Thursday, 16 January 2014

Personal Sketches and items pasted from sketchbook




When I work as an artist I dont work in order, ill pick something that inspires me and ill go from aspect to aspect back and forth. so it will be with this blog.

the above creature designs are two of my ideas for demons based on the seven deadly sins. above is "Wrath" and the top demon is "Sloth" both are distinct. wrath is used in the script and story board and it is the plan to use it in the acual animation.

A print out of the houses of Parliment seeing as the story is set in Present day London.


back view of Wrath demon clay model
side view of demon idea. I like to make main characters assculptural pieces so I can hold them in the real world and examine thier details from any angle so that I have the correct reference when it comes to animation.
Demon pupeteering murderer left side
Wrath demon front

a scan from the sketchbook of an idea of london town and the main character on a roof top. my earlyer idea was that the story was set in the future which explaind the flying cop car with the search light...


the overall stories visuals broken down into eight basic panels so that I know whare I am going to be going and to remind me of key moments that prompt me of other details yet to be explored.


In the begining I had an idea about a Vampire being sealed in the underground behind a wall and frozen in time and covered in spiderwebs... it was going to expand into a story but I kind of combined it with the current idea of having an imortal, I just changed the imortals gender and the fact that shes an angel and a bunch of supporting characters.....

Angelica the basic marquette sculpt.
This is the main character of the piece who is reaching for a sword and on the look out for demons to slay.
The wings are just wire and masking tape for lightness reasons. 

A back wiew of the sculpt. I like that she looks like she is a very light and slender person and able to take off at amoments notice.

A concept sketch of a Gluttony demon and size comparrison to a man.

Early sketch of an Envy demon (see sketchbook)
based on Etheopeans and bats.


A fairly quick sketch I did on the bus towards the main character in a fight with a possessed man.

Another train sketch of Angelica with flowing red hair, perhaps I was influenced by Pixar's Brave. the current design has white hair in a black and white animation style (at least that is the way I see it in my mind)

The story is pretty much a lone angel facing many types of Demons, here is a train ketch demon I drew early on in the creative process. It wasnt used but its DNA is ingrained in the feel of the piece.

A scan of a greed Demon. it might not be clear but this is a business man demon and hes so greedy with too much money hes not noticing hes spilling his notes as he commutes on the under ground...




three sheet scans that were a part of the research process towards finding a weapon for Agelica to use on her adversaries.

A dominent figure in London arctecture- "madame justice" which gives the piece a feeling of dealing out death end judgement out to the evil doers.

An idea that I may use... not in this story though.


tree spirit companion of Angelica who can change shape at will.

The kid with mind powers side character. Just like tree spirit, he wont be used directly in the animation but its all part of the fun process.

Here is a basic time line of happenings to the character that will aid myself as I develop the story further in the future.



 Storyboard Version 1











Here is my story board that I quite like. (I know its too complicated to turn into a three minute film) 
There is alot that I will change and take out as I continue to develop this project.

I hope you enjoy looking though the 9 sheets I have done here. there is alot to learn about the art of the story board and how to tell a story in an entertaining way. One of the biggest challanges is to draw the images and keep the vibe and feel of the art fresh and away from the realms of stale...
Im looking forward to drawing many more storyboards from now into the future.







Visual Inspiration

Here is a sample of the inspiring images I looked at, studied and researched.

Bellow is a link to Ollie Johnstons 12 Animation Principles which are so helpful

An image from The Mummy returns of an ancient Egyptian warrior princess.
My main character is imortal, it stands to reason she will have lived throughout time from since before old Egypt and worn many decorative armours in battles and wars as she lived through the ages.
Angelica's story is an epic one And I am only just scratching the barest surface in the animation that I will make for this module.



Weapon research. part of her character creation I came up with the idea that she has her own museum (see sketchbook) and she has collected many items up untill present day. Ancient Japanese weapons are a percentage of her personal priceless colection.



An inspirational image by Mark Gibbons a former Games workshop artist.
As this story features Demons I looked through a wealth of images, this is one of my old favorites.

Blade played by Wesley Snipes. the idea of a vigilante killer/ antihero apealed to me so the weapon of choice transfered to Angelica who is a practiced martial artist herself.


A strong and pretty heroine played by the actress Jesica Biel in the film Blade Trinity.
Alot of films are dominated by males. Angelica was created to help even the playing field
 In a testosterone driven world women are just as good warriors as men. It was my task to make  a good character with depth and intrigue.

This whole animation is sort of one of my first love letters to superhero comics.
Wanderwoman was a natural choice to look at. I didnt want to show alot of flesh though as its not very practical.

Sin city art. just what I was looking for. I would like to emulate some of this flavour and tone of stark blacks and whites in my animation.

A film all about Heaven and Hell having a wager over earth and its inhabitants and the demons are creepy.... whats not to love. good inspiration.

Lets remember to keep things grounded. part of my desire with this project os to show the shape of the himan form.... life drawing and bridgeman's books have helped alot. I also looked at ballet dancers in google images...


the art of Assassins creed 4 Black flag has such gorgious art, I had to buy a copy. Its hard not to slobber at the gorgious details drawn and painted by some of the worlds best artists. you get history, adventure, pirates, exotic locations and a really cool story.
To keep from playing computer games which take too much time) I watch walkthroughs while I sculpt, draw or animate.

Glen Keane used to work for Disney, he is easily one of my favorite artists and hand drawn animators.
I really love looking at his work for looseness of line and confidence. he truely believes in his characters and it shows in his art... a big influence.

One of the major reasons for doing 2d animation and getting excited about it is this show from warner brothers the story and characters were great. Bruce Tim- a very talented artist.

Im not much of a fan of anime but Ill touch this title as its the dark knight. highly recommend (see end of sketchbook for directors) few of which I can pronounce thier names.

found the colour style of the old Batman show so captivating with pich black for those shadows... definately an inspiration...

Hellboy. Mike Mignolia and his style. its blocky, stylised and intence but its very enjoyable to view.

The Crow. played by Brandon Lee (the original) was an influence on Angelica in a few ways. mainly the vigilante aspect but the more I think about it, the more it would be good to have a metal sound track.

Strong indepandant and free spirited young woman with celtic roots. good film big inspirer..

Catmoman action figure. used this figure as a manaquin to draw some still poses. its the right genre too.

Demons from constantine were certainly creepy. these inspired me to draw sloth and Envy Demons the way you see them in my sketchbook... all wasted away and disturbing.

The Crow figure, I was looking at this piece and I had the thought that trench coats are too overused which is exactly why Angelicas design has a close fitting short and practical coat which helps excecuate her wings when she finally reveals them.

Old crusade art. loved the thought ofan angel in or above a huge battle fighting for right and purity.
The thought apealed to have a woman angel (like Joan of Ark) fight in the crusades and be untouchable.

These crowd scenes, the detail and the shadow were indeed an influence on texture and having an earth bound quality to the character who it would be too easy to glamourise.

Angel from X men. the kinds of poses Im looking for.

Bird wings from Rescuers down under. referenced for my angelic character.


love the break down and the deapth desplayed in the desigh Glen Keane shows us here.

The BPRD (Beauro for parranormal research and defence were acall of thought as I thought of why is Angelica hunting demons? Then I decided its for more spiritual and personal reasons...

inspiational warrior image

Highlander was a story character I definately thought of.
What if there was a female highlander who was earning her way back to the higher dimension (Constantine) carried weapons like Blade, had a personal vendetta with demons and dealt out death like Seline from underworld and had a colour pallete of Sin city?...

cool pose from Marvel comics


Angel wings from a figurine so I can examine close up for drawing purposes

natural reference. for a while I toyed with the idea that she might have torn bat wings like the character Raziel from the soul Reaver video games but kept coming back to bird wings as they are more apealing (i think) for a female good guy character.

Pearl harbour was an unexpected piece of inspiration in that I wanted to show Angelicas caring and hospitable side, there is a point in the storyboard whare she is helping in a world war 2 effort as a nurse for soldiers on the front lines.

Frank Frazetta is very good at drawing women.one of the greatest(if not the best fantasy artist that has ever lived.

the inspiration of Hell blazer led me to Slaine comic too which is rather twisted but helped in the thought process.

Part od Angelica's museum and life training are her samurai armours and weapons from her days as a Ronin.

The Justice league were fun to look at when trying to find a feel for the stye and form of art to be used.



another great eagle sketch drawn with such confidence

character called Marv from Sin City. the black and white contrast so well. Frank miller's commic is very   underated.

Underworld, rise of the Lycans. vampires, wharewolves-fight!

the old Highlander poster. highlander character played by Christopher Lambert.

Battle scene. wars of the past. although it doesnt feature, it is good to think about a characters past. why do they do what they do? and why do they feel that way? 

Egyptian princess. good female form.

Westernised samurai. "We love it."

Just like the Quentin Tarantino films "Kill Bill" the Katana or Japanese sword is one of those weapons that we all know as a deadly and well made weapon. The kind that an imortal would carry.



In the animation there is a raining scene. its white on black, Id love to be able to capture this type offeel in movement...

Ancient Egypt back drop reference for apossible memory of our main character.

Supergirl pulls alot of the right flying poses that Im looking for...


Disney's Pocahontas(also drawn by Glen Keane)


Seline from Underworld franchise was one of the female warrior archetypes I looked into when trying to pin down who Angelica is.

Good wing reference from Bret Ratner's x3 the last stand

cool looking sword wielding imortals.

Real wing reference

Death Dealer. exceptional character.



Another Biblical painting which tires quite nicely to what Im working on.

good wing reference to be elongated and the indervidual feathers counted towards knowing how to draw wings.

Angel in action

Xena warrior princess. bit cheap and tacky in my oppinion, oh look she has a samurai sword...





wing reference video







very informative and useful to pause and use for shots and reference in the animation.

AS I wrote earlyer this is a handful of the research and inspiration I looked at when collecting my thoughts. I hope you enjoyed this insight into what I looked at for ideas and visual research.