Ama Mami: Comic/Story Idea

This always happens to me. I get incredibly swamped with work and then big and juicy ideas start avalanching in.

I'm most motivated to create my own work whenever I'm way too busy to do it!

Anyhow, I'm trying to write out all these ideas that are just popping out of nowhere. Ama Mami is one of them...




SYNOPSIS
Ama is a self-assured individual who lives a satisfactory, ordinary life until she comes face to face with her Doppelgänger, "Mami."

Ama finds her twin, incidentally a trans-dimensional adventuress to be far more extroverted, confident, smart, talented and charming than Ama could ever dream to be. Fighting off her self-complex, Ama is determined to find out exactly why Mami has slipped into this dimension. The reason, Ama instinctively deduces is bad news for her universe.


Anyhow, I'm taking a cue from Robyn Paterson and not going to start doing the artwork for this until I've written the whole thing. I've been wanting to get back into writing - it's possible I might turn this into an audio theatre with just some artwork to go with it. Not sure. I guess it depends on how big the story gets.

I better get some sleep. =P

Just Keep Swimming

I seem to have a nack for jumping in the deep end of things and barely swimming my way out!

I had no idea that applying to work as a designer on Erky Perky meant I'd be a lead designer - until I actually started working there. I realised I'd be one of the 'big girls' and be on my own. :O Once I figured out procedures, it wasn't too hard. I love going to work and love the fact that people find it strange that I always look forward to work.

Now I'm doing a storyboard of an episode and I find myself in a new deep pool. Not starting as a junior position as you normally would... lol. I'm storyboarding a whole episode! I guess I couldn't say I'm on my own... I've got a great experienced director teaching me - Cameron Chittock and I've leaped milestones. Again, I've been really lucky. But these 13 minutes that I'm story-boarding are the longest 13 minutes of my life!

Anyhow, I've been busy so I hadn't gone to life drawing for 3 weeks... finally people at work talked me into going. >__< haha. This model kept sitting down for the longer poses. This normally doesn't bother me because normally I'm at the front. But we were a bit late and they moved us down stairs and there was this dude with a massive afro covering her feet... grr.




Here's a digital sketch of something I did yesterday in about 2 hours. I guess I started feeling frustrated at not making anything that was not work-related... It's Squire Esther from Twin Stars - and a present for the show producer, Rob in congratulating him for having Twin Stars aired on radio through the Sonic Society. If it goes well and they air the whole first season I'd theoretically be making my radio debut! XD

It's not finished - I had to go to bed - and I've still got to finish my storyboards so I'll have to finish this some other time.



And to answer the cliff hanging question in my last post... it was green tea caramels... gosh these are so juicy.



I'll try to make these monthly posts at least from now on. =)

And So...

Forgive me blogger for I have not kept you up to date.

I'm 3 months into my job at Erky Perky doing designs. Almost finished, just a handful of episodes left to go. What else can I say? I love it! And it's kinda sad it's almost over. =( But in saying so, I've got more work lined up for me - I'm doing a storyboard for one of the episodes! Squeee!! XDDD Also doing designs for David Webster's secret project. Hmm... I don't know how secret it is, therefore I can only say this much: It's a secret.

Shame I can't post any work up here... I'm pretty proud at the jump in quality of my work... and just my over all capability to actually paint. About a year ago I hadn't the faintest clue how to paint in photoshop. Thanks to Bobby Chiu's course I can! =DDD

I've been going to life drawing with a few of the animators. The numbers keep dwindling every week as everyone gets busier and busier though! I HAVE to go because I'm the one inviting everyone. lol. It's been a good motivator and it's actually an important part of my job anyway so I don't mind making the effort every week. I've gone 5 times now!

Here's a few drawings. I'll post more in my next update.




And finally... can you guess what juicy treat finally motivated me to update my blog??



Find out in the next EXCITING update! Whenever that is!

Bye Ehushu~

I'm taking advantage of the holidays to clean up my room.

GOOD BYE EHUSHU....



yes... in that coca cola package about to go to the recycling bin is approximately 95% of all the animation frames and extra drawings I did for ehushu. Gone. Bai bai...

For those of you devastated, think of it as me making space for new future projects. =) Which is essentially what I was doing. Not that I foresee any new animated projects yet. No, don't get too excited.

And ok, so I'm lacking new work. I actually took a proper holiday and did NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. The reason why I did this was because I was scared of being burnt out. I did not draw a thing for a whole week. Unfortunately, I found myself loosing motivation to draw and it was hard to get back... but I found my inspiration again so I'm looking forward to getting back into drawing.

This is a very very very very very and did I mention VERY rough digital sketch (done on my brand new cintiq ^^) for EOW101. It's really crap, the deadline is monday which frankly I don't think I'll make it but well... here is the start of it.



Now, I have to stay awake for another two hours so... uhm... I'm gonna try tidy up a bit or something. Yeah...

Sketchcrawl 21 Sydney: Sat 10-01-09

Hey, I'll be there. It'd be great to catch up and stuff if you can come along too! And if you're not in Sydney... Find out if your town is hosting one. =) And there's nothing to say that you can't organise it for your town if no one has yet!


Sorry for the lack of updates. =( Been soooo so so busy. Argh!

Schoolism.com: WK8 Colour Sketch

Just managed to squeeze in one more blog entry for November 08!

Here's my Schoolism assignment I did for Week 8 "Colour sketching"



For this Lesson, we're supposed to just block in a colour scheme and lighting. I may have gone a tini-wini bit overboard with the background. But that's because I spent so much time trying to figure out the composition, I just couldn't help adding more detail.

So this isn't a finished painting since we actually finish it for next week's assignment. I'll link a larger version to this blog if it's any good. If it's crap, like my last few assignments, it ain't goin on here. XP

Let Me See Your Package: My Work Featured!

Hi Guys!

Two pieces of exciting news.

First of all, my 2006 portfolio package has been featured on:

Let Me See Your Package

Many thanks to the writer, Chris Bauer as well as James Hill for finding my work and contacting me.

The other news that I've been trying to save up until I had a few new drawings worthy of posting (but alas, I've had absolutely no time) was that on Monday, I'm starting full time at Ambience Entertainment / OmniLab to work on Erky Perky as a props designer for Season 3! =D Actually I've started working from home so technically I have been working for them for a bit over a week now. Many MANY thanks to my awesome friend, Vivienne To for giving me the heads up for this opportunity and forwarding my portfolio to the right people. >_< . 

I'm finishing up at Mad Cow Pictures tomorrow where I've been helping out with some Flash work for a few animation shorts for a Kid's educational show. I don't know if I can release the name yet so I won't. But I will mention Denzil Maher who's the main animator for the project whom I've been leeching animation/flash/drawing techinques from. Thanks for putting up with me Denzil!

It's been a tough couple of weeks having so much on my plate... working all day, going home then working some more then... if I'm lucky, finding pockets of time to do my painting assignment for Bobby Chiu's online painting course (Finishing in less than a fortnight!) and a bit of online amateur voice acting. 

I love the fact that a month ago I was worried I wouldn't get a job in the industry and now I'm worried I can't keep up with all the jobs I have. XD It's been an incredible November and I really appreciate the good fortune that's come my way. But I am looking forward to a calmer December with a routine 9-5 job and a LOT of free time in the evenings and weekends.

The Law of Attraction strikes again...

...and I somehow end up with 2 jobs in the animation industry. More details later. Aw, a little suspense won't kill ya. ;) I'm supposed to be sleeping now but I really felt the urge to update since my last drawing posted wasn't all too impressive. Not that these are any better... pff, they're just sketches. *sigh*

All I'll say is that... I have NO time to do my IDP. T____T *cries* If I'm not working, I'm recuperating. DX



*calmly reminds herself that all things must pass*

It's OK... once I get these lines recorded for episode 2 of this radioplay I've been cast in, do some serious much-needed shopping, finish up at the current full time job, settle in with the new job in december, finish my online painting course AND get back into a routine that will allow me to exercise I will be a much much calmer person...

Here are some designs of a character for a new short story comic idea... inspired by a story my mum told me about her neighbour when she was a little girl. More on that later... if I ever get around to it. XP

(currently untitled) Web Comic

I've been musing over doing a web comic. This is one of the two main characters and is based on my boyfriend. Of course, the other main character is based on me. The web comic will be... about a geek and a nerd being in a very long term relationship. A lot of the content will be about the funny things that have happened between us (and some funny stories I've heard with other relationships.)

Anyway, *snore* all the guys would probably say. But if you know Ray, you'll know he's quite a character so hopefully I'll be able to translate his material into comic form with extra flare and actually have a mixed male and female fan base (eventually... *likes to dream*).

This is probably not a final design, but is the biproduct of several really crappy designs. I'm tossing up between making the characters manga style or making them western toony. The problem with manga style is I'm pretty bored with it. And also it's so much work, particularly if I make this a weekly thing. Anyway I'll think about it some more.


OOoooh and the good news. The REAL reason why I wanted to update my blog. I got a job at an animation studio! ^^. The same one I did the test for, but not the same show. It's only a couple of weeks but it's a start and it's doing TRADITIONAL animation! Well... in the end it gets translated into flash but I start off animating traditionally. =D

I've also got REALLY BIG news with something starting in December (no sorry folks, nothing to do with Agharti) but I don't want to spill the beans before it's confirmed so... keep a look out for future posts! =)

Sunny the Sunspot Toaster

I was doing a study of the toaster in mum's kitchen ... then started to get bored with sketching and so I made a character with it.

His name is Sunny, the Sunspot Toaster. I can't decide whether he's a puppy's soul trapped in a toaster or an alien manufactured toaster, or if he came to life as a result of a strange electrical storm that occurred on the eve of Friday the 13th.