Red Croc

I've had a really, really frustrating week of artmaking, let me tell you. I've been stressing out all week because the piece I was working on for our latest illustration assignment just was not getting up to par. I couldn't hand that thing in as part of my portfolio, nor would I ever want it shown in the Illustre exhibition. So I am doing it over again digitally.

Also in the works is a resubmission for a previous assignment, where we had to illustrate 3 characters. Despite the high mark I got for those pieces I am not happy with them and I am doing that assignment over again as well.

So here are the three sketches I will end up painting. The character is still a crocodile but he is drawn in my main style and he has a bit more personality to him. He's also red!






My first painting attempt was so bad that I couldn't even look at the thing, so I scribbled over it and threw it out. My second attempt was not much better, but I kept it this time. The problem I had with these ones is the paper, I reckon. It's canvas paper for oils and acrylics and I don't think gouache seems to work well on it at all. I like texture in my paintings too, but this paper was probably too much.



Tired and frustrated after two disasters, I decided to put the brushes away for the day and play some Warcraft. Yesterday's attempt at painting was much better, thankfully! This time I painted on pastel paper much like I did with this piece. Despite a little blooper which ended up being a background, it went well and I was pretty happy afterwards. I had redeemed myself. Now, I just need to go to the shop and buy some more white gouache, because I am all out! Doh!

Belated Inspiration Thursday #2

Oops, this was meant to be posted yesterday. Anyway, this week I am sharing the work of Alice and Martin Provensen, a husband and wife duo who illustrated some really great children's books. They are two of my favourite illustrators. If you like these pieces I highly recommend you zip over here to see the wonderful fully scanned book, The Animal Fair.

Owly!

Just a little more illustrator practice, nothing spectacular... I'll tell you what though, I'm having a hard time enjoying anything that I make lately, so I'm not very happy at the moment. Oh well.

Tiger head

I feel like I need to do more work in Illustrator and get good at doing vector illustrations, so here's a 10 minute tiger head for a bit of pre-bed practice. RAWR!

Inspiration Thursday #1 Jim Flora

I figured I'd put up some inspirational images for myself every Thursday from now on. So here we go!


We went up to the city yesterday for another industry meet, where we met Eddie Chau, a storyboard artist/visualiser. He had some really wicked acrylic paintings to show us, and we learned all about the storyboarding process. I also popped into Outré gallery where I picked up this groovy book featuring the art of the awesome Jim Flora. Before guys like Shag, Derek and Tim Biskup, there was this guy.



Really loving his work. The book has a whole lot of old record covers for greats like Gene Krupa and Sidney Bechet, and there's also lots of beautiful lino prints, drawings and a few kid's book illustrations. There's a second book of his work that I saw at Minotaur which I am also eager to get my little paws on, but maybe next week.






check out more of his work here!

you have a Crocodile in your hair

Finally the 'Fantasy Story' assignment done! The title I chose was 'The Girl whose hair came to life'. Basically she's a funny little girl who likes crocodiles, and wishes she had a REAL one. And of course, a real crocodile comes to life from her hair. Makes sense, yes?

The colours scanned a bit off but I actually don't mind the look of it. The pink is actually supposed to be a really bright hot pink, but my scanner... must dislike pink? I don't know. But anyway I'm happy with this painting and relieved I was able to finish it in time. It's gouache on pastel paper.

Underbed Pigs and clucky duckies

The two other monsters to go with my nose ghouls for the monster competition! The first is a 'Long-Legged Underbed Pig', an anxious monster who likes collecting rocks and living quietly under your bed. The other is a 'Quarking Duck', a silly duck who wears boots and marches in a line, stomping around.

RaWR

Sketching another idea for an assignment. I'm way behind on this one, too. The idea is that this unfortunate chinese man is trying to release himself from a curse that contains a monster spirit inside his body.

Hat girls

Vector illustration. Been pretty sick lately so not much else to report.

Hat Lady

This is a sketch for a drawing I am doing to be a part of the design for a nice lady's website. The client is a milliner and she makes really pretty hats! Originally, I had a design that was quite nice but it looked a bit drab, and not very bright and fashiony. I'm still using this design but changing a lot of it, and adding this soon to be finished drawing to spice it up a little.

Monsters up to no good!

It's finished! Though I might tweak it here and there later. It was certainly a challenge getting all these characters into the one picture but it was a fun piece to do. Onto the next monster now, however I won't be posting any more monsters until after I've sent my entries in!

I also went to the Zoo yesterday, I have loads of drawings to scan, and I'll get around to doing em eventually.

Monsters in progress

Nose ghouls! AAHH! I've never done so many characters in the one picture before, and I figured doing this many in one photoshop file would mean billions of layers and lots of frustration. So I am doing one monster at a time seperately, then I'll bring them all together. It's also a good exercise in making characters consistant. I'm hoping to finish this one today and move onto the second monster... which is a duck!