Cinderella illusrations (Иллюстрации к "Золушке")

This project started so long ago that I can't even remember when. I was telling a friend that I was taking a painting class and she suddenly remembered that she knows somebody (another friend's mom) who was in need of some illustrations. Turned out this friend's mom, Marina, created a children's play in verse based on the classic Cinderella story. And it came out so well that she wanted to share it with the world in a form of an eBook. Of course, sharing plain text is fun, but text with illustrations is much more exciting. So, that's where I came in.

Illustration class – Final project – Alice in Wonderland book cover

Final project is supposed to be the most challenging and most involved project of the semester, and it really was. For several reasons. In the beginning – because I wanted it to be special.  I didn't just want a scene from the book to be the cover, I wanted an idea, something original, a different spin, a different point of view. So I was looking for that idea for a while. And later on it was challenging because it was simply huge (30x20") and therefore time consuming, and also because I had some technical difficulties while working on it.

Story of one dress.

Making my own dresses to go to friends' weddings became sort of a tradition for me. Mainly because I hate shopping and I am way too picky to find anything that I like.  And, of course, it's a chance for a creative project. But I never felt like writing about any of them. This last dress I made though, was pretty special, so I thought I'd tell the world (the little world that surrounds me) about it.

Illustration class - Invisible Cities

This project was based on a book by Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities. Entire book consists of 50 or so short descriptions of different imaginary cities. Some are pretty abstract and bizarre, but most are more or less imaginable. We were supposed to choose one and illustrate it. 

Illustration class – fashion/costume design based on an art movement.

I think this one turned into graphic design project rather than illustration. I guess partly because of the idea and the art movement that I chose.



But first thing's first...

Beautiful animation

Created by two Australian guys, Ari Gibson and Jason Pamment. Their studio is called Mechanical Apple. Apparently they make their films in Photoshop too. One of them works on the backgrounds and the other animates the foreground I suppose. But at least they composite everything in After Effects, which makes more sense to me. Personally. I really wish I could watch over their shoulder and see how it's all done.

I like this one one a lot. It's not very eventful, but sweet and beautiful.

Illustration class - Portrait of a famous person with an animal

The purpose of this project was to have a piece in our portfolio that shows our rendering skills. So we had to choose someone recognizable and throw in an animal that represents this person somehow.

About the process.

Animation made with Photoshop

Few days ago I learned that some people create their animations in Photoshop! Shocking news for me really. Aside from animated gifs, PS didn't seem like a very useful animating tool. Yet, here is an artist, Alex Grigg, that uses solely PS for some of his animations.



After watching his tutorial... still not entirely convinced that it's a good animating tool. Though I can see his point that as far as visual art, you can do anything you like there, since it's, well, Photoshop. As long as you know how to make a drawing there, you can animate it. Just have redraw it about a thousand times. But I guess that's how most of animation is done anyway.

What I didn't like (at least at first) is the timeline. Seems cumbersome.  And endless amount of layers that you have to create. He has his workflow all figured out though - uses actions a lot. Which definitely simplifies things quite a bit.

Might give a try some day.

Here is the tutorial.

 

Petting Zoo – really cool iOs app

Found this few days ago. (ok, a friend shared it on FB) A very unique iOS game/app by Christoph Niemann. 

Here is an article where he talks about the process of making it. 

There are quite a few well made apps/books/games out there, but I haven't seen one with such fluid animation. Very inspirational. 

Illustration class - Visual poetry

In my illustration class we had a project called "Visual Poetry", where we had to use typography and image to illustrate a short piece of text - poem, story or a quote of our choice. This was probably the most labor intensive project since I was going to school the first time. But I really like the results and it was definitely something new and exciting. Though the smell of aceton that I had to use wasn't my favorite.

A little bit about how it was created...

Beautiful charcoal animation

I really like working with charcoal. It's a very simple yet versatile medium. You can be very soft or very bold and graphic or very precise.  And it's used beautifully here with combination of all those techniques. Love the forest scene (around 6min mark) - the depth and the mood. And the transforming bear. 

URSUS from Atom Art on Vimeo.

Weird animation from Finland

The tongue theme is a bit disturbing, but I really like the style of the illustration and animation.



The Tongueling from Elli Vuorinen on Vimeo.

An unusual method of animation

Neat idea. I wonder how they kept the measurements of the drawings all the same - in post production or the artists were given guidelines... Must be good artists too, in the sessions that I sometimes go to not everyone can even keep the correct proportions. :) Including me.



Life Drawing at The Book Club from Wriggles & Robins on Vimeo.

The very first post

Finally I decided it's time for me to start my own blog, so I can share things that I am working on and inspiring things that I find. Maybe it'll even keep me more organized. Or not. In any case, here it is...