Illustration Friday: Moon

Finally I have had the time to do something for illustration friday. I've been so busy with my move that I just haven't had any time to sit down and just draw...bit now I'm here in the big apple I have all the time in the world. If you like to read about my adventure, see my new blog with all my photos and stories. I update it most nights. Anyway here is my take on moon. I drew it in flash and then coloured it in photoshop, a method I've never done before...I'm also trying to work on my design skills by playing with text. Also, add me on myspace!

Busy times and film work

Well I've been super busy lately, but I had a chance to work on a few short live action films. I did a couple assistant jobs in art departments and did my first production design job on a third film. So whilst I wasn't getting much sleep, I was having a lot of creative energy and fun making and sourcing props and running around on film sets. The photos are from the film I was production designer, Henpecked. It was a lot of fun working on this one as the whole cast and crew had to stay out at this cute farm stay in the country.

some paintings and flashiness

I've been inspired these last couple days to get some characters up on mojizu.com so here are a couple I've worked on last night and today...I worked through both of them in painter first then took them into flash. I found this helped heaps cause in painter I take a lot longer and need to learn a lot more about the character so when I get into flash I'm more patient and know the character quite well, so I get something that isn't rushed and sub-standard.

Pastel painting

I'm trying to post something everyday i have away from work...so here's a portrait of a character i created ages ago. I wanted to try the pastel brush this time...it's was a lot more time consuming than I first thought...

i didn't get chilli, i did this

here's something completely different...a dog in flash. now i'm really hungry...i should eat

Pierre the pirate/dressmaker

Just been playing around with painter some more...this turned out to be more concept art than anything finished for the moment as I'm still grappling with this new style of working. This is Pierre, he's a character from a film I've written and will hopefully make it to the silver screen at some stage. For the moment, he's just an idea in my head. I want to turn this into one of those typical portraits you see people have had commissioned to make them look royal. Pierre is all about looks. He's the only character in the film I've realy settled on in terms of design...still getting the others worked out. Might try and get some more concepts like this one done, get my mind thinking about it. But right now I'm too hungry to work, so I'm off to get some chilli...mmmmmm

This Devils Workday: Illo Friday 2

Do you remember bullies? I do...and I went to an all-girls school, they were nasty! He's probably just jealous the snail carries his home on his back. Well thats the excuse my mum would have given me if I were that snail and just got home after this happened.

Yes, it's another monster. I was listening to Modest Mouse whilst trying to get a different illo started and "This Devil's Workday" came on. The bit where the guy laughs made me think of an image similar to this one...I wanted to get a feel for painter with my own sketches, rather than using a photo as a reference. It was a lot harder than I imagined, which is why I think my other illo isn't pleasing me. But I kept at it and I quite like this one...Definately one of my better drawings of late, the pose and character design fit a certain style which I've been trying to emulate...isn't it just grand when things work out!

Another acting portrait

Well this time I tried to make it a little more difficult for myself and do a painting with a bit more expression. It was taken from a photo of Kevin Spacey (love his work, seen a lot of it lately for some reason) however I didn't really manage to get the likeness...but I am happy with the way it turned out as a separate piece. I still need to work on my proportions when it comes to this sort of work. In the very least, it's practice and practice makes perfect!

Illustration Friday: Remember

This is another double - up for illo Friday this week. I decided to have a bash at doing an entry for mail me art and the theme just so happened to fit in with "remember". I haven't done anything real painting in a long time. So this one didn't come out as well as I had hoped, though I thought I'd post anyway, since I got this far on it. The photos are really dodgy as well as I took them with my phone camera as my good one just happened to run out of batteries...

Mr Postelthwaite

I watched Brassed Off for the umpteenth time again last night. I love that film. The last scene where the band plays on the open air bus is just gorgeous how Danny conducts solemnly from within the band. So I decided not to go to bed and do a portrait in painter of Postelthwaite. I found a lovely photo of him in Sydney and use that as my inspiration. My proportions are that great but I have to say I'm quite chuffed with the way this came out, it really exceeded my expectations...I haven't done a portrait like this in ages, since i was in high school so it was great getting back into it. And learning painter is lots of fun, this time i used the conte brushes and found how cool blenders are!
This week I want to focus on getting some new portfolio pieces together...lately i've been quite slack.

Illustration Friday: Polar

Well finally I've managed to put something really simple together for this week's illo friday. I've been so busy the last couple weeks my whole monster a day thing just got forgotten. I really have to be more disciplined with myself if I want to get a nice folio going...anyway here is my polar bear with his little stuffed penguin. Polar Opposites. It's my first play with painter...and I'm actually quite happy with this pic, it's not my best but it sure was fun playing with the brushes...almost like real painting but I have mister undo to help me out. Hope you like.

Ilustration Friday: SNAP!

My first thought for this topic was the card game snap, but then I thought of school pictures and how quickly they SNAP you...so most of the photos are pretty much a right off for the parents as the kid's are either blinking, looking away or picking their nose. And, to keep upwith my monster a day thing, here are my little monsters getting SNAPPED.
Also, go to my MOJI profile and check out my moji's...these kids'll be up there fairly soon.

Monster day 6

Another one! This time a doggie monster :p

Vote for Humphrey

My wonderful first moji, Humphrey is ready to be voted for, so go to Moji and vote for him!

Monster day five

Ok, here's monster 5. Wanted to push my vector look from yesterday but I didn't really achieve what I wanted...oh well, it's fun to experiment anyway! Had a look through my Monster's Inc art of book and found some awesome pieces by Lou Romano. That guy is good!

Monsters the fourth

Three monsters for day 4. Not sure what they are, some sort of jellyfish/ghost/skull like creatures...whatever you like really! I wanted to do a really super simple character design and focus on the colouring this time. My aim was to use the vector tools in pshop but they got annoying, so I did it my way in flash, using shapes, then went into pshop and used the brush tools for some effects... I downloaded Mozilla to post my blogs cause now I have more control...woop.

Illustration Friday: I spy

"I spy a cuticle in need of a repair!"

Now I'm reaching a bit on this one, but I really wanted to get an entry into illo friday this week. This is Humphry he's a triple illo this week - Illo friday, my first Moji AND monster of day three...phew, poor humphrey. Humphrey is a metro-monster. He cares a great deal about his appearance and is always trying to look immaculate. He hates his big hands and his nails are the bane of his existence...

Another caricature

I felt so good after my donald sutherland pic that I thought I'd try again...this time with my favourite Scarlett Johansson. She's gorgeous. Anyway, here she is.

Mr Donald

Richard and I saw Reign Over Me last night, I'm a fan of Don Cheadle so was quite happy with the main flow of the film...some things didn't add up but oh well...thats film for you. Anyway, my point is during the film I noticed Donalde Sutherland's amazing lips, they're really thin and crooked. So I drew him. This is the first portrait I've drawn for a VERY long time and I'm actually quite happy with it. Yay to a confidence boost! Definately good to get this out after my monster!

Monster day two

Wasn't sure if i was going to actually post this one since it was even more rushed than yesterdays...but here it is anyway. I should try and spend a little more time on the character designs...thats what the exersize is for at least...anyway here is monster day two.