Archive for November, 2008

So NaNoWriMo’s over for another year. Once more, I have finished another glorious trainwreck that no one shall ever read. (Final assessment: Characters lack personality. No plot. Dialogue okay.)

And with curiously appropriate timing, I’ve just finished up these, which are both a thing for Interpretive and a callback to last year’s NaNo, titled “Lines”. It was a fantasy, largely based around the premise that I don’t actually like fantasy, and wanted to write one I wouldn’t be opposed to reading. The characters depicted are, clockwise from the top left, Simon Gable, Farewell Green, the Priest, and Hare. (For any Traffies reading: there’s also a family surnamed Carter, and another main character surnamed Maxwell. I take my obscure inside jokes very seriously.)

Click for fullsize… they’re rather tiny at the moment.

I tried something a little different from the last couple of Narrative projects, in a couple of ways. First, the focus on the panel structure and visual storytelling, rather than spending forever and a half on the dialogue. Second, in the last two cases, I was pretty happy with the inks but by the time they were finished, they felt immensely overworked. So in this case, I tried to just let the inks speak for themselves, with minimum meddling in Photoshop. It was an experiment; I guess it kind of worked. If I do this again, I’ll definitely put more work into the ink washes, but aside from that, I guess I’m moderately happy with the result.

For a bookmark. A promo project thing.

Narrative class is weird. We’ve been getting costumed models in – what this has to do with narrative art I’m not entirely sure (well, no, that’s a lie, but still) but, uh, here’s the result. I’m not entirely happy with any of them, but they were all done so quickly it’s hard to judge them too harshly.

Femme Fatale

CSI Sheridan

Deadwood

Here be the final of that sketch I posted. (For those who missed it, the rather strange title is a palindrome – the phrase is the same backwards as forwards.) I’m still unable to decide whether I like it or not; got a few suggestions in class that I may try to implement when I have more time, but I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me. For now, have the dapper, dapper Mr Owl and the clockwork bird. It’s real 3 AM logic here. (What’d eat a metal worm? I KNOW! A METAL BIRD!)

So a few days before Halloween, I went out to try to get some last minute bits for my costume. Imagine my surprise when all the major stores were almost entirely devoid of Halloween stuff – but filled to the brim with holiday paraphernalia.

That’s why I feel the need to apologize for these. Yes, they’re Christmas cards. But they’re going to be sold, along with a ton of other peoples’ cards, to raise money for the Grad Show, and thus, they need to be done by now to get printed and sold on time. Seriously, forgive me.

I love how the second one came out; the first one is just overworked. Ah well, practice makes… something.

Went to the Royal Winter Fair. Drew animals. Here are animals!

We weren’t there for very long, but it was a good time. Mostly sheep, really. Have a look at Mike’s drawings, which make me look like a hack, although to be fair he totally did all that watercolour after we left the place. Also there were Craig, Rosemary, Jesse, and Yien (whose site has gone AWOL), but none of them have, as of yet, posted any of their drawings.

Also, there was a guy selling a bunch of vintage prints, and I discovered a fantastic old illustrator I’d never heard of before: Herbert Paus. (Also here.) Good thing he signed his work.

I’m totally filing this under lifedrawing. I mean, it was life, and I drew it.

Sketchpost ahoy!

First, a work in progress for visual dialogue, based on the palindrome “Mr Owl Ate My Metal Worm”. It’ll be a bit different in the final, but… man, I love this sketch like woah.

And second, I title this: I Spent An Hour On Jen Wang’s Site And Now Need To Draw Adorable Naked People With Curvy Legs And Tiny Feet. A naked angel! Without nipples! Because what’s an angel going to do with nipples, breastfeed?

Also, if you happen to like things that are awesome, check out Mike’s Death Note/Sarah Palin crossover. No, really.

Interp! Note how it is not, in fact, David Usher this time. God, I love Mythbusters. Part of it is the geek in me who loves figuring things out and seeing science used in new and interesting ways. Most of it, however, is probably simply that I love watching the unbridled glee of grown men as they blow things up for no scientifically defensible reason.

Digital lifedrawing in narrative class. This is technically a work in progress as I’ll be taking this home and doing way more to it – not sure what yet – but for now, I thought I’d post the totality of the lifedrawing bit. About an hour and a half, from a model who really was lit with those crazy lights.

…Aaaand now that I see it posted I realize her head is enormous. Good thing it’s a work in progress…