Summer sketchbooks!

I drew in four sketchbooks over the summer: an A6 one handmade in India which I got from Bristol's Christmas market last year, a smaller-than-A6 one to carry while out and about, an A5 one from Asda to draw in at home and another A5 one dedicated entirely to an idea I've been toying with: a spin-off of Mudskipper, taking place in the same universe but with new characters I'd be more comfortable giving up the rights to if I pitched it as a series.

Here's a selection of highlights, in order of which sketchbook they're in rather than chronological order, starting with the handmade one!

Holiday sketches

Hi guys! I've been neglecting this blog since my uni term finished, but I certainly haven't been resting on my laurels: I've been continuing to work on my webcomic, Mudskipper (which celebrated its first anniversary on the 10th of August and is about to start its third chapter) and, of course, I've been filling several sketchbooks.

The highlight of those sketchbooks has been the mini-holiday to the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall I went on between the 24th and 27th of August, where I did a TON of sketching, particularly in watercolour. Click Read More to see them, including some photo-to-sketch comparisons!

Sometime after this post, I'll make another compiling the best of my sketchbooks from May, June, July and August, so stay tuned for that too.

Business card!

The design for my business card is finished!

While I'm happy with the basic concept of using the card to tell a two-part story, I can already see a mistake: the pixel dimensions of the files. I think next time (and there certainly will be a "next time") it would be wise to draw the artwork on a larger scale to ensure it'll print better; I might even outline and colour it in Flash since vector-based art resizes better than pixel-based art, but I was under too tight a deadline to get as comfortable with Flash as I am with Photoshop or Paint Tool SAI. Oh well, all good lessons for the next time a brilliant two-part story pops into my head!

Sketches for a business card

I'm designing a business card for my Professional Practice module, and I've had this idea of telling a story - albeit a very simple one - with the card itself to demonstrate my visual storytelling ability to potential employers (the two sets of poses will be on opposite sides of the card). These are the rough sketches; over the next few days I'll refine them to be more consistent and on-model, ink them on the university Cintiqs, colour them and, of course, add my contact details.

Semester 2 showreel!

I got my showreel for Professional Practice finished ahead of schedule (I thought as long as I had Adobe Premiere open, I might as well edit it in the same sitting as my Exploring Practice animatic), so here it is! Compare it to my Semester 1 showreel - I can't believe how far I've come in four short months, and yet I know I'll only top this in Year 2.

Like my previous showreel, it's set to the beginning of "Winner Winner" by Kevin McLeod.

mudskipper.the-comic.org

@KatDoesThings

The completed animatic!

It took several weeks of hard work drawing and editing, and it's super rough due to being completed so quickly, but it's finally done!

The music is an excerpt from "Almost There," composed by aivi & surasshu for the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe - my tutor John mentioned that I was allowed to use copyrighted music just this once (it falls under the “educational” part of Fair Use). Maybe someday, I’ll be able to work with them in an official capacity, and this animatic is the first step to making that happen.

I hope you enjoy it!

Semester 2 life drawing!

Click "Read More" to see a sample of my life-drawing work from this past semester! Compare these to my drawings from semester 1. I think I've come a long way, but you can decide for yourself.