BUFFY || More Sketches & Hiatus of the project

Roughing out some potential layouts. I liked the idea of doing something like a playing card - two people, kind of reversable. So the image would be a prominent character of the season and a prominent 'big bad' of the season.

I've started to kind of map up a Willow / Dark Willow image (it very much should be considered a sketch)

I'm trying to draw the characters in my style again but I'm not really happy with what I've made and I'm struggling to find a method thats going to work well for this project.

Ben said I'm struggling with it because everyone looks so generic because it's the 90's and fashion was terrible.

At this point I have to focus more on FMP and while I would like to continue working on this project I know it's not in my best interests for my portfolio or my time usage. I would like to continue this project on past the degree as a self-indulgent passion project as I do not know how long it will take to truly find the style I'm gonna work with for the project!!!! 

I would have liked to be able to create something more solid, as I have not been able to even make any 'final images' for this project. I think I just started on it too late and took on too much along with it to be able to finish this big project along with FMP. But at least it gives me something to work on post-degree. 

Buffy || Digital Experiments

Using the lino prints and drawings I had already done I combines them in photoshop and started playing with colours and compositions - layering things up.

I used an image of Buffy and a stake, and Faith and the knives she is given in season 3 - as one of my main ideas was having the 'big bad' of the season and their main weapon as the cover.

I think the high contrast of the images gives them a dramatic look - matching the tone of the show.

Colours ??? Nothing solid. I kind of like the pinks and purples because it's a bit different and has that 'femme' aesthetic.

Maybe a more feminine / femme/ hard femme/ girl power aesthetic type thing would give this project more direction because then I have more of a target audience and something more to work with. This would be an appropriate aesthetic because (although problematic) the show was a big feminist thing with powerful female roles in the media, etc etc. & I myself like the concept of embracing femininity while not sacrificing strength / equality / etc.

The last image was something I drew up quickly for march 10th which was the 20 year anniversary of the first episode being aired. I'm finding the more shape based stuff does look good, but it's difficult for me to do and I'm unsure whether it's kind of sacrificing my style of drawing but I am just struggling a lot with adapting the characters into my style at all????

BUFFY || LINO

To try and get out of the slump of drawing the characters over and over I did some lino prints of weapons, which was really fun! I love the shape based stuff and I'm excited to try different things with these bits and pieces. 

I think lino is a really good indicator of my style as it allows use of shape and texture. I'm a very mixed media person so I want to try different compositions of bits and pieces - combining these with drawings of characters I've already done. 

There are a couple of lino prints I still need to do on a bigger piece of lino (the scythe and some swords) 

This rejuvenated my interest in this brief and lessened my suffering and feeling like a horrible failure not able to do anything good!!!

SI // Buffy // FAce Shapes // themes & notes to self

This post is mainly just brain mush so I can organise my thoughts not in a sketchbook


I fiddled with some images in photoshop, threshold and posterise to bring out the shapes so I can focus more on blocks of shape & colour instead of struggling trying to draw faces from photographs.

It's tempting to screenprint some thesholded photographs as collage fodder

maybe just weapons or something easier to portray

http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Weapons

imagery by season? something for main themes or plot lines?

1: beginning // slayer // prophecy
2: love // loss of inoccence // angel turns bad
3: faith // mayor // maturing
4: uni // the initiative // riley // Adam
5: glory // key // change
6: ressurrection // willow // magic //  power // addiction // depression // wow everything is just going wrong // barely a happy ending tbh
7: potential // slayers // strength // chosen // bringers // end

Buffy Brief: Development & Hitting a Wall Already

I'd hit a wall in my self initiated 'fun' brief. Whoops.

I found myself redrawing faces over and over again to try and get it 'right' and the whole process was not really getting me anywhere.



I asked Abi to look over some of the work I'd been doing and give me some tips for she is also a Buffy fan and would be able to give me some advice in context to the project (as she's basically the target audience). She said the earlier paintings done with mostly shapes worked better than when I was trying to work with lines as I was getting too hung up on the lines.

The shapes are more bold and distinctively look like the characters, so I should take my time on doing some really good shape based images rather than lots of quick line based ones like I got hung up with.

The above shape based images do work better than line based one. 

BUFFY - INITIAL DOODLES RAMBLES IDEAS ETC

soooooo this is the first workings of things in the sketchbook!!

going into this thinking very much the images made are designed to go on a box set re-design.

first thoughts: whats appropriate to go on each season box. I intended the design as a 20th anniversary re-design / collectors edition the intended audience would be people who are already established Buffy fans. I thought, because of this, putting the main villain of the season on each season's cover (for a new viewer it could be considered a spoiler??? but for already established buffy fans it's like, they know whats going on)

My initial stuff is a lot of sketches, trying to figure out characters faces (and failing), I want to retain my 'tone of voice' but still show the characters which is proving VERY DIFFICULT.

It feels more difficult cause i'm trying to look at it from a design perspective rather than just a mindless fan-art piece ( even though it is a self indulgent passion project, cause I love buffy ). But since the characters are real actors I feel like it has to look enough like the actual humans but you know... realism... it's not my thing, proportions etc. It's just not working for me.

Buffy Box Set || Self Initiated Brief.