So I’m sat on a plane listening (semi-listening) to a Russian dude talking about housing in Florida, and he doesn’t seem to mind that I’m incessantly doodling as I listen. I’m trying to define a visual style for my project. My characters in the Mouse and Dragon project live in a lighthouse- mostly because I LOVE tall spindly things on rocks, and also because of the iconic nature of the building and the story potential of the place. I’ll share more bits and pieces of the story setup as I go, but in the meantime, here’s some visual development doodles:

Here’s some exploratory sketches, searching for pleasing shapes. I must be pleased by my shapes.

I tend to obsess over line quality. I don’t recommend getting too obsessed about your style, the most important thing is to take things through to completion rather than trying and retrying for the ‘perfect’ look. It just won’t come until you hit a rhythm of producing things. I’m trying to take my own advice here. This is a quick test using charcoal. I love charcoal….

I’m decided on a pencil and photoshop look. This lighthouse was doodled in a story meeting at the day job, and colored at home.  Pretty happy with that.

I’m hoping one day to be able to channel some of the gorgeous lines of Quentin Blake-

and maybe mix it up with a bit of the textures and tone of Raymond Briggs (both big childhood influences)… and I’ll be getting there.

Here’s a quicky after effects test:

More soon!

Hey there,

here’s some wobbly-cam info about the Tales of the Spiffing book:

I worked on it with a bunch of talented folk at Aardman, if you’re in the US or Europe, you can get a copy from the Tales of the Spiffing site, if you’re in Israel,  it costs 95 NIS including shipping. Pay by via Paypal to jp@jpvine.com and I’ll get it in the post with a lovely sketch for you too.

 I’ll be zipping over to Bristol, UK for the comic con there this weekend, where we’ll be selling the book and giving a panel talk on Saturday at 11am about storyboarding and comics and film and all that good stuff. If you’re in Bristol this weekend, drop by. Be great to see you.