All Patched Up.
March 5th, 2008 Ahmad Al-MahirI’ve installed the latest patches, reset the gallery and finally got the affected pages up and running properly again. I’ll try and upload some new content soon.
Animation. Sequential Art. Sketches. Visual Storytelling. E-mail me: ahmad@almahir.com.
Update Ate My Gallery. Mini Projects.
March 1st, 2008 Ahmad Al-MahirI recently updated to Wordpress 2.3.2 and everything looked fine until I checked out my Drawings and Sequential Art pages. They utilize a gallery plugin and it seems the update broke it. So until I get it fixed (which will probably take a few days at least judging by how little I know of web dev and code) I apologize for the inaccessibility. Good thing the other pages aren’t affected. Now I notice they have the Wordpress 2.3.3 update for download already. Great.
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I am being swamped by multiple personal project ideas and opportunities and am not quite sure how to handle them. I have a short 2D animation piece I want to develop as preparation for my teaching. It’s tentatively titled “Coffee break”. Then there’s all the stuff I want to explore and attempt for the 3D animation module. And I’ve also been putting off entering Conceptart.org’s P.O.W weekly comic challenge, even though I was (and still am) keen on the idea, and had expressed such enthusiasm upon it’s inception. I hope it doesn’t get pulled due to low participation before I have a chance to jump in. I really don’t want to see the comic art skills I’ve been working on the past few months waste away due to complete inactivity. I guess some other things have taken priority at the moment, but that’s not really a good excuse for utter neglect. So yeah. So many things to do so little time to do it. What else is new.
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My brother recently loaned me the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster’s “City of Glass” by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, and I enjoyed it tremendously (even though I suspect I’ve only partially understood it’s content). I do like the idea of a world defined by words, and the concept of identity brought up in the book. The artwork was beautiful and effective - ranging from stark and minimalistic to incredibly detailed - and the framing purposeful. Especially considering the book’s literally smaller dimensions. To be able to visualize the words into pictures is an incredible feat in itself and I can definitely appreciate that. I also found the use of variety within the 3×3 panels per page layout of the graphic novel to be clever and well executed. Recommended.
“Blackbird” Comic Completed. Paperless Animation?
February 17th, 2008 Ahmad Al-Mahir
I’ve finally finished the artwork on the “Blackbird” comic. Here’s hoping someone picks it up soon. I’m going to take a bit of a break from comic projects for a while (at least those that stretch a few weeks at a time) to focus more on animation and developing teaching materials for the coming semester. One of the modules I’ll be teaching this time around is 2d animation. We’ll be using one of those 2d animation software that’s become so widely used today (check out the newer stuff they’re showing on TV nowadays for some examples), so for the most part it’ll be ‘paperless’. Basically it means that the entire animation process from drawing to final output is done in the software itself. No scanning of drawings needed and no flipping of cels/pages by hand necessary. Time-saving as that may sound, I still believe you can never avoid drawing stuff on good old-fashioned paper. Character designs, thumbnails, pose studies - they’re so much faster and more intuitive to do on paper imho. Wacom tablet and software notwithstanding. Maybe I’m just too much in love with my pencil.
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Did a quick pen sketch of this kid (who I’m assuming is heading home from school) on one of my rare trips on the MRT the other day. I really should get on the public transport more often. And I definitely need to get more sleep…
“Blackbird” is Gliding Along.
February 3rd, 2008 Ahmad Al-MahirThe new comic I’m working on is past the halfway point and hopefully it’ll get done before the end of next week. It’s 8 pages long so it’s more like a mini-comic than a proper one really. Here’s a set of drawings of the titular character I did as part of reference gathering:
I’m continuing my exploration of inking (and drawing using the pen both traditionally and digitally) with this project. I recently came across an article on spotting blacks in Draw! magazine which proved quite enlightening. It basically laid down some concepts I’ve picked up on albeit subconsciously when looking at comic art and doing my own. Now I’m planning to utilize it more prominently in my work - starting with “Blackbird”.
Anecdote: Apart from “Blackbird” I’m also trying to tidy up a set of storyboards this weekend for a work-related animation project.
A Visit to the Ancient Civilisations Museum.
January 29th, 2008 Ahmad Al-MahirI brought a few students to the Ancient Civilisations Museum to do some research as part of a 3d workshop I conducted recently at a local junior college. I always find it refreshing to walk around in those large museum halls and observe the ancient artifacts and priceless treasures on display. There’s so much to see, analyze and learn. And sketch! My appreciation for musuems continue to grow with each visit, and I really should make it a point to visit them more often. Either alone or with like-minded friends. Much as I’d love to bring my family on these visits cum sketch-trips, I doubt I’ll get the opportunity to really focus on drawing. My boys are at such noisy disruptive ages at the moment. It’s not that I don’t want to bring them on museum visits. On the contrary, I think they would find it to be very enriching, educational excursions. It’s just that those visits won’t likely result in any decent sketches done.
Anyway, so at the ACM, I spotted a nice Chinese statue lit in an interesting way and couldn’t resist pulling out my sketchbook and pen.
