Art Blitz

Ever month the 2d artists at Blitz meet up to talk about our craft. A topic of discussion is prepared beforehand and for the up coming one we were tasked to take a shape (the second image) and work with it to create an image. This finished piece will be presented to everyone and we will talk about it and the process and thoughts behind them.
This has been a challenge to find an image out of but I eventually got there. I decided on a cartoony stylization to go with the nature of the shape which is unrealistic. So the shape dictated the style for me and for some reason I had this idea of having fabric cutouts representing the finish. Its a fun lil experiment. A lot of times I try to put a new spin on my work and tackle it with a different approach to keep things fresh and make sure I dont fall too early into one method of working. The guys I work with are great with sharing techniques and I hope to mix up and add their techniques to my own Jeet Kune Do style! :D


Here is a work in progress piece I am working on for the Super Street Zine blog. I met ex-Gobelins student and Despicable Me animator Michael Crouzat during the Annecy animation festival and was invited to take part in the Street Fighter tribute blog he runs. Check it out, theres loads of great art involved!

Bulgaria Trip

Hey hey! Sorry for the lack of updates. Been taking quite a few holidays. First been away for a week in Annecy and then now Ive just got back from a week in Bulgaria. This weekend Im going to Bournemouth for the alumni reunion. And also Im trying to sort out a new place live so theres been plenty of distractions but I hope to sort it all out soon so I can get back to drawing and painting :D
Heres some drawings of Bulgaria. I felt out of practice in drawing in location. Im ashamed to say that I have been neglecting observational drawings for a while and it dented my confidence when I tried to get back into it but now I feel I have regained my confidence back. Its all mental! I dont believe you can get worse in art. You always have the same knowledge and know how but theres something mental that puts you in a bad patch and make you overthink and fear what you are doing. But with practice you can prove those doubts wrong!

Drawn

Back from Annecy! It was brilliant!!!!!! Was very inspiring and great to meet old friends and new ones. Got some drawing signatures off some big name artists, the one Im most pleased with collecting is Mamoru Hosoda (director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars). I was amazed by a lot of the art there and decided to go back to basics and work on my drawings. So here are some studies, well they werent completely studies... I used Bernini's sculptures as reference and some areas I tried to rely on myself to recreate. More to come.

Kung Fu Romance - Heroes

The main characters of the Immovable Fist sect who are led by Master Chiu and have earned their famous reputation through Sing Chow for his ability to use the legendary Six Paths of Buddha Palms and protect his village from bully pugilists and corrupt ministers.

The Queen Cantabile

This is a new ChoW piece.... number 200! The topic is Monarch of Music. My direction I was to make it appear somehow a bit related to the courtier I painted for ChoW199 and try to emphasis the royal look about this character. The idea behind this piece is that she is a conductor and with the wave of her baton she can animate and bring to life objects which then forms into her throne and originally some inanimate royal subjects were to be involved (but that got too complicated :P).
I am pleased to have completed this image. At first it was a massive struggle. Sometimes I can have a clear idea of what the painting is going to look like but other times I will be a bit clueless and in this case I was painting as I went. I got the designs for the character in my head but not the illustration... no ideas on the colours, background or lighting and it made this a big battle to paint. At times I was so lost that I considered giving up on this one, the deadline was looming and I was still progressing slowly and spending toooooooo much time and getting no where with this and also got quite ill inbetween! Then with one week left to go I took the plunge and gave this another go and tried a different direction. It meant a lot more work to suddenly change the style but in the end I feel the journey was well worth it! I was doubting myself, thinking Im not consistent enough but I feel triumphant having fought my doubts away!
Other news: Blitz Games has been featured on CGSociety here. For those eagle eyed ones, you might spot me in there somewhere :P Also Annecy is coming very soon and then after that theres another festival Im going to in Bulgaria where my grad film Kung Fu Romance will be screened. So I will be away for quite a while but of course I'll update when Im back!

NOTE: Place holder image. Painting close to completion.
EDIT: Completed. Now off to Annecy!