Gillianimation

Gillianimation Shop - NOW OPEN

2012-01-30T09:51:00.005Z

Please feel free to look around but if you break it you buy it!

Etsy Store - MONDAY

2012-01-27T15:26:00.004Z

Some of you may know from my last few posts that Im planning to open an online store on Etsy.com to sell some originals and prints of my designs.

This MONDAY, the 30th JANUARY it will be open, with only a small handful of original watercolours to purchase. It will be a test run to see how popular it is and if it goes well Ill soon be adding more items on there as time goes on.

So please help a friend out...and tell you friends!

I'll make the announcement of 'doors opening' on my Facebook Page "Gillianimation" - just click 'Like' to be kept up-to-date on the goings on of the store and my blog!

Here's some teasers...

34th Sketchcrawl - London

2012-01-22T17:35:00.009Z

Mermaids

2012-01-15T20:13:00.005Z

Mermaids!

'Who doesnt love a mermaid?' - AGR Moore. Rightly so. I see a lot of artists I admire drawing mermaids and theyre always so beautiful, so I thought I would have a go too. They are great fun to draw cause theyre just so...swishy. The pencil can just squiggle around the page and find great shapes and poses for these girls.

Theyve all been quickly rendered but I was trying to keep in mind a better sense of colour, which I have mentioned before, that's something I really struggle with. Dont think Ive done to badly, with one or two exceptions.

And to finish them off, Ive given them all horribly sugary sweet names! Some for no reason at all and some for characteristics that remind me random people.

Candy.

Coral.

Siren.

Snowflake.

Holly.

Georgia.

Erin.

Daz ;)

Lilly.

Ellie.

Fleur.

And as a final note...if you like the look of any of these, they will soon be available as prints and/or watercolours on my Etsy store...coming SOON!

So stay tuned!

The Portrait of Dorian Gray

2012-01-08T15:46:00.007Z

This picture has come about as a result of 2 of my new years resolutions.

#1 Read.

I would say read more...but I NEVER read. So I started The Portrait of Dorian Gray a little while ago. I have to finish it within one month, not that I am a slow reader, I just get bored very quickly and find something better and more interesting to do.

#2 Learn Digital Painting/

Although it's something I knew I had to work on, while I was at CTNX the main feedback I got at my Pixar interview was to render my characters in a way that would suit 3D animation better. So my new years resolution was to take some digital painting workshops online. This is my first attempt taking what I learned from Erik D Martin's workshop on CGMWonline. I wasnt too happy with it, it's going to take alot more practise, so Ive only posted this version with the line on to hide my poor painting :(

One baby step at a time...

Updates

2012-01-02T16:13:00.008Z

So to begin... HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!

The Christmas/New Year period has been great and super distracting from drawing and art as Im sure lots of you will agree! However, now it the second day of 2012 and time for all those new leaves to be turned over and get proactive with the things we've only dipped in and out of throughout 2011.

DRAW MORE! Pretty much my daily new resolution but this time Im sticking to (hahaha, yeah right) Below are some gesture sketches, once again, done from the Stephen Silver app, Pose Book.

And some old news that I forgot to post, character design site, Characters Engage, kindly featured me in November. I dont know if many people saw it but if you havent, check it out and follow the Facebook Group, its a great way to find new artists and take part in interesting debates.

I have also created a new Facebook Fan Page for this blog so you can get more regular updates on new posts or news. Just click HERE to be taken to the Gillianimation page and LIKE the page. Alternatively, you can also click the LIKE button beneath my profile picture on this page.

Schoolism SALE!!!

2011-12-27T11:04:00.004Z

We must have all been very good this year as Santa has persuaded Schoolism to do another $100 off SALE!

They've got great courses in Character Design, Digital Painting, Storyboarding, Gesture Drawing, Caricature and more!

Anyone who has been following this blog for a few months will know that I did Stephen Silver's Character Design Course and I was very good! I learned so much and he is such an inspiring teacher. I have a few friends who have also done some of the other classes and they have also reported on how much theyve learned and are glad they signed up. Well worth the money!

So if your new years resolution is to get better at design, or painting, or drawing, why not treat yourself to one of these courses with your Christmas money?

If you miss out on the sale then you can still you my special discount code to get $50 OFF!

Alimah Poses

2011-12-23T16:40:00.002Z

A couple of posts ago I posted a little angel ( without her halo...which is still missing apparently...) based on a friend of mine's beautiful little girl, Alimah. I had so much fun with the design I wanted to take her caricature and pose her in some fun little angel/ballerina poses. These were so fun and got me practising my facial expressions a little more. Hopefully Ill clean these up one day.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

2011-12-23T12:03:00.002Z

This years Christmas eCard a lot of you might have already received! Some inspiration for this came from Nikolas Ilic's Christmas Card.

Christmas Angel (Halo misplaced....)

2011-12-19T12:37:00.001Z

Tests

2011-12-18T14:42:00.003Z

The last couple of weeks have been mega busy, searching for work and doing lots of tests for various companies but I cant complain cause its keeping me drawing! Here is a test I did for an upcoming project being produced by Northern Irish talents. Unfortunately, I didnt get the gig but at least I got these fellas out of it and I can share them with you now.

Amelia Black Illustrations

2011-12-08T14:35:00.004Z

Click me to see more!

As some of you may know, I illustrated a book over the summer and now Ive added a page to my blog where you can view all the illustration I made. There are also links to where you can purchase either the eBook or paperback versions of the book. It would make a great Christmas present for any child or adult!

Check it out!

Gesture

2011-11-30T22:47:00.004Z

Well gosh! It seems like its been a while since my last post! I would apologise but Ive been off having a fabulous time! I was a lucky girl to get to go out to LA with my boyfriend for CTNX. It was such a great trip, being around all those inspirational people, meeting my favourite blogger artists and of course picking up some priceless artbook swag!

So to get back into the swing of things, Ive been doodling tonight with gesture drawing. Even though Ive only had a couple of weeks off, I feel totally off my game. Going to try and make posting more regular like I did over the summer. This silly thing gives me more motivation to actually sit my arse down and do some work! (I dont know why I sound so old English in this post...)

Oh, on another note. Went to see 50/50 tonight....sob.

Violin...200!

2011-11-09T21:23:00.004Z

So some of you were diggin' the last post and there was one request to try another one. Not feeling this one as much as the previous one, think it was just a fluke! But anyhow, here is the second attempt, paying attention to the size of the hands and the violin.

This is also my 200th post! Seems alot but Ive had this blog for at least 3 years...so its not that impressive!

Violin

2011-11-07T20:43:00.002Z

Uninspired

2011-11-03T21:01:00.002Z

Really struggling to find inspiration. Complete designers block! This was all I could muster and I got frustrated half way through and gave up. Im sorry :(

Gesture

2011-11-01T18:19:00.000Z

Lazy

2011-10-31T21:49:00.008Z

Ive been incredibly lazy with drawing recently. Tonight I made some time to sit down and do some hermit style life drawing! Love those nights when you get really into it and its actually fun! As opposed to those day you cant draw anything for sh*t! Out of practice and it shows (especially with the female models!), but hopefully Ill get back into the swing of it soon.

Bang Bang

2011-10-20T13:58:00.002+01:00

Feeling poorly today, I didnt go to work but instead stayed at home and did this design for AIB Jumble, a drawing group for ex students from my old University.

Its a shape challenge. Kinda like those ink prints therapists show their patients.

I saw blood.....

Beetlejuice

2011-10-18T20:42:00.006+01:00

So in the spirit of a couple of posts ago when I mentioned how wonderful I thought TV and Film were in regards to inspiring character design practice, I have done one in a little more detail than Jim Halpert! Top is the finished colour but the silly checkered shirt lost some nice line detail I felt I had going. The 3 on the bottom were my initial sketches (which I kinda prefer to the final :s) Can you tell who it is yet?

Autumn Ponderings

2011-10-17T21:11:00.005+01:00

Based on the sketch from the previous post. Bet you're digging his paw hands :S

Going to try and make more characters out of the people I sketch in my sketchbook. It's a fun quick way to keep practicing character design when you dont have time to dedicate a lot of time to a bigger project.

33rd Sketchcrawl - Luxembourg

2011-10-16T10:46:00.006+01:00

This weekend was the 33rd Worldwide sketchcrawl, and for Luxembourg it was our 5th and our best turn out yet! I think we had around 12 people! Beats the normal 6!

Click on the image above to see the rest of the results from yesterday.

There are some really great characters in Luxembourg!

Doodle

2011-10-13T20:09:00.004+01:00

Since wrapping up on my portfolio (as I could work on it endlessly, I just had to say stop!) Ive had some free time to myself. Time to just draw whatever I want without any pressure on my back.

Ive been catching up on some TV and films...always a great source of inspiration for character design. Not a great caricature but can anyone tell who this is supposed to be?

Schoolism

2011-10-11T17:31:00.005+01:00

Regular followers and friends may know that I took one of the Schoolism online courses this summer, Stephen Silver's Character Design course. It did absolute wonders for my design approach and motivation.

See some of the work I produced in my current PORTFOLIO.

The site also offers many other types of courses, from Storyboarding to Digital Painting, from Gesture Drawing to Comic Illustration.

As I am an Alumnus, Ive been given a secret key in the from of a discount code that will get you $50 the normal price. Every little helps right? So if you've been considering doing one of these classes, now is as good a time as any! Just click the big green thingy below or on the side bar!

Untitled

2011-10-09T21:01:00.003+01:00

Just a couple of sketches based off of some other sketches I did at the bar the other night. Couldn't quit capture what I wanted to at the time, so I tried again in the security of my own home without peer pressure!

Doing some personal studies this week, focusing mainly on hands and how clothing folds around the body. Felt like this was a good start but still a long way to go.

Parc Merveilleux...Encore Encore!

2011-10-05T20:24:00.005+01:00

Another trip to Parc Merveilleix, that's once every month since August! Not too shabby! Ill see how cold it is in November before I promise to go back again.

Spent more time drawing animals I usually skip. And I didnt even see the crocodiles before! Guess that shows how good natures camouflage design is.

Oh, and possibly some bad news. The raccoon closure *seems* to have gone from 3 guests to 2...Shakers was nowhere to be seen. Stay tuned for news in November :(

Cowboy Expressions

2011-10-03T21:47:00.001+01:00

LOL

2011-09-29T21:48:00.002+01:00

OMG! WTF! Its been 2 whole weeks since my last post! And I was doing so well! Ive been slaving away on my portfolio aswell as having a little trip back to London to see Matt Timms at his new job on The Amazing World Of Gumball.

So here's a bit of my expression page for a character Im working on for my portfolio. Ill put them all up as soon as they are all cleaned up.

And thank you to those of you who are following this blog and leaving comments. It makes my day, it does! Over 100 followers! Yeeeeey!

Jerry Loomy #2

2011-09-15T20:49:00.002+01:00

The end has come for my Stephen Silver course on Schoolism. The last assignment was to redo a character design we did based on a brief from the first assignment. The blue one below is the revised version and at the bottom one is a comparison of the two.

The course has been so good! I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve the foundations of their drawing and design. He covers a lot of bases, from shapes, silhouettes and rhythm, to hands, faces and feet, the importance of a sketchbook and also tips on being a professional in the industry.
Originally when I did my first Jerry Loomy, I felt pretty happy with the design but now in comparison to the newest one I can see all the weaknesses I had at the beginning but luckily Ive been able to improve on them and hopefully I will be able to keep up the motivation to carry on with Stephen's word of advice and inspiration.

New Project

2011-09-15T07:20:00.002+01:00

Now I am almost finished my Stephen SIlver Character Design course, Ive started a few other projects. One of which is a little cowboy story. Here I have redesigned an old character and hopefully Ill find the time to design some other characters to go with this guy. Still feeling him out trying to find the right design.

Doodle

2011-09-12T21:31:00.002+01:00

Parc Merveilleux...Encore!

2011-09-10T22:27:00.008+01:00

Another trip to Parc Merveilleux in Luxembourg for more animal drawing practice. Been doing some more Mike Mattessi studies on his WEBSITE which helped me loads on this trip. Possibly developing an obsession with raccoons! They have 3 there, I call them Fatty, Shakers and Number 3. Shakers is really old and walks kind of funny, he is my favourite!

Mmmmm....Noodle Soup.

2011-09-05T20:22:00.004+01:00

Sorry! ANOTHER Madame Cecile post! Sorry if my blog is getting boring cause all I'm posting at the moment is this stuff. I'm just updating my portfolio with this work so I'm spending all my time on these images. So please stick with me! And have a look at some of my new PORTFOLIO images and tell me what you think!

Oh and also! The show I was working on over the last months is on TV now, so my SHOWREEL is now unlocked! Please have a look and again...any comments and criticism is greatly welcome!

Conjuring Time.

2011-09-04T20:51:00.000+01:00

Madame Cecile is coming to life!

2011-08-28T16:24:00.004+01:00

Really got to work hard on this character this weekend, and I think that I'm starting to really get a sense of who she is. Designing the face is so damn hard but I guess it is the most important feature for a character!

What do you think? What kind of person is she coming across to you as?

Les Visages

2011-08-27T16:46:00.002+01:00

Some different head designs for my Madame Cecile character. I have the terrible habit of drawing one face shape and then drawing the same face over and over and over again, thinking that Im exploring different ideas, but really Im not! Here Ive really tried to explore various head shapes, facial proportions and expressions. What ones are you feeling?

Madame Cecile Poses

2011-08-25T22:07:00.001+01:00

Candles

2011-08-24T22:50:00.001+01:00

Parc Merveilleux - Luxembourg

2011-08-22T20:02:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I went to a local animal park (not technically a zoo...I dont know why) and I wasnt expecting much but it was actually brilliant!!! A cracking array of animals on show. My favourites were probably the Raccoons, they were so sweet, in particular a really old one who couldnt quite walk straight and sporadically feel over. So CUTE!

Hopefully Ill make a few more trips there before the weather turns mean and then try making some characters from my studies. Im thinking the Emus could be really fun. So keep coming back to see how that goes!

Animal drawing has always been a weak point of mine, so any pointers or comments would be greatly appreciated!

Fierce FX!

2011-08-22T15:56:00.003+01:00

http://mattmantimms.blogspot.com/

Just a quick post about a wonderful short Street Fight animation featuring mind blowing FX animation by my boyfriend Matt Timms and character animation by Laurent Rossi. Click on the image or link to see the MAGIC!

Going to the Zoo

2011-08-18T21:49:00.002+01:00

Bit of an unusual post for me this evening. In preparation for going to this 'zoo' (it's more like a small animal park, no lions or tigers or bears, oh my) weekend because the sunshine has finally come to Luxembourg this summer, I like to be a bit of a drawing nerd and research animal anatomy and do artist studies as a starting point and get myself into the mind frame for drawing. I know that there will be parrots at the zoo this weekend, so after reading Mike Mattesi's new FORCE book on animals drawing, I did some sketches and also tried doing character sketches like the ones above. Ill scan in my other with my results from Saturday's session.

Faces Progress

2011-08-16T21:20:00.003+01:00

For those of you beautiful people who stop by fairly often, I'm sure you have noticed the abundance of facial studies I've been doing. The 100 faces was challenging and to be honest by the time I got to 40, I was pretty bored, but I knew that I had to stick as it to learn more about distinctive traits of older and older faces.

By no means would I consider myself good at faces/heads now, but as I sat down tonight to do some face ideas for my Madame Cecile character, I did notice a new found confidence in my drawing and by doing the 100 faces I discovered some useful traits that I could put in her design as she is in her mid 30s and looking a bit tired.

So I wanted to share with you 2 sets of heads I have drawn recently. The top ones in grey, I drew this evening after doing some more studies but this time just on the eyes. The ones below I drew about a week or two ago before studying heads at all. I think the difference is pretty evident!!! To my surprise! I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself cause forever, faces have been (one of) my Achilles' heel! I avoided them as much as I could but now I just wanna draw more and more!

If I can find the time...I have a little game I'd like you all to play! Stay tuned...

0 to 100

2011-08-15T15:13:00.002+01:00

So it took my 2 days to do! Probably about 4 hours in total. Who'd have thunk it would take that long to draw 100 of something. Above is a low res image of all 100 (cause some are shockingly bad and I dont want you to see them :P) but below are some of my stronger ones.

0 to 50

2011-08-14T22:00:00.003+01:00

As an attempt to get better at faces, Ive come back to my 0 to 100 PROJECT app, that showcases some interesting faces of people of each age, but different genders, ethnicity, nationality, style, etc. Great practise. I can feel myself getting a little better but can tell I have a looooong way to go. Ive attached this image of years 0-50, some are just terrible and hideous but you gotta show your least favourite work aswell as your most. Be nice! Next 50 tomorrow? Maybe.

Pixelovely Drawing

2011-08-13T11:19:00.003+01:00

Inspired by my friend DAVID WOJCIK, who has started reading and taking tips from MIKE MATTESI's books, I dug up my copy of his Life Drawing for Character Design book and had another read. Whenever I read it before, I was like, 'Yeah, I get it...force, angles, easy peesy!' But I really didn't understand it! Over the last few months I've been practising as much as I can with drawing generally and last night after reading through the first chapter, I did some more online life drawing, courtesy of PIXELOVELY. NOW...I feel like I really do understand what he is talking about.

Manuel: The "Muscle"

2011-08-09T19:53:00.002+01:00

Book Release!

2011-08-08T14:10:00.006+01:00

It's here! It's finally here! So please if you have a computer, a Kindle, an iPad, and iPhone or an Android phone, get over to Amazon and get yourself a copy of this bad boy!

The debut book written by my dear friend Andrew Moore (also check out his film blog) and illustrated by me that has been in the making for close to a year is now available to the public for the cheap as chips price of £2.30.

CLICK ME!

Merci beaucoup!

Wha-cha!

2011-08-07T21:29:00.001+01:00

Working on some new stuff to beef up my portfolio such as groups of characters. I might possible take Ninjas as a theme or maybe Cowboys to go with a previous design. This was based on some costumed life drawing I did a while back.

Luxembourgish Market Man

2011-08-06T11:52:00.001+01:00

This character design is based off of a sketchbook doodle I did a few sketchcrawls ago. Every other Saturday in Luxembourg city, there is an anitques market on one of the main squares. This chap is there everytime just sitting on his little stool while tourists finger through his curiosities.

PS. My favourite thing to draw in the whole world is a larger person in stripes! Caricature GOLD!

Old Shizzle

2011-08-04T20:41:00.004+01:00

Updating my portfolio this weekend, I tried to dig out some old sketchbooks that I hadn't scanned but to my astonishment, I couldnt find them anywhere! After a few days panic at lost sketchbooks, Matt came home and found them sitting in the corner! Yey! So here's just some doodles that I did during my time in Annecy this year...usually when the Animes were on....OOOOH...BURN! Im kidding, Tibetan Dog was actually OK. Forget Colorful though...

More Tigers!

2011-07-30T22:03:00.001+01:00

A rendered version of an observational sketch I did a few days ago. Gotta start drawing lions instead, those stripes just take too damn long!

Madame Cecile

2011-07-30T19:42:00.003+01:00

Madame Cecile, your friendly Voodoo Queen of Louisiana.

This is a plain 3/4 view of Madame Cecile, developed from the thumbnail above. Apparently it's good to just pose the character like this before posing them in character poses. Not 100% happy with this, I dont think you can quite tell who she is supposed to be. I'm hoping when it comes to posing her character will really come out.

+ Coloured Kitty

2011-07-28T22:17:00.003+01:00

Muh! I really need to splash more colour onto this old blog!

Kitty!

2011-07-28T21:55:00.002+01:00

Back to animal studies, this time I was trying to bring more elements of design into the studies as well as some character but unforunately for me, alot of character comes through the expression in the face and I cant even draw human faces yet nevermind animals ones! So that is my next hurdle I guess!

I know some of these tigers look crippled but I promise no animals were hurt in the making of these images. They have just suffered from bad draftsmanship.

It's Done.

2011-07-27T22:22:00.002+01:00

It's been a long old 2 months but finally the illustrations for my buddy's first book, are COMPLETE!

The book will be released in 1-2 weeks in a digital format available to download from Amazon's Kindle store for an easy £2, so if you can spare the change, grab yourself a copy!

If you don't have a Kindle or Kindle app or even know what Kindle is...you can find out more directly from my friends BLOG.

I hope my sneak peek images Ive been posting recently intrigue you enough to buy a copy.

Happy reading!

Almost there!

2011-07-26T21:14:00.002+01:00

Blowing Shit Up!

2011-07-25T19:58:00.000+01:00

Zoooooom...

2011-07-24T22:10:00.000+01:00

32nd Sketchcrawl: Luxembourg

2011-07-23T20:19:00.003+01:00

This weekend, the 32nd worldwide Sketchcrawl took place and a small handful of us went out to represent Luxembourg! Whoo hoo! Here is a selection of some of the sketches I felt were better than the others and ones that captured some of the lessons I've been trying to learn about observational drawing as well as character design. To see the rest of my Sketchcrawl sketches as well as the other guys' work click HERE.

This last one is my favourite!

Head Studies

2011-07-20T20:35:00.004+01:00

I really shouldn't post the first few images in this post cause they are just traced images, but I thought I would anyway as they are part of a head study that was daunting at first but I reckon the more of those I do, the better I'll get at understanding the mystery that is the human head and its expressions!

The other images are of a semi-realistic sketch of a models face then interpreted into caricatures based on basic shapes like circles, squares and triangles. Another tough exercise but kind of fun.

The Unseen World

2011-07-19T19:24:00.000+01:00

Happily Ever After

2011-07-17T19:58:00.000+01:00

Animal Studies: Cats

2011-07-17T14:59:00.005+01:00

Todays study was of cats. Bloody hell! They ARE still as difficult to draw as I remember! No great stuff came out today but I definitely felt an improvement from my first sketch to the last one.

Back to the Book!

2011-07-16T14:12:00.002+01:00

Just a couple more weekends dedicated to completing the illustrations to Andrew Moore's book! Available to download on Kindle from, the day I finish these bad boys!

0 to 100

2011-07-15T23:10:00.002+01:00

The next new thing to learn is faces and caricature! I downloaded this brilliant wee app called 0 to 100, which has a front photograph of different people from all over the world, from to 100 years old. I got it for fun but now it's come into proper use!

These are pretty weak but I was starting to loosen up. Look forward to going out and drawing people in cafes and bars with this detail...as opposed to a cross hair face!

Animal Studies: Horses and the like...

2011-07-14T21:30:00.010+01:00

Firstly, sorry for this massive horse pose. If this is your first visit to my blog...I AM NOT A HORSE FREAK!!!

Back to work on a new TV series this week has been great, glad to be back in a routine and to be around other people! However, on the down side, I have less time for my personal projects during the week, so they are being saved for the weekend. Meanwhile, I wanted to take the opportunity to spend an hour or two sketching again.

While catching up with my pet hamster's day (I am also NOT a hamster freak) I started to thumb through CHRIS AYRES DAILY ZOO book, which reminded me...I cant draw animals. I never draw them. My hamster is too fast to draw or cuddled up in all her bed fluff and I can't see her! Usually, I'm out and about drawing people as they go by, but never animals.

So, thumbing through KEN HULTGREN's THE ART OF ANIMAL DRAWING, I started to do little sketches from his book then went onto the wonderful PIXELOVELY gesture drawing wesbite, which I've mentioned before. It has a wonderful library of all kinds of animals and skeletons. All the animal images here were drawn in the comfort of my city apartment using PIXELOVELY's photos as reference.

Hopefully, when the weather picks up a little bit, I'll get out to see some REAL animals! (No offence Pepper (hamster...)

Animal Studies: Dogs

2011-07-14T21:29:00.000+01:00

Rough Colour

2011-07-12T22:11:00.000+01:00

Al Capone

2011-07-11T22:25:00.002+01:00

Here's a little sketch for today, of legend....wait for it.....dary, gangster Alphonse Capone. Hoping to take this through to a full render, if time allows it this week.

I never really knew who he was or why he was notorious but a couple of years ago when I visited Alcatraz prison, THE best tour guide was telling a tale of Capone, as if he was there with him in his jail cell and knew the guy. If I wasn't a cheap skate, I woulda tipped him BIG TIME! But he remains in my memory along with the story of Al Capone.

Get on youtube and watch a quick documentary about him or even watch HBO series, Boardwalk Empire to find out a bit of history about the Prohibition-Era in the 1920's and this brutal mob boss.

Creepy Creeperson.

2011-07-10T21:38:00.000+01:00

Boogey Man!

2011-07-09T19:44:00.000+01:00

Ah! Spiders!

2011-07-08T18:28:00.002+01:00

Silhouettes

2011-07-07T15:29:00.009+01:00

Assignment No. 2 of my Character Design course with Stephen Silver, is tackling silhouettes at the early stage of designing a character in order to really explore shapes and forms before getting bogged down in all the details and to really get your imagination going.

The brief is to design 2 characters with the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde concept. After reading the cliff notes (I DID try to read the whole book but I just couldn't!) and looking at some other students ideas, I decided that my 2 characters would be women (as the Stevenson's story is predominantly a wiener-fest and the feminist inside me wanted to draw) based in the early 1900s. Jekyll is Madame Cecile, the local voodoo Queen of Louisiana and Hyde is an embodiment of the evil spirit Locyta, who Cecile often communicates with to access the afterlife in order to help her community with her magic. Deep. I know.

Madame Cecile.

Locyta.

Voodoo Reference.

Poppins

2011-07-06T20:08:00.000+01:00

Lighting the way

2011-07-05T21:43:00.003+01:00

T-T-T-T....TROLL!

2011-07-04T21:01:00.002+01:00

A prickly pair.

2011-07-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

Let's Roll, Legs.

2011-07-01T21:49:00.001+01:00

Eye Spy...

2011-06-30T15:50:00.000+01:00

Loren's Tree

2011-06-29T14:00:00.002+01:00

Teaser

2011-06-28T21:10:00.001+01:00

And I was doing so well, posting something almost every day, then this weekend I was super busy and since have been working on an illustration project for my friend Andy's new book. I don't want to spoil the surprise for the release of his book so here's some snippits to get you titillated! I've always wanted to use that word.

Disco Disco Disco Disco!

2011-06-24T21:31:00.003+01:00

A little something for the weekend. I love orange and yellow at the moment, I don't know where this love has come from. One day on Amazon, things just started looking cool in yellow and orange and I've been hooked every since! I think you need to be a red head to pull off this ensemble!

Pretty Penny

2011-06-23T23:13:00.001+01:00

BOOOM!

2011-06-23T12:15:00.001+01:00

Thumbnail for some illustration work I am par-taking in.

Jerry Loomy

2011-06-21T21:15:00.002+01:00

This is the first image from my first assignment on Stephen Silver's Character Design Course, taught online through Schoolism. He sets a character profile with about 15-20 differents attributes and students have to produce a line copy and coloured copy of their design. This is my version of Jerry Loomy, grumpy, old, car salesman from New York. I'd go to another car lot if I were you...

Wendling Inspired

2011-06-20T16:54:00.001+01:00

Kablooey!

2011-06-19T16:03:00.002+01:00

Kung Fu Panda 2 is....frickin' awesome! Not a touch on the first one, obviously, but a great story about Po's past and some nice social commentary. GO SEE IT NOW!

Panda

2011-06-17T14:42:00.002+01:00

Today, I chose to do some traditional drawing, inspired by several things. First of all, I finally have a scanner! It came in the post this morning, so I thought, what a better time to break out the water colours than now?

Secondly, I chose to paint a panda because tomorrow is my birthday and since I am all grown up, turning 25, I am having a very fancy, sophisticated outing to the cinema to see Kung Fu Panda 2, Ska-doosh!

Bloody Hands!

2011-06-16T19:19:00.003+01:00

Hands are something I know me and a lot of my artist buddies struggle with. We spent all the time at uni doing Life Drawing, taking the time to learn anatomy, weight, form, rhythm, etc. but few of us took the time to learn all those things about hands alone! (...and feet...and faces...that's why a lot of people life drawings may be great but only great for faceless, amputees! )

Since graduating I've spent the odd evening here and there studying hands, but I never stick with it long enough for it to stick with me! So here is attempt number 157! If I can make 30 minutes a day just to study hands over the next few weeks I'll be chuffed.

As mentioned in a previous post, I got a portfolio review with Paul Briggs at Annecy and one story he told us was about a Vis Dev artist who spent a solid month drawing hands all day every day, so that he was able to draw a convincing hand from any angle. Inspiring stuff!

Even just doing this...handful...of drawings this evening, I could reallt feel the difference in my understanding from when I started and when I finished. ...Fingers crossed...I keep it up.

Dare I say Irishman?

2011-06-15T23:14:00.000+01:00

Windy In Scotland

2011-06-14T22:40:00.002+01:00

Does she have 'Appeal'?

2011-06-13T16:34:00.002+01:00

As you may know, if you read my previous post, I was at Annecy last week with my new portfolio, ready in hand to be ripped apart by the PROFESSIONALS and I was lucky enough to get a review from PAUL BRIGGS, head of story at WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS. He was very kind and made my day by saying, 'Wow! You can really draw.......but.....your characters lack appeal".

Completely fair criticism, so help me out please, in my search for giving my characters more appeal! How does this chicky do? Does she look like someone you'd like? Want to get to know?

You can also look back to my first designs of this girl....embarrassingly! I may not be a super duper character designer yet but I'm definitely learning!

Annecy Festival d'Animation 2011

2011-06-12T17:45:00.001+01:00

It has been and gone! But it was a wonderful week in France despite the groggy weather. We caught up with some old AIB-ers, (Ben, Mikey, Ash, Kayvon, Leo, Adrian, lecturers and colleagues from various places. The movies were a mixed bag but a lot of very impressive stuff. Here are some of my favourites...

The Backwater Gospel from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

Bottle from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

The Monster of Nix / Teaser 01 from Studio Rosto A.D on Vimeo.

Another reason for Annecy being a great festival to attend, is the book shop in the Bonlieu. Oooooh what a treat for the animation and comic fan! We got some lovely booty!

The Bonlieu also provided space for meeting the stars!

NEEEERD!

Online Life Drawing

2011-06-02T17:52:00.011+01:00

So now the new portfolio and show reel, are all done and dusted and ready to go off to Annecy, and the fact that I am between projects for a couple of months, I made a conscious effort to really motivate myself and collect lots of resources ready to really boost my learning and drawing skills.

I ordered David Colman's Art of Character Design DVD, (which can be purchased through his personal website) and watched that this week....and WOW! How it has opened my eyes. I had never before considered a character design to need composition like a painting or whole concept piece needs, I thought I was pushing my designs enough but he showed my how and why it should be done. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in character design, it's on £18 including postage but priceless for the information he shares.

So, with this new found knowledge and inspiration, I wanted to get drawing again. New stuff this time. I really loved the tutorial he gave on drawing information from a life model in order to create a story an appealing character.

Pixelovely has a wonderful website, designed especially for gesture drawing. It has a stock of photographs of life models, male, female, nude or clothed, as well as animal photographs, which also allows you to choose an amount of time you want to view the model for, e.g. 30secs, 60 secs, 2 mins, etc.

The models are exceptional and if you can keep the poses displayed for a shorter amount of time you dont lose any of the spontaneity you get with a real life model.

With this awesome tool, I tried to tackle life drawing with all the things David Colman spoke of and I really did notice a change! Unfortunately only for the clothed models, I am still struggling adding character to the nudes!

Here is a selection of new sketches. Some stayed within the 2 minute margin but shhhh...I did pause some of them to get more details in!

Ill be excited to take some of these poses into Photoshop and create a finalised character based on them. I can really see a diffference in some of the drawing just since watching the DVD. If you've got time, go back and see some of my gesture drawing from a few months ago. Big step! Yey! I'm learneding!

After Annecy, I will be taking Stephen Silver's Character Design course, so hopefully this time next month Ill be shit hot!

New Portfolio is Up!

2011-05-31T22:18:00.001+01:00

Check it out under the PORTFOLIO tab on this page.

If you could leave some feedback and constructive criticism, it would be greatly appreciated.

New NEW portfolio coming December, 2011! Currently doing some courses to become a badass character designer!

Almost Done!

2011-05-21T22:54:00.004+01:00

It's almost time for the new portfolio to go up online. Just some last tweaks and clean ups to do and then it will be ready!

Here's a little guy from a pitch I made to the studio I'm working at. It was a great opportunity to get the ball rolling on my own idea, which I've embarrassingly never actually done! He needs a name though....all suggestions welcome.

Another Twit

2011-05-17T17:28:00.002+01:00

I've recently joined Twitter to see what all the hubbub is about...I've been on it non-stop ever since.

If you're also on there, please feel free to follow me and I'll return the favour.

Also added some easy link buttons to this blog, check 'em out on the left.

Hoyt.

2011-05-12T15:57:00.001+01:00

Part of a fortnightly sketch group with my old Uni chums, we're given a topic to simply draw something from our imagination. This fortnight's topic was Wild West, so of course...Cowboys!

Trying to get myself into a better habit of doing research and fleshing out my character more. I began with these thumbnails, actually I started with better thumbnails but the idiot I am, I deleted them all!

Then with the chosen pose, I fleshed it out and added some details and tone.

Although I was happy with it, it is incredibly boring. I knew I could so better. What was so boring about this image? I thought the angle was very dead and the character proportions could be pushed more.

Taking some sketchbook doodles into Photoshop, I built up the character more, really focusing on shapes and angles.

Added details and tonals.

Colour picking from some Red Dead Redemption art, I blocked in colours, using my tonal as a guide and a reminder of what I want the light to be doing to old Hoyt.

Cleaned it up once more, correcting the shotgun perspective (which I still doesnt work, grr).

Without lines.

With lines.

French Lessons

2011-05-06T19:40:00.002+01:00

Soooo....my french lessons are coming to an end soon and I'll have my final exam which if I pass I will get a shiny certificate with my name on! I think Ive learnt loads but is still get confused about the pronunciation of some things. A 'renard' is not a small red animal with a big ass.

Plus some extra

2011-05-06T19:34:00.002+01:00

Felt even more need to do life drawing at home. Good to draw a sequence of movements instead of just one solo pose.

Click to ENLARGE!!!