I’m often asked how I do what I do… Artists’, we get that a lot, right? I happily let people know that there are no magic wands involved and that the process usually employs only a little elbow grease, a jot of focus and the ability to apply oneself.
As a teacher, it’s ultra important for me, that my students understand this…
Here’s a drawing from a couple of years ago and the three-step-process I took to achieve the final (inked) version:
I spent a few months last year playing with animated ideas. If you look at earlier posts you’ll see a whole heap of backgrounds I created for the project. It was/is my intention to bring my character Finn MacNiall to life. It was a bit of a learning curve to bring things up to this level and I learned a whole lot on a short space time, of course there’s room for improvement but if things are fun you don’t mind the extra work involved. This one of my earlier efforts, I see this one as a bit of a breakthrough (ie earlier efforts were crappier 🙂
You might have to reduce your browser window to see it properly. For some reason Facebook videos load oddly…
Told you I’d been busy 🙂 I’ve been bashing away at these over the past week, heaps more to come…
Just been playing with this one…
I liked this small section of the image I posted earlier, thought I’d zoom in and crop it…
Some of the images I’ve been working on today…
Here’s a quick evening scratchling. keen -eyed watchers will note the change in Finn’s ‘look’. Still working on it…
I’ve been at it for almost a whole day today, I’m beat. Here’s the final image before I grab an hour or two…
Here’s Finn MacNiall, on the run still. Fleshing out yesterday’s sketches for some clarity…
Last sketch for the day…
I’ve been a sketching away all day in between giving my eyes a rest and the occasional meditation session. Really enjoying this stuff lately…
Really enjoying this stage I’m at with this project, my favourite part is the realisation, the ‘fleshing out’ of ideas, making the characters work, the environment, the mood… Exciting stuff!
a little background practice from the past few days…
I’ve not posted anything lately, it’s been a hard hard slog, this ‘life’ thing of late, I’m hanging in there though (just).
Here’s a mouse holding a sword, for your entertainment…
Added some colour to this one yesterday…
I repainted this one and took it a step or two further (see earlier post)…
…Waking from a dream…
Finn (Our hero) is dreaming here…
Page 4- all finished (text to be added at a later date)…
The great big white area has been left for text, btw…
Here’s what I’ve been working on for the past couple of days…
Started this one last night, just finished…
Coloured up another illustration today…
Coloured this one up, I’m enjoying this process…
Added some colours to this one…
Tonight’s illustration…
Our hero, pressing on despite everything the fates are throwing at him.
Looking for a balance between lines and digital colours, had a play with this illustration…
Just playing with cover ideas, a little premature but we live in hope…
I began this one at my social art group-thingy in watercolour this evening and spent an hour or so on it digitally…
Just finished this one off, very much enjoying this process right now…
Didn’t fancy doing anything too elaborate this evening, drew this instead…
Another sequential page, this is the tightened version, I wouldn’t want to hurt your eyes with the really rough one 🙂
Just finished this cross-hatched mess. This is what happens when illustrations aren’t planned properly. The good AND the bad, right?
Couldn’t sleep last night, started this one during the wee wee hours…
Finished this one a day or two ago, forgot to post it…
Played with this image today, here’s a close-up of the bottom left hand corner…
This morning’s drawing.
I’m finally done with this image. Here it is with some colours added…
Here’s the completed image. Apologies for so many posts re: this one, thought it’d be interesting to see the steps and how it all came together…
REALLY enjoying working on this one, might down tools and finish it off tomorrow, though. It’s been a long day…
Roughed up a quick (20 min) illustration idea using a couple of photos and hand-drawing (sketchbook Pro) our hero… funfunfun…
Just finished this one, will of course add text at some point…
Thoroughly enjoyed working on the inking process this morning…
Taking the roughs a step further ready for inking (eventually)…
Haven’t drawn anything like this for a loooooong time. I finally have enough text written out to work up some sequential pages…
A mouse with a sword. Don’t mess with him…
One from this evening…
Today’s VALIANT offering…
This little guy can really move when he needs to…
This morning’s sketch. Leaves make great boats…
Working up new illustration ideas…
Our hero’s keeping out of the way of this ‘orrible band of nasties…
Poor Finn seems to have found himself in a spot of bother…
I haven’t drawn my little mouse ‘Finn MacNiall’, for a while, going to open up the box and see what happens- I need something to sink my teeth into and this little guy is currently squeeking up. More to follow…
Just a mouse with a spear, nothing special. Drew this one a week or two ago…
Still working on this one in between other things, Here’s a bit of a close-up as it’s taking shape…
With all this VALIANT artwork and my rekindling of the project happening, I thought I’d reopen the facebook VALIANT page. It’s full of old artwork, ideas, animations and tutorials etc.
feel free to pop over and hit ‘like’ if you like it.
See you there?
https://www.facebook.com/Valiantmouse?ref=hl
This one’s a tonal sketch for an upcoming painting…
been working on more Finn MacNiall stuff for my VALIANT project. Here’s Finn, on the run…
And I wanted to try something out, using watercolours, looking for a style that also involves some linework. (apologies for the scan)
I’ve been dusting off my old Finn MacNiall drawing skills (character from my VALIANT project). Had a chat with the writer, hopefully, we’ll be onto this soon. It’s been far too long…
It’s taking it’s time, lots of commissioned stuff to do, but here’s a look at how the VALIANT project stands right now. I’m very much looking forward to getting back onto this properly at some point…
https://www.facebook.com/Valiantmouse
http://thevaliantone.com
Didn’t have time for much else other than this sketch today… This one’s Finn MacNiall, from my (in progress) graphic novel, here’s a link to what I’ve done with it so far…
http://thevaliantone.com
