Oh go on....
have dinosaur scribble
It is The Lost World after all.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Two men and a frog.
Things have sort of been getting busier in the last couple of weeks and soon it will be crazy. Crazy because we are expecting our third child in about 3 weeks, but also there are couple of things on. After a fair bit of toing and froing it looks like I will be working on a series of small childrens books with Scholastic. Theres a fairly ambitious plan to turn out 26 small books in 2 years- although the new baby will slow production a little at the start. I've already done the linework and the basic shading for one but I don't think I can show it as yet.
Instead a few weeks back I began doing rough ideas with a pencil for a book called the
"The Frog Who Lost His Croak", so I'm posting a couple of those.
I think I'll do the same colouring as I did with my fox.
But in the faint sketchy lines so far theres a few good moments.
I think I'm going to settle with the little guy with the shorts and the long legs rather than the Tom Sawyerish one.
On top of that there is my ring in performance at the Ipswich Festival of Children’s Literature.
Lucia(see link at side) and I are presenters at the festival one afternoon,- and I've also volunteered to man a marquee as a sort of "caged illustrator" on display for a couple of days. I was initially feeling under pressure to produce a big presentation with little video compilations of drawings- and I'd written down some ideas and spiel, however it appears our speaking session is spectacularly under subscribed. Everyone else is wanting to see a lady called Jan Omerod-in fact Iwouldn't mind seeing her speak but I'm supposed to talking at the same time- somewhere else.
Oh well I'll push on regardless- I might instead take a computer in and the couple of people that turn up can huddle around it.
A bit like my Supanova experiences maybe.
I went to a dermatologist and it turns out my Cintiq is part of the problem affecting my hands. The heat from it is giving me this horrible eczema thing on my hands (which was very bad in January...nothing like drawing with cracked and bleeding hands).
So I have to go and buy a little airconditioner I think, and cotton gloves to give a bit more distance from the surface.
- I'll be popular in summer I think, but there you go...score 1 for using a pencil- cintiq 0 for causing me hell.
Instead a few weeks back I began doing rough ideas with a pencil for a book called the
"The Frog Who Lost His Croak", so I'm posting a couple of those.
I think I'll do the same colouring as I did with my fox.
But in the faint sketchy lines so far theres a few good moments.
I think I'm going to settle with the little guy with the shorts and the long legs rather than the Tom Sawyerish one.
On top of that there is my ring in performance at the Ipswich Festival of Children’s Literature.
Lucia(see link at side) and I are presenters at the festival one afternoon,- and I've also volunteered to man a marquee as a sort of "caged illustrator" on display for a couple of days. I was initially feeling under pressure to produce a big presentation with little video compilations of drawings- and I'd written down some ideas and spiel, however it appears our speaking session is spectacularly under subscribed. Everyone else is wanting to see a lady called Jan Omerod-in fact Iwouldn't mind seeing her speak but I'm supposed to talking at the same time- somewhere else.
Oh well I'll push on regardless- I might instead take a computer in and the couple of people that turn up can huddle around it.
A bit like my Supanova experiences maybe.
I went to a dermatologist and it turns out my Cintiq is part of the problem affecting my hands. The heat from it is giving me this horrible eczema thing on my hands (which was very bad in January...nothing like drawing with cracked and bleeding hands).
So I have to go and buy a little airconditioner I think, and cotton gloves to give a bit more distance from the surface.
- I'll be popular in summer I think, but there you go...score 1 for using a pencil- cintiq 0 for causing me hell.
Back to Life
I dunno where the last month and a bit has gone. I know I've been sort of busy, doesn't seem much to show for it. I'll post some of the roughs for something I was working on call Red Dog.
I have just in the last 2 and a half weeks gone back to life drawing. I never did find a decent group where I am mostly - which is Kingscliff,...... which is a shame. Its odd because you half sort of expect the place to be awash with free spirited clothes optional people looking to be drawn, what with being so close to Byron Bay. Ah well.
The main reason to going back to ye old pencil is that I found using the Cintiq was making me mentally flabby drawing wise. Basically I was sort of compensating for the parallax error of the nib and screen by doing vague lines expecting to go back and fix them up. Whereas I'd prefer to draw a line nearly on the money first go.
Anyway like the swimming I've also started back on its a hard steep road. I was so atrophied holding my arm up to an easel was killing me.
Pimp my Dinosaur Shirt Sport
Pimp my dinosaur shirt...
The top three images are for experimental t-shirts I've gotten printed.
Anyone want to buy a shirt?
Unfortunately the topmost one turned out bit small on the shirt. But I guess you'd say its classier that way.
Finally though an opportunity to use Illustrator- although I was using it to autotrace and doing the images in photoshop. I'm fiddling with a dotty sort of shading (instead of a screen) where I'm using the spacing on the brushstroke in photoshop to paint in dots- that way I can go to illustrator and create my solid inks. I think it will work well when I perfect it. The dinosaur 3 down turned out alright, and the head on variation backgrounds I just did quickly this morning-about half an hour- the dotty skin actually looks a bit komodo dragonish I think....it could end up being good.
Now just to hit up the various museums and Winton dinosaur museum and Kronosaurus corner and see if they need decent shirts.
The fox of course is my avatar- and this a "simulated process" translation of it for printing-I want to get this printed next.
The top three images are for experimental t-shirts I've gotten printed.
Anyone want to buy a shirt?
Unfortunately the topmost one turned out bit small on the shirt. But I guess you'd say its classier that way.
Finally though an opportunity to use Illustrator- although I was using it to autotrace and doing the images in photoshop. I'm fiddling with a dotty sort of shading (instead of a screen) where I'm using the spacing on the brushstroke in photoshop to paint in dots- that way I can go to illustrator and create my solid inks. I think it will work well when I perfect it. The dinosaur 3 down turned out alright, and the head on variation backgrounds I just did quickly this morning-about half an hour- the dotty skin actually looks a bit komodo dragonish I think....it could end up being good.
Now just to hit up the various museums and Winton dinosaur museum and Kronosaurus corner and see if they need decent shirts.
The fox of course is my avatar- and this a "simulated process" translation of it for printing-I want to get this printed next.
Red Dog the pilbara wanderer page roughs 3
One of the things I am working on is a sort of educational book which I think is a condensation of the book Red Dog for Oxford University Press. Its sort of been difficult because I can't seem to find too much reference for Karratha Dampier and its people in the 1970's- still I'm sort of extrapolating using my memories of the early 70's clothes and hair atrocities.
I'm not exactly a huge car fan but I'll be learning to draw 1970's holdens as a result of working on it.
Also some of the images might be a bit complex (for the money) so I might have to work the perspectives out properly.
Actually I just read last week there's going to be a film made of Red Dog.
Never quite in the right place at the right time it seems (for now).
Its a shame it isn't a highly paid job, where I could actually go to that part of Western Australia for research. Still hopefully the Red Dog images will resolve alright. You'll notice Ive got several versions of the various images. I seem to be getting reactions of suprise when I give people a couple of takes on a given image- maybe book publishing people aren't used to being given a choice of images?
I'm not exactly a huge car fan but I'll be learning to draw 1970's holdens as a result of working on it.
Also some of the images might be a bit complex (for the money) so I might have to work the perspectives out properly.
Actually I just read last week there's going to be a film made of Red Dog.
Never quite in the right place at the right time it seems (for now).
Its a shame it isn't a highly paid job, where I could actually go to that part of Western Australia for research. Still hopefully the Red Dog images will resolve alright. You'll notice Ive got several versions of the various images. I seem to be getting reactions of suprise when I give people a couple of takes on a given image- maybe book publishing people aren't used to being given a choice of images?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)