Time to re-invent

More often than not, I don't believe in copying drawings, remakes, re-draws. When a doodle comes out just right, I'm never able to duplicate it. Perhaps, I can do it better (sometimes it happens), but I'm usually poor at copying drawings. If I have to make a model, a sculpture, that's somewhat easier for me. But copying drawings? No, sir. Not me.

So, several years ago, I wanted to see if I can make some Sci-Fi illustrations, to expand on a new market. Illustrating bears and rabbits is fun, but I didn't want to stuck with single kind of expression. God knows I have big enough portfolio of Sci-Fi designs, since this is what I started to draw even before I knew how to. Somehow I thought my early designs might looked too much like they origin from worldly popular and famous influences, so I hesitated to do something with them. Then, I started to dream about making a movie, short film to be more precise, and to put all kinds of my designs in it. I started to build 3D computer objects, render scenes... but this, some fifteen to twenty years ago, simply didn't look good enough. Classic special effects seemed like better option, with all 3d work still useful for planning everything ahead, like making animatic. Eventually, I’ve realized that all that will have to wait. I should start with something smaller. So I ended up in puppet films.

Sometime after finishing my first short film “Soldat”, I have tried that Sci-Fi experiment. I even simulated how it would look on some imagined magazine covers, and I used those covers (wrapped around old magazines) to create piece of conceptual art for one exhibition. Sadly, it proved complicated creating multiple composites out of old sketches. If I had one central figure, or some machine, there’s a lot of background to combine from almost incompatible doodles. Another thing, painting in computer was difficult, with or without tablet pen. So I gave it a rest.

Solution, however, came from an unlikely source: as a person who’s not impressed with touchscreen devices, at first I’ve struggled, but finally embraced the android tablet. There are some useful apps, unfortunately none of them has everything, so I have to combine their capabilities, importing – exporting the same image through several stages. But, that’s quite all right, since I hardly found anything at all: a few good apps. The most important thing is, that now I posses a tool to deal with refreshing old sketches with more ease.

Let’s see how it’ll go!

#photo