Business Card Designs

Once again, I got into contact with Dave at Wrongkey Designs (http://www.wrongkeydesign.co.uk/) and he designed me some rather fantastic little business cards. I asked for several designs so that I could pick and choose from them, and show a sense of development and decision making during the design process. Plus, for the purposes of presentation, having them on a display sheet for the End of Year Degree Show will certainly look quite professional, I think! I also think that the more plain designs will appeal to those of a more professional industry standing, as opposed to the more ‘busier’ designs. The latter will no doubt appeal much more to clients and collaborators. There will no doubt be more designs along these lines in the future – possibly cards themed around certain holidays and events, etc.

These will be used at any future art-themed functions or general social gatherings, at which I may be able to drum up potential interest in my designs. It was strongly encouraged to us in the portfolio aspect of our Professional Practice seminars to get a set of business cards designed, as it shows professionalism and willingness to network with other commissioners and creatives. I will also be having these cards on hand at any possible convention scenarios that I attend / take part in during the months and years to come. I will be getting htem printed out i the next week so that I have some on hand during the End of Year Degree Show on the 6th / 7th and so on.

Oresome Gallery Proposal

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Unable to attend this weeks scheduled Professional Practice session (in which we shall be presenting to a potential client), I have made this video documenting my ideas and contributions towards the project. It features my thought process on initially receiving the brief, and how I went about generating my idea for the client. I have added subtitles in during the parts in which I am speaking, because unfortunately the camera that I was using was incredibly poor quality where the microphone is concerned.

As explained in the video, I chose to take the ‘hand-made’ theme quite literally, and have hands as the main focus of my animation. It will potentially be done in a rough and sketchy style, again adhering to the notion of something being hand-made and not completely pristine and refined – it gives a creation character, I think! Using reference photographs of my own hands, taken by a classmate, I sketched out the storyboards which I then used in a rough animatic to showcase my idea. Hopefully the clients will like my suggestion, and I look forward to hearing any feedback from them once the presentation is completed.

“The Kittypillar Tree” – In Progress

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on this bit of concept art but I assure you it’s been all go here where work is concerned! The Kittypillar is one of my main mindsets at the moment. The concept art side of it, the animation side of it, as well as trying to get a bit of networking in concerning potential publishers / collaborators / audiences. This project has pretty much become my baby and I am going to (figuratively) put a lot of sweat, blood and tears into it!

Rooting around my cupboards, I managed to find some more Letraset ProMarkers which I had forgotten about – and which still were in working order! With this nice little bit of good fortune in mind, I decided to get cracking on the colouring of “The Kittypillar Tree”. I wanted to show a broad spectrum of the different types of Kittypillar which ‘exist’ through the varying bright colours and fur patterns. Some are more ludicrous colour schemes, and some are more themed around actual breeds of feline, which I think brings up a nice dynamic that can be enjoyed by all sorts of people.

Of course, there is always the mandatory ‘Norman’ themed Kittypillar thrown in there, seeing as he is the original Kittypillar. Other colours were suggested by other people whilst I was in the process of accumulating more ProMarkers – mostly by my mother who was keen to see the progress of the image from the beginning!

I’m still quite fond of the idea of having the differentiation point between the two genders like that of a budgerigar (blue antennae for males, pink for females). This will be an aspect that I reckon people will take kindly to. I thought it would be a much more open choice as opposed to just having the females ‘girl colours’ and the males ‘boy colours’. I know for a fact that those choices would not go down well with some people, especially in this age of gender equality. I was dabbling with the idea of making them asexual for a while, with certain critters being of that nature, but I reckoned that would be a concept a bit too much for what is to be a simple concept.

I love the contrast between the detail of the coloured parts of the image as opposed to the flat-feeling aesthetic of the blank outlines. It gives me a sense of achievement, in that I was never the best person at colouring until it suddenly clicked with me one day. Now look at my work, haha! Obviously there will be a bit more experimentation with matching colours which give the fur a more realistic effect, but for now, I can sit back and enjoy what is in front of me here.

“The Kittypillar Tree” © 2013 AbbieSTABBY

City of Culture – Concept Doodle

After battling with several different individual ideas for the “Hull City of Culture” sting animation we’ve been assigned, I decided to compound several into one. I reckon this to be a potentially very interesting little venture, which will most likely appeal to a younger viewing audience than an adult one. A lot of my animations seem to be going this way!

I bullet pointed several of my favorite starting points which the group compiled together in our first Client-Based Practice session of the semester. You can see all the starting points I put together here: https://abbiestabby.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/hull-city-of-culture-bid-session-notes/

• The Deep
• Art Culture
• Theatre
• Chip Spice
• Music
• Bee Lady
• Freedom Festival

Most importantly, how was I going to encompass each of these points into one animation? Immediately, I thought of an octopus. The multiple extremities could be acting out each other starting point in a humorous fashion. The thought initially that I had in mind was to have each individual aspect I.E. a paintbrush / comedy and tragedy masks / drumsticks moving about on screen in close up and through a pan out you see that the octopus is wielding each individual item. There would be a sign in the foreground to signify The Deep and I would be good to go! Storyboards to come up next!

Hull City of Culture Bid – Initial Concept Sketch.

Colouring: Bob

Well, recently I found myself in a bit of a slump with one of my personal projects (god knows I have a fair few of them as well as commissions!). In order to try and get myself out of it, I decided to do a little bit of self indulgent artwork. This was mainly a practice with Copic Marker colouring and lighting, so there were one or two reference images from the land of Google used during the process…

Bob is an original character of mine, from a story which I have been working on and reworking for about 3 years now. It’s gone from complete lunacy, to fantasy, to grit, to a bit of a thinker – I’m trying to include all of those elements in it (in a sense) without it becoming a tacky free for all! I want to nurture this project until it becomes something I can be really proud of. I’ve put enough work into it already to merit at least a bit of a breakthrough!

His hair is probably not the best job I’ve done, but oh well, another aspect to work on in a future piece I think! I’m liking his stubble  and especially his look of cynicism – that is one of the most prominent physical and obvious aspects of Bob! His nose needs to be a bit more pronounced I think, it looks a little bit more nicely shaped than I intend it to be…

“BOB”
© AbbieSTABBY 2013