Gosh! I haven't been here much. I haven't been working on my animation much as I've trying to improve my drawing skills.

This is from a contest held over at www.conceptart.org The title was Newborn and I did a modern version of The Birth of Venus. The feet leave a lot to be desired and the face lacks form. Not every entry was considered to be up to a professional standard and a number were cut. In the public vote I managed 7 votes, which wasn't bad considering that some pictures didn't get any votes. I knew I wouldn't win, but it was trying the hardest I could at the time and pushing myself. Also I learnt a new program - Serif PhotoPlus X2, which is similar to PhotoShop, but a heck of a lot cheaper. Mine was free due to the power of broccoli.


The I went and entered Battle of the Sexes Part II. This wasn't such a success as my last one, as I thought I had another week. The whole contest wasn't that brilliant as so many people dropped out and failed to complete. Title is A Good Day to Die. My mum posed for me, bless her.


Currently, I'm still working at improving my art skills, but will be returning to the animation soon.

Crowd Scenes

I've been using Google Street View as reference for my background people. It's great as you can see the natural forms of people as they go about their daily lives. Luckily for me I was already using people with blank faces.

Still not posting much these days. Most of Feb was taken up with The Battle of the Sexes over on conceptart.org. Us girls were given the title"Brotherhood". I probably spent 30 plus hours on it. It might be as far as I can push vector drawing. I'm just chuffed to bits that I made the final at my first attempt as I'm up against some great stuff.

Time to update my infrequent blog.

The Broccoli in my previous post won this month’s Serif competition. I’ll be getting their Photo Plus X2, which is bit like Photoshop. I really enjoy using DrawPlus as everything is laid out in a logical manner and I hardly ever have to consult the manual.

Been messing about with Cam Studio and doing performance art!







And here’s a wooden eggcup.

Quiet isn't it?

Sorry for not updating. I have no idea if anyone reads this stuff or not but I like to think someone does. It's actually more for myself than anyone else. Being on so many forums also takes up a huge chunk of my spare time. I've given up slavishly watching loads, but there are a few art and animation ones I can't tear myself away.

Any hoot, I've been hard at work doing more animation on my main character. He's changed a fair bit since I started. I really need to get started on the other three. The position of the head is not that important at this stage, as I'm only interested in the body movement. The lapels have gone because they jumped around too much.



Since then I've been drawing vegetables. I'm drawing them straight from life. It's fun and I'm learning a lot. I'm rather proud of my broccoli. This was done totally in vector. It was slowing done my computer a lot so when I eventually ungrouped everything to find out how many objects there were and finding it was 44,777, was amazing. I know it took a few hours, but I didn't realise how many little bits I had.

Boy, has work been tough this month. Deadlines are next Tuesday and then I can relax a bit. I’ve been slodging out reading forums this month and not gone to any life drawing classes or done much in the drawing department because I’ve been too exhausted.

For my animation, I’ve been grinding away at backgrounds and background characters. No work has been done on the main characters and I really need to get back to them soon. I’ve been messing about with Antics to get the low down on some movements. The lead singer is fairly jerky, so using cold, shock and various other expressions; I can cobble together a reasonable dance routine. The Antic dance stuff really does suck, but small bits might be okay. By exporting it frame by frame I can use the movement to animate my characters by using the Antic models as templates. I know it’s not ideal, but I’m still learning loads even if it is the wrong way round. Actually, I learn most things the wrong way round; my brain must be wired up wonky.

Maybe if I had my life in front of me I might do things differently. I have a deadline and if I miss it, I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life. The window is fairly large (2010 – 2011), so I won’t be panicking until the end of next year.

Here’s another background. Just another 200 or so to go.

Getting bored with titles

Well, my husband is back in touch with his old manager. Seems that bygones are bygones, which is a relief for me. It would be nice if he made up with the lead singer’s ex-wife as well. I liked her and I think the whole thing is stupid, but I wasn’t around then.

Things are going slow on animation front. I’m still churning out the backgrounds; I need so many! I’m going to redo the other band members, especially the girls, now that I’ve rediscovered some of my drawing skills.

I forgot to mention that I won the June 2008 contest over on the Serif website with my Gherkin, and because I already had DP8, they offered me X2, the latest version. This has key frames, but I’m happier with stop frames (it looks better) at the moment. There are loads of additional features that I haven’t had time to explore yet.