warm up sketches

Some warm up sketches from the weekend, heavily based on Miss Hannigan from the musical 'Annie' (1982).  Such an iconic movie character, really love how truly crazy she is.

Also, let me update you with what I have been up to since I have not been posting any work in ages. I finished my contract animating on Craig McCracken's Wander Over Yonder for Disney and I am now working as a designer for Brown Bag Films. Happily spending my days drawing props and sets :)
I also have a ''secret'' project on the side developed by a good friend of mine and helping her out with some visuals. Not allowed to share any work yet so stay tuned ;)

p.s Am I the last person on earth still using a blogspot and not tumblr? Maybe it is time to accept defeat and make the move...

Sketchbook doodling from the Inktober days!

 

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. Chapter 5. Advise from a Caterpillar

I have been busy during the summer months working on an 'after hours' animated project along with three very talented and hardworking friends. The task was to deliver a 5 minute short in 3 months for the Lenny Trusler Children's Foundation.                           

 The film was animated to the music provided by the  renowned composer Howard Blake. Here's some of my production design for 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. Chapter5. Advise from a Caterpillar'

Balance!

My submission for the Boulder Media art blog under the theme gods and goddesses .

Meet Hades: god of the Underworld and one of the 12 Olympian Gods 

and Persephone: Queen of the Underworld, goddess of fertility, youth and spring and the wife of Hades.

Persephone, the beloved daughter of Demeter(goddess of growth and vegetation) was abducted by Hades, bewitched by her beauty and youth. Mythology says that the union of the two, Hades and Persephone's marriage, is the reason we experience the four seasons of the year. Demeter, heartbroken and angry brings winter and autumn while her daughter is bound to be with her husband at the kingdom of death but changes into summer and spring when Persephone leaves the underworld to be with her mother for the rest of the year. 

I have always liked this story and I think of Hades and Persephone kinda like Yin and Yang. One represents death, the end of life and old age, the other is a symbol of creation, the beginning of life and youth. negative and positive. balance! 

smile emoticon

''slave-labor" studios?

Being an Animator in Japan Is Brutal (?)

''Thurlow says the anime industry is "a particularly harsh industry, even by Japanese standards." People, he explains, are overworked to the point that they vomit, and crunch time is brutal. The less-busy periods are six-day work weeks, ten hours a day.''

I do not usually like to post anything on this specific blog other than my own art but I was recently reading the article  attached to the link above and thought it is worth sharing, especially for people like myself who are quite young and naive and have just made it into the industry.

It made me feel kinda sad more than frustrated because I think a similar ''wave'' is beginning to approach the western animation industry too and the thing is, it is our fault. It is the animator's fault. Is it because we feel so lucky to have made it into our dream jobs we sort of become a bit pathetic, not speaking up when we should and letting the ''money people'' take advantage of our enthusiasm?
Is there really no Animator's Union anywhere in Europe?? why??

Is it just me who is scared of the future european industry turning into a bunch of ''slave-labor" studios ? 

other thoughts are welcome. would love to hear what other people think.

Happy Woman's day!

they come in different shapes, different colours, different styles, different ages, different moods and just different all around! 

they are beautiful and fragile and strong and ugly and hopeless and sensitive and cruel and openminded and opinionated and excentrique and plain and buoyant and optimistic and pessimistic and boring and intelligent and naive and a ton of other things AND THEY ARE ALL SIMPLY WONDERFUL. 

Happy Woman's day to all of you lovely ladies out there and to all men that cherish and love them! 

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Shoshona the barber trainee no.2

A short example of facial expressions for Shoshona. I'm finally getting a better understanding of who she is. More of these in the making! stay tuned! 

Shoshona, The Barber Trainee

Hi blog mates.  I know I have been pretty bad at posting things but I am just too busy working on toooo many things at the moment! I am the worst person when it comes to prioritising and just choosing ONE thing to do at a time! I am probably too arrogant and naive thinking I can do more than I can actually handle.  This is something I need to work on as I find my work really needs to be more focused on one or two things instead of  the 5000 things I wish I could do.  

So, something to work on! Focus and prioritise! Don't go insane! 

ps. about the post: these are some early sketches and poses from the latest project I am working on at home and for the recent Character Design course I am taking. 

Schiele Pirate

My entry for the Character Design Challenge Facebook page. kinda last minute but I made it before the deadline for January :) influenced by the sketches of Schiele. 

 

Trying out some interior environment sketching to go with my exterior -western themed- thumbnails, and here's an example below.

I am still playing around trying to figure out the best way to plan out my ambient and key lights which is why I'm keeping the environment fairly simple for the time being. So many different things I need to constantly remind myself over and over again, even the simplest and most straight forward design and painting principle turns into an intellectual complication and even the references I use make each piece feel like a labyrinth. What and Why and How underline each idea and line and brushstroke. Note to self:  Practise makes better...

oh and Merry Christmas blogosphere! :)

work in progress.

hi! here's some work from week02. A second page of thumbs and currently trying to refine one of the thumbs a bit more. I chose a composition I liked best from week01. let's see where this is going in week03... stay tuned

the good, the bad and the 1,2,3 perspective point

Hello blogosphere. Here's parts of the work I did for my week01 assignment for this Environment Design class. I am sort of a beginner when it comes to creating environments from scratch so be kind..or else!! :D 

But boy, this class is a challenge! especially for someone working full time, I hope I can actually complete the whole course without having to pull all-nighters...

oh and when it comes to my thought process while I'm working on these assignments it's goes like this: ''ok, I can do this. 4 evenings should be enough for the homework right?.....ahhhh no!! focus Katerina! he said to also have 3 point perspective examples...ok 3 point, thats perspective with three points..ok...why is this looking fucked up?? oh right, the Cone Of Vision rule...its outside the cone of vision.. i still don't get this composition....fuck you cone of vivion, I wish you die! fuck you too rule of thirds!! and you golden ratio!! oooohh now that's a sexy looking rock! good job me! hellooooo rock!! wait whats the focal point in this thumbnail again?? it is not supposed to be the rock! ok lets tone down that rock. I think I deleted three layers... oh well. was that supposed to be a wind mill?? well not any more its a water tower now...apparently..I need sleep. Magnus make coffee. ...please.'' etc, etc, etc. 

Fun times. Bye.  :)