Some pieces of animation!

Well, there has been quite some time since I updated with some animation, but today there will be some animation!

During my internship we were approached by a newly formed production company that were going to make a tv-special about heavy metal bands and concerts. They wanted some animation, although the payment was... a small detail... however, me and my colleague Bosse decided to make some animation for them. We decided to make them as quickly and as "cheap" as we could. In other words I tried my very best to make limited animation work for me. As I've written here many, many times, it's a process, and today I'm going to share that process with you!

The assignment was sketchy to say the least and we got free hands to develop it as we saw fit. The contact with the production company has been... scarce... and the project has changed a couple of times during this summer/autumn/winter...

Metal1

This was the first animation that I did for this assignment. It's a cycle, and it's what happens when you've been headbanging all night long...

Metal2

This piece was based on one of the crew members, again it was easy and fast, and kind of worked, I like it. Unfortunately she left the production so they could not use it. My intention with this animation was to cut to it during an interview or something like that.

Metal3

We had to our disposal some pictures of heavy metal fans, and I found this rock-chick that is so bad ass and cool, that I wanted to animate her. I had still the notion of limited animation, and I tried to solve the issues of the staticness of the parts that doesn't move, here is one of the last linetests that I did. It's a cycle, although I didn't take this idea further...

Ny metal3

...but before I threw it in the bin, I tried to make it with more movement and with a clearer or more simple character.

Airguitar

I wanted something that was easy and clear and also told a story, this piece of animation do all that! I've noticed that I recently has strived for a simpler drawing technique, to find the character without unnecessary details. Maybe I took it to far, but the production company liked it, and this piece of animation was delivered to them.

Hammer of Thor

During this project I looked at what I found fun and interesting about heavy metal, since I'm not that into heavy metal myself I could look at it with fresh eyes. I found some videos of headbanging that was fun to watch so I made some animations with that. Here I've also added the hammer of Thor! What you see here is a linetest and not the finished animation. The finished animation was delivered to the production company.

Singer headbang

This animation also features headbang and hammer of Thor. This is also a linetest and not the finished animation. This animation was delivered to the company.

And that is all my heavy metal animation at the moment, the latest I've heard from the production company was that they enjoyed the animations and that they are going to release the show on youtube, when that will be I don't know, as I said earlier the project has changed somewhat during my stay here...

But it's not over folks.... there's more!

I've also done some animations for a project based on the renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch.

Liedemon/scythe demon

This animation is based on one of Boschs demons from one of his paintings, this animation is featured in a short pilot for the film project, it's a cycle. Here, I also wanted to make it as easy as I could.

Flygande groda/Flying frog

This is also a demon (I think) that I found interesting, and animated it, it's also featured in the pilot, it's a cycle.

Uggla/Owl

This is also a character from a Bosch painting, just a simple blink of an eye, it's also featured in the pilot.

The project is en route, although the financing is a tough nut to crack. The storyboarding has begun.

The Animators Workbook
Many years ago I had an internship at Pennfilm studio in Malmö. The animators there talked about this book by Tony White, The Animators Workbook. I did one of the assignments and found it very rewarding. Later during my education I got the book and browsed through it now and then and did some exercises, this autumn I returned to the book to really try and nail one of them!

This is the first linetest with all of the animation. I developed the exercise somewhat and treated it as a production. I gave the idea some serious thought, wrote a script, made sketches, did a storyboard, drew the keydrawings, worked on those, cleaned them up, and then the inbetweens. I sent this piece of animation to a friend that I pester with such things... He gave me some input that I took to heart, which is shown here:

I did some small touch ups here and there, most notably on the walk, when the character walks in from screen right. I also did some tooling about with the timing and the pauses which is seen here:

This is the final linetest of the exercise to date. I've got some small things to ponder, maybe I'm done with it, maybe not, I haven't decided yet. The main question is, is the character alive?

Is this all then you ask? Nay, I say!

These last weeks I've been nibbling on Maya, the cgi animation tool/software, it is a dozy... It's so complex! When I explained to one of the members here in the workshop, what it was like for me I said this: it's like drawing a picture, with a pencil, but sometimes you have boxing gloves on, and sometimes not... Anyway, yesterday I made this animation and kind of thought that I had gotten the hang of it (it was my fifth day with the software...;-), the animation was not done, but I felt a playblast was in order. So I did one... (Important note, this is my first cgi-animation ever, besides one small tidbit at animation school...!)

Walking_block_man

It did however not move in the manner I had expected it to... I noticed that the speed of the playback when you are animating does not have to be the same speed when you do a playblast... so basically I've made an animation, along the wrong conditions... I'm probably not the first that have discovered this, the hard way... Well, when I saw this I just laughed silently to myself...
I guess John Lasseter did NOT feel a disturbance in the force when I worked on this... or maybe he did... like.... "Ouch..."!
The block_man is featured in the book Introducing Autodesk Maya 2012 by Dariush Derakhshani, and is part of the resources to that book.

Well is that all then... yes it is, for now...

Take care!

Aftershock of Pilgrim

Last weeks update was some sort of a capstone for the Pilgrim project. I'm still very proud of the fact that I finished it. I wrote that Pilgrim was an important story, at least for me. I've been giving it some serious thought, and to give you an idea of the weight of the importance I would have to say that if I'm never going to do a comic again, if Pilgrim was my only attempt at making comics, then I'm very glad that the only story I told was the story of Pilgrim. (looking at that last sentence, I do like the commas...) But hopefully there will be some more comics from my pencil...

A friend asked me if there's going to be another story, with Pilgrim. As of now there's not going to be another adventure. Pilgrim has always been some sort of a one-shot, but if I get an idea that works, Pilgrim might return!

Today I'm going to have a look at my current projects!

Speaking/writing about current projects! I might have some headbanging animation news for you, yes, it's been quite some time since my last update that featured animation. This autumn I've done some pieces of animation that might be featured in some sort of a tv-show. Currently it's quite sketchy, but when I get the news, you will to!

This week I've finished another piece of animation, that might end up on a new demoreel, some time in the future...

Take care!

Pilgrim's done, what now?

This post will be some sort of a summing up of the whole experience with Pilgrim. There might be some tooting in my own horn, but that's what blogging is all about, or is it? Well, you've been warned! In preparation for this post I've read the earlier posts, so I've taken a trip along memorey lane, you might say.

Pilgrim has been very educational to me. I can't say that I'm an expert cartoonist by now, but I can say that I can tell a story with comics.

This monday I had quite the experience. I had printed all the pages and the for- and afterword, put them all in a binder. Later in the evening I read the comic from cover to cover. I hadn't read it all for a year and a half. I've only read the chapter that I was working on. To my amazement it worked! Well, I have to say that I'm biased, or part in the crime, so to say. But it was quite the experience to read it all, and seeing that it was ok. I mean, how would it have felt if it didn't work, then I've put time and energy on something that didn't work, talk about anti-climax!

Also this week I've been thinking about if I did the right thing by doing the comic now. Since this has been such an important story, maybe I should have done some smaller things first and then returned to this project. But I think like this. The reason it has been made, is because of the importance of the story. If I only did some smaller things, to get to learn how to work with the medium, than I might have not come to get going on Pilgrim. So I think that I made the right decision to do Pilgrim now. The learning experience that it has been has been a bonus, that I'm thankful for!

Script
I put some time and energy on the script, to get the pacing of the story right. When I think about that process it went smoothly. I tried different types of structures to tell the story, before settling on the current one.

Drawing
I always enjoy the sketching of a project, the uphill climb here has clearly been the clean up. It feels like you are re-doing something that you've already done, and that's never fun. But sometimes I'm very cunning, so I could trick myself into doing the clean up, by using the colored pencil! Or as they say, every idea is good except the bad ones!

Inking
Inking has been the steepest learning curve on this project. But that has to do with my earlier attempts at inking, that wasn't that successful. Where the drawing was full of life, the inked drawing was stiff and lifeless. But all along this project I kind of took the inking to my heart. Given off course that I'm basically a tracer, but that has to do with the fact that I've colored the pages, if the comic would have been in black and white the inking would have been quite different.

Coloring
This work has also been smoothly, except for the first pages... When I was coloring the first chapter, I noticed that I hadn't "closed" all the lines, so when I had been sitting in front of the computer for maybe twelve hours I had only done 3 half pages... The coloring for the later chapters went much more smoothly.

Publishing
I've used blogger and I don't regret that at all, it's easy to use and as a comics publishing tool it works fine!

What's going to happen now, with Pilgrim?
I'm currently exploring if there could be an analogue version for the comic. Other then that I'm thinking of doing a cover and a back illustration. As I've written before there might be a translation into English, but I'm not there yet. So there are some things that's going to be done, but for now, its done!

So what's going to happen now?
Well I'm going to take a short break, I'm going to do some smaller things. But my pipeline is filled to the brim with cool stuff. Actually I've got these concepts that I'm going to work on, starting 2014.
1) An ensemble drama about some characters in a small town. It's about following your dreams... Script is done, the character design is next.
2) An action adventure set in the 1930s. The concept is done, the writing's next.
3) A horror/thriller story. The concept is done, the writing's next.

In preparation for these projects I have some inspiration material that I'm going to read/watch.

So that's it for now, Pilgrim's done and not just done, it's donelly-donelly-done! I'm really looking forward to the next projects. I think they are going to kick some serious derrières!

Take care!

Pilgrims' done!

Pilgrim is now done, and not just done, it's done-done! It's complete! It's finished! It's done!

Please feel free to have a read:

http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

What's in store for me now? We'll just have to wait and see...

Take care!

Inking will begin!

Earlier this week I finished the clean up, feels really great. As I've written before, clean up is kind of an uphill climb, with the wind in my face... but now it's done!

Later today inking will begin, and the end comes closer and closer...!

I'm thinking about what will come after Pilgrim, but more on that later...!

Take care!

Clean up second pass.

As I wrote last week. I've taken a short break from Pilgrim because I had an exam to finish and an assignment to write. This week has been full on studying for me and less drawing.

But later today clean up phase two will begin...!

When you are in the middle or in the beginning of a project, you can hardly see the end. But as you get closer you can see it and almost taste it. I guess that is how it is, basically. Sometimes when you are in a process of something, you just continue with the work and then all of a sudden you are done, and a feeling of emptiness comes.
Lately when I've been in the middle of a project or process I've been trying to take a short break, sort of get the head above water, to really seize the moment, and be there for a while. I really hope that I can do that with this project also. So that the feeling of emptiness will not knock on my door...

Take care!

Clean up first pass!

This week I finished the first pass of the clean up, the colored one. Next week I'm going to do the second pass of clean up. The reason behind the little pause is that I've got an exam to do, with deadline next wednesday, theory and method of art...

Take care!

The work continues, chapter 6!

When I had finished inking the first pass of chapter 5 I did the thumbnails for chapter 6 and 7. So the thumbnailing part is done (see below)! A couple of days ago I enlarged the thumbnails, check (see below)! And today I'm going to clean up the loose colored sketches.

Although I'm not done yet, I do see the end coming closer and closer. And that feels great. I know that this comic isn't the longest comic in the world, but for me this project has been very educational and giving. And frankly, I did start it without being sure that I could finish it, which I haven't yet so I'd better stop writing and start drawing instead...!

Take care!

Chapter 5 is up and running

Yes, there you have it, chapter 5 in all it's glory! As I've probably written before this one became a tad longer, actually the longest chapter yet! After I was done with the inking last week, I colored it this week, and now it's done! I won't keep you from it any longer, enjoy:

http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

Take care!

Inking almost done!

Two weeks ago, I finished the first pass of the inking. Now I'm doing the second pass. After that I'm going to fix some small stuff, you know to "plus" the pages...!

Earlier I wrote that the inking didn't quite go as smoothly this time around, maybe the nib (or what you call it) on my pen is getting old... maybe I'll invest in a new one.

If everything goes as I've planned, I will finish the inking today!

Next week (hopefully) I will put some color on them pages.

Take care!

Inking continues

Today inking will continue, last week it did go better with the inking, but I'm not done with the pages yet. My inking scheme is like this, I ink the pages and then I go over them ones more to close lines and maybe fix some things that are in need of fixing. The second pass gives me a chance to look at the pages with fresh eyes, something that I've been writing about here, now and then...

Take care!

P.s This weekend the Swedish book fair takes place in Gothenburg, maybe I'll see you there...!

Inking has begun!

Yes, it's true, finally, inking has begun!

One funny thing though, last week when I was going to start inking, things kept popping up! I'm not sure if I understand how this work. Like, I'm in the middle of producing a comic, to move the project further I need to work on it. I know this. But whenever I'm finished with one phase and I'm going to begin the next phase, the runway can sometimes be veeeeeery looooooong, before I finally get going.

For example last friday, instead of beginning the inking, I was doing some work on a commercial product in form of a "business card", I finished a short story (childrens book), I organized notes for an upcoming project, that might, just might, be a novel, I'm not sure yet. So after dinner(!) I started inking, and if that's not all, it didn't move smoothly as it usually does, it felt like when I was inking the very first pages! It felt like the paper was wrong, the pen was wrong... (sigh!)

Maybe that was just one of those days, my sole comfort is that I WAS creative, and I WAS producing stuff, I just wasn't focused on my comic the whole time.

I know that producing sounds a little bit on the factory side of things but until I find a better word for it, I will use it. But all in all, that's what you have to do, do stuff, produce stuff!

Take care!

Inking will begin!

Last week and also this week I've had a look at the pages to see if they needed more work, and I've decided that they are ready to get inked!

It's funny that sometimes you hear someone say something and it lingers on, and you remember it. Many years ago, well not that many - just a few, a friend of mine said something about pencil mileage. That to be better at drawing you need to draw, and draw, and draw and do some more drawing. I don't remember what I thought about that, back then I drew when I had to, I didn't have a plan. Maybe two or three years later, I decided to have a plan. I think I've written about this in an earlier post.

With this plan, I actually got some drawing done! But I didn't see any progress... Sure some drawings stood out, but I didn't see giant leaps of improvement. So that talk about pencil mileage, ah phooey! Two or three years ago I could leave my plan behind me, because now I'd gotten the "drawing" in me, it was something that I did without being asked to do or needed to do, whenever I had spare time I drew, or I planned my life so that I could have days of drawing instead of hours, here and there. When I was coloring chapter 4 of Pilgrim, I noticed that one panel actually looked good, maybe even great... and when I did the sketching in red for chapter 5 I kind of realized that I've gotten better, so maybe those words about pencil mileage wasn't just phooey!

It sounds easy when you say it, but if you want to get good at something, you need to do it over, and over, and over again. Practice makes perfect!

Take care!

Clean up done!

Last week I finished the clean up! Feels great! To let the pages get some rest and relaxation I decided to  thumbnail the two last chapters, so now the whole story is thumbnailed! I'm getting closer and closer to the finish line. It fills me with pride and also a bit of sadness, that it will come to an end... but fortunately I'm not there yet! And since my studies have begun, I'm not sure when I will finish this...

This week I'm sharing three drawings, one panel in red that I like a lot, and two thumbnails of how the two last chapters begins. And as always with the thumbnails, they are quick sketches just to get the flow of the story right. I haven't tried that much to be "on model". Since the sketches are very quick and loose they are easier to change if they need to.

Today I'm going to have a look at the pages ones more before I begin the inking.

Take care!

Three year anniversary!!!

Yesterday I realized that today is this blogs three year anniversary! Before I have been keeping an eye on the calendar so I will not miss it. This year it just snuck on me!

So lets take a moment and think about this past year...

Well the biggest change is that I've been working on my biggest project since animation school! My comics project Pilgrim! With that project I turned this blog into a behind the scenes window, so the reader, who so wanted, could have a look on the progress of the comic.

As I've written earlier, I thought that I would have finished the comic by now, but I have not. The new "deadline" will be autumn - early winter 2013, sort of...

So what has the future in store for me and this blog?
First off I'm going to finish Pilgrim, then we will see what's going to happen. But you don't need to worry, I've got a pipeline full of neat stuff that I want to do!

Having this blog as a behind the scenes window, has been working quite nicely, I think. And as my projects get bigger and bigger, chances are that it will continue in that direction.

Take care!

Sketching in red done!

Yesterday I finished sketching in red. Feels great. As you can see my pencil almost ran out... Some years ago I read about pencil extensioners, and how important they are, so I bought a pair. Since I'm a mechanical pencil guy, I haven't really used them, until last week when I needed it. Since I've got a small part of scrooge in me I will probably use the pencil some more...just for the fun of it!

Today I will continue with the clean up, this time around I will use my most beloved mechanical pencil!

Yesterday I thought about how important it is to recognize when I have finished a certain part of a project. To kind of treat myself with some fun and relaxation. That's important because when I will return to the project, it's most likely that I can look at it with fresh eyes and notice things that are in need of noticing.

Take care!

Sketches in red continues

The sketching in red continues as you can see on the drawings below. As I've written before I find it kind of weird that the panels that I'm worried or anxious about drawing, comes out alright, or even good. Or maybe I'm a better draughtsman than I'm giving myself credit to...

In the beginning of the summer I saw before me a way to spend more time on Pilgrim, which I enjoyed thinking. Unfortunately or luckily(!), things have popped up that needed my attention. These things have been fun things and good things so I'm happy for the opportunities they have given me. But on the flip side of it, my time on Pilgrim has been less than I originally thought, which is kind of sad. But if these things that have popped up will get further, they will kick some serious derrières! Trust me on that one! And they would mean the world to me!

In the beginning of a project, you (or I) plan a deadline. The deadline for Pilgrim to be finished, was within a year from the start of the project. I started drawing it in july last year, even though I wrote in the blog post that I didn't know when it was going to get finished, I always thought that it would be within a year. So will it be? Well, since we're in august 2013 I guess it will, kind of, as of yet, not be finished within a year... so, uh... oh, darn!

So when will it be finished then? It's kind of hard to say, the chapter I'm working on at the moment is the longest yet. But the rest of the chapters will not be that long (at least I don't think so). So my naive new deadline will be autumn 2013... You know it's great with broad deadlines, because you will almost always meet them! Only time will tell if I will meet this one... But at the same time, what's most important is that the project will get finished and that I will do it as good as I can, to the best of my abilities.

Take care!

Old drawings

This week I made an excavation among my old drawings to see of there were any that I could save or re-use, in this economy you know...

I stumbled upon these three drawings that I made maybe two years ago. We were at the museum of natural history in Gothenburg, and did some drawing.

I've been focusing on drawing the form of the animal and not the outer line, which is something I really need to work at, still!

Take care!

Things keep popping up!

I don't know how that is, but things keep popping up. This time around it's been projects that might turn into big stuff, that has monopolized my time. So Pilgrim has been forced aside a bit.

Don't get me wrong, if these projects fall in the right hands and lands in my lap, they will seriously kick some behinds! And I would seriously enjoy working on them. I might tell you more about them later on. The reason behind my secrecy is because they are in this fragile state of development where things get made or not made, so keep your fingers crossed...

Today though I'm going to devote myself totally to Pilgrim, which feels great and I'm going to continue with my sketches in red.

Take care!

sketches in red

The sketching in red continues, this pencil that I'm using is wonderful and I like it a lot!

Take care!

New chapter and sketches in red...!

I thumbnailed this chapter when the last chapter took a short break, between clean up and inking. So the thumbnailing of chapter 5 is done! Yesterday I enlarged the sketches with a red pencil, and that is also done! What I'm up to at the moment is to give the red sketches another pass, and thus beginning the clean up, so in a manner of speaking the clean up is begun! When I thumbnailed it I found out that this chapter will be a tad longer, actually the longest yet!

Since my last mistake of using an unerasable blue pencil, this time I'm using a pencil that is much more erasable and since I like to have the ability to erase parts of my drawings, I like this one. It's a Prismacolor Col-Erase tuscan red. It might be hard to find but if you see it, try it out! I can truly recommend it.
The only fault with it is that it's not a mechanical pencil... But I'm such a mechanical pencil-guy, as I've probably written before, it's so easy and fast, just to click the pencil and you can continue to draw instead of finding that sharpener and use it and then go back to where your were and continue and a few minutes later finding that sharpener again and so on, and so on. Boy is this an industrial state problem or what...!?

As I've written above, I'm going over the red penciled pages ones more, and why do I do that? Well, I'm doing that to lighten the burden of the clean up, I find the clean up to be a bit tedious, if I'm not in a clean up groove off course... a couple of chapters ago I found out that if I make quite detailed red- or blue sketches, the clean up goes much more smoothly. And it also gets me to work the pages more, to give them another look. The first pass is very loose and the second pass is more detailed, see below. So what's left is just to go over them ones more, with a mechanical pencil(!), and work out the quirks!

Take care!

Chapter 4 is done!

Yep! It's true, the chapter is finally done! Have a look!

http://www.pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

At the moment we are more than halfway through the storyline. If my memory serves me right I wrote something like, it would only take a month to do this chapter... You might say that I jinxed it, big time... so therefore I won't write when the next chapter will be done, but I will continue to write about the progress here on the blog!

Take care!

Inking done?

Yesterday I finished inking the pages, today I'm going to have a second look at them to see what I've missed. I'm quite surprised how the inking, that used to be so hard before, now goes swimmingly. Granted off course that I'm not a fancy inker, my inking style is what you would call, the style of tracing. To quote the film Chasing Amy (I think).

Take care!

Erasing blue sketches...or not?

The clean up is proceeding nicely, as I've written before the blue pencil that I used for this chapter is very hard to erase. It really sticks, we're talking about ink-stickiness here. I'm not kidding! If I run out of ink or inkpens I can use this blue pencil with the same result!

Here it is in all it's glory:

I'm not saying that it is a bad pencil, I think it has many qualities, but if you are a draughtsman that sometimes fancy using your eraser from time to time, then maybe this pencil is not for you. On the other hand if you are an artist that very seldom use your eraser, then this pencil is for you!

Take care!

Clean up is proceeding!

No it's not a joke, se below:

So both my thumbs are not longer situated in my derriere... Well as I've been writing before I've been quite busy with other stuff, my internship, my studies and other stuff. So just so you know I haven't just been laying on my sofa and eating popcorn... hm, but some times I do that... Anyway, the project is back on track, which feels great, now I only have to figure out how to make clean up fun? ;-)

Take care!

P.s Make sure you enjoy these days of summer that we have at the moment. I don't know why but I have to stand on my balcony and look right up in the sky, at the light summer night sky and just stand there, maybe it's the poet in me... Speaking of poetry, maybe I'll pester you with my unsuccessful attempt at poetry, I don't know if you should see that as a gift or as a punishment...!

How is the project proceeding, or is it proceeding...?

Well that is a very good question, indeed! These last weeks have been quite full of stuff, which have taken a lot of time from the project.

Hopefully, this has ended now and I might be able to give the project more of my time during the following weeks.

Take care!

My first action figure!

A couple of years ago I saw the film 2010, when they examine the monolith they say that it has perfect proportions of the "squares of 1, 2 and 3". I found this interesting and wrote it down and through the years I've been thinking of doing something with it. I mean, what is perfect proportions? Just the thought of it is interesting.

Some weeks ago I found this discarded piece of wood, that had the right measurements, all I had to do was to cut it. The measurements are 1x4x9 (cm). I've painted it with acrylic colors.

I think it's the most interesting character in those two films, 2001 and 2010, well Hal is quite interesting too...

It feels like I'm being watched...I haven't yet seen any babies inside it, but who knows...

Take care!

Illustration and article!

The last issue for this semester of Sesat Magazine has arrived, it's only available in digital form, if you'd like I can send you a copy. I did a new illustration and the editors liked one of the last ones I did so much that they used it again! For this issue I also wrote an article about studying. I might do a translation of it and post it here, some time in the future, maybe... By the way the issue is in Swedish!

Below you will find the new illustration.

Take care

Clean up has begun...

...but it goes slowly, things that need some attention keeps popping up!

I guess that's how it is sometimes.

Take care!

Did the clean up begin?

Well, uh...begin is not the right word for it I guess...

Well, to tell the truth, things came up that I had to deal with so the clean up hasn't yet begun.

Today it will begin!

Finished sketches in blue

The sketches in blue are now finished, and the clean up will begin! Hopefully later today...

Here are the thumbnail and the sketches in blue:

The characters are quite finished, I just have to clean them up a bit. As you can see the only change that I've done from thumbnail to the larger sketch is the last panel on the bottom of 16B, where I put Héloise in semi profile looking at Quentin. This because it ties better with the previous panels.

My favourite pencils are the mechanical ones, I've got a whole range of them. Even for my sketching in blue I've used a mechanical pen. This time around my blue "leds" ran out, so I used another blue pencil, a regular one, and boy did I have to sharpen that one! Almost constantly I had to stop drawing to sharpen the tip on the pencil to get that fine line, that I get all the time with my mechanical pencil. I can understand why they use mechanical pencil sharpeners at the studios.

A funny thing that I noticed is that this blue pencil is quite hard to erase... so it will be interesting to see how the clean up will go...

Take care!

Sketches in blue chapter 4

Here are the first two half pages in blue pencil.

I've done the whole chapter, but will give it one more pass to work out some small quirks.

Take care!

Thumbnails

Last week I finished the thumbnails, here is the first two half pages.

I've begun to transfer the pages to original size drawings in blue pencil.

Take care!

Turning something bad into something positive

Lately I've had this pile of papers that I didn't know what to do with.

So what is this? Well, it's a pile of broken dreams, broken hopes, broken expectations, and basically everything that's wrong with the world to day. To speak bluntly it's a pile of shit!

So what to do...? First I thought that I should set it all on fire and jump naked through the flames, but on second thought I'm not so sure my landlord would appreciate that... and I wanted to do something creative with it, like, turning shit into something positive.

And then it dawned on me, why don't I make sketchbooks of it all!

Here is the pile in a more organized fashion, and with more dramatic setting...

Here I've parted them into sketchbook-sizes.

And voila, four new sketchbooks! First I wanted to augment them, with covers and so on, but after giving that some more thought, I came up with this: a pile of shit is still shit even if you cover it in gold. So the only augmentation I made was to add cardboard at the bottom to make them sturdy. So for the time being I'm all set when it comes to sketchbooks/logbooks!

Take care!

P.s I have a fascination for English dialects, many years ago I saw an episode of the british tv-series "Cold feet" where one of the characters pronounces the word shit as shait. I think it's a norhern England dialect, but I'm not sure. So that is how I've seen this pile, as a pile of shait!

Half way through!

I'm half way through the project, well almost! So far it's been fun and educational, and I learn stuff all along the way. It will be fun and exciting to see the end result.

I've always enjoyed the sketching part of a project, when you're searching for the right expression or pose. When it comes to clean up, I find that to be of a more up hill climb with more resistance. During chapter 3, I tried to work around this by doing more detailed sketches in blue. And to my amazement it worked, maybe this is a fluke, but the clean up process of this chapter went really smooth and was not that difficult as it can be.

One funny thing I've noticed is that I can sometimes feel a bit worried about some panels that contain a lot of information, or are complicated for some reason. When I've drawn them they almost always turn out to be the best panels!

I've come to terms with the fact that the process of it all will be quite visible through this project, just like the fact that I've in chapter 3 centered the text in the word balloons, which I haven't done earlier.

For you that are not fluent in the Swedish language I can comfort you that with about 94% certainty there will be a translation in English! When I'm done with the final chapter I will make a translation.

Very soon I'm going to begin the work on chapter 4... And as always I can't tell you when chapter 4 will be done. For a progress report you will have to come back here!

Take care!

Chapter 3 done!

There you have it, it's done!

Read and enjoy!

http://pilgrimserien.blogspot.se/

The coloring this time around took less to do than I originally thought, which suits me just fine! Isn't it great when things go smother than you thought?

Well, I won't keep you from reading the all new pages...

Take care!

Inking done!

Just recently I finished inking chapter 3!
Very soon coloring will begin...

Take care!

Inking has begun!

Inking has now begun!

To change it up a little I'm testing a new paper, that works just fine. My main concern was if the ink were going to "bleed", it seems not to.

Take care!

Clean up done? + a call...

Yesterday I kind of was done with the clean up. But as always I have to give it a few passes more, I know I've got some things that I need to sort out.

Here I want to show you that things happen from the thumbnails to clean up. The panel I'm writing about is at the bottom right, first as you can see on the thumbnail I wanted the "camera" to withdraw from the characters to give them room, but when I transferred the sketch to the larger paper, it kind of didn't work as well as I originally planned. Since I had an extreme close-up of Héloise at bottom left, I gave Quentin a close-up too, so he would not be jealous... I think with the close-up of Quentin I think the intensity increases and we (the reader) is more included in the scene.

Earlier this week I got a call from an old friend, and he told me that he and his colleague liked my thesis film from animation school. I was completely struck by this, fortunately I sat down, if I hadn't I would've fallen down... A very nice phone call to get indeed!

If you haven't seen the film, take a look at:

http://pglidstrom.blogspot.se/2011/08/one-year-anniversary.html

Take care!

Sketches in blue

Here are two half pages in blue pencil. I wrote about them earlier when I did the thumbnails.

I tried something new this time around, last time I did the sketches in blue quite fast and...sketchy... that resulted in a longer period of clean up. Now I've done more detailed blue sketches, but also keeping it light and...sketchy... I'm going to go over them once more to sort out the quirks. When that's done it's clean up time!

Take care!

Enlarging the thumbnails

The whole episode is now thumbnailed and I think the flow is working, but as always there might be some changes later on. Currently I'm in the middle of enlarging the thumbnails to regular size drawings.

Take care!

New sketchbooks!

Yesterday I had an abundance of creativity and the fruit of my labour are these sketchbooks! In 2011 I posted about these sketchbooks that I made:

http://pglidstrom.blogspot.se/2011/08/beginning-of-week-update.html

Since I almost ran out of sketchbooks this week and I had paper left to work with, I decided to do some more books. I used the same technique as the last time, but this time around I did some improvements!

Just to state the obvious they might be a little bit rough on the eyes but that means that I won't get that anxiety of making bad drawings in a beautiful sketchbook, like the Moleskins for example. I think I'm going to call these faux-moleskins...

With these additions to my collection of sketch books I think my sketch book need is covered for the near future. Although I know that I have a pile of paper that I'm going to do something with, but that is a story for another day...

Left: The only improvement on this one is the cardboard at the bottom.
Right: Here I used water color paper to wrap around the pages, with a rubber band to keep it all in place.

Left: Cardboard bottom and canvas cover with a rubber band.

Right: Card board bottom and regular drawing paper around and rubber band.

On this one I used cardboard all around and a rubber band.

Thumbnails

Chapter 3 is now being thumbnailed, here is a snapshot of one of the pages:

As I've written before, in this stage it's not that important to be "on model". On the top half of the page Quentin and Héloise is having a conversation, when I drew these panels I got something that I didn't plan! In panels three and four, a big question is asked, and the fact that they look away from each other increased the importance of the question. Well, that's how I think, I might change this later on...

Take care!

Chapter 2

Finally, chapter 2 of the comic is now up and running:

www.pilgrimserien.blogspot.se

To my amazement, the coloring of the pages took only 1,5 day, which is a big improvement from last time.

Chapter 3 is now being thumbnailed. As always I can't tell when it will be ready, maybe I'm going to push myself a bit harder this time to see if I can put it out within a month from now... wait a minute... did I just jinx this...?

On my bike ride home I pondered on this: Is there a scale of importance between the quality factor and being-able-to-finish-the-project-factor? And which is more important? Today I think like this: the quality is important, but it's also important to actually get things done, so you can begin your next project. It's kind of funny that I take the word quality in my mouth since this is my first foray into the comics field...and since this is a learning experience and I do and will do mistakes all along this project... But I must say that I like this comics stuff, it's cool to put things out there within a manageable time frame.

Take care!

Scheduling the creativity?

Unfortunately I haven't yet looked at the inked pages, I've been busy with other stuff that have monopolized my time. Later today though, I'm going through them.

The question above is something I've been thinking about lately, maybe that's something that would fit better in a forum of some sort. My thoughts have been something like this: Nowadays I put about one day a week on my comics project, including updating this blog. Sometimes I do more, like on evenings and weekends, but roughly it's one day a week. The pros: I'm confident that I'm getting things done every week, I move the project further to completion. I can afford myself to have evenings off. The cons: The nagging sensation of the question; am I doing my very best, and am I trying hard enough?

As you can see the positive outweighs the negative here, but that last question is after me. On the other hand I do know that my work benefits from taking breaks now and then, you know the fresh eyes I've been writing about. And I do know that I get these time periods when I do more work than that particular day. Maybe there is no answer to the question above, it's all in how you or I wants to have things. I tend to structure things and put things in their proper place, even the creativity it seems... But shouldn't the creativity be something wild and untamed and sort of god given? And not something structured and planned?

Maybe we should take it down a notch... and ask myself, do I get stuff done? Yes. Do I feel creative? Yes, even on my creative day... Is the work that I do of any quality? I hope so, and if not, I hope I'm getting there.

I think we're not going to get any further on this particular question today, maybe we should simmer in it for a while and then go at it again...

If you have any thoughts on the subject please feel free to comment!

Take care!

Inking is now done!

Yes, and I didn't jinx it! Inking is now done, now the pages will get some rest and relaxation and in a couple of days I will return and have a look at them ones more to see that they are alright. I think it's important to get some rest from the material I'm working on, so that I can look at them with fresh and "new" eyes. It's easier then to notice stuff that are in need of improving.

Take care!

Inking

As I wrote last week, inking has now begun, and from the looks of it, it will soon get done! Maybe even today, if I haven't jinxed it by writing that...
When I'm done with the inking I'm going over the pages ones more, you know, to sort out what's in need of sorting out. I thought that inking these pages were going to be like starting all over again, that the lines were going to be shaky, but surprisingly it didn't feel like that at all. Of course some lines tend to leave some room for improvement...but I guess that's just how it is.

Take care!

Clean up done!

As you've just read the clean up is now done, is it done-done? No, as I wrote last week, I have to go over the pages ones more to sort out a few question marks. When I've done that, the clean up will be done-done.

Then the inking will begin... my hands start shaking just thinking about it, which is not a good sign...

Last week I did some thinking about my pipeline. From out of the blue this great idea comes. But lets start at the beginning! When Pilgrim is done I will do two other projects, that obviously will kick-ass! (I'm so modest...) These projects are not going to be as large as Pilgrim. When they are done, I'm going to embark on a completely new journey. My original idea was to come up with something new and develop that further, but then I thought why don't I take one or two of these ideas that I've been working on lately, and develop them?

Because of this I've shrunken my pipeline considerably, which feels great. It also feels great that when I'm going into this new direction and new adventure, I'm going to work on ideas that I firmly believe in. Which I think is a good way to start any project!

The reason why I'm not clearer about this is that I don't want to give anything away, you know to keep the mystery... but also it has to do with how I'm brought up. I don't like when people say that they are going to do this and that, and you know that it's just talk. I try my best to be someone that you can count on, and I want people to think that if I've said it, I'm going to do it. Or, in other words; talk the talk and walk the walk!

Take care!

Clean up continues

As I wrote last week I've continued with the clean up of chapter 2, and the progress has been quite steady. I've only got a few pages left and then it's inking time! But before I'm going to grasp my pen and dunk it in the ink, I think that I have to go over the pages ones more to be sure that they are up to par.

But to begin with today I'm going to have a look at one of my new concepts because that always gives me inspiration and gets the juices flowing, so to speak. Ah, the next project, with it's unfulfilled promises of greatness...

Take care!

Script done

Hello again! I hope that you've had great holidays, and that you've got some rest and relaxation.

A new year, a chance to start anew, try new things, and maybe change some things that are in need of changing... Personally I hope that I will get some wind in my sails, I'm not talking about a storm here, a cool breeze would suffice, at least so I could feel that I was in motion and heading somewhere.

The script that I've written about, is now done and not just done, it's done-done! So now it's going to age on my harddrive! Now I can go back to Pilgrim and continue with the clean up of chapter 2. I hope that I will get the project done in 2013, but honestly I don't know if that's possible. I think that it's better that it takes the time it needs and the result is good, than stress things and get a weaker result.

Take care!