Clipstick Book 3 is on it's way!

If it's one thing that can feel the closest thing to achievement, it's finalizing a piece of artwork. I have yet to find something as similar and the only thing that comes to mind is finishing a chocolate doughnut from the local Phillips 66 gas station. Same kind of rush, less fingerprints on everything.

So I'm at a crossroads with Clipstick as the cover for book 3 is ready for display and the book itself is lively being inked to completion. I begin to wonder where the time went and where my future time lies. There is no time. I have an invented theory called "Reciprocal Time Displacement", but after I get some much needed sleep, I'll post for deliberation.

DETAIL:

CLIPSTICK BOOK #3 COVER

Please feel free to comment and constructively critique the piece as I'm hoping these become conversational upon release. At the Comic-Con I'm planning on having the ladies of the first three books on banners to help promote the book's event.

The images appear slightly darker here so I may need to lighten them for print, but all in all, I hope you're all doing well and let's get a chocolate doughnut sometime.

Enjoy!

--I

Latest Animated Commercial!

Hello all!

I'm about to post a breakdown for Clipstick's 4th cover and would love to hear what you all think. However, in the meantime until I coerce my scanner to like my Mac, I'm posting my latest animated commercial.



This commercial is for Neways and will air in the next couple weeks.

The production schedule was tight, (as is the nature in advertising), but the client was unusually accommodating for a creative department to do what they do best. Create without any preconceived vision! With that breath of fresh air we took full advantage on the approach.

Alex Bell nailed a great watercolor look in concept and then I replicated his art style for my shots. During the commercial's creation, I was hailed by several other clients which continually pulled me on and off the project all throughout it's production. The animation was all created in After Effects and the scenes for animation were divided between Alex and myself. Please watch and let me know what you think!

Breakdown:
The scenes I created art for are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 13.

The scenes I animated are 2, 3, 5, and 6.

In each of these shots I animated the woman, dog, weather elements, (clouds, wind effects, etc.), and camera.

Puppet animation already lends itself to a stylized look because of how it's approached. You essentially take photoshop images and dissect them into individual pieces and layers. From those pieces, After Effects retains separate layers from your photoshop file and imports them into your composition. You typically animate each piece individually, (roughly).

Puppet animation is beginning to lend itself to pose to pose animation for it's incredibly planned out approach with each pose drawing being created and animated. These scenes were animated with a "straight forward" technique utilizing what movement I could out of the art assets created because of budget and time constraints. I hope you enjoy the illusion of this poor woman's plight particularly in her facial expressions before she challenges the storm.

Alex also did a great job with his particle mastery in the piece and storytelling in the preliminary storyboards, which helped in bringing this commercial to life

Stay tuned for the latest Batman commercial which will be aired on Feb. 19th. If you have any questions regarding puppet animation or the processes there-in, please feel free to post.

Enjoy!

Clipstick Cover 3 - pencils

Hello all,

Here is a quick posting of the Clipstick Cover for book 3. This is being painted up to match the previous two. All comments welcome. This cover features the lovely Lana right as the security guard is being murdered by Darlene from behind. The hands at the bottom are going to be covered in blood. (No worries, it happens early so the main juicy part is a few pages into the book.)

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween All!

Hello Everyone!

Happy Halloween to you and yours! I wanted to debut the preliminary cover to issue 2 of Clipstick by posting on this day. The cover seemed to fit the mood.

Have a great one and Enjoy!


Ian

Clipstick issue 1

Hello all! I just wanted to upload the latest rendition of Clipstick #1 with a mock UPC and the official Ape Logo! This cover features Janet of the bunch in a bit of peril and ties directly with the story.
How do I know?! Pick up the book and you'll see for yourself!

Enjoy!