Testing colours

I had a go at colouring the character on illustrator, but the guys wanted him blank so that they could work their magic. I think if I had a little more time I could have done a much better job but I got the impression that they wanted to do it and knew what aesthetic each other was going for.
To consider next time-
-Textures
-Shading
- Avoid block colours.
- Ask for a little help and fight to be involved more.

Character designing

After roughing quite a few designs and ideas in the sketchbook, I felt confident with the type of character I wanted to create. Because the character would have to walk and do other various things, it was easier for the guys if I made it on illustrator. This scared me. I just assume I am useless when it comes to computer based software, but once I got going it wasn't too bad .

These are the simple designs, with the character I wanted, which were then passed on and coloured and slightly altered by the pros.

Need to-

-Keep experimenting on illustrator and photoshop where possible. I will eventually get the hang of it i just need more practice.

- Learn how to colour on a computer, this would have made me a little more useful during the colouring and animating stages of the process.

- Stop being scared and thinking I suck at everything.

Drawings for Asia Animation

Here's my contribution to the Asia animation. This was the one I felt I had the least amount of input in, and one of these drawings didn't end up in the animation in the end, but I understand, its so hard trying to fit everything into 20 seconds. At first I was really annoyed but then I put my professional hat on and realised that this happens. Collaborating is good because it gives you a taste of what the real world could be like, for example, I could do 30 drawings for a client and they may only use or like 5 of them, its the way of the trade. The boys worked so hard animating and colouring everything, and we probably didn't have time to fit that drawing in, nor was it necessary.

Things Ive learnt thus far-

- Its important to voice things. I wanted to be a little more involved in everything, but I was nervous to ask because I wasn't sure the group thought I could assist. Towards the end I did ask and voice it though and they were happy to let me get involved more. Need to be more confident.

- Being an illustrator isn't going to be the easiest job, and there will be times when clients won't use my work, I will just have to suck it up and learn from all of this.

- I need more digital skills. In someways agreeing to be part of a group making an animation was a bad idea for me when I know that I love traditional methods of image making and I like to stay as far away from a computer as possible. However im glad I did because its made me realise I need to push this side more, give myself the challenge and rise to it.

Drawings for USA Animation

First animation we worked on was the USA diner one, overcoming the monster. We had a bit more of an idea with this one, and thought it was the simplest one. We assigned two or 3 drawings to each person and went away to get on with them.

Looking back, I should have taken more drawings on board, because the colouring animation was all done my Ian and Joe, which meant they had a lot more to do that me and Chay. I wish someone would have said, but a lot of the time I felt like they wanted to get on with it themselves. However, Chay and I noticed this even more so towards the end of the work, which is why we ended up making the 30 second video at the end. But more on that later. 

I also did some quick drawings towards the end. As time went on it was easier to know what needed to be done, so I did these for the frame fillers. 

Tutorial

I had a really good tutorial with Ben the other day, and i explained how stuck I was feeling and how nothing seemed to be working. We went through a bunch of ideas and various methods of practice which I could use to tackle my problems.

We looked at a story called Journey to the West which seemed really interesting, and has some lovely work on it. I thought if I started making work on this story there would be plenty of possibility for direction, because so much seems to happen in it, and just from briefly looking at it I realised its a pretty crazy book.

Ben suggested that I take my work even further than the realms of reality and see where I can push this. So, lots of ideas again, now I need to make some more roughs.

Cowherd and the Weaver girl

After my last reflections, I realised it was time to concentrate on a more solid idea, or at least give it a go. Janice told me about this Chinese myth, that was a lovely story. So I started to illustrate in in a contemporary fashion

I story boarded it which was actually quite fun. Its a challenge trying to tell a story in a few frames, so I read the story quite a few times and noted the key points and went from there. 

Although getting ideas out has been a much more effective use of my time, Im still really unsure of what I'm doing. I started this module with every intention of illustration onto ceramics that I had made, but the more time that passes the more I think this isn't possible.

Ive been waiting for the things I made to go into the kiln for over 2 weeks now, which means I won't have enough time to make more and then make finals. Im starting to think that maybe I should have chosen one of the other discipline areas for this module, and focus on ceramics over the summer. Ive taken a risk and it hasn't paid off, but I guess thats the way of life and I will only learn from this.

Narrowing ideas

So far I've been a little all over the place, with quite vague ideas of what to do. I thought once I had a theme I would be okay, however I really needed to narrow things down in order to really get stuck into it. I started researching various fields I might like to study within Chinese culture, and trying to figure out what I wanted to achieve.

Narrowing down-

Im going to start looking at Chinese myths and legends, and Chinese folk tales and use this as my solid starting point for now.
Until now ive been looking at far too many various options.

Forming ideas

So far I've been a little stuck with which route to take this project down. I have too many ideas, and the topic I've chosen is far too broad at the moment. I thought if I just started making images from Chinese myths and traditions, and look into their patterns, I would find a direction.

For some reason I've not been enjoying this so far.

I liked the lino cut pattern work here, but I'm finding it difficult to get into this subject, which is so annoying because I chose it. 

Because I'm not enjoying it as much, Im finding that I'm making work for responsive and Cop but not much for this module which is terrible and I need this to change.

To improve-

- Concentrate on one thing and see how that goes
- Choose a style that interests me and that I think works well for me.
- Blog throughout, keep reflecting and learning from mistakes.
- Stop putting it on the back burner and get on with it.