Moleskine scans part 2

Here are some more drawings from my sketchbook, in which I tried to draw more than one character to build a less anime like character and revert back to a more western influenced design, Using this process of creating characters has helped me to consider how to give traits to characters, thinking about how the life in which they are situated in would take on their appearance, are they an insomniac? if so would you portray them with dark circles under their eyes, greasy hair and elongated/drained faces from the lack of sleep.
Being in this state of mind has helped me to develop my thought process on how a character would act, their own personality, which has helped me in the Applied Animation project, in which I needed to design the main characters in detail but towards my own approach.

Character design

Character design

character design

Moleskine scans

Here are the first few drawings that I created in my Moleskine, (unfortunately only the first page of the book would take marker pen as the following pages were very thin and could only take fineliner and graphite. So I have worked in other sketchbooks as well as, that can take other media.)
I wanted to try and get away from my usual illustrative style that has absorbed the manga/anime proportions and detail and try and bring it back to a mixture of western and anime format.
I found it hard trying to steer away from that style as I automatically sketch in the anime based style that I have obtained, to help me steer away from this I began drawing different characters such as Pendleton Wards Finn and Jake, and DC's Robin, which began to help me think of how to redesign facial structures and simplify the anatomy.

Sketchbook and media

Here are some more drawings I have done in other sketchbooks that I have used, some relate to the projects that I am currently working on and others I have made for myself.
I tried to use more watercolour and inks as to experiment with the vibrancy and desaturated depiction that both mediums can create, (I wanted to give my drawings more of an atmosphere with other media rather than just a HB pencil and fineliner).
Using watercolour helped to give depth and live to the imagery that I had drawn. I enjoy working with watercolours as it instantly can change the atmosphere of the piece, it can desaturate creating a dismal piece or saturate it to give it a more positive edge.

Inspired by Alice and Wonderland, using watercolours and graphite

 

A sketch daily drawing for twitter that I never got round to finishing,
created using Photoshop.

I have also been working on page illustrations for a book, Celestia Tales written by Debora Foulkes, the book was put on hold for a while, so have been gradually planning the rest of the pages designs, (I really need to catch up with the drawings though as book is ready to print now par my illustrations).

Character page for Author of Celestia Tales

WIP - Character page for Author of Celestia Tales

Website - Twitter

Mouse visual research

For the new task set, I was given a word, mouse, in which I had to draw a set of 32 images that would represent this word. Immediately I researched into images of mouses and animated versions of mouses, such as An American tail and Basil: The Great Mouse Detective.

I realised that there was quite alot of variations of animated mouses including CG and 2-D animation, along with Disneys The Rescuers and the teapot mouse in Alice in Wonderland, Ratatouille, Stuart Little, Mouse Hunt and the Itchy and Scratchy sketch from The Simpsons animation; the character of a mouse is either depicted with simple lines which would be aimed at a young audience or gain detail if for an older audience, depending on the target audience.

Looking at mouses in real life, the eyes are relatively large for the size of the head and are black, with only four teeth and quite long whiskers. I found an image of an owl about to capture this mouse and the size of the mouse compared to the owl was enormous, the mouse was smaller than the size of its claw. It made me think of drawing a mouse in the corner of the panel in an extreme long shot to emphasise how small the animal actually is.

Set, Series, Sequence

Example of 32 - Far too obvious, I used the word mouse too literally,
I needed to explore the use of media and thought process more...

First batch of 8 which stemmed from the previous 32 -
I felt it was too obvious and I didn't like what I had made, I needed to
develop my initial thoughts and ideas more...

I was given the word mouse, in which I needed to produce 32 images stemming from this word.
I created images which were obvious and did not really explore the word mouse that well, I needed to be more experimental, so I created another set of 16 images.

16 images

In these images, I thought about what a mouse is, what it smells, looks, sounds like and portraying this in different imagery and media. I enjoyed this more than the 32 images as it was a challenge to think of what media would work better to depict the theme or texture of the image I had drawn.
I felt that the bacteria image worked the best as I gained inspiration for this with the work of the fine artist Amy Gross, who creates organic pieces of work through the use of this installations of hair, shells, wool which have a fantasy and surrealist edge to them.

Amy Gross - Red Blooming Biotype

I approached the 8 images with a "what if" thoughts. For example:

• What if the bacteria was a figure, a living breathing entity?
• What if the bacteria was actually a plane? A place where beings did their shopping and lived everyday normal lives?
• What if the bacteria was some form of food? A pizza in which a person is about to eat? 

Using this thought process not only helped me to be more experimental with my work but also more innovative and aided me with taking different approaches to the media. For example, I asked, "what if I drew the bacteria with my left hand in continuous line? What would it look like?" - so I created this composition and it created a sketchy jagged and vivid image, through how the inks stained the grain of the paper.

I then further developed the 8 set of images into a sequence of 12 images which depicted a narrative. Again, I wanted to take an experimental approach to it, so I made the story simple as well as the art. The narrative, portrays the spreading of the bacteria, as the character goes to blow the spores, the spores infect the air around him and continue to spread as it covers the end frame.

8 images

8 images

sequence 1

sequence 2
 

sequence 3

James Jean

James Jean Sketch Book known as a fantasy illustrator, best known for his wall art for Prada.

James Jean is by far one of my top five favourite artists, purely through how he creates such beautiful and meaningful work that seems to connect with its viewers both through how aesthetically pleasing it is to the eye and also through how the use of line, emotion, expression and use of colour makes the piece whole.

I admire James Jean the most through his sketch books, as he is able to just sit and draw people on public transport and portray their expression through just the use of a ballpoint pen. The singular use of adding a red ink to the lineart completely changes the outlook on the character shown. (I love how Jean can just draw people in a semi realistic portrayal and then create something completely fantasy based splashed with vivid colours.)

Drawing whilst on the train

Drawing on the underground

Part of  the Wall Mural illustration at Prada

Concept art for the animation "Trembled Blossoms"

As part of his work for Prada, Jean created concept art for an animation for Pradas latest season.

I loathe this animation, I love James Jeans work but the CG animation loses and contorts the beauty of Jeans illustrations and watching this, I cant help but compare it to his concept art for it and it makes me mad. I was expecting a beautiful animation that absorbed his concept art and made it move, not something trying to be 3-D and traditional at the same time. Not only does the short not look aesthetically pleasing, the kinetic movement of the characters is slow and sometimes jagged. (End of rant)

I feel that this animation can be significantly edited and made to such a better quality of work, if they just lose the CG and revert back to a more traditional means.