GOOD MORNING!

there were some pictures here, but now they're gone.

'painting' over other people's drawings is a bit surreal but my god, it's so so so nice to be in a work environment around other people again. and as much as i love you, drawing-board in my room, you can be a bit of an island.

*BONUS ROUND*
since this post was as dull as a butter knife, here's the obligatory 101 links to things you should check out:
EPISODE 218: with special guest PETE HOLMES if you like to listen to people ramble about movies, these guys are totally fun.


totally impulse bought this album on the basis of this one song because it's just goddamn funky but alas, none of the other tracks on 'treats' sound anything like this. the rest of that album sounds like FIGHTIN' ROBOTZ WITH LAZORZ. i still can't work out if that's totally awesome or not.

just a heads up. what follows is a totally waffle-y piece of waffle that ran away with itself and has nothing to do with cowboys. there are, however, some links to some rather dope art blogs that are TOTALLY worth checking out.

***
booked in to work again this week. a while back, i got an email out of the blue from JESS LINARES, who i haven't seen sine we did our foundation at camberwell. if you're stilll reading this, go back and click on that link. girl has CRAZY talent.

but i digress.

ANYWAY, she hooked me up with some rather nice chaps who farm in folk to do things like storyboard commercials for them and what not. i did a stint with them a while back and apparently didn't fuck it up too amazingly because they asked me back this week to help out with some colouring in (dear jess and freya, i take back every crack about geography ever).
it is a tiny bit terrifying though. one thing i learnt from the last time there was my photoshop skills are totally dinosaur. these people were doing RIDICULOUS things with image manipulation that probably saved them 900 hours and resulted in super nice, super crisp pictures (which is totally what their customers are looking for).
...
i don't know how to roll like that. but it did bring to mind a totally awesome blog post written by recent middlesex graduate, HOLLY EXLEY. read it HERE. she raises some very interesting points about how well these degrees are actually preparing us for the real world. you should read it.... and then go marvel at her totally sick watercolours.

***

wow, sorry. that was a little bit tl;dr. the super rough cowboy doodles are thumbs for a poster gig (not to be confused with a gig poster. my god, i would give my eye teeth to work on something like that). holy shit. i NEED to find the time to nail this bad boy. this summer is severally schooling me in the fact that i CANNOT juggle projects at all.

speaking of summer, do you remember when it used to look like this?:


god fucking damn, i want to go play with my camera.

WALK OF SHAME! actually, that's wholly appropriate seeing as i only managed to get a shocking 2 PAGES done this week. poor form, moore.

IN OTHER OLD, OUTDATED NEWS:



so a while back, we went to the macmillan book prize show. as mentioned before, HECTOR got his ass shortlisted which is totally awesome. speaking of awesome, some of the other entries on show at that thing were absolutely mind-bending. it's a shame the macmillan website has ABSOLUTELY NO COVERAGE OF THIS COMPETITION WHATSOEVER since this stuff totally deserves to be seen.

being anal, i did some rooting around and found some websites you should most definitely check out:
http://emmabennettillustration.tumblr.com/
http://cargocollective.com/naomijonesillustration
http://elysdolan.blogspot.com/
http://vanyanastanlieva.blogspot.com/

do over. god, this is so much better than the last stab... being on topic helps too.

also, COLOUR!

no more ships for a while though.

aaaaaaaand this is why you don't skim through briefs. turns out i'd got completely the wrong end of the stick with this so yeah, expect a redone version some time in the not to distant future. oh well, what the hell. this was done in a haze of sleep depravation so it's pretty sucky, particularly when it comes to the placement of the figure on the page and the execution of the pose (which aren't mutually exclusive).

now with added background! oh man, the eraser tool in open canvas is the best thing ever when it comes to drawing flames.

mmm, not sure how well this works. i probably should have done something to make the box of matches more visible/legible since it's a pretty key part of what this was meant to be saying. oh well, i can distract myself with the shitty ass smoke cloud.

so yeah, every now and again my dad ropes me into doing some shipping related illustrations. this latest batch are for a talk about ship owners who want/need a quick buck and the wacky scams they pull.

i don't know, this is probably good for me. my ability to draw the inorganic is somewhat... lacking. also, with turning tiger, it's been a loooooooong time since i've had a chance to do some digital painting. i'd kill to sit down and do something that takes 9000 hours to lovingly render but i guess this'll have to do for now.

that speech bubble is so yuck.

invite design. no contact information for you though, internet, hence the big, blank  V O I D  at the bottom. Was trying to go for that super clean, shapely cut out look which is the total antithesis of my messy ass.

...

out of context, that last part sounds pretty nasty.

ALL TOGETHER NOW!

final image for the freelance job and WOW, when they're all in one place you can really see all the inconsistencies. the inking and lighting are particularly funky. also, this drawing's getting pasted into a predrawn backdrop. of a space station bridge.

SINCE WHEN DID SPACE SHIPS HAVE WIND MACHINES!?

huh, maybe the constantly billowing hair and capes come as standard with all the other sparkly jedi powers. 

1/3

somewhere in the transition from pencils to colors, this guy's scowl-y scowl got a little lack luster. also, i'm loving the wind defying hair.

and yes. i am being paid to draw jedi. i have entered into a glorious state of nerd-vana.

...

is jedi one of those words like sheep that's the same in singular and plural?

pencils for freelance job.

list of to do:

+ convince client you can draw something that looks as though it actually has two x chromosomes.

+ redesign the she-males' armor.

+ FINISH IT ALREADY! christ, a demotivated, three toed sloth could probably color faster than you can.

and here's the final thing. i adjusted the colors on those terrible, terrible planes and slapped on a layer of texture so hopefully it's looking a little better.

now that means i'm free to concentrate  all my cringing at that wonderful typography!

grr, gritty.

also, textures are AMAZING, if not a tad cheap.

the third of the three moments concept arts. there is some dark and sordid stuff in this film. i think boss man's managed to find someone who's super interested in playing the lead and there are a bunch of people reading over the screen play. hopefully it'll be all systems go before too long...

aaaaaaand here we have the final thing. i'm not too sure if the over head angle worked out in the end... also, the placement of red and blue- isn't the first rule of color theory that reds make things jump forwards and blues push objects back (coincidentally, the second rule of color theory that reds make things jump forwards and blues push objects back)?

whoops.

also, it's a WOODEN indian. why is it BLUE!? someone clearly needs a reality check.

did you know that wooden statues of native americans was an old advertising figure representing cigar shops. this was on account of illiteracy. why indians? because they got the early european settlers hooked on tobacco in the fist place.

#THE MORE YOU KNOW!#

just a snippet from a bit of 'moments' concept art i'm working on right now. it's nowhere near finished, but i'm waaaaaaaaaaaay too happy with where it's going for the time being.

...

this is blatantly the point where my computer crashes and wipes it from existence, isn't it?

work from work. at the moment we're trying to get funding  for a picture and boss man wanted some pretty pictures  to stick in with the treatment to give an idea of the three different settings the protagonist flits between. 

(i think i might be starting to get the hang of this whole digital painting malarky.)