nature_girl2008

I'm currently working on a short piece of animation/illustration for a poetry exhibition which will be at the Forum in Norwich. Needless to say the poem is about bees. I'm really enjoying working on it! Here are a few pictures I've been working on.

Although the summer is nearing an end. Here it is in typical 3 stages style.



Thought the yellow might cheer me up in spite of all the crap I've had to deal with lately!

Today I went to an awesome exhibition at the Sainsburys Centre at the UEA: An Impossible Journey, The Art and Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor. It was amazing and involved a tour of the exhibits by drama students and was quite bewildering and entertaining. One girl gave explanations mostly in foreign languages and another offered to take my bag, only then to say completely flatly that she was only joking. Bizarre! At one point I was even given a shot of (very nice) vodka to down, which can only help to enhance the whole experience. Thoroughly recommend it, although they aren't doing the odd tours anymore.

At last, nearly a year after finishing my MA in Animation & Sound Design, I get to wear the Hogwarts robes again!



I was hot, sweaty and uncomfortable by the end of it, but it was still a good day.

I saw this girl when I was out in the city the other day. I liked her outfit so I decided to draw her. Here are the stages from pencil to ink to colour.

It was my birthday on Sunday, but it was also my friend Caio's birthday too, this resulted in the following image.



He does indeed resemble a capibara!

Here's a photo of the happy birthday girl! I had an amazing weekend. Thanks to all my awesome friends! The crabbing trip to Cromer was great even though we didn't catch any crabs! Probably would've helped if I hadn't only had 4 hours sleep the previous night!



Some photos of my recent trip to Devon and proof that I went camping and surfing!



Lastly, I went to see Levity III at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in May. I've not posted here for a while, but here's the proof that I haven't been completely idle!



Apologies for the lack of art work, especially on the comic project. I'm on holiday in Scotland next week but hope to get on with some work while I'm away or soon after I return.

And here's the finished article.

Did the inking stage. I used a fine brush and black gouache.

I have been ill since last Friday, that is a total of 10 days including today. I have no idea what's wrong, but I will be going to the doctors tomorrow if I'm not feeling much better and demanding a refund.

My lovely long Easter weekend off has consisted of lying in bed with a temperature, not able to watch TV or use my laptop because of a throbbing headache and not able to move because of the worst back ache I've ever experienced! By Saturday the aches had gone only to be replaced by an annoying cough and a general feeling of exhaustion. In summary, I feel miserable, bad tempered, fed up, weepy and pathetic.

I did this today because my body allowed me enough function to produce it. T_T

The last couple of months have been a bit weird for reasons that I won't go into publicly. I've been very busy with a number of things including moving house. Here is a quick thumbnail sketch from the secret project that I did ages ago, but I am still determined to get it done! I'm feeling more like I want to start drawing again now so will try and update this more often!

Firstly some new work. Started as a quick sketch and was then developed and added to over the course of the week. I might colour it at some point, but probably not.



My job is not as bad as it has been but is still not a career in animation. I shall continue to do my best! I'm currently in the process of putting together my website. I've been saying that for about 2 months now, but I will do it!

In the mean time I'm continuing to work on mine and Tim's collaborative project and just keeping drawing whenever I get the chance! Unfortunately working 9-5 means it's quite hard to feel like drawing in the evenings, especially when I've been staring at a computer screen all day!

My first proper drawing of 2009, a new self portrait. Below, both the colour and black and white versions.



2008 has been an eventful year for me, I finished my MA in animation & sound design and I'm now attempting to adjust to living in the real world and act like a responsible adult. I'm hoping to move to Cambridge this year to see if it will open up any career opportunities. I'm also still working on a project with Tim which I hope to complete in the next couple of months.

All the best for the New Year! I have a feeling I'll need all the luck I can get!

I finally got round to exporting a web friendly version of my MA film. So here it is.

I used this picture on some Christmas cards I made.



Work on the secret project is still going ahead and the day job has also improved slightly recently too. I'm looking forward to having a bit of a break at Christmas, although I'm slightly worried about not having stuff to do. I guess I'll just have to take my work with me! Either that or play the new games I'm hopefully getting for my DS!

Just some inking and rough colouring.



We are watching House, it wasn't lupus...

A couple more character designs for the secret project. I can't wait to get started on it properly! But I have to give Tim time to write it so I'm being patient and continuing to develop the character designs. Still can't confirm their names as it is not yet set in stone.



I'm really enjoying spending time over the drawings like you can't when you're animating always. It's also nice not having a deadline, but I still want to get it done as soon as we can! I'll be so happy when it's printed and we're trying to sell our wares to the world. I still really need to sort out a web page, but I'm just not as excited about that as the other stuff so I tend to put it off a bit. Perhaps tonight...

As always, I hate my day job! I just really wish I could get my career heading in the right direction, but currently there is rent and bills to pay so I'm trying to be patient, but it gets so frustrating at times.

Me and Tim are heading to London this weekend to visit friends and hopefully soak up some culture (or perhaps just good food and drink). Hope it doesn't snow again! Although being stranded in London and not being able to go to work next week sounds appealing...

Whilst walking home from work last week, me and Tim were knocked over by a car. Luckily for us we weren't too badly inured.

Over the past week I have been making sushi, playing Tekken 5, Prince of Persia - Sands of Time and Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings. I've also managed to fit in some drawing for our secret project.




The last image is a character design based on a friend and includes her new boots and gloves as per her request. Her hair is really like that! It's fantastic!

I've sent my work to some local design companies, but I haven't heard anything back and I didn't really expect to. For now I'm going to focus on the project with Tim and also try a get my own website loaded up as soon as I can. The only problem with this being that I don't own any web design programs that I have experience with, so I'm on a bit of a learning curve at present.

Me and Tim are hoping to go to London soon to visit friends and hopefully see Monkey at the O2 Arena. Tim has also informed me that we have been together for 1000 days tomorrow, which is very sweet of him.

My day job sucks, I never want to work in an office ever again! I'm going to go and live in the wilderness somewhere.

I dressed as the Beta-Max Bandit for Hallowe'en. Tim was supposed to be Dr. Octopus, but didn't put his costume on. I am most disappointed in him. I made eyeball jelly from lychees but forgot to serve it!



Last night I did a quick sketch about Heroes, see below.



I've come to the conclusion that probably no one is reading this now, and I've finished my MA so I don't really need to keep a record of my work, thus making it pretty pointless.

I'm enjoying cooking at the moment. Recently I've made roast dinner, bean chilli with guacamole and sushi which is pictured below.



I've also had a video games marathon. I recently got a DS and have been enjoying Cooking Mama and Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, as well as being addicted to Tetris on Facebook with the encouragement of friends.

I'm not particularly enjoying my day job, but I've been working on mine and Tim's top secret project. Below is an early mock up of a possible front cover. The layout and character designs are not final, but getting there. The title is not XXXX, it's a secret!

As you may have guessed I have finished my MA now (I passed!). I haven't posted for a while because we I have been busy moving and starting new jobs. Me and Tim both have office jobs now and are trying to adjust to working 9-5 instead of 9-infinity.

The MA show went really well, I received some great feedback from people that saw my work which was really nice, and it also appealed to a wide age range which was great to see as this is what I hoped to achieve. I was going to load some photos but they are taking ages so will try again soon.

My next step is to get a website up and running and also to enter my MA film in as many competitions and festivals as possible. Me and Tim are also working on a collaboration but I'm formulating some ideas of my own. I'm steering away from animation a bit at the moment and focusing on my drawing skills. As soon as I have something that I'm happy with I'll post it.

On a more leisurely note, I have recently got a DS and am having a great time playing it. Tim has also got Spore for his Mac and is letting me play it occasionally. Life in our new flat is great. It's wonderful to be rid of the obnoxious people we were living with before. Our new neighbours downstairs are quite noisy but at least I don't have to converse with them about bills, mess, smells, etc.

The guinea pigs have also had a housing upgrade which they seem very happy with. I shall also post photos of that when livejournal decides to cooperate!

Finally I have decided what to call my collection of films. Shuffle. It reflects both the cards but also the way that all three films are viewed in the same location in turn, but can also be viewed in any order and still make sense.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on editing my films. I have had a couple of problems with lip sync which have taken longer to sort out than I would have liked, but they are all pretty much wrapped up now. The next objective is to complete the final draft of my evaluation and to complete the boxes that are housing the films during the exhibition. Painting them went well last week and I am looking forward to putting the finishing touches on the presentation.