Light Night //1 second animation brief ''WE ARE UNIVERSE'' Part 2

WIP screenshot

Tonight I uploaded my 1second contribution to the group folder my class was putting together for LightNight 2016.

Using trusty photoshop I digitally created textures using brushes that replicated tough bristled paint brushes to give feeling to this quick 1 second clip. Originally I was going to keep to 4 basic colours, but in the end I ended up using far more shades that first drafted as shadows to create dimension to the character I was animating.



I animated three frames at 24FPS to give the character 'life', I avoided animating anything moving because thinking about it being projected up onto a building personally I'd rather have texture and lighting moving instead of that and the character. After animating the three frames I duplicated them to reach the 1 second mark line. Atop the animated shadow, lighting and the character; I animated the light from the flame as well as the texture over the entire animation at a slightly slower speed than 24FPS.  For instance, the white light of the flame is 24FPS but the light it gives off is animated at 12FPS.

Here's a link to the animation up on youtube: 

After looking back at my submission I rethought my approach to the brief. I didn't feel like the animation responded well to the brief set, so I went back to animating - keeping to the theme of flames, but also focusing on the word 'universe'. I animated a woman, representing the sun in our solar system.   Here's another link to the 'replacement' animation:

Light Night //1 second animation brief ''WE ARE UNIVERSE'' Part 1

For this brief I was asked to produce a 1 second animation featuring one of these 5 themes; Earth, Wind, Fire, Air and Astronomical. The animation I would produce would be combined with other artists animations, looped and projected onto our university building down in the city centre at Leeds Light Night show. 

GIF taken from the sequence

I began by working out which word I'd like to represent my theme and I ended up selecting Fire, because I was really 'drawn' to the element. I'd animated fire before in my first year of study, for a test animation and my first animated film ' putting out' - which featured a woman made of fire. I've always been drawn to animating fire, ever since I saw the animated fire sequence in Disneys 'Hunchback of notre dame'. The sequence featured the villains sexual desires for a character represented within the flames of a fireplace, the character he fantasies about is dancer herself so the movement of flame worked perfectly to represent her characteristic movements.

In the brief it mentioned making the animation as contrasting as possible, so I decided to select a colour pallet first. I had in mind to make the colours 'flame like' to begin with, but thinking about having them projected up onto buildings and guessing the colours would most likely be muted (possibly) by the buildings texture or the projectors lighting; I settled on colours I'm naturally attracted to... Here's a quick colour swatch I did below, baring in mind I wasn't sure what I planning on animating. 

I want to play around with the idea of fire and whilst researching flame reference videos and photos I saw a certain heat of fire is a purple blueish shade. I'm planning on playing around with the fire of purple/pink flame.

I've always been attracted to the idea of animating a character as fluid as flame, so I'm leaning towards animating a figure: I want this animation to feel warm and comforting, because that was the idea of a flame is to me. I don't want to approach the element as dangerous or risky or even sexual, I want this animation to be charming and only perhaps a TINY BIT uncomfortable. 

Zine festival// Leeds Zine Fair LEFT BANK

Today I attended the Leeds Zine Fair, hosted at Left Bank leeds (which I found out was practically next door to my house). I shared a table with my lovely friend Ella Heeling, who was selling her own Zine.  'Voices' is a collection of creatives work published in issues, in the first issue I had one of my comics featured. At this fair I brought along with me 5 zines, 10 copies of each;  Bonk dog, 5 reasons to love Pigeon, Lady Glare, How to be a man and How to be a woman.

I set up the table with the sign I'd drawn up last night with zine prices and social media names, I would of brought along business cards but couldn't get them printed off in time to keep to my budget. I also brought along a bowl of Bon Bons because I'm nice.

I labeled each zine with a very basic description, For example bonk dog was described with 'A zine about anxiety'. Because just reading the title, doesn't tell anyone that it's really about anxiety.



I also socialised with other freelance illustrators and gained a few networking contacts and even by the end of the day, I traded my remaining zines for other artists work. Several artists I spoke to I'm now in contact with in social media. I also bumped into a few illustration students from LCA and it was lovely to catch up before third year starts.

Now, did I make a profit?

Table price:  -£5.00
Printing cost: -£15 (free printing credit at uni, so I'm not counting this loss)
Money made: £64
Final Profit: £59

Yes, Yes I made a HUGE profit! I really enjoyed attending this fair, It's given me so much confidence as a cartoonist to keep creating. From networking at this fair I've also been invited to other Zine festivals around the country for this year, which I'll most likely do!

I really loved my day at Left Bank and it feels wonderful to make money from my own art in such a DIY way.

Zine festival// Finished Zines! Late night sign making!

Tonight I got ready for the Zine fair at Left Bank for tomorrow morning!
Earlier today I printed off copies of the zines I've been working on at the university, in full colour using printer paper. After folding up the pages and stapling them, I was left with 50 Zines (10 copies of 5 vines).  I took some photos of the set of two zines 'how to be a man/woman' and 'lady glare' which are below.

'How to be...' Zine Set

'Lady Glare' Zine

I also drew up a prices sign for my table at the fair, I decided to include my online social media pages because I hadn't got my business cards printed in time.

I originally wanted to sell each zine for £1. But decided to make a 'deal' for 2 for £2 and have a single zine at £1.50; to make slightly more of a 'profit' from each zine then I originally wanted.

Zine Festival Part 3// Lady Glare

Lady glare is the latest zine I've been working on in order to sell it at the 'Zine fair' on the 10th. Lady glare is a short feminist zine approching cat calling, but focuing on the victims reaction. In a sperate project for COP focusing on street harrashment, I was inspiered to create this zine. This short illustrative booklet focuses on a response I've seen personally and done myself, in response to sexism and harrashment; which is a certain look. A look that tells the attacker without words, just what the victim thinks of them.  This zine also further inspiered a project within the COP research titled 'just tell them to fuck off' which also deals with the different levels of street harrasment.


Like the previous two zines, I hand drew the A4 page of the zine first on layout paper and then with pen and paper using my lightbox. Later scanning it in I balanced out the quality of the scan and then added addisional colour to the print.

Inked hand drawn version - Final version with digital colour

Zine Festival Part 2// Tiny Zine Making! Bonk Dog! 5 Reasons to love Pigeon!

On the 10th of September I'm attending a 'Zine fair' where I'll be selling a number of small handmade illustrated booklets and comics. I've been working on a two zines so far to take to the fair;

• Bonk Dog, a short zine about Anxiety
• 5 Reasons to love pigeon, a short zine about why we should respect and love pigeons 

WIP workng on inking the zines

For each zine I've been roughly sketching out the layout for each on layout paper using my lightbox and then going in over the top on a separate piece of paper with ink. Each zine had its concept composed with a single silly drawing. Each zine is 8 'pages' long (including front and back covers). I scanned the finished ink pages of the zines into photoshop and then balanced out the colours, before adding colour beneath on a seperate layer. After finishing the zines I'm planning on heading into university to print off in mass about 20 copies of each, so later I can fold them up and staple them together.

Final versions of the zines

LoopDeLoop// September 2016 - Neightbours Final

Here's the finished animation I'm submitting to this mouths Loop De Loop theme 'neighbours'!

For this theme I wanted to animate something simplistic, not to say 'easy' but something not too over the top so I could stretch my 'animation wings' a little before entering back into university. I wanted to work more with layers in photoshop within the animation timeline feature, which I've shown in a WIP screenshot I took of the animation in an early stage. I also used the layers to give a 'window effect' and 'lighting' effect to the animation.

LoopDeLoop// September 2016 - Neightbours Pre-production

I've decided to enter this months loopdeloop because I really enjoyed participating last year 'Sisters'. I've formed a basic idea in my head of the animation I want to complete for this months theme, which I want to keep rather simple and possibly in a GIF format. Two women living across the road from each other, flash one another with their breasts from their bedroom windows, in a playful manner. Below is a doodle sheet containing concept sketches:

The People VS Tony Tomlin - Featured artwork

 Earlier this month my work was shown along side several other artists in a sort of tribute exhibition hosted in NORTHBAR for Tony Tomlin. Tony Tomlin himself is a commonly known face within the Bar, as well as Leeds DIY art scene. For this Exhibition I was approached by another illustrator, about taking part in the exhibition. I was given an original Tony artwork to recreate in my own image,  I choice this one (shown below):

I began by doodling in my sketchbook a basic idea, trying to take influence from the phrasing within Tonys original cartoon visually in my own. My process of creating this piece began with me wanting to use and develop my skills using Copic marker pens, I was also inspired by Rene Gruau illustrations. Although the work of Rene Gruau that I found inspired this illustration weren't produced within the 70's I personally found the style and fashion within those illustrations, quite relevant to 70's women. Wanting to produce lineart as bold and clean as possible, I sketched out a very rough sketch on layout paper and using the LightBox (That I had made in first year) I then traced the sketch onto marker-paper with Ink.

First concept - Final Illustration (3rd attempt)

 It took me a few attempts (three) to produce an illustration I was happy submitting to the exhibition. I choice the final illustration over the first because of the clear motion and movement of the character depicted in the illustration. I also thought adding cartoon-like speech bubbles, including the text from Tonys original piece, would improve the over all piece.

Work Shown on Social Media 

The NorthBAR twitter tweeted a sneak peek of the exhibition featuring my illustration, although my twitter wasn't linked it was nice seeing my work within a businesses social media post!

Photoshop Animation, digital practise

Recently I've worked on a 2 second animation test to 'warm' myself back up to animating again. Since my second year of university ended I haven't animating anything, so I felt like I should work on something so my skills in motion don't become too rusty to the point of rookie-ness.  In this video I've put together each stage I went through in order to complete the animation. This animation isn't part of any current project, although the test animation HAS begin to give me ideas of a short animation project which for now I'm calling 'Cat Nap'. This character is a character I've been working on for about a year, who is oddly un-named, but is from a comic idea I had about this time last year called 'Lovely Faces'. Although I did find the process of animation enjoyable and I am keen to being this character to life further, I don't have the time currently as I'm working on other projects.

I also wanted to do a light 'test' on using photoshop, because I plan to develop my film for this year as part of my course work digitally on photoshop - and would like to know the software a little better. Also you can never know too much about photoshop.

Summer Project// 'DEERICK' part 2

Here are (maybe) final character designs I've created for the two main characters in the DEERICK project animation I've been meaning to work on. Recently I've been struggling to work on animation because I've had to move houses and I'm currently looking for employment to pay the rent for the new location. On top of that I have a Zine Fair to attend next month, so it's unlikely I'll be able to work on the project in the near future.

Although it's looking unlikely that I'll continue this project, or even finish it before my term deadline. I hope to keep this character in mind for any future projects. Perhaps he'll even be in his own comic one day.

Zine Festival Part 1: Planning and Emailing

A friend of mine Ella Healing recently asked me to contribute some of my illustrations to her first Zine, which was all about our friends creative works. After hearing she was taking the Zine to a Zine Fair in September and that the rent on the tables weren't expensive at all I decided to take part in the Fair myself. And Now I'm Making ZINES.

The festival takes place on the 10th of September, so I currently have a good month to get stuff finished before September even starts - before September is ideally the deadline I want for myself, to finish off these Zines. I'm planning on taking 4 Zines, 3 small and 1 larger, to the Fair as well as a few Illustrated prints. In my previous year of study I wanted to begin to focus more on comics as a means of visual communication, so this Fair if a perfect opportunity to throw myself into the Zine comic making trend.

For Ella Healings Zine I'm planning on producing a two page comic, which consists of a 'cover' and a 'comic page'. I'm titling the project as 'cute as fuck' which is about female sexual liberation, but focusing more on self love and self sexual liberation then sexual liberation with others.  As far as the 4 other Zines I'll be creating, I'm focusing on feminist, Queer and Body Positive themes; as those themes are things I'm very passionate and want to express and explore further as a creative.

After exchanging a few Emails with the runners of the Zine Fair, I've been officially put up on their website! (which is nothing I've had before as a creative and I really do find it exciting)

Screenshot from the Website

Summer project// 'DEERICK' PART1

Over this summer I want to work on more personal work and projects outside of my university studies that contribute to my development as a cartoonist and animator but still give me full creative freedom. As well as developing comics, such as DIY zines and cartoons - I want to enter Manchester Animation Festivals Student Film awards. My goal for this summer is to develop an animation concept, produce characters and a story, as well as begin animating the final project. I'm planning on getting the final animatic done by late August/early September with 3months left to animate. I'm also going to limit myself to roughly 1 minute 30 seconds.

My concept for this animation is something personal,
a while ago I worked in a restaurant as a chief and waiter, despite the fact I'd had no training before hand. I found the whole experience also degrading, because I'm an educated artist. Why was I working here? What's the point? But, as I thought more about it. The money I'd be getting from this job would fuel my art, helping me pay for materials, events and even the rent so I had a house to call a studio! It was fine to work part time, if it meant I could still do what I love. It didn't change me into anything besides an artist, just because I had a part time job that wasn't creative - I want to represent this idea.

I've been partly inspired by a number of animators I've discovered recently to create characters that aren't people, like animals. I've been interested in improving my deer drawings and awhile ago began drawing a deer skater guy character I nicknamed 'Deerick', to annoy myself because I dislike puns. I want to develop this character further and I'm planning on having his character design finished by the end of June.

As of right now, my rough idea for the animation is:

• Character works in a supermarket, dislikes it
• Character receives his pay check and spends the cash on art supplies
• Character is over joyed because he can go back home and draw
• Character wakes up the next day, seeing he's used up all his supplies
• Character is happy about going back to the supermarket to work, because then he can afford more supplies

Final Year of Study BA (Hons) Animation ^