#long-john-ginger

[chazrizart-blog]

Hopes and Fears

i should’ve done this a while ago but I didn’t for many reasons some are of my own doing, some not, now enough excuses lets just get this over with.

Hopes: What do you wish to achieve this year after graduation?

I want to achieve a greater understanding of the way characters are designed and how to present them to an exacting standard. I believe that my work is quite lacking in a professional quality to it which is obviously not good. I aim to improve the way I think about presenting my characters and to find a balance between ease of creation and the way it looks when finished.

I also want to get to a point where I don’t look at 90% of my work and detest it. I want to be able to produce something that looks good and I can be proud of later on. Especially when I look back in 5 years at the work I produced in Uni, I don’t want to cringe in the same way I do when I look at the things I made at GCSE [all of which has been banished to the loft, never to be seen again.]

I would also like to get better at corresponding with other people in my field, I get nervous when I have to email other people or when I ask people questions on here, I need to find a way to alleviate this anxiety which might be hard as I have no idea where to start with it. I also want to try and further get my work out there and find others who are interested in what I want to do, there are loads of people out there, I’m just a ‘fraidy-cat’ I need to buck my confidence up.

Fears: What’s worrying you about this year, graduation and beyond?

Other than the logical fears of dying and the unknown I’m also scared that I might not graduate with a mark high enough to get onto the masters course I want to try and get on, I like the research side of my course and it’s something I want to continue further, I’m concerned that my practical work will bring me down because it’s not good enough.

Not having a solid plan of how I should go about making my work. That sounds confusing so I’ll explain. After graduating this will be my first time out of education and I’ll have more time than I know what to do with for the first time since I was about 4, what scares me is that my already broken, non-existent and lacklustre work schedule will fade away and get worse. 

I’m also scared that there will be no one out there who will be remotely interested in what I make, be it artwork or what I write about when I make essays and things like that. But this might just be the lack of confidence I’ve got in myself talking, i’m not sure.

Opportunities: Which circumstances, events and projects have good potential for you this year?

I hope this last and final project will have the potential for me to attain a mark above the already slacking ones i’ve attained so far, I’ve got a plan of action that I’m going to try to stick to and hopefully get a mark I can be proud of.

The consideration of setting up an online shop to present my work in a different context and to earn a little extra money so that I have an ‘emergency’ fund and can justify certain essential purchases to myself. 

[chazrizart-blog]

A Moment of Your Time

I’d just like to take this opportunity to type up some of the comments those in my group said about my work after the final crit of the year. 

>My colours are “awesome” and i’m in my element with my characters and my idea to make a zine is a good one and the fact that I made my own typeface was awesome too. For the future I need to look to making my work into something that’s nicely printed as if it were a zine people would purchase it.

>Again my use of colour was good. The word used was “lovely’ and my narrative and storytelling is good also. I should look into doing a concept art book in the future which I really like the idea of it’ll allow me to explore character designing more and it’ll act as like a catalogue for potential clients to pick and choose from.

>My character designs are done well and have improved greatly and the amount of humour I put into the story is enjoyable. I shouldn’t stress too much on the story as my characters help to stand alone on their own. This is nice to hear as it helps me to solidify my decision to make characters based off other existing narratives as it’ll take the pressure off me thinking up characters and narratives at the same time. Sometimes it has to be one or the other. I look forward to the future [and last project AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! D:] where I can explore this option more hopefully and create a cold portfolio full of designs that are affective and dynamic that also help to stand on their own.

>The planning that goes into the characters is good and all the storyboards and details help to make the story more stable and believable and help to flesh the characters out better and make them seem more dynamic and believable and engaging. I should work with colour more in the future, something i’ve been afraid of doing since I don’t believe I can colour well. The fact people have commented on my use of colour is quite a surprise as I didn’t think that my use of colour was that good and effective. My dynamic scenes are a winner and I should do more of them in the future, I did quite enjoy using a doodle like nature to plan out and space out my comic pages to make the flow a little different as opposed to using conventional panels. Eric should also take a further role as the request for a “super cute animal creature that helps them” was requested, so if I should decide to make more scenes with Trurl (purple hair) and Klapaucius (blue hair) then Eric the Majestic Frog needs to make more of an appearance. 

I completely agree with all the statements and feedback I was given it was nice to get an eyeopener as to what other people thought of what I had produced as it’s hard to find problems and what’s good and what’s bad about your work when it’s all you’ve stared at for the past three months. The comments I have received have given me much to think about for the future and I think have helped to sway the decision of what I want to focus on it the future, designing characters from existing narratives and occasionally making my own if the situation, time, need and want for my input are required.

Thanks for reading, please continue on with your day/night/evening. 

[chazrizart-blog]

Book Inspiration

So this project started in the summer where we had a choice of 17 themes to pic from that would inform our practise for the next term we were expected to create a sketchbook that would help us to make work based on what we picked and researched. 

I picked The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem a book which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and making work for, so much so that I bought a few of his other books for Christmas [tis the season after-all] I enjoyed the adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius and the quality of Lem’s writing so much. 

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the diversity of the adventures or ‘Sally’s’ that the pair went on, be it closer to home when Trurl created a robot that can make things only beginning with the letter ‘n’ or when they were captured by the pirate Pugg, the Pirate with a pHD [something I am striving to become!] The stories were so witty and enamoured me so much that I knew I had to try and make some of my own, which is where the idea of a prequel come from, since i’d already drawn the characters out before I realised the main characters were both androids themselves, [I felt really silly but since I didn’t want to waste my designs, I was too lazy to draw them again. a prequel was the only logical option.] But the idea that the pair had had adventures previously made me smile since the both of them were so well accustomed to the nuances of the other, another statement to the quality of Lem’s writing that he makes two androids seem human, that they had to have learned what each other was like by spending time together for so long, it made me wonder what kind of ridiculous adventures could they have been through before they went on to have the adventures that Lem wrote about. 

Mine is in no way as philosophical or as deep or as scientific as Lem’s was [Trurl’s ship is in the shape of a Basking Shark for god sake! How ridiculous!] but it’s not supposed to be, the aim of my prequel is to make people smile and to bring the same joy that the stories brought me as I was reading them, without having to worry about all the philosophical and scientific bits that were a bit hard to understand. I hope to achieve the same mix of weird wonderment that Lem had within his own work and what makes The Cyberiad so wonderful and and delightful book to read and enjoy.

[If you’ve not read The Cyberiad find a way to do so it’s such a good book!]

[aeridanus]

Hi I love your work its spectacular I'm sat here with a huge grin because it's so pretty, I was wondering how you got your first concept art job? And do you have any tips for someone wanting to start out in that type of design?

Hello! Sorry for the delay, your message wasn’t shown in my inbox at first. Thank you for the compliments, it makes me happy to hear that you like my work. :) The detailed reply is under the cut.

Back in 2008, I was a student and applying for what I thought was a bit of freelance work. I was nervous enough to not realize that they looked for an intern with the possibility of transfer into a permanent position. In the end, they chose me, and I had to turn down the offer since I wanted to finish university first. Their reaction was impressive; they said that I should call as soon as I’m ready for the internship.

Fast forward to 2010, I had finished university and, without high hopes, called them. To my surprise, they remembered me and I was a happy camper intern only a few months later. Near the end of the internship, I was offered a permanent position and this is where I still am. Luck was on my side back then and I’m still thankful for it. Sometimes, I complain, but all in all, I’m able to live a life that makes me happy.

I talked about getting a foot in the industry earlier, you can find the post here: http://aeridanus.tumblr.com/post/142342364838/birbobirbums-badcrispy-aeridanus

[peegpin]

Can I ask which of your characters is your favourite to draw? I love your work its so delightfully eerie

I’m not sure//

its kind of a grab bag when I draw them tbh

and thank you !! ; v ;

[halleyjevelandart]

How many OC's do you have? What would you like to use them for in the future? They're too cool not to use for something

Aw man, that means a lot! Thank you!

I have a ton of OC’s and that includes random designs that I can potentially turn into real characters, it’s just a matter of fleshing things out. 

The thing is that they all have their respective universes and stories. Sometimes if I think they aren’t that great or need work I’ll recycle them and put them into a different or new story/universe. 

I have a lot of projects because of this. That’s on purpose and it’s mainly because I want to have a library of things I could potentially pitch or put on Kickstarter.

I also infrequently redesign them from time to time, as I want to refine them as much as possible!

I’m actually thinking about making a long master post where I give out the details on as many as I can, so thank you for your interest!

[chazrizart-blog]

Discussion Forum 2-IT’S ALIIIIIIIVE!!!

Ahh it’s that time again, another discussion forum another blog post. This time it’s about illustrations that move like gifs and such (with a hard g i’m not a heathen). 

It was established early on that it’s a split subject in that it has both good and bad points. Some people think that it should be able to work on it’s own without the need to move, that’s just a bit of an added flair, however the movement of illustrations it very current (it’s soooooo in right now.) It shows the resourcefulness of illustrators in that they’re taking initiatives finding new possibilities in displaying their work and helps them to explore new stylistic opportunities.

Laurence Zeegan says that things would change, he gives the example of giving a toddler an ipad although it’s good that they’re learning relevant technological skills, they’d be alright without it we were (whoo 90′s kids!!) or at least until they’re old enough to know that they shouldn’t suck the corners to death like and old person who’s lost their dentures and it determined to finish their Werther’s Original. 

This also lead onto a discussion relating to the Death of Print, where previous publications all move online as the demand for printed copies has declined as the masses are reading everything on a but of metal that tries too hard to resemble a book. It even opens up a world of ebooks and audiobooks with options to have all the reading done for you by a celebrity you’ve never heard of except for that one movie you fell asleep watching. But this content wouldn’t be in demand as much if the internet hadn’t become so accessible and made the demand for content quicker meaning we must adapt to these increasing changes and do it quickly because things are changing at a breakneck speed.

HOWEVER!! don’t discount books just yet, technology is advancing so quickly it’s fleeting, whereas a book is more permanent as there is longevity in physical work it also allows people to communicate with what is produced, bet your ipad can’t think up your ideas for you eh? 

Stephanie Black’s Rear View Mirror implies that there are profiles on devices but an audience in real life, like people are still going out to galleries as opposed to just Googleing what’s in them. However there could be said to be a better control over work dictating who sees what and when. Moving images are just another format to bring your work to life. 

But would we get compared to those who have studied motion design instead of illustration? The short answer is, not really. There’s an entirely different set of skills involved and sometimes it takes away the imagination involved in the image, sometimes it’s better that an image doesn’t move even when it has the possibility of doing so.

But as Illustrators is it important for us to learn how to make stuff move? Again short answers, Yes it is. We need to keep up with the times in order to stay current and so that we can make money doing what we devoted the majority of our lives doing. It also helps us to appreciate other peoples skills and work and respect the time and effort that it takes to make it, plus it opens more doors and who doesn’t like an open door? One that leads to opportunities not into someones house. That’s breaking and entering and is very illegal. 

What else might animation allow? Again more doors are opened that allow you to access things that you like. It’s also a gateway into doing something different and seeing alternative ways of seeing the way your work could look and help to reach a wider audience with the addition of sound! 

SO how do you think ‘illustrations’ online will be developed in the future? What will they be used for? It’s a wider way of getting yourself out there into the big scary world and making people interested in your work since you can’t alway carry a giant portfolio around with you it’s a bit tedious, well you can on your mobile phone or something since not everyone has an internet connection that supports 4G nower-days. Although people can’t see your personality though a screen making us lose social skills, which is bad. Another thing that’s bad is that it could lead to the desensitisation of children regarding some issues that would be relevant at the time. However it also allows other artist to collaborate on projects showing that they’re at least making an effort to stay relevant.  

So let the pretty pictures move I say! 

[chazrizart-blog]

Key Influences and Ideas

The main ideas I came up with originally are as follows:

Posters that move

A choose your own adventure style installation

A type of training material for children 

Of the three I chose the training material idea as it allowed me to play around with characters more and to go bananas with them and the way they work. Also I REALLY didn’t want to do a poster cause that’s a little boring and samey for my taste, plus almost everyone else did one and I wanted my idea to kinda be memorable. 

I started out looking at Kabuki masks, a style of Japanese theatre whereby the actors makeup shows what type of character they are and at what rank within the profession the actors are at within their career. I liked the idea of using a system of markings to show what kind of character my designs were, but I decided against going for a Kabuki style as it would be a little too confusing and a bit scary for kids. The only idea that stemmed from this was the idea that the participants would wear masks. 

So after revisiting the drawing board a few times and becoming very acquainted with it (we’re besties now) I realised that no matter what I did, the chance of offending someone was increasingly high and I’ve got a thing about accidentally offending people, I mean it’s fine if I know you and you’re alright with me doing that as a joke but if I don’t know you then I’ll feel horrible and go and sit in the corner and think about what i’ve done.

So when it came to designing characters I had to be a little creative. I looked at the Climax Inference panels from the Japanese murder mystery video-game Danganronpa (Translates as Bullet Confutation) (CONFUTE: To prove false) which uses sexless grey characters to demonstrate how a murder had taken place. I thought this was a good concept so I stuck with the idea of something genderless and sexless... and that was the furthest thing away from a human shape that I could get. So I picked Aliens! Who doesn’t like aliens!! Or get offended by aliens!

I also looked at Edward de Bono’s Six Hat Model which gave me the idea of using colour to symbolise emotions and ways of thinking, something the Model is designed to do. 

Children’s retro cartoons were also a big influence in the design process of the aliens since they were all weird in the 70′s and 80′s (Have you seen Gilbert? My goodness that’s the thing that 80′s Knightmare’s are made of. [Heh Knightmare that’s another 80′s reference] it’s horrifying). Also designing some form of visual metaphor that related to some of the synonyms of Terrorism and Extremism, which was easier said that done.