The Lair of the Rain God

I have been failing miserably in attempting to document my film as continues to unfurl, one little layer at a time. However, I'm posting a low res bg (out of 20) from my film. As it turns out, each bg takes me around a week of effort and many hours of debating about the right blend of colours, the depth field and the composition. I've reached the magical 8 in the sequence, but still have a long, long way to go. I will be posting some versions in which I have attempted to composite the characters with the background as well. Any feedback is welcome. :)

Linked: Vomeja Major

There is a certain need of a chimera at times when your thoughts play themselves out in a veritable loop of images. When this happens, you know that you need to deviate. After seven months of constant rumination over my film, I picked up my pencil to create something distinctly different from it. As I stared at the sheet lying before me, I was conscious of the 'blackhole' which was slowly forming inside my creative cranium and I said, "Fie! I can't think of anything?!".

I drew a dot and circled it...hmmmm....a tadpole...nope...clumsy

With no apparent image in my head I started to search for things I had been ruminating about besides my film. Lets say...constellations for instance. A friend of mine had once joked that he would ask me to create constellations representing anima kingdoms if his holiness ever wished to hire someone from earth (Why on earth would he do that?!). Needless to say, I felt the tip of my pencil quivering as I began my odyssey to represent this absurd concept.

After developing an elaborate mesh of dots, I decided to combine features of a bobcat and a jack rabbit. It still needs a lot of work as I am yet to position the stars..will upload that once it is complete.

Alice in Vegas: Perspective

My rendition of the immortal characters created by Lewis Carroll. From left to right: The Cheshire Cat, The White Rabbit, Alice, The Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

I've always wondered how Lewis Carroll actually went about creating such diverse archetypes with his characters. With each character offering a new perspective on curiosity, stealth, jealousy, fear and eccentricity, I've often rediscovered many hidden layers to this story after every read-through. It sure deserves the crown of an ultimate fictional fantasy.

Muninn

“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."--Reverend Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing like a retreat into Norse mythology when you feel overwhelmed with yourself. It has always worked for me and it continues as I admit that the Greek Gods were not always the 'historically cool' ones. Norse Gods were brewing their own brawn and dousing their fear in mugs of ale made from the skulls their enemies.

Formidable as Odin was, I was always struck by the fact that he had this fascination for ravens much like Chengiz Khan. His ravens were named Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). Each day, he would send these two birds off around the world at daybreak to bring him news or tidings. In 'Grimnismal', Odin says

"For Huginn I fear lest he return not home, but I am more anxious for Muninn".

This suggests that Odin valued memory more than thought, something you wouldn't normally conceive about the God of war.

In this illustration, I have sought to represent a 'humaniod' or a 'sprite' (whichever you'd prefer) version of Muninn, which I feel, for obvious reasons should be represented as a feminine apparition. I am also working on Huginn's apparition, although with little success.

W.I.P

It's almost like my blog's got a tad rusty with the lack of updates, so as a filler I'm putting up an (incomplete) bg for my film. It's been three months of solid bonding with the lightbox for me and I miss my sketchbook and my photoshop endevours. :( I also realize that I cannot keep boring you with updates of Jared Leto as my new muse.

I keep promising myself that this is the last month of traditional animation and everytime I do that, my fingers get kinda itchy to pick up a tablet. This is the outcome of one such 'attack' of the itchy fingers, created just a week shy from my jury last month. I sincerely cannot tell you how badly I want to sink my fangs into some good bg work without the burden of animating shots. Pray that I succeed.