The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Artwork

A short while back I watched the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and as I was watching it, I kept drawing rough sketches of Lisbeth. I found her characteristics fascinating, as she is incredibly inelegant, quite and fearless. She appeared to be like a supernatural being when she's first introduced to the film, but then a more vulnerable side to her is revealed and humanised her. I thought I'd do a couple of Photoshop sketches of her simply because I love her and I love the film. I recommend to anyone who likes murder mysteries, though I warn it does contain disturbing scenes of abuse.

      

Character Design Challenge- Survivor

Design challenge from a character design page on Facebook.

Cloud the Leopard- Walk Animation in Photoshop

I find animating in Flash useful but frustrating, as I don't like the type of brush used to draw the frames with. I felt that I could get delicate lines to express the same kind of movement my pencil sketches have. So I decided to try a long animation process by doing it in Photoshop. I'm aware there's an option to animate in Photoshop, however I used multiple layers to act as frames, then saved them as JPEG files and import them as a sequence into After Effects. Though it worked, the software told me I don't have 'quicktime' installed and warned me some things won't run properly. I found this out when I rendered a video, and the file continuously lags when viewed. So I converted the frames into gifs.

 This was a little complicated.

 Started with a simple outline, and I already prefer how this looks in Photoshop compared to Flash.

 Then inserted layers underneath each frame to apply colour and small details.

 Finally added a background and foreground to finish it off.

Individual frames that could be imported into After Effects.

Red Riding Hood

As far as I know, Disney haven't made a film about this fairy tale yet. I don't understand why, it's so well known. Any way this is an illustration I did in Photoshop of red riding hood.

For Rosie

Rosie, I really hope you get better soon and enjoy the summer ahead. You are always in my thoughts and I wish you well for your recovery. Myself, Granddad and Nana signed this card (I had to do the dog's signature) and I hope it makes you feel a little better.
Love you always,
Auntie Katie xxx  

Christopher

Over the weekend I saw my little nephew, and so afterwards I did a few sketches and copied them into Photoshop. Christopher has a very expressive face, which I thought would suit an animated character.

Mythical Circus- The Chimera and the Manticore

Early designs of two ancient Greek mythological beasts I had in mind for the mythical circus. The chimera and the manticore are two famous legendary creatures that have had many visual portrayals, but this is my interpretation.

 Chimera is a beast known to have three heads all from different animals. A lion, a goat and a snake. Though if I ever wanted to animate this creature, I'd rather have it with just one head. So I created a hybrid between the three animals. I think it looks a bit like a Chinese dragon, being a long serpent with horns and a lion's mane.

 The manticore is a lion beast with bat wings and a scorpion tail. I felt the wings may of made it look a bit ridiculous, so I put a type of fin going down its spine. This manticore is part of a kind of lion taming act in the mythical circus.