A gouache colour study. I like snails lately.

One aspect to doing an increasing amount of freelance work I did not foresee is that I have very little work I can actually post. I've quite a few personal projects I want to get to, but for now I am happy to do the odd doodle.

After much neglect I have decided to update this thing. There're lots of things I have been meaning to post. Here's a selection of stuff I have done over the past months.

Photos:
























I did a 14-spread comic:






Not many doodles are getting done, but some have occurred:


The thing that has kept me most busy has been my studio job, animating on this show:

A squid in ink and watercolour.

I was feeling somewhat discouraged about painting the other day, so I decided to do something blob-like and fun.

Watercolour with no under-drawing.

While waiting for my next contract to start I have been working at bolstering my illustration portfolio (posts to come). However, I have been distracted by the my desire to play with my old SLR.










And I've been doodling.

Early this morning I got a call from Igor, our composer, telling me that the music for the film is complete. I imagine he has been working pretty intensively since our last meeting.

I'm excited to hear what he has done, especially for this scene (of which I am only posting a small section):

I was just going through some old drawings...




I made this for my Mom's birthday a couple of years ago.



I don't think she was impressed.

We have essentially wrapped up production on the film. I am l currently ocking down the timing, and delivering the cut to the composer. While he works we will deal with rendering the HD version of the film. In a month the film should be done, and we can find a (hopefully famous) voice actor to replace the scratch track.

There are some fixes that have to be made... layers that need to be turned on or off, colours that need to be adjusted... but there are no new elements needed, basically just administrative stuff.

Now it is time to find some work. If anyone knows someone who is hiring...

Lighting effects.

One of the most interesting and challenging aspects of designing and animating this film has been managing the lighting. Because of the volume of artwork I had to produce, and because it had to be re-used throughout the film, I standardized the elements I created. As a result, unlit scenes looked really bad. There was no sense of atmosphere, everything was on the same level, and it was difficult to know where to look. The last step of the animation process has been to affect the colours, and the results have been really satisfying. Below is an example of the head of a character as I painted it, and how the character looks when animated.

The character is brought up from black, and illuminated as if by torch light.

This is the last scene of the film to be animated.

The film is almost done... just a few more weeks of work.















Click this image to see the actual resolution we're working in.

Good gracious. It seems that over the past 7 weeks all my waking hours have been spent either working on or thinking about this film. And now for the past few nights I have dreamed about nothing but After Effects velocity graphs and concerns over atmospheric perspective. Slowly things are coming together, but still there is a lot to do, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed.

Below are some rough examples of some of the animation we have so far. We're still tweaking, but for the most part the scenes are looking as I envisioned them. Apparently I am "demanding" as a director, but I worked on this thing solo for long enough that I can't help but demand that every scene look like something I would draw.

We finally have some preliminary stills from the film.

The first three weeks of production have been tough. There have been a lot of technical challenges, and personally I have been on a pretty steep learning curve with After Effects. Finally, though, things are coming together, and just yesterday we were able to get a firm sense for how the film will look.

The toughest bit has been coming up with a method for applying the desired atmospheric perspective to the more complicated scenes. The sorts of shots I chose to produce for the trailer were easy to pull off because I really only worked within a limited depth of field. The actual film has a few epic camera moves that required great ingenuity on the part of the other animator I am working with.

I'm really glad I have someone like Chris de Castro working with me on this. His technical proficiency has been an asset and a nice compliment to my particular skill set. He has written some lines of code in After Effects to apply to each layer of artwork, allowing them to react to their proximity to the camera within the 3D space we set up. We're still figuring out how to fine tune it, but we're really close, and it is amazing to watch it all come together. When I designed this stuff I sorta knew that it was possible and that it would look right when put together, but to actually see it working is really amazing.

The two images bellow represent the first and last frames from the same 30 second scene. The boy walks into a cave, and the camera then pulls back through a valley filled with ominous looking birds. The mountains you see in the background of the second image are the starting point seen in the first.





This is the biggest scene in the film (though there will be others of similar scale). With all the elements involved, and with the fact that we're working in HD (1920 by 1080), this film is going to "make our computers cry," as Chris puts it. I'm a bit concerned about render times and some other technical things I don't quite have a grasp of, but hopefully everything will work out. We now have a pretty strong workflow in place, and with the major technical challenges figured out we should be able to start churning out completed scenes pretty quickly. Hopefully I will start posting more polished stills very soon.

I feel I should also mention the producer and co-creator of this film, Billie Mintz. I have neglected to do so as much as I should in previous posts about this project. While it is my drawings showing up on screen, the story is his. He has driven this project forward. Not only has he taken the financial risk needed to get this thing made, but he has very bravely turned a great deal of creative control (on a project that means a lot to him) over to me. With the film still unfinished perhaps it is early to be giving thanks, but I figure its about time since he'll probably read this.

Hi Billie.

Speiliks

The Shetland contingent of my family are toy makers. They just put their website up: http://www.speiliks-woodentoys.co.uk/

I find the Box Bed astounding.

Procrastination.

Another painting. There is something very liberating about painting on cheap, un-stretched, 90 pound paper. There are severe limitations due to the general crappiness of the surface, and knowing that made me feel like I could take a lot of liberties. I would say there are a lot of problems with both the painting and the drawing, but I think the fun I had doing this piece gives it a certain amount of charm.


Also, col-erase and ink on animation paper:

A Gone-Awry Trip to The Beach

This painting is just this side of too-muddy, but I really like it.

Paradise. An old drawing I had completely forgotten about, even though it is on my website. I really like this design. I would like to do something with it...

Lately the only drawing I have been doing is for the film. I think that's why when it came time to do this poster I opted for some original artwork rather than the usual photograph.




Join The Royal Society of Adventurology for the season’s first (official) evening of Velocipedic Tomfoolery, Cordial Frippery, and Heroic Courtesy.

All are welcome. Bring your bicycle, your manners, and sportsman-like attire. Provision of commestibles will bolster your standing.

Monday June 4, 2007
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Trinity Bellwoods Park Band Stand

For more information email our new Commodore:
info@streestareforpeople.org

More photos, as I illustrate the film.



We've re-arranged the house a bit, and I have moved my work space up to my bedroom. Some modifications had to be made to my table in order to get it up the narrow staircase:



Today's paintings:

I have been moving ridiculously slowly with getting the characters for this film done. I've done all the rough drawings and I am working through inking them. I'm looking forward to painting them, compared to inking, watercolours are so relaxing.

My work space as I progress.

Here is the test animation I did for the film last summer. After I handed it in my producer put it to music and turned it onto a trailer to use to show investors.

I learned a lot in making this and I've tweaked the design a bit... I think the final product will be much stronger than this.

I have begun doing final artwork for the film. I think I have made some improvements to my approach, both on paper and with how the illustrations will be treated in After Effects. I'm pretty excited to start animating.

Here's what a typical layer of artwork looks like.

I have started back to work on the film I began designing last year. We're in full production, with a budget and schedule and everything.

The film is based on the experiences of a child cancer patient that the producer I am working with did a documentary about. It will be a fable used to teach children about the importance of accepting peers who are suffering from the effects of radiation and chemotherapy.

The thing I love about freelance illustration: the freedom to work almost anywhere.

I'm finished my stop-motion contract. During my second week off I was given an illustration assignment by The National Post. I'm so happy I was able to take the work with me for a week on Georgian Bay. I've discovered there's nothing so nice as earning a pay cheque drawing in front of a fire, surrounded by stark and lovely scenery.






The 12 illustrations were published today on the front page of the Arts and Life section. Here're my favorites:














While up there I also did some more caterpillar drawings, and scribbled plenty in my sketchbook.







I'm starting in on a new animation project today. Once that's done I'd really like to take a month or two in Europe, and then I think I'm very seriously inclined to make an attempt at doing nothing but illustration. I'm hoping it all falls into place as easily as things have over the past few months.

Just another little bird.



Detail.

A super hero!

Caterpillars from my sketchbook.

A gift for my pal Heather's birthday.

Drawn today while my puppet was in Triage with a broken leg.

More drawings done at work (and a painting).

Some Fish!

A pervert, and some other people in my sketchbook.

One of my directors, Dale, is sporting a very dashing moustache. It has inspired some doodles.

Another Royal Winter Fair drawing (watercolour).

There were incredible cows there. I don't know what the breed was called, but they were all wrinkly, and coloured like Weimaraners. I did the drawing on location and painted it when I got home.








For those like me interested in process, the under-drawing looked something like this:



I am pretty sure I'll be headed to Europe in the spring for a month or two. Before that happens I feel like I need to make a concerted effort to draw more from observation so I am equipped to make the most of the trip. Hopefully I'll be able to bring myself to produce and post some figure drawings soon.

Drawn at The Royal Winter Fair on November 12. Perhaps I'll post other drawings soon.

Maybe not though.

Take that!

Monsters!

I spent most of the summer working on the preliminary stages of a short animated film. I sat down with the producer who hired me and hammered out a story based on his extensive notes. I then went to work on the conceptual art and story boards. Once those were approved I created a two minute trailer which will be used to raise funds for production.

The entire project was assembled and animated in After Effects. Each painting was done with ink and watercolour and scanned as a separate layer. This approach made for some challenges in story boarding. Because the characters are treated as cut-out puppets they are very limited in their motion. Despite the limitations I think the style I chose goes well with the story. It is a fable, and will be told with what are essentially moving illustrations.

The style of the art developed throughout, and still has a way to go before it is ready for production, but in all I am really happy with how things have come out. Below are some stills from the trailer and some board panels.

More artwork from the project can be found here:
http://goutwort.ca/ljh_post_trailer/concepts.html

I'm back to working as a stop motion animator.

There is one aspect of the job that is both very frustrating, but also very nice: all the time spent sitting around waiting for lighting, set changes, approval from directors, etc. While such delays end up eating into my quota I do end up getting a lot of drawing done.

I've been doodling like mad!

I am still pretty busy working from home and I have not taken much time to draw for myself. Hopefully once I begin the stop-motion contract in september I will be more incline to do some personal work.

Pretty much the only thing I have felt like taking the time to draw is birds. Sometimes I just don't want to draw things with arms.


Ink and pencil.



Pencil.



Ink and pencil.



Pencil, ink, and gouache.



Ink.


My email has been down. I can be reached at my auxiliary address: elfpod at planet-save dot com.

Things have been rather busy the past while. Not much chance to do drawings on my own time. But life is settling down to a more normal routine. Here are some drawings I did on the TTC, and another I drew because I have wanted to draw a shark for ages.

Some rough designs for a small illustration project I am taking on. I should have some final artwork to post soon.

Creepy Clarence

A snail and a ball point pen.