same time, I'm also excited and looking forward to the next chapter in life. I know for a fact that I'm excited to start working properly on Crumbs. I'll be in Spain for the next week and I'm planning on bringing my sketchbook so that I can get some pigeon sketches and doodles done and maybe even plan some more parts of the story if inspiration strikes. But I'm not going to force it and stress myself out. As well as this, I gotta find me a job as well as work on setting up the company with Ashleigh and Rachel. Ooh, the possibilities! Scary but exciting, as life should be I suppose.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way, here are a couple of photos on graduation day. Apologises in advance for those who faint at seeing my face. Either from lust or disgust, your call.
Pre-robes. My dress IS greenish, I don't care what Kat says.
Robes acquired. Stupid yellow and blue thing kept sliding back, ugh
Me seconds away from death (I got better.)
"My daughter is graduating, DEAL WITH IT." This is probably the only time I will be as tall as my Mum. Unless she bullies persuades me to wear heels again...
Dad kept accidentally choking me with the blue and yellow thing. I think he resents how much my course/graduation cost. Just wait 'til I earn squillions with my new animated series Dad, it'll pay for itself!
I love you Mum and Dad.
I'll have the actual professional photograph come along in a few weeks, along with a graduation t-shirt. And I now have this years grey alumni hoodie to go with the navy one I got at my Fd Animation graduation. I like hoodies.
Anyway, I'll have to start job hunting and serious comic developing very soon but from now until I get back from Spain, I'll be taking it easy for a while. I've noticed myself getting worked up from lack of ideas and I know forcing it'll just make things even harder. So I'm gonna calm my tits, relax for a while and if I get some new ideas, I'll go with it if or when that happens.
... You clicked on it, didn't you? God, you're shameless.
Wow I am literally the worst; I meant to have this entry up like, a few days or so after the last one. I don't have an excuse, I'm just a lazy turd.
Anyway, lets cut to the chase. Since the last entry, a few things have changed. For example, none of us were particularly enamoured with the company name and so that is going through yet another change. We haven't settled on anything definite just yet but aim to do so as soon as humanly possible. I'll be speaking to Ashleigh and Rachel at some point on Skype tonight so maybe this issue will be resolved then. Not making any promises though.
We're making some progress with deciding the exact things we want to achieve and creating business plans, as well as personal goals (in my case, as you all probably know, this will be Crumbs) and we always have more things to add to the list with every discussion we have so as far as I'm concerned, things are going quite well on this front. Of course some things still need to be organised before business can really take off. There's a lot of stuff to consider.
So yeah, over a month later after Final Show, quite a few things have changed. But it occurred to me that I never actually put the Virtual Magic show reel onto the blog. I asked Rachel and Ashleigh if they'd mind me doing this and they said it was fine, considering it's mainly a blend of our individual projects anyway to illustrate our individual animation skills. So while this company name won't be a thing anymore, hopefully you'll still enjoy the show reel. We'll have our own brand new company show reel in the future but until then, there's this.
As for Crumbs, it's getting there. I've been doing more planning and writing than actual comic page creating though. I think I might need to forget working on a chronological order and just create the pages I see clearly in my head and then work around them, if that makes sense.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I changed the design and look of the 'site'. It seemed much too busy and distracting before with the bright character filled background. Now, it's a plainer design and looks more like an actual webcomic site would. I'm considering creating a side blog for people with questions about the comic but that's probably something to worry about once the comic starts uploading. Until then, I have the FAQ section although it currently features questions about myself artwise than the comic itself. That'll hopefully change once the comic actually starts.
To see for yourself, click on the 'Crumbs' link right at the top of the blog. You can't miss it.
Well, tomorrow is graduation. Gotta go practice walking in high heels some more. You all look like ants from up here...
I wanted to get this entry up the day after the exhibition but sheer laziness took over and then I wasn't able to find the cable to transfer pictures from the camera to my laptop. Still haven't found it, had to resort to using the memory card or whatever it is. I may be dumb and tired right now but this entry is late enough as it is so let's get to the pretty darn fuzzy pictures!
Here is basically what the Virtual Magic boards looked like.There was a bit of a kerfuffle because some of the artwork had been moved to different parts before we got to college. I wouldn't have minded at all if it was discussed with us beforehand but that wasn't the case. That said, they knew what they were doing and I can't deny that the boards still look good, although it does lead to some confusion on one board in particular.
Anyway yes, boards now.
First Board
You'll probably recognise the two pigeon related posters. The above is Rachel's project that she wants us as a studio to work on- Feathers of the Roc. The poster was supposed to have the title and logo on it but you can blame my dumb ass for that one. I didn't glue the poster on the mountboard right so it made the poster all air bubbly and sucky- not professional enough for a final show exhibition. I WAS CRIPPLED WITH GUILT. This is what the poster was SUPPOSED to look like.
FUCKING AIR BUBBLES YOU RUINED MY LIFE
Still looks quite good in person though.
Although the new poster is much brighter and shinier so no harm done, I guess. Just some confusion and we could always explain that.
We were going to have one piece from Ashleigh, one from Rachel and one from me at the front to show our individual skills and have people be brought in by that. However, our tutors felt that the use of colour would be more likely to attract people instead. Kind of sucks that both of my posters are at the front and Ashleigh's isn't but then again, she does get (mostly) her own wall...
Second Board
... Which probably caused a bit of confusion because Ashleigh's project is NOT Realmspawn. That is a webcomic that will be started up by Rachel. The character designs are all Ashleigh's and are related to The God Child Saga, her own story series. Then again, I suppose if people read the next board, they'd realise what characters belong to which story.
Third and Final Board
The top picture is a collaborative piece with all of our characters together. It was mainly to show the difference of our individual concepts together. Ruby and Snaps needs to be drawn more. Friggin' pigeons.
Beneath that are the individual plaques with a short synopsis of our individual projects, personal plaques with our 200 words of whatever we wanted to say and we see a big cut out of Ashleigh's character, Caelyn (which I HOPE I've spelt right. I'm sure she'll let me know. With her fists.)
HERE HE BE IN ALL HIS GLORY
Damn, them weapons are sharp.
We also had a small collection of business cards: individual and company based, Ashleigh's free badges, our portfolio, our shirt designs and the Crumbs comic pages.
Oh, and some cut out pigeons were hanging around the room here and there. On their best behavior. They didn't even shit on anyone.
The night pretty much went the same as last year. Except I went around wearing the pigeon head a few times, much to the amusement of others. It's hard to talk, breathe, see or hear in that thing. But I was fine for the most part. Although I think I ran over an old man at that point.
The big drawing wall wasn't there this time, due to the fact that we were using the HD TV to show the animations instead of four back to back computers. That was a pity. I wanted to draw more tits.
... tee hee.
But anyway, the rest was quite familiar: discussing work with others and explaining concepts, making connections and meeting old friends from the Foundation degree. It was also cool seeing my friend Matt Harle, who is quite the editing pro. Check out his blog entry on the exhibition HERE if you want to see it from a different perspective.
Like last year, we also had screenings of our show reels and animations in the Space bar. They had been playing all day on the TV screen in the animation room but it was intense seeing it on the big screen. Especially with the Virtual Magic show reel with the music we used. I could feel the vibrations in my chest...
Speaking of, I was going to share the reel in this entry but I'm not sure if I'm able to just yet. If so, I'll upload a new entry in the next few days.
Oh, I didn't go out and get hammered this time. Instead, I went for a nice meal with Rachel and her family. Great place! Italian food is where it's at, yo. Fo shizzle. And other words.
I can't brain anymore. I need bed. I'll update hopefully more awake next time. And maybe with show reel! I'm really excited at the idea of sharing it.
If anyone reading this was at the exhibition, thanks so much for coming! And I hope you enjoyed the first seven pages of Crumbs if you got the chance to read it. Expect more September 15th.
Do you want to pick up one of these Very Sexy Business Cards?
Very Sexy Hand not included.
Would you like to see someone wearing this giant pigeon head?
Spoiler Alert: It'll probably be me.
Would you like to read the first seven pages of Crumbs, MONTHS before it goes online?
As well as see this super nice poster?
Then get your adorable butts to Final Show 2013 at Mandela Building of Rye Hill Campus at Newcastle College!
The exhibition will be TOMORROW Monday 10th June from 6pm to 9pm, where we will be screening our show reels and animations on the big screen at the Space Bar at 7:30pm. There will be drinks and music also, which is pretty friggin' sweet.
I will be showing my Crumbs work on the Virtual Magic Animations boards, alongside my future colleagues Ashleigh Edmonds and Rachel Rutherford. You should also expect some very sexy shirt designs, free badges and of course the work of Ashleigh and Rachel- concepts from the God Child Saga, Realmspawn and what will be our first huge project Feathers Of The Roc. Yeah you'll have heard of that one before. But due to Rachel's attention to detail and care over her linework (hey, it does pay off! Check out the quality of her work, srsly) she has asked if we can use it as a studio project, having all of us work on it to get it done. Hey, works for me! I'm one of the many folks that want to see it finished.
Screw it, I'm gonna share the trailer. Again. This will be what we'll be helping Rachel with. It's awesome. Yep.
... Oh, uh, yeah, that surprise I mentioned a few blog entries back that I was putting off telling everyone- Ashleigh, Rachel and I are going to be putting together our own animation studio: Virtual Magic Studios.
Logo designed by Ashleigh Edmonds
We aim to create all sorts of animations, varying from genre to genre- some will be serious, others funny and some just to explore different animation methods. We will also be creating shirts and graphics that will soon be available for people to purchase on Streetshirts.co.uk and Redbubble.com, some of the designs for which you can see at the exhibitions! As well as the Crumbs Birdbrained Collection.
Did I mention you can read the first seven pages of Crumbs months before the internet will ever get to? Because you totally can. It's not going online until mid-September, folks. I suggest you take advantage of this.
The pigeons want you to.
Now, as we are technically part of the BA Hons Creative Practice group, we are currently unsure whether or not we have to stay the entire week. The FDAnimation is only on for the Monday and should us Level 6 chaps have to stay with our boards for the week, it's uncertain that the screenings/drinks will still be available. But either way, I'll keep you all updated. And of course, I'll upload a blog entry with pictures for those curious later this week about how the exhibition went.
I'll also be sure to update with more information about Virtual Magic as well, with Show reel, blog and social network details.
I hope you'll be able to make it! On behalf of Virtual Magic Studios, I thank you for your support.
Oh yeah, this'll be my plaque pic. I had to get a pug in somehow.
I was intending to create more concept artwork after handing in my dissertation and late development but once again I was hit with a wave of laziness and didn't do it. Very annoying of me.
But I have done one piece that people following the Facebook page will be aware of, as it is the timeline header. I wanted to develop Lilac more and had intended on drawing a lot of character interaction concepts mainly involving her reactions and relationships to and with the characters. Sadly this wasn't meant to be, at least not for the time being. But I did manage to capture a large part of her personality- the nurturing, caring side that Tweak brings out in her.
I had to use a photo as reference for the pigeons and also to experiment with the different background, not merely using the shape tool this time. I also wanted to show Tweak more puffed up and happy as he is quite skinny and nervous a lot of the time. It was a nice change of scene and I think the colours all work together nicely to create a nice serene image. If anyone has any critique or advice, please share!
In other news, the comic has begun.
As in the pages have begun being made. Like, months later than I planned. But in honesty I'm kind of glad it took this long as the idea I had five months ago sucks in comparison to the one I have now. I've had time to properly develop things, I suppose. So I guess it's worked out for the best. Even if I had to suffer through icky poopy essays, ew.
I have two pages done so far and have emailed them to my friend Rachel for some critique. I don't know how many I'll have done in time for Friday (the last ever hand in day, btw) but as long as it's enough to show the comic kicking off, it'll be good enough for me, and hopefully for the college as well.
As for the comic's official release date, I'm planning for sometime after the 20th of July. This is to give me enough time to build up a decent buffer of pages to upload to the tumblr site, time to share some stories at the exhibitions and also time to spend a week in Spain with my family without having to worry about the comic. Once that holiday in Spain is over, it'll be job applications everywhere, animation based work and Crumbs pages constantly!
So yeah, that's the basic plan. But I hope to have the exact date soon once I know exactly when we'll be back from Spain. If you want to see some of the pages and concepts before they appear on the site, you'll have to come to the exhibitions Crumbs will be featured at, alongside some other work that I still need to talk about but can't currently.
Thanks for reading and I hope you're as excited as I am for Crumbs!
I have been a member of designforums.co.uk for a few months now and was asked if I could make a blog entry about their new contest launching today. Certainly sounds like a fun idea, I might enter myself. Hopefully any designer folks of any media reading this now will consider entering as well!
I'll let Tony and Sean take it from here! Contest details
- The competition will run for six weeks in total (two week application stage, four week runtime) - The application stage will require people to submit Name, DOB, Location, their area of design and one random word to the pot. - Two words will be chosen at random to form a fictional company name for the design brief. - Entrants are then free to create anything they like, from branding, through to illustration or video promotions for the fictional company. - When the entries are submitted, entrants must also submit a small (paragraph) brief along with their entry, explaining how they interpreted the company name. The main competition stage will run for four weeks, and at the end, the entries will be collected, given to our guest judges and evaluated. ---
Yeah, the title isn't exactly the most creative thing I've come up with. Shaddap, I've been using most of my brainpower scrambling to get this dissertation done the past few days.
I'm pleased to say that it's going very well though. It's been quite helpful that a lot of the discussion points in my dissertation were looked at beforehand in my other written modules. Basically, I'm discussing how success can be defined and how that can be applied to the practice of webcomics. If that makes sense. IT BETTER MAKE SENSE. IT'S ALL I'VE WORKED ON FOR THE BEST WEEK.
Anyway, I've wanted to update this blog after my rather... dispirited entry (I'm starting to feel much better after throwing myself into this writing and I'm hoping to improve further after I can work on artwork again) but due to the amount of time spent writing, I haven't let myself get distracted with creating art. So it's been a few weeks since I've drawn much else.
However, before I threw myself with little abandon into my dissertation, I managed to scrounge up my finished entry for the Lizard Cops fanart competition, which is currently under voting now. I don't think I'll win but it was fun to do! Plus, I've wanted to draw Stanley and the dog character for a while now.
I wanted to keep the look quite close to the original show so I tried to do the background in a similar style to Rachel's. Although I couldn't resist colouring the lineart of the characters, I just can't seem to leave it black for some reason. Hmm.
Stanley only gets serious business if his doughnuts are threatened. Or if someone takes away the last pink sprinkled one, like dumbass dogboy here. Who no doubt will be too scared to leave his house and buy anything ever again.
I hope to upload an entry with more Crumbs artwork once the dissertation is handed in, as well as share an exciting development... although that last one might need to wait for a bit. There will definitely be more Crumbs art in the future though, I promise you all that.
Until then, here's a selfie of me and my pigeon mask. I've meant to share this on the blog for a while now.
I try not to bring in my life problems on this blog unless I can find a way to be creative with them. Lets Emmanimate is mainly to share any artwork, development and progress on any projects I'm working on as well as the finished result. It's generally meant to be a professional place for my work... or as close to professional as I can make it anyway.
But long story short, I've been drained in every way possible. Emotionally, physically, mentally... just a series of events in the short space of a month, varying from recovering from surgery to life changing events, that have basically left me with no energy and very little drive to do anything productive. This is the first time in weeks that I've actually drawn something and for a cartoonist, that's hardly a good thing.
The problem with me is I'm not a particularly open person when it comes to my own emotions. They're always on the back burner because I don't view them as important in comparison to other people. I'm the funny person, I'm here to cheer people up, to be there for them. Not load my problems onto them. Unfortunately, this often means they fester inside until... well, this happens. A long time of little productivity, if anything. So instead, I've taken the time to quickly sketch out a small vent piece that has helped me a little bit- to see a visual representation of how I've been feeling. Seems a bit dramatic but it's mainly to get the 'feels' out in a creative way rather than letting them stew any longer.
I've had this sort of idea for a while now, where the colour slowly drained out of a person, leaving them as a sad shadow of themselves instead. It's pretty much on the nose to how I've been feeling. I normally use bold colours and lines but it seemed out of place for something like this, hence the sketchy lines and the blocking. Kind of adds to the whole 'not feeling like myself lately' deal, you know?
Oops, I actually meant to remove the 'Fuck it' on the shirt. I think I felt especially crap when I wrote that. Ah well, might as well keep it. If anything, it adds to the whole thing. Feel free to give any suggestions and comments, this was just to vent but I'd still like to learn how I can improve.
Thankfully, I seem to slowly but surely be coming out of that funk. Every day I feel a bit better and I'm just aiming to get back to my work mentality, where I can churn out a lot of art and be able to focus on that. Hopefully that'll be the case once the bloody dissertation is out of the way. Which I'm meant to be focusing on right now. Ugh.
So yeah, hopefully I haven't made myself look like some overly dramatic wimp. And if I have... eh, we all need a whinge from time to time. Thanks for reading.
It's that surprising and wonderful occurrence where someone wanted to make something for me! Rachel Normand, creator of Lizard Cops (Eeee, episode 2 will be coming soon sjhsjkhjdk) saw I was being a sad panda and decided to be all "I SHALL FIX THIS!" *Whoosh* and then this amazing creation appeared.
It's just utterly perfect. Green would be enough of a dickface to snatch a doughnut from someone and come out with a quip like that. Although he's hardly one to talk; I'm surprised that tree branch is still standing. Maybe it snaps afterwards and Stanley gets the doughnut back. Hmm.
... I will most likely be drawing that. Mmhmm, yep.
SPEAKING OF, I have been working on my entry for the Lizard Cops Art Contest. I'll just share a part of the sketch for now as the majority of it is at the unpolished poop stage. It will be involving Stanley as well.
This dog just cannot catch a break, can he. Well, a few broken bones maybe.
I should be in bed now but I'm... uh, long story short, I need to distract myself right now. Besides, the college internet is being a giant prat so I don't think I'll be able to upload an entry tomorrow. So might as well be productive while I'm fending off sleep.
OK, so you might have noticed that indeed it's true, the Birdbrained collection is now complete! I may or may not add other birds in the future if people wish for me to but for now, I'm leaving it as is. I have to say, they all look fantastic together. Very colourful!
You can view the collection and buy the shirts RIGHT HERE.
I've also dabbled in some concept art here and there as I develop the characters and settings to help me dig into the story better. We'll start with a little idea I did for Hope. As she's a religious bird, I thought it would be fitting to recreate the classic holy dove imagery: the blue sky, bright sunshine and rays and of course the dove (well, in this case fantail but shush) itself. All she's missing is the plant they sometime include in her beak.
I'm considering making this a poster or a print in the future if people like it enough. Yes, no?
And as both Ashleigh and Rachel were doing some world building for their projects, I decided to do some artwork of one of the main buildings in the comic, an abandoned building in the town that the pigeons in the city often go into for meetings, shelter and so on. I did the same building at different times and weather because I wanted to see how that particular building would look. I'd like to create more settings once I think of them in better detail.
The raining one is my favourite one I think. It was the first one I did and I think I spent the most time on it. The Secret Promise perfume ad on the side of the building is actually an affectionate nod to a GCSE Media project I did with my friend Stacey, where we had to film our own advert. I wonder if she still has the footage...
Yeah, when the building is seen in the comic, the sign will always be different. Because shut it, that's why.
I'll make the pigeons colourful next time, I was mainly focusing on the background for the time being. Perhaps a shot of one of the pigeons overlooking the city. Hmm.
Also I should reeeeally get cracking on the script. Minor detail there. Oops.
Anyway you know the drill, any comments/advice/whathaveyou, just lay it on me in the comments. OK, catch you all later champs!
Yeah uh, if you know me in real life (or follow my twitter page as I was whinging about this constantly), intense stomach pains got me into the hospital before I was able to complete my project development work and hand it in. I came out with two weeny scars, aching everywhere and an exhaustion I'm still trying to shake off. Damn anaesthetic. Or however you spell it.
So I'm all discombobulated with my work right now and I need to figure out what I need to get done and when. I feel I should have recovered faster than this- it was just a keyhole operation and a laparoscopy, surely that shouldn't have been a big deal? I don't know, I don't really get sick often. Or at least nothing worse than a head cold.
Either way, I need to get a mitigation agreed. I was PLANNING on doing that today but the damn exhaustion took over again. I need to get over that tomorrow, the sooner the better.
So I don't have a LOT to show you guys, especially not in terms of the Realisation. And I also have to do the dissertation and... oh god, my head. But I have some little things I've done that I'm able to share. I'd also like your opinions on a few things actually.
Bit first, a cool picture of Scarlet. Always meant to colour this. I also tried a new shading style as well. It looks pretty good. Might use it more.
And now, the new Crumbs background. It's not done, I need to add Jay still but I wanted to add SOMETHING new considering I've been off the circuit workwise for nearly two weeks.
There it is in full. You can see it in action RIGHT HERE. And if you want to see the old background, you can look at the vlog again.
What I'd like to know is which works better. If you have any preferences or advice on what I can improve, please let me know!
Now I'm off to eat something and attempt to sleep and then not sleep in tomorrow like a moron. Wish me luck on that.
I've always considered vlogging for some reason or another but never thought that I, personally, was all that interesting to do so. Of course that doesn't stop a lot of people, probably as they have more confidence than I do. But I suppose I felt if I were to do such a thing, there needed to be a reason for it. Otherwise it would be a derpy Scottish lass talking shit. And lets face it, a lot of you get that in real life/Facebook/twitter/all three already.
However, with this Project Development shenanigan, I've decided, rather than write, to make a video log of my progress with the Crumbs tumblr page. The video explains why I haven't tried to make my own site so go and have a look for yerselves!
And if you yourself would like to have a look at the page, head right on over! Crumbs The Comic
Also, I couldn't resist making this part into a .gif. Well, I probably could have but shut your filthy face, no one asked you.
I'd like to make more vlogs but as hand in is Friday and this bugger took me two days to do, I don't think I'll have a snowman's chance in hell. I might just write scripts for them and hand them in instead.
... they STILL got me to do writing. Crafty swines...
To be honest, Valentines snuck up on me this year. Then again, it pretty much always does. I normally try to draw a picture for the occasion to spread the love in general but sadly I've been too busy. I may do one later though. Today I've been helping my friend Kat finish painting the set for Rumba in Roswell, which will be performed at the end of next week. Scary thought... it's been a few years since I've performed in front of an audience.
Anyway, I'm sorry about my updating habits with this thing. You have no blog entries for a few weeks and then loads for the next few days. I should really stick to my 'no more than two updates a week' rule. Assuming something actually worth blogging occurs.
But I figured with today being what it is, I should share the picture I did for my very special someone. It's technically his birthday picture but due to how mad busy I've been, I wasn't able to finish it for the day. However, I presented it to him yesterday and he has given me permission to upload it to my blog and other art sites.
I don't know if anyone actually knows that Brandon runs Mau5traxx, which is a Deadmau5 discography channel of EVERYTHING the musician has ever done on youtube. If you're a fan of his music, you should definitely check it out!
I also made a wallpaper version for his computer so hopefully he enjoys that! I'm not the best at romance.
While I'm here, you may have noticed that the title once again has changed. Normally I don't really mention it but I think I've finally settled on a design for little Ginger Snaps that I'm finally happy with. Took bloody long enough. It's fun playing with her design but I think this will be her consistent look. Feels good, man.
I should do a character sheet for her one of these days.
Well uh... that's basically it for now. I'm off to bed before I collapse. Have a goodun, puddins!
It’s been a while since I updated this thing and quite frankly, I suck for that. Quite a lot has been happening college, comic and life wise and I really think it’s about time I actually said what was going on. It’s got the potential to be a long one though so go make a sandwich for yourself or something, I can wait.
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You back? Kay, good.
Work Experience- Talking To Kids About Animation
Alright so let’s start with the earliest thing. A couple blog entries ago, I mentioned that Stephanie had invited us to have a talk with some of the kids she teaches about the different kinds of animation that can be done. So on the 31st January, Ashleigh and I (Rachel wasn’t able to attend) made our way to Darlington to talk to the local primary school. It was quite a fun trip considering that I can be quite wary of kids sometimes. But they all seemed to behave themselves and any that got a little vocal were told to hush by the teacher. Ahh school days.
Ashleigh had made a PowerPoint for the occasion and we talked about what we knew, answering some questions (they all seem particularly interested in knowing how Halo was made... couldn’t exactly help them there!) and showing examples of our work and others. We also shared The Great Experiment with them, with Stephanie showing the artwork and characters she and the children created and the fnished result that Me, Ashleigh and Callum Boyd came up with. I'm gonna just share it again. Just because.
It was interesting visiting a school. I remember being one of those little kids listening to a visitor come in and give a talk so it was quite an experience being on the other side of that. They were sweethearts as well. One of the classes had a birthday boy and he gave Ashleigh and I a cake each, as well as the rest of the class. And a little girl wrote on her board saying “Goodbye Ash and Emma”. I then fell into a diabetic shock. Although that might be my diet talking.
We might be going back in April to help out with something. We shall see...
All Animated Meetup
A friend of mine sent me a link to this meetup, which brings animators of different disciplines together to share their work and experiences. It was free to attend but a ticket still needed to be printed and presented. Just last week, after college, I made my way down there and met other students and even some professionals. Everyone was extremely friendly and it was really interesting seeing everyone’s work. I decided to share you, dear blog, to the group, as well as my show reel. People seemed quite impressed with it and I got some very helpful advice about flash. They seemed to think I used it already, which I think is a good sign!
If anyone from that meetup is reading right now, hello there! It was nice to meet you! And if I didn’t actually speak to you, I hope to do so at the next meet up! I certainly intend on going to another in Newcastle.
Actually, you might as well watch this video (there are also other ones in the related videos bar at the side) where, if you’ve ever wondered what I look or sound like, this video will be your salvation. Or something. You can also laugh at me casually sticking a cup to my face!
Good times.
Results for Project Planning
63
Aaaawwww yeeeeeeeeah.
Like I said before, my aim is to get 60 or more in my modules and I was disappointed with my last results. My VIVA I didn't expect to do well in but for my Project Proposal essay, I was 2% off my goal! AAAGGHH! So much more satisfied this time.
Now onto the Project Development. As far as I'm aware, this module consists of a portfolio of progress. So While I'm not entirely sure what that entails, I'm just going to go with my gut instinct.
Development Portfolio
So far, I have a vague story planned out. However, I need to find out exactly how it's going to start, dialogue, what characters are going to be introduced first, when, how and so on. All that fun stuff. So there's a lot of writing rather than actual artwork being done at the moment.
And I do want to get more drawing done. I want to plan out comic pages, get more shirt designs done (I've decided to stick with the Birdbrained slogan for now- I can always do new slogans later), more character sheets for new characters and so on. But I do have some unfinished work to share, just so you know what I'm currently working on at the moment. Bear in mind, these are not final results and are subject to change here and there.
Potential front page artwork for the first arc. Quite happy with the overall look, I don't believe I did too bad on the perspective. Need more practice on the buildings though. Feel free to give any advice or critique if you can.
Jay being sassy. Just come character exploration, in all honesty. I considered using it as a t-shirt design but it doesn't feel 'lively' enough, if that even makes sense. I may be using an older design for Jay's shirt. Stick around.
Blue with a new look for her legs. I'm not sure about it for the normal sized pigeons. The look works fine for Scarlet and V/Fawkes (who will be introduced later) but less so for the others, I think. Might try it a bit more before I make up my mind for sure though. No, she's not looking at Jay's crotch. I really didn't think this placement through. She looks quite unimpressed/disgusted. This amuses me more than it should.
Potential gag comic idea that came out of nowhere. Green's weight is something of a recurring joke.But c'mon, he BIG. I thought it would be humorous for Tweak, who is lighter than a twig, to be catapulted through a tree branch with Green being a dick about it. I really like the layout, the motion seems to come across nicely and, for some reason, I especially love the CRUNCH! effect. I think this comic might be one I won't have to make many changes to bar from speechbubble text and overall detail. And colour, obviously.
Yes, Crumbs has a pug now. Don't look at me like that, it was bound to happen eventually. Just some daft character reaction/expressions/attempt to draw a pugs proportions more realistically. As the pigeon's proportions are realistic for the most part, I need to make sure the pug fits in or he'll stick out like a sore thumb. More so.
Here, the shape of the legs look much better in my opinion. It helps her look taller, which pouter pigeons generally are from what I've seen. I really want to colour this, it's one of my favourite Scarlet pictures to date.
I follow the Pigeon Jon account on twitter and one tweet was about him crapping on a chihuahua and it going absolutely mental. I couldn't resist drawing it out. And, I'm not ashamed to admit it, I'm sniggering right now. Love it. I think it's the fact that you don't actually see the chihuahua going nuts but rather the pigeon's reactions to it that makes it funny? Or maybe I'm just a sad sack that laughs at her own jokes. Hey, someone has to! For the most part, the finished result will stay the same but I think I need to practice drawing the chihuahua a bit more. Same as with the pug, I want it's proportions to fit in with the world so I need a bit more practice.
And finally, a new character. I was intrigued with the overall look of the Jacobin pigeon and I thought he would be a good ally for Scarlet for- *ahem* SPOILERY REASONS THAT I CAN'T SHARE AT THE MOMENT. I can't decide whether to call him V or Fawkes. If anyone has a preference, please share.
I also have a plan for how the Crumbs website might look but I'm unsure of sharing it yet. I may share rejected designs at a later date but the finished look will only be shared once the website is live.
Well, that's all I have for you right now. And, I'll tell ya, this blog entry took me over THREE HOURS to write. No, I'm serious, three hours. The college net isn't the fastest, finding the videos was a pain and of course having to upload the pictures to photobucket rather than directly to the site is just... dhdjkhdj
I'm going to drown myself in mocha now while I attempt more story planning. Have a good day!
