It’s just around the corner: another week up on Onaway Island with the Brigade for their Leadership Training Conference (LTC)! 🌲✨
Being early risers ourselves, the hubby and I often help lead the “early bird” activities for the LTC campers and leadership. As a little incentive to join in the fun every morning, I created a few water bottle stickers for them to take home at the end of the week, which now serves as the artwork for this animation project!
This Blender project actually went remarkably smoothly, giving me some much-welcome momentum and enthusiasm to dig back into some other projects that had me a little more stumped. Most of the work for this project was done on the front end, making sure all the artwork was created in a way that would be simple to animate, while maintaining that fun hand-drawn, cartoony look. 🐦🖌️
There were, of course, some challenges. For this project, I decided to use instances instead of placing scenes in the video sequencer in order to allow a bit more interaction between the various scene elements like the birdies. While it may have simply been the version of Blender I was using, making updates to the instances was a challenge—they were not live or automatically updating. I had to basically replace the instance manually whenever I made any changes to the artwork! 😅
The flat, 2D-style artwork I was going for served as yet another, though fortunately simple challenge. I remembered I was actually working in a 3D space and could avoid the front/back sorting issues of the art by simply adding a bit of dimension to certain elements with extrusions on the curve shapes. 🧱📐
Every project really is a new learning opportunity, which is why I love sticking with open-source software like Blender (and it’s free!). I’m hooked on the problem-solving, and as I get more comfortable with the toolkit, the more “Follow the Fun” energy I can bring to the creativity.
Creating animations for my favorite organizations drives so much of my motivation, and hopefully, it can lead to some new collaborative opportunities!
💬 Let’s talk shop: What are you currently animating in Blender, or are you hoping to learn Grease Pencil? Let’s swap notes in the comments!
☕ Support my "Student of Life" adventures: ko-fi.com/lindseyabendschein
Continuing to play as a student of life, the universe, and everything with a new drawing experiment: Prompt-fire Comics. 🔥🖌️
The idea is to merge my figure and gesture studies with quick-fire storytelling to build the speed and efficiency I’ll need for more complex hand-drawn animation (and comic creation!) The rules are simple: 3–4 panels, a random prompt, and a timer set for 10–15 minutes.
As per most of my creative expeditions, while the idea is simple, the execution was less straight-forward.
The first comic, "The Serene Swimmer," actually came pretty easily to me and fit nicely within that 10-minute window. The second piece was definitely more challenging as I tried to figure out the story behind this "Odd-Couple" without exploring the more obvious routes, which of course led to a bit of overthinking the problem, spending closer to 17 minutes on the prompt.
I’m not entirely sure how successful I was with either speed or storytelling, but that’s exactly what this type of practice is for! It’s also fun to be revisiting a bit of my Improv (Comedy) experience with more quick-thinking, off-the-cuff style storytelling—something I haven't played with enough in recent years.
Ultimately, I'm always looking for ways to both improve my art, as well as increase my speed/efficiency. It’s a work in progress, and while the growing pains are real, I’m sticking to my mantra to simply Follow the fun! (and hopefully the speed will follow!) ⏳✨
💬 Which character design styles are you currently loving? Let’s talk shop in the comments!
☕ Support my "student of life" adventures: ko-fi.com/lindseyabendschein
The quest for creative collaboration continues! 🍳✨
This year has been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve been helping Islands of Brilliance (IOB) develop their first Artist In Residency (AIR) program, and in the process, I've been diving into their Digital Academy series—including the aptly named Collab Quest.
As a mentor for IOB for several years, I’ve always found that I gain so much from every interaction (hopefully as much as I give!). What I find especially inspiring about these workshops is that they truly feel like creative sprints or design intensives. The growth and creativity of every participant is incredible to see, and I’m finding my own work growing in new ways, too.
The Quest: Design a unique mascot character for Toast’s fun and funky brunch atmosphere. 🥞🖌️
The Process: (Re)visiting the core principles of character design while being fueled by the raw creativity of the IOB community. Having visited Toast in the past, I knew this would be the perfect project to help in my continued process of (re)building a portfolio with more character design work.
While I feel creatively inspired by every workshop with IOB, there was something about this specific project that felt especially freeing. It allowed me to fully "Follow the Fun" and embrace the sandbox of exploration.
I’m so incredibly grateful for the IOB community and the welcome I feel in every interaction. I can’t wait to keep building out this AIR program and see what else we can create together in the Eagleknit space!
💬 Let's talk shop: Which character design styles are you currently loving? I'm always looking for new inspiration!
Another post-sabbatical project! I’m revisiting some of my #MerMay illustrations, this time focusing on digital painting. 🧜♀️🎨
My natural tendency is to live in the vector world. I love being able to finely tune every single line to the Nth degree—even down to individual stroke widths. Way back when I was first introduced to graphic design software, I immediately fell in love with Adobe Illustrator. I love the clean look, smooth lines, and sharp geometric shapes vector art produces, and most importantly, the ability to scale and rework a piece while maintaining fidelity. ✨
As I continue to stretch outside the Adobe sphere, I thought this was a good opportunity to stay entirely inside #Krita, taking this project from sketch to final paint. While Krita certainly has similarities to Photoshop, there is definitely a learning curve between (re)learning key commands, brush options, and customizations, and even understanding how the layers blend and interact.
Much like with Blender, there is a lot to learn, but I’m hoping as I continue to explore digital painting, these skills will transfer over to my 3D work with creating more of my own custom textures and materials. 🛠️
This whole creative journey has really been an exercise in exploration—trying to find my own path between learning the nuances of the software and discovering a workflow that actually makes sense for the type of work I truly enjoy creating and want to pursue. I’ve spent the better part of my life as a student of life, the universe, and everything, and right now, that means finding where art meets leadership and youth development.
I’m especially looking to connect with like-minded collaborators—fellow explorers navigating the jump from Adobe to open-source, or those working in the youth development and education space. If you're building something in that same sector, let’s exchange some learning headaches!
It’s been so satisfying to feel the momentum finally picking up. I honestly feel like I’m on the cusp of breaking through to that next phase of the journey. There is a lot of excitement ahead, and I’m looking forward to continuing to share the experience (and the inevitable "growing pains") with you all! 🚀
💬 Shop Experiment: I'd love your input! Head over to my Instagram post and tell me which illustrations you’d like to see on specific products and apparel.
Playing in Blender some more with this tribute to my favorite coffee in the city, Stone Creek Coffee! ☕️🏙️
The coffee scene in Milwaukee has been growing a lot in recent years, which is pretty perfect for me and the hubby. We love taking walks or bike rides out to all the various coffee shops to reconnect over a cup of coffee. While we’ll sometimes indulge in a latte or seasonal drink, we typically opt for a decaf paired with the more super-charged Nitro cold brew—and for me, Stone Creek’s Jet Black is my favorite in the city! 🥯
This animation served as another Blender intensive, this time focusing on collections and arrays, and continuing to experiment with the visibility options of the different elements. Based on some things I had read, it seemed as though I had been under-utilizing collections, and so I wanted to see how they might come in handy for what I was hoping was another relatively simple animation.
As per most of my Blender experiences, things were not nearly as straightforward as I was anticipating. While headaches ensued, there were successes and lots learned, which is the ultimate goal. I’ve been enjoying this simple animation approach of focusing on one or two new elements to experiment with in Blender (and working entirely outside the Adobe suite!). 🛠️🎨
The most challenging part for me is often keeping things simple, and these very short, basic animations have been excellent sandboxes for my Blender education, as well as helping me bring new life to various projects I’ve had in development. It’s been fun overall, and I’m looking forward to more to come!
📢 Shop Experiment: I'd love your input! Head over to my Instagram post and tell me which illustrations you'd like to see on specific products and apparel.
☕ Support the Journey: ko-fi.com/lindseyabendschein
Continuing my motion design journey in Blender with this project dedicated to the Boys and Girls Brigade and their Leadership Training Conference (LTC) camp! ⛺️✨ I have the absolute joy of volunteering for a week up on Onaway Island every summer, and this piece was a fun way to bridge the seasons.
In the animation, you'll see our winter snowman (paddle-arms and all!) melt away into the bright, sunny waters of Waupaca’s Chain ‘O Lakes, revealing the LTC letters. It’s a bit of a visual metaphor for the transformation that happens up there every summer. 🛶☀️
This was definitely a more ambitious project than I initially anticipated. Incorporating 3D elements and camera movements presented quite a few "learning opportunities" (to put it mildly!) as I continue to navigate the complexities of Blender.
My goal is to transition the motion graphics and animation work I’ve traditionally done in After Effects and Adobe Animate over to Blender, working entirely outside the Adobe suite. 🛠️
As free software, Blender is incredibly accessible, but it comes with an exceptionally steep learning curve. It’s not always intuitive—especially coming from outside the 3D modeling world—and I certainly have a litany of gripes and frustrations as I go! However, I’m truly enjoying the challenge and seeing the results. Blender definitely keeps me questioning and developing along this creative journey. 🎨
The Brigade has played such a key role in my life. For many years now, the hubby and I have volunteered with the LTC camp, and we’ll be back up there again this June! I always feel like I’m growing alongside the amazing leadership and students who attend. It’s a transformative time for everyone involved, and I highly recommend checking it out. 🌲⛰️
🔗 Registration for LTC Camp: bgbrigade.com/camp-onaway
📢 Shop Experiment: Don't forget to check out my previous post and let me know what products or apparel you’d like to see in my new shop: https://www.instagram.com/p/DTz9lOKjXOr/
Playing with some #BobsBurgers fanart to get back into the swing of things after a mini-sabbatical in Japan. 🎨✈️
Every couple of years, the hubby and I take a 6-week "mini-sabbatical" (heavily inspired by Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding). This year was a return to Japan! It was a total reset—so much so that unfortunately I had found my drawing skills starting to atrophy...
While a bit discouraging, it was the perfect excuse to dive back into illustration. I’m leaning into a Louise/Logan "enemies-to-friends" trope. My headcanon: An older Louise takes over the burger mantle and franchises out, with Logan handling the quality control. 🍔
The Process & The "Adobe Thumb" 🛠️
As with most of my projects, I started sketching in Krita, and brought it into Affinity for the finishing vector work. I needed the practice with both the drawing and software, especially since I don’t have the same decades of experience with this software as I do with Adobe.
Honestly, I really enjoy being out from under the "Adobe thumb." If you’re not an Adobe power user, the Affinity suite is a wonderful alternative for vector work and page layout. Krita, on the other hand, has been a powerhouse for digital painting, sketching, and light hand-drawn, frame-by-frame animation. Between those and Blender for motion graphics, I’m loving building my own custom creative suite!
📢 Shop Experiment: Remember to comment on my shop experiment and tell me which of my illustrations you'd like to see on specific types of products and apparel: Link to Post
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with my career over the last several years, exploring all different types of work/projects, in hopes of discovering what direction to head towards next, which currently seems to be dipping a toe into the world of print-on-demand.
I’ve played in a variety of different spaces including storyboarding, 2D game art, and animation, though the one area that I tend to keep returning to is character work and illustration. I love the figure and the expressiveness of gestures and poses, and how every element of a character can tell their story. Here again I wasn’t sure whether to take these interests and apply them towards character design specifically, more focused animation, or things like comic creation and broader storytelling.
I have so many different character and design ideas, and thought it might be time to finally start up a print-on-demand shop. It’s been a consideration of mine in the past, yet always held back because I didn’t feel as though I had a strong enough brand. I haven’t done much in the way of content creation, YET (at least not consistently), and I don’t have any IPs that I’m associated with, so I wasn’t entirely sure what interest there would really be for my work. While I’m certainly prepared for this to continue to be the case, I wanted to at least give it a try and see if there might not be some market waiting out there after all.
Before I get too far along with creating ALL the products, I wanted to get some input from the internets and see what more specifically might be of interest. Whether it’s general feedback on the types of clothing or accessories people are most likely to buy, or the designs themselves, I’m very curious to know what demand is out there, so as they say, comment your comments in the comments! :)
And if you like what what you see and are feeling generous (while also encouraging the creation of this shop!), support me with a Kofi:
As we start the new year and think about resolutions and creating new goals, I was reflecting on some of my own goals for the previous year, which was to be a FINISHER! The focus: getting my own on-going projects done and finally over the finish line. While I tend to be really good at the whole starting of projects, it’s the finishing, and more importantly determining what that looks like, that often causes the stumbles.
The last year was definitely a year for all of us. Personally there were a number of obstacles to overcome when it came to my self-care and needing to recover from a series of injuries that seemed to dominate that first half, and through the challenges, I was eventually able to gather enough momentum to make some good finishing progress!
This project will definitely be familiar. I’ve revisited this artwork several times as it continues to serve as an excellent learning project. What started as a QuarkXpress poster design project for a graphics course way back in the day, has continued to evolve and take on various forms.
I’ve had so many different ideas for the animated version of this project, and while this is a bit simpler than others, I’m actually quite happy with the results. Ultimately this project was meant to help me learn more of the basics of Blender. The aim was to keep the animation simple, sticking with the 2D space and seeing how I might be able to more efficiently use both the camera and modifiers for the bulk of the animation. I was also able to continue playing with the grease pencil tool for the animation of the flamingo itself.
The biggest obstacle was the timing, or retiming of the animation. I hadn’t originally thought about timing it to any specific music, focusing more on the visuals. Thinking about it more, I really couldn’t have a design so heavily influenced by a piece of music and not actually use it, and so after having so much keyframed already, I got to learn more about Blender’s timeline interface(s). There is so much to learn in Blender, and while it has been quite overwhelming at times, I’ve been enjoying keeping things simple and really digging into some individual aspects of the software.
Here’s to kicking off the new year with the continued goal of being a starter AND finisher!
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If you like what what you see and are feeling generous, support me with a Kofi:
I jumped headfirst into the world of indie game development, starting with a volunteer-run organization focused on creating fun, free-to-play games: P1 (Player First).
I've always wanted to participate in a game jam, and P1 seemed like the perfect opportunity. The group was highly organized, fostering an engaged community and a fast-paced, sprint-style development schedule. It was an intense experience, balancing daily meetings with organizers and development teams with actually completing game art. It was a lot to juggle, especially as a volunteer contributor.
My time with P1 was brief, as I joined towards the end of their last sprint. Organization changes had been brewing, and while there's not currently any official oversight with the group, the strong community they built may ensure its future as a hub for collaborative indie game development. I'm hopeful the former P1 will continue to thrive.
Fortunately, before P1 dissolved, I was able to join Heavenly Realm Studios as a 2D artist! This has been an incredible experience, full of challenges and opportunities to develop both my personal and professional goals, including my big objective for this year: FINISH. PROJECTS!!
Right now, my main objective is to restore some work-life balance. This will allow me to revisit some of my own passion projects. I'm determined to complete my Mermay postcard series before this year's Mermay challenge begins. I also want to continue developing my animation projects and circle back to other ideas that got sidelined in the new year shuffle.
Looking forward to sharing more, especially as things continue to progress with Heavenly Realm Studios game!
While I don't like to think that I partake in the whole "New Years resolution" type stuffs, I do often find myself building on that fresh start momentum and start setting new goals at the beginning of the year. My objectives for the coming year are simple: be a finisher! I've discovered I'm really great at starting my own projects, now it's time to start seeing these projects through to the finish line!
Revisiting this little looping animation has turned into an ongoing project mostly due to the various hurdles that come with learning new software. While there are still many things to be learning, and trouble-shooting with Blender, the experience I've gained this last year has really renewed my excitement around exploring the software, making this the perfect project first to reach the finish line.
Keeping each project on my (ever expanding) list a higher priority will certainly be challenging among the other client work, though I'm looking forward to seeing them through to their final stages, and how my skill set continues to grow and develop. Balance will be key, as this type of work keeps me growing and the creativity flowing!
Bit of a throwback today as we close out another year in anticipation of once again starting fresh with the new, I thought I'd share a little holiday themed illustration from way back in 2020 (right).
It's been quite the journey for myself. Over these past several years I've been trying to figure out the next steps, trying to visualize where I'd ultimately like to see my life and career move into next, and while I know I've made some progress, I really don't spend enough time celebrating the wins. If I were one to be making New Years resolutions, that would definitely be top of the list, aiming to be a bit gentler with myself, a little kinder, and a lot more loving overall. Let's all take a moment to celebrate all that was amazing about 2024, and carry that momentum into 2025, celebrating as much as possible and truly enjoying this journey of life.
This little looping animation was something I created using the software of the Adobe Suite: After Effects, and Animate. Now that I'm out from under the Adobe thumb, I thought this could be a fun and simple project to recreate using Blender. As I really should come to expect now with Blender, what appears simple is often anything but...
There truly is always something to be learning in Blender. Even when I think I have a pretty good idea as to how to use a tool, primitive, or simply executing a technique, there is always some nuance that has yet to be discovered. I continue to persist though, and am especially excited to be doing more character work in Blender. Even the simple Snoopy character has been fun playing with, and I'll be curious to see how the rigging and animation part of the project progress.
I have other character modeling (and rigging) projects in mind, and you can find out more and vote on which projects are most interesting to you as donor incentives or shop items on my Ko-Fi page.
Recently I started work with a new collaborator on another game project, this time working on character design. Designing original characters has been something I've been wanting to get into for a while, and while I have enjoyed working on my own projects, I really appreciate this opportunity to work with someone in hopes of bringing their creative vision to life.
The game idea is in early development stages, though there are more solid concepts when it comes to visual direction. Based on some of the elements provided by the developer, I am in the process of creating a few different styles for this magical girl character, starting with some poses and general costuming before re-visualizing in the isometric view of the game.
Ideally, my aim is to get one of these characters into Blender and experiment with some 3D pixel art, eventually moving into rigging for animation.
Always on the look out for new projects, if you'd like to collaborate one something artsy drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!
If you like what I do and want to support, visit me on Ko-Fi as well!
First animation I created for a client using Blender, and it was an experience! Definitely a project I'd like to revisit at some point as I had some very different ideas that I was hoping would be relatively simple to execute, though I seemed to have underestimate just how complicated, and frustrating, Blender can be. Fortunately, I was saved with this tutorial by Blender Made Easy, as well as this amazingly free, online video editor, Pikimov (mostly for help getting audio and lightning effects to sync more cleanly).
This was the first of a series of animation projects for First Stage, and really helped me to finally commit to some animation software, something I've been internally debating about for far too long. Every time I've tried to get into Blender, it's felt so overwhelming and daunting, and while the deadlines were stressful, they did help me to laser focus my learning. Grateful for the opportunities, and looking forward to digging into Blender with more projects!
Recently, I've been continuing my journey with 3D and Blender. Just as I had finally cut the Adobe cord, I was commissioned for some animation work, which I was happy to take, it simply plunged me straight into my own personal deep dive with Blender. It was a fun, and often hair pullingly frustrating experience, though I learned a lot, so much so that I got more and more excited about doing more work in Blender.
This project is one that I've had on the way back burner for quite some time. I wanted to take this illustration I did many moons ago, and turn it into a short, looping animation. I had various ideas, especially as it related to the various Adobe options at the time, and with more 3D options the concept is beginning to solidify. First things first, get the character modeled and rigged. While these are not small tasks, I'm looking forward to seeing this character come to life in a new way!
More gesture drawing today, along with circling back to some concept art for another project that's been a bit back-burnered for me, a 2D platformer game. With an interested party on the development side, it's time for me to start digging into this project a little more deeply so we can start moving ahead with it together. These are some rough ideas for the Peter Pan and Tinkerbell characters. Perhaps another reread of the original work might be in order to help further the world building, along with creating some fun references/easter eggs for fans of the story.
