PPP: Lifting Tower Project

I was selected along a few other students to create a 3 minute animation for LUMEN (an audio visual collective) for the Lifting Tower in Leeds. I'm writing this a summary for the project, it was one of the longest I have worked on spanning 1.5 months and my first paid project.
The first few weeks were about creating proposals for LUMEN to look at so they had an idea of our capabilities. I  chose to stick to limited colour palettes on my proposals. Obviously these were short 30 second proposals as the 3 minute animation itself was to be composed of a selection of entries.



The one that was taken forward by LUMEN was "seasonal spirit" they liked the limited colour palette and the emotion behind the idea.

After this was selected, we were taken into a room and asked to decide whether we were all in or wanted to leave this project (as they had liked everyones ideas, some people weren't keen on working in groups and a result left the project). I decided to group up with my housemate and 3 animators she had previously worked with. This was a risky move on my part because they say to never work with people you are close with, to some degree this paid off for me.
Working on this project really helped me establish myself, I am definetly more of a creative mind behind projects as I had a lot of input at the start of the project but very little of the physical result was illustrated by myself.  In our group I proposed we limit our colour palette to red green and white so that it was more distinctly our work when it was being projected, as well as this I was the main person to sort out the Google Drive contact point. As the graphic designers are very used to using it as a way of communicating it seemed like a good thing to introduce to the group and it worked well mostly.
My illustrative contribution to the group was relatively small, I made a collection of GIF's from the proposed "seasonal spirit" as originally LUMEN had said they would like them as stills, but I went back and proposed GIF's which they were equally happy with.

We didn't have a great deal of input from LUMEN as we met with the client maybe 3/4 times over the duration, however this wasn't a negative thing. The brief was very clear, the creative decisions made were mostly our own (only occasionally presenting the progress would we get feedback to change aspects). My overall contribution was far greater than my illustration contribution was, as lots of the ideas that went into the final animation were one's from myself that the animators and the graphic designer split between them (such as the couple star gazing, snow angels and a giant christmas themed snake game as well as others). I was happy with the arrangement at first but looking back I wish I had stepped up and asked for more creative contribution as some of the final illustrations were very stiff (the animators having focused more on the movements of the characters, over their design themselves).

I was pleased overall with the project, I feel like my input was important to our overall success, plus it was nice being paid for once as it felt like I had actually been treated like a professional over being a student illustrator. 

PPP: Mike Mignola Talk

Here are the notes taken from the Mike Mignola talk (apologies if they seem a little brief but the dude can talk FAST). I loved hearing Mike speak, it felt very honest. He spoke of his successes but he spoke of his failures too and I always think that makes for a great artist (a great person really who can talk about failings). He had such passion for fun and drawing, he seemed to have love most of the work he had done which was really refreshing. His love for drawing was something that came through, sometimes you'll have a talk with someone who just loves colour or just likes to draw other things that they saw like a cult movie or whatever but with Mike you could just FEEL how much he loved to be immersed in his world, in his ideas and to just draw for the love of drawing.

10 years of professional comic book making
started as an inker - I'm not good enough to draw comics so i'll become an inker
most of my career was me trying not to embarrass myself
**Gotham Gaslight**
**Frank Miller**

If im going to do my own thinking.. I need to do something that is made entirely of the things I like.
On my deathbed at least I'll have made something that's "me".
**Mike Richardson Head of Dark Horse**

Im doing my own comics just because I like them.
Ive been working 7 day weeks for as long as I can remember.
Normally I have 3/4 ideas in my head at a time.
Everything I've done is for "ooh that looks like it could be fun"
*Did a 40 page alien story right before hellboy*

There's a lesson right there -- dont make things just for money.

I was asked to do a drawing I'd drawn a monster for fun. I remember thinking 'that was fun'. it was this barbarian monster thing. A couple years later I kept drawing him.
Maybe because I did him just for fun, maybe I would enjoying drawing him. I just knew I'd get bored drawing regular guys.

I knew as an artist..  I knew how to draw stuff. I never set out to be a writer, the idea's are just bits and pieces. I feel like I'm just throwing them over my shoulder and someone is trying to piece them all together.
I have a big library, i did some research into it. The man in the back something in the back of the brain putting stuff together.

'thank god that this stuff sells'
when i've got a beginning and the end and a couple of good bits in the middle then i start thumbnailing the story.
Things sort of happen, but ive got these markers I have got to get too. Sometimes Im scripting as i go, if you see original versions there will be 3/6 lines of other dialogue there too.

I just want to draw for fun but what is that? will that feel like a job? how can I make stuff for me?
Atlantis - the disney film thing was weird. How did anyone there even see my work!?  for whatever reason they wanted my style.
For comics you get paid by the page but they pay you by the hour there! I could have milked that thing for alot longer really!!

How do I split up my hours? I get up and go to the studio and Im there til dinner. Sometimes Id go back home for dinner and go back to work. 2 days a week I go to the gym.

Creating Landscape closeups. because I got really into designing my pages, i got into the habit of just adding things to build up any kind of tension. you have to come up with a different language to create an atmosphere.

What are your influences?
Im influenced by a lot of things, frank rosetta, bernie rights, how are you going to solve a problem? mostly inspired by painters. These lines make along im coming up with my own way. I dont wear my influences on my sleeves.

Illustrators starting art --- your style finds you. You can sit down and say 'this is my style' but could you sustain that? you just have to do your own kind of work. Certain tendancies in your work, things you seem to naturally do. Some guys they hit the ground running. Drawing is evolution. Ive never had a day where Ive sat down and thought oh hey i know what im doing.

I just knew what my stories were meant to feel like. Part of the style thing is embracing the squishiness of things. try to keep SOME things the same (not all) but i try to keep my things fluid.
I dont know what it is about monster, i read draqula when i was 13 and thats all i wanted to do.

(on stopping writing/creating hellboy) I lost my ability to make choices, i couldnt settle on one things. I could write for somebody else but when youre drawing your own thing and theres nothing to stop you thinking this or that. I got swamped by too many choices.

I love to draw writing is good to a certain point but i love to draw.

PPP: Vulpine Ursine

During PPP we are always asked about things we are passionate about and how they influence our practice. I think for me music is a real motivator in my artwork, I always listen to songs that are influencing a certain emotion I want to capture.  As a creative, I think that music motivates the kind of work I make, now i've realised this I have created over 10 spotify playlists that relate to different emotions. PPP for me is all about defining what it is that I like and what I listen to is definitely an influence. 

I realised this the other day when I was listening to a song by Ursine Vulpine "Do You Realize" that is the trailer song for the new Transformers trailer. It is a cover of the Flaming Lips song which is originally a very happy song but I love that the cover Ursine Vulpine did is emotional and dark.  Although I'm not a massive Transformers fan, this piece of music that accompanied it really really made me want to watch it. It's very emotive and when I listen to it I can really envision things and it evokes a feeling inside. 

I wanted to look closer into the band itself and soon discovered that Ursine Vulpine is a person, a moniker for the artist whose actual name is Frederick Lloyd, not only that he does film trailer soundtracks (some of them I did not realise at all were his, but I enjoy them too) but also that he is a really big creative in the film industry! He is an award winning film director and composer, having made over 10 songs used in big mainstream films (such as Hunger Games) and having produced/directed a series of short films that won prestigious awards or were nominated for them. He is now officially on my list of people to contact, as I am very curious how someone goes from composing music to being so sought after in hollywood as well as having the creative ability to direct. 

PPP: Thoughtbubble 2016 EDIT WORDS

This year I wasn't involved in Thoughtbubble due to other commitments, but I still made sure I booked the time off work to go and visit.

I was very dubious about letting go of my £15 entry fee, as TB2015 had been somewhat of a disappointment for me, it had felt like a gathering of fan art work which I could have easily spent an evening on Etsy buying instead of attending the convention. 

As I handed over my entry fee and handed over my arm to be given the band that would allow me anywhere around the event, I admit it, I thought i might be blowing my money up the wall. 

Gladly for me I was proven wrong, this year the event organisers had achieved a higher level of people applying to the festival which meant that they could tailor the festival to what they wanted. I was impressed at the breadth of skills that were there this year and I ended up spending ALOT. 

My favourite purchase of the day was a screenprint 1/14 of Fantastic Mr Fox by 

It's a gorgeous screen print with multiple colours, I was astounded at the technical competence

 but when I spoke to the artist he told me about how he makes the work and sends it to a team called **** who do all of the screenprinting for them. This was really good for me to find out because that might help in the future (as I am really not gifted in any way with screenprinting). 

Another really great purchase was 2 copies of S! magazine. This is an international collaborative who create works around a theme, I brought one about Japan and Cats. (INSERT PHOTOS). I liked the idea of having it in a book rather than a zine because it allowed the artists to experiment with their medium more knowing it had been printed on solid 200GSM paper. 

There were a few other bits and bobs I picked up but Thoughtbubble this year for me was far more about talking and meeting with professionals. Some were students as well such as EVACHII (find photos) who stuck to fan art for conventions because its a good seller, others were Sad Ghost Club who me and Ellie complimented and talked to them about their work (which I will pop in another blog post after this). Another artist I met was Jontofski, his advice to me was to carry a sketchbook at all times, he is primarily a watercolour artist but if he doesn't have time to watercolour the scene, he will rough it out, take photos and then take it back to the studio to later watercolour it. 

Another professional I spoke to was AJ, he was there with a comic of his own and spotted me staring at it (Im not very bold to go over and start talking) so he came over to talk to me instead (so I slowly edged closer to his stand). AJ was perhaps the best part of thoughtbubble, in the fact that his story gave me a lot of confidence that things will work out. He never attended college, instead starting lower down in the nickelodeon techy department working on his art at the same time and learning the ins and out of the studio before progressing upwards to become a freelance artist for them for 13 years. Although it was freelance he was paid most of the time to stay on there, which was interesting because I wasn't sure how that kind of thing worked. He then made the jump to disney interactive to work in their creative department whilst spending time working on his own comic book with friends. It was refreshing to meet someone who didn't do so well in an academic atmosphere but still found a way of getting into the sector he wanted to work in. 

Overall I really enjoyed thoughtbubble this year and hope that next year stays to same calibre. I will be applying to thoughtbubble for next year and hopefully will be exhibiting there.