Lair of the Jabberwock

More scribbles on the fly. I’m dying to do some clean work and colours.

Nytopia_Sketches_2.jpg

Some super-fast Discworld character scribbles.

Discworld Characters.jpg

And some clean-up. It’s good exercise.

vanHelsingClean.jpg

- in training.

FearlessVampireKillers.jpg

Not really done on a napkin, but a comparable kind of quick sketch of the five major characters of my “current story”.

v.Helsing.jpg

I’m looking forward to doing a proper group picture in colour.

This year’s jabberwock.

Jabberwocky2007.jpg

I make a new variation every year. This one is the most insectoid-looking and scary so far. Ah, I love Tenniel’s Alice-illustrations.

I’m a gamer nerd, too. This one I did tonight on impulse.

Fingus-Winkle.jpg

A nod to a blissfully wasted youth. Coktel Vision’s Gobliins was the first game I played with an actual sound card in my then system. (Original characters created by Pierre Gilhodes.)

I sure do!

The early stages of formulating an idea can be the most intimidating. In fact, I think that those first few pencil strokes, to either write or draw, can make or break the whole thing. Once they have been gotten over with, however, there’s some wonderfully raw material that could develop into almost everything.

SomeLikeItRuff.jpg

Most of those off-hand sketches are for a rather odd little story I’ve been obsessed with for some while now, and which focuses on the adventures of a twelve-year-old Abraham van Helsing in London. (I love the classics!)

Interpreting the ruff stuff is just as difficult an art as coming up with the basics, though, especially if it’s somebody else’s basics you have to solidify. I’ve got great respect for clean-up and inbetween artists. They are artists - one sure-fire way to make me grumpy is calling them “tracers” while I’m withing earshot.

BigHair.jpg

When I ruffed out this one I rather hated it. I was close to trashing it. After spending some time inking it in spite of my inner critic chanting, “Waste basket!”, I liked it a little better. I wasn’t taking it very seriously anyway so I messed away with colour, slept over it, gave it a fresh look the next morning and put the execution off. I still think it has many flaws but sometimes, sometimes it’s good to tell oneself that, eh!, perfection is overrated anyway.

The one above was inspired by a Rapunzel idea by another artist about which we talked briefly, and I thought it would be interesting to come up with a different approach.

The internet is a fascinating, big, scary place, although I’m glad to be able to say that, knock on wood, the fascinating aspects have so far outweighed my negative experiences with it. Its original purpose being the fast exchange of scientific and military information, I’m also glad that with the help of communities, the exchange of knowledge and sharing of experience today stretches to other areas as well.

I’ve been able to keep up with people all across the world, get to know people all across the world, collaborate with them all across the world. While all of this wouldn’t have been impossible, say, fifteen years ago, it would have taken considerably longer.

We all know this, of course, but it’s become almost startlingly clear to me when a couple of weeks ago I got interviewed about my “entanglement” with online animation communities - me sitting comfortably in my room here in Germany while the interviewer sat comfortably in her room somewhere in Canada, both of us using a VoIP service.

So hopefully I’ll be able to present the odd idea and concept here and get some insights, again, from all across the world. My partner (sitting in California) and I are currently working on two and I’m confident that there will be more to come.