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about character design + illustration + animation

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Plans to draw actors

Gulp months and months have gone by since I last wrote but here I am again, I'm still alive and life is kicking. My brother and his girlfriend are going to give birth to a baby in a couple of weeks, sometime after that they're going to get married. I've been working hard in general but slacking off at the gym. I went on holiday to Morocco in September and met a person, he's a man and now we're together. So it takes some time up, going to Morocco and then coming back... and trying to learn a bit of Arabic. Sometimes having a buzzing head too late at night and waking up at exactly the same time in the morning 3 times (but not in a row) feeling spooked.

The cartoon figure drawing group is slipping a bit. I need to revitalise it in the new year by setting something up with a drama college. We draw the actors and pay them to pull funny faces and do the things actors like doing (pretending to be giraffes?). Give up the Hub as it costs too much for such a small turn out of people. Connecting up with actors would be the best thing, because it is relevant to personality and the coming alive of a character. I would also like to do a very small (don't get too ambitious, you're too busy) project involving animating a character to a voice recording by a real actor (rather than me and Garageband and a mic).

Also getting focussed on aims to be a paid character designer sometime within this millenium with the help of Business Coach Anne de Montarlot. Having problems keeping to schedule but successful in keeping on keeping on. Members of the drawing group who are in the business have kindly been giving me advice and some have made successful career changes themselves. Good examples to follow.

I have nailed down the fact that I prefer working inside a company than working freelance. Because, I'm 10 times more motivated when I'm around other people than when I'm sitting around in solitary confinement all day. Why does it take half a life to realise basic things about yourself?

# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 6:42 PM  0 comments links to this post

 

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

100th Member, Biggest and Smallest turnout.

As to the Cartoon Figure Drawing group - we had our 100th member the other day. I might give him a prize if he actually turns up to any events.
Monday at the Hub we had the lowest ever turn out, which was a shame as the model had great costumes. I was very inspired and felt my drawing was really improving. Initially my plan was just to record the figure in a rough way even if ugly but now I'm getting into making pretty drawings too. I like line drawing - comitting to the line. You really have to focus. Check out my sketches and Drew's sketches.
Sunday at Dr Sketchy was the highest ever turn out - I guess it sounded exotic. Lots of argument and comments about the session afterwards. People didn't like the compere trying to teach and there were so many breaks, it was annoying. I uploaded some of my drawings.

Here's one of Millie Dollar, the performer at Dr Sketchy's:

sketch of Millie Dollar

and here's one of the model with his ugly fantastic troll mask:

sketch of man in Troll mask

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Coming to life

The first month at work full-time has been pretty busy and stressful (only because it was new) so not much time to do character design. However, here is the finished Water Kid. The first version shows the character drinking from a bottle, but the client asked me to change it as they are a plumbed in water company and discourage bottled water. Lesson there - maybe run a written description past the client first? I was planning to send a sketch, but decided against, as they look a bit messy and I don't think clients can imagine the final version.
Water Kid drinking from bottle graphic
This is the 2nd version, with a glass. I liked the bottle so it was tricky to get the same simple feel with the glass. Ended up over working it and then starting over in a simpler way.
Water Kid drinking from glass graphic
For the characters representing emotions, (client Phil Reed who works with troubled kids in schools) I have worked up the happy and the jealous characters. Jealous needs more work. Happy: I think I'll drop the patterned fill as it looks more like fabric than a t-shirt. I like the symbol on the front of the shirt though. Can be eyes or something like a star, flower, even an exclamation mark... anything that helps convey the emotion, feeling or thought the character should express.
Jealous T-shirt graphic
Happy T-shirt graphics
Finally, I worked up in Illustrator some of the Camera Man designs. I think they look better than they did as sketches! I like the bottom three which look kind of 50s. I'll make a final version combining those three. Haven't heard from the client so not sure if he likes them. Since none of these clients are paying, I'm not too worried about chasing but will try and contact him. Water Kid client loved the character and called it 'amazing' : ) so that was nice.
Camera man logo graphics - ideas

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Monday, June 04, 2007

Keith Haring is the King!


Saw some of his paintings when I was 17 in Edinburgh and they just blasted my mind! Simple and with feeling.

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Initial ideas

Got some drawings done on all the aforementioned projects. The Phil Reed project is going the best as I had a brainwave and have decided to use T-shirts as characters. I showed my friend Mish and she had the 'ooh' response that can't be faked. Whereas when I showed her my sketches for 'camerman' she said 'oh'.

T-shirt characters will be perfect because there's a joke in them being t-shirts and they won't be too embarrassing for the tricky emotions like 'depressed' or 'powerless and fearful' or too cliched for the 'powerful and free'. Anyway, yes more work to be done on Camerman. And Trusted Places is driving me mad. I feel sure there's something going to come. Like a word that's on the tip of the tongue. Logos are a new thing for me...

cameraman character


Trusted Places - only stick men so far


trusted places stickman

trusted places stickman

Trusted Places thumbs up

thumbs up drawings

Image I found on the web of Mickey Mouse hands

Mickey Mouse hands


Happy t-shirts


happy t-shirt


Sad t-shirts

depressed t-shirt

Drink more water!

drink more water

Bottle feeding

drinking from bottles

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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 12:13 AM  0 comments links to this post

 

Monday, May 28, 2007

Developments

Well, I've started to venture into the commercial world. Only a toe dipping but it's a start. I decided that I should start to build a commercial portfolio of character designs. So to begin with, I went to a business networking event called Beermat Monday and presented myself as a character designer. I explained my plan and said I was willing to do my first few commercial jobs for free. What's commercial about that? Well, it means working to a brief rather than off the top of my head in my usual arty farty way.

So I got three takers in that one evening. One is Phil Reed who is a sort of life coach to teenagers in inner city schools. He uses a dial with colours to help the kids communicate what emotion they are feeling and proposed to use characters to represent the emotions. We had a further meeting and I'm really interested in helping him. It's a good cause and will be an excellent discipline for me. We're going to develop the characters iteratively, by showing them to the kids, seeing how they respond and redesigning as necessary. This is quite a big project, so I'll spread it out over the year. This could lead to earnings because if the characters work, Phil could sell them from his website as sort of teaching aides and I could get a cut.

Next was Drinking Water Solutions, who also want to reach kids, in this case, to convince them to drink more water. Apparently they get really dehydrated. Did you drink water at school? I remember drinking orange juice in little tiny glass milk bottles and then a few years later, hot chocolate (brown sugar and water!) in a crinkly plastic cup.

And I met a French guy who does web video and wants a kind of video camera character. This is one he bravely did himself which I thought was quite cute! A video camera stick man!

He's currently starting with his business, so if you need a free web video, or very good deal, he might be able to help. www.local-video.com The 'character' of his business is: simple, easy, quick, quality, on demand, low cost internet video.

I've had a bit of a hectic two weeks... I was looking for a job and made some adjustments to my CV and suddenly all these recruitment companies were phoning me every two seconds, I had a big birthday celebration, did lots of networking, interviews, coaching sessions, had a date with a scary caveman, and then got offered a job (on a much better salary than before).

Friday was a highlight, when I went out with some people from Trusted Places to Shunt Vaults (full description / reviews from me and others) underneath London Bridge station. A girl with the user name Idoru works for Tickex.com and she needs a female ninja for their site...
Plus I got chatting about the Trusted Places logo and I've had a bit of an idea for it (keep you posted). Alot of people say it reminds them of Ghost Busters... I said the same which was weird, as I couldn't actually visualise the Ghost Busters logo, the words 'Ghost Busters' just came into my head. Actually this is an older version of their logo - I couldn't download the current one from their website and I can't be bothered to faff around with screenshots just now.


Anyway I like that Ghost Busters thing, it's got drama.
Maybe TP are perfectly happy with their logo, but they're interested in ideas and feedback at this point.
This all reminds me of the Michelin man! I love him!





Anyway, new day job and lots of characters to beam up... I'm going to be busy.

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Swords

I had organised a picnic for the latest cartoon figure drawing, but it got rained off. Luckily Alex at Danceworks sorted us out with a studio booking at short notice and did amazing modelling for us with a sharp selection of swords.

I managed to remember to use my camera this time which worked really well. Since I was just doing the photos for reference they were very quick snaps, allowing me plenty of time to sketch too.

Here are a couple of photos. One of them shows Alex and Olivier in a strange sketch confrontation (since the timing is slow on my camera I didn't see this when I actually pressed the button).



I like this one too, where the colour of the scarves reflected on the blade adds drama.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

How the group is going

The cartoon figure drawing group is going fine, no it's going really well! There are lots of members and the people who've turned up like it. There have been 2 meetups and there are 2 to come.

Here is a sketch that I did of this guy called Alex doing Capoeira, and vector drawing that I made based on the sketch. I made the star shape which was going to be a head, but then I like the way it looks as though the character is going through the shape. I could have lots of shapes with figures looking like they're struggling through them.


and here is a link to other people's sketches
Alot of the people coming are from a group who are studying with Animation Mentor

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Sound of the Washing Machine of Life

I have two friends called Adrian Wilkins and Denise Bryan... They travelled the Silk Road for a year or so and created this kalaidoscopic Cabinet of Curiosities on their website silkthreads.org
It consists of eccentric collections of sounds and photos.

Adrian is the sound artist and I asked him if he could record their washing machine one day, for me to put onto the Washing Machine of Life animation.



So he did a beautiful job, and recorded the whole cycle then picked out the perfet 5 second clip.
Here you go, headphones on and zone out to the Sound of the Washing Machine of Life.

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Membership hits 50!

and the first session is now full!!

New session posted today: will be at the Hub in Islington, Wednesday 2nd May 18.30pm

Thanks to Alec East, Creative Director at Do Tank Studios and editor of the Shooting People Animation Network for listing the group. Shooting people is a terrific noticeboard site aimed at the US and UK indie film community. Well worth joining.

We also got listed on the University of the Arts noticeboard
Good place to check out part-time and 'first' job opportunities (ie some of them don't pay that well but good for first experience). Occasionally a nugget gets listed (you know a gold nugget and the deadline for entries was yesterday).

Today I've posted on the AWN Forums which already brought a new member going by the name of Bentos: check out his showreel which is interesting and funny especially the Sumo Tony Blair bit. The AWN database is an International infinite resource for animators and the industry (if you didn't already know :)

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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 3:11 PM  4 comments links to this post

 

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Cartoonish figure drawing changes link

The Cartoon Figure Drawing and Photography Group has a new link, because it was in the wrong category on Meetup.com

The link is now:
http://art.meetup.com/270/

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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 12:58 PM  1 comments links to this post

 

Monday, April 02, 2007

Cartoonish figure drawing MORE

Well, mailing A - J on the Pictoplasma list (oh and I forgot to tell you, all the London members with a profile picture on Mojizu) paid off: around 5 new members and ONE RSVPed YES!!!!

Thanks to Alex Hughes (who sadly, lives in Birmingham so he probably won't be able to come along generally) for sending me this link to: Dr Sketchy

"We combed New York to find the most beautiful burlesque dancers, the most bizarre circus freaks, and the most rippling hunks of man. Then, every other Saturday, we let you draw them for three hours." Check out the Dr Sketchy Gallery

They're aiming for sexy in a light hearted way. Not sure I'm into the whole erotic arts thing (probably because I'm not a man) or the voyeuristic 'circus freaks' bit but I like the costumes.

Might go for a change!
- I could walk around on my knees wearing a long black coat and pretend I'm Toulouse Lautrec

re VENUE

Am following up a new lead at a place called the Hub just behind Angel tube station. Looks like it's perfect. It's not too arty and not too rent-a-nylon-carpet. The idea is that freelancers can drop in and work with other freelancers if they feel like it. For people who don't have their own office basically. Only £15 per hour in a room for 15 people.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

Stumble and I love Your T-shirt

This weekend I discovered Stumbleupon.com and week before last I found iloveyourtshirt.com

Stumbleupon is a really inspired idea: you can review sites and tag them, so you add to the collection. There's a Stumble button you press and it brings up any website that's been reviewed by someone else in one of your preferred categories eg 'bizarre' or 'arts'. I posted some of my pages and friends pages and also played for a while and almost every site that I Stumbled on was worth visiting. It's certainly bringing a small but steady stream of people to visit my site too.

iloveyourtshirt.com - you can simply upload a photo of a t-shirt you want to promote and it goes straight onto the front page. Doesn't necessarily stay there long as someone else soon bumps you off. It's good though! I've noticed countries that don't normally show up appearing in my stats. Even when your picture has got bumped right down to the 10th page, it still gets click throughs : )

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Heart Stamps

Last week I sold some of these heart stamps from my Zazzle shop!

In association with Zazzle.com

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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 10:31 PM  0 comments links to this post

 

Progress on the cartoon figure drawing group

Cartoon drawing group now has around 15 non-spammy members.
Tonight I emailed character designers with names from 'A' to 'J' in the UK section on Pictoplasma.com which was very very boring, trying to spread the word about the group. Unfortunately you can't narrow down to 'London' on Picto. Kind of a mad thing to do but it would be great to get a few of the Picto character designers coming along. I noticed that Pictoplasma has closed the submissions to its archive! I haven't submitted anything for a while, because last time I did, they added the characters on but then deleted all the ones already in my section. Plus, I started using Mojizu where it's more fun to get votes and with the possibility of selling a t-shirt. I truly admire the Pictoplasma people though, for their heartfelt passion which I saw first hand when I went to the 1st Pictoplasma Conference in 2004 in Berlin.
Anyway, my friend Mish has committed to coming to the drawing group and a guy called Graham so if the worst comes to the worst and no-one else RSVPs 'yes' then we can meet at Hyde Park and draw outside (weather permitting) to save on the cost of the studio hire.
Talking of spam, a strange and mysterious member joined up today with a funny image something to do with the US elections. I googled it and it seems to be a sort of cult cartoon octopus alien / devil called CTHULHU. Dunno what that's all about... I hope it's nothing with dark undertones (must buy garlic).
Will post on some boards about the my drawing group. Only three weeks till the first session now.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Talking of T-shirts

Talking of T-shirts, thanks to Walid at Trusted Places for sending me a free one. Slogan "love all trust a few" nice. Logo reminds me of Ghost Busters (I think it works, association with a friendly bunch in a city).

I've written 4 reviews on there now! It's fun and addictive and you can save up reward points for a special card that can let you take your mates out for a half price meal! I think this website's going to be a big hit. I wonder if I can buy shares? Maybe if I save up enough reward points?

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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 10:43 PM  0 comments links to this post

 

The Washing Machine of Life

I just created a birthday e-card.

I started it last year, playing around with the Twirl Tool in Illustrator. I thought I could make the rainbow letters just swirl into shape. So I exported various stages of 'twirls' as swf files from Illustrator and then into Flash. It turned out ok but not that exciting... I liked the abstract shape created when all the letters were totally lost. After a long time I went back through the files and I found an unfinished one that went quite fast. It had this mesmerising washing machine spinning effect. So I played about a bit with it a little bit more and it turned out like this! The Washing Machine of Life.

I've decided to show characters and designs that I do, as I go along on here and put the t-shirt link on too. So here you go:

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Cartoon drawing group

Well, I now have 6 members of the group as well as myself. Nearly half way to the max of 20!

Plus I just checked out a couple of venues: Dragon Hall (!!) near Covent Garden and Conway Hall near Holborn. Conway hall is good, I've been there for an experimental music night before.

Could be really good. We could draw clowns and acrobats and musclemen!

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

I LOVE GLITTER!



I'm spending too much time writing this blog and not enough time DRAWING. Bad bad bad.

An email just popped into my inbox! First person has just signed up to join my cartoon + animation + character figure drawing group yay!

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Poetry Café

Went to the Poetry Café in Betterton Street Covent Garden this week to the African Writers Evening run by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

The Poetry Café is a special place. Before my first time there, I didn't expect much. Thought it would be a kind of dry and stuffy. It's only 10% dry and serious and 90% risk taking, gut wrenching, hilarious and entrancing. Ok and maybe 3% 'I want to cringe with embarrassment' (it's character building!).

On the ground floor is a small cafe and bar where people chat before the events start. Downstairs in the basement there are a few rows of seats and some sofas and a mike and this is where it all happens. You're right up close to some of the greatest voices in London (and the world). Imagine if John Lennon was doing a private gig and you were invited. That's what it's like.

African Writers Evening is a platform for established and emerging poets from Africa or with family or strong connections in Africa. I learnt what the word 'diaspora' meant. I like going to things where I leave a little less ignorant than I arrived. It's good to meet Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean and Nigerian writers, hear them speak and find real meaning and a connection with a continent that to me is normally far away (I don't mean only in miles).

Another good night is the Cellar on Saturdays hosted by Niall O’Sullivan - a funny and charming presenter (charming when he's not pissed off with the audience for not clapping enough). Mixture of established and aspiring, nuts and sane.

One night, I sketched some of the poets from memory...

Inua 'phaze' Ellams (ok it probly looks nothing like him)
you can hear him here:
http://www.myspace.com/phaze05







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# posted by Frankie Sinclair : 8:19 PM

 



The Cartoon, Animation + Character Figure Drawing Group


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Name: Frankie Sinclair
Location: London, United Kingdom

I've got a reputation for being eccentric, mildly irritating, a wonderful beautiful flower, an inspired creative, an anally retentive administrator, an adventurer, a failure, a success, an abrupt person, a gentle person, a good dancer, a bad singer and an English woman. I know who I am.

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