Drum role please!!

Well... I've been bashing my brain against the drawing board, trying to get the page layouts for the book proposal to a point where I'm actually happy with them myself.. then (after what seems like forever) I realised that I'd never be happy with them in their 'sketched' state, so I decided to have a go at 'working' one of the layouts up... and lo-and-behold... that's more like it!!!

Here is a double page spread introducing the 'new' wolfman... and if you listen carefully you can hear me breathing a sigh of relief!

An update on the Masters

Hullo All! I am literally losing the will to ever draw again at the moment (again) as this project is driving me batty! Here are some working sketches whilst I've been trying to re-design 'Ralph' The Wolfman all over again. A couple of updated page layout ideas, a slight re-design for 'Maxwell' the Gill-Man, and a work in progress digital render of a 'wolfman' page.

I'm fast running out of time to get this in for the competition... GAHHH!!!!

30 Days of April... Day 22 and 23

Sorry it's just 30 days posts at the moment, I'm suffering a serious crisis in the ability to draw because of the problems I'm facing with the Macmillan book entry at the moment. I think I may have resolved my 'wolfman' issue with a design I'm getting quite attached to.. but it's the timescale and the putting everything together in it that's giving me the heebee jeebbies at the moment... I'll be really upset if I can't make this deadline as I'm confident that I've got a good story (with a lot of potential).

30 Days of April... Day 20

Bird Brain!

The Masters... panic stations!!

Had a great tutorial session on Monday with the Illustration Degree leader regarding my entry for the Macmillan book prize with 'The Monsters Mash'.. She is so for of enthusiasm and really feeds your imagination... However... she has pointed out some huge flaws in how my project has developed.. from the character designs through to the pacing and page layout dynamics.

At first I was feeling pretty fired up about it... but then I started looking at the redesign of Ralph (the Wolfman) and it's been driving me nuts!!! He was 'troublesome' to get to a point I was happy with before... but now it's so frustrating. Everything my lecturer said was valid, and justified and I have nothing but respect for her insight and advice... but we both wished I'd gone to see her earlier in the project.

And now (quite frankly) I'm shitting myself!!!!

30 Days of April... Day 19

BIG BAD BARRY!!!!

30 Days of April... Day 18

Must...have....beans..... err... I mean... brains!!

30 Days of April... Day 17

Farting Polar Bear.

The cover?

Been working on sketches for the cover (and really struggling to come up with a design that has impact)... but I think I might have hit on something here maybe?

Masters... an update!

Had a favourable assessment on Monday gone, but as a result I have decided to change the book format to a 7" square (like my art books over on BLURB). I like that format and it's a relatively handy size to take on journeys (in case the book actually gets published!) and for little hands!.

One of the comments my lecturer made was regarding the central placement of 'Renton' on the 'Toothy Grin' page and the fact that most of his face would disappear down the gutter of the book. Therefore, here (pictured above) is the revised (and hopefully final) layout for the page! I was a little hesitant to change the design because I wanted maximum impact when you turn the page.. but it would be pretty stupid of me to not listen to some sound advice from someone who knows what they are talking about! Because of the change of page format I was able to fill the whole right hand page with Renton's face and there should be minimum distortion over the fold... so I'm pretty happy with it!

30 Days of April... Day 16

Damn fairie folk... crapping all over my lawn in the middle of the night!

30 Days of April... Day 15

Half way there... adn here's the world's tallest Giraffe!

30 Days of April... Day 14

A pirate's life for me!

Tura Satana

Digital render... just for kicks!

30 Days of April... Day 13

Today is the Dog's Doo Dah's!

30 Days of April... Day 12

Tura Satana from Russ Meyer's 'Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill'

30 Days of April... Day 11

I AM the biscuit monster!!!

War of Words... BLUEPRINT

Blue - Print.... Get it? New word pending!

Elefump

30 Days of April... 3 day update... because I forgot!

Sorry!

Page revisions

Wasn't happy with the colourways for the 'stormy night' spread, in fact I've been working different colours on it for the last 2 days without much success. My concern is that this is effectively the first proper spread of the story.. and it's been pretty dark and 'flat' looking.. however.. I think I'm getting somewhere with it here. The slightly lighter background colour doesn't detract from the 'dark stormy night' feel too much.I might swap the dark blue of the castle and the black of the clouds around, so that the emphasis is on the castle a little more. The lighter colour for the rain was a 'happy accident' which I think works!

30 Days of April... Day 7

Posca on Postcard (again).. and the return of the bird!.. with Mr Squiggles the 3 legged elefump.

Even more Masters

Here is the follow on spread from the previously posted 'Toothy Grin' page. The original layout had a full page, full body shot of 'Renton' in a spotlight, but as I was working on it the page seemed to lack any 'dynamism'... The beauty of Illustrator is that I can play about with the layout as I work... and the result was this!

I twisted his body round to a 'quirky' angle and zoomed in to the most important elements to visualise the story in the best way I could... pretty happy with the result too!

30 Days of April... Day 6

Chin Chin what?

More Masters...

Here's another double page spread I've been working on... and the opening lines to my story!

I am the master... Update

As promised.. here's some of the stuff I've been working on for the Masters. A storyboard, page layout sketches, character colour tests for the newly simplified Gill Man and finally (a little different for me) the Wolfman done as a cut out card composite. I'm thinking of calling the story 'The Monsters Mash'.. it's so damn difficult to think of a suitable title though!!!

Currently listening to: I Love You - All Of Us.

More book pages.

Been busy beavering away at my book entry for the Macmillan Book Prize 2011 (which also happens to be doubling up as a module for my MASTERS course). Had a good session yesterday and have formed quite a clear path for the story and it's layout, as well as producing a lot of thumbnail page layout ideas for it too. Here's a peek at a possible double page spread that I was playing about with last night.

Word of the Week will resume on Monday (with Dave's word - BLUEPRINT) but for now I'm just trying to get on with college work as I've fallen behind with being ill for so long.

30 Days of April... Day 5

Posca on Postcard again for day 5.

30 Days of April... Day 4

Last bird... Promise!

30 Days of April... Day 3

Posca on Postcard again!

Listening to 'Crash Karma' and the 'Phineas & Pherb' albums today

30 Days of April... Day 2

Bird in a cage. Posca Pens on 230gsm Postcard stock.

Currently listening to:
Panic! at the disco - Vices & Virtues.
Blitzkid - Apparitional.
Murder FM - Machine Gun Kisses.

Though not all at the same time!

30 Days of April... Day 1

It begins!