Winter Kids

I wanted to try my hand at the french cartoon aesthetic I like so much, but I'm not sure how well I got that across. Either way, I think they're pretty cute.

Drool

I have such a thing for Gurren Lagann. Seriously.

GAYla

Here's my submission for my university's scholarship gala student-work auction. I don't know what format to get this printed, but I'm thinking a scroll would be nice. We'll see. But before that, I want you to indulge me in a little comparison.

It's always weird to see how much I've improved in the last few years. I never feel like I'm at the place I want to be artistically, but when I compare my current stuff with my old stuff, I suddenly feel a lot better about the progress I'm making. So, every year for the last 5 years I've been making Japanese New Year greeting cards using the Chinese zodiac as a motif. I kind of cheated and made my auction submission New Years-y so it can double function as a card. So for the purpose of making me feel good, let's compare:



Completed yesterday


Completed 3 years ago.

Although if I think about it 3 years is a pretty long time. But seriously. Thank goodness for moving forward. O_O;;

Sketch a Day 12/04/09

I totally forgot to update yesterday's sketch. I make sure to update everything on DeviantArt but sometimes I forget to update here...

Yesterday's sketch is my first piece of original, non-fan art I've done for this exercise. It's my character Kei, having a reflective moment with the sky. Once again this image suffers serious internet desaturation. When I go back and forth from Corel Painter to Photoshop like I do with these sketches, the color range for each program differs so I can never tell what the color will like on the internet. Alas.



I wish I had the storytelling abilities to actually so something with this character. I like the premise, but I have no actual story to tell.

Sketch a Day 12/02/09 and 12/03/09

Luigi and Major Armstrong. My interests are random and varied, but I'm trying to use this sketch-a-day to work on things that I don't usually focus on (big burly men, for example).

Sketch a Day 12/01/09

Batman's drinking a Long Island Ice Tea. No particular reason why.

Sketch a Day 11/30/09

....I just want to play some Super Mario Brothers Wii... ;_;

Sketch a Day 11/29/09

I'm delirious with sickness, so this is the best I can do for now. It always bums me out when I play Mario Kart Wii with someone and they don't have Rosalina unlocked.

Sketch a Day 11/27/09 + 11/28/09

I skipped Thanksgiving just cuz, but then the day after I met up with some friends so I didn't have time to submit my sketch for yesterday. Woops! Ergo, today I will submit 2.


I'm pretty sure K-On! is one of the cutest animes I've ever seen. It's one of the few shows where I actually enjoy all the characters, but my favorite is definitely Mugi. Also, pay no mind to what her body's doing. Pay no miiiiiiind.



Also, Haruhara Haruko. I keep trying to call her Haruhi, but that's something else.

Sketch a Day 11/25/09

I can't express how much I was affected by Urusei Yatsura as a kid. I'm pretty sure it was one of the first animes I watched ever, and it's also probably the thing that turned my tender young brain on to girly art. I mean, if there's anything cuter than Lum yelling "Darling!" while flying after that boy (who I can never remember his name), I don't want to know.




Also, I officially proclaim this week "The Girls of Fanart" week. Next week my sketches will all be some other theme, most likely animal studies. Or maybe landscape shtuff. We'll see. As much fun as it is to draw some of my favorite characters, I need to actually do something challenging for once. Siiiiiiiigh.

I can feel my watercolors getting weirder and weirder. I guess that's a good thing.

Sketch a Day 11/24/09

Day 2. I love this game so much, but not enough to be able to sit and wade through its convoluted and repetitive entirety. I wish someone else would play it for me and I'll sit and watch like a movie. Alas 3 stories was a far as I can get. I think one of my biggest regrets is not pre-ordering Odin Sphere in Japan and missing out on the limited edition art book that came with it. Sigh.



Also, just in case anyone's wondering, I'm doing these in digital watercolor not just cuz it's fast, but also cuz I'll be coloring in my layouts for my film soon. I just want to get as much experimenting done before then.

Sketch a Day 11/23/09

As part of a ploy to make myself productive over the break, I'm going to be submitting a sketch every day. Somehow something about being at home makes me lose all creative drive, and since I have a lot of schoolwork to get done hopefully this will work as a kind of "warm-up" to get things going.

Today I felt like drawing Miku from Vocaloid, who I'm still not too sure what she is, but love the design nonetheless. Also, digital watercolors are hard.



I do really appreciate the fact that since these are just 10 minute sketches I don't have to worry about trying to impress anyone. I find myself having more fun with colors and stuff this way.

Sketch dump

'Nuff said.

Gurren Lagann

School work's keeping me busy with my film, which means I spend a lot of time drawing fat old men (man). Here is my way of rebelling against this development:

Shikinami?

I didn't always love Evangelion...



but I always liked Asuka for whatever reason.

Senior Film: Official Proposal

La Vie Bittersweet: Project Proposal

1.) Substance of Expression: What do I want to do?

a. Animation Direction: The animation style I would like to employ in this film will primarily be realistic and subtle: my character will not employ whacky expressions and movement, but rather a subdued way of moving and acting. Most of the piece will be animated frame-by-frame in Flash, with key poses drawn initially by paper and then imported into Photoshop for clean-up. I feel this will better allow myself tighter animation, with consistent volume and deliberate timing. Because the primary focus of my film is the aesthetic, however, I am anticipating some segments of my film to utilize puppet animation depending on time constraints.
b. Art Direction: My film’s primary focus is the aesthetic: I want to spend most time and effort on backgrounds, layouts, and designs to make sure the film is visually unique and appealing. My primary goal is to make my film look as if it is not done in Flash; I want to steer away from the geometric designs and solid shaded backgrounds that dominate the medium. The visual style I want to employ is reminiscent of children’s picture books. Even though everything will be done digitally, I want the backgrounds to look as if they’re done in watercolors, with sketchy pencil lines and vivid, surreal colors. I will largely look to the animated short, Les Maison en Petits Cubes for inspiration.

2.) Substance of the Story: What do I want it to be about?
I want my film to be light-hearted on the surface, but the central theme is actually about love found and lost (the bittersweet nature of life and love). More than that, however, I want to show my audience that I can have a humorous, absurd plot without resorting to simple gags and punch-lines that are too often found in animated films. I want my film to be about contrast: the soft visual style contrasts with the slightly twisted romantic plot, and the absurdity of the plot contrasts with the serious central theme.


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A film's never official until you post an official project proposal. I feel professional already.

Senior FIlm: Art Direction

(It's the same background, but with some colors and tones changed to clarify the foreground/midground/background elements. >_< )

Senior Film: Animatic, maybe?

Finally I have this thing exported and internet-ready. It's not a whole lot to look at and some parts get a bit messy, but this was the best I could muster using Flash. This is a pretty accurate "rough" of the final product, though, so let me know what you think. And yes, I have a lot of holds. It's not just me getting lazy with the animatic.

Senior Film: Backgrounds 2

1 more. It's a redo of the the opening shot I did a while ago. I think I'm finally starting to get a feel for the color scheme, style, etc that I'm going for.

Fanarts

It's my boyfriend's birthday today and I originally planned to have a felt doll of one of his characters complete but since at around 10.00pm I still wasn't done, I decided to do a quick piece of fanart instead.



I once again decided to save time by doing something graphic-y, since I started at around midnight. Still, I like Diesel's design and I had a great time drawing boobs again (I hadn't for a while)


So in conclusion, happy birthday Tyson!! <3

1 down!

'Tis complete! Only all of the rest to go!




As usual, the image is cursed by horrible internet color correction.

Senior Film: Backgrounds

I've officially got less than 2 weeks until I go back to the states, and until then I'm really hoping to get as many backgrounds rendered out for my film as I can. I'm starting out with the most complex one so I haven't gotten very far (and I mean "complex" comparatively. They're all pretty simple, so even my most complex of the bunch is still pretty simple). I'm also trying out a completely different style, so it's taking quite a while.

But enough excusin'. Have a quick preview:



I want a very soft, picture book-esque feel. What do you think? Feedback would be very much appreciated <3

Senior Film: Storyboards pt2

Annnd the rest:

Senior Film Storyboards pt1

Since I can't post my animatic (which is revised and complete, by the way :3 ) here until September, I figure I might as well put up my storyboards. Some of them are out of order, but I figure it hardly matters. The basic flow of the film is still understandable, I hope.

The drawings are scratchy, I know, but they sure look better here than they do imported into Flash. You'll see what I mean later. That program works in mysterious ways.. >_>;

Kei

So lately I've been on a roll with everything not related to my senior film ^_^;;; I did finish my animatic, but unfortunately my computer won't export it into a movie file without completely wrecking the quality so I can't post it here until I get back to school. Which sucks, since I was really hoping I could get some critiques and stuff before then.

But either way, I'll be having my art direction in fairly soon, and hopefully a couple backgrounds too. In the meantime, have some more of my Vespa girl. I changed her name to Kei, and now her Vespa's name is Sora. In case anyone noticed. >_>



A little graphic-y. I wanted to make something summery and subtle-y sexy.



I have a big elaborate background in the works for this one. Hopefully I can get it done without completely taking time away from my senior film.... >w>;;

Vespa!

Some doodles for a new story concept. The main character rides around in a Vespa she took from her mom, so I wanted to get some sketches down. Also I have a terrible time drawing cars and mechs in general, so.

It's been a while since I had a story I felt this excited about (excluding ideas for short films) :3




They have cream colored and pink vespas. I want one so bad.



宙は実は後ろ姿が似合う子。東京にいる間はむなしさに浸る背後、ヴェスパに乗り回るときは開放感あふれる背後。結構いい子見つけちゃったかも。＊＾＿＾＊

Rainy Flowers

Of all the flowers out there, I'm pretty sure hydrangeas are my favorite. In Japan they're considered the symbols of the summer rainy season, and nothing makes me happier than seeing my town painted blue with hydrangeas.

Senior Film: Character Development

For someone whose been drawing girls pretty much exclusively, trying to draw old men can be quite the challenge. Pierre started off as a relatively young man, but eventually after some critique I changed course and made him older. Here are some early developmental sketches:



I tried to get some gestures of old men down so I can get a feel for old men-ish poses, etc. I think it helped some.

And here's the finalized model sheet:




Plumpy!

Senior Film: Opening Shot

Here's a quick version of the opening shot for my senior film. This is what I'd like my film to look like: the backgrounds are simple (for labor's sake) but effective and charming, like a storybook. I would like to know what you think though; the backgrounds might look plain in this shot, but most of my other shots (inside the bakery, etc) will incorporate a lot of colors. Also, I think with the addition of the characters, who will be solid colored with no shading and bold, black lines, the whole look might feel completely different.



I'll hopefully have another shot ready (inside the bakery, plus characters) to help produce a better feel. In the meanwhile, let me know what you think!

Senior Film: Inspiration

I'm starting work on some art direction and character designs for my senior film (I'm not calling it by name yet since it's still pretty tentative), and the biggest concern I have with this project is "the look". I want to have a piece that's visually appealing, so if the story (or even the animation, although let's hope not..) doesn't strike anyone at least the visuals will. Also, I've been very fixated on expanding my horizons, so with this piece I want to go further than simply having unique character designs.

Having said all that, I had a real hard time getting actual references for the style I'm aiming for. I want a look that's sketchy and minimalistic but stylish. Since I'm anticipating having a lot of backgrounds, I figured that would be my most effective option. I also wanted to have a watercolor-y, picture book-esque thing going on. Finally, after much searching, here are some references:

http://www.swarovski.com/Web_US/en/magazine?contentid=10007.72260

This is pretty much the aesthetic I'm going for. I love the use of loose, flowing lines and vivid watercolors.

Besides that, the whimsical feeling of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is another good one. The flat but detailed backgrounds really appeal to me:



On top of that, I really like the feel of the art direction in Disney's 101 Dalmations. It's loose and sketchy, but very deliberate. It might seem sloppy, but a lot of care's gone into the backgrounds:

Script

Hurray for back-to-back posts. I need to get gearing up to put together an animatic, so I typed up a quick script help me better envision the flow of the film. I'm still not very convinced about the ending, though. I need to keep it short and snappy since I can see this getting pretty lengthy, but I want to know if I can build tension better/have a punchier ending.

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The Patissier (Working Script)

Front-on full shot of the bakery. The street is a typically Parisian and the bakery is small and old fashioned, nestled among numerous taller apartment buildings.

Title: The Patissier

Cut to inside of bakery. Side pan along to the back of the room where diagonal benches lead to the patissier sitting next to a large wedding cake. The patissier appears small and diminished.

Cut to mid shot of baker, sitting with his face rested on one palm and the other hand fiddling with the cake toppers on the wedding cake.

Baker: picks the bride up and looks at it longingly.

Cut to over the shoulder shot, with the baker in the FG and the store-front window in the BG.

Baker: sighs with wedding topper in hand. He slumps down and looks out the window.

Insert shot of street as seen through the window. Lovers can be seen sitting happily on benches.

Cut back to mid shot of baker looking intently at the wedding topper.

Baker: Springs up to an upright position. “That’s it!”

Cut to still of a messy counter-top. Bowls are strewn about with left over batter and frosting still in them. A bag of flour and other cake ingredients are also left on the counter.

Cut to American shot of baker, his back to the camera.

Baker: busily adds final touches to his creation. He turns around to face the camera at a ¾ position, wiping the sweat from his brow.

On the counter he reveals a double layer cake, made to slightly resemble a woman.

High angle shot of cake-bride resting on counter.

Cut to low angle mid shot of baker looking down at cake.

Baker: blushes slowly and smiles as he twiddles his fingers. No other body movement.

MONTAGE SEQUENCE: Shots of the baker and his cake in romantic date situations.
• The two at a café, sitting outside with crepes.
• The two picnicking on a hill, looking up at clouds shaped like objects.
• The two on a small rowboat in a pond, surrounded by swan.

MONTAGE SHOTS ARE STILLS: NO ANIMATION

Cut to long shot of the two on the viewing deck of the Eiffel Tower, overlooking the city at night.

Baker: After staring at the cake lovingly, he reaches into pocket and pulls out a small box. He reaches over to hold the cakes’s lollipop arms, and leans in for a kiss.

Cut to close up of cake’s lollipop arm. A diamond ring glistens under the stars.

Cut to a different scene. The shot is still the same, with a close up of the ring, but the BG is different.

Zoom out to long shot of a messy living room. The cake-bride is placed on a couch. A TV is directly in front of her and turned on. The lights flicker casting shadows on the cake. The room is strewn with dirty laundry and dishes with food remnants on them.

Cut to American shot of baker walking through a door.

Baker: opens door looking exhausted from a long days’ work. His patissier’s uniform has splotches of cream and frosting on it. “I’m home!”

Cut back to long shot of living room, with the baker standing behind the couch looking at his wife.

Cut to mid shot of baker leaning in for a kiss from his wife. The cake remains stationary, as if fixated on the TV. The baker opens his eyes and leans in closer (still puckered up). The cake doesn’t move. The baker opens his eyes with a disappointed expression.

Baker: walks screen left off screen.

Cut to mid shot of baker.

Baker: holds a photograph in his hands and looks down on it sorrowfully.

Cut to insert shot of the photo. The photo is of the two on their wedding day. The bride is outfitted with a veil, and the baker proudly holds it up next to him, beaming happily.

Cut back to mid shot of baker.

Baker: looks up from photograph.

Cut to mid shot still of wife on couch. Her form has become less defined than usual, and her frosting has started to drip down. Her eyes are slightly misaligned.

Zoom in to extreme close up of cake’s lower layer. A decorative cherry that suggests where her left breast would be falls off.

Cut back to mid shot of baker.

Baker: with face aghast and eyes staring blankly towards his bride, he crumples the photograph slowly.

Cut to high angle close up shot of a dessert fork on a counter. The baker picks it up.

Cut to long shot of baker standing with back towards the camera. In the BG is the cake still on the couch.

Baker: holds the fork behind his back. Slowly, he lifts it up in the air, poised and murderous.

Credits: integrated into a still of a newspaper, with headlines reading:
“Disillusioned Husband Murders Sweet Wife” and “Wife’s Laziness and Carelessness to Blame?”

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What say you? I know it's hard to envision without an animatic, so I'll be posting that once it's done as well.

Premise

Here's the new premise for my senior film. Some details towards the end have been changed, but this is the basic idea.

-------------------------

Theme: Love found/lost
Tone: Humorous, dark comedy
Premise:
The location is a traditional Parisian bakery. The bakery is old fashioned and charming, with many impressive wedding cakes lining the store windows. Inside, amidst his many edible masterpieces, is a lonely patissier. As he adds the finishing touches to his latest wedding cake, he sadly compares himself to the happy wedding-topper couple. Without a lover, his life is bittersweet. As he looks out of his store to the lovers strolling the streets outside, he comes up with a brilliant conclusion: if he cannot find himself a lover, he’ll make himself one.
The plan is a success, and the patissier soon has for himself a sweet cake-lover. He falls in love with her immediately, and after several dates (visiting the Eiffel Tower, eating at fashionable cafes, and picnicking at the park), the patissier decides to make his lover his wife. After a beautiful ceremony, the patissier finds himself his happy ending.
However, soon the hapless baker finds that married life is not all bliss, and that his blushing bride is not the wife he expected. Several children later, the patissier is overwhelmed with work and home making, as his wife helps him with neither. Eventually the man is pushed to the brink, and resorts to extreme measures to rid himself of this unexpected nightmare. Although his married life was a failure and his wife a dud, the patissier consoles himself with the knowledge that his wife and children were delicious.

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Summer days

I've been back home for 2 weeks now, and despite the fact that that means I have 24/7 access to the best printer/scanner ever I have still failed to update periodically. For that I fail.

But here's what I've been up to lately:







I've been relatively busy ever since I got back running little errands and such, but I think I'm being pretty productive coloring-wise, don't you?

Cockatoo!

I went to this pet store while I was in Charlotte which had the most beautiful birds. They had this one Moluccan Cockatoo that was white and pink, and I totally fell in love with it. Since I can't have it, I went home and sketched it.




Sigh. It was so beautiful.

Gotta catch 'em all!

So I'm more than a little bit obsessed with Pokemon. Not the series, but the games. Ever since I picked up my copy of Diamond (my first ever Pokemon game!) I've become crazy about catching all of these little pixelated creatures. My boyfriend's tried to introduce me to new games, but nothing appeases me more than a Pokemon game.

In honor of this obsession, I give you this: