Advert for myself

The was an empty space in the magazine this month and the editor couldn't think what to put there so she offered me the space! So I made myself this advert. I've been feeling under the weather today though so made things easier on myself by looking for inspiration but I don't think its bad. Think I will need to look at it again once I'm feeling better but hey I still worked when ill!

The bubbles were to represent 'ideas' and the apple mac is because thats what I use, well actually I use a Macbook Pro laptop so I can work where ever I am but its still a Mac. The swirls and leaves are to show that my designs grow and the reason I chose a pencil was because I draw up my ideas. I also chose a handwriting font as it felt more arty and like I wrote on the advert myself, showing a personality to my advert.

I also added the Art Tutoring as I have been helping my Step Dad's nephew with his GCSE Art as he's struggling with it because he has problems at school. He said that I'm an amazing teacher and he hasn't been able to understand what to do until I explained it to him in a visual way and showed him examples. My theory is, Art is a visual subject so why would you give assignments with just words. A lot of students choose art because they want to be taught visually so do it! Any way, because I have helped him so much and I enjoy it; I thought why not offer my help to other teenagers who are struggling.

I added paintings because I love to paint and I love the idea of being commissioned to do paintings for people and discussing with them what they are looking for to get the perfect piece for their home. My mum has been after a painting for her lounge that fits her purple and turquoise/teal colour scheme and she loves my style and Doug Hyde's so I've been designing a piece that is inspired by 1 of his paintings and using her colour scheme. When it's done and if she still wants me to paint it, then I'll post pictures of it on this blog.

Hoodie Design for HUMCC

I was asked by the club to design a hoodie for our members so I arranged a meeting and sat with my sketchbook coming up with designs based on what the members wanted. Below is the final design that I made using Photoshop.

Website Design

Below is a website design I have made using photoshop and I am currently making in Dreamweaver as a freelance job for a client. It will be made using layers and the buttons will have rollover animation.
I also designed the logo following the specifications from the client that the whole company name must be in it and that it also has to be simple.

Some of my artwork for Living Magazine

Below is some of the artwork I have done recently for Living Magazine. Click on an image to view a larger version.

Cat (Remus) jumping to get his straw.

A cat again. I know I should draw some other animals but when I see a blank piece of paper I can't help but draw a cat. This was of Remus my cat jumping to look at a straw that had just been thrown through a hole in a box.

Rock Climbing

I went with some friends to an indoor rock climbing centre and I took the chance to do some pose drawings of them. I am trying to get better at drawing people and hopefully practicing doing things like this will help me get better.

Best Friends - Remus and the Doll

As I mentioned in the previous post I also did a painting for my mum but as she loves cats, especially my cat, Remus I decided to do hers with my cartoon version of him, spots and all. I actually painting this one first. The aren't a low of differences but I was going for a set thing like some artists do. The characters are slightly bigger in this one and I gave my doll the black stitching. I was also not very good at shading when I did this one do you can see that its not as neat as the other but I like how you can see how I improved. Although the brown splodgy colours in the background were because Remus actually decided to help and jumped in my paint and then onto the canvas so it was my attempts at fixing the damage. If it had been paw prints instead of slodges it would of been brilliant though!

Best Friends - Doll and Dragon

Last christmas I decided to do a painting for my boyfriends mum and my mum as their christmas presents. I personally like you acrylic paint but watering it down a bit. I had gone on a theme of my doll and decided that they can have the doll with something they love and the one below was for my boyfriends mum who loves Dragons. I first of all designed the dragon and then decided to change my doll now I have learned more and I think he has really improved! Personally I wanted the stitching to be black like my design but she saw it before I'd done that and wanted it with light stitching but as thats what she wanted and it was for her that is what I did.

Progression of the Painting
When I was a bit through the process of painting it I decided to start taking photos to show how I went about doing it as I thought she and anyone else who sees it might find it interesting.

I started by drawing the design on the canvas and then the background using shading techniques to make it as it is. I then did a base layer on the dragon in a deep blue and tried using a lighter version of the background for it's ears and back of wings. I also tip the wing tip and a base layer for the dragons chest. I also did the ear a dirty pink colour but soon changed my mind.

I decided after doing the red in the wings that it didn't work so I made it blue too. Here I added lighter and darker shades of the blue to show the shape of the Dragon better.

Next I shaded in the chest and ear and also added its eye. You can see the dragon really coming together now.

Then I went onto the doll and gave it a base layer with some shading. Then gave it mismatch eyes and some features.

Finally, I finished the dolls shading and added the black outlines. I ummed and ahhh for a while about adding the black lines but its more my style so i thought best to add them. Although I do still look back at the image before and have a twinge of regret for adding them as it looks quite beautiful without them. Maybe I will do this painting again for myself minus the lines.

Voodoo Doll

This painting came about because I was drawing cute cartoon characters and my lecturer said that one without a face looked like a Voodoo doll. I thought about it and decided to make it into one. The same day I was sent a picture of a person with a barcode tattooed on their neck so I combined the 2 and this came about. It's up in my house and its amazing how many people compliment it!

I also made a little animation with him where he morphed into one of my cute characters. If I can find it then I will post it on here too.

T-shirt Doodle Design

I came up with this design a few years ago. I was having a very emotional week and it all just came out into this image. Once I had made it, people who saw it in my sketchbook said I should get it printed on t-shirts. I never did this but did make a mock up of what it might look like.

Robot Arm from Springboard Assignment

When we first got our assignment to block the Robot Arm on my Maya Springboard course with Animation Mentor I decided to draw it, the idea was to get more of a feeling for the object so I could bring it to life.

Sketches of People Sitting

Below are 2 drawings I did of people sitting and both working on a computer although I decided to leave them out. Personally, I find humans the hardest thing to draw so I will keep practicing and hopefully I will get better.

Cartoon Ermines

Here are some cartoon Ermines that I drew based on the life drawings that I drew earlier in this blog.

Pot Belly Pig Sketch Animation

Pot Belly Pig Pose Sketches & Reference

Gerbils, Hamsters and Degu Pose Sketches

Chicken Pose Sketches

I enjoy drawing chickens, they do some interesting things even if you might think they don't. They are also an interesting shape and enjoyable to draw.

Meerkats, Marmosets and Rabbit Pose Sketches

Here are more of my sketches from Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm.
I found Meerkats difficult as they rarely stay still so each drawing had to be drawn quickly. The Marmoset was a bit easier as it was more interested in me so it stayed a bit more still and the rabbits weren't moving much either so I got plenty of time to do the life drawing on the left. Sorry that the photo isn't very clear, I will try and find the sketch and take another one.

Lizards Quick Life Drawings

Here are some life drawings of some lizards that I did quickly and with a pen. It was my first time really trying to do this with a pen as I've always preferred pencils.

Lemur Pose Sketches

At the Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm again and this time with Lemurs. I enjoyed drawing the Lemurs but towards the end they curled up and didn't move much so didn't get a lot of sketches of them. At this point I was still learning to do pose sketches of animals.