christina's journal

Here’s my final blow in my battle with Lauren (RedLeash). Background is a pic I took down at Docklands a few years ago. Not very exciting but reasonably well executed I think. Now waiting for judgement. I think there’s a good chance I’ll end up with the mask of the Crazy Golden Banana (El Platano de Oro Loco).

I’ve reached 900 downloads. Not a major milestone but getting closer to 1000. Business this month has actually been quite good and I’ve sold at a greater rate than any previous month despite not uploading anything new for quite a while. At the rate I’m going I’ll have 1000 downloads in about a month. I’ll probably have $2000 by then too.

Meanwhile I’m spending my creative time getting right up to speed with Flash. I’m just about at the point where I can start building my character libraries and get back to producing more illustrations. For the past week I’ve just been going through the process to make sure I know how it’s done.

I’ve also bought a couple of graphic novels lately, for inspiration. 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley contains some stunning artwork. The film was based on this work, apparently. Maybe I’ll go and see it some time to see how they transferred the art to live action.

Latest blow. I really like the colours in this mage and the mood it creates. I think I’ve given up my desire to get to the top of the ladder in the steel cage. I’ve just got too many more important things to do. I’d much rather get good at illustration which has some use than trying to prove to all those people who think I’m not worth considering that I’m better than they are. I think watching Lady Snowblood a lot has really brought to the forefront of my consciousness the extent to which I’m driven by something akin to revenge. There are quite a few people I’d like to be able to tell that they are not worth my time. However, time to let it go.

Values in painting that is. We’ve been doing lighting this week. Here’s an assignment I had to do – a photograph rendered with five values only. I think this is Robert’s wife.

Latest cage blow. As for the last one I worked it up pretty quickly. I’m definitely getting better at that. This probably won’t score very well with the judges because it’s too simple, but I’m fairly happy with it.

Meanwhile, I had my first haircut in about eighteen months. I was getting sick of the long straight hair look, it didn’t really flatter me at all, and was becoming quite hard to manage. I must admit I look pretty different with the new style though. It’s a reversion to what i used to have, just past the shoulder, with a fringe, but it’s so long since I looked like this. I’m pretty happy with it really.

I’m making progress with my art, getting better at it and becoming a bit more creative. This is my recent blow in the steel cage. Not a particularly exciting image, but within a couple of hours I had thought up several possible scenarios, decided on this one, found what I needed and put it together. I think I’ve managed to implement some of the advice on lighting, colour balancing and general composition. Once I’ve got these under control I can concentrate on making more interesting imagery.

Half way through another illustration for Tom and Iliana. This one is taking a while. Hope I get quicker. Also spent some time on one of Rob Chang’s tutorials. I’m getting more confident. The time will come when I’m actually quite good at this stuff.

First image from my next battle. I had a hard time coming up with something, but in the end it’s not too bad. A straight visualisation of a character I  guess. The main image (the woman) is quite an interesting one. She certainly looks a bit feral.

Here are some results from week 1. They are not meant to be finished pieces, just illustrating concepts. The first is supposed to be a straightforward narrative piece. I’ve calle it Sleep

The second is meant to be a more abstract narrative, using symbolism to get it’s point across. I’ve called it Gamer

Here is my 70th steel cage blow. It has rated quite well so far, 4.67 after 6 ratings, which means 4 fives and 2 fours. I actually don’t think it’s that good, but at least I finished the battle about as well as I could. It’s pretty tight, and the result will probably depend on Stuart’s final blow. No doubt judging will take a while, and the upcoming workshop is going to take all my time and energy for a while, so probably won’t be back in the cage ’til September.

Second blow. I stopped battling about six months ago because I got very discouraged when any interest shown at the start of my battles had almost completely evaporated by the end. I was rating my own and my opponents images come rounds four and five just to have something there. While the appeal of good designers is obvious, it is supposed to be a bit social after all. Anyway, I’ve started again purely because it challenges my creativity. I still check to see if anyone has rated or commented though. And still get disappointed. Actually I did get a few ratings on my first blow. That’s usual though – it’s the last few that no one looks at.