Where I am now and my future fears

This year has been odd so far. I’ve been doing better than I thought I would. But I still feel really behind.

Over the summer I made some basic character designs in pencil

Wrote a script for a simpler story

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PvSgTMCauYfRGV6z3CASfE4wXicQV9RgUao6xG2KLXA/edit?usp=sharing

But I eventually fizzled out. What work I did do ended up being in trying to resore my broken health. Which is still a priority. For nearly two years now I’ve been trying to recover my health. But always running into stumbling blocks. I’m hoping I’m finally beginning to make progress. But I’ll write a full journal about that some other time.

When I got back to Cardiff my first decision was that I couldn’t let the computer become part of my routine. I’m fairly sure the computer killed my chances of getting anything done last year. I don’t remember making art. Just staring at the computer all day. So this time It had to go. I would draw and do nothing else. I did bring a large book of old Marvel comics for when I got tired though. Which happens far more than I want to admit.

But the plan was built on solid ground. I started just making thumbnail drawings. to figure out what would be needed for a a storyboard

At Morgan’s suggestion I did some head studies to figure out what my rabbits really looked like. This was some of the hardest and most painful drawing I’ve ever done. But I did it. The front on drawings aren’t very good. They look more like donkeys than rabbits to me

This is what scares me. The idea of putting all my effort into into something only for it to turn and terrible. And the feeling it won’t get any better. But that’s also a subject for another journal. The three quaters drawings were better. A lot better

I used them a lot when making the storyboard. (You can tell Ghost took longer due to the heavier line work)

The story board wasn’t easy to make. I now respect people who do this for a living. But It was finished before I thought it would be.

First I had to get the size and shapes right. Then focused on making templates for the background

With that done I could just copy the background over and over again using a lightbox until I had enough drawings. When in the later drawings the turnip was being held up I simply didn’t trace the turnip from the BG! With all that done I had what I needed to start adding in the rabbits. With my script, thumbnails, character designs, and even an image of a real rabbit to work with, I was ready to go!

I found tracing certain poses, or even just feet positions with the lightbox also helped.

I’d hoped like with my comic book project drawing faces and expressions would get easier over time. And I think I’ve remembered some of it. But it didn’t get easier. The last few actually got a lot harder. I guess progress isn’t always one one way. But here’s some of the things I have.

I then wrote a letter for the RWCMD telling them about my project. Now I am hoping to get some voices for my characters. This is nerve wracking as I’ve never recorded voice-over before and have no idea how to mix it and stuff. But I hope someone will help me.

The next thing I have to do once this journal is up is to finalise my character designs and make character sheets. This terrifies me.

Trying to get drawings of characters with faces perfect is the hardest thing for me. It’s where I totally fell apart last year. I had a full day on Friday where I could have done it. But I really didn’t want to. So I decided to do a little test. I set the things up so could start working on the character design. But I turned on the computer so I could write that letter to the RWCMD, which needed doing. I also opened TVPaint to do a little bit of abstract animation I was doing on the side. Even set up a little hand drawn animation I’d like to do.

The one thing I didn’t let anywhere near me was headphones with which I could listen to youtube. One that was involved, it would be game over. I don’t know what this means in terms of when I have to put together the audio of the thing. Let alone animate it. But I hope something will come to me. But sure enough. I drifted from one occupation to another. I did eventually get through the letter to RWCMD. But then I just started on I needed to send to an old tutour. And when the day was done I hadn’t done one line of the character sheets. The conclusion is clear. If I’m ever going to get through the hard parts I’m going to need to go cold turkey with the computer while I’m on campus. It’s the only way. Please wish me luck with the trials ahead.