Petanque playing elephants

Some character concept sketches for a humorous piece. Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. This one came courtesy of a friend who provided a very colourful description of their neighbour.

watercolour illustration

This is about my 3rd attempt - maybe 10th if I count all the paintings of separate sections I did to try and decide the colours. I knew this one was going to be a challenge for me - being a learner of watercolour still. It's far from perfect, but time to move on. I'm happy enough with this one.

(P.S. It's a mulberry tree if you missed the previous post)

Illustration roughs - "Attacking the Mulberries"

Here are some preparation sketches for a new piece. I'm planning to try watercolour for this one. Hopefully I can improve upon my woeful earlier attempts at using this medium. For the idea here, I borrowed an old theme from Illustration Friday which was simply the word 'savour'. In this piece I'm also drawing on childhood experience, climbing on top of the shed to attack the mulberries.

Character design

Here is some concept art for the main character of the picture book I've been working (and posting) on. The first image is an experiment with new ways to render digitally. The second image is more of an exploration of personality. As the personality crystallizes I expect to develop a more consistent way of drawing and constructing this fellow.

Illustration "Visitor"

Number 4 in the series.

In this illustration we follow the character towards a house on top of a hill. I thought this might be a good image to provoke a feeling of intense curiosity in the viewer. Who lives there? Why is this character going there today? Is he a regular visitor, or is this a special occasion? etc. I must admit, I'm not yet sure myself. I do have some ideas, and quite a lot of imagery floating around in my head. Hopefully I can make sense of it all at some point in the future, or else a writer can! In the end I may even reveal the identity of the hill top dweller prior to this scene, as these illustrations aren't necessarily in sequence.

"Day Trip"

Number 3 in the series.

I'm thinking that as I explore this character's world a loose narrative will unfold. Eventually, I envisage possibly collating the series into a picture book without words - a purely visual story. One example of this picture only format is Gon, the Japanese manga about a dinosaur.

"Basking"

This illustration entitled Basking, is the second installment in a series of digital paintings I'm doing around a common theme.

"Care Free"

As promised, here is the higher res version. Feel free to download and use it as your wallpaper... I am! This piece marks a milestone and a new direction for me creatively.  I hope to develop the style and motifs futher in subsequent pieces.

I decided to call this one "Care Free". So.. what do you see? Where's he going? What's he thinking? Your feedback and comments are most welcome!

Blog makeover

It's been long overdue, a blog makeover! The new banner features my latest digital painting, so far untitled.. I'll be posting a higher res version within the next week for anyone wanting a feel-good wallpaper for their desktop.

Hope you like the new look!

Cheers
Christian

Character design - elderly lady

Long gap since last post sorry! Just finished up a 7 week 2d animation project. I'll hopefully get approval to show some of that in a few weeks. More on that later..

I did this character sheet for fun, starting with a photo reference I found appealing, then simplifying and caricaturing until I felt I had a design with lots of personality. These drawings are quite loose still, so if they were for animation they'd probably be classed as 'development art' or 'concept art'. The forms would need to be further simplified and clarified. But for something like children's book illustration, these would not be far off usable designs.

Hope you like them.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

This children's music video wrapped up end of last month. I was the main animator, responsible for about 80-90% of the character animation. Considering our schedule and budget I am really happy with the results. The software used was Blender. The project was coordinated by Fuzz Studios.

Illustration - "Stowaway Adventurer"

Character illustration

Now let's see if I can colour it..

Character designs

Character design - Shepherd boy

I should be back to regular posts now that the animation project is finished. More on that later. Here's a new folio piece, from concept sketch to clean. I prefer the rough one personally. Preserving the vitality of loose sketches in a clean up is something I'm yet to master!

Update

Just an update for anyone viewing regularly, or wondering when I will post again. I'm about to start on a largish animation project, so posts will be a little sparse over the next month or so, but I will try and put some quicker things up. Thanks for visiting, and please feel free to say hi and leave a comment!

cheers,
Christian

"Blimping Together"

My new web site!

www.christianbocquee.com

This blog however is still the place to see regular postings of my latest work.

Caricature

Another quick caricature / character design. Will try to keep these coming, I'm having fun!

Caricature

A quick caricature from a photo reference. Will be posting a lot more of these since they are really quick to do, and fun, both to make and look at I think. This is also how I like to start character designs, using photo references, and then exaggerating etc.

digital painting "Curiosity"

Originally meant to only be a banner for my new website, I decided to turn it into a full-blown painting. I thought by making it black and white, I could focus on tone, at the same time making it less overbearing as a banner.

It's very much inspired by the 'Pixar look'. It depicts the idea of curiosity. A grandfather peers down a well with as much enthusiasm as his grandchildren. Or is he just feigning curiosity to spark theirs?

Speed painting

A quick digital painting - about one and a half hours. I used a photo reference of the Japanese actress Horikita Maki. The likeness is not perfect. My main objective was to practice painting light and shade for skin tones.

Character study

This digital painting is a quick character study for an in-progress illustration. More on that soon, hopefully!

Rowing By Moonlight

Big post this week, this illustration is intended for sale as a print. Going for lots of mood - I was listening to the French classical composer Erik Satie a lot while doing it, particularly Gymnopédies, and Gnossienne, and Ogive. If you know those pieces, you might be able to tell me if I have capture the right mood.

Character design

Some character concept art.

The Royal Conversion

Just an illustration for fun and folio. The idea here was a lord or king who has been convinced to discarding his riches for the sake of a 'higher' calling.

Forest Monk

I find the whole idea of the 'holy fool' interesting. You may notice this theme popping up now and then in my work. This digital painting was made using Mypaint, and Gimp, the free open source programs. Special thanks to the developers.

Two Tigers

A preliminary sketch for an illustration idea. Will post the final piece once it's done.

Sketchbook

Samples from my sketchbook. These are all observational sketches.

Colour storyboard

This is a storyboard for a mock commercial. It was done as a folio piece. The panels are in sequence starting with the top-most image.

Storyboard planning sketches

These are some planning sketches for a storyboard. The final panels will be full colour. I'll post them here when they're finished!