Where's all the time going?

Here we are, yet another Monday and the start of a new week. Lots to do. I'm feeling raring to go though, so fingers crossed it'll be a productive seven days.

Before I go onto my weekly plan. I'm going to go through a few illustrators who have been tickling my fancy lately.

First up, Jelle Pelle. I might have mentioned him in earlier posts. He illustrates for childrens books, magazines etc, and his work is top nosh. Here's an example.

Everything about this is fantastic. The composition works really well, all the elements have room to breath. The colour choice helps carry the emotion of the image, light and colourful. Also, if you look at the shapes which are used, its mainly curves and circles, which are proven to make the viewer feel happier than say, sharp angles.

The perspective is obviously great too, even at such an obscure angle, he manages to tell the story of the image. Anyway, I basically love this image.

Right, here's another image one of my favourite genres, Western! Again, the composition and framing in this is brilliant. The two bandits hold the piece together at the bottom of the image, and their hats help to draw the eye towards the cowboy. The colour coming from behind the cowboy works really well too. Also, I like the collage effects in this. He uses different textures and patterns for the clothing. Sometimes if this isn't done well, it looks clumsy and awkward. But when done right like this, it adds alot to the image.

He uses a collage effect for the background too, things such as the wheel and cabinet are imported in and then adjusted to fit the image.

Anyhow, heres a video of how he made the above image. Honestly, if you only spend 15 mins on the internet today, make sure its watching this. I love how much attention to detail and love goes into creating this image, I hope I can get this kind of finish in my illustrations one day, I think its all abut patience and hard work.

Illustrating a Cowboy in Photoshop and Illustrator from Jelle Gijsberts on Vimeo.

Class eh?

Right, I've got plenty of other artists and animations that I want to go through, so every day this week I'm going to post up some inspirational stuff, and thats a fact.

Okay, weekly plan. As I mentioned in my last post I'm a little behind because of the work I've been doing, so this weeks needs to be a real belter. I've got a good feeling though, so fingers crossed.

Monday:

Updating blog- check! But more importantly I want to get my final storyboards done and dusted so that I can work out which part I'm going to animate for this project. So, when I get home later its straight to work on my boards. Its funny because sometimes I want to work on personal piece for my portfolio. But for now, all my attention is going to be on this film. I'm getting excited about working on it, and hopefully that won't fade away...

Tuesday:

Now that my storyboards are done (hopefully) I can begin fleshing out the thumbnails of what I'm going to animate. I haven't decided whether I'm going to do a scene for the robber or the Ice Cream Man, or even both if time allows

Wednesday:

Okay, so hopefully everything will now be in place to begin basic animating, getting keyframes done and what not.

Thursday:

Animation is the order of the day with a side dish of hard work, blood and tears. Mmmm

Friday:

Okay, so by this point I'm hoping that I'll have a finished line test, or at least a rough one.

So its not the most complicated plan, it basically just involves hardwork and graft. I also have to squeeze in my research which isn't quite all done yet. Yep fingers crossed.

Weekly round up and other stories

Its been a funny old week. First off, I've wrapped up my freelance work for the Customs House. I'd already done the jigsaws and colouring books, so that left me with the Where's Tommy? Illustration. It was abit of a slog, and the client came back asking for a few amendments so it was back to Illustrator where I redrew the whole background, well live traced it, but it still set me back a couple of days. It was good to get back on Illustrator though, I haven't really spent much time on it recently, opting for Photoshop for most of my work. I think Illustrator brings a different approach though, and that professional finish needed in some projects. Hopefully I'll be playing around with that a bit more anyhow. The clients really happy with the end products though, which in turn makes me really happy, I felt relieved and proud that everything went through okay. Its strange, but when your working by yourself, it can be a bit lonely and daunting, there's no one their to cheer you on or give you a pat on the back...but thats something I'll have to get used too if I want to make anything of myself. Still, sometimes its good to have a second opinion on your work, but as I said, I hope that will come with experience.

I've also managed to get a couple of new freelance gigs too, the first is for a local newsagent. Its basically a logo and a boy riding a bike holing a paper. I'll post it up in due course but I used the same method as I did with the Customs House work. I sketched out a few ideas, which I think is always important as your first idea is very rarely the best one. I then inked it up in Photoshop, and live traced it in Illustrator using the 'detailed illustration' mode. It came out great, so I Live Painted it and hey ho there it was.

The other project is for a marble arts company, they want a Rococo type logo with two characters either end. I've sketched this up and I'm awaiting approval to go ahead, so I'll be sure to update as soon as I can.

Reflecting on the work that I've been doing recently, I think freelance work is exciting, intimidating and rewarding all at the same time. It's a bit like being a footballer, you can do all the training in the world, but once you get out onto the pitch, its a different ball game. You're following set instructions and expected to deliver a high quality product on time and on budget. Seems simple enough, but in my experience I began to doubt myself at first, I almost felt like I'd forgotten how too draw a straight line. But, you just have to work through it. I'm not sure if this a common thing but that was my feelings anyhow. Another important aspect is the time spent on each design. I had to think what my time was worth, and in some respects I think I made some mistakes on this one, especially on the Wheres Tommy. Also, after speaking with Dave, he told me that even if you yourself arn't 100% happy with everything, it doesn't really matter as long as the client is. You could spend more time tweaking things that people won't even notice, and the more time you spend, the less money your essentially making. So I suppose the golden rule is: If the clients happy, then you should be happy.

Freelance work is an interesting beast. As I mentioned it can be a lonely road to take...but the prospect of being your own boss is an appealing one to me. Having said that, I'm under no illusions about how much of a struggle it would be, there would be good times and bad times, and in the beginning I imagine it would be mostly bad times. Building up a strong client base would be the first port of call, but that can take years, you need to prove yourself to be reliable, efficient, and have the skills necessarily to deliver what you say you can, there's no hiding behind colleagues and not answering the phone and the delivery date. That appeals to me though, I like to deal with people and see projects through, I think this could come from my time working at Hexagon, where my job was basically to see a job through from quotation to sales to artwork to delivery. And all business work on the same principle, so I think its set me up in good stead for the future. Having said all this, if someone was to offer me a job in Studio I would bite their hand off, I'm going to keep my options open.