Fan-Art February

Well, it looks like the storyboard conforming job fell through, which I'm not too upset about. I spent Janurary working on a new idea for a game after being unhappy with a previous prototype. I also decided to use a simpler art style, so I spent a week or so refining a character style that is simple enough to draw and animate, while still being expressive. I also came up with a rough scenario and some tentative enemies.

I've been playing a lot of Borderlands (and Fallout 3) so I decided to do some fan art. I drew Fun With Barrels first, but didn't know how to colour it, so I drew Lilith riding a Claptrap. I ended up throwing some colours on Tannis and calling it a day. Lilith is available as a t-shirt and sticker from my Redbubble site.

Lilith's got the Clap and her Maliwan's on fire

Dr. Patricia Tannis - Fun with Barrels

The image(s) below were intended to be in the style of those retro alcohol parody posters, but my linework was too thin, so it ended up being an amalgam of different inking/hatching styles. I always envisioned it as black and white, but I was looking at some images from old romance comics which inspired me to throw on some quick colours/half-toning. The third version is intended to look like one of those ads that you find in the back of an old comic book. There is a colour (with text) t-shirt and a white-on-colour t-shirt also available on my redbubble site.

Watching: Hesher by Spencer Susser, The Road by John Hillcoat
Reading: Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck by Erik Larson, Danse Macarbre by Stephen King
Listening to: Noodles - Explorer, Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Playing: Borderlands and Fallout 3

2012: Year of the...

Feel Good Hit of the Summer

...Conformist
This January I'll be starting a new part-time job as a "Storyboard Conformer". I'd rather be drawing storyboards than conforming them, but there is only so much animation work going on at any time and plenty of available storyboard artists around to snatch up the work.

The drawing on the right is my little way of finding a little creativity in what will be a rather menial job. It was originally drawn to become a t-shirt graphic (which can be purchased here) but it reminded me of something of my favourite music poster artists, Guy Burwell has done, so I made a little mockup 45rpm record sleeve.

...Developer
Maybe I'll get a storyboard to draw, maybe I won't, but I'm not really bothered because in 2012 I also plan on developing an iOS game, which will require a huge skill jump on my part. I've been trying to put myself through a crash course in game development, intending to soak up all I can. Luckily, it seems like we are in a renaissance of indie game development and there is a lot of information around.

...Fresh Start
I wanted to start the new year clear of all my old WIPs, so I sat down to finish them somehow. These drawings have been hanging around my hard drive for a few months. I don't know why I decided to take them further than the sketch stage. The 2nd drawing's noisy gradients were inspired by Robert Valley's work, especially the new storyboards he is posting on his blog.

The next picture goes back a year and a half. I knew that if I didn't finish it now, it would never be finished. I hate the background, but I like the goofy smile. I'm tired of doing boring artwork, I'm going to make an effort to make interesting drawings this year.

Rollin' up her sleeves for pie

Watching: George Harrison Living in the Material World by Martin Scorsese, Pearl Jam Twenty by Cameron Crowe
Reading: Needful Things by Stephen King
Listening to: The Minus 5 - Killingsworth, A Very She & Him Christmas, Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Darren Korb - Bastion OST 
Playing: Left 4 Dead 2, Bastion, Cave Story+ and LIMBO

Albatross Now!

I started this drawing as a quick escape from working on the image below. I ended up redrawing the feet a bunch of times and I'm still not completely happy with them, but oh well.

The guitar is one of my dream Telecaster designs. It is a double bound mish-mash of Thinline and 50's style Tele with a modified pick-guard that I've dubbed the Sofia-Caster.

I was considering doing more illustrations in the Polaroid series, but the idea kind of stalled.

Very late in the process I noticed that the guitar was way too large and it was a major PITA (because I work with tons of layers) to get it down to appropriate size.

That exercise in tedium got me to think about using layer masks in future illustrations.

Sofia-Caster>Klon>Fulltone 69>MXR chorus>Strymon El Capistan>Modifed Champ in an old Radio. 





This is an oldie that I just gave up on. It was kind of inspired by a scene (just after the turbulent plane ride) in the film Almost Famous.

I tried a few different BG concepts, but I didn't like the character drawing enough to spend the time on a fancy background. Hopefully I will make use of those concepts one day. 

I wished I had planned out the composition, instead of fumbling around over a period of months. The drawing of the girl started as a rough sketch in my sketchbook.

Lately I've been thinking about spending a little extra time at the sketch stage which will hopefully lead to spending less time working in Photoshop. 

The photo on the wall is Robert Mitchum from The Night of the Hunter.

Watching: Westworld by Michael Crichton, Food Inc by Robert Kenner, I'm Still Here by Casey Affleck, The Town by Ben Affleck, Eureka Seven by Bones Studio, Redline by Takeshi Koike

Reading: Salem's Lot, Cell & Under the Dome by Stephen King, The Strain by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Listening to: Kaki King - Junior, The Autumn Defense - The Green Hour & Once Around, Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts, Wilco - The Whole Love, The Minus 5 - self titled (Gun), Stephen Malkmus - Mirror Traffic

Rick-a-billy

I had a week off (unpaid of course, such is the freelance life) from storyboarding work, so I tried to finish some pics I had started a while back. I've only got 3 things left in the WIP folder. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Rickenbacker 620 in Midnight Blue

Billy bookshelf from Ikea

Watching: Scarecrow by Jerry Schatzberg, The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski

Reading: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Listening to: Liam Finn - FOMO, The Geraldine Fibbers - Butch, The Minus 5 - Down With Wilco

Merch!

"The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized" from RedBubble

 I now have merch available at two different places online: RedBubble (T-Shirts and Stickers) and MySoti (T-Shirts). I have previously mentioned that MySoti were experiencing issues (mainly atrocious shipping times) and they seem to have worked things out now. I've bought shirts from both sites so I'll do a little comparison.

"In/Out Umbrella" from MySoti, the others from RedBubble

1) RedBubble prints on American Apparel and MySoti prints on Gildan Softstyle and Ultra tees. The Gildan Softstyle is almost identical in cut and feel to the American Apparel tees. Gildan Ultra is a more traditional style of tee with thicker/heavier fabric.

"In/Out Umbrella's" colour is still vibrant after 6 months of wearing/washing

2) MySoti's colours are more vibrant than RedBubble's colours and has better edge definition (less bleed) on dark shirts but RedBubble has better ink coverage (solid blocks of ink) and better edge definition of light shirts.

"C-C-Cammy" and "Queen of Hearts" from RedBubble

3) RedBubble was a lot more affordable than MySoti but they recently changed their prices, so they are now very similar. However, RedBubble has free shipping when purchasing 4 or more shirts (they can be different designs by different designers). RedBubble ships from Australia, Britain, Canada and the US. MySoti ships out from Britain.

Stickers by Redbubble

I also have Stickers for sale through RedBubble. When ordering 6 or more, they become half price. They're made of a heavy vinyl with a matte finish. They're removable up to a point. I had to peel off the Spacemonkeys sticker above a couple of time to get it centred and straightened on the cover of my sketchbook.