christina's journal

I’ve finally found a good reference on drawing characters in a vector program. It’s an old book from the RMIT library called Flash 5 Cartooning by Mark Clarkson. Even though he uses the pencil tool a lot Flash is still a vector program, and the construction of characters is the main focus. Example – why does Yogi Bear wear a necktie? Answer – to hide the fact that his head is not actually connected to his body. Makes animation easier, and creating figures out of components is what it’s all about. So, I’m spending a little bit of time working through this before getting back to the job in hand. I’m very optimistic about becoming a good illustrator.

Still working on my drawing technique in Illustrator. There’s very little instruction anywhere on drawing figures. Ears are a problem, and for istock I’ll have to use closed paths for everything. I’m getting a bit better at hair. Fortunately the retro style is highly simplified.

I’ve become a little less obsessive about my istock stats, which is probably a good thing since I’ve had many rejections and no sales in the past couple of days. Working at my drawing is giving me something else to think about. Besides, illustration is probably where I’ll eventually be successful on istock, so the photography is a little less important than it has been. People seem to like my drawing style.

Making slow progress, but I’m really enjoying this. I will get quicker, and also should have more time in a couple of weeks.

I’ve delivered my first ‘commercial’ illustration. It might not be acceptable but it’s the start of my career as an illustrator. Copying images from a book is one thing, creating my own images something else. Still, bound to improve.

I’ve got an interesting book by Christopher Hart on retro-style cartooning. It seems to lend itself well to vectors, so I think I’ll go with this for the illustrations for Iliana if she’s agreeable. Above example is my copying from the book, not my own original creation, but I guess I’ll get to that.

Meanwhile the shoot at the Abbotsford Convent has been cancelled. They’ve been given a couple of million dollars to renovate but have to start straight away. There goes our derelict venue. The organizers of the shoot are looking at alternatives. Meanwhile downloads continue to drip in. I’m pretty happy with the current state of affairs, especially actually making a start on my new career in illustration.

I’ve been feeling very flat again, have done almost nothing today. And yet I’ve actually done quite a bit, it just doesn’t feel like I have. Dinner with Rob on Friday night, always good to catch up. Drank a bit too much but it hardly gave me a headache next day. Rob has agreed to model which should be interesting.

So on Saturday morning I actually did manage to drag myself down to the Abbotsford Convent to check it out for the istock meetup at the end of November. Quite an interesting place, and I came back with a card full of images.

I decided to have smoked salmon and champagne for dinner last night, and ended up doing some shots of the champagne bottle in various states with glasses also in various states. Not sure what state I was in by the end. I did finish the bottle.

Anyway, after scrounging through past folders I’ve managed to fill my upload quota for the week. Pretty amazing actually considering how useless I feel about myself at the moment. Nothing is selling though – maybe that’s the problem.

I thought I still had 4GB bandwidth when I started to download the latest VT that I bought from Gnomon Workshop, but apparently not. I’ve been slowed to 64 kbs and it hurts. I had to download most of the files at work, as I would’t have made it before the links expire otherwise. Anyway, bandwidth resets on the 20th. Until then I won’t be spending much time on the net.

Had a good weekend with Tom and Iliana, Terry and Olga. Too much eating but I managed not to do too much drinking. I managed to take quite a few pics around the wineries we visited – hope a few of them are accepted onto istock (and sell of course). I really do need to get out a bit more.

I’ve been very flat for quite a while now, but starting to stir again. Looking forward to spending the weekend with Tom and Iliana, and Terry and Olga, touring the Yarra Valley wineries. Hoping to get some good pics. My upload queue is empty at the moment, haven’t taken any pics for weeks. Damn depression.

My sales on istock are a bit erratic, but nonetheless the trend is upward. Last month I made $57(US), and should do a bit better this month. However things got very quiet at the end of September so could happen again. The ebbs and flows are pretty strong in this game. I still need a couple of good sellers to actually make any significant amount. Haven’t hit that jackpot yet. I’m hoping it’s only a matter of time.