Not bad, Just drawn that way

As Jessica rabbit would say-

Was a good week for The Magic Word book as I did a bunch of pencil /block out roughs/thumbnails and it looks like it will be good.  Which is something because I tend to be guarded and self critical- so if I think it'll be good that's conservative.

Plus more time spent on after effects and illustrator testing  things and learning .

 Not a great week on  the life drawing front- mind you I know to expect a third or fourth week dip.

The guy was at Sculptors QLD shed- the girl at  Jugglers art space.
Thoughts-
Girl moved around a lot/didn't hold still-
ie if you rough the head and work down to feet- when go go back to the top head is in different position/ angle (not simply going back to top and seeing you did it wrong).

Jugglers was packed- a bit uncomfortable really- I sat next to a landscape architect student and talked to her in the break which was nice because I felt everyone might have been advertising people and its nice to find someone randomly that you can relate to.
(- having flashbacks of QUT student days helping my then girlfriend colour her site plans/analysis and the expensive annoyance that was Letraset.......)

Guy at sculptors was the opposite- he held very still-
(but I still didn't quite feel my energy was there this week).
Actually find drawing guys less stressful- they don't have to be "pretty" ,
mind you if you are in the proper frame of mind for drawing all you see is their humanity- and yours.

I think the thing is to remind yourself its like the drawing equivalent of going to the gym- so even if the drawings didn't turn out- the mental and physical effort of  training will still help.

CBCA conference

At top is a shot of Margaret Hamilton, Anna Pignataro, Janeen Brian ,Ann James and Mark Greenwood and Terry Denton talking about books they collaborated on.
The pen drawings are from my Magic Word book idea- which I did while I was watching,
I like the keep/castle with the pointy bits.

I met a few interesting and new people, like Dale Newman -who had been to Pinerolo like me and had done a long major book project like me
and Sally Fawcett an illustrator and author from Margaret River who was very good company,
(mind you I read on her blog that this Sydney trip was her first holiday away from the kids in 5 years so now I wish we'd all made more of an effort - but then I know how it is turning up from a long way and not knowing many people-)
and Dr Virginia Lowe who teaches children's book writing,
and more.
I caught up with Magaret Hamilton briefly and also with the Hachette team ( and I gave them printouts of the rough Over is Out book- )

and Megan Daley.
I saw Judith Rossell at the dinner and meant to say hello...
you kind of get swept along sometimes.

I got to witness MaryAnn Ballantyne being presumed as a grifter by the hotel staff as she was trying to leave in a hurry but her corporate card was declined.
Never a good last impression as a customer- but I guess the hotel staff have to take that line- they must get all sorts of genuinely dodgy people over time.

Below is the sunset on the flight home.

Little Bad Wolf...at the door.

It arrives.

More of that

What's been happening?
Well I've had a lot of trouble with Photoshop CC 2015.
The lesson here is that all of the various specific use programs are worth their weight in gold- ie anything by the foundry, zbrush, manga studio, the toon boom software etc ....Why?
Because their software works.

On top of that photoshop still does aliased staircased lines!
It's total rubbish- open any other software and they do a far superior job.

I'm glad Indesign appeared to behave after losing so much time to the photoshop problems.

I've spent a bit of time on a potential illustrating job, and some more time inIndesign
 basically because in a week I'll go to the CBCA conference in Sydney and be amongst the book people- so I wanted some things more presentable.

....... and more time in after effects going over things.

And more time at life drawing trying to exercise my drawing muscles.
If I could mange to do life drawing 3 times a week and sustain that for a few month I know my drawing would jump. Currently I've managed twice a week for three weeks?
The drawing at top were at the Jugglers Artspace, the lower at QLD sculptors. All A2 done on my knee with a gatorboard backing.
Jugglers seemed a nice group- looked like a few advertising types there- but its in the Valley so that makes sense.

I'm going to jump straight back onto the animation learning/updating and tests- and I think out of pure disgust I might leave photoshop alone(for drawing or animation)  unless absolutely necessary for a while.

Life Drawing- Sculptors

Life Drawing Kurilpa