MORE WORK!^^

I've been asked to work on a very nice project over the weekend. Iredia, from our course asked for my my assistance. Thanks to the past tests I've been doing in SAI for the past few weeks, people seem to be gaining interest in my new found style^^ Which is always a nice thing, I'm gaining my confidence back, the confidence I lost during my second year at Ravensbourne. Having members of my team believe in my work is truly a boost of self esteem.

I would also like to thank Michelle especially, we seem to have this mild rivalry thing going on, helping each other step by step; thats making us broaden out more in our own styles. So we're both dishing out new techniques every week! And exploring so many more different styles! Its a great motivation, keeping us moving^^ So THANK YOU!! =D

Anyways.. I've been asked to work on CONCEPT work, as a cinematographer. Which is such a nice thing, since that IS my target this year! I'm glad someone has seen potential in my skills. I've been asked to study closely with chinese paintings. Something I was forced into in chinese school, a LONG time ago. I used to get really high grades actually, but that was using a traditional paint brush, playing with water and ink, then a splash of COLOUR paint. It was very hard to do at first but yeah. Iredia wants to explore a more ORIENTAL style for his 30 second piece. Its a very simple piece, yet it carries values with so much more meaning. I'll post up the script after finding it through my inbox. After evaluating the whole plot with Iredia the other day, then going through the character designs, I felt a boost of excitement. I could actually picture each scene very nicely. Iredia has already mentioned hes a very flat out kind of person, and finds it very hard to picture things in more dynamics views to give shots that push. So I'll be playing with many angles, and working alot with the lighting. I pictured a very nice moon scene, with the reflection of the characters shadow being reflected onto the surface of the pond. We've decided to experiment with colour to find a suitable colour wheel. I've almost never digitalise chinese paintings. I've always used a brush pen people usually use for practicing asian calligraphy. Instead of getting the good old fashion paint sets out, having to grind the ink blocks, adding generous amounts of water, and making different tones depending on the amount of water and ink used.

For this project, I thnk a suitable Painting software would be needed. There's many softwares made for different things. I feel it restricts artists using the same software for EVERYTHING. For example, many people stick to photoshop because they're comfortable with it. It the potential in TRYING other softwares may save alot more time, if the artist was the broaden their tech knowledge a bit more. So I'll be testing Corel PAINTER for the first time today. Hoping to get something out of this.

SAI was potential, but so does photoshop. Here are my thoughts on each program for this project....

SAI - SAI's more fluent so it can create lovely brush strokes, but it still feels very stiff in comparison to the real things. A paper filter/texture could be added in photoshop after to give it the more authentic feel. Requires two programs to work together.

Photoshop - I have lovely brushes on photoshop too! But it still doesnt have that sense of depth a real paintbrush would give, remember, these digital tools ARE imitations of real artist tools. We pretty my have the whole of Cass Art, the graphic center in these softwares. But fakes will be fakes. I'm looking for a more traditional look.

Painter - I've seen many brilliant pieces! But I've never dared to try it, so I think today's the day. It says it in its name, if painter fails to give me what im looking for then I'll clash SAI and photoshop together depending on my tests.

Wish me luck~~