Strangers on A Train

Strangers on a Train, from the original script by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde

The Boxer by Alan McKenzie

The character of 'The Boxer' was created by Artist Steve Parkhouse and Alan McKenzie in the late 1980's. I decided to try my hand at storyboarding a section of the original script, published in the srd edition of his book 'How to draw and sell comic books'.

Why? It's Kung-fu and the main heroine is blind. Literally all I needed.

Cumulus: Storyboarding the Adventure

Cumulus, copyright cumulo pictures, Alison Moon 2017

When I was approached late 2015 to create character designs for the characters in Ioan Holland's 'Cumulus' I was pretty exited. I think it was the words: 'anime-style' and 'she gets lost in the clouds'.

In other words, it was a return to what I like most about being an illustrator: story telling through pictures.

From the original character designs, featured here, I then worked with Ioan Holland (the director) and the background designer, Merle Hunt, to plot out the first sequence of events in an initial storyboard (left).

As the project grew, it was an interesting experience to work with a team that had started to even become international - learning more about animation with its benefits and limitations, navigating time differences and working with a much greater input from other artists than I had previously been used to in freelance/ commission work.

Very much as exciting an adventure as the protagonists!

Cumulus: Character Design

Cumulo pictures describes the in progress animated short, Cumulus, as: A story of love, clouds, and a grumpy bird.

And he is quite grumpy. Perhaps with a capital 'G'.

Penwyn, the young protagonist, provides quite the nice counterpoint with her unflappable, adventurous sprit. I think it was the relationship between these two polar opposites that gave Ioan Holland's script its dynamic force and truly what enabled me to become invested in the characters themselves.

 I was given a lot of freedom with the designs - with Penwyn, I tried to get the idea of 'adventure' across: messy hair, loose fitted clothing, trainers without socks or, if she had to wear them, she would soon forget she was. Here is a child who doesn't mind getting sand in her shoes!

And then there's Mr B, a bird with a distinct chip on his shoulder. Voiced by the very talented Wayne Forester, this character was an interesting one. There were a range of choices: sea-gulls (ideal for that 'don't mess with me!' vibe), Gannets (for that elegant look in flight), I even considered the tufted puffin, because it makes a growling noise. Sea-birds have a distinctly proud look to them a lot of the time, but it couldn't just be that. Enter the blue-footed booby, with its strange way of waddling on intensely blue feet giving the character that touch of awkwardness that I was after.

So here we have Mr B, the native Californian who thought Wales would be a calmer, safer place to raise his small family.

Even More Summer Watercolours

Poolside, Watercolour on Aquabord,
© alisonmoonillustration 2015

 There's something about painting in a different country, or actually, just being somewhere different. The lighting, I think, is the big 'thing' for me, as creating a feel of freshness has always been a concern of mine. Maybe it's the novelty factor as well, but I don't think anyone should be expected to be creative while being stuck in one place. But I believe that art is subjective: what suits one person might not suit another.

For this first piece, it was my first proper experiment with Ampersand's 'Aquabord' (see their website) a clay coated surface that feels like a cross between, oddly enough, soft fabric and fine grit sandpaper - or if sandpaper could be described as 'velvety'. Softly gritty, maybe. You can actually sand the surface as well to make it smoother like hot press paper, but I have yet to try that

Side Street in Spain, Watercolour, © alisonmoonillustration 2015

Personally comparing it to paper, it was quite a different experience - I didn't have to worry about paper buckling and I was able to do really detailed initial drawings that I could rub out really vigorously without causing damage.

Glazing was also good fun, as the surface really took hold of the colour, fixing it in place so layers could apply more easily without disturbing previous ones. Also, lifting with a stiff bristle brush was, as advertised, easy to do. I don't know how both properties can exist, but there you have it.

To me, though, it just wasn't quite as nice to work with as paper - my surface of choice remains a stretched 300gsm rough watercolour paper. How the colours sit and blend, particularly when using wet on wet techniques just feels more comfortable and less resistant on paper. Perhaps that's just bias speaking, but I found applying washes onto the aquabord somewhat frustrating, and streaking appearing where the brush (squirrel hair, in this case) moved across the surface where it wouldn't occur on paper.


On an end note, I think I might try to sand an aquabord panel before I make any final personal judgement, and it's worth knowing that if I ever wanted to do a mixed media and textural piece with watercolour, Ampersand is a nice sturdy option that will also travel outside well.

Quintessentially Timacuan, Watercolour, © alisonmoonillustration 2015

Days of British Summer at Polesden Lacey, Watercolour on Aquabord, © alisonmoonillustration 2015

Out in the open air this summer...

So, while we had the lovely weather (it was nice while it lasted at least) I thought to try my hand at improving my water colour painting skills. Some were done at the location, others in the studio.This is how it went...

A Lake in Bushy Park, ©alisonmoonillustration 2015

From the Lido Key Dorset, Florida ©alisonmoonillustration 2015

 So all in all, good fun. I'd like to think I've improved over the last couple of months anyway. In particular, I think water colour can be a tricky medium to get a hang of - for every painting I've done there have been just as many mistakes (sometimes more...)

This one, for instance took three tries. But I didn't actually write that!

Ringling House, ©alisonmoonillustration 2015

Trail to a medieval village, Yorkshire Wolds©alisonmoonillustration 2015

Spanish Moss, ©alisonmoonillustration 2015

A Seal of Approval

Trying out those coloured pencils: Faber-Castell Polychromos

Polychromos pencils on cartridge paper, copyright 2015 Alison Moon Illustration

So, this week, having got a lovely set of Faber-Castell polychromos water resistant pencils for Christmas, I finally found that I had the time to actually give them a go. So I did, and had enormous fun while doing so.

And the first thing I noticed? They were so easy to blend, and it was literally twenty minutes into working before I realised that I had to sharpen them again. I worked in layers with this piece, and used Zest-It solvent to blend, which worked very well over the 200gsm cartridge paper I used. I was quite happy to find that there was no paper discoloration where the solvent bled as well.

In terms of smudging, I noticed that there was a little issue with the dark colours on the seal's markings. I found that the pigment tended to cling to the skin of my palm, but it certainly wasn't anything major and was easily solved with a little tracing paper.

Once all the colour was layered as needed, I finished up the details with a titanium white Liquitex marker, which I found that did a nice job of pushing back the colour where the light hit the animal's fur.

So, Overall, it was a lovely experience - definitely one that I'll be using again.