Nostalgique - Proof of Concept - Gabriel

A short proof of concept for the upcoming short film Nostalgique. Enjoy!

Nostalgique - Backgrounds

Here's a few backgrounds for the upcoming short film Nostalgique. I wanted them to be simple, and reminiscent of old film in sepia tones. Enjoy!

Nostalgique - Character Concept

Hello! Back from a long break, hopefully to start posting more regularly. To start my introduction, I'd like to introduce the two main characters for my senior film, Nostalgique. There's more to come, so keep an eye out for more of these two! Say hello to Gabriel and Chantal.

Winter of my Heart - Graphic Novel Concept

These are just a few visual designs for what I hope to be a graphic novel some day. I've been working on this project on and off again for several years, but it's never been so close to becoming a reality as it is now. As sketches are rolling out, I'll explain more of the story, but for now, enjoy this first little peek into something that's going to be a lot of fun when it's done.

Childhood Explored

The Pagemaster was one of my favorite movies as a kid. In experimenting with coloring and drawing techniques, these characters came to mind. The simplicity is something I love to play with. I'll probably sketch more like this someday.

Character Studies - Notra and Oa

These two were really fun to sketch. And again, it's alway fun to play with photoshop! Of course, they're discussing something important...

Sea Bite - Main Character Studies

This was mostly playing with Photoshop again, building up my skill-set with the program. It's a story idea that I may never fully pursue, but it's worth sketching even the most simple ideas every now and again. if nothing else, I'm learning new techniques to color something else!

Archer - Colored

I posted a sketch a short time ago that I really enjoyed making. After playing with photoshop for a bit, I was able to color it. I think the end result was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it! His cape was the most fun, I'll admit. In work to come I'd like to work with more background elements.

Nostalgique - Final Pick For Senior Film Idea

I've finally decided to work with this concept for my senior film. It's a story of a ballerina who never got to have her last dance before her tragic end, but gets her chance when a custodian comes to restore her theatre. I can't wait to get started! Here are some concept art for the main character Gabriel (the custodian) and the ballerina he dances with, Chantal.

The Rain Falls - Production update

It's been a while since I've posted an update, but as the semester winds down I tend to get super swamped and these last few weeks were no exception.

To make up for my absence, I'm posting The Rain Falls process work, a few screen shots of the scenes that I've been working on. Later this week, I'm also going to post the latest version of the work reel! This time, there will be color!

Stay tuned.

The Rain Falls - Layout Work

Here are some examples of the work I've done so far for the backgrounds of The Rain Falls. I definitely want to keep a natural, water color feel to it, but finding natural water color brushes for Photoshop lacks the spontaneity. I'd like to try painting real water-color pictures for the backgrounds, so I'll have those tests up within the week. For now, here's what I have:

Mouse Run

I was just fooling around when I made this mouse, but I had a lot of fun making it come alive! It was my first spontaneous animation! I think I'm going to become addicted.

Face Paint - Photoshop Practice

I painted this entire figure in Photoshop, but I'm still working on it.

So for now, here's a preview!

Archer - Photoshop Practice

I did this sketch last year, practicing my skills in Photoshop. I loved drawing this guy's cape, and eventually I'd like to develop a story for him. But for now he's just practice, and a fun thing to color if ever I find the time.

The Rain Falls - Animatic

So here it is! the animation I've done thus far on the short film The Rain Falls. Right now, it's only a mix of storyboards and short key-framed work, but I'm really excited for how it's coming along!  

Rain Falls - Update

This week, I've been working on filling in the holes of the animatic of The Rain Falls, including rough animation of guitar playing, walking, and other exciting things! The most fluid animation is coming from drawing MeiMei with her violin, I'm really excited to show the rough work I've been doing with her.

So, this is an update announcing that I plan on updating this blog very soon. I'll admit, it's a bit anti-climactic, but I can assure you that this week I'll put updating this blog as first priority! Expect the announcement for my new YouTube account and more sketches soon!

Mail Call

Sometimes it's just fun to draw something really typically Anime. For all its faults, it's still my favorite genre, to draw and to watch, and sometimes my nerdy-ness gets out of hand. Even still, I had a lot of fun creating the checker-pattern and the plaid, along with doing my best to draw cat legs. I love pencil-work, and I definitely want to do more of it in the future. For now, my sketches appease my need to nerd and that is enough for me!

 In case some of you are wondering, the design was based on an avatar I created on a GaiaOnline account that I used to have, but no longer visit. I'd like to take this design in the future and make her outfit more original, but for now she is what she is!

Drawing Small - Korra and Captain Jack Sparrow

Sometimes, its fun to fill in the corners of your notebooks with little doodles. Eventually, I will digitally edit these, but for now they're just as they appear in my notebook, and for that reason incredibly small.

Crosstech - Outland Monster

This is a quick study I did last year of some of the more frightening monsters in the eventual Graphic Novel: Crosstech. It gives away a little of the storyline, but I won't say just yet how much this creature exposes (no pun intended).

Marianna - Possible Senior Film Concept

This is a character of mine from a concept that I'm looking at as a possible storyline for my senior film. In the next coming days, I'd like to post more sketches of this concept and the others I'm thinking about using, and eventually give a mini description of each. For now, this is just a taste of my marker work, and an image for the concept work I have yet to do!

Her name is Marianna, and she's wearing a mask. That's all I have to say for now, but there will definitely be more to come!

The Rain Falls - Progress

Evidence of working hard, and also a little reveal of my process. I'm using Photoshop to animate The Rain Falls, my short film. There may be an easier, better program to use, but for now I'm going with something I'm familiar with. I'll be branching out more in future projects, getting comfortable with making things move takes first priority.

In any case, I'm working on a particular strumming scene, and guitars are not easy to draw. I can't wait to work in the sky of this scene, though I have a feeling rain is going to be a tricky thing to animate. More to come!

The Rain Falls - Poster

The poster design that ended up affecting the entire film. I thought that I wanted to do the short film The Rain Falls in a very straight-forward, clean style (as shown in my early concept work). As I created the poster, however, I found myself experimenting with style and simulating a water-color feel. When I realized how interesting it looked, and how fun and easy it was to create, I took my instructor's advice to bring this style into the rest of the film. Since then, I've been very excited to animate the technique, and can't wait to see how it looks when the film starts to come alive!

The Rain Falls - Early Environment Sketches

This was my original idea of how the the short film The Rain Falls was going to look; a much darker tone than what I though t was necessary later in production. I liked the challenge of creating rain and the use of blue tones throughout the piece, but it just didn't make sense to have a little girl walk around alone at night. However, the fun I have making environments always surprises me.

The environment I'm currently looking to do involves creating the feeling of water color painting. Though for the animatic screen shots a digital simulation is creating the effect I want, I'd like to experiment with actual watercolors for the real film (another first for me).

On a side note, I'll posting the work reel within the next week, so my process can be tracked for those who want to see it. Look for it soon!

Crosstech Environment Sketches

These are a couple of shots of some of the scenery for the graphic novel Crosstech. I wanted to make a post-apocolyptic look, and would like to re-imagine these early designs to include a few more futuristic tones to make the robots seem like more natural inhabitants.

This last one is a scene shot of the discovery of the last human. I mimicked a certain pose to make it clear that she is being reborn into this world, and used a soft blue-green to show that it is not a corpse, but a living thing inside of the sphere. The blood red was also used for that purpose, but also to hint at her future.

Forests and Lighthouses - Environment Work

An older study of forests and lighthouses, and my first real attempt at making in-depth environments. I'd like to keep this practice up as much as possible, especially because I forget that the environment is as much a character as any other part of the story and has a very important role in portraying emotion.  These were as much fun to draw as any character, and I'd be happy to do something like these again now that I'm more comfortable drawing digitally.

The Cricket's Home - Scale Environment

This was an older project for a class in environments and characters, trying to imagine a home for a cricket character, whose name is Pavane. I enjoyed imagining him in a quartet, making violin-sounding music with his legs and using a hollow log as a concert hall. I was still new at digital drawing at the time, so the sketches are a bit rough. I'd like to re-visit the idea, seeing as I don't get to draw insects very often, and my first run was a lot of fun!

 

Ren - Character Study

Ren, to this day is somewhat a mystery to me. Her tattoos hint at a darker nature, maybe a curse or something like that. All I know is that I had fun experimenting with hair (and then trying to explain how that hair worked. On another note, I gave this sketch to friend of mine to sculpt into a statue, so I'm looking forward to see how she transfers to 3D. My friend's 3D work and other amazing projects can be found here: myscribble-sarah.blogspot.com  .

Updates Every Friday (Except this one)

I'd like to do weekly updates of this blog, and show my progress as an artist and animator through my personal sketches an school work. Though I chose to update every Friday, I was late this week... but only by a few hours. Hopefully it doesn't become a habit! Enjoy the sketches this week, and I'll be sure to update again before too long!

Wood Lark

This is a character I've been working on for about a year. Her design is changing constantly, but I enjoy  drawing her in her many changes. Her long glove things are so much fun, and I'll definitely give more detail to how her hands are hidden underneath in the future, along with the state of her hair, and how her deer-head hat is strapped to her head.

Strawberry Head

A practice with shading more than anything else, I loved playing with this piece after I decided to change the head into something ridiculous. I'd like to do more sketches like this in the future.

Black Rock Shooter - Fan sketch

This was an experiment on several different levels. I haven't hand-inked a piece in a while, so I wanted to use my brush pen to do something dramatically black and white. Also, I used a blue pencil to sketch the gesture, a technique I'd like to apply to future sketches as well. I enjoyed drawing this piece, and would like to play with digital coloring in the future to bring some more dynamic into this piece.

The reason why I chose Black Rock Shooter as a subject to test all of these techniques is because I find her inspiring. She was a character that someone made as a fan of Vocaloid, that exploded into its own existence. To me, she represents the hope I have as an artist to ignite a flame that creates something beautiful.

 

Crosstech - Character Sketches

This is concept art for the characters of a graphic novel in process called Crosstech. The robot is named Cross, and the young girl has no name, so I call her "the last human". The story is set in a time far in the future, where robots inherited the earth and humans were the stuff of legends... until the unfortunate robot Cross finds the last human being on earth, preserved in a secret underground laboratory. Cross and "the last human" must discover what happened to the human race, and for what purpose this child was saved. It's a story I'd love to expand when I have more time.

The Rain Falls - MeiMei Sketches

These were some early sketches for the short film The Rain Falls that really defined MeiMei's character, and eventually defined the look of the film itself.

The Rain Falls - Story Boards

For the final design of the short film The Rain Falls, I wanted a water-color sketch feeling, even though the animation itself will be done digitally, with photoshop. Creating the right brush and getting the same feeling across will be tricky, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

The Rain Falls - Early Character Concept Work

Here are some early character designs for the short film The Rain Falls, drawn at the early stages of development. The little girl, MeiMei, went through a few different looks before her loose and sketch-like style was established for the finished product. The Homeless man, Joe, also did his share of changing styles before his final design.