Shera and the Princesses of Power Fanart!

After being recommended for AGES to watch the new Shera reboot on netflix, I finally binged it and it was so darn good! Not least because there were so many super fun character designs in the show, increasingly so as the series progressed season by season. It's fun to see so many diverse female characters in a show! I couldn't help but do a wee bit of fanart, not least because the character of Huntara was basically a character I would have made myself! She looks like my oc Wigwig...but a lady! More to come :) As part of one of my new years goals, to produce a finished piece of art once a week. I have SO many to finish, I was to give it a boost! Not my only goal of course...but one to work on :)

Folktale Week

So as I didn't do Inktober this year, I decided to do Folktale Week - a great concept and a short challenge! I was very excited to do a set of seven paintings that followed a narrative for two characters I had created - Pan, and mother Nature. A few years ago I planned to do a set of art showing their growth together and falling in love. It was loosely based on the four seasons and how, every winter when they 'die' together they are reborn in Spring to meet and fall in love all over again. I did two out of those four illustrations some years ago, and intended to revisit them; 'Sleep' (the winter painting) actually sold at auction to raise money for charity! I still sell prints :) So Folktale Week seemed perfect to do it again! I was really pleased with the first four and in a great place to finish the last ones...but we were collecting our newest family member, my beautiful rescue pup Twig during this week. So...let's just say I didn't have time to finish the final paintings to their fullest! However, it's important to remind ourselves that art challenges are meant to be fun. They aren't meant to be a chore, and it doesn't matter if you finish them. It's the creativity, and taking part! Here are all seven in their final state - Birth, Ritual, Courtship, Solstice, Death, Harvest and Dance. Harvest was the one I sort of left as it was, half done and not perfect, but Dance regains itself a bit, with my dog asleep at my feet :)

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

I finished my Halloween short animation, just barely! I forgot how long it truly takes to color in frame by frame, definitely put me a day behind. I still want to add shadows too and tidy up here and there but over all I really enjoyed animating this little piece and am super pleased I got it done in time! Wishing you all a super safe and wonderful Halloween xxx

Happy Halloween!

Happy spook-tober everyone! It's been a busy time for me since wrappng up on JoJo and GranGran and I've been full pelt working on full days of my own projects; editing Tailbone (now with a new working title to be revealed!) and getting ready to reapply for agents again - continuing to rig Nyx for some sequences in Go Fish! and also developing animatics to music, telling short stories through action and pacing. Not only that but I've been painting a bunch, and we have been in super prep for a rescue dog we hope to welcome into our home really soon. It's been a long and nervous endeavour - I won't go into it much more than that but, we are hoping for good news to take on a young girl in the next week or so and give her the life she so richly deserves. I've not had my own dog before, only had family dogs, so it's a big thing and I'm both nervous and excited. I've made so many notes, spreadsheets, schedules and more! But it's up there with something I have always wanted to do one day. It's definitely a dream, so I suspect it makes sense for it to be a bit scary when it's coming together! Have some Halloweeny are too, I finally finished my piece 'The DollMaker' after having starting it literally years ago. It may take me a while to finish art but my golly I do finish it eventually! Stay spooky everyone! I've got Halloween Animation coming too!

Wrapping up on JoJo & GranGran

We wrapped up production on season one of JoJo and GranGran today at Aproductions. It's been an amazing project to be part of and I'm so proud of everything we have accomplished - it was also the first show I ever worked on in Toonboom, which I learned this year :) It means a lot to a great many people. I hope to work with the team again soon, they are a super talented bunch and I've made some amazing friends. I'm starting up with the preproduction team for another exciting show next week and can't wait to see where that takes me. It's always amazing to see how far we can go!

Happy Taurgust!

It seems like blogger is letting me post pics again, woo! Here's my pic for #Taurgust this year. I've started to record timelapses of my artwork and I want to set up a new youtube channel just for animatics and artwork. I think it'll be good for practise, and a lot of fun! I'm also preparing to set up a patreon. Why not? :)

New Designs and New Plans!

I'm finally figuring out what I need to do in order to get where I want to be. I've always wanted to make my own series but ultimately, my goal is always to tell stories - however I can, and since I graduated I've written two books which I am pursuing publication on. I've also enjoyed working on so many productions with great teams for television - I want to be in a situation where I can pitch my own shows, my own ideas too. I think now that I'm almost 30 I feel finally ready to do that! Especially as I have a better idea based on how I've seen some big inspirational figures of mine achieve this themselves in recent years. Starting work on my project 'Project Nyx' was a big step. I started that two years ago and learned very quickly that making a short film while working full time on a television project (and doing it hand drawn) is a big ask, too big for one person. I then put it on hold while I made the music video 'No Activity' for the band Karab, and it helped me focus to know I was working for a client. Again, I did this project while working full time on a television show. Now that I've returned to Nyx after doing a course in rigging, its still something of a struggle to get real traction on while working full time. That, along with editing my novel and working closely with my amazing editor, and writing a new book in the works, it's clear that you can't always find time for everything. And darn it I try. 2020 may have been a rollarcoaster of a year and I've achieved A LOT but it's always a fight for the attention on each project! So I have a plan - with saved funds aside, I'm going to put full time effort for a few months onto working daily on Nyx and making it the best I can. It's already undergone re-writes, redesigns and re-rigs but it's all helped to improve it. I want to achieve as much as I can with this project and share it, build up more of a reputation online, and share this project with the world, at festivals, and actively pitch it and other ideas next year. I want to build up enough funding to put together new pilots and conceptual trailers for series and pitch those actively. This will be my biggest goal coming through 2020 and moving into 2021. I am committed to another show for half of next year, one I am very excited to do, but after that I feel it's time to put full steam into something for myself. So watch this space, I'll be sure to share it when I can. It's slow burn on Nyx at the moment but I feel closer than I've ever been to really understanding and moving forward with what I need to do. It's all a learning experience! Rough design updates below!