Must... Keep... Posting...

Going for the "American Gangster" poster's cut-off-face award...

I need to stay on the ball with producing work and uploading. My current job search is occupying quite a bit of time, and when I spend time with one thing, I regret not spending it on another. Not a very helpful attitude to have, so I'm going to do a bit better with scheduling and allocating my time from now on.

This is just a quickie little Corel Painter doodle to get back into the swing of things. I haven't done a whole lot of work on things like page layout and typography, type / logo design. I'd like to develop those skills quite a bit as I go on. I'm not even sure if the type ideas in this little doodle are interesting at all, but the ball must get rolling somewhere.

Why not here?

A bit of Leinster Rugby Socialist Realism

Looking to pass to someone...
... Anyone?
...
... Anyone??

This weekend I've got tickets to see Leinster Rugby face Toulouse in the Heineken Cup semi-final in Dublin. To mark the occasion, a quick spot o' Socialist-Realism inspired Leinster propaganda. This time it's Leinster's immensely talented Isa Nacewa in an image constructed using the ol' stalwart technique of Divine Proportions. The one thing I'm perhaps not thrilled with is that with all my enthusiasm for lighting (I tried to keep the color scheme to Leinster's colors of blue, white, and gold) I think the detail of the translucent roof structure gets a bit lost in it.

More practice images.

Here comes trouble...

Just another practice image from Land of Winter, same general setting as some of the other images — a rain-swept village that's the site of a brutal bloodbath. 

This week marked the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. For a country that has not had a peaceful history, it's arresting to think that its most devastating, bloodthirsty conflict was against itself. It was the first industrialized war, with mass produced rifled bullets able to fire a straight shot, but strategies that relied upon bunching men together in easily targeted groups. 

It's also intriguing to note the euphemisms that are still used when referring to the war's motivations. The argument that it wasn't slavery that motivated the conflict, but "states' rights" is somewhat misleading, as the only "right" that was under threat was the right to own and exploit human beings.

The Civil War also has the onerous distinction of containing the single bloodiest day in American history — the Battle of Antietam, in which 23,000 men were killed. From 6:00am to 9:00am, one man was killed every second.

"When we came to that beautiful cornfield... That was when the trouble began... Oh but the bullets did fly. I didn't see them, but I saw their effects. Men were falling all around us. Our bugler was standing near me when a cannonball struck him in the head and cut it from his shoulders. I think I got some of the blood and brains in my face... Brave men on both sides are falling, to rise no more. Thousands of them."
J. Polk Racine, on the Battle of Antietam

More "Land of Winter" doodles.

Can't make an omelette without...
Getting doused in an arterial spray.
One of the lessons I've learned from Samurai films.

Batter Up!

Just a couple of quick little Painter XI doodles relating to "Land of Winter". The former being a little bit on the psychotic side, I know.

Land of Winter concept art, and Improving my Posting Habits

I seem to only update this blog annually. That is probably a mistake. I will try to be more diligent about posting new material as I make it. These days have been split between endeavoring to find a job, script-writing, and creating concept art for the script I'm writing.

The current plan is to turn the script into a graphic novel, or a similar format, upon its completion. When working alone, as I am, animation is such a labor-intensive process that it rarely makes sense for the sorts of projects I have cooking up. My main interests tend to lie in narrative. Ideally I like to convey that narrative visually, but I also immensely enjoy dialogue, and occasional forays into conceits that cannot be expressed without a bit of dialogue. I have nothing but absolute respect for the John Lasseters of this world who can convey sophisticated emotional experiences, often in very brief runtimes.

It's a skill I need to improve, it certainly isn't easy. Like the quote that's usually attributed to Blaise Pascal goes, "I apologize for writing such a long letter, I did not have time to write a short one."

Anyhow, with all that said, I may as well explain the images at the top of this post. They're from the script I'm working on, as I attempt to establish a tone and aesthetic. The former is approaching the intended look of the bulk of the piece, with the middle approaching the intended look of a recurring sequence of traumatic flashbacks for the protagonist. The last one is the intended aesthetic for the third act clash, borrowing liberally from the climax of Seven Samurai, if I'm going to borrow, I may as well borrow from the best. These were all done in Corel Painter XI. Usually I work from a sketchbook, scan the drawing, then paint, but in these cases I decided to try my hand working digitally from scratch. For all you lose in immediacy using a tablet instead of paper, you gain a lot in flexibility after the sketch is done.

And finally, just because Ireland sensationally clobbered England in the closing round of the Rugby Six Nations, a quickie little sketch from the week before that turned out to be somewhat prophetic.

Ireland finally coming into form in the 6 Nations Rugby, as imagined a week earlier

New Life Drawings

I haven't updated this blog very often. One of the reasons, of course, being that I haven't been tremendously active, animation-wise. Currently I'm studying for a masters degree in Film Theory & History, but to keep my hand in the visual arts game I've been keeping up with life drawing sessions. I thought I would post some of the results of that now.

They are variously: Gel pens, felt pens, Japanese brush-pens, or pencil.

Showreel

My Showreel:

"Laowai" more or less finished

So the academic year is wrapping up, and so is production on my graduate film. Here are some screenshots from finished scenes:

4th Year Graduate Film

I've just (more or less) finished pre-production on my 4th year graduate film, ready to jump into full-blown production. I'll wait until it's finished before relating any specific story details, but the overall gist of it is that it's an espionage drama set in Shanghai, and involves Numbers Stations.

Here are a few of the pre production images...