Pages and pages and pages....

I've made so many lists to try and organise this "art of" book I'm at a point where I have to make lists about how many lists I have just to stay organised! I'm slowly getting buried in page designs and potential ideas to include, I may need to invest in a life jacket...

But anyway!

Here's some progress on some of the pages I've definitely settled on the designs for, starting with the cover!

Slowly getting things done

This final project is definitely pushing me to my limits and beyond, but I'm still enjoying the experience thoroughly!

Considering I have to put my project in to an 'art of' book of my work I've been working on what exactly my book's going to look like. Page layouts are still a work in progress, but I have the front and back cover idea drawn out already anyway.

The ULTIMATE image

I've learnt a lot of useful information from business class, including the art of selling myself (for lack of a better term) to clients and advertising my work correctly so I have a better chance at being hired.

Along with this blog and my personal portfolio website I was also told to make an ultimate image, sort of like a really cool movie poster that advertises me as an artist and person, so when I started work on it I knew I had to make it very bright, fun and just as geeky as me.

So, what better way to do that than draw myself posed like Link on the cover of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, right?

Business, business, business, numbers....

If I want to become a professional in the animation industry I need to learn how businesses work and how to advertise myself correctly, so in business studies when we were given the task of designing our own business cards and writing out a CV I made sure that both final results looked up to professional standard.

I needed to look at examples first of course, just so I knew what to aim for!

CVs were easy enough to find online, but I had to search high and low for the more creative, unique looking ones that were more appropriate for artists. I definitely didn't want just a bland, boring looking CV. I want mine to really stand out and look unique!

The Freakshow Family

For this project I could do whatever I wanted as long as it led to the conclusion of having a fleshed out idea that could be suggested to a company as a new TV series, film or game, so I decided to go with an idea I came up with a while ago of a TV show that would revolve around a group of "freaks" in a sideshow of a circus who were one big happy family. I really like the idea of a group of people who are all equally treated badly coming together to care for each other when no one else will, so that's where this idea came from!

 I also wanted to incorporate a moral in to this story, so I focused on the fact that the "freaks" look monstrous on the outside but are loving, caring beings on the inside, while the ringmaster (who would be considered more "human-looking") would be a monster on the inside.

As always I started off with researching intensely in to the subject of sideshows and circuses so I could understand exactly how they worked back when they were still popular.

Breakfast at Hannibal's

Similarly to the TV show character redesign project, with this one I had to take an already existing TV show's opening and recreate it in my own way.
I went with the NBC show Hannibal because it's one of my favourite TV shows and the opening is a tad bland for my tastes so I wanted to improve it. It also meant that I got to work with bloodier, darker themes that I don't usually explore, so that was interesting!

Here's my initial research that I did so I could make note of the reoccurring themes and imagery in the show so I could include them in the title sequence (things like meat, bones, flowers, cooking utensils, etc.)

Lots of pretty backgrounds

Collaboration is definitely something animators and designers need to get themselves used to so when I was asked to collaborate as part of my final major project I was happy to oblige. I ended up working with my friend Ciprian on his animated short, Moth.
I drew backgrounds for him and he animated on top of them all. Here are all the backgrounds I drew!