Back at it

So I now own an iPad Pro and it's just grand!

Paper53 / iPadPro

Happy 2015!

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Simple Friends Series - #3

Hop, another one for the collection (going with this and this):

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Note to self: I probably need to come up with some rules and colour swatch if I want to keep the series going... At the moment, it's a little bit loose to say the least. 

Waiting

Just a very quick one to loosen up a little.

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Otis the bat Bat

Here's another one to put in the doodles series:

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Preferably Blue Overload

Before getting into it, I better warn you that I'm overloading this post. As I go through my files, there is SO much stuff, and a lot that I am going to show here, so feel free to come back another time when it's less wordy (or just look at the pictures or something). Also, I had posted a few of them on my website (yes, the one that needs a serious update), so there might be stuff you have seen already, but most of it is new.

Waaaay back when I was still working at Yukfoo, I got the opportunity to dab into Production Design. Now, it was a longing of mine, and I was stoked when I was asked!
The studio started making the short film Preferably Blue back in like 1875 2008 and I was so excited I tried to start on it straight away. Because we were also working on commercials and the short was more of a side project, things got a little slow.
So, with all my excitement and the precious help of Husband, we whipped up a proposal for the look in our spare time over a weekend:

(though those two are actually showing a later version of the bunny)

Lady and bird and bird and bird and bird and bird and bird and bird

 Here's another one that I had started a long long time ago and wanted to finish:

Artrage on iPad, then Artrage on computer for pixel-size touch ups that my big fingers couldn't get right on the iPad, and a quick grade pass on Photoshop that I can't resist doing (but really, I should get away from it for a while).

About time

Ok. So... Can we pretend I did not hit a near-total creative drought after having a kid, then another? Can we pretend it did not take me more than a year to do a blog update? Yes? Great, thanks!
...
So, remember this one? Well I always wanted to do more of the sort, and I finally managed to finish this one:

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I am trying to get back in the saddle after way too long. I have been trying all this time to draw things, do more art, get out there... But I kept on hitting the wall and couldn't get past the hurdles that come with the lack of practice. So here I am, with my plans of working a little every night, finishing the various things I had started, one after the other, trying to rebuild a portfolio and who knows, maybe even come up with new things. All that to say, keep checking peeps, it might not be daily updates, but I am back!

1st Birthday cake

I made a little cake for Romy's first birthday this weekend:

Icing coating and food colouring fun!

a cat's tail

Thought the Internet didn't have enough cats, so I made a little drawing of the oh-so-interesting events in mine's life today.
For some reason, my perfectly normal cat who likes to wave her bushy tail straight up couldn't today.
She kept on trying to put it up, which would work for the first third of it, but then the rest would just flop back down instead:

(The vet said another cat must have pulled her tail. She also said other things, but that's the version I'll go with).

Artrage on iPad, and a teeny tiny touch of photoshop

Artrage birdy

Had a cappuccino today.
Oh, and I did a little Artrage painting on the iPad at the same time. You know, just to relax...

Artrage on iPad

natural pink

Just a very quick one I finally wasn't unhappy enough to not post... Now I see it as a thumbnail I want to fix a million things, but I'll just post it anyway.

Hey, hope you are all well, by the way!

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Sewing

So now that I am a mum, I do mum-like things. Mainly laundry, I have to say. That, and drinking coffee. But I figured I had to make my first Halloween costume for Romy, and so between making my little girl laugh and a load of dirty clothes, I took on sewing. About ten days out from the date I needed the costume by.
I had seen this little gem, and so went off the same pattern, added a bit of fluff and pollen pompoms and VOILA! A Baby Bumble Bee:

And I am still trying to find a little bit of time and a lot of inspiration to get back to drawing and photoshop-painting... But I will find a way to get back in the swing of things eventually...

Passing by...

Just a quick one, because I miss doing stuff so much some days...

Photoshop, quickly quickly.

Nurture Gold

Hey! I thought I'd quickly update the blog with some old stuff... not that old, but it's the last thing I did before having a baby.
At the end of last year, the very nice folks at DDB Auckland contacted me again for an illustration for toddler formula. The goal was to show that little ones had happy healthy tummies full of happy healthy nutrients when fed Nurture Gold.

Here is the first concept, which was a little too happy:

Poor little guys, I see now that it's a bit full on, and I guess it would be closer to tummy ache than anything else with so much going on inside!

After a couple of revisions and a gorgeous baby girl later, here is the final ad (sorry, I don't have a hi res final at this point, so I included a close-up of the illie I provided)

 

Illustrator, Flash and Photoshop
Copyright Watties/Heinz

Cadbury - Share the Joy

So.... it's been a while, hasn't it? I swear I was feeling bad about it! But I was kind of busy on Tintin up until quite recently, and, then busy taking my first holiday in three years, and now busy finishing making a baby, while working on the Hobbit, Prometheus and other stuff... So I dug up some old stuff that I had never posted (because I was busy).

Anyway, last year, I was contacted by some super awesome folks, Andy and Dave from DDB Auckland, to enter a concept, along with other artists, for a Cadbury campaign. I somehow ended up being the selected artist and got to develop some more the concept and roughs... before the whole job fell through. I think we were all a little very sad about it, but this is how things go in advertising.

This would have been part of the Share the Joy campaign and would have been a series of 4 limited edition chocolate block packs. The trick was, we wanted a fresco when you put all the packs side by side, but because we couldn't control in which order they were going to be put up on shelves, the fresco had to work in all the possible combinations. The illustration had to flow regardless of the order the packs were in. HA!
So, we went up to a solid final concept, and didn't get to hit final rendering of anything, but you can still get a pretty good idea of what it could have been.


But enough talk, let's look at images instead!
First up, the concept that got me the job. A single pack as proof of concept for feel, render, colors and grade:

Then a little later, the full linework and flow. You can already swap the packs, the illustration will still flow.

The linework itself, with all the characters (couldn't resist posting this, I love them displayed like this!):

Then we realised that maybe it was a little too busy in there, so we made adjustments, shrunk some of them, discarded others, and ended up with the final concepts for the first pack and the full layout of the series:

All of this is copyright Cadbury, ok?
Ok, gotta go back being busy!

Interlude

Since I'm not posting much at the moment (cue string of work related excuses), why not post some old-ish stuff, I ask you.
So here's a little finger-on-iPod bird for ya.

Brushes on iPod touch

NZ Goes Pop exhibition

Thanks to my friend Jess at Wootini, I got to be part of the NZ goes Pop exhibition opening tonight at the Gallery. Make sure to go and check the pieces out if you're around, or go check the website to discover all the cool artists that are in the show (Becky, to only name here, is absolutely amazing!!!). The show runs until Feb 28th.

Pencil, Watercolor and Ink on Arches, A3.
This pic shows the original frame, which I hear, is no more. Not sure what it looks like now, but I'm sure the peeps at Wootini did an amazing job. Thanks so much guys!

Sneak Peek

Here's a tiny little look at my piece for the NZ goes POP at the Wootini Gallery, in North Carolina.
The exhibition opens this Friday, so be sure to drop by if you're in the surrounding!

Full pic and description coming in a few days.

Merry Christmas to y'all!

I'm a little late, but seriously, who goes on the net on xmas day?
Hope you all had a fantastic, fabulous holiday and are all getting ready for an awesome 2011!

Pencil and Photoshop

In between

Just a quick quick little update, with a quick quick little doodle. I was obsessed with my workmate's tee shirt today - it had a tiny tiny bow right in the middle of the back - so I had to draw that detail to get it out of my system. And one thing leading to another, I ended up with this. Go figure!

Also, it was time for an update.

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Clint the Deer Thingy

I thought this blog started to seriously lack cuteness. Or maybe I did. So to re-establish the balance of cute in this world, here is Clint.
As a matter of fact, I work with a Clint, but he doesn't look anything like this.

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Roughs feat. Juno

I played around quickly in some spare time I had today, and built up this pink-haired lady. Then I turned it to grayscale (well, desat' to be exact) "just to check things up", and now I'm stuck, because I can't decide which one to post.
So I'm posting both. Because after all, they're roughs, so I can afford not to pick one.
Oh, and this is totally our cat Juno, by the way, for the very first time on the internets!

 

Guess what? Photoshop.

About time!

I don't know... It must have been a good three or four years (and a good hundred of lame sketches) since I first wanted to do a Monkey Girl Fan Art for Barth.
So now, it's done. Well, a Wellington version anyway - I don't know how girls do it here, but right in the middle of the very windy winter, they manage to rock out in tiny skirts and backless tops.

Photoshop and that previous-post brush again.

It's not Spring yet

...and in case I forgot, the weather is here to remind me! We alternate beautiful sunny days with cold wind and sideways rain (could have called it horizontal rain too). It's ok, tomorrow will be nice.
I just wanted to test a brush I made for last illustration actually.

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Sketchoholic - Chris Sanders contest

I feel like I'm saying this all the time, but I'll say it again: I'm really busy at work. And find I rarely have the time or energy to work some more when I get home. Plus I generally feel quite uninspired at the moment, which doesn't help.
But when I heard that Bobby Chiu was hosting a Chris Sanders contest and interview on the terrific Sketchoholic, I couldn't resist, and ended up pulling an all-nighter at the beginning of the week (real smart! I'm still paying the price) to enter the contest. I didn't really make it in time (read, I didn't really finish it), so here is the Wip I posted, that I intend to finish... one day... maybe.

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The theme was "Nightmares" and you can view all the other entries and watch the interview here.

Fot Fan Art

Here's a fan art I made to celebrate Fot's TV premiere tomorrow!

ArtRage, Photoshop and a CQ tweaked cover

Fot premieres 9.30pm tomorrow on RadiRadiRah, is created by Alex Dron,co-written by Karl Wills, and is voiced by Rhys Darby.

Testing out ArtRage

Following the good advice from Christian Pearce, I downloaded ArtRage tonight and decided to try it out. I haven't painted in ages (weeks Digitally and years Traditionally) so it is a little painful but it was real fun!
I'm on the demo version (hence the beautiful duck-poo color watermark). I'll try some more tools and drawings in the next 29 days to make up my mind, but I am already seriously thinking of buying it. Yep, it's that fun, you should give it a try!

ArtRage Demo

Everything but what I'm supposed to be doing

Well, hello there! It's been a while!

I've been lazy busy lately, I changed jobs and have to get used to the ultra-excitement and new rythm, and have been working on a few freebies for family and friends (the usual Wedding Invites and Logos... you know how it is).

So I'm finally back to working on my own stuff in my spare time, and decided to perhaps do the Pin-Up challenge that my Weta-colleague Pascal hosts on his forum (and I've put links, so please, do go, the forum is really great, and since it's not overcrowded (yet), it's real good to get feedback and critics! Plus he's pretty awesome!).
I was doing colour roughs tonight and quite liked the brush I was playing with. Got carried away once again, and did this little tiny doodle:


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I've noticed that I have the bad habit of doing everything but what I'm supposed to be doing.
Tonight, I was supposed to block out my pose for the challenge. While I have explored several tracks already, I am not there yet and will have to work some more on it tomorrow.
Same happened for the previous post. I haven't forgotten I am supposed to finish this jogger-of-the-future girl (which I started when I was supposed to do some urgent wedding invites, of course!), but now I have time, I decided to take on the pin-up challenge. Maybe. If I don't get side-tracked, that is....

Roller Derby?? wip

Posting a quick sketch I did yesterday to relax. Ended up with this...
Does she kind of looks Roller-Derby-ish to you? I think so too! I don't really want to give her the full elbow and knee pads thingies though, so I'll think about it... Maybe she's just some kind of jogger from the future or something.
Anyway, just wanted to share the first step. Not my usual style, but getting out of the "cute" comfort zone is loooooong over-due.

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Table Centerpieces

I got married a few weeks ago. On top of the invites, menus, name tags... and everything you have to do to prep the wedding itself, I also decided to do the table centerpieces and the bouquet, as I don't really like flowers.
I kind of had an idea of what I wanted (very, very rough idea though), and decided to take a punt. I quickly painted a few leaves, like this (in photoshop):

Then we printed them out on some nice card, cut them and I assembled them (without doing a test run, as we were out of time by then). They turned out like this :


And here is a picture of all six of them:


It was so much fun to do! And then we added some plastic animals (just for fun) that we spray-painted white. I also did the little candle holders thingies you can see around the centerpiece...
And then, the bouquet, which is not anything new, but great to do (and a damn good excuse to buy tons of buttons!):


Props go to Hubby-then-to-be for cutting 99% of the leaves, and all my family that came over from France and helped me out cut and paste and put buttons on wires as soon as they landed!
Photos by Stephen Langdon (except the one of all six centerpieces, I sent my cousin on a mission to snap all of them before the ceremony)

Friday Sketch

Happy 2010 everyone!!
I was a little bored not very busy at work today, so I did a quick one.

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Avateeshirt!

A couple of months ago, there was a contest in the Animation Department at Weta Digital to elect the three designs that would get printed onto Avatar Crew Gear. I somehow got to submit something -I'm the receptionist, not an animator-, and ended up winning.
It's pretty much everything in the movie.... but there's no spoiler, it's also all in the trailer!
Thanks again guys for letting me play and liking what I did! It meant the world to me!

Ink on watercolor paper, Photoshop.
This is the version that got approved and printed, after a few minor changes.