LAIKA Holiday Challenge Results

So I didn't win this competition, but there was some fantastic submissions. I know that my work got seen by LAIKA which is really great. I hope they do more competitions because it was really fun to have a go at working 'with' this company and their characters.

What was successful in the winning image: 

It was a moving image. The image flashed with different coloured Christmas lights, so it was dynamic and captured attention for longer on the Facebook banner.

Recognisable characters, true to the visual style of Laika's original characters. Hand drawn but kept in the house style.

Subtle colours, using Christmas colour scheme but muted so as not to be too garish or distracting.

They did, however, share a few of their favourite entries and mine is the first one on the Facebook album. They shared one of my test photos, not the final image. It might have been confusing or even against the *rules* that I posted several images.

FAIRYTALE HUNT 4/4

More happy winners for the final round of fairy hunting!

We had one in the shop at Stuff4Offices where I work and it took a while for anyone to find it, but eventually this little boy and his Woody found Rapunzel in our window.

What a fabulous start to the Christmas Fairytale Hunt! Well done from everyone at G Craggs, Eva and Sam Platts! A fantastic prize of £100 for a lovely family!😁👍🍾
Posted by Stephen Craggs on Saturday, 23 December 2017

FAIRYTALE HUNT 3/4

There's been a bit of an argument on Blow Your Horn about some of the children winning multiple prizes every week. Some people are saying that they should give others a chance but others say it's fair enough: if they were there first and found the fairies then they're the winners!

LAIKA CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE COMPLETE

Tadah! It's finished. I'm really happy with how this looks. It's striking, Christmassy and definitely inspired by LAIKA'S Box Trolls.
I would have liked a bit more dust or a darker background to make it look more like an attic...

LAIKA COMPETITION ENTRY

Backdrop isn't dark or grungy enough. Would prefer more depth, more suggestion that this is an attic.

More of a scene.

I am really pleased with how the Boxtrolls look! The shading and detail on the face is different to what I usually do. They look like the original Boxtrolls but not exactly the same, they do have a hint of Jay about them in their cute expressions and raised eyebrows.

LAIKA COMPETITION

(Image from The Boxtrolls, LAIKA)

In my original proposal, I mentioned some competitions that the stop motion company LAIKA have done in the past (but haven't done since 2014) and that I might try and track down some of those briefs to work on since I am a big fan of their films and they are the kind of company I would like to work for/with.

But low and behold, LAIKA posted on their Facebook page today that they are hosting a competition! 

The prize is only to be featured on their social media cover photo, which isn't brilliant or much incentive to enter, however, it is exactly the kind of brief I want to work on and would get seen by people within the company... so perhaps it is worth doing this, perhaps more so than just setting myself small challenges for my portfolio, since this is external brief.

(Image from The Boxtrolls, LAIKA)

I've had a quick think and planned out some roughs.

The idea I'm taking forwards is THE BOXTROLLS with a Christmas twist. Boxtrolls as boxes of stored Christmas decorations in an attic. 

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (Self-Directed)

Design and print wallpaper

Make photos for the photo frames

Make hangers and fur coats to hang in the wardrobe

Clock? Lamp? Papers? Chair?

Make Lucy

Make Mr Tumnus

Make Narnia scene

Make lamppost

FAIRYTALE HUNT 2/4

The boy on the left won £100! Love his sister's face here. It's so so so so so lovely to see these children so excited by my work.

The girl above loved my fairies and used her winnings to buy herself one from the shop to take home.

Mega Crit Peer Feedback

My pile of completed work so far did look impressive and I am proud of what I've managed to achieve so far. It is definitely the best work I've done yet (In my opinion) and is relevant to where I want to take this into children's book publishing. I just need to refine and show the best of my abilities, show dedication to the craft and a portfolio of different scenes/tones/characters.

Should I continue with the Sherlock FOLIO brief?

Mixed response - some saying to push my comfort zone and try to do it and others saying to move on and do something that is more beneficial to my practise.

I think that the brief was so close to being right for me, but the restrictions on it being a Folio competition made it awkward, such as having to have a very plain and patterned cover and the very rigid formal appearance of the brand.

SOLUTION:  Removing Folio, but still making Book Illustrations

I've decided to abandon the brief. The idea of making images for an existing book was appealing to me, but the competition and the Folio brand is what ruined it for me. I'm going to make illustrations using models for existing classic books (probably for a child-middle grade audience) for MYSELF and MY OWN PORTFOLIO, not to please a company competition. I do hope that certain publishers or clients would find these attractive, but I need to be specific and aim for the ones I would want to work for in the future (Nosy Crow, Flying Eye).

Need to update timetable and action plan with these changes.

Here are a few of the books I would love to reimagine with physical models:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Wizard of Oz

Alice in Wonderland

More Poe stories

The Secret Garden

PIPPI LONGSTOCKING

The Wind in the Willows

FAIRYTALE HUNT SATURDAY 1/4

The Hunt was a huge success! I handed the organisation and promotion over to Gaynor as I work Saturdays (plus this is her forte and she did an incredible job of handling it all), but we saw lots of families out hunting for the characters in town from the shop where I work and we followed along on the BYHR Facebook group to see the winners as they were announced.

9 dolls were hidden in shops around the city (some in windows, some inside - all participating shops had signs on the door saying that they were taking part, but the chosen shops were kept completely secret) and one was hidden on a business's Facebook page.

All day I had people coming into the shop and asking if I was the 'girl who makes the fairies' and we sold out of dolls in the window at work. I have a lot of custom doll orders to do... 

All of the fairytale characters were found by the end of the day and prizes ranged from £50 cash to smaller presents/gift vouchers donated by the businesses. There was such an enchanting buzz around the city and I'm so pleased with how well it went. The trail has got my name out there a little more, since all Ripon resisdents get a Review Ripon through their door and lots of people took part in the hunt, but it feels so great to be part of something that has made all these children smile and actively support their community.

And it's not over yet... that was only the first week of four. People are only just getting into Christmas mode so I reckon it's going to be even better and busier next week, especially since those following BYHR saw the amazing prizes won, and people now know how it works and will be going out to try again.

ACTION PLAN

Working backwards from the submission date for the Sherlock Holmes Folio Society Brief is making me anxious. It is very close and I really should be further along in the process of that competition if I am going to enter. I'm wondering about not doing this one after all. I am interested in it and I would like to have a go but perhaps I should be spending my time on something that REALLY excites me rather than scares me. I know it's good to push my comfort zones and have something a bit different in my portfolio but I don't know if I have the time to pull it off.

This is definitely something I'll ask about in my crit tomorrow: SHOULD I TAKE THE CHALLENGE AND DO THE FOLIO BRIEF, OR DO I ABANDON SHIP AND MOVE ON?
All I have so far is two sketches of Sherlock so I don't feel attached or committed, which is probably why I'm still umming and ahhing over the whole brief - I don't want to commit because I don't know whether I'll carry through with it, so I don't want to waste any time starting before I've answered this question.

I WANT to get started on my children's book idea but I feel like I need the 'go-ahead', permission to get moving with that, since it's not a live/competition brief PLUS I'm worried that I'll leave COP behind by moving onto this project.

ON A POSITIVE NOTE, I MADE A TIMETABLE/ACTION PLAN which I've been putting off for weeks. I also tidied my studio. I'm feeling like a proud adult and it is so pleasing to tick off tasks once I've finished them.

Fairytale Trail Brief: Trailer

The trail begins SATURDAY! I had my final meeting with Gaynor this morning to hand over the dolls. Gaynor has done so much with printing the flyers, going around ALL 70 BUSINESSES handing them out, printing stickers, collecting prizes and organising the hunt. Events and opportunities like this are so much more successful when you work WITH other people, from other disciplines, so you can share your skills and come together to make something great. I wouldn't have had the time/resources to do something like this by myself at the moment so working with Gaynor was perfect. She was really pleased with the dolls and she was showing them off in Oliver's Pantry (cafe). There's a lot of excitement with the residents and employees in Ripon about this. Gaynor bought all 10 dolls and has ordered another two for another business owner in Ripon (crystal Shop Karma, who also want to hire me to curate a scene with their crystals and my characters). Holding tight for the influx of custom orders. We have plans to work together again in the near future as Gaynor is considering buying another retail unit to make into a shared studio space/gallery/shop/teaching space. It's the DREAM and she wants to get Ripon artists (degree standard) involved and working in this space. Here is a short trailer-sort of video just to shout about the trail on the Blow Your Horn Ripon Facebook Page.

Music for Future Projects?

Just a reminder to myself to revisit the music of TALES (Free Music Archive), especially the album 'Echoes from the Last Fairyland'.  Beautiful soundtrack numbers, would be wonderful for stop-motion.

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/TALES/Echoes_From_The_Last_Fairyland

FAIRYTALE TRAIL: FINAL PHOTOS OF DOLLS/SCENES

Print as postcards!

Fairytale Trail Brief: Extended to Book Covers

I tried to think about how these images would look as book covers/contextualised images. Adding type made them look like book covers/post cards so I had a go...

The scenes are very busy so there was often not much room for type. It got crowded and the text had to be a bright colour to stand out. Doesn't look very well designed, a bit tacky and very dated.

Maybe they don't need the titles. If I got rid of the titles and had them in this size format as little postcards with titles on the back then they might work. Text wasn't successful!

FAIRYTALE TRAIL BRIEF: Sword Practice with the Mouse King

Again, this wasn't asked for in the brief but I wanted to have a play with making the Mouse King move since he has been the most popular character on my social media. People seem to like him so I think they'd respond well to seeing him move and do more!

What works well:

So cute. Really love how the character comes to life and seems to have a personality.

The sword helps to contextualise the movement and add narrative/reasoning for his motion.

What needs work:Lighting washes out the mouse's face a bit at points.

You can see his hanger (elastic loop for hanging in the shops)

Wonky/wobbly. He moves around a lot and where he fell over there are obvious jumps in the footage. Could use magnets or white tac to stick him in position before moving each frame?

Fairytale Trail Brief: Animating Little Red and the Wolf.

A very bad and wobbly animation but fun to see these dolls come to life and see the potential of them as working in moving image.

What works well:

Engaging for child audience

What needs work:

Plan out storyline and storyboard before animating.

More frames.

Keep tripod and camera still!

More trees.

The castle looks very flat. Either take it further back into the background (depth) or bring it out a bit with relief/3D model.

Fairytale Trail Brief: Peter Pan and Tinkerbell Improved Tink

Although I felt the previous Tink looked mischievous (right for the role), her red hair was a bit harsh/unnatural against the backdrop and her cheeky face made her look quite evil. I went for a softer look with this Tink, but I don't think she is as true to the story as the previous version.

What works well:

The acorn caps work well to communicate the idea that these characters are small fairy folk. They are one with the woodland.

The bigger fir trees are much more suited to the forest/woodland theme. Look better in the background and very Christmassy.

What needs work:

Boring composition on the left, but the right is a bit more interesting. Tell a story!

How will these images be used? Think about context. Post cards?

What's Next?

I've started some initial character designs for Sherlock Holmes but I'm not CERTAIN that I will enter the Folio competition. I'm intrigued by it but not HUGELY MOTIVATED. 

What I DO REALLY WANT TO DO is make a children's picture book.

I want to plan, write, make and produce a picture book (or a proposal/some final pages for a picture book) using physical models/scenes.

Do I save this for after COP is finished or do I start on that right away?

GET THINKING OF IDEAS! PLOTS. CHARACTERS. SCENES. 

Is there a number of live briefs I should be working on?

What I've achieved so far:

Dark Crystal      -    SUBMITTED

Fairytale Trail    -    FINISHED DOLLS, RUNS THROUGH DECEMBER

What's still to do:

Folio Society  (Sherlock Holmes)             -    17th January 2018

Art Doll Quarterly  (Haunted Fairytales)  -    15th March 2018

Fairy Tale Trail Brief: Rapunzel and Dame Gothel

The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'

What went well:
Rapunzel's hair is much longer and makes her character more obvious.
Having two characters interact within the scene makes it more of an illustration and tells the story.

What to improve:
IMAGE ISN'T SHARP ENOUGH
More trees
Better lighting
Consider COMPOSITION...

Dark Crystal Competition Submission

Due to the fine print in the rules of this competition, I'm not actually allowed to post any of my images or designs on here but I will include them in the module submission.

I had fun imagining this creature and I am content with the designs I submitted. They fit the brief and they communicate my ideas well, but I don't think they're amazing. They're just drawings and I didn't spend that long on them. I know that there will be much more incredible concepts submitted but I think it was definitely worth submitting because it will be seen and judged by the Hensons and the Frouds.

I could come back to this brief and bring my creature 'to life' by building it into a model. It wouldn't be part of the competition but it would be an extension of this project that could lead on?

Big Bad Wolf

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'

What's Going Well:
I'm enjoying making scenes and seeing how the dolls can interact with the landscape. I'm trying to create depth and a sense of winter wonderland adventure, a magical tone of voice that would suit the fairytale topics.

What to Work On:
Making photos as crisp as possible! Clear, high quality
Composing the scenes, considering every element.
More trees, make it a WOODLAND.

Fairy Tale Trail Brief: Posters

Collaboration with Colour it In Ltd and Gaynor Gray. I didn't make these posters or design them at all, Gaynor took this responsibility and just asked me for two images of dolls to include.

I like the photo of the fairy but the one of the mouse is on a green background which looks really odd next to the colours of the posters... I did send a pink and a white background alternative which would have gone better with the background used.

If I was involved with the design then I might have chosen a different font, this one looks a bit over the top, too swirly! I would have chosen something child friendly but also clear to read.

HOGWOMP SUBMISSION

Hogwomps are small, solitary mammals which live in the woodland of Thra. They have large bodies and long snouts, making them so bottom-heavy that if a Hogwomp were to sit/lie down, it wouldn’t be able to get up. Hogwomps have tiny wings but they’re only strong enough to lift them a few centimetres high.

They feast on debris and aren’t hunted for meat since they have a tough layer of fat, but their large, pearlescent eggs are a delicacy. Hogwomp feathers are shaken off and used for ground nests to protect their eggs since they cannot sit to incubate.

THE DILEMMA OF WHEN TO LET SOMETHING GO... IS THIS READY TO SEND OR SHOULD I KEEP WORKING

Rapunzel

What works well:

In the original story, Rapunzel gets pregnant. I tried to make her look pregnant but I don't know if it reads well in this dress. 

What needs work:

The dress is also too similar to the background so she blends in.

She is also SMILING when her story was really quite sad. She should be upset. 

She should also have a tower!

Her hair isn't long enough.

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

What works well:

Using clear thread was successful in making the dolls look like they are in flight.

The characters are true to the story but not identical to the Disney version or other illustrator's versions.

What needs work:

Shadows wouldn't appear in the sky so the lighting needs fixing.

Tree tops look strange. Maybe bigger fur tree tops would look better here. The dolls should also be higher in the sky, and maybe a night sky? Wider frame. Draw out compositions.

Puss in Boots

What works:

The character is charming, sweet and different as I've not made a cat before.

Still enjoying the blue/peachy pink colour scheme - looks soft and dream-like, works for the fairy tale theme.

What needs improving:

You can see the white tac sticking the tree bases down!

Colours too similar on the cat in front of the grey castle and the hat/boots in front of the same colour brown tree trunks. The character starts to blend into the background.

I don't know if he needs trousers on, or just thicker/wider legs. He looks a bit odd in his proportions.

The ribbons on his boots and the boots themselves look a bit rushed/scruffy.

More sparkle - add glitter?