Basic Shapes

Hi again chaps.

I wanted to post a couple sketches I did recently of some people I saw in the street.

I noticed both of them because of their silhouettes, I think, because of the simple shapes they break down into.

I haven't done much charicaturing or exaggerating, they pretty much looked like this.

I just thought it was interesting how the little girl is a triangle on a box, with two straight lines underneath, and the lady is basically a triangle and two blocks with a little circle on top.

Breaking down into simple shapes and silhouettes in animation is a fairly major part of creating a character, and similarly is in illustration, and I thought it was interesting how these two people stood out in real life for me because of these characteristics.

Anyway, back to the colouring in.

Dogs

Hiya chaps,

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year, I've been away from blogging for a while now, so I hope to make up for that a bit.

I have a couple of actual commission type things on the go at the moment, so here are some sketches of dogs that aren't anything to do with them.

I will however, post some work stuff sketches in a bit, when they've all moved on to the next stage :)

These are two dogs called Elliot and Spiner that have developed in my sketch book over the last few weeks. I really enjoy drawing Elliot.

Elliot is the bigger one with big ears, and Spiner is the one with the pointy nose.

It's very satisfying doing the base of his nose just in front of his eyes for some reason.

I imagine Elliot being a bit slow and dusty, and like an old general, and Spiner is very energetic, never stands still.

The Leicestershire Children's Book Prize

There's some good stuff in the Leicestershire Children's Book Prize.

And, you can vote for them too, last day is today though (oops) sorry about posting this so late

http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/leisure_tourism/libraries/children/childrensbookprize.htm

Both Dirty Bertie and The Dunderheads has illustrations by David Roberts, who is very good indeed. So well done him for getting on here twice. Top stuff.

Ghost Goblins is illustrated by David Melling who is also very good indeed.

And The Story of Matthew Buzzington is illustrated by Ross Collins, whose stuff I really really like.

So those are my pick of the pops

Burp

Here we are, here's a rough sketch from what I've been working on recently.

A naughty girl, who is nevertheless likeable.

Website Update

Right, I've finally managed to update my website with some new work.

There's a bunch of stuff you might like to have a look at.

Here's a link to it

There are two pictures of Gorgonzola the Witch (Black & White, bottom half of front page) featuring Huddleston, ironing, and her friend Alison. So you can see how the sketches from the previous posts match up to the finished illustrations.

(Actually, my final drawings are often a refined version of a sketch, if I'm more or less happy with it, as I tend to just knock the opacity down and draw over it in photoshop, kind of like a lightbox - bit of info on my technique there - so you might spot a few similarities)

There's a picture from my book idea The Shirt Machine (also Black & White)

And the colour stuff features Elephants and Tigers, and a couple of Bears.

Here are some sketches working out little elephant - Small, and the big, old elephants, and the Tiger.

So you can do the same as with Gorgonzola, and spot the bits where I used them.

Gorgonzola Again

A bit more info on Gorgonzola the Witch.

I'm going to get a couple of pictures of her up on my website soon, hopefully start of next week.

But before that, here's a sketch of her faithful pet dragon Huddleston.

He was tamed via the power of peanut butter sandwiches.

Gogonzola The Witch

Sorry there hasn't been much drawing up here of late - I've been working hard.

But here we are, I've got something new to show.

I've been thinking about witches (a little bit late maybe, but still) and here is a character I thought up.

She is a witch called Gongonzola.

She's a bit disorganised, so tends to be in a bit of a rush, and so she's gone out with her bunny slippers still on.

And she didn't have time to put her skull patterned skirt on, so is going about with her bloomers showing.

And the cold weather has made her hair a bit frizzy.

Her witch best friend is more sensible and reliable, and is called Alison.

Here's a character sketch of her, and some rough idea sketches, to sort of show a bit of development of the picture.

I will be putting a couple of pictures of her up on my website soon, which will also feature her friend Alison, and a Dragon, a cat, a frog and ironing,

A website update with a nice few pictures is on the way, actually, so will post more about that when it happens, too :)