ARTIST FEATURE- Tove Jansson

Tove Jannson was a Swedish artist and illustrator who was the author of the world wide famous Moomintroll series otherwise known as the "Moomins"
Her stories held deep philosophical meaning about respecting nature, people and appreciation for life.
They became so immensely popular that the series was made over and over again into various cartoons and anime as well as producing endless merchandise featuring her characters.

My own digital painting of two of her characters

A model of Moomin house

Tove 's moomin comics are universal in that they each convey a deep philosophical message, her characters have so much depth for being such simple drawings.

she has a very particular style that is perfect for a children's book but can also be enjoyed by adults who have grown up with the comics and books. 

Having grown up with the Moomins TV show I like to think Tove may have influenced my own work on a subconscious level since I put as much care and thought into each of my own illustrations/animations and I think this is a very important quality to have- especially in the industry as high work standards will be valued.

I have my own intentions to write a comic of some sort or a children's book (or at least illustrate one!). I appreciate the idea of this because a child can learn a lot from reading a book that speaks to them, either through pictures that capture their attention from the storyline itself.

It is evident that Tove cared deeply about each comic she did and to think that she had to come up with a fresh new story each week whilst still maintaining her heartwarming touch is pretty remarkable and I greatly admire her for that.    

Tove not only created a wide range of charger designs but she also created a believable world for them to live in. She based "Moominvalley" on the forests and landscape of Finland where she absorbed herself in the nature found there, and created a safe secure but exciting world where adventure was an everyday occurrence. 

Project research images and TARGETS

After doing some research, I came across various skeletons and poses that I wanted my mermaid to be in. I mainly looked at diving poses and synchronised swimming for this and found a few poses I was happy with.

I then looked at skeletons, mostly of torsos since that is the human part of the mermaid.

By combining these skeletons with the poses on photoshop, I will able to align the bodies to suit the pose I'm aiming for and this was I can see the bones underneath the skin by altering the layer opacity of the pose above the skeleton layer.

Now I am looking at the skeletal structure of fish and marine mammals in order to start planning the anatomy of the mermaids tail.

TARGETS:

• Decide a pose for my character IN PROGRESS
• Do some research into human anatomy (specifically that of the torso) DONE
• Look at skeletons of fish, eels and shark cartilage. DONE
• Look at diving poses, renaissance poses and water reflection. DONE (water reflection will be done later on)

I have met the targets I set for myself which I'm happy to report! 

MY NEW TARGETS:

• Finalise character pose
• Finish research and mood board
• Update making of guide

These targets MUST be met this week 

Work Based learning module and TARGETS

For my final module (work based learning) we could choose to do either an animation or illustration with a theme of our choosing to focus on.

Initially my idea for a theme focused on sirens and mermaids and so I did some research to gather material for inspiration.

These two paintings were great inspiration for how my mermaid characters could look but I felt it was too conventional to portray them in this manner as beautiful, perfect beings with a fish tail- they are relatively suited to their environment with their fins and webbed fingers but the mermaids I wanted to create would be ominous and alien. I wanted to make them look more like fish than people.

This was more along the lines of how I wanted to design them, with gills and fish-like faces.

A deep sea mermaid was perfect in terms of creepiness!
It was this picture that also gave me an idea for a print I could make with a siren.

These two pictures then made me think of how I could illustrate my mermaid since it would be interesting to look at them as if you were observing a species and discovering how it worked. I could show how their skeleton might look  for example.

The graffiti work of "Nachos" is the perfect example of how I would like to do my illustrations, almost like an exploded diagram with cross sections in it.

It was from this point that I began to make some sketches of how I wanted to approach the project.

A fanged skull with features taken from that of an Eel's skull

One of my portrayed human/marine creature hybrids. I decided to incorporate an electric eel with a human. The result was…interesting :) I actually really like how his hair and tail turned out but I didn't spend too long on his face.

I also drew his skeleton to practice the illustrations I will be producing. Notice how I included a human pelvis with a tail bone. The tops of his leg bones are separate but fuse together to form a fishbone structure that makes up the rest of his tail. He also has protrusions coming out of his spine like a fin.

Pucker up! <3 o__O

How would these mermaids interact with their 15- 20ft neighbours who happen to have a mouth full of teeth?!
Harpoon them of course!

Face detail on a male and female, they aren't that different but the male has more pronounced cheekbones. This one has had a close encounter with a shark judging by the scars on his face and shoulder.

Body detail. Their tail is shark-like and swims from side to side rather than up and down in the manner that dolphins and whales do.

My targets for this week of work included -

• Deciding on what sort of illustration I wanted to do out of the three ideas that I had. DONE
• Begin research into the topic. ONGOING
• Create a work plan/timetable. DONE
• Make a powerpoint presentation showing my ideas. DONE
• Make a proposal and treatment of my project in detail. DONE

My next targets are-

• Decide a pose for my character
• Do some research into human anatomy (specifically that of the torso)
• Look at skeletons of fish, eels and shark cartilage.
• Look at diving poses, renaissance poses and water reflection.

Numeracy blog task- Walk cycle to run cycle

In a run cycle it is a rule that two feet should not make contact with the ground at the same time. The number of frames should also be reduced from 40 to 20.  

At frame 5 the legs are in mid-air and in 15 they are too but the legs are in the opposite position at frame 5 the leading leg may be right and at 15 the leading leg would be right.

Richard Williams shows a perfect example in his book:

Pictoplasma Character selfie entry SWOT analysis

This year Pictoplasma held a competition where artists had to send in pictures of their characters taking "selfies"

The first thing that made me think of using a dinosaur character was that it would have tiny little arms and so taking a selfie would be a hilarious struggle. The dinosaur itself was fairly easy to draw, it was just the scaly texture of the skin that was hard to replicate using brushes and so I used a number of different textures in order to add diversity to the skin depending on where the scales were placed on the body. If you look closely you will notice a different pattern of scales on its head arms and body.

Strengths- I had an idea straight away for the competition. Whilst I made other sketches to make sure I had done enough research I eventually stuck with my original idea.

Weaknesses- The scales were the hardest part of this picture to create as I had to shape the cut out textures I used and subtly blend them together

Opportunities- I had the opportunity to enter a famous competition where judges will have seen my work

Threats- I could have tried to use illustrator to do this piece of work but I chose to stick to Photoshop instead of taking a risk.

FINISHED MODEL SHEET

So this is what my model sheet looks like now, it doesn't have the backstory yet but I will let you read it anyway! ;)




Character backstory:Ludo

Ludo is supposedly the last of his species and is native to the world of Narg.

This gentle giant has a generally sweet and inquisitive nature despite his menacing appearance and

his tall, thin body is surprisingly strong enabling him to twist and contort into almost any position.

Ludo once had a family and a home but they were both lost during a war between his kind and an invading enemy clan.

These barbarians now prowl his once thriving homeland and so he must defend himself with his enhanced speed and agility. Amongst his wanderings and endeavours he likes to entertain himself by staring at the moon, climbing and gazing down from vast heights. He knows one day he will be captured when he can no longer run or hide unless he manages to find some way to pass through the vast, monster-infested ravine that separates him from the safety of the other side of Narg. This is a place still untouched by war and destruction that promises companionship, safety and peace.

Mouse Metamorphosis SWOT analysis

Metamorphosis: 

Whilst in college, we were assigned a task to introduce us to the process of morphing an animal into a machine. This was something I was very excited about as I have always loved the idea of metamorphosis. My initial ideas for a metamorphoses consisted mostly of small animals. This was because I wanted to focus on my animation itself and the process that the animal would undergo to morph into a piece of machinery. By choosing a small, compact animal I would be able to work with short limbs and this also gave me ideas about what I could morph the animal into.

I thought about a snake turning into a hosepipe, as well as turning a snail into a lightbulb but in the end I decided to morph a mouse into a computer mouse. I chose this because the morph itself would offer an interesting transition from animal to object, for example I designed it so that the mouses ears would fold down over it's face to form buttons while it's nose moved up between it's ears to form into the middle button.

in addition, the mouses tail resembled the computer mouses cord. What made it more interesting was that the computer mouses cord was attached at the front of the PC mouse whereas the tail of a mouse is obviously at the other end of its body. This meant I could shrink the tail and make it appear as if it was going through it's body and out through it's mouth.

Evaluation: I was pleased with the outcome of the metamorphosis but if I had to make changes I would concentrate mostly on the movement of the head as it changed. I would also perhaps show the animal struggling halfway through the transformation, almost as if it had become stuck in it's hybrid state temporarily before continuing to morph completely.

There are a lot of ways to portray metamorphosis and it looks like an uncomfortable process (Werewolf transformations are a famous example) I could have used this idea by making the mouse expand or become a boneless lump before being sucked back into it's new appearance or maybe it would cease it's walk cycle and move unnaturally before assuming another shape. 

Strengths- I had become more accustomed to animating in photoshop at this point which made the process easier. I also planned out my metamorphosis thoroughly before attempting to colour or outline the pencil drawing frames.

Weaknesses- Time management, it was an exceptionally time consuming process to both draw and colour the transformation and so I sometimes got behind schedule.

Opportunities- One of my first ever animations was made successfully and so I have gained confidence in myself and my abilities to use Photoshop as mor ethan just a painting programme. 

Threats- Unless the metamorphosis was planned out from start to finish beforehand then it would have been so difficult to interpret the mouses movement.

The background for my model sheets is finished along with my front, back and side view of my character so my targets in those areas that I set last week have been met. Now it is my intention to edit the text of the backstory in illustrator, note which pantone colors are used in the color scheme and print off the finished model sheet by the end of today. I have to get this done so that I can make changes to my essay, finish rigging my 3D character as well as update my making of guide.

In other words it will be a weight off my shoulders and I can have it at the ready to hand in.

Painting the front view of my character was tricky because replicating the painting style took a long time and meticulous brush detail.

In other news, I finished welding my characters body together, now I'm left with the feet and head to attach but in the meantime I started the ominous task of rigging.

                                                                      Rigging the spine

Rigging the arms and legs (at least attempting to!)

Making adjustments to line up the skeleton inside the characters body

Last week was spent with me worrying over the rigging of my character without actually being able to start it until the weekend, I'm concerned that I won't get it finished in time for the deadline since I will need a lot of help to get it done right despite the detailed handout the class has been given to guide us through the complicated process.

Today I will try to get as much of the rigging done as possible because these last few days are crucial. My mental wellbeing depends on it!! :)

Besides rigging I intend to finish and print off my making of guide for my 2D and 3D characters, bind my essay, finalize any sketches to hand in on Friday.

The week after the hand in, I will do research on contemporary 3D artists and post it here. This target was meant to be met last week but due to the amount of work I've been occupied with I had to prioritize   in terms of what needed to be handed in when. As a result one of my targets will be late.