Stephen Macdonald

Know Thyself...

2010-04-01T17:00:00.003+01:00

Whilst crawling around tumblr I happened to stumble upon this.

To me this rings a little too true. Usually it's only important to me and if -I'm lucky- my personal growth. This project will benefit me greatly should I succeed. For one, I just need to feel like I can actually accomplish things if I put my mind to them and are only important to me. And if I can't complete a project that is supposed to be a hobby for me then how am I supposed to achieve anything in a professional capacity?

More food for thought directed at myself. It'll probably do nothing to hinder my failure, that's all down to me and not any pep talk or revelations I pull out of my ass as far as motivation goes. As soon as the ball is rolling I think I'll have a hard time stopping it. Fingers crossed anyway.

v2.0

2010-03-31T17:00:00.000+01:00

It was a while back when I initially decided to revisit my robot character and he underwent a transformation back then. You'll notice that I made him seem a bit more flexible and somewhat more dynamic in his gestures and poses. I also made his head rounder to enhance a 'cuteness' in his character. To give him access to facial expressions to convey emotion I decided that his bulkier parts are encased in a flexile alloy, in my head I had decided that this would be as strong as most other metals and pliable only to the inner workings of the then still named #5.

The inner workings are also of a strange material and technology that I'm not going to go into.

I should change the appearance of 5 in relation to #5 again but I doubt the change will be significant beyond maybe some stylisation. Mostly because I quite like how he looks at v2.0.

Know Thy Enemy...

2010-03-30T17:00:00.000+01:00

To help me write my comic book I need to establish a chapter length that should probably remain consistent and mirror the usual average length of a single issue comic book. I have done a few page counts in the past using a variety of comic books I had found, I had tried to not limit myself to one publisher. I think I used Hulk and Spider-Man comics as well as a few other random titles such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I think that at the time I found the average to be typically 22 pages. I could have probably found this out with a google search but I guess counting for myself was more satisfying. Next I guess I should figure out how many chapters to aim for so that I can spread my main story arc accordingly.
It would probably be best to aim for a mini series but 3-6 issues/chapters does seem long enough. I think I'm going to check out some of the books I have that compile a decent sized story and work from there.
Being that I've never really concentrated on writing ever that I can remember, I should learn more about the rules of 'peaks and valleys' in order to keep the read an interesting one.

Meanwhile...

2010-03-29T17:00:00.004+01:00

As well as this self appointed comic project I've also got a few other things I'm currently involved in. Ranking highly in my to do list are some sketch exchanges I've been neglecting. Some for such a long time that my partners must think I've given up completely.

Here are two images from a sketch exchange over on Polykarbonbbs with Professor Az and jeco. I should let them know I'm not dead since that's an active sketch exchange at the moment.

This particular exchange focuses on working from reference and we've mostly been sticking to portraiture for now.

The first image is Cindy Crawford as chosen by Professor Az.

reference

The second image is Sarah Chalke as chosen by myself.

reference

The next image is of a toddler and was chosen by jeco to mix things up so we don't just end up painting pretty ladies.

My other exchanges that I plan on working on over the next few days include a sketch of a girl on a bench for an exchange with erq which I will probably call a day after finally responding almost a year late, and some Pokémon fan art that I've been planning on doing for a while now that I'll use for my exchange with rayvon87 for him to respond to.

Wish me luck.

Origins and Beginnings...

2010-03-28T17:00:00.002+01:00

The origins of my idea go back a few years to a Fight Club on Polykarbonbbs that I was involved in.

My pages alone somehow manage to remain almost coherent without the inclusion of the other participants pages. If you look hard enough you may find the original thread on PKbbs but I highly doubt that the images are intact.

Anyway for now I'll post my pages that birthed the original incarnation of the character that I'll be using as a central point in my story.

These pages were completely put together in Adobe Photoshop using a mouse with no real planning. I purposely used setting that would force some pixelation and colour loss during the saving process because I liked the effect it gave. Enjoy.

And that's that I guess, the origin of 5 as a character. The fight never concluded due to the other participants dropping out and even though I volunteered to wrap it up, lethargy got the better of me without any pressure on me. Once everyone else had dropped out I felt like I wouldn't be letting anyone down if I didn't finish.

This project MUST be different! I MUST SEE IT THROUGH!

If I don't then I really doubt I ever will see out a personal project from start to finish.

No Name!

2010-03-27T17:00:00.000Z

Currently I'm going to have to label the project as untitled.

Without giving up too many of my ideas, it revolves around a robot that has malfunctioned and as such behaves a little like a child. He seems to be keen on making friends (social networking) and he has taken it upon himself to use the ship he occupies to operate a courier service. He will not be a lone main character as he will be forced to team up with a girl that has been put into his care and protection. At the moment in my head it's seeming more likely that she'll end up being the main character. I've still not decided.

Initially I had named the robot character #5 or Hash. The #5 was a decal on his chest so he took it as being a name badge of sorts and decided that it must be what he is called, he declared his name to be Hash with Five being his surname. While making some notes a few hours ago I've decided to change his name to just 5 and having just a number 5 be present on his chest as a decal.

Go Go Go!!

2010-03-26T17:00:00.000Z

Well on to the task at hand.

I've had several ideas for comic book plots running around in my head for more than a decade. Some of them I think I originally conceived to be video games during my time dabbling with games design at University a few years back, but that's neither here nor there since none of them ideas blossomed into games.

As I write this I'm already aware of which idea I'm planning on developing.

Since the idea I think mostly about has gotten rather epic to say the least I shouldn't touch that until I'm prepared for a heck of a lot of hard work. That project in particular would be more of a chronicles than a solid project. It has literally gotten to the stage that the story as a whole is broken down into 3 whole individual stories set in different time periods of a fantasy world. I've even thought up a completely stand alone follow up and a spin off that takes the genre of the whole thing in a strange direction.

At one point I toyed with the idea in my head of a sci-fi spin off to the series, set in a distant future of the world with giant robots but I think I dismissed that idea since it was outlandish and I hadn't even put any work into any of the original points yet.

Basically it boils down to it being a trilogy of tales at a base level and I frankly would rather focus on one tale for now.

That's the only fantasy story I have thought up so far, or should I say stories?

The rest of my ideas are mostly sci-fi. I have one idea that is set in a time period and world close to our own that is mostly horror-action but I think I'd prefer something a little more light hearted.

I have one light hearted sci-fi idea in mind.

Now or Never!

2010-03-25T17:00:00.000Z

I plan on creating a comic book.

I think I always have.

Since I was a small child I would often crudely draw out comic books. I can imagine that many of them didn't make much sense to anyone but me. I was inspired largely by The Beano and the TV shows I used to watch at the time, notably Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, The Real Ghostbusters and He-Man. As I grew older I found myself getting hold of a few Tintin books at the library we would often visit with my primary school and that progressed to Marvel comics such as Spider-Man and even a few manga. Whatever I could get my hands on. My first experience with manga was with Romiko Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku but I managed to get my hands onto quite a few unusual titles.

After quite sometime obsessing over manga, which moved me onto animé as well, I found myself heading back to Spider-Man and Marvel comics in general.

I suppose it's all of these things that have inspired me over the years. I guess one person in particular I should thank would be J. Michael Straczynski since he was involved in several titles that have inspired me.

So that's all my initial inspirations, credit given where credit's due ;D

I should come back...

2009-12-04T15:58:00.005Z

Way back in January I ran away over to Wordpress with the intention of being more productive. It's not terrible over there, you seem to get a few hits without pimping yourself to your friends and anyone that will accept your url. But I failed at being productive. All I really managed to roll out was the following.

boobs.

I painting of some breasts. I was planning on doing the entire upper half of the body including the face and working on some hands as well. I discovered that if I really put the time into a painting that I can get some really good results. I painted it over the Christmas break last year.

lady's face.

I decided to try a portrait without reference, I'm not sure what I was thinking. Normally I thrive on reference but with this I just attacked photoshop with no real goal and I am very happy with the results. I learned from this one that when working digitally I should never be afraid to completely hack at the image if I feel I need to rearrange features. You can see some of the changes in this series of work in progress shots. here.

lollipop girl.

This image was an attempt made by myself to be more seriously involved in a sketch exchange that I was taking part in with a friend online that goes as Rayvon87. We'd been throwing speedy images at each otrher for a while and I lost motivation when he posted a picture of a girl holding a large lollipop. I passed on a joke piece as a response that was made in MSN messenger using the handwriting tool but felt bad afterwards. I decided to concentrate some real time into a genuine response. Unfortunately this is as far as I got before my PC died in around May (I think it was May). You can see how I did not shy away from rearranging features in this earlier work in progress shot. here.

These images aren't new. They've been up on the Wordpress I started for a few months now. I've also started a Tumblr but I haven't put them up on there just yet, in fact I may not. I think I'm planning on keeping the Tumblr for more academic activities. I'll post up a link here when I start putting stuff up over there.

I don't plan on making any more changes to these images but I do welcome comments and critique for me to take in mind in the future.

Moved to Wordpress

2009-01-11T17:29:00.003Z

I've moved over to worpress. Just a heads up. I'll be keeping this blog up for as long as blogspot/blogger allow it to stay up inactive. New blog is stephenmacdonald.wordpress.com
Happy new year :)

Desktop Dec 08

2008-12-21T02:52:00.004Z

Another desktop thread has started over on the polykarbon bbs and this is my contribution.

The image was taken from Jason Chans gallery on his site. I often use Jason Chan artwork as inspirational desktop wallpapers. Surprisingly though I never use his actual wallpapers that he offers up, I opt to choose images with a flat colour at the borders of the page and have it centred on that background. It helps me arrange my icons and any loose files around the image.

This particular image appears on the I Am Legend DVD that one of my housemates has as part of the special features, along with other Jason Chan sequential art work. Check out the comics online over on the Warner Brothers site. Story 2 and 4 are illustrated by Chan and you can probably also find a link to a store there if you want to buy the DVD.

Merry Christmas.

Uni - Drawing 08 - Fashion pt.1

2008-12-20T02:46:00.003Z

Two images of mannequins from shop windows. I thoroughly enjoyed this drawing project. I'm aware that the proportions are a little off but I think I did really well for 30 minute drawings that were meant to have emphasis on decorative and function details of the garments.

Female Clothing (trendy casual) - Pencil
Male Clothing (formal) - Pencil

More soon.

Uni - Drawing 08 - Perspective pt.1

2008-12-20T02:08:00.003Z

Part of the drawing module during the 3D Design roundabout.
Kinda uninspired. Perspective bores me when you have to pay this much attention to it.

1 point perspective (w/ placement grids) City Scene - Pencil

2 point perspective (w/ placement grids) Japanese Sewers (maybe Flood Relief?) - Pencil

More soon.

Uni - Lie Of The Land 08 pt.3

2008-12-11T00:38:00.003Z

Here are two more images from my Lie Of The Land sketchbook. These are sketches of two pieces of land art by Andy Goldsworthy. The first was a study mainly of his use of colour and the idea in general and the second I was focusing mainly on the idea so I didn't feel it necessary to include colour.

Andy Goldsworthy Study: Rowan Leaves With A Hole - Coloured Pencil

Andy Goldsworthy Study: Galerie Lelong - Pencil

More soon.

Uni - Drawing 08 - Buildings pt.1

2008-12-06T16:36:00.000Z

This is the first post of the drawing module I have made. Each assignment within the module is related to the current roundabout module. This assignment was during the Visual Arts module and was for us to get some experience of drawing in the field and work on mark making and speed I think, we also had to apply some of what we'd learnt from the perspective drawing assignment during the 3D Design module.

Manchester Cathedral Interior - Graphite

Manchester By The Wheel From Next - Graphite

More soon.

Uni - Lie Of The Land 08 pt.2

2008-12-04T22:33:00.005Z

Deadlines are quickly approaching so I guess I should start showing you guys that I actually do produce some work for university. Sometimes anyway.
This is the second post I've made in relation to the Lie Of The Land project. The last LOTL post consisted of photos and video but this time around I guess I'll show some of the images I've produced for my sketchbook. If you look at the other LOTL post you may notice the photographic reference used for some of the images.
The first image here takes up one whole page on its own and the other four are from another single page.

Red Leaves - Acrylic Paint

Unfinished Wooded Scene - Pencil
Fungus - Pencil
Tree - Pencil

Fallen Tree - Pencil

More to come soon.

Bender At Halloween

2008-11-22T22:18:00.007Z

It’s been a few weeks since Halloween and a day or 2 longer since I posted last. I’ve been too busy actually doing my university work to show it to you guys but hopefully I’ll change that soon. But the topic of this post is Halloween and not my work so I’ll get on with it.

This year for Halloween, since I’m actually in big enough circles and had enough places to go to have a reason to make an effort, I decided to make a costume. I overconfidently decided to go for Bender from Futurama.

I didn’t spend nearly enough time on it for it to be nearly as impressive as some of the Bender outfits I’ve seen around on the internet but it impressed my friends a lot. It took me about a day and a half to two days (including drying time) to put together. It’s constructed completely from thin card, masking tape and papier-mâché. The paint job was grey matte spray paint and poster paints. Arms and legs consist of a pair of disposable overalls with lines drew around with a fabric pen. I was too short for time, or too lazy to do the hands and feet but that would have probably made the night even more difficult to navigate. I was able to see perfectly from a gap in the bottom of the mouth and my movement wasn’t heavily restricted. The biggest problem of the night was talking to people; no one could hear a word I was saying unless I removed my head.

Drinking wasn’t as a big a problem.

Bender

Bender, Danger Tom and Burglar Glyn

The only thing that could have made Halloween better would have been spending some of it with my little girl. That goes for most days though I guess.

I'm in a sketch exchange with a guy called erq from polykarbonbbs right now so I'll post some of the stuff I produce up after I have a few more images complete. I'd post now but I think it'd be better to see a few at once.

Burst Of Creativity

2008-10-29T06:27:00.005Z

Last night I ventured to the house opposite from where I live to meet, in person for the first time, our neighbours that I often wave to from our kitchen. I was a little nervous because they were all strangers and I went alone but they were really nice people. I only got to really meet two of them though, so I guess I mean they were really nice and everyone else there my have been nice had I spoken to them.
I had such a nice time with the two Swedish girls that when I got home and a creative surge hit me I decided to speed paint one of them. It took about 40 minutes because I could not for the life of me get a good definition of her nose. I've always had trouble with noses but I though it had subsided, I guess not though so I'll have to work on noses more. It could have done with better/more contrast but I was using a pallet knife tool in Painter X and I'm not really familiar with that kind of tool. It seemed that the more I tried to work on things I needed to fix or go over, the more I made a mess of it. So I decided to leave it when I got to a stage I felt comfortable with.
I feel kind of guilty that I painted this girl and not the other since the other girl made all the effort of inviting me over so I'll probably edit this post and add another speed paint in the near future.
Anyway, enjoy.

Linda Speed Paint - Painter X

If anyone has any tips for me about how to properly render up a nose then please leave a comment haha thanks.

Uni - Lie Of The Land 08 pt.1

2008-10-25T06:36:00.008+01:00

Our first university project entitled 'lie of the land' involved researching land artists and techniques they use. We were then to plan and construct a piece within a small group in nearby wooded area. I think the assignment was partly planned to be another ice breaker to get us to mingle with our class members. I missed the first session so I can't claim much credit for the ideas but it was my idea to wear the suits though which almost turned it into a performance arts piece. I was involved in a lot of the video editing and editing images ready for presenting. We're to hand in a sketchbook showing thought process and personal study etc. in December but I haven't really done much with that yet. I'll post up things from that when I get more done.

Photo Collage Looking Up From The 'Grave'

So basically we decided to dig an odd shaped grave which, completely coincidentally, turned out as a cross but we had no intentions of turning it into anything to do with religion. The idea that was pitched to me by my team was it was to be an interactive installation. Apparently you're supposed to lay in the grave and basically relax, the view from the grave was framed and it was actually really calming and relaxing. Although I wasn't convinced by the idea at first I went along with it without resistance because I felt I had no right to complain since I'd missed the original ideas meeting. As it turned out, the final result was quite a surreal yet enjoyable experience.

We had to fill in the hole after we'd taken pictures and recorded video so that when we left the area it was safe for other people.

Here are some more randomly selected photographs from the day of construction and the day the site was scouted out by my group.

It should be noted that the photographs and footage in this post may have been taken or recorded by any member of my group. As well as myself, the group included Katarzyna (Kate) Majchrzycka, Robert Maclese, Daniel Lunn and Oliver Ludlam. The girl with pink hair, Alice, was over from another group to see what we'd done and was not in our group.

Uni - Summer Project 08

2008-10-25T04:33:00.006+01:00

During the summer before starting University this year we were sent a project to complete for starting. I assumed it was to assess our ability but as it turned out it was used more as an ice breaker within our assigned groups. We had to make a collection of ten or more very three-dimensional objects of the same type and produce a series of drawings and studies. Upon arriving at university we then presented our drawings to a small group and received constructive criticism and then critiqued the other group members work.
My collection consisted of branded drinking glasses. Here are two drawings. Please excuse the poor scan quality.

Six Beer Glasses - Pencil

Green Coca-Cola Can Glass - Coloured Pencil

I chose drinking glasses because I thought it would be really interesting to work with the refractions and reflections but as it turned out it was very challenging. It was still fun though.
Some self critique: The first sketch I feel could do with a lot of cleaning up and I'd like there to have been more contrast. I should have finished the second picture. It really hurt my eyes trying to focus my vision on distorted objects and such through the glass and I couldn't leave it and come back because I was using natural light. I would have had to set aside specific time each day if I was going to leave it and come back to it, but I had a lot of things that needed to be done ready for starting university and I wasn't able to commit specific time to this project.

Art Dump

2008-10-23T07:57:00.008+01:00

This is supposed to be an art blog so to kick things off I'll dump a few random images here. future posts will be more structured and have better descriptions and maybe some news about what's going on in my life.

Northern Cardinal Speed Paint - Painter X

Large Headed Robot Sketch Exchange Response - Photoshop CS3
Ogre Shaman Sketch Exchange Response - Photoshop CS3
Random Guy Speed Paint - Photoshop CS3
Diver Speed Paint - Photoshop CS3
Spider-Man Bad Guy Rhino Sketchbook Page - Pencil/Marker

I'll upload some of the summer project work I did soon. Stay tuned.

Stephen Macdonald

2008-10-23T07:31:00.003+01:00

Who am I? You may want to know that before you try and follow a blog about me or my 'talents' but I'll try and keep it brief.

Right now I'm around six foot tall, slim with blue eyes and dark hair. I used to be smaller when I was younger and my hair has been different colours and lengths. So I guess I'm pretty average. I was born in 1983. I have a mother that I know, and a father that I don't know. I'm the oldest of 3 children, I'm the only male. I have a young daughter. I'm currently studying art and design and intend to make a career of it. I have been a professional graphic artist/designer for over two years prior to attending university. I can be really cocky and blunt, especially with girls but I'm also very shy around new people. I'm not very confident but don't believe that should hold me back.
I like spicy food and drink real beer. I've never been a big fan of hot drinks but I'm getting a taste for them around about now. I really like cold sparkling drinks and I'm not a big fan of ice cream, though I don't dislike it. My hobbies include art and many things that inspire my imagination; including (but not restricted to) books, films, video games, animation, and music. I'm not a big sports fan but I do enjoy participating. I enjoy socialising and I get lonely really easily.
Although I'm interested in art and design and feel as though I have some natural ability in both areas, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with my life other than something relating to either or both of those. I don't have a noticeable style yet in either area and I'm still very much in an experimental stage.
I dislike going to sleep because I feel like I may miss out on something. I also don't like waking up because frankly once I am asleep I really enjoy it. This causes my sleep patterns to be somewhat erratic.

Is that enough about me? Leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll edit more information in.

- My favourite colour changes quite often. Currently it's the same colour as Jacks blood.