CAUGHT UP IN AN ANIMATED MAP
April was an absolute blur. We’re in the busy season at my day job as a Creative Director, with multiple huge projects going on, and biggest of all, for me at least, is a new “sketch” animation project. This one’s a two minute video for an organization battling homelessness in New York, and the art direction is roughly “wood block illustrations of river-rafter within a Lewis & Clark era map” (because nothing can ever be easy, and I wouldn’t want it any other way). One of the fun wrinkles that I’ve cooked up for this one is to start with live-action shots of hands (my totally model-worthy hands) holding the map, and then we dive into it for nearly the full length of the video before pulling back out for logo and CTA recognition.
Here are some of my favorite screenshots so far:
ONGOING PROJECTS
BATMAN TEAM-UP COMIC
The inks are done for Page 3! I’ve still got some things to clean up digitally, but overally, I feel this is a big improvement on my previous page. I still don’t feel confident with the finality of laying in blacks, but I did push them a little bit with Bane.
So far, 3 out of the first 4 pages are complete, with cleanup and coloring my second page being my top priority this month. This has been my favorite project to work on for a long time, and I am loving seeing my son’s creativity grow!
Take a look at closeups of the individual panels.
ILLUSTRATION UPDATE
The Character Design Challenge for March was “Animal Wuxia Warrior,” so I used that as an excuse to draw a version of the Grim Reaper that I’ve had in my head for the Land of the Dead. My Lord of Death is a cross between an angel and a raven, whose cloak morphs into black, feathered wings when he needs to fly. Whenever I get to a proper illustration of him, I’m looking forward to rendering his black armor, flecked and lined in gold.
My wife and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary this month! Since the gift theme is “cotton,” and she loves hanging out at home in big, comfy sweatshirts, I decided to design her a college-style sweatshirt for her Hogwarts House, Slytherin (and, yes, all of this is exactly as geeky as it sounds).
Though her sweatshirt is one of a kind, you can snag apparel with my basilisk illustration at TeePublic.
By the next issue, I should be wrapped on the animation project, and I’ll be my creative energy and time will be freed up again to spread it around to my ongoing personal illustration and sculpture projects. See you then!
— Andrew
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