If you've looked through my portfolio, there is something you'll notice. I enjoy drawing cute things. Cute kids. Cute animals. If it makes you say "aweee", or "how sweet!" then I want to draw it. Working on a science fiction graphic novel doesn't necessarily fit into the "cute" category, which means I have to really go outside of my comfort zone for this project. Here you'll find evidence of my current struggles to draw something that fits into a science fiction movie. I am definitely down for the challenge. My buddy, Anastasios Gionis used to work with me as a character designer for The Rugrats. He currently works as a creature and character modeler for Blizzard. I think I need to study more of his work in order to get the feel of how to make something creepy and other worldly. I imagine he felt as comfortable drawing babies in diapers as I do drawing aliens. In my quest to deconstruct the method of drawing aliens, I came across a method which utilizes photo manipulation and the symmetry tool. I figured that if I used a sort of scribble method to draw humanistic type forms I might be able to come up with something unique. Using the "symmetry" tool in Clip Studio Paint allowed me to create a sort of strange doodle where I could create characters that I wouldn't normally think to create. Now, starting off, I knew that this particular alien was going to be tall, lean and extremely intelligent. As far as what it would look like, I had no idea. So once I drew these, I was able to start seeing faces and shapes that I could push into a direction and turn into something viable. The video below shows how I created the side and 3/4 turns on the final design I ended up creating. While working on the front view of the design, I had to be mindful of what the profile and 3/4 view of the character would also look like, which means I had to think in terms of 3 Dimensional form and space. I didn't think the body would protrude as much in the beginning but it started to take on an ant-like type abdomen. Cool! I never would have started out with that idea, but that's where I ended up.
So, one alien race down, and one more to go. The next alien race will be the opposite- short, squat, and not so bright. Should be fun!
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Have I shared this with you yet? No? Well, the news has been out for months now, and I suppose it's time that I officially post it in my "making a graphic novel" blog.
Oh, has it really been months since I've posted? Hmm. Imagine that! I started something with excitement and then petered out. That's not so uncommon with me, unfortunately. Yes, I started this blog last year with the intention of documenting my process of creating a graphic novel, but I was also finishing up the illustrations for 4 (!!) picture books, and wouldn't you know it, I plum forgot about this blog. I mean, I didn't forget about it completely. I knew that it was here, but I also knew that it had to take a back burner to completing my illustrations for the Clyde the Hippo series (the first two books come out April 14th! Have you pre-ordered yours yet?) So, now that the final art for the last book has been submitted, and I await any revision notes from my designer ("The pedals on all of the bikes are grey except for page 7-8; Please revise.) I can get back to documenting my process of making a very epic graphic novel. Also, as it happens, we are currently on our first official day of California Governor Gavin Newsom's order to "shelter in place," but we've technically been sheltering in place for 7 days. So our personal quarantine count is Day 7. Day 7 or many, many more days to come. So, now is THE PERFECT time to get back to this blog. I've got some concept and development art to share and I even want to share the story of how we sold our graphic novel to our publisher in 5 1/2 months. It took 6 long years from creation date to sell date for Clyde the Hippo and it took only 5 1//2 months for Blake Laser. There may have been some luck involved that second time. Stay tuned. |
art is hard...Living a creative life, managing multiple projects, meeting deadlines, finding your muse asleep when you need it to be working with you, fighting the Dreaded Pirate Procrastination Monster... and remaining joyous throughout the process. That's what this will be about: reflections of my life, joys and struggles as an artist. Archives
April 2021
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