Monkey and bird

The long delay

I apologize for the long delay, I've recently begun my Honours Year at University and it is a pretty big endeavor.  That said it is also an amazing time and I am enjoying the work that I've been doing.  Hopefully I will be finishing off a few things and will start posting little snippets as the year progresses.


That said I have done a lot of other work and I just need to slowly crawl through the backlog with scanning and cleaning on photoshop.  The above picture is just that, I made this in Singapore last Christmas (hence the little snowflakes on the windows) its one of the first images I drew that holiday in the NEW Starbucks!  It was somewhat painful to go and see the New starbucks (I liked the old one).  Unfortunately last year it got severely flooded and they had to basically rip out all the old fixtures.  It really is bizarre to go to a favourite haunt and realize its been completely changed behind your back.  All the more stranger because I have so many drawings from this one place that it seemed to be visually haunted.


Nevertheless it turned out to be a great drawing spot, just like the 'Old Starbucks', and one day when I've amassed enough of them I might do a little chronological book of this one address over the years.

Coastes in Singapore

        

I found a lovely spot along the tanker lined shores of Singapore to draw.  Happened to fall in love with the place when I spotted all these gorgeous foreground to background variations.  They also had an awesome chicken curry.  I've taken some photos so you can see how the drawing and the reality match up, unfortunately by the time I took my camera out we had already left my vantage point so these are just approximations of the view.  One of these days I'll get around to filming my process, but for now just photos.

Time to get your feet wet

Buy long socks

Taking my time in the New Year

It has been a while since I've used tone to help create depth and aid in differentiating people in an image. And for me it certainly is laziness to a certain extent. But I'm glad I made the effort for this image since it really helps complete the composition and help highlight certain features and characters that would otherwise be lost.

It's always worthwhile to consider different ways of making an image work and not constantly rely on familiar line making or easy compositions. You can often find a few illustrators or artists who stick to the same composition over and over. A particularly famous one is the forward shot of a character floating in a white void. While this is an enjoyable composition, and at times the correct composition for an image, character or product design, learning to be dynamic and engage with backgrounds is a really important skill to manage. Learning what you can do, and what you enjoy doing with backgrounds or a full page image takes time.

Choices in depth vs flatness, tonal variation vs large slabs of color, or changes in style between the focus point and the background can come naturally to some, and not so naturally to others. So its good to practice and push what you’re capable. Here’s to new goals for the new year.

More inks

Really liked how this one turned out. There's more focus on line work and the range of mark making and shapes that can be used in an image instead of just tonal modeling.