Visual Diary – Did you… find any girls?

I realise we need some context here. I was going to summarise it, but the context for this is only a couple of hundred words long, so get ready either for some scrummy world building or to scroll.

Harriet, the Halfling girl who met them earlier, was still at Reception. The thick red book detailing room numbers and payments was closed on the desk next to her, and the room was almost completely quiet. Occasionally, muffled footsteps sounded from the floor above as people moved around their rooms.

She could have finished her shift half an hour ago. Once it hit eleven, on a quiet night, she knew she was free to close up and leave the Inn to take care of itself until morning. But she stayed, fidgeting with her plaits and drumming her fingers on the table.

She was waiting for someone.

That wizard girl, Techo, who had come in earlier and booked a room with her friends but left before even looking at the room. She had mentioned going out to find a girl to – … Harriet’s cheeks coloured as she remembered how explicitly she had put it.

Harriet had pulled Techo aside quietly before Techo left, and gave her warning that speaking so openly about that sort of thing might not be taken kindly to in Plinton. It was a sleepy, conservative-minded sort of village. But Techo had gone to try her luck nevertheless.

Harriet had been sure she would have been back before long, but a couple of hours had passed and still no sign of her. In truth, she had been hoping to catch her on her return. Techo needed a bed for the night, she was out looking for girls… and she was very pretty.

I’ve never done anything so forward in my life, let alone with another girl, Harriet thought to herself. How would I even start the conversation? I’ll probably get nervous and bail out – and that’s even if she comes back tonight.

Am I that type?

Harriet let herself daydream about Techo for a moment, about what might happen if they did go back to Harriet’s room together, and it became immediately clear by how quickly she flustered that she was that type, whatever that meant.

Would I – would I be any good at it? She must have a lot of experience, talking so confidently like that. Perhaps she’d laugh at me. She didn’t seem like the type to laugh, though.

Where on earth is she finding all these girls to … sleep with?

Harriet looked behind her and checked the clock on the wall. It was midnight: time to give up. If Techo had managed to find a liberal-minded girl in Plinton-on-the-Plain, then kudos, Harriet thought.

She readied herself to hop down from her high stool, but lingered for one second longer.

The sudden sound of the Inn door opening made her jump.

Paddington – Tom Kerridge Coloured

Doing this has made me realise two things: one, that I am an illustrator, not an animator – and two, when I animate, I can make it look pretty bloody good.

Sorry the process video is FRIED.

Other things I’ve done is import that big pavilion background into the working file (with the four crops), and put these frames (but transparent) over the first shot.

Watching Tom moving over the pavilion background has revived me. I was filled with ennui until I saw him in his natural habitat. Now I get the sense that I might be making something very cool indeed.

Critique notes: the back of the chair and back of the waist fluctuates a little more than I’d liked. This is a learning curve, though, and it could be argued that it emphasises the hand-drawn nature of it and brings out the frame by frame element of it. This works considering the theme is all about animation, so a a few metaphorical obvious brushstrokes are far from undesirable.

I am really enjoying the marmalade I drew on. The scribbled texture changes with each frame, and gives it this real visual interest and life. It also means I can hugely emphasise the movement of the sandwich, which will come in useful in the next two shots.

Sewing Project – Old Shorts

One of the big presents I got for Christmas this year was a sewing machine. I’ve handmade a few clothes and items in the past year – my jester’s shirt most notably, and my cloak – and hand-sewing is incredibly time consuming.

Today I threaded it up for the first time and messed about with my boyfriend’s dad’s old pair of shorts. These were M&S Men long shorts, but in lovely cotton. I had always just tied the waist very tight but now I sliced them up and re-sewed the waist and legs. I did everything by eye (that’s just who I am), and I’m super pleased with the results!

Here are some “before” photos. (Not exactly – another pair of the same measurements I took from Clive on the same day, but they were both this loose.)

And there is the after! I took some off of both sides of the waist, managed to keep three out of four of the pockets (NOT easy) and also managed to fit it perfectly. I like this length: it reminds me of shakespearean puffling pants, especially so well fitted to the waist.

The whole project took me as long as it takes to prove a loaf of bread (about three hours, in this weather), but that includes threading the machine up for the very first time. Speedy or nothing at all, says I!

Visual Diary – Christmas Posts!

I took time this year to create some posts to acknowledge my work in 2022. This took the form of two posts I created in advance on Christmas Eve and one I drew on Christmas Day.

This first one is actually a redraw of a Christmas post from 2016.

This final one was the one I drew on Christmas day, while watching people fight for second place in Articulate. This year was the year of the Jester universe. It was the year of hundreds of other things, but the sheer amount of work and love and colour that universe yielded for me was unprecedented.

This drawing is in the modern world – they’ve just gotten a little drunk during Christmas celebrations – but it’s a nod to their other selves. A world where Mitzi is a King and they live together in a grand palace with libraries and mazes and orchards and masquerade balls. Every universe they live through informs their characters in every other universe – they’re the same people. I love them.

Visual Diary – Vampires

Spending some time up in Southerndown this Christmas bought back the Vampire universe in my heart. The Vampire universe was born right after I visited my dad last July, and was in full swing in mid-August when I was moving house. We can take a Freudian dip into my sudden enjoyment of permanent, unchanging states while I was packing up my whole life and moving somewhere new (and completely changing my hair and style) OR we can sit back and watch them enjoy toying with each other.

Below are three pieces made over as many days. Often while watching Bill and Ted films.

Always looking to experiment with contrast, composition, colour. Notable here is the colour scheme and exploring quick ways to create whole scenes to situate the characters in.

The experimentation here is using a real image as the background. My experiments are always best when inspired by honest passion and excitement, and this one’s goal was to be able to quickly get out a sketch in 20 minutes that captured the feeling I had when I walked over those stones and got sentimental.

I’ve had a sentimental Christmas. Interesting just to keep note in terms of the bigger picture of What I Want to Say that actually, so much of my character art is making big comments through the lens of small interactions. I read in the preface of Jane Eyre that Charlotte Bronte’s work was so poignant because it got across the simplest feelings so genuinely: I exist. I desire. I suffer. I love.

This one’s good because I used references. I was both Mitzi and Drake, obviously, because only I do the reference photos right. This is just a dumb joke because she wouldn’t have a reflection.

I close out with a quote or two from my vampire writing – I haven’t chosen the quotes yet, but do enjoy.

“In 1895, I watched the Nutcracker for the first time. When I heard Pas de Deux, I’m embarrassed to say I cried in the theatre. When I left, I booked a ticket for the show for the very next night. I had to hear it again.

“That piece of music made me think about the nature of things. It’s at the end of the second act.”

Drake cut in with a whisper. “I know when Pas de Deux plays.”

“Ah. Well, yes. Do interrupt me if I’m rambling.”

“Please, don’t stop.”

Ludwig flustered slightly at Drake’s words.

“It makes me think of things ending. It’s beautiful, celebratory, and so deeply sad. It says, you’re here. And you won’t be here soon. But, right now, you’re here, and these moments are beautiful. I am going on,” Ludwig sighed.

“…Permanence and impermanence. Here and not-here. I watch the Nutcracker every year, live or recorded, somehow.

“Now, you’ve been stumbling half the way here. I know how dark it is. Will you let me lead you on the way back?”

“It’s unlocked!”

Antonia stood up shakily and tried to remember anything she had planned on saying as Mitzi sauntered in.

She was momentarily dumbstruck. Mitzi’s outfit, usually ridiculous enough, consisted today of a brightly coloured pinwheel hat – on top of her regular Hawaiian shirt and shorts. This wasn’t outside of the realm of Mitzi’s insanity, however, and Antonia drew a breath.

“Mitzi!” The words felt ridiculous coming out of her mouth, but she said them anyway:

“Are you a vampire?”

Mitzi stopped mid-saunter. She plonked herself down on Antonia’s sofa, where she liked to sit.

“You’re not even going to mention the hat?”

“Mitzi. Don’t mess with me.”

Mitzi held Antonia’s face while she talked. Her hands were cool, but they burned.

Antonia continued. “A week ago, I didn’t even know vampires existed. My heart…”

This was as close as Antonia would get to making a cry for help. What she was saying was, I’ve been completely overwhelmed. My heart is exhausted. I feel like rugs keep being pulled out from under my feet.

Mitzi knew Antonia, and she understood.

She pulled Antonia instead down into a hug, holding Antonia’s head close and whispering into her ear.

“My name is Mitzi Harper. I have also been Elizabeth Hyde, Henrietta Marshall, Gwendolyn Bell, Ann Robinson, Millie Delacroix, and many others. Once upon a time I was Laurene Weaver. Now I am a vampire.

“I’m easy. I mess around. Life is a party. I’ve met Shakespeare, Cezanne, and King George the Fourth. Percy and Mary Shelley have double-teamed me while Byron watched. My only rule has been that I DO NOT let myself fall in love.”

Paddington – Tom Kerridge Shot

Today I woke up with fear in my heart, but after a morning of work I’m feeling good, loose, happy and I learned a lot!

I learned how to manipulate video in Photoshop and to export as a series of images. This will be hugely useful to me with any frame by frame animation I do.

Below is a video showing the process of getting to a point where I had sketched frames of movement. Now it will be making them look more Tom Kerridgey and less Gemma-y, sorting the lines and costume, cleaning up, colouring – but I’d say the hard work is done! I’m happy with the movement.

Little quirks I like about the animation are the subtle changing-of-hands when the bread is pressed together and ready to throw, evidenced in a frame with outstretched fingers. I also like that the chest follows the motion a bit, so we get a coherent feeling, rather than if I had just guessed the movement and drawn freely.

It’s fun having to document this project and process so closely. Putting my efforts into videos is becoming content in itself, and it really emphasises the fun I’m having as well as the things I’m learning.

Paddington – Mad Laddington

Cool for everyone witnessing this project thread to get to see my neurons die in real time as the words “Paddington Bear” weave themselves into my thoughts in any way they can. Prime examples are of me calling Roderick “Paderick Roddington”, me trying to say I had to blog paddington but instead trying to “Plag Bloddington” and also “Plog Baddington”. Other words I can give as examples are “Pladerick Bloggington”, “Ploderick Roggington”, “Pladdington Plog.”

Anyway, I’ve drawn the opening shot and put a cool little parralaxxy movement over it so that the hedges move faster than the background, creating this illusion of depth and real camera movement. I also put in rough timings for each of my presenters, and put the effects over the final shot. This is an animatic suggesting the final.

As of yesterday, I also created one huge pavilion scene that will be featured as the backgrounds for the presenters as four separate crops. The fact that it’s four crops of one image will hopefully tie the viewer down to one location.

The next moves are to fit these into the working animatic document, and then – curses and hatred – it will be to start actually animating. I’m nervous about animating because these are real people, and need to be recognisable, and I need to put work out nice enough that it’s showing them respect. Because they’ll see it, you know? I know I can. The nerves are only here because I haven’t done it yet.

Visual Diary – Bound?!

Ever since I drew the Bound reel for Drake and Ludwig – a sweet, loving thing – I’ve wanted to create a sister reel for Mitzi and Antonia that just epitomises silliness and chaos.

I took the same audio as before and added a bunch of dumb noises at the end.

Again, I challenged myself to work in a bit of relevant plot that highlights the mood I was going for, and we find ourselves with a ridiculous handcuffing scene. I’m not sure if it’s exactly plot-faithful, but in amongst the frustration of getting caught, Mitzi finds time to joke about with her new captor. This plot is a delightful showcase of Mitzi playing with Antonia, because every shred of Antonia’s instinct tells her to play back and engage – but of course, you have to be a little serious with your prisoner.

I particularly love the angles I went with here – foreshortening with Mitzi’s hands, a looking-down-from-above from Antonia to really suggest atmosphere without explicitly including it. The compositions are clean and the anatomy is good. I’ve made this one of Antonia my home screen because I just keep coming back to it.

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