Artober 2020- Day 23- Create Your Own Universe Excercise

 Another day, and it's another excercise from this book. 

I was inspired by my childhood trips to Plymbridge Woords to create this wet woodlands arean for these mermaid/man/person character to roam in.

Artober 2020- Day 22- Create Your Own Universe Excercise

 This was a random excercise from that Brothers McLeod book, where I had to draw three insects in sports gear. So I drew a dung beetle, a ladybird, and an ant playing Head Ball, where they had to head the ball from one side to another. I love the quick nature I churned this out.

Artober 2020- Day 21- Create Your Own Universe Excercise

 Yeah, I wasn't feeling inspired, so it's just a pencilled sketch of those monsters I've drawn recently, but in map, showcasing their locations. I would've like to create a sewer monster to coincide with the city and street layout of the map, but I didn't have time to do much else with this.

Artober 2020- Day 16- Another Monster in Their Setting

 Similar to the excercise from Day 14, I went for a hypnotic smartphone that sleeps in a chest of drawers (like my old phones!)

Artober 2020- Day 14- Monster in a Setting (Create Your Own Universe Excercise)

 I went onto the next excercise in this, and I have to "revisit" some monsters I drew earlier on. But as that was a few years ago, I thought I just create some new ones instead, as long as I think about its setting. 

So here's the All-Seeing-Eye Monster, with cameras for eyes making sure everyone follows the rules especially during this confusing time. Has a pair of arms and feet, this gigantic can view multiple groups in public spaces, such as bus stops, cafes, and supermarkets. 

I might do a few more monsters off the cuff like this for a while, or just revisit them with colour.

Artober 2020- Day 12- Create Your Own Universe Excercise (Literature and Concept Storyboard Panels)

 Today's excercise is about setting the scene. So I had to come up with a paragraph that sets up the scene. So here it is. 

"Abingdon. A place you want to retire and die, than to work and prosper. The best things happen in nearby Oxford, whilst the townsfolk appear more xenophobic than their more liberal city neighbours. In a town like this, you are either born here, or you get stuck here by no fault of your own. Guess how I got here? "

 

Below are some concept panels to suggest local landmarks. I might revisit that pencilled scene just to add the neccessary detail to make it more readable.

Artober 2020- Days 9 to 11- Create Your Own Universe Excercises

 I was on holiday during those, but I managed to start work on Part Four of this Brothers McLeod book.

This included doing an imaginary map, but I was kind of inspired what I was doing on holiday at the time. The other two are characters I created back in Day 6 and Day 8 sitting on chairs, as this was important for character development into what kind of seating would they be used to. 

Artober 2020- Day 8- Create Your Own Universe Excercise

 

Just finally finished the third of this Brothers McLeod book, and the last excercise involving drawing their character from the Isle of Spagg in a different. I went down the Popeye/Steamboat Willie approach and made them quite an agitated character. I didn't really drew any friends for him because seems to be a bit of a grouch.

Artober 2020- Day 6- Create Your Own Universe Excercise

I've been trying to finish off this Brothers McLeod book, Create Your Own Universe, since 2017. So perhaps, three years from winning it in a competition, maybe I can try and finish it. 

So this was an excercise where I had to create a character and give them a persona that they hid behind a mask. So here is the accompanied text to go with this initial character design. 

"This here is Becky. They claim to be a 'rising' star in musical theatre. Their dream is to become the next big thing to hit the West End. However, their mask is more of a theatre critic than as a team player. They prefer to hit the clubs with their friends than turn up for contracted performances, making Becky a bit of a diva rather than a hard-working performer, particular on social media. They choose to be like this to make sure they remain loyal to a select group of friends that have helped Becky to achieve their dream goal, giving those close to her very lovable.  But if things don't go her way,  Becky vents out their frustration on social media, upsetting colleagues that have worked with in the past. Because of these bad social media habits, Becky has a notorious reputation on set and stage."

Animation Backgrounds

I have always enjoyed animated shorts, since I was a kid, especially from the Golden Age of Animation (1930s-1950s Hollywood cartoons.) This blog has made me aware of the artistry that goes into just the backgrounds to these kinds of shorts.

The following backgrounds came from a post on the Warner Brothers cartoon, Corny Concerto.

I like how in the above background uses a solid colour of black make the silhouette of the podium, stand out in terms of simple block colouring. In addition, you know what the focus is on, without even the presence of any characters that the focus is within that area of white colour for lighting. It also worth mentioning how the lighting affects all the objects, in relation to where they are placed, rather than just placing a layer of lighting over the whole picture. This was how I did the lighting for each panel in my comic, as separate layer, from everything else in the drawing. You notice this because the instruments are all affected by the light in a different way- note the glimpse of the harp on the far left from the white beam of light, which is behind a much darker harp.

Again, just from the lighting, you know that the focus is going to be on the ground, and that the shadowing is different for each tree in the scene. Interesting to note here how the colour scheme is not realistic (unless you have seen pink trees somewhere!). Nevertheless, because that the palette is consistent throughout, the audience accepts the colour scheme anyway. This is something I should note for, when I develop a colour scheme, it does not have to be realistic. Therefore, I should avoid using a pipette on a reference image, in Photoshop, to get a precise colour, and develop my own colour scheme for a fictional environment.

The final background, which I have found interesting to look at, is from the post on The Brave Little Tailor.

This has a very different approach to lighting, as the source is coming from a more realistic light source, rather than a stagy approach used for the backgrounds in Corny Concerto. We know this, from looking at this, that the light s coming from the doorway and the window, because they have a light palette of colour to mark the area of light from the right.

I like this background also for its composition, because the artist has framed the stairway behind the two pillars. This was in fact a pan background (hence the areas of black around the edges), so you can note the layout of the sequence of someone going through this stairway in a scene- I haven't watched The Brave Little Tailor in a while, so I don't know if the character is going up, or down, the stairs.