A post of doodles and other things

  It has occurred to me that my blog posts end up as a random mash of words, half-finished images and broken promises. When I first started posting images on DeviantArt I found it difficult NOT to put pictures in my gallery. Now it feels like its the other way around. I struggle to pick what images to upload and when I do I'm never happy with how they look. In addition I'm unhappy with the level of artwork I'm producing and the lack of animation I've done since leaving University, where other people I know have went on to get jobs and opportunities that are bringing them closer to their dreams, while I feel like I'm being left in the dust.

Having said that I recently came across a video whilst looking through another artist's blog and found this video:

It's really helped me to think about where I'm going as an artist, to experiment more and find my own way. It even encouraged me to animate again after not having done so in a ling time.

Some of these sketches were inspired by various games n movies and some were just plain practice in terms of poses and gestures.

Too much Arkham City

One of the things I've found with my job (apart from it being dead boring) is that when its quiet enough, I've managed to sneak in a few doodles onto my post-it pads (we have a huge pile of them anyway and they're not all going to be used). This has resulted in me having a lot of images and has helped me to keep my hand, it also has the added benefit in allowing me to speed up my drawing/sketching.

 

Again too much Arkham City

   This image has sat in my to-do list since my PPI job and was inspired mainly by the following video. To be honest, I feel that the Honey Badger looks more like a bear with a white wig on its head, but couldn't help considering I did the original doodle without reference and added the the spiked hair later.

  

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ren & Stimpy was a huge influence on me & Brain's work on our final year film. So I did a small fanart sketch a couple of months after we finished Uni and have just now managed to get it coloured, albeit not as great as I'd liked, but was experimenting with colouring with Photoshop.

From sketch...

..to coloured image

 My favourite clip from my favourite episode of Ren & Stimpy "Sven Hoek"

Whilst its all and good saying that I'm experimenting and making images, there doesn't seem to be a general sense of purpose for alot of them.  With that in mind I've decided to take a long look at my portfolio (or lack of one since graduating from Uni) and rebuild it.

What I hope my portfolio will look like when I go to MGM Glasgow later this year. If there are any industry-level creatives attending it, then I could ask them to look at it and give me some pointers on how to improve. Now Just need to sit down and work on it.

Of Koalas and Sharks

 In an effort to at least try and update this thing in less than a year at a time, thought I'd upload some recent work. The past couple of months have seen me leaving my last job due to the contract coming to an end and acquiring a new one (lucky for me considering the unemployment rate for people my age).

One of the things I will not forget is my "coping mechanism", PPI Shark

 This new job has allowed me to have more time to be creative and have some time to think, the fact that it pays better than the last job is a big plus.

While I left my PPI job thinking I wouldn't have any more animals to worry about, the first day at the new job was to prove me wrong.

Some work frustration being exorcised through the drawing of a mini storyboard and some humour

 Random images drawn on post-its during my downtime at work.

Having more time to watch Adventure Time has allowed to me to practice drawing the characters more.

 

After seeing this image felt the need to make my own versions of the "Big Three" of the Avengers

While Iron Man n Cap weren't much of a stretch for there designs, I've never seen a short haired version of Thor.

Another attempt showing the other members of the modern roster

 Character sketches for a failed attempt at contributing to the Star Wars Uncut project 

(Empire Strikes Back)

Some female form practice doodles

Character concepts

 Despite the lack of content on this blog overall, I have built a sizable backlog of drawings that I continually attempt to make some progress on.  Many of them were drawn at the time certain movies had been released, case in point the below images.

WIP of Picnic on LV-426 with David and the Xenomorphs (Prometheus parody)

Amazing Spiderman review sketches showing just some of my gripes with the movie (Girlfriend was not one of them :D)

Jean Val Jean & Javert from the New Les Miserables

 Went to see Les Miserables last weekend and can say definitely enjoyed it, had to resist the urged to sing along to the songs that I know :). While I am partial to a lot of the original recordings , I do like the newer, more grandiose orchestra themes of the new one.