Certain Things and Lizards.

As I'm doing a lot of black and white drawing and digital colouring at the moment, I'm trying to keep up the watercolour in any spare time I get! Practice makes perfect, and other such cliches.

Thanks for stopping by, troopers!

RAAAARRR.

A little bit of morning watercolour and pen and ink.

Pointe Blank - Coppelia Final Piece

Hello there!
Here are some things for you. If you follow me on Twitter, you're probably sick to death of this image by now, but if you don't; here's the final illustration I did for the Pointe Blank Coppelia project. I was very happy with it, all in all! And it was actually immense fun to do, the whole project was wonderful to be a part of. For the other entries (and believe me, they are all really, really beautiful), check out the online exhibition of the project here!

I went for a kind of 'dark, fairy-tale' vibe with this one, and this is always an ingredient to have great fun with. Darkness and despair, that's what I like to see, as I wear my black cape and stand at the top of my tower laughing evilly at the dastardly things I have planned. But yes, it's not meant to be that nasty...just to evoke a sense of Eastern European fairy tale, as the tale of Coppelia itself is rather lovely.

Also, I have begun doing some 'speed-painting' exercises...I've been reading lots of blogs and listening to various animators I respect with all my heart, and a lot of them recommend to just sit for half an hour and speed paint a scene...it teaches you a lot, or so they say (and I believe every word), so...here we go. Half an hour. Painting number 1...I have a lot to learn...but here's hoping it's a step to VICTORY! If only I had a better digital tablet. Mine is so bad, and so un-responsive. Sigh. To have a cintiq...what a beautiful dream...(and to stop blaming my tools...siiiiigh).

A Nice, Summery Picture.

A villianous-type indeed. This is a bit of personal work I did, which is also a bit of practice for some visual development portfolio stuff I'm trying to get together. Who is this mysterious lass? I have a few story ideas at the moment, and I'm just trying to feel my way through them and decide which one to follow (all for personal fun, of course, but I would like to do something with it all once and if it ever gets done). She's basically a nasty piece of work; you wouldn't want to bump into her on a jolly walk through the frozen tundra, let me tell you.

Doodle #25

Have a good weekend!

Pointe Blank - Coppelia

Hey hey!
I thought I'd write and tell you a bit about a really cool project I have been working for recently. It is a project called 'Pointe Blank'; a real mix of absolutely great, talented artists who have been called together by the Birmingham Royal Ballet to create a piece of artwork inspired by the ballet 'Coppelia', which the group will be performing soon. It can be in any style we want, depicting any part of the story we want or any feelings/imagery the story provoked in our heads. It doesn't need to involve the ballet itself; unless you want it to.

I'm not going to lie to you; I've heard of Coppelia but have never seen nor read about it. Which is a shame really, becasue now that I have, I realise it is a great story. Let's see, it has;

1) Magic

2) Alchemy

3) A mad scientist

4) Love, romance and intrigue

5) Eastern Europe

6) Bringing automatons to life

7) A whole village dancing about the place

What's not to like, here? The artwork will be revealed live at the Hippodrome in Birmingham on Monday 13th June and the exhibition will remain up for 2 weeks, and will be online at the Pointe Blank link above indefinitely. It's going to be really great, I'm sooo excited to see the other artist's spins on the story. If you're in the area, PLEASE do come down, it should be really inspiring! If you would like to see some teasers of the artwork by the artists, check it out here at the Pointe Blank blog. Mine is there, but I've posted it here too. Enticing? Maybe.

The very kind and talented Claire Hartley got me involved in this project, so a massive thank you to her, and also, my friend and fellow illustrator Harriet Gray will be exhibiting, so there are many reasons to check it all out. If you can. Of course. Y'know. If not, no worries. Y'know.

Doodle #24

FOR NARNIA!!! I mean...NATURE!! Just a red squirrel commander doing his thing. Sorry it's not in colour...I have been mega-hard at work today and my eyes are burning and sometimes they scream at me to stop drawing or looking at computer screens. I'm sorry, eyes, I'm sorry. (If there's time in the future though, I may slap a bit of colour on this guy!)