AnimBeast

Robin flying on a Broomstick over LegoLand

2011-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, soo... Robin in LegoLand. Riding a broomstick. Another LegionInk sketch challenge, like the bipedal fluffy about to kill Charlie Sheen below. I've made a late-in-the-year resolution to post more often. I'm drawing every day and I've got fulltime internet. This is UNACCEPTABLE!

Rapid-fire Challenge: Fluffy Bipedal Attacke Drone Terrorising Charlie Sheen

2011-06-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Kay Carmichael : Animator and Comic Artist

2011-06-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Kay Carmichael : Animator and Comic Artist

This is my link for Freelanced.com. Find me!

Finished and Not Finished

2011-03-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

This utterly cool character is John Blacksad, from the french Blacksad comics I've yet to get copies of (DC, bless them, has finally brought out an English translation).

And these are random sketches I hope to do more of the moment I can persuade my scanner to stop working against me.

Writing

2011-02-15T14:19:00.000-08:00

Writing's a dirty habit, like picking at your skin or collecting half-full mugs of coffee all over your room until the penultimate domino effect causes you to have to change the carpet. And like most dirty habits, it's usually the result of you not having been taught better, and it's a little bit fun.

It also tends to embarrass when it spills into public life. Taking notebooks out at restaurants and parties can cause people to look over at you like a street-mime, even come up to and demand to know what you're doing. Evidence of literacy may show up in conversations. I'm one of those hapless individuals who attempts to have conversations like people in books do, and it's frustrating for me to find that real life conversation includes a lot more interruptions, a lot less soul-searching, and the wrong questions.

I've heard writing described as a psychosis. Bit sinister, but a certain deliberate insanity is involved. Writers make a world with which to view the world. They make characters and the characters in turn, make the writer. What characters get up to reflect the hopes the writer harbours about the way the word works: that in the end everyone deserving gets married, or killed, that glints of humanity shine off even hearts of polished stone, that God, in His own good timing, will give the plot a kick where necessary. It strives to be less common than muck, to find new ways of saying old things. The desperate optimism of being a writer at all is enough to break your heart. We are people who believe, on some level, that words can change the world, and want ours to be among them.

War and Peace

2011-02-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

Doing nothing, I've found, is a lot harder than it looks. I've had the rare opportunity in the passed couple months to do what may seem to the laymen like not very much, but in fact involves a complex series of exercises performed with ritualistic rigor to preserve sanity in a household continually threatened with unimaginable boredom.

Among the various peacekeeping tactics employed, regular rounds of tea is possibly the most important. It is simple to do, everyone takes their turn and it's all-round far less harmful a past-time than, say, smoking or breaking out a beer every hour. Tea encourages pleasant conversation or, in times where pleasant conversation has taken the turn for the worst, it helps to patch things over as a form of peace-offering.

Regular forays onto the internet are useful too. It gives the impression of networking and attempting to find a job. A few minutes a day are all you really needs to connect with friends and put over a few emails to feel like the world has not abandoned you utterly. A couple of evenings a month dedicated to getting together with friends or former colleagues to chat and hang out and get absolutely ratted also relieves an oppressive atmosphere.

Exercise goes without saying, and so in my case, it often goes by without comment either. Usually every three or four days my limbs will start to stick and I'll put myself through a few yoga stretches to limber up again. It helps, and I feel very positive for having done it, and reflect on how easy it would be just to do a couple of stretches a day seeing as I have the time. It never works. Days go by before discomfort drives me back to the yoga mat.

The truly tragic part about this whole hiatus from work is exactly that I have so much time on my hands. I could be doing anything: creating, learning, making the master pieces I so longed for time enough to make. But no. The gift of two months off is taken up with putting off the inevitable, usually till eleven at night, where I get on my PC and work a bit on my comic, or on a picture, or my website, or the book I'm writing. I'm spoiled for choice and time and I waste most of it reading or sleeping or looking for more work. Maybe I'm just the more densely scheduled type.

Either way, two month's solid rest is nothing to be ungrateful for. I feel I've used it to relax if nothing else. In the words of Calvin (from my favourite comic Calvin and Hobbes): "At least when I have a day off, I can tell the difference."

Main Irk

2011-01-29T07:10:00.000-08:00

I believe it was Maragaret Attwood who said that in order to inspire herself a little to write, she'd paint her fingernails. Well all ten my fingernails are now black, as are my toes, so let's see where that gets us.

First, in premature response to the black, I'm not an emo. There are moments, but I can't call myself a full-fledged child of the night (nor, I believe, can most card-carrying emos, but I'm not going to stoop to bashing this time). It turns out I'm too reliable. I'm that solid doesn't-fall-to-pieces sort who keeps her head in an emergency, no matter how much I don't want to. It's a virtue, I'm sure, but it doesn't put you in the running for Ms. Femininity. Although I'm sure historically speaking, the feminine role has more often than not been one where the women sigh when their men drag the bleeding kill across the carpet and cope with any amount of household work ranging from raising small armies of children to scraping out the privies to defending the castle while their husbands are away crusading somewhere. We're a generally reliable sort, women.

It's a tiresome thought sometimes. We just... cope. It's been true of our own family, where we've done very little but cope for several years now. Just get on and do the best we can under less than sporting circumstances. It's not because we're mostly women in our little family of four, it's just I wonder how it might be different if we were all big and bluff and knew kung-fu. Possibly it wouldn't be all that different, apart from other guys in pubs trying to start fights with us rather than buy us drinks.

Kay Carmichael Illustration Portfolio

2011-01-29T06:20:00.001-08:00

10 Things to Consider Before Entering the South African Creative Industry

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

The title is a total rip from a guy Mokky I used to work with, who I think was only half-joking when he said he would write a book on this subject. This is a list that assumes you are the hard-working, self-sacrificing motivated creative individual you've heard has no trouble getting work. It's a list of more... practical qualities you learn to acquire.

1. Do your ears take note of little sayings people use like 'money's not the main thing, of course' or 'it'll take a couple of months of really hard work, but it's going to be big' or even 'We may not make money on this contract, but the next one - '

2. Can you (or someone who really really loves you) cope with you not having rent for a few months now and again?

3. Do you speak legalese?

4. Do you have large serious-looking brothers/uncles/misc. male-relatives-or-friends who don't mind taking bosses aside for a private chat? (A mad aunt or two doesn't hurt the cause either)

5. Do you have a sharpish head for numbers, particularly those pertaining to your paycheck and rates of tax and exchange?

6. Do you value things like overtime pay, weekends, time with family, good posture, enough exercise and the use of both wrists?

7. Do you consider doing what you love to do to be the same as doing it for free?

8. Can you carry enough computer equipment to the approximate value of what you're owed in back-pay while at the same time avoiding tripping any alarm systems?

9. Do you know when it's time to get out of the water?

And finally:

10. Can you spot the bullshitter?

And here's a number 11 to consider, because I like you:

Do you like what you do? If so DON'T BLOODY MAKE A CAREER OUT OF IT! I don't like dashing hopes and dreams but it's worth thinking about how much you like drawing or dancing or writing or movie-making or anything before you consider doing it for a living. A living implies just that: for life. All day, every day. Ten hours a day. Taking a break from doing what it is you supposedly love to do. A break you will come to look forward to. Think about it and consider whether you wouldn't rather keep the thing you really like doing for downtime, when you're supposed to be doing something you enjoy. Many a masterpiece has been made on the train to work.

My advice, if you're still keen, is always have an exit strategy, make friends with lawyers, study up on your rights because there's squat-all union to do it for you, save up at least two months worth of your salary, and have your fingers in a few pies at a time. And finally, if you're in it to earn, don't fart about.

Embittered animator signing off....

My Animation Showreel December 2010

2011-01-07T01:15:00.000-08:00

Helluva New Year

2011-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yikes. I may be of the cynical generation for whom "Happy Holidays!" translates tp TraumaTraumaTrauma, but jeez.

It's been freakin' crazy. And not a little emotional. Not the usual holiday disasters either, like arguing over how everyone brought salad to the Christmas party, or just the tension you always get when a bunch of people who are related but don't particularly like each other have to share a beach-house. Oh no. Really weird crap like people we know losing family members mysteriously, people getting other people pregnant, affairs, insanity, failing to get a twelfth salary let alone a thirteenth one (okay, that one's me, I'm still really burned about it) people breaking up on New Years, and hanging themselves on New Years. Those last two aren't related, thank God.

I know December's always a bit of a strange month for people, particularly those with a dark bent to their moods, but this is just violent. And I don't like that my circle of family and friends seem to act like a lightning rod for drama, but what can a person do? We used to have shamen for this sort of thing, people who sniff out bad luck or family curses - you know, the eldritch stuff. One or two chickens later you're sorted.

I'm one of those people who keep a kind of vague score in my head that usually goes something along the lines of "Kay - 2, Life - 2Million" or something like that. I also think there are seasons to things. Stuff balances out. Seasons of plenty are usually followed by seasons of want, that kind of thing. I'm beginning to suspect I'm owed the karmatic equivalent of a summerhouse OVERFLOWING with oily Cuban boys after the month I've had.

Anyway, hope anyone reading this has enjoyed the polar opposite of a holiday season.

Draaaag...

2010-12-20T03:26:00.000-08:00

Ye gods, it's been a slow day. I'm doing absolutely everything I can think of to keep from doing the things I should be. All I really had to do today was send out a couple of quotes and that nearly took me all day!

Anyway.

So many things have been happening for and to me on a personal level, which is... unusual. I've always thought of myself as one of those people quietly doodling away on the edges of life observing events and listening politely to the dramas of others. You know the type - you've probably been the type at one point - they're not even the main character of their own story. It's a nice place to be in. Nothing too demanding, not much to blog about, just a universal state of meh.

Now it's different. Uncomfortably so, some of it. Some of it's wildly exciting and nerve-wracking. Work, love, family, it's all ganging up to force me to engage. It's rather hard to do when your days just stretch in front of you, simmering with expectation and no structure. wake up late, sit in front of the computer, and... now what?

I hope I don't screw up, I really do.

2010-12-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

I've been very interested in the parkour or 'free running' movement for a while now. Not enough to get off my soft ass and join in but definitely inspired enough to make a few drawings along these lines.

A Whole New Year

2010-12-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's technically not New Years yet, but I'm feeling the hype nonetheless. This have changed pretty dramatically in just the space of a few weeks, the most significant being, I have resigned from my studio job a bit ahead of schedule and I'm not firmly into freelance. Everyone has been incredibly supportive and forthcoming with offers and advice and I can only count myself lucky. I'm attempting to restage rAge in my own small way by continuing to do on-the-spot commissions wherever they'll let me set up a table (updates on that soon) and I'm expanding a bit to selling prints like the one below. I think by now I've got enough information about the freelance market at hand to make a strong go of it.

New Project Glow

2010-11-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Finished a little after-hours project this weekend, "The Last Chapter of Flabby Bob" - a comic I've been developing with a new writer on deviantArt, Jacob Welby. I'll post art as soon as I'm permitted, but I'm really proud of this piece. It's a five page comic, a little test to see how we work together as a creative team and whether I can actually see a comic out to the end. So far, the prognosis is great.

The plan is to use the comic as our first foray into a serial, (currently under the working title "Fool's Paradise" - you'll see when it's done) and into the comic book industry. It's going to be a bit tricky, with me working from Johannesburg, South Africa, and Jacob being in the UK, but I guess that's where the magic of the internet comes in.

Vuis Visagie!

2010-10-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

For the legion ink challenge this month, we're doing an OC by a fellow artist. Here's my entry, a character named Vuis Visagie by Captain Unobservant.

Bemusings

2010-10-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

The thing you occasionally come up against creatively - speaking personally of course - is this wall of selfishness. I've been exploring the pros and cons of following my own self-interests for a while now and you know what I've found? Shit goes your way. Yup. The universe actually conspires to help you get what you're looking for. Disney was wrong, or right, just with a vital difference in the phrasing. If you're a villain, it's called ambition and selfish ends; if you're a hero, it's the desires of your heart, and your destiny. Booyah.

Anyway, I'm not talking about pursuing the desires of your heart. I'm talking about the selfishness that can get confused in with it. Sure, I want to be self-aware enough to achieve my ends in life, but at some point cost comes into it. As this pursuit continues, I want more to do with what I'm good at and less to do with the crappy mundanities of upkeep. Making money (which I've actually got no problem with, seeing how I like my job) and all that goes with it: dishes, insurance payments, laundry, doing tasks at work that involve no drawing or creativity. Those things that, when I look at them, are necessary and grounding in my life (except maybe for the insurance) and which actually keep me champing at the bit to draw. If I had no confines on my time, nothing would get done. Unless those confines were the number of hours in a day, which is the case for many full-time artists. For me, for now, there are far too many ways I can waste my time.

I'm sure this will change. It might get to the eventual breaking point where I have far too much freelance or personal work to do to accommodate a day job, and it would be fabulous (and knowing myself, not a little stressful) to finally make my part-time job my full-time job. But not yet, young Padawan.

I guess this wondering has been brought about by a couple of extraordinary experiences lately: death in the family, successful stallholding at rAge, an actual creative outlet at work (they moved me onto traditional animation) and some upheaval in my living arrangements. Okay, they're not supernatural or anything but whether I like it or not, I'm not in the same place I was two weeks ago. I'm glad to say I feel the better for it. Sadder, I guess, but only in the way that a wake-up call to your own life makes you sad. Perspective makes anyone sad. It's like trying to wrap your head around the whole world, or even just the part of it you occupy. It makes you sad, and it calms you down.

Lately I just feel a bit like a bear after hibernation shaking off the leaves. I want to write again, I want to play piano again. I have room and means to do so now. I even have the piano. And all the while I'm looking around, blinking in the sunlight and wondering what I was waiting for. Whatever it was, it's here now and its time to get moving.

Friday night and still at work

2010-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

WHY? Other than the fact that my lift's late, WHY am I still here?

It's been a long day, not so much on the work side. Given all the niggling little issues I find my life bumping up against this month (late rent, my mom visiting, family tensions running on high) it seems a little odd to choose NOW to take stock of things. But given that I have been really unpleasant to the people I love lately and the main source of my irritation seems to be my neglect of writing in general, now seems good as a time as any.

So...

Well, there's Rage. That really was a bit of a watershed moment in my career so far, where I realised several things. A) I'm pretty good at what I do. B) People are willing to pay me to do it. And directly - no months of production prep, training, or trying too break into the market. I draw, they give me money for my drawing. It's simplicity itself.

Also... I've been living with a roommate and my sister for about two months now. I'm not so sure how it's going. Well, most of the time. Some of the time the same issues keep popping up and I'm left wondering if it's worth it, and wishing I lived alone. When I'm alone, I don't get angsty, irritable, things don't seem like excess effort because there's no one else to fob it off on. Dishes are just dishes, washing is necessary, not stuff that might get done if I ignore it. No one else eats my food, and I eat pretty healthy portions. I spoil myself. When I live with people who are sharing my larder, I don't bother, knowing the treats will vanish faster than I can put them in the fridge.

I'm happy at the studio. I think I'll remain here. Some stuff's annoying, but the work's stimulating and I haven't been shortchanged yet. I'm pretty well treated and my showreel's looking real good.

I feel that familiar itch where I want to change something. Only what?

Rage Continued...

2010-10-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

RAGE EXPO!

2010-10-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Had a fantastic weekend at the rAge Expo this weekend, held at the Coca-Cola Dome at Northegate Johannesburg. Our little posse of about twenty or so people ran an Artist's Alley that drew a lot of support and interested people and here's hoping they give us a bigger floor to work with next year! I decided to challenge myself and do the con thing that I've read about so much on other artist's blogs. I intensely envy them the opportunity they get to draw stuff for fans and do commissions. Not a big enough comic-book culture here in South Africa - you blink and you may miss it. Nevertheless, people know which characters they like and I had a lot of fun drawing things for them. I got to hang out with some eminently cool people manning the stands around me and organising things like cosplay competitions and artfights and watch everyone building themselves a brand around the stuff they're good at. I'm so glad I did it!

More pictures to follow!

I know nothing about Star Wars

2010-09-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Going to rAge!

2010-09-22T05:03:00.000-07:00

I've got a table at the rAge expo next week! I'm extremely excited and nervous - I've never put my stuff or my skills on sale before, it's a little nerve racking to think what people are going to make of it. Oh well, first time jitters. At least I'll more or less be part of a group. A couple of people from work are going to be there to, selling figurines, drawing anthro fan-art. I was hoping to get my computer in there but there seems there's no more plug points, so it's just straight traditional pen and ink stuff. I don't mind doing that, just have to be sure I tote along my camera to take pictures of my pictures. Just wish I know what I could charge for that stuff... I don't want to be a newbie charging an arm and a leg.

Also, hosted my first life-drawing class last night at my flat. Went very smoothly, since only three people showed. The model, Omri, was very good and professional, and gave me some more model's numbers for next week's session. I'm sure more people will rock up if we do this every week. I'll be sure to post some of those drawings soon.

In the meantime, here's a chickie i'm taking to rAge with me.

Bridge

2010-09-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

This is Bridge. Named after his last known address kind of thing. This was a cleaned up colour-version I did a while ago and I've been drawing a comic book on him ever since. It's been far more work than I imagined. I'm thinking I might finally be brave enough to post some of my old practice pages up. They were nice, but I'm just shy of the fact that they're fan art. Although, since I started my new job here in Joburg, I've had quite an education on the internet and internet terms. I've been introduced to reviews, fan fiction, furries, weeaboos, Mary Sues, Gary Stus, flaming and trolling. The internet just got a whole lot more fun for me. Particularly watching reviews on fan fiction, and seeing the sheer amount of crap there, makes me feel a lot better about my own private pervs.

So anyway, this is my character and I'll try posting some pages here and there as the comic book comes along.

The All-Devourer

2010-08-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

A little concept art I'm doing at the moment.

And now it's Joburg's turn....

2010-08-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Went out really early this morning, 3 am or so, after a lovely evening with friends of mine who live otherside of Melville and that I haven't seen in a good six months or so to find... my car's been broken into. Thank God I'd left the gear lock on, but the radio was buggered, it's face missing, my entire boot-cover with the built in speakers removed. It's just not been my year.

I've lived in Joburg since I was about five or six, we've never been robbed. Which I guess helps the odds somewhat, but it's like when it happens to you once, you're pretty much on the mailing list. The Universe realizes it's been overlooking you regards the 'shit-happens' department and suddenly you're getting a lot of backed-up bad luck. Which is a light, smiley way of dealing with that tense-as-a-wire-nausea you have for a couple of days after someone's been at your shit. It'll fade. Eventually. Time to jack up the insurance, I guess.

My Animation Showreel July 2010

2010-07-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Movin on

2010-06-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

So the Cape Town Adventure draws to a close. It's been real. Next week I'm off back to Joburg and whatever awaits me there. For the first time in a long time I'm not wholly sure of the next step, only that I want it to include more of what I've become interested in, namely writing, drawing, and sketching out further details for my private projects. Like the as-yet-not-booked trip to Joburg, I'm not sure how I'll get there, only that I will.

Harmony

2010-06-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day, because I discovered Harmony. Now I not only have ten plus quickie sketches to choose from to put on my blog, I had a whole day of rendering out super long shots to do them in. Life feels good. Did this one with the web tool. For obvious reasons.

I'm not staying where I am, neither at my current company nor at the house in Observatory. I've moved in with a new roommate from work. It's great to finally live in a house again. I'm learning some good habits, like recycling, though it was a little difficult to keep up with all the changes for a few days. Now it's growing on me. As for the job, I'm looking elsewhere in Cape Town, waiting to hear back from another company. I've got a backup in Joburg, so I'm not worried what they decide. I hope to resume posting soon, since my baby (my computer) comes home this weekend. Jen's got about four doors between the outside and the house, with burglar bars and cacti growing outside the doors. Hopefully that's enough to deter any asshole burglars.

spidermonkey

2010-04-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

I had to post something. I've been technologically handicapped since we were robbed a few weeks ago. Work's been that busy it's all I can do to sketch something on the table in front of me. I've been working my way through all the scrap paper I can find and I have a pile of doodles an inch high next to my mac. It's been a bit of a rest, not having my computer at home; I write, read and draw on paper. Since it may be another month till we move into a new place, I figure I'll get the backlog of personal projects out of the way before they go to rot. So far I'm working on two simultaneously and one's waiting expectantly in the background.

I like this guy. Hope he pops up again.

FINALLY!

2010-03-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

Drew a quick alcohol-induced sketch of this at a drink and draw a friend and I did over the weekend. Got the idea from reading online about it, Skottie Young's blog i think. Not much actual drinking. I got some horrible sweet muscadel that we both only managed a glass of. But we made dinner (pesto pasta mmmm) watched a movie, and drew random anythings till two in the morning. I've been sketching a lot despite the absence from my blog and the difficulty working in my mac-version sketchbook pro (bitch only draws every third line. Artist-friendly my ass!). There's a slush-pile of scrap paper up here from the copy machine and stacked in a corner. I've been eating through it at a rate of several pages a day. I'm almost permanently stuck in front of my mac nowadays. Been pushing ten o'clock near daily for the last two weeks now that I'm up in animation, worked on Saturday too. We've been fixing a horrible episode that somehow came back from Manila (the Phillipines, i think) without being tweened. I'm pretty exhausted, but happy because one of my supervisors just told me they're all very impressed with my work ethic. Hoping this schedule doesn't kill me.

So yes. I'm thinking my friend in the sunbeam up there is probably due to sweet alcohol and a current infatuation with The Dresden Dolls. Dark rock genius. Not that I'd be one to tell.

Sketchbookless

2010-02-19T02:02:00.000-08:00

I've been moved onto a mac at work. It's pretty awesome, getting familiar with it (I've not used a mac since college) but the main and constant downer of it is not have sketchbook pro on it. I don't have an osx-compatible version and it's driving me up the wall. I haven't got that much work and I hate being unproductive so I'm trying to keep busy doing several things at once. Usually when Photoshop it taking an age to save (less time on a mac haha!) I scribble a few lines in Sketchbook. It's been a good practice. I've sixty-odd sketches ranging from finished and coloured to light rough pencils. Thing is I've got NOTHING NEW to put on my blog. I know I shouldn't be so dependent on an application not even ten megabytes in size, but dammit why not? Some people can't get anything down without a particular type of brush or fountain pen, I need my app! I've still got my little sketchbook in my bag, might be good to put that to use for a change, but I couldn't scan stuff in. Rrr! Speaking of apps, I've just rediscovered Comic Life. Now that's a useful little program if I ever found one, at least, if you're doing a comic book and you've been dreading the bit where you have to write and draw in the speech balloons. No one can read my handwriting. It's a proven fact. I like the idea of customizing the panels too. I could get really crazy planning them out. Pity they don't have the combined powers of Sketchbook Pro and Comic Life out there. A comics app that you could draw in, ink and then put speech balloons over, and colour as well. It's like my idea with the Apple iPad. The second that baby becomes less of a glorified iPhone and more of a portable Cintique that can support Photoshop I'll be their first fuckin' customer!

This is the problem being a science fiction fan of course. As always, these are things of the future. Hopefully a future in which I have the cash to afford them. Developed to be high-tech toys for those who want nothing more ambitious than a fancy photo album. That's all Comic Life's supposed to be for - not actually for professional comic book artists. I guess it's better it's open to the public and in the spirit of anybody-can-do-it, but surely the developers can make these programs with an eye to artists who may find it streamlines their workflow a bit more. Not just bored westerners indulging in a bit of puri kura like my friend Shan calls it. Puri kura is apparently what gets teenage girls in Japan crazy: big photo-taking booths with extensive editing capabilities and lots of hello-kitty type bling you can add to the pics of you and your friends. It's strange... the more I discover about drawing programs and computers and the extent to which creating computer art or graphics art has evolved, the more I find holes as big as moon craters in them. I mean, we haven't progressed much farther than the pencil when you think about it. There's really no fault you can find with a pencil: it's cheap, you can use it anywhere, on just about any surface. It's a universal tool, like the internet. You don't get bored with it, just better at using it. The greatest inventions are often the simplest ones. I want to invent something like that. Maybe I need to make a few IT programmer-nerd friends and milk their brains.

Cloudy with a chance of angst

2010-02-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

Feeling lazy today. Or rather like I've had all the energy beat out of me by the combined powers of a phone-call from my beloveds in Joburg and the sugar rush from a buenos chocolate I demolished directly afterward. Our two older dogs have been put down. They've been with our family since I was seven or eight. I never pretended they were my favourite creatures ever. They weren't even technically mine. But now they're gone. They're gone, the house is going. My brother's not finishing school at the high school he's at now on account of the already unaffordable fees going up 20 grand. Not so much as a newsletter announcing it either. Everything that tied us in Joburg is going, going, gone. And now they might be joining me in Cape Town. It's frightening and stressful, so in that sense not really unfamiliar. It's a fresh reminder of why I'm in Cape Town to start with: experience, job, cash, independance, peace of mind. Not necessarily in that order. And I feel like I've had those things, most of the time, anyway. My life lacks drama, thank you God. I've gained friends, perspective and yes, a new computer. To someone like me something like that is practically a virtue on it's own. But still there's the old issues, the big black cloud way behind me right about where Johannesburg sits on the horizon. I'm still hearing the storm.

Black, White and Gunsmoke

2010-02-16T06:17:00.000-08:00

Today's offering. I'm particularly proud of the boots.

Kill them all

2010-02-16T00:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, that's not maybe what this picture's about, it's just how I feel today. My blood pressure's shooting through the roof over a pen someone's nicked. Mind, I'm extremely tetchy about my stationary, and if it hadn't come free with the notepad for the purpose of keeping track of backgrounds there'd be bodies hanging from the rafters. Yes, we have rafters. Just checked.

Anyway, this girl is in the same vein as glowboy: Photoshop finishing school for the sketches I've been accumulating. I really like how she turned out - I know it's not an original concept, scantily clad girls with floaty hair and glowing eyes are a penny apiece in comics (the ones I read anyway) but I felt like the colour choices kept it from screaming retro.

And just like that, I feel better. No one's gonna die today.

Glowboy

2010-02-12T06:28:00.000-08:00

I decided to do this picture out of a general lack of having any photoshop drawings or paintings I could pick to show anyone, whoever would be interested to see. Also I have watched a few tutorials and know my way a little around the effects and filters in photoshop and I wondered if I could pull off anything finished-looking with that knowledge. That's probably the reason I don't feel comfortable playing in photoshop: there's so much to use, I feel as though I'm under-utilising the program's vast potential. I'd actually like to get going and do some more pictures like this, but along what lines, I don't know. A comic? A storyboard? Concept pictures for either? As usual I'm suffering from too many ideas rather than too few. I don't think anyone suffers from too few ideas. They just stem their own flow of brainwaves in case they're overwhelmed by the potential joy of doing them and consequently cast into the miserable knowledge that they'll never have the time or motivation to achieve those beautiful dreams. I'm pretty wretched that way some days. Can't get off my ass or drag myself free of the bedlothes long enough to get something worthwhile down.

2010-02-10T05:55:00.000-08:00

This was the profile pic I submitted for the design indaba competition. I'm actually not sure what they ended up looking at, this or the other artwork. This was fun though. I've long been meaning to go through every existing picture of myself and photoshopping the shit out of it. This was even better - it was like treating myself as a drawn character. Naturally I traced the photo - If I'd drawn myself from memory, I'd have remembered myself a lot skinnier and without the lazy eye that makes it impossible for me to smile in photos. The hair does kick though. Good job, God.

Ash it

2010-02-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

The end of another day... nothing much happening at work just now. I'm really fast at colouring backgrounds - I didn't need four months of doing it everyday to become confident at that. I'm pretty fast at most digital work come to think of it; I dont know if I'd bother otherwise. I've the attention span of a kitten with bladder trouble. Which brings us to the sketches above and the one below, the island girl. I'd really like to do a comic someday with this kind of lopsided inky style (the guy above). I think it could look good. I'm just not always in a lopsided-loose kind of mood. Sometimes stuff comes out stiff and posed.

Island girl

2010-02-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

Tailess Dinosaur? Earless bunny? Shelless turtle?

2010-01-29T07:24:00.000-08:00

Mused and bemused

2010-01-29T04:33:00.000-08:00

Been listening to some interns griping for the passed hour or so. I could choose to tune out and put my headphone on, but I found it interesting how exactly their complaints reflected my own when I was an intern. The impatience, the suspicion that I was being taken advantage of, the money trouble, the conviction that anywhere else I'd be paid a decent salary and treated like the asset I was. Maybe it isn't like this for all interns. I mean, I'm sure a few of them at least know where they're heading in a company. In animation companies you dont always get that reassurance and it's tough to work with that kind of worry hanging over you. You start to slack off, not on purpose, but with the kind of afterthought that you are good at this job, you could do it with your eyes closed, if someone wants it badly enough they ought to employ you to do it, yadayada... Being an employee is much more prefereable. There's no more competing for the job spot; you've got it. You've got rights, a salary, a say. You have a contract you can refer back to when people ask things of you that you dont feel you have to do. Nothing like that when you're an intern; you jump as high as you can and hope to God it's good enough.

That being said, I'm not learning anything as an employee. Things I was learning all day every day as an intern only come along very rarely nowadays. I've got time to do things now, but I use it to doing other things. I couldnt tell you what other things or why they matter, but they take up almost all my free time. I'm not going to be too hard on myself about that. I did an animation sequence last night, a little test run for a story I want to do. I'm not going to blog endlessly about it because I have a horrible habit of grinding projects to a halt by blabbing about them too early on. Still, it feels damn good to animate again. That's more than what I'm doing just now at work. I suppose I have the same complaints as the interns, except that I'm getting paid. That covers over a multitude of sins.

Inky goodness

2010-01-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

Another sketch I did in the same vein as the witch doctor. I dont know why exactly... but I like how it came out. Something very appealing about this character, whoever she is. Hers is the kind of attitude I would like for myself. And her hair, or course.

Sky writers of the future!

2010-01-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

I thought this could be a cool idea for a 3d animation. It looks a bit like the style of aircraft I modelled as an XSI learning exercise during my intership, and the character like a scooter jock a friend of mine modelled for one of his projects. The pack on his back initally did have a hose that the smoke sprayed from but just ended up looking like the guy had embarassingly proportioned genitalia strapped to his back.

Back online

2010-01-27T00:25:00.000-08:00

Woo! Internet's back to working order. Wrote a long blog entry last week that I lost due to weird goings-on in the mind of my server connection. It was about working (the boring kind, not the fun kind), the monotony of working, having to work so that I can get on with the cool stuff at home plus, you know, see the world, and keeping the awesomeness alive while paying the bills. That's what it's all about at the end of the day. Not letting the grey stuff kill off the colour in your life, but colouring outside the lines and letting passion feed the rest of living, the tedious bits as well as the good stuff.

It's hard to do just now, I won't lie. January's been a real New Year's hangover financially and even now that I just got paid I'm freaking out about those in my family who don't have a paycheck to look forward to and how I can possibly stretch mine to cover them in any way. It's hard to talk about too because all anyone (including said family) ever tells me is to look after myself and not worry about things I can't control. Which makes not the slightest bit of difference to my peace of mind.

So anyway. Keeping the awesome alive. I've got a couple of little projects I've been avoiding for the passed few weeks, including a few on the back-burner that I may or may not get to. Had a huge wash of ideas over the passed couple of days about a fable (well, fable characters anyway) that I'd like to try animate. The idea sprang from really wanting to animate a fight scene after seeing one a guy I know had animated in his spare time. It made me realise that if I'm not going to get any animation experience at work right now, I may as well do something closer to what I would like to do to add to the old reel. And, as is my pattern, I've been bingeing on watching Scrubs season 6 rather than portioning off some time to work. Every time I stumble across an idea that has real potential, I make excuses for why I can't get to it just yet. Maybe it's fear, maybe it keeps things interesting to me. Who knows? I'm really going to try break the habit this year. That would be my first resolution for the new year, but I dont want to jinx it by calling it that.

new from 2010 (so far)

2010-01-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Thank you Skottie Young

2010-01-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Eve

2009-12-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

This is a werewolf character I've been working on lately. I ascribe to the Terry Pratchett version of the mythology i.e. that the biomorph is either wolf or human and able to change at any time (as opposed to the other type of werewolf which is more a crouched wolfman hybrid whose change is forced during full moon week). No, I have not seen Twilight and I dont really want to go see New Moon. I must be the only girl I know who hasn't read the books and doesn't know what's so hot about vampire boyfriends. I have no business wearing black, really. Anyhoo, this is Eve; she and her human body will be joining our little gallery.

PS. Really looking forward to Wolfman. If Brad Pitt has been good (I wouldnt know, dont follow the sleb gossip) he'll grow up to look like Benicio Del Toro.

Reptipets and Kidwith gun

2009-12-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

This is largely a catch-up post, something to do between having finished my load at work and picking up the dry-cleaning. These are three of the sketches I've done between saves at work. The kid is random, suppose I just wanted a pose and I sort of like the aesthetic of a small, wiry child being able to wield a rather large handgun. Dont ask.

The reptile characters I'm kind of proud of. After a false start that looked better in my sketchbook of a t-rex jock, these two high-school types formed as I started wondering what kind of amphibious institution they'd end up in. Would they hang out, each species to their own? Would they find themselves bizarre outcasts in a largely human worl? Ref: any saturday morning cartoon I can recall from my childhood (TMNT, Biker Mice from Mars, Transformers, there was one with dinosaurs...). I even went home and drew a slightly brontosaurous-looking cheerleader (long neck) and an overcaffinated chameleon.

The Big Bruce character reminds me of my brother. Possibly something to do with the grenade yo-yo.

Mikki

2009-12-11T02:30:00.000-08:00

This is a character I'm developing for a possible comic book story. I'm quite pleased with this rendering. I was sick last weekend and lost all interest in any of the stories I've got running at the moment. It was just too hard to concentrate on anything other than having the flu. Interesting really, seeing as how this story is about a post-plague world. The coat looks a little matrix (what black coat doesnt these days) but I actually have one like it, pinched at the waist with puffy sleeves. It has a lovely feminine look to it that I thought I'd try and lend here, since I'd done away with her hair and figure. Not sure what the plate in her skull's supposed to be yet, but it seemed like a nice touch. It may not need explaining. Watched Inglourious Basterds the other day and wondered the whole way through how Brad Pitt's character Aldo the Apache got that long scar around his neck. They never explain it.

katana blue

2009-12-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

This one was fun. Feel like I got the movement right. I like to think that, rather than giving him red jeans, they were originally blue. I'm getting more comfortable with painting, at last.

Big Cat designs

2009-11-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

Character designs. Started off doing a sketch for a children's book someone here at work wants to compile. The theme was 'At the Zoo', so I drew a tiger, which led me to look up Shere Khan sketches online, Milt Kahl's Disney Khan in particular (always one of my favorites) and so I did a couple of versions. They don't look wildly new, but they've got potential. I particularly like the one giving a wry smile in the upper corner.

It's pretty useful reading up on Disney animators and how they think about the way they draw. I read somewhere, I think Don Bluth's book, about how Milt Kahl used to draw the silhouette first and then fill it in. I found Joe Murray's blog today that had a Milt Kahl quote about how he didn't consider himself a good drafsman, just a very tenacious one. Which I'm pretty sure is bullshit, the man was good and he knew it. Comments on that quote ran along the same lines. Still, considering how Kahl used to apparently concentrate so hard on drawing that he wouldn't notice anyone watching over his shoulder for a good five, ten minutes, I can see how he would say that.

I've also been looking at Glen Keane's drawings, especially the pages where characters like the Beast and the Little Mermaid are broken down into shapes and the exact nature of the lines are explained (the word 'wedges' gets used a lot). Very good for animation drawing; covers how to keep the look consistent and how to turn the characters any way you want.

sabretooth

2009-11-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty proud of this drawing. I based the pencil off a sketch I did on a Post-it that's stuck to the bottom right corner of my desktop computer here at work. Chaise and Chris, our supervisors, have been doing similar little cool drawings in their spare moments. Chaise's Sabretooth is based on the old Xmen episodes in which he can hardly move for the upperbody muscle. Myself, I first saw the character in the newer Xmen Evolution series, and to date it's still my favorite rendering of him. I spent a relaxing few minutes working on this between background saves (PNGs take forever to save on my PC; I've got a ton of sketches done while I'm waiting for Photoshop to respond). Seeing as how it's Sabretooth, I tried to ink it and colour it. I think the ink's more successful; colouring's going to take quite a bit more practice.

Constantine

2009-11-18T00:26:00.000-08:00

He's new. I drew him yesterday while the workload was slowing down to a trickle. I'm particularly pleased with the red-black atmosphere; I often shy from painting or using colour, though it's not so scary with a limited palette. I kept the character vague, used some of those details to suggest what he's about: blurring on the edge of his coat might suggest it's made of darkness, not substantial at all. Mirroring the red in his iris. It reminds me a little of the Mothman film, though it's ages since I saw it. Similar use of red and black and a queer underwater quality to the light, that might be it. Nevertheless, he doesnt feel much like a villain. Feels more like a Constantine, someone trawling the dark between the worlds of Heaven and Hell.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to do something simple that feels a lot more finished than my sketches, which I often find myself going back to and revising if I see something days later that needs fixing. I'm not a fan of the cliche of the writer of artist throwing out wastebasketcs full of prior drawings. Sure you can do it better, but it probably isn't all bad. There's often something right with it that you can reference for your next pass. That said, I sometimes look over my sketchbook and realise the volume of total crap that gets churned out with the occassional gem. The gems are great; you can't believe it was you that drew them. It's all necessary.

Damn you Disney!

2009-11-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

I saw Lion King 3 on Sunday night. Actually I skipped through it, you know, when it simply got too painful. I've rarely been so appalled at the existence of a film or so deeply sympathetic to all the talents that shackled their names to this, this monstrous example of shameless moneymaking shite. Dear Lord. Being an animator, I thought of those poor sods, shoved behind their light tables (or computers; they probably keep the light tables in a museum somewhere) sewing the gold and silver of their souls to the menstrual cloth of this anti-story. It actually went so far as to ruin the original Lion King a little for me, what with Timon and Pumba's idiotic little saga intercutting insistently with Simba's and enlightening you with far more information on their non-backstory than you ever wanted to know.

Granted, I am not the target audience. I used to be: I still know every word of the original Disney's from watching them till the video's broke when I was a wee girl. And I weep for the children of the current decade if this is the level of filmmaking Disney has deigned to serve up to them: to recycle in their imaginations and warp them passed all hope of enjoying the sweep and majesty a damn good story, which Disney used to know the meaning of. But no more. All it really knows the meaning of now, is merchendising and content provision. Which was always the case, of course, it was a money machine from the beginning, but with people of passion and creative fire looking out for the important stuff. I listened to a recorded lecture by Milt Kahl, my favourite of the old animator masters - it doesnt take him long to rip off and curse (and the man can curse) even the stupidity of reusing animation from previous films. God, I'd love to have met that guy, had a loud angry conversation with him about where the company's gone of late. Doubtless he'd turn in his grave to see the ranks of TV sequels brought out every other day now to feed off the initial classics - what are we on, Lilo and Stitch 5 now? Cinderella; The Scrubbing Years? Fuck off to hell, you ingratiating cloying eejdit dolls.

Urgh! 'Nuff said.

cute and about to be endangered

2009-11-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

I was only doodling officer, I never meant to commit cuteness. Lord knows where this dreamy little seal cartoon fell out, but I sort of like the rest of it, the big underwater background. I'm a huge hydrophobe for exactly this reason. Absolutely anything could be swimming around in that. It holds imminent danger, particularly for cute innocent baby seals.

Homeless Hero

2009-11-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

I don't often do colour pictures (or architechture for that matter) but the opportunity was there and I figured, what the hell?

I've been thinking a lot lately about the homelessness situation, especially here in Cape Town, where it's quite unavoidable. Everyone walks, so no matter how far you walk you're bound to meet at least three or four bums on the way. If you catch their eye, chances are you'll have to deal with giving them something and then feeling crappy about it because likely it's just going to keep them on the streets longer, or not giving them anything and feeling crappy about it because you know you actually do have cash on you and for any number of insignificant reasons you chose not to take it out. Reasons that no longer, in light of visible human suffering, seem relevant, even though they convinced you at the critical moment.

Anyway, mashing that up into all the neuro-debris that's already in my head about comic book characters I like and complicated human experiences like losing everything everything that makes you sane or inhibited or human - well, this guy emerged. I don't know his name or what his story is, but there we are. Someone who knows the streets of his city, is intimate with it's gutters and filth, with it's shining-but-grimy heights. The lowest of the low, an outcast, someone who knows the cold outermost Siberian wasteland that is complete and total freedom from that which comforts and binds the rest of us. This guy scares me. He could be completely insane or equally profound. I put him up above the city like a superhero, looking down at it. Rejected by it, understanding it in the way few of his fellow city-dwellers do, and on a completely different plane of thought to all the people down below. Kind of like Rorsharch from Watchmen, really. Damn, why didnt that occur to me earlier?

Maggie_02

2009-11-14T10:40:00.000-08:00

I'm particularly please with this sketch. While technically it's not the best I've done, I like the attitude. Studying animation has given me a huge attraction toward characters with visual appeal: they just ooze personality. Gaining a love and appreciation of movement has also been absolutely invaluable to me and my drawing. I also picked up a lot about posing reading up on comic book styles (fusion, american, manga) but I find I much prefer the animation approach to poses. There's the restriction that it has to work as a movement and not jut as a still image, and so gains a lot of extra subtlety that you only get when you're trying to make every part of the character's body say the same thing that the mouth is saying. Comic books and animation often just dont meet at this point: a wild-awesome comic-book pose probably won't read if it were animated and a lot of animation, paused on an extreme movement, will probably look ridiculous.

That's not to say I wouldn't love to see someone animate a comic-book character properly, with Disney sensibility but visceral and raw. Maybe the Disney-Marvel merge will help out there. Otherwise I think the only cool comic-book animation adaptions I've seen have been in anime.

GirlGuns

2009-11-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Drawn spur of the moment one day at work. The receptonist ave us paper and said to draw anything on it for a doodle auction that weekend. I liked what happened on paper, so I scanned it in to keep. I wonder whatever happened to the original, who's got it now or what they'll do with it. By no means a new theme - woman with guns and cowgirl gear. It's just never been something I've thought about or been interested in - it took me by surprise that it arrived on paper with no preliminary thought to it.

Ninja

2009-11-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

Watched a parkour video and drew this. I can't say ninjas in general feature much in my imagination. They are awesome though. I tend to leave it at that. Sketchbook again - this is really all it's good for, although I've watch speedpainting videos of people rendering amazing detailed artwork in something as backward as MS paint. It's like painting with a mouse - great skill but what the hell for? Unless it's genuinely the only way you know how, why would you put yourself through the trouble?

Anyway, I'm sure there's probably endless amounts of stuff I can still try with Sketchbook, but it's limitations are part of why I enjoy it. It's just easy to use, intuitive to what you need while your drawing - like the minimum possible fuss changing brush sizes and the like - and it doesnt freak me out like Photoshop does with it's magnificent endlessness. It's like giving a kid the key to a toyshop - he'll probably have a hell of a time for the first week and then his interest will fade because he'll feel guilty for not playing with all the toys all the time, having the most fun he can possibly have. So, baby steps.

Sketch 004

2009-11-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

First of many sketches hopefully. These characters have stuck around, Lord knows why. The relationship - a father-daugher bond - intrigues me for Freudian reasons. I think it's how most small children see their fathers - huge and frightening, in a beneficent sort of way. Perhaps it's how fathers see their children as well - small and equally frightening to them for their fragility.

I've recently discovered Alias Sketchbook Pro, a wonderfully easy little drawing program to use, although it does want for all the niceties of Photoshop, basic texture brushes, freedom of selection, layer modes and so on. Still, it's light on my tiny machine and does the job I want, which is to sketch anything I can possibly fit on the page. Sketching's just about the purest form of illustration for me, really. Drawings lose something in the polishing, and as yet I'm not at the point where I can render fuck-off cool detail with the merest and lightest of strokes like the great concept artists, so, as the saying goes, it's back to the drawing board...

a line

2009-11-04T07:42:00.001-08:00

Okay, well, few minutes at the end of the day before we go home. if this were Joburg I'd probably hang out at the studio till passed seven just to avoid the issue of traffic. Might well do that when I get my car down here, though when that will be remains to be seen. Taxi's aren't bad. They've been a defnite education. The walking is nice too - animator's probably worry about all the exercise they're missing as much as anyone trapped indoors all day. It seems a particular sin not to stroll around in Cape Town. Soak it up, look in on the interesting little shops (and even those that try their damndest to look like interesting little shops and not horribly priced boutiques).

Late to blogging

2009-11-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

So this is blogging. An online diary. Huh. Not bad. Very well, where do I begin? said Dr. Evil. I'm a 21 (damn, nearly 22 now) - I'm an animator in her early twenties making her way in the Mother City (Cape Town) the way many a young romcom heroine has found herself looking for love and a career in cities like New York. (Only New York come to think of it. It's like people dont fall in love anywhere else on the planet, poor them.) Well, career's going well. Just started a job at a studio in Kloof Street and I appear to be kicking ass nicely that side, so...

I started blogging because of the nagging need to set up some kind of an online portfolio to show my stuff (Stuff? What stuff? My stuff?) Basically it'll be a kind of showreel depot where i'll just dump all my animations and drawings and doodles in the hope that the Pixar/Disney/Marvel/TopCow/DC gods of this world will one day, after having nothing better to do with their time than read random people's daily word-vomit, will stumble across it and declare they've found a prodigy. Or, you know, someone who'd faint at the exchange rate of rands into dollars. (Yes, even now after a year of economic downturn, thanks a bunch Bush Regime, the promise of being paid in dollars still holds sway. It sucks to be starting out.)

Cool, well...

Later.