Interesting but Random

My roommate posted this on Facebook and I thought it might be interesting to watch. Especially you, Mark, because you teach so many animation courses.

Recycling Frames--Disney

Rolling calf and Ol' Hige

Rolling Calf


Ol' Hige

(please see past post for both stories story)

I apologize for not making it to class, I hope the talk goes well!

Natural Science

This is the piece I didn't bring in to class today. The animal is a nighthawk, a type of nightjar that feeds on insects (an owl-like, night-flying swallow).

Ol' Hige

Story;

Ol' Hige

Ol' Hige is a witch who sheds her skin and flies by night, assuming the form of an owl. She harms people by sucking out their breath while they are sleeping, and is especially dangerous to babies.
Ol' Hige's habit of shedding her skin leaves her vulnerable. If you discover her skin, you merely need to put salt and pepper on it. She will be unable to put her skin back on because it will burn her too much. Without her skin, she can be killed.
Babies can be protected from Ol' Hige by placing an open Bible in their cribs, or by using certain charms.
Of West African origin, Ol' Hige is not confined to Jamaican folk tales, although she may be known by other names. In Trinidad she is called "Sukuyan".

Rolling calf

Story;

Rolling Calf

Be careful how you stroll around the Jamaican countryside at night, because you really don't want to meet a rolling calf. A huge, calf-like creature which rolls along the road, blocking the way of night-time travellers, and chasing them with a wicked intention. It has blazing red eyes that gash fire, and a chain that it drags behing it, making an unnerving clanking noise.

To escape a rolling calf, the victim can do a number of things - drop objects for it to count (most supernatural creatures in Jamaican folklore can be escaped in this way), get to a cross roads (road junction) before it, open a pen knife and stick it in the ground. A rolling calf is also terrified of being beaten with a tarred whip held in the left hand.

Rolling calves are always male. They are believed to be the spirits of people (particularly butchers) who were wicked and dishonest during their lifetimes.

This sketch is not showing value yet, I only darkened the ground to show it is a stone path (For celerity)

New refined sketch

My next cover

Hey, Gang

My next cover will be of the 1991 Star Trek novel Vendetta. I wanted to do a space scene this time to play with depth and atmosphere and to created a bit of action this time. My idea is the Enterprise D being chased by the borg cube through an asteroid field. I want to have nebula in the back ground and color in the star field, I'm going for a larger wrap around format to mix things up a bit as well. I'm posting my sketches and the book synopsis off the back of the actual book.

sketches and things!

Heerree are my sketches for the next story:

doing something more designy portrait like this time around. making the concept simpler so i can experiment more with traditional media this time around.

for this one...playing with idea of his head "in the dirt" as a literal translation (might be the opposite of "get your head out of the clouds." ?). anyway, his head buried in his garden of wilting orchids. the "mannikins" (not quite sure if the story means literally dolls, or a creature) coming out of his nostrils. his eyes will be white with the film over them.

this is a portrait combining all the elements of the story: orchids, his blindness, and his personality at the end
similar portraits on the left, the right is him sitting at the entrance to his withered garden, not facing the audience. i wanted to have the eye in the above part, above the garden, but that can be removed.
thiis is a similar portrait to the other one.

and the story itself is here =)

Freezer Pets!

Here's a revised sketch for my next piece. I added more animal shapes to the pets and made the figures very vague.

I'm not really 100% on this sketch, so your thoughts would be very helpful.

Yams finished

Whoops, forgot to post this

Bird

Story;

Anansi and his friend, Klieg klieg bird, were playing cards, and the winner was to receive a part of flesh from the looser. Anansi kept loosing, and he told Bird that he refused to give up till he won. Klieg klieg bird finally lost a game, but refused to give Anansi his prize. Before Anansi could stop him, Bird flew away


Just the sketch for right now, I am still wokring on colors

Yams reworked

A new sketch for the yams story I told in class today

Wizard's First Rule

Here is a link to the summary of the book:
Wizard's First Rule--Wikipedia
It also has two of the covers done previously. The top-most one (with the dragon) is the first cover, and the second is the mass-production cover. There is a third cover, which features the actors from the television show based on this book series.

As for the thesis targets, here is the list of what I'm doing:
• Advertising
• Book Jacket ~> Mixed, 16—30 (Wizard's First Rule)
• Children’s Book Interior ~> Mixed, 4—8 (Aesop's Fable)
• Magazine ~> Women, 20—60
• Product Design (Coffee sleeve)
• Natural Science
• PSA Poster ~> Women, 14—30
• Stamp

Freezepop poster

Final pencils and rough black-spotting. I feel like the headphones may be a bit too big, and I'm going to play with those. The concept overall is more of a loveletter from Freezepop, especially since this upcoming concert of theirs is the last one to be held at Harpers Ferry, where most bands in the Boston area first start playing, which will close down this month. I also plan to toss in a bunch of awesome neon-goodness colors into this for the final, since it's a motif they've kept forever.

Elric cover

Hey Gang, Here is a revised study I did of my next cover, I'm going with a heavy snowy atmosphere. I made the dragon a bit less obvious covered in snow and left more space at the top for the title.

Uncle Time

Re-cap on Story;

Uncle Time never worked, did not have a house, and never asked for anything. He was a strange being, who seemed to hold a magical sense about himself. He rarely spoke, but would offer strange help to those who needed it. A rumor is that he himself is Anansi the Spider, owner of all stories.
Once, a young man was trying to get into college, but kept failing the entrance exam. He was very distraught, and went into the forest to kill himself. As he walked, he noticed Uncle Time sitting in a tall tree. The young man climbed the tree to sit with him, and Uncle Time offered him some bananas. As they ate, they dropped the banana peals on the ground. A homeless man was walking passed, and after catching a glance at the banana peals dived for them, devouring them. The boy saw he was not so unfortunate, for he was not poor and starving like this unfortunate soul, and decided to live.

New sketches

So here's the next story i'm illustrating =) its short so i scanned the pages in for your viewing pleasure:

And here are my sketches!

This one i have her essentially dancing off into the distance while the three victims lay on the ground
Similar idea for this one, but i have the "building" included. its stylistic and abstract, the walls being transparent and such.

Elric Book Cover

Hey everyone!

Her are some of my rough sketches of my next book Elric. I did two designs based off the two views we talked about in class. The 4th one was Marks vision of Elric seen from a birds eye view making his way through the snow. The first 3 were an idea from Rin which was Elric on top a defeated beasty now covered in snow with a black glowing blade I like #3 best out of those. My final sketches are due Tuesday so I plan on working on this over the weekend, so any input will help me get this sorted out by then :)

On a Pale Horse touch ups

Hey Gang,

So after the class I went back into the painting and made the suggested corrections. I changed all of the white highlights in the reapers cloak yellow, added layers to the blue sky to smooth out the tone with gouache, and added warmer colors to the clouds as well as smoothed out the tones. I also made the blade behind his head darker, which seemed to fit the lighting and push it back more. I hope it looks better now.

Pearls update

The final

This is a WIP of what i have so far. any obvious issues i should deal with before i keep going?

the blue was a last minute change, personally i like the pink flowers c:

Pearls

I was thinking of textures, and trying to figure out how I could mix it in with my very flat black and colors
How is this working for people? In general I like the mix, any suggestions?

Revised Sketches

Hey guys! Here are some revised sketches. Any thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated.

" Today, I had been sick all day, so to cheer me up my dad drove me to get ice cream. On our way back, we hit a puppy. FML"

"Today, my town is experiencing a flood. I was thankful last night when I saw on the news that it wasn't supposed to affect the part of town that I live in. I woke up this morning and walked out my back door. There was someone canoeing in my back yard. FML"

Final sketttchh

Okay heerreees my final sketch. i pulled him out a little and added lots more lilypads, but i really wanted to focus on him, so i chose closer rather than farther out. if hes still too far, i can make him smaller but i'd still like the emotion on his face to be visible. :) what do you guys think? any obvious anatomy errors i should consider?

I should note im not going for utter realism, there are some things (like his eyes) i would like to exaggerate. but in terms of relative proportion i am open for critique :)

Mumford & Sons poster?

Decided to ditch the nautical theme, and focus more on the land with these sketches. They're kind of technically the same concept, just different layouts?

Decided to go for a folkart-inspired landscape, with the text following the curves of the land. Planning on using a fall-inspired color palette for these, and tinting the linework sepia. Going to stay away from any large chunks of grass/emerald greens, though.

Kind of favoring this composition more than the other one though, mostly because I like the arrangement of the text better. I kind of miss the mess of instruments wrapped up in the roots with the skeletons, but that might just make it far too busy.