Author: lairlair

Hello everyone, and welcome to this weekly recap of Mr Owl. This week started on the 20th of February 2017, and this time, Mr Owl couldn’t get a proper sleep…

MONDAY

Today Mr Owl is as free as a bird! Actually he’s flying home after a long night of work. Oh, and sorry for the nudity on this picture…

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TUESDAY

In a nightmare, Mr Owl realises that he’s got hooves and horns. “I don’t even know how to make milk!!!”, he thinks

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WEDNESDAY

Mr Owl just woke up abruptly from a nightmare because of a knock on his door. Then he realises he never sleeps in a bed. Nor does he have a door to his home. He lives in a tree. “This must be another nightmare”, he thinks, congratulating himself for being smarter than his subconscious.

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THURSDAY

Mr Owl is lucid dreaming. He clearly hears a knock coming from one of those doors but he doesn’t know which one. “Is it tea-time already?”, he asks himself.

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FRIDAY

Mr Owl opened a door, and found an older version of himself. “Hello?”, they both say at the same time

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SATURDAY

Mr Owl finally woke up for real. He feels like he stood at death’s door. “And I can still hear this knock…”, he thinks, worried.

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SUNDAY

Mr Owl finally realised where this knocking sound came from. It was a woodpecker, pecking up of Mr Owl’s home. “Silence, some of us are trying to sleep here!”, he shouts.

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This week I really didn’t plan any story. The carnival started in Cologne – where I live – so it’s been pretty crazy. Remember I work in a bar / restaurant so aside from partying and seeing the city transform itself into a massive party hall, I’ve had some stressful times. Serving beers can be trickier than it sounds haha. But I still managed to publish 7 drawings so gold star for me. Auto congratulation, yaaay! Anyways, I just let the story unravel and see where it would lead me. I quite like the ending, it makes it seem like everything was planned from the beginning, when I actually improvised on the go. Also, I’m really happy with the composition and overall look of the last drawing. This is a bit strange to me, because my drawings get less likes than ever, yet I put more efforts to them, and I feel like they’re a lot more refined. For example, the first week I got between 7 and 13 likes, and this week, I got between 1 and 5. So I don’t know, maybe you guys are getting bored. Or maybe it was better when it was simpler. Or maybe likes are divided between Instagram and Facebook. Oh yeah, by the way, I also post on instagram : https://www.instagram.com/lairlair2/ I don’t do this series to get likes, but it’s the only return that I get, so I have to take it into account to evaluate how it is received.

I have just uploaded the 100th image on the Mr Owl’s facebook album. So I’ll try to do something to celebrate this symbolic number.

That’s all for this week, have fun and take care of yourselves!

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Hello everyone! Wow what a week. I mean this week was pretty standard for Mr Owl, but pretty intense for me. It started on the 13th of February 2017, and our favourite bird kept thinking of how his life could have been, had he made different choices…

MONDAY

Mr Owl wishes he knew more about music. He pictures himself as a conductor, leading a prestigious orchestra.

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TUESDAY

Mr Owl also wish he could be an awesome golf player. “I would be so classy”, he thinks

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WEDNESDAY

     Sometimes, Mr Owl wishes he had a lot of money. “I know exactly how I would spend every penny”, he thinks.

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THURSDAY

Mr Owl can also imagine himself being a very successful scientist. “I’d research better vaccines for birds”, he thinks

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FRIDAY

Mr Owl can also imagine becoming a very thorough reporter. “I’d find the corrupts and expose them for who they really are”, he thinks.

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SATURDAY

Mr Owl is changing hat again in his mind. “Why didn’t I become a cowboy? I would have looked so cool and learnt how to fire a gun…”, he thinks

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SUNDAY

Mr Owl should probably stop dreaming and get some work done. “Maybe I’ll get a cowboy hat though…”, he thinks

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As mentioned before, I don’t think anything special happened to Mr Owl this week. I on the other hand was quite busy. I missed 2 days, so I had to catch up and I posted 2 drawings on Friday and on Sunday. Sorry if I disappointed you by not posting anything Valentine’s day related. But just so you know, yes, my Valentine’s day was very happy. And it’s about as personal as I’ll get on this website.

The main idea behind this week is a very wise life lesson that I try to apply to myself every day : try not to think too much of what could have happened if you had made different life choices. And if you wish to do something, don’t just wish it. Do anything you can to make it happen. Okay this sounds like a terrible Tinder profile so I’ll stop right here.

I don’t have much else to say, I wish I had a crazy story to tell about how every image was created. But I don’t, so… Just enjoy the week okay? Okay. Take care of yourselves.

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Hi folks! This week of Mr Owl started on the 30th of January 2017. And this time, we didn’t see much more than a feather off of our main character…

MONDAY

The Lady is really pissed after Mr Owl laughed at her. “How dare he make fun of me?”, She thinks.

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TUESDAY

Please use your imagination here.

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WEDNESDAY

The Lady decided to dissolve her anger in a pint. “Yes I’m a woman drinking alone in a pub. So what?”, She thinks.

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THURSDAY

The Lady noticed that some men were looking at her funny. “What’s the matter with you?”, she says

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FRIDAY

Some bloke made a comment that I can’t disclose here, for decency’s sake. The Lady is going to make him regret what he just said “You picked the wrong person to insult!!!”, she screams.

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 SATURDAY

After she broke a chair and two arms, The Lady literally got kicked out of the pub. “For a moment I thought I was flying, must feel good to be a bird…”, she thinks

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SUNDAY

The Lady finally calmed down. In the dark alley where she’s been thrown off, she finds an owl’s feather lying on the ground. “Maybe I went too far today…”, she thinks

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I have mixed feelings about this week. I’m very happy that I tried something new : for the first time I showed the story from another point of view, that of The Lady. The problem with this character is that she’s human, and it requires a lot more time and focus to get postures and proportions right. If an eye is a little bit off, we end up in the uncanny valley, and that wasn’t where I was heading this week. Besides, some drawings I redrew a few times. On Tuesday I started with this :

Then I had to go to work, and thought “okay I’m going to finish it when I come back”… Except I came back at 2 a.m, and – weirdly enough – didn’t feel like finishing it anymore. Then the next day I finished it, or should I say, started again from scratch.

I’m quite happy with the result, I think the composition is far more interesting. Just the hand / arm in the foreground looks a bit weird.

Same thing happened on Friday :

First I wanted to do a profile view

But then I thought that a foreshortening on the bottle would be more compelling. And… I thought this looked way too violent. I’m not against showing violence in general, but I felt it stepped too far outside the series. So she grabbed a chair instead of a bottle, which I feel is more spontaneous, like her reaction.

That’s about it for this week. I won’t draw next week, I have too much on my plate to keep the series going this time around… Sorry.

Take care of yourselves!

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Hi folks! This week of Mr Owl started on the 23rd or January 2017. And this time, Mr Owl was full of doubts regarding an event that happened on the first day.

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MONDAY

Mr Owl couldn’t stop laughing, so he received a slap on the face. Now he’s seeing little humans running round his head.

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TUESDAY

Mr Owl knows that he has said too much. “I have been too unkind”, he thinks.

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WEDNESDAY

Mr Owl is laughing about it now “I’m covering it all up with lies”, he actually thinks

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THURSDAY

At this point in time, Mr Owl is imagining he would be a hot air balloon, from which he would be the pilot. “That way I could go wherever I want to”, he thinks

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FRIDAY

Mr Owl is daydreaming. Mr Owl wonders if daydreaming during the night is simply called dreaming. “So many questions, so few answers”, he thinks

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SATURDAY

As Mr Owl is walking home from work, he senses a nagging feeling following him. “What would I do, if I had the ability to turn back time?”, he wonders.

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SUNDAY

Mr Owl is thinking again of the little accident he had a few days ago. “I know I wasn’t very well mannered around the lady, but did I really deserve this slap across the face?”, he thinks.

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A few explanations : the first drawing is a reference to all the cartoons where characters get hit super hard and then see little animals running round their heads cause they’re stunned. The two following drawings are inspired by Boys Don’t Cry from The Cure (The song as well as the video clip). I wanted to end the week with “Owls don’t cry” but I didn’t seem to manage making that fit in. I also thought of a crappy pun where Mr Owl would say “I have found the cure to sadness”, or something like that, but it didn’t quite make the cut either…

I’ve worked a little harder this week than usual, I feel. I refined the shading a bit more, and always tried to find inventive ideas for the backgrouds. This is a real challenge to keep the quality up, and always try to find new ideas. But this has been made easier by this great improvement : I have a new pen tablet! It’s more precise, it’s wireless, it looks better, it has a touch function, but mostly (!!) it is bigger. And those who say that size doesn’t matter should think twice, it is a lot more pleasant to work on a wider area. I can tell you, my arm and hand were always tense on the previous one. Because the difference in size between my screen and my tablet was so huge, any slight movement with the pen would have big repercussion on the canvas… Which sucks when you’re not 100% accurate, and no one is. Anyway, this is much better, and I am very happy.

This is about all I had to say! Wishing you the best for this week.

Take care of yourselves.

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Hello everyone! And welcome to yet another weekly recap. But look!! The design of the banner changed! How crazy is that? Pretty crazy I’d say.

This week started on the 9th of January 2016… I mean 2017. Aaah I’m never getting used to this. Anyways. This week Mr Owl has been feeling his heart beating faster, and also skipped some. He met the author of the love letter he received on week 7!

MONDAY

Well look who just turned up at the party! Mr Owl can hardly believe it. “Was she really waving at me from the beginning?”, he thinks

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TUESDAY

Mr Owl saw The Lady. Now he’s a bit confused about what his next step should be. “Hello, my name is Mr Owl. Yes, like a night bird”, he rehearses in his head.

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WEDNESDAY

Mr Owl finally went up to her, and offered a dance. “He doesn’t even know my name”, she thinks

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THURSDAY

These beautiful people are turning round and round the dance floor. “Let’s not tread on each other’s feet”, they think.

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FRIDAY

Our lovely people decided to have a walk in the neighbourhood. “There’s nothing like a starry sky”, they think

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SATURDAY

The Lady just told him a joke, so Mr Owl can’t help but to laugh out loud. He almost ends up rolling on the floor laughing. “Hahahahahaha (…) ha.”, he thinks

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SUNDAY

Apparently the previous joke wasn’t a joke. The Lady really has bear feet. “Hahem”, says Mr Owl.

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And there you have it! I’m rather happy with a few drawings I did this week. Especially the hands on the first drawing, I somehow found a convincing posture. It’s something I like about Mr Owl : he doesn’t have hands, so he’s easier to sketch haha. That’s a reason why I took more time on this week’s drawings, the lady is not as cartoony as Mr Owl, so I have to pay a lot more attention to her proportions, postures etc. But in the end I think it pays off to spend more time on each piece. I think in a few months or years I’ll be happier to look back at something that’s more polished.

Other than this, I used a few textures as background (pavement for the dancefloor, and a picture of tower bridge) and I feel like it makes the image a lot more “convincing”, whatever that means.

That’s it for this week. I won’t draw Mr Owl this week cause I have to work a lot, and have a lot on my plate otherwise. But I hope next week will be better… To be continued!

Take care of yourself.

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Hello everyone!

This recap is going to be a little special, as I realised I didn’t upload any of the drawings I did while I was ill and on holiday. And boy did I draw! Well not so much, I did roughly the equivalent of 1 week in 3 weeks. But there are some special things : a GIF and a speedpainting video at the end. I didn’t keep track of which day I posted what so…

#1

MYSTERIOUS DAY

This week, Mr Owl is looking for a new outfit. Today in the fitting room, he has to laugh. Yes, the salesman told him it was trendy in Tokyo, but he still feels a little ridiculous with whiskers on.

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#1

FOOLED YA. THAT’S ACTUALLY #2

This time the salesman was convinced he found a look that was perfectly edgy and cool. But it only gave Mr Owl a weird craving for gluten free tacos.

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#3

SOME OTHER DAY

Mr Owl is trying out another outfit. “I’m not sure I can afford this one, but I sure look dandy in these clothes!”, he thinks

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#4

ANOTHER OTHER DAY

Mr Owl is a bit ill today. Nothing too serious but he chose to pause his search for a new outfit and rest for a while. “Atishoo!”, he says

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#5

Aaah THAT DAY!

Hello friends.
I’ve had a hard time posting anything in here. I’ve been caught by a couple of things : some personal projects, my lovely job, and a nasty cold.
In spite of all this, I do hope that you all have a lovely end of year. I made you a Gif, the last of 2016. I hope you like it. See you around, once we’re all done with this year.

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#6

CERTAINLY NOT TODAY

For the new year, Mr Owl thought he’d stick with his good old outfit.
Happy new year everyone!

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#7

GOSH TIME FLIES

Mr Owl is back at work. His coworkers have prepared him a little surprise. “I must admit that it’s quite hard to hide my emotions”, he thinks

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#8

THAT TIME WHEN I WOKE UP AND DID THINGS

Mr Owl received a brand new hat as a gift. His previous one was crushed in the accident. “How sweet of them”, he thinks

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#9

WEDNESDAY. JUST KIDDING, NO IDEA

Mr Owl feels a presence behind him at his “welcome back” party. So he just rotates his head. After all, he’s an owl. After owl he’s an all. What. “Could it be…?!”, he asks himself. #Mystery

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And as promised, the video :

It’s been a very long time since I’ve spoken in a microphone, or spoken English at all, plus I’m a bit ill so I’m not very proud of the quality. Still I’m super excited to share this with you. Hope it’s interesting.

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Looking back, it was rather cool doing all these different things. It was just so chaotic that I didn’t realise the potential of all this. I originally liked the idea of having Mr Owl trying out a lot of different outfits, especially cause I normally don’t pay much attention to this. But yeah, the illness had the best of me.

I don’t have much else to day, the rest I already said in the video.

So I guess that’s it for this recap. Thanks for reading! And take care of yourself.

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Hello everyone!

Welcome to this weekly recap of Mr Owl! This week started on the 28th of November 2016. And it was a rough start for Mr Owl…

MONDAY

Mr Owl just woke up in a dark alley as the sun started to rise. “Oh dear, I did it again”, he thinks.

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TUESDAY

Mr Owl is hoping no one notices how weird he looks. But it seems no one really cares “I don’t know whether it’s a good or a bad thing”, he thinks.

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WEDNESDAY

Mr Owl went out of town to have a good old shower. “Exactly what I needed”, he thinks.

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THURSDAY

Before he comes back in town, Mr Owl made himself a nice item of lingerie. “It’s a new beginning”, he thinks.

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FRIDAY

Mr Owl is back in town. And he’s ready to kick ass. “Or maybe just buy a new suit”, he thinks.

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SATURDAY

Mr Owl is having a kip on a statue while he waits for the shops to open. “ZZZzzz”, he says.

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SUNDAY

Mr Owl saw the sun rise. He stretched and told himself : “With all this happening to me lately, I don’t even know what a normal day is anymore…” before he set out to finding a new suit.

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So this week was a bit tight, I sometimes rushed my drawings. As a mater of fact I reworked some of them for this post. Maybe the rush also came from the fact that I’m always doing more or less the same thing with this series, and it starts getting boring so I just want to be done with it. On a more positive note it shows that I’m capable of working faster, I sort of found a workflow that is quite efficient. It means two things :

1. I’d like to do a “speed painting” video where I show the process of how a typical Mr Owl drawing is made.
2. This may leave me more time to work on other projects I have in my head, that I should release before they rot up there.

Also, for the last drawing I tried to add some texture to Mr Owl’s feathers. I’m really not pleased with the result but it’s a track I’d like to explore in the future.

I have an idea for next week that could be fun to do, and fun for you too. In the meantime, please take care of yourselves!

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Hello everyone! This week of Mr Owl started on the 21st of November. He is now back on his feet, and very little happens to him. But this very tiny event that does happen turns him upside down.

MONDAY

Mr Owl is back on his feet. After such a long absence, he has to go get the mail he missed. His concierge has been collecting it for him. “She looks really tired”, He thinks

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TUESDAY

Mr Owl received a love letter. “I’m not a expert on that matter, but this looks and smells like a love letter…”, he thinks

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WEDNESDAY

Mr Owl is puzzled. The letter was sweet and all, but it wasn’t signed. “Who could it be?”, he asks himself.

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THURSDAY

Mr Owl has to use his mind palace to crack this love letter mystery.
“AH! Obviously!”, he thinks.

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FRIDAY

Mr Owl just realised who his secet lober might be! “Incredible!!!!”, he thinks.
#DrawWhenYoureDrunk (Don’t you question my comintment to this series)

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SATURDAY

Altough Mr Owl cracked one mystery, it opened the door to so many other questions. “What do I do about it now?”, he thinks

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SUNDAY

Mr. Owl is normally a very respectable person. Tonight though, he turned his brain off. He couldn’t handle asking himself so many questions, and let his primal instinct prevail.

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This week was… Interesting. I’m always trying to explore new things within the boundaries of the style and the simplistic story line of this series. This time I kind of went the process of “automatic creation”. I don’t know if it’s the right word for it. I basically just started drawing and one thing leading to another, I tried to connect the work in progress to the story.  It is a process used in surreal art, and I usually like this kind of works. It’s also quite fun to do. On Friday I had a mulled wine evening. I didn’t get drunk intentionally to draw, it was just a coincidence. Kids, don’t try that at home, it could be dangerous.

I don’t have much else to say. So I guess I’ll wish you a good day. Homework for next time : taking care of yourself.

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Hello everybody!

This week has been quite unusual. It started on the 7th of November. And it was more than a week, as it lasted 9 days. And this is what I made :

“What? That’s it? 9 days to make this picture? Is that a joke?”

Hold on, demanding reader. Here are some explanations : Since the beginning of Mr Owl, I’ve posted a picture every day, made little games when possible, and tried to interact with my audience in a fun way. This time I wanted to do that all at once, and reveal a big picture by posting little pieces of it every day. Which made me want to do a little puzzle. I won’t post the daily retrospective, like I normally do, because having a look at the final thing is probably more interesting. But I’m going to walk you through my approach. First, I thought that an accident was a good scene to be broken down in little bits. Usually people report different versions, and my grandmother used to say “There is always a minimum of 3 reasons for an accident to occur”. I didn’t really show these reasons, and maybe the piece would have been more interesting with them, but oh well… It’s done now. I started with a blank square, as usual. I made it 9 times bigger than the normal resolution for a Mr Owl drawing and separated it in 9 equal parts like so :

Then I added construction lines. I knew I wanted the camera to be looking downwards so I used a double point perspective with the horizon line far up away from the canvas.

Then I drew a rough version of what’s happening in the scene. The challenge was to fit characters in boxes, not leaving important part of their bodies/expressions in between 2 squares. And that was the main problem of this project : how to propose pieces that both work individually, and fit inside the larger canvas. I don’t think I did that great a job, but these were interesting problems to work on.

Then I isolated a square and drew a clean version of it. I posted this kind of things on my facebook page :

And when you put them side by side, you can see that it’s not seamless, but still a good foundation to work on. Something like that :

Then after a little polishing, there you have the final image :

And voilà! This project has been weird. I was really excited when I started, and as time went by it became more and more frustrating. The size of the image made the process harder on my computer, for example I had to pause 10 seconds every time I saved the file, which may not seem like a lot, but I learnt (the hard way) to save my work every 2 minutes. In the end I’ve lost a considerable amount of time that way. Also, I’m not really pleased with the look of the final image. Especially the guy on the right omg, it’s ridiculous. And it took a total of 9 days to produce that. I guess that’s where the biggest amount of frustration comes from. In 9 “normal days” I could have produced better drawings if they were individually released.

On a more positive note, I’m really happy I came through, and that it still worked. I think it is very interesting to think of new ways to deliver your art on social media, mostly because it still hasn’t been explored so much. So I might do another version of this kind of thing, but I will either do something else in parallel, or a shorter version of it, maybe 4 pieces. I don’t know. Can you guys please let me know what you thought of it? I see that it received a really low amount of engagement from you (likes/comments on facebook), which isn’t a problem and was to be expected, but it gives me very little information.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ll be away for a couple of days, so Mr Owl won’t be back before next Monday. Until then, take care!

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