Friday, May 25, 2007

Big Fat Pusscat






A mixed bag of life drawings, leftover claw monster that I'd held off posting,, and a thumbnail of a nursery rhyme.
Oh and a big fat pusscat, which began life as an unfinished watercolour and is now instead currently unfinished in photoshop with only about 10 minutes of tweakage done.
Still.
This weekend it all has to happen, time is ticking down, and I need to pull some beatuiful coloured illustration out of somewhere.
We'll see...

8 comments:

Milenko said...

It is funny, the way we try.
That watercolored cat is awesome.
And this little sketch at the bottom, with the Cow jumping over the moon (makes me remember that Simpson's episode where Christopher Walken is reading the story to the kids...)brought light to a shitty evening and made me feel like kid again.
You do them so well.
It also made me think how possibly ridiculous it is that we whip ourselves and try so fucking hard to come up with these complex designs and fully rendered things. Painting every hair, and getting every fucking muscle right and figuring out the perspective and all that crap.
Because I would rather see a bunch of various little sketches like this one that cheer me up than some study that you wasted a month of your life on.
Anyhow, what a pussy I am to think like that.
Cheers,

Milenko

lach said...

thanks milenko, and i absolutely agree.
Some simple made up, off the cuff sketch can give the same amount of joy that these fully rendered things.
Actually more joy because they're more about the idea and purer without all the extra. Like those girlie ones you did a while back and I wanted a t-shirt of for example.
It makes my blood boil to think how disposeable your stuff and style at work, again only because you aren't viewed as some mullins type hotshot. The thing is you and your style is pretty unique, and to me that ought to make you more valuable than some imitator of some other artist.
I think also its the problem of the industry we're in- its only focused on this tiny corner of what art and characters could be, its basically fucked.
And remember I was ranting that time about people who can't draw but yet who are wildly successful?
The problem is we're trying to sell what comes naturally to the wrong people(ie games)

LFW said...

Yeah man, ditto about those people who can't draw yet they make a killing and get all the kudos and publicity.

I guess in my case it is appropriate because I can't really draw, so it makes sense that people don't like it, but it pisses me off that crackpot wannabe's like leunig who hasn't really evolved that much still gets interviewed on enough rope and shit like that.

it pisses me off to no end, ha ha.

but then there are games like Psychonauts, that is just wicked in so many ways, I just wish there were more stuff like that out there. It is definitely more fun.

but these are excellent, that cat is the bomb (as I've said) he really is an okay little dude with character

cheers

your fan

-LFW

lach said...

i looked at that alien circus thing luke the other day and i sort of thought the same as i wrote above-
you've got your uniqueness and style- but its not valued(by where you work for example),
but the fact that people who 'can't draw' can still make a living ought to give us hope.
as for leunig- well yes he can't draw as such but I suppose the whimsical naive nature suits the commentary,- and he hasn't had to change or evolve too much
but he was a political cartoonist, and its more the things he said in his cartoons that got people.
maybe its that being in the right place and the right time thing, but we need to figure out how to do the right things to cut the odds.

lach said...

actually i should add i thought the alien circus stuff you did was really nice- but i think your colourist was kind of letting you down- they could have put more effort in i think.

LFW said...

Oh dude, don't get me STARTED about the colourist. They only paid him $50 per page and I kept telling them "well, you get what you pay for, so get someone better otherwise this thing is going to look shit."

I had to keep badgering the company to keep sending me the coloured pieces so I could look at them and correct any mistakes, which the colourist only did about a third of, the same went for the character's colour schemes, the colourists take just made my eyes bleed, I had to fight tooth and nail to get them changed to my versions that you see now (even then he still didn't do all of them 100% right).

dang, did I just rant on someone elses blog? sorry man

cheers

-LFW

Milenko said...

Ehehe, you did.
But that's ok I guess.
On the other hand, in that single comic album, you did more than I will in the rest of my life.
And watching you do that in those days was amazing. And do a good job at that. I would have given up after I re-did the second page for the thirtieth time.
I reckon we are dumb for being where we are at the moment. Such is the lure of mortgage and the carrot on the stick.
And platinum are such tight asses. As if they did not make a buck out of MIB and Jeremiah.
hehe
Ervin R eat my shortz.

Simon Scales said...

Hey Lach

man youve got a bit of a discussion happening here
sounds like you guys are not to fond of working in games LOL - well yes kids books has its upside but its such bloody hard work to make a living out of ( its great but its freakin hard) - so dont be too down on the games
and like you said it is all about being in the right place at the right time only thing is some people have a habit of being in the right place at the right time but i think if you have the talent these thing will just happen naturally - Hey have you guys heard of Luke Jurevicius (look him up on google) i am a mate of his brothers - who mind you is a massively talented kids book illustrator also - now this guy is crazy good - came up with a character called Scary Girl and now its all over the place making him lots of money. Now i remember in Uni that he was getting shot down cos his stuff wasnt typical kids books stuff and was a little bit wierd - ok a lot wierd - but he just kept pushing his barrel to publisher and magazine and whoever else would listen - and now he is a big time illustrator and mostly he is working on his own stuff - COOL
well i better get back to drawing - too much typing hehehehe
now the moral to my ramblings lach - is just get out and do it
each night sit down and do 1 illustration for a kids book - and then in a couple months youll have your new portfolio - sounds easy i rekon

Simon