story artist and animator
Manaus is Rudy’s son and as such has been through many of the trials she has.
There is something very interesting about the ‘relationship’ between a writer or artist and their characters. It’s possible to be very cruel to them to serve a story. I don’t remember thinking much of it at the time, but looking back now I feel very sorry for Rudy.
A few months ago I created a new logo for NarniaWeb, updating their lion so it can be used across more media. The previous logo was quite a small image that worked as part of the header to their website but didn’t work so well in videos or printed on t-shirts as it always had to be used in the bottom left-hand corner.
The challenge was to keep the feel of the old lion while simplifying and updating it, and create a shape that could ‘float’ on a page. I began by sketching over the old image (above) so I was working directly from the shapes and forms in it.
In the sketch I put in quite a few details that I later scrapped. The just-visible far eye works in the sketch and photograph but muddied the vector version, so I got rid of it early on. Likewise I decided to keep the remaining eye very simple. Though the original lion as a photograph has lots of detail, the scale it was seen at meant the eye was read as one or two colours.
Though the first design worked well in terms of shape and overall appeal, a lot of adjustments were made to the colour. My initial attempt (on the left above) was too close to the colours from the photograph, rather than following NarniaWeb’s colour scheme. The colour of the face remained similar but the mane went through several iterations.
I also created a ‘corner’ version, so it can be used like the old image.
I’m really pleased with how the lion has turned out, and I’m excited to see how it will be used in the future!
The snow is beginning to melt, leaving icy pools of water and slush. As I struggled through it on a walk this afternoon I thought it would be a good subject for today’s study.
While on a walk with the dog this afternoon I looked out for interesting things to draw and decided on this juxtaposition between snow, ice and water.
For the last week I’ve been in Glasgow as part of the Animation Base Camp. I’m here as a Story Artist. This week has been inspiring, challenging, and full of fun. Unfortunately I can’t really show what I’ve been working on yet, so here are a couple of designs I did for a project back in April!
Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday) was yesterday here in the UK. I made a little card for my mum with a Charley Harper-inspired caricature of Elsa, our Border Collie. Though my sister immediately knew what it was meant to be, our parents thought it was either a bear or a monkey. So here it is, hopefully cute if not dog-like …
When I drew my previous profile picture back in February (!) I thought I’d try drawing a new one each month. Let’s see if I can get the next one done by December …
The freelance project I’m working on is very serious, with no colour … so I wanted to draw something completely different today! I’ve had an idea for a short, or perhaps a series of shorts, in Flash. I’d like to keep the characters really simple, like the birds in my “Good Morning!” short.
Recent Comments