x-mas doodle

maybe it is due to the spring like weather or because I already had two big family-friends-love celebrations (weddings) this december but  my christmas mood has yet to arrive... well, I have a hunch it will show up in time... happy holidays!

memory sketching - Character Design course with Stephen Silver - III

This is a memory sketch done within the schoolism class with Stephen Silver - final drawing and doodles of a man spotted while waiting at the traffic lights on a sunny day this summer. As I rarely draw muscles at all I picked him for the assignment. Also, I've never seen such a muscle-man in real life. He really looked like he was pumped up with air...

special offer - free shipping - society6 - mugs and cards!

Until November 17 you'll get a special offer on my society6 store - free shipping by using this Promo link: http://society6.com/ingridaspoeck?promo=a26d5c 
society6 now also offers mugs and they look pretty neat...just ordered one so in a few weeks I'm gonna see what they look like in 3D. I also adjusted some illustrations for the stationary cards for merry holiday greetings. Jo-hoho :)

* update: the printing on the mug is great! thin lines and colors are made very well. was really happy with it and it made a nice xmas gift :) *

Character Design course with Stephen Silver - II

In lesson 2 we started working on two characters inspired by "Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde". I came up with a shy, nerdy school kid, called Ben Timidson, aged 9 to 10, placed in the late 70's, who is afraid of everything and his vicious, arrogant mutation Jack Debacle, who has a huge temper problem and loves exploring and (then) destroying things.

These are some of the first sketches for the mousy Ben and the punky Jack. 

With the help of Stephen Silvers critique I mashed up some parts of the sketches with my favorite one, (which got his approval as well - wohoo :) and started the clean up, so this fellow on the right ended up to be the final one. During the remaining weeks of the class we then had to make turns, expressions and attitudes with the final version of character 1. - might post them as well soon.

Character Design course with Stephen Silver - I

This year I treated myself to an online class at schoolism, Character Design with Sephen Silver. My course started in the middle of May and went on for about 9 weeks. Each week you get access to a new lesson to watch online as well as exercises and an assignment. You have the whole week to upload your work so it can get critiqued by Mr. Silver via video which you can then watch online and download. 

The following pic shows the first and the last assignment. We were asked to design a character based on a given description - a wealthy, jolly, elderly entrepreneur from London. At the end of the course we re-did the design we submitted in week 1. I find it pretty nice how he changed...

left - 1st week, right - last week

rough sketches from week 1

The whole course was great, inspiring and motivating and above all very helpful also in kicking my behind to exercise more on a daily basis and in blowing away the dust from some topics like perspective/construction which -I'm a bit ashamed to admit- I used to neglect a little... and it made me rediscover the fun in practicing them. Stephen Silvers critiques are easy to follow, he takes time to attentively look at the work and always comes up with helpful suggestions and tips. If you are wondering if you can do a course while working - I'd say yes. It was a tiny bit stressful at times due to some colliding work-deadlines (but that's the curse of a freelancer anyway) and besides a lot of fun it was still manageable to do the assignments. 

So, to sum up, I can definitely recommend it and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna enroll at schoolism again. Yay.

P.S.:

Miss Queen Mob did the course as well, a few months before me, which is why I stayed away from her blog from winter till the end of my class... :) very nice work there -LOuOK

Strapazin #112 "Fernsehserien" (TV serials)

The issue #112 of the swiss comic magazine Strapazin is out since September. (Yay!) It is packed with 150 strips portraying TV-series 'of our youth' and beautifully wrapped in the cover by Christoph Abbrederis. 

Among many others you'll find Knight Rider, Mumins, Barbapapas, Kojak, Muppet Show, Twin Peaks, Fresh Prince, Parker Lewis, Der Kommisar... just to name a few. Starting with Lassie the shows are put together in chronological order and I very much enjoy 'zapping' through them. 

A bit further down on this blog I already posted a little bit about it and my contribution however on the Strapazin website you can find out more, get a sneak peek on the pages and a list of all the great featured artists. Take a looksie HERE. 

Strapazin #112 is curated by David Basler and Christoph Abbrederis. 

(: Get it. Get it now! :)

dancing monkeys

This spring my computer started acting out out a little and I tried to make use of the time spent waiting for his highness to perform so.. I often ended up doodling monkeys (or dancing around all crazy, depending on the rage level… :) as a result here are some apes shaking it (available at society6 - merci!)

comic strip for Strapazin #112 - TV serials

Oy, no time for posting all these months. 
So here is a little comic strip* I did this winter for Strapazin #112 - TV serials issue. The issue comes out in September and I can't wait to see all the other strips. In the mean time here is one from the great 'Häcksler' (: http://michaelhackerillustration.tumblr.com/post/42422170143

* it's about a german TV kid's show ("Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl") based on a german childrens book series and in german sooo... my apologies. I'll try and roughly explain it: Eder is an elderly carpenter who is living alone but one day gets stuck with an invisible kobold (goblin) Pumuckl. The new companion can only be seen by Eder and then only when the two are completely alone. Most of the time Eder is scolding Pumuckl for hiding, breaking, stealing things but he is also very fond of him and happy that he keeps him company. here in this strip Eder seems to be a bit confused.. 

long winter

had some fun with facebook title pics over the long, snowy winter

zzz... looks like spring is still hitting the snooze button in middle europe... zzz...

happy 2013!