Maid Marian and Her Merry Men Portraits project 31/10/14

Ever since I discovered the amazing artist Todd Schorr and his blend of cartoons and pulp art. I have wanted to render characters in to a semi realistic render like he does in his paintings. a lot of well known properties and characters have had this concept executed by a lot of talented artists =). But i felt that lesser known or forgotten shows do not get this treatment. I intend to change this with the new body of work I present to you for this months illustration project.

Maid Marin and her Merry Men

For those of you who do not know Maid Marian was a BBC kids tv series written and staring the great Tony Robinson (from Black Adder). It even got produced in to a colourful comic book with the wonderful cartoon work of Paul Cemmick (He is now an artist for our national SFX magazine). The premise was that Marian was the fearless leader rebelling against an angry King John and Sheriff of Nottingham (who Tony Robinson played). While the (quote) hero Robin Hood and the other merry men were kind of useless and weak yet Marian would tolerate their incompetence. Robin was a coward and cared more about his fashion then fighting.

The aim of these illustrations was to take Cemmicks character designs from the comic and translate them in to a more semi realistic style that represented the characters personality. Due to time constraints this month (mostly to do with Poycon Uk) I was only able to get four of the main cast done but I made sure that each portrait was up to a high standard I also used different light sources to make each individual stand out and look visually more interesting.

Sadly its hard to find the comics nowadays  but the TV show you can find on Youtube. :)

Until next Post Laters ;)

Jowy shenaggins 27/10/14 new month long illustration project almost done

Phew Coming to the end of another hard working month and my new Illustration project is almost done. 

Its not going to be as epic as my Middle East 2050 series but its still going to be done to a very high quality. 

It also would fit into the fan art category.

All will be relieved this Friday ;) 

Until next Post Laters

Jowy shenaggins 13/10/14 New Project continued

Some more WIP screenshots of the new pieces i am creating for this months brief. All the characters in this series are based off a live action show that used to be on BBC back in the 90s and was also published as a comic book that told the same stories but in a fun cartoon style. 

Until next post LATERS :)

Jowy shenaggins 6/10/14 New Project

Today I am starting a new month long project not as ambitious as my  Middle East 2050 series but its going to home in on my digital painting skills some more and its technically fan art as well.

heres some WIP screenshots.  

Until next Post LATERS

Jowy Shenanigans 23/1/13

Updates on Humanised.com comic project

Hello again lovely people I have some big updates on the characters for humanised.com =D

Our main framer gal has a name now. It connects to the story we have scripted CADA (control alt Delete…. foreshadowing see). Her dragon pet needs a quirky name. As well as the other cast that need some finalising in their designs.

CADA CADA I cannot stop smiling at that name it feels perfect for her character even if there is none as of now.

Apart from the protagonist name decision. I scraped the promo image I was doing for my DA   and restarted it from scratch today showing you the process on how I am using my recent interest in values as a key to understand contrasts in my illustrations better. Its really becoming an effective way of maturing my digital painting skills.      

i changed the pose to show the hard working nature of  the girl  almost as if shes stoping for a break 

tip always use hard brushes first when doing values it makes setting tones on the other layers much easier  later on

When ever i digital paint my design tends to alter slowly because i keep switching between hard and soft brushes its a good practise but this makes the process as little tiring because your working on area sometimes for 20 10 minutes 

this is nowhere near finished or polished as i desire it. her face needs more work so dose that hand pose

I will resume it sometime tomorrow  folks 

 i have got the script of the comic prolog from my writer (Dad) so i may scan it and upload it tonight 

if not LATERS until next post  ; )

Jowy Shenanigans 22/1/13

Lots to think about in one day like the latest episode of Lost Kingdoms of South America

Looked at my values in digital painting using my jowy characters as the test subjects.

I want viewers to see a vibrant working world with a lot of expression and detail when they see my illustrations even if their roughs.

Concentrated on the woods trust cartoons to start this cold snow filled week off.

The pictures are still going to feature my beanie characters because of the reasons I explained in my pervious post. But I am sneakily using the natural environment they are in as a deceive to draw and colour in more detail making it less generic and closer to the actual locations being visually shown in the background

Amazing how even your cartoon pieces can pop with a little help from hard and soft brushes at different opacities

Seeing how the UK has been hit by a lot of snow I think its only right to design a winter themed piece. There were a lot of broken snowboards left t the edge of the woods let me tell you.

i added the figures in the back to make the 

Composition less lonely and empty the woods does have more then two visitors at the same time.. 

Humanised.com comic project will have an update on its promo and development soon so stay tuned.

Until next update Laters  ;)

Jowy Shenanigans 19/1/13

Not much of a huge update on the humanised.com comic project. But here is a sample of the promo I am putting together for DA which Is been drawn digitally it is of the famer girl and her pet dragon who will be the protagonists throughout the adventure.

I am trying to get it done ASAP because my schedule for next week will be rather packed I believe. At the same time I want to continue development on my other projects including the pony title cards.

Oh Rats There’s one other project I have forgotten to mention.

After been out of work for so long like 7 months and going back and froth with the job centre and sites. I figured for the New Year it was about time to try a different approach to getting recognised for my talent. So I looked at visual ways to promote the local Warley woods trust and its members because they do so much for this tiny bit of greenly situated in a predominantly urban and built up area. They do nature walks, bat hunting, golfing (partly because there’s a golf Crouse) and music festivals. Every time I go to Warley woods I am filled with that warm feeling of nature and community it has drawn people together over the years so it’s a very special place and haven to everyone in the region.

Then it hit me like an apple from Newton’s tree. “I need to design some

cartoons /illustrations that could sell the services the woods run and present it in a positive light”.

That’s exactly what I did and have done for the last week and a half on top of other things.

My original idea style wise was to juxtapose reality with fantasy like my influence Todd Schorr. The above sketch is to illustrate in a cute funny way families adopting trees from the woods for protection

Watching you birds Shower

              During development of the above sketches that i planed on inking in detail. Someone suggested my iconic bean characters because they are expressive and universal so they could appeal to everyone without insulting or stereotyping. 

I was not sure about this suggestion at first because i find my Beanies to be a cop out nowadays. An excuse not to improve on things i cannot design or draw that well and need more practice in.

I need to draw more animals this year

But after inking in these two bean related illustrations advertising the dog walking and bat hunting my mind set completely changed. I now can see promise in these characters as cards or cartoons for visitors to pick up as a reminder of the fun time they had in the woods.

I started another one today but not moved on to colour yet.

Once I have these illustrations finalized I am sending them off to the trust to get their feedback on whether my work or art could help in branding the woods to the public better.

Disappointed that there’s been a lack of jowy related drawing last week but I am taking each day as it comes not rushing or forcing anything.

Maybe do some tonight  ^ ^ ;

Until next Post LATERS Folks ; )

Jowy Shenanigans 16/1/13

Humanised.com comic project updates

Today was a very proactive day with the comic and other shenanigans. Although it looks like a bunch of rough pencil sketches that are slightly smudged sadly because I lean on my sketchbook a lot. These are here to establish the main characters designs and poses in the comic before I move on to layouts or anything else.

FACT What’s been decided for the story? 

• ·      Our lead protagonist will be the young female framer to break the cliché of the male hero. (I just want to draw a female hero is the real reason O.K) 
• ·      She will need to rescue someone in the story. A prince who’s the damsel in distress as of now. He may get more character development later on. 
• ·      There will be at least four other characters that will join the girl and aid her in her quest each with a unique personality. 
• ·      The universe this epic will take place in will be the city of the Internet so almost everything about it will get referenced in the background or by words. Think of roger rabbit  but its over 9000 yeah those jokes may be in there too.

 I am going to try and persuade my dad who’s the writer of the comic to put up the script this week so you can get a better understanding of the story.  I would like to get as many people interested in this project as soon as possible. I am thinking of putting up a promo piece on my DA account this week as well.

thats the update on the comic right now more to come just you wait. 

I thought my last post was kind of small considering pervious ones . I decided to share some of my rough sketches I did before and after the new year enjoy.  

Have Faith for this year will be good 

Ponies can go with anything even Aphex Twin lol

                      

My university note pads were really in fashion for sketching last year. =D

 But i have a ton of sketchbooks why choose these i hear myself asking?

this was Inspired after seeing the new History documentary series on BBC Four. Lost kingdoms of south America. Extremely fascinating don’t ask me what this sketch is about go watch the dang thing right now.  

I was trying to channel the style of Al Williamson because i was looking at a book earlier full of sketches he had done.


Until we meet again folks

LATERS ;)