Wednesday 20 May 2015

More giff-ing

I'm not sure how I came across it, but I ended up on Youtube yesterday watching a video on digital painting. 

This guy was an absolute boss at town scenes and I realised that I hardly ever draw them.

He would start off using tone to plan out out thumbnail compositions.  I've never tried doing value sketches in Photoshop before but it turned out to be very useful.  I might have to use this method for planning out my roughs. 






It was so much fun using this layered technique, I ended up making another animated gif.  Started off with large simple shapes:




Added some more detail:



(That's little Peter in the corner, guiding the balloons)  


Have a look at this guy's channel - although all the work there is enough to make you weep and want to go back to art school for another five years:  Tyler Edlin's Youtube Channel

Dad's tapir story

Hi again,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - I'm going to make up for it, I promise.
It seems Dad couldn't resist writing a story for my Tapir of long-ago.  And I couldn't resist posting it.  I like it a lot better than the story I'd planned for it. 
Next I will have to get something of my sister's up here but like most teenagers, I think her art is a closely guarded secret.  Anyway, thanks for being the sole dedicated reader of my blog - yes, I'm talking to you Jen!  You can't hide forever!

Tommy was usually an unusually happy Tapir. Except today his friend Sammy the Orang-utan told him something he didn’t understand. 

“We’re in danger of becoming stinked?” said Tommy.
“Not stinked, Ex-tinct.” said Sammy, casually unpeeling a banana.
“You already stink Sammy” teased Tommy. He flicked some muddy water at Sammy playfully. The Orang-utan batted it away with his big hands and peered back at Tommy seriously.
“Do you know what Extinct means Tommy?”
“Nope” said Tommy munching on some leaves and wiggling an ear. Sammy sighed.
“It means after you die there might not be any more Tapirs.”
Tommy thought about this for a moment. It didn’t seem to be a big deal. Mum and Dad will always be here even if he didn’t have any brothers or sisters, and in any case all my friends are other animals like Sammy. But Sammy looked a bit sad and as Sammy was older and wiser than him he thought he’d better try listening a bit harder. 
“Men keep cutting down the forest and soon there will be nowhere for you to go” said Sammy scratching his chest.
“But you live in the forest too, where will Orang-utans go?”
“Oh we’ll be just fine, were cousins of Man they are going to look after us, keep a bit of forest just for us or put us in a nice zoo”
“What’s a zoo?” asked Tommy
“It’s a special place where Men take their cubs to look at animals and you get fed by men called keepers”
“That sounds nice, can I go to a zoo?”
“Hmmm doubt it. Tapirs are not very interesting are they?” said Sammy looking Tommy up and down
“I mean what does a Tapir do?”







“Men-cubs like animals that do stuff or look fierce like Lions, not stand around all day in muddy hollows snuffling about” Sammy said a little unkindly
“But we are quite cuddly aren’t we?” said Tommy feeling a little hurt 




Tommy thought it might be nice being cuddled by a man cub. 
He also thought it might be nice to go to a Zoo and wondered what all the other animals would be like? Would they be kind to him or mean?